Webcam contact with school in Ireland

Today I had a very nice Skype contact with the class of Mairead of Scoil Eoin Pól in Loch an Iuir / Ireland.
The children were singing Christmas songs and they showed me their Christmas decorations.
All partner schools in the Comenius project 'Blogging in Europe'have webcam contacts with each other this week.

Good idea

No explanation needed. Every teacher understand how to use this idea.

Finnish Lessons again

Ever wondered how Finland managed to build its highly regarded school system?
Look behind the headlines to find out how it works and how it evolved.
Get the insights and facts you'll need to contribute to building an effective, lower cost educational system at the local, national and global level.
Pasi Sahlberg recounts the history of Finnish educational reform as only a well-traveled insider can. He details how the Finnish strategy and tactics differ from those of the global educational reform movement and of the North American reforms in particular.
Finnish Lessons goes beyond the facts and figures of Finnish education.
The book also addresses the role of teachers as well as the links between education reform and other sectors of society, and how smart education policies serve to raise a nation's prosperity and reduce poverty.
Rather than proposing that other nations follow in Finland's path, Finnish Lessons documents how Finland achieved success without going through the arduous and controversial process of implementing competition, school choice, and test-based accountability.
Here parents, educators and policy architects can gain the insight and facts necessary to constructively participate in improving their schools -- even in a tightening economy.

This book is also a message of hope and encouragement for other nations to find their own way to enact educational reform that works.

From: www.finnishlessons.com

About cooperative learning

In cooperative learning students work with their peers to accomplish a shared or common goal. The goal is reached through interdependence among all group members rather than working alone. Each member is responsible for the outcome of the shared goal. "Cooperative learning does not take place in a vacuum." Not all groups are cooperative groups. Putting groups together in a room does not mean cooperative learning is taking place. (Johnson & Johnson, p. 26). In order to have effective cooperative learning the following 5 essential elements are needed.
positive interdependence
Each group member depends on each other to accomplish a shared goal or task. Without the help of one member the group is not able to reach the desired goal.

Face-to-face interaction
Promoting success of group members by praising, encouraging, supporting, or assisting each other.

Individual accountability
Each group member is held accountable for his or her work. Individual accountability helps to avoid members from "hitchhiking" on other group members' accomplishments.

Social skills
Cooperative learning groups set the stage for students to learn social skills. These skills help to build stronger cooperation among group members. Leadership, decision-making, trust-building, and communication are different skills that are developed in cooperative learning.

Group processing
Group processing is an assessment of how groups are functioning to achieve their goals or tasks. By reviewing group behavior the students and the teacher get a chance to discuss special needs or problems within the group. Groups get a chance to express their feelings about beneficial and unhelpful aspects of the group learning process in order to correct unwanted behavior and celebrate successful outcomes in the group work.

Role of the teacher
The role of the teacher is very important in cooperative learning. To have an effective cooperative learning group teachers must know their students well. Grouping of students can be a difficult process and must be decided with care. Teachers must consider the different learning skills, cultural background, personalities, and even gender when arranging cooperative groups. Much time is devoted to prepare the lesson for cooperative learning. However, teachers fade in the background and become a coach, facilitat, or and sometimes a spectator after the lesson is implemented. Teachers who set up a good cooperative lesson teach children to teach themselves and each other. Students learn from their peers and become less dependent on the teacher for help.

i.a.:
Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R. T. (1994). Learning Together and Alone

Education must be transformed

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”
― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Emotion board

When they come into the classroom, all children hang a card with their name under one of the emotion picto's.
At one glance the teacher has an impression of the feelings the children brought with them.

Self reflection, basic for educational improvement

Educational governance.
Is it a hype or does it indicate that the governing bodies all over the world want to have more influence on the quality of education?
Educational governance is not only in the Netherlands a hot item.
Educational governance seems to be an international eclecticism.
At one hand the individual schools (or is it better to say the directors of the schools?) have got more responsibilities but on the other side they have to justify more and more to governing bodies. New regulations and measures are sometimes confusing.
In this context I’ve red a kind of verdict from a Canadian professor Ken Leatherwood : School leaders can be excused for feeling that they have been pulled in many different directions simultaneously.
Why ? Because they have been pulled in many different directions simultaneously.

In the trend of decentralisation, (and in a certain way it is an example of a top – down construction), one thing is very clear : it shall not reshape the educational process at all.

If the health care system produces outcome data on the health of the patients, what exactly is the outcome of the educational system ?

The results of the final examination ?
A good social – pedagogical climate ?
Social integration in a multi cultural society ?
A strong financial management ?
Transparency of the account ?
A healthy personnel policy ?
A satisfied inspector ?

Educational governance can be an instrument to have influence on the quality of education. And the most important question is : who is responsible for the quality of education? My simple answer is : the teacher in the classroom.
Those are the professionals, the facilitators, the pedagogues, the coaches, the quality makers.

But in the daily practice in the school, a heterogeneous group any team of quality makers is still not a guarantee for good education.
Such an heterogeneous group of teachers look like a beautiful archipelago, nice isles but a lot of water in between and very complicated to connect.

When a director of a school wants to have influence on the educational quality of the whole school, he/she must focus on the task of educational leadership.
There must be a professional division in two main tasks : the management (how complex it may be) and the educational leadership.
If the director of the school wants to be a quality maker too, he/she must leave the office frequently to observe the processes and to work on the floor.
Sitting in his office the profession of an average manager is not adventurous.
The problems are predictable and almost the same every year.
This manager is pursuing the ‘status quo’.
By preference no problems, no changes, no development.
This manager is in his authority focussed on average results : a financial balance, not too much non-attendance of teachers and he prepares properly the visit of the inspector.
Every year the manager utters a breath of relief when summer holidays are fetched without accidents.
Much happened, nothing changed.

But the educational leader is part of a dynamic process. He can adept new situations and recognizes valuable initiatives on the floor.
If the director of the school is only mastering the management problems, it will have at last a negative effect on the quality of the education.
Educational leadership is stimulating the human power, is making a team out of a group of quality makers and stimulate them to be involved with the future of their students.

By the way I’ve got the very interesting brochure from Stuttgart ‘Leitfaden zur Selbstevaluation an Schulen’. Stuttgart is one of the partners in Eurocities, together with Utrecht and Brno.
That brochure gives a lot of criteria to use self evaluation in order to improve the quality of the education. The starting point here is : QUALITY MANAGEMENT.
The same term ‘Qualitätsmanagement’ is used in Austria.

Director and teachers has to think about the innovation of education. It can be done in the own school, but even better in contact with other schools. International exchanges make that process more attractive and valuable.

In Dalton education we are still able to make innovative new steps thanks to the fact that the basic concept is so clear.
Some schools formulated their ‘mission statement’.
At least the school has to explain the educational mission.
But an educational concept is much stronger than a mission statement.
The educational reformers of the last century constructed the fundament of student centred education.
Perhaps you can say that “Respect the child” was Helen Parkhurst’s mission statement.
But she worked it out in a complete concept that promotes adaptive education.
And because Helen Parkhurst didn’t prescribed regulations, we are able to actualize the Dalton concept.
Dalton has proved to be suitable to the movements society made the last hundred years.

New visions on differentiated education, recognizing learning stiles, multiple intelligences are suitable to the new generation of students.
Teachers has to adapt the attitude of the ‘multi tasking’ Homo Zappiens’.

But the question is are teachers competent to work with the new generation of students.
In Holland I work with teams of teachers and together we investigate their competences.
As you know from the well known model of Spencer & Spencer, competences are recognizable like an iceberg. We only see 10% of the competence of our colleagues.
Teachers always talk about what they do and how they do it, but never about why they do it.

How can a team of teachers work together on the improvement of the educational quality?
The technique I use with school teams in Holland, is to formulate the basic / kernel competences which are necessary for Dalton teachers.

Four main frames are relevant :
o A: giving students responsibility
o B: stimulating the development of self reliance
o C: arranging co-operation
o D: respecting differences between students

Several small groups of teachers must formulate in common discussion three most relevant competences in each category to fulfil the Dalton premises.
After this first round we connect the outcome and must find an agreement for five relevant competences.
It is very nice that teachers discover that it is much easier to formulate the competences for co-operation than to bring it into practice during the discussion.
After this procedure every individual teacher must make an own ‘personal development planning’.
It means that every teacher can write down the own strong competences, but can also indicate the weaker competences.

It is the start of an active process, because the individual differences in competences can be used as a team development process.
Professional consultancies, class visits and common topics for further training with external experts is the direct effect.

Finally I want to say that the procedure of self evaluation is the most important strategy to make the quality of the education more transparent.
Self reflection is a good way to motivate students, but also teachers to grow in their profession.
Teachers must learn to formulate their professional experiences in order to help each other by exchange of these experiences.
The success of innovation depends on the exchange of thoughts.
And if that happens on an international platform it always give more inspiration, is more effective and is it suitable to one of the main ideas of Helen Parkhurst: co-operation.
Dalton International stimulates these initiatives of the exchange of thoughts.
The Dalton concept was never isolated as the intellectual property of private persons or institutes.
The Dalton concept is too valuable to restrict the development and expertise can only maintain as long as it is shared with others.

Triangle in 4 pieces

The assignment is the pupils'
central task, direct connected to the other pieces.
Together all 4 are the basic elements which make the puzzle of Dalton education complete.

Something about the first steps in preschool

Preschoolers need to learn how to make choices for themselves and how to feel good about the choices they make. It is their job to "learn to take initiative in socially acceptable ways" (Erikson, 1963).

Preschool-aged children's style of thinking and learning can best be described as "what you see is what you get," or reasoning based on the way things look.
Preschoolers rely heavily on the literal appearance of things as a means of understanding the world around them. For example, if a child breaks her graham cracker into four pieces while her mate breaks his in half, she thinks that she has more graham cracker than her mate because she has four pieces and he only has two pieces. Similarly, a child may begin a friendship with another child because of something appealing that the other child has, such as a pretty dress or a new toy.

Adults play an important role in helping children take initiative and explore their environments. Adults' behaviors, attitudes and styles of thinking contribute to preschoolers' development. Therefore teachers are talking with children and include them in conversations because it helps to develop their language skills. But don't cultivate the long sessions sitting in circle !
It is important to give children opportunities for make-believe play. This helps them to understand themselves and others, and encourages their imaginations.

I'm waiting for articles from preschool teachers about growing independency.

Leuk initiatief van een oud-leerling van Daltonschool Pieterskerkhof in Utrecht.

Vanzelfsprekend beveel ik deze workshop graag aan.

Zie verder de site van Lize Kraan

Blogging in Europe

During the official meeting in St. Mary's Primary School in Mullaghbawn
all the partners of the project made concrete agreements about webcam contacts.

This initiative makes direct international contacts possible between the Kindergarten in Basque Country, Czech Republic, Ireland, Northern-Ireland and Poland.

Dalton International initiated 'Webcam Classes' some years ago. The project 'Blogging in Europe' gives a special demension to the ideas of international cooperation.

Dalton visualized in three posters

Comenius project 'Blogging in Europe'

The staff members of St.Mary's Primary School in Mullaghbawn / N.-Ireland were our perfect hosts during the meeting last week.




A warm welcome during the assembly by all the children of the school.
Click on this link for a small impression.

Cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is a generic term for various small group interactive instructional procedures. Students work together on academic tasks in small groups to help themselves and their teammates learn together. In general, cooperative learning methods share the following five characteristics.
*Student work together on common tasks or learning activities that are best handled through group work.
*Students work together in small groups containing two to five members.
*Students use cooperative, pro-social behavior to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities.
*Students are positively interdependent. Activities are structured so that students need each other to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities.
*Students are individually accountable or responsible for their work or learning.

Everyone must see this:

Ken Robinson ‘Changing Education Paradigms’

Scroll down and play the video.

The main task for local Dalton Associations is to stimulate the cooperation between all Dalton initiatives in their own country.

Richard van den Berg,
webmaster of
Dalton International,
mentioned articles from this book.

A modern view on education
following the educational process
in Finland.

"A consistant focus on equity and
shared responsibility
-not choice and competition-
can lead to an education system
where all children learn better".

Dalton development in Poland

Between October 15 and 21 four Dalton conferences were organized
in Poland.
In Lodz, Zielona Gora and Warszawa teacher training institutes and universities invited Paul Bruijn and Roel Röhner to give seminars and workshops.
Alltogether more than 500 participants came back to their schools with much inspiration and concrete plans to start with Dalton.
In Poland has grown a strong cooperation between several partners to stimulate the Dalton development in the country.

Dalton International created a training for 'Dalton coordinators' in order
to give schools the opportunity to work on a high professional level on
the development of Dalton.

Connecting leadership

The new magazine
of ESHA is
on line now.

Searching partner school

The essence of teaching

International Dalton Conference in Poland.

Highly recommended !

Dieses Buch gibt Farbe an deinem Unterricht

BESTELLEN

Das Unterrichtsmodell, das Helen Parkhurst entwarf, inspiriert nach wie vor Lehrer und Lehrerinnen. Es hat sich herausgestellt, dass sich der Daltonplan nicht nur in den Nie- derlanden, sondern auch in vielen anderen Ländern der Welt nahtlos an die heutige Gestaltung von Unterricht und Lebenswelt Schule anschließt.

Die Forderung, die individuellen Unterschiede zwischen Schülern zu berücksichtigen, gewinnt im Daltonunterricht Gestalt und Bedeutung, indem das selbstgesteuerte und kompetenzorientierte Lernen des Schülers betont wird. Die Arbeit mit Aufträgen bzw. an Themen bildet dabei die Grundlage.

Mit Nachdruck weisen die Autoren auf einen Paradigmen- wechsel in der Auffassung von Lernen und Lehren hin. Nicht durch Angebot, sondern durch Nachfrage soll der Unterricht gesteuert werden. Die Bedürfnisse und Interessen der Schüler sind primär. Die Schüler haben selbst eine große Verantwortung für den eigenen Lernprozess.

Roel Röhner und Hans Wenke zeigen in diesem Buch, dass die pädagogischen und unterrichtspsychologischen Einsichten von Helen Parkhurst noch immer aktuell sind. Mit diesem Buch wollen sie deshalb den Lehrern und Lehrerinnen Anregungen und Hilfestellungen geben, die pädagogischen und didaktischen Ideen des Daltonplans in die Praxis umzusetzen. Praktische Tipps und Beispiele aus dem Dalton-Schulalltag so- wie die von den Autoren entwickelten Unterrichtsmaterialien spielen dabei eine große Rolle.

Als Dalton Consultants arbeiten Roel Röhner und Hans Wenke, zusammen mit Schul- teams, ständig an der Gestaltung des Daltonkonzepts. Immer wieder bitten Lehrer und Lehrerinnen um konkrete Beispiele und um eine praxisnahe Beschreibung von Dalton- material. Es zeigt sich, dass die vielen Materialien, die die Autoren entwickelten und zur Unterstützung des Teamprozesses einsetzten, sofort von den Lehrkräften in der Klasse benutzt werden und oft dazu anregen, selbst neue Elemente hinzuzufügen.

Alle in dieses Buch aufgenommenen Beispiele müssen denn auch als Ansatz zur Stimu- lierung der eigenen Kreativität und der internen Entwicklung des Daltonkonzepts in der Schule betrachtet werden.

Autoren: Roel Röhner en Hans Wenke
Preis: € 37,50 (Inbegriffen MwSt, Excl Porto-und Verwaltungskosten)
ISBN: 978-90-5472-145-1

BESTELLEN

JETZT BESTELLEN

Betstellen bei:
ARKO Nieuwegein

Independent learning

Instead of an ‘imparter of knowledge’ the teacher becomes a ‘facilitator of learning’
The role of the teacher is far from redundant. In fact, arguably, it is more important than ever. Old style ‘chalk and talk’ learning can realistically be completed by anyone brave enough to stand up in front of a class and with enough knowledge / memory or preparation to be able to impart the appropriate amount of information. At it’s worse, directed learning of this type is entirely pre-prepared, there is very little deviation and the teacher’s job is really just one of imparting information – and controlling the crowd!

Conversely, in an independent learning environment, the teacher’s role is a lot more complex. They need to have a far greater level of or access to skills and knowledge in order to respond to the inevitably far broader curriculum covered by pupils with diverse strengths and interests. They also need to be infinitely flexible in order to help facilitate a wide range of learning opportunities. Most importantly they need to hone the very difficult skill of teaching learners to learn – this is a lot harder than simply teaching facts and figures – but it is also infinitely more valuable to learners.

Teacher as facilitator, mentor, coach and guide:
Teachers are able to help learning in a myriad of ways and these will vary with every lesson and every student, but some key ways that teachers can act as facilitator, mentor, coach and guide are by:
• Providing learners with resource materials
• Whetting learners appetites to learn
• Providing learners with opportunities to test out their learning
• Giving learners feedback on their progress and
• Helping learners to make sense of what they have learned

What’s so great about Independent Learning anyway?
Directed learning, or teaching to the test usually results in pupils passing the exams and jumping through the hoops that the educational system requires of them. But it doesn’t prepare them at all for life beyond the classroom – and in most cases it squeezes out any passion, enjoyment or spark they might have had for learning in the first place.
Independent learners have abilities that will stand them in good stead both during and beyond their education such as their ability to:
• Acquire and deploy information
• Communicate effectively using different media
• Organise themselves
• Problem solve and
• Relate to others

How to promote Independent Learning:
One of the most important roles of the teacher is to promote independent learning. There are a number of practices you can build into your teaching to encourage independent learning during every lesson. These include:
• Giving pupils choices so they can reflect on their own interests and preferences
• Encouraging group work so that learners can learn from each other
• Collaborate with pupils to set shared learning goals
• Involve pupils in lesson planning
• Encourage pupils to reflect and plan in learner diaries
• Encourage self and peer editing before work is handed in

BY: The creative education blog

Mind the gap

I've found a nice website.
How can we encourage children to discover, explore and investigate their local environment?
This project is sponsored by the European Union with support of several organizations from UK, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

Mind the Gap helps you learn about the world around you through a series of fun, free and curriculum linked activities. You can explore where your food comes from, how to build sustainable homes, take community decisions and much more.
Explore the Mind the Gap website and discover all the exciting activities just by clicking on the images above to choose your topic. Each activity is clearly laid out and includes a special set of teachers notes.

Assignments based on M.I.

Three files with 50 different assignments.

All intelligences will be challenged.

On request available in English and German.

Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Involvement

The framework of six types of involvement helps educators develop more comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships.

Each type of involvement includes many different practices of partnership. Each type has particular challenges that must be met in order to involve all families, and each type requires redefinitions of some basic principles of involvement. Finally, each type leads to different results for students, parents and teachers
Although all schools may use the framework of six types of involvement as a guide, each school must choose practices that will help achieve important goals and meet the needs of its students and families.

TYPE 1: PARENTING: Assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in understanding families.
TYPE 2: COMMUNICATING: Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications.
TYPE 3: VOLUNTEERING: Improve recruitment, training, work, and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school programs.
TYPE 4: LEARNING AT HOME: Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-linked activities and decisions.
TYPE 5: DECISION MAKING: Include families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, and other parent organizations.
TYPE 6: COLLABORATING WITH THE COMMUNITY: Coordinate resources and services for families, students, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.

From:
‘School, family and community partnerships: Your handbook for action’
Dr. Joyce Epstein, John Hopkins University, Baltimore

Teamwork

In the daily life one has to work with a lot of different people. Nothing is better than to start this teamspirit at school. At a Dalton school children can make the choice to work together with another or with a group.
In this way they learn to explain things to each other.

“By self activity the pupil has to find for himself, or together with others, strategies of solving problems set to him. So the teacher does not start with ample explanations”. H.P.

Dalton is visualizing processes. From the Kindergarten age we give children insight in the process by using lots of materials : assignment boards or formulars, the day rhythm scedule etc.
Learning to solve problems is using the time during the delayed attention, a period in which the teacher is not available for any question of the children. But the classroom is arranged following the principles of class-management. A clear class arrangement where children are able and allowed to find their own way.

“The resistance, generated in the child by the old machinery to the process of learning, can be transformated into interest and industry as soon as the pupil is released to carry out the educational programme in his own way. Freedom and responsibility together perfom the miracle”.

“The Dalton plan is a way to wake up a new response from the child’s nature by inviting him to undertake the job in a way that appeals to his natural desire to learn things in his own way and even in his own time”.
Helen Parkhurst

Dalton publications in the past

Interesting to see how many Dalton publications were available in 1926. All edited by the Dalton Association, 35 Cornwall Gardens, London S.W.

Dalton International

Dalton International looks across borders. International contacts are useful to reflect on your own situation. In co-operation with teachers in other countries we discover that we speak the same educational language even without speaking the same language. Countries are exporting goods, but in education we exchange good expertise. And that kind of exchange is exactly one of the most important targets of Dalton International. Dalton International wants to stimulate the innovation of the Dalton education by international exchange of expertise. International Dalton conferences give that possibility. But a conference is not the only platform. Training of school staffs, offering Dalton courses, publishing of articles, the exchange of teachers and students, organizing workshops and seminars are also possibilities to improve Dalton education on an international level. After a training period Dalton International can give teachers an official Dalton Certificat and we can nominate schools that have followed a Dalton training process for the predicate of "International Dalton School". Several of these activities took place in Lodz-Warsaw-Ostrowiec/Poland, Unstruttal/Germmany, Dakar/Senegal, Wels and Vienna/Austria, Zwolle/The Netherlands. A next international conference will take place in October in Poland.

Dalton Seminar 'Europaschule' Vienna

New members

Two new Members of Dalton International.

European understanding

It is a great initiative to connect pre-schools from different countries by the Comenius project "Blogging in Europe". Representatives of the participating schools create a platform of mutual understanding and friendship. They can inspire each other and exchange educational experiences. Dalton International has a similar target. By organizing international meetings and conferences participants have the opportunity to reflect on their own implementation of the Dalton Plan and to learn about new developments in other countries.

Film about Dalton in Poland

School4Child made a video film about the Dalton education in their school. Compliments to the school for this product.

The de Bono thinking hats

Farewell party in Houten

International Dalton Meeting at KPZ Zwolle

International Dalton Meeting

Participants from Australia, Poland and Basque Country/Esp. together with colleagues and students from The Netherlands had a very interesting week at KPZ University in Zwolle.

Investment in professionalizing

“The differences in skills between teachers are big; 14% of the teachers in primary education and 25% of the teachers in secondary education don’t have sufficient skills to educate properly”. This is written in the ‘Educational Report 2010/2011’ from the Dutch Inspectorate General of Education. From the basic skills necessary to educate in a modern way, half of the group of teachers is missing one or more ‘complex skills’. It means that they are not able to design a sufficient differentiation in the classroom. A more efficient professionalizing must be the main target for the management of schools. The quality assurance in schools lags behind and the main role must be in the hands of the educational leaders. In the coming years the inspection of education will investigate the role between school boards and management of schools, but also the role of the school leader and the quality assurance. Further professionalizing is a prerequisite, not only by following courses, but moreover by participating in learning networks and to get a better knowledge of more effective teaching methods. Within the contacts of Dalton International it will be an important topic during conferences. From the Dutch side we won’t hide from reality and we do not blame all problems to the lack of money. Dalton still inspires more and more teachers with the right attitude and the intrinsic desire to grow in their professionalism.

This is e nice site for Kindergarten teachers and colleagues from Primary schools. Inscribe for their Newsletter

Dalton in Senegal

After the visit of Nestor Diatta (director of the Dalton school in Dakar/Senegal) to the Netherlands, he is working on a training for some of his teachers in Holland. In contacts with the Katholieke Pabo Zwolle such a training can be realized. These pictures are the result of a first Dalton implementation with the support of two students from the Netherlands.

I created this game to use during international Dalton workshops.