Dalton conference in Germany

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The quality makers of education

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 teachers 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 a heterogeneous group of teachers look like a beautiful archipelago, a group of 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.

See my whole article on the website of Dalton International under ARTICLES

Wednesday is orange !

The Dalton Plan in the elementary school

Some statements from this brochure, written by 

A.J.Lynch Headmaster, West Green School, Tottenham, N.15.

The relation between teacher and taught is a wrong relation.

The teacher should be the helper, not the driver; the pursued, not the pursuer.

The advent of the Dalton Plan and the interest  shown in it by teachers in all parts of the world are sure signs that teachers realise the weaknesses of the old class methods and are seeking earnestly to remedy them.

It is not sufficient that the assignment be a mere reference to text-books, it needs the Dalton touch and the Dalton spirit. Apart from the work to which the assignment refers, the assignment itself should be interesting, attractive and helpful.

The ideal assignment is, of course, an individual assignment for each child.

The brochure from 1926 was published by

THE DALTON ASSOCIATION

London

Development of study skills

This is one example from a series of special action strategies for pupils.

I have developed several tools for pupils, connected to different instructional methods used by the teacher.

The entire series has been published in a booklet for Dutch pupils named "Opzoekboekje".

This booklet can be ordered by mail HERE

Lerntrix

Eine interessante Website in deutscher Sprache.
Finde es HIER 

Responsible use of education grants

Focuss on talents

A talented or gifted pupil is one who demonstrates a significantly higher level of ability than most pupils of the same age in one or more curriculum area or in any of the following:

• physical talent
• artistic talent
• mechanical ingenuity
• leadership
• high intelligence
• creativity

Gifted pupils can be:

• good all-rounders
• high achievers in one area
• of high ability but with low motivation
• of good verbal ability but poor writing skills
• very able with short attention span
• very able with poor social skills
• keen to disguise their abilities.

Training independence

During my workshop about the training of independence I always use this structure. Teachers can use it as a checklist and thick which of the 20 agreements are completely functioning in their class.

GENERAL RULES

1. Agreements about things the children can do themselves: toilet – drinking water – washing hands – how to use the classroom.
2. Introduction and working with a ‘household assignment’.
3. Agreements about the materials the children can take themselves.

POSTPONED ATTENTION (BLOCK PERIOD)

4. Making the choice for a sign for the block period, introducing of the rules.
5. What can you do yourself without help: thinking yourself – try again – ask your mate. (making of action guides)
6. Explain that the block period is only temporary and help is possible on a later moment

MATERIAL PROBLEMS

7. The whole school makes agreements about which materials can be taken by the children themselves, how to handle if they make a mistake etc.

PROBLEM SOLVING

8. Let them invent the rules : think again – read again – ask someone else – start with another part of the assignment (action guides)
9. Learn them to analyse the problem : what kind of problem – did  I had a similar problem before – ask a real question – try to help step by step (action guide)
10. Learn planning, try to anticipate and make a work planning
11. Give attention to social problems: how to solve them – how to work together
12. Agreements about the noise during the work (making of “noise cards”)

ASKING / GIVING HELP

13. First try yourself
14. Start asking your workmate instead of walking around in the classroom
15. Use your help signal if you couldn’t find the right help.
16. Ask clear questions – don’t be impatient in trying to help
17. Explaining is not the same as giving the answer
18. Learn to explain step by step
19. Investigate first what is known already
20. Use a ‘help booklet’.

Interesting expanation of Blended learning in the context of the 21st Century Skills.

CLICK HERE

Dalton is more and more popular

No BBQ without sweet Dalton !