Last Post

(duplication of current issues blog which is about to be distroyed)


Hi All,

Sadly, I can no longer continue with "Current Issues in Education". It was a good five weeks, and I hope you have fun and enjoy the rest of the course. You all had excelent ideas, which I will sadly miss hearing about. Good Luck to everyone.

Cheers,
Andrew


'Parting is such sweet-sorrow' - Will

An Explanation

The next two posts (or last two - depending on which direction in time you are heading) were posted on another blog, which I had to do for a uni assignment. However now that the deadline has passed I did not want to lose them (even though they may be rubbish) so they are happily replicated here.

Now we take you back to our regular scheduled program.

Computers

Hi All,
I am having one of those weeks when all forms of technology do not appear to work - even good-old-Blogger has been eating my comments and subtracting them from the blogosphere.
I have also been wondering what issue to focus on, and I think that I have finally decided on “engagement in the middle years of schooling”. In the future I would like to teach in the middle years and I believe that this topic will be beneficial for me.
Now to find some tools to analise it. Hmmm. Quick question - any preferences on UK vs US spellings?

Why Teach This Bloke?

After much agonising I have changed my topic. My topic will now be:




SFX: Drum roll



Why teach this bloke?

(William Shakespeare - circa 1564-1616)


Bernstein and his pedagogic discourses are a great tool to analyse this issue as they can be used to explore how the language of the classroom (and the language of Shakespeare) can affect learners’ acquisition of meaning.For example in coding a number of students need to decode the contextual language of the class room as well as decoding the language of Shakespeare. And in addition Bernstein’s pacing and sequencing rules bring up questions such as; is this the right time to teach this content; are the students ready for the content and if not how are they going to catch up;

Whilst the language of Shakespeare alone is a good issue, I think that Bernstein is very limited in terms of focusing on the communication used in teaching and the intended goals/products of the teaching.

Most of my reading has been on Bernstein and Activity Theory (which to me also has a focus on goal/product) – I agree with Ahmet that there are a number of similarities between the two, and that they can work together. What I need is another analytical theory which can either:
1. throw away assumptions such as ‘Shakespeare is a classic’
2. analyse how Shakespeare is actually taught.

To do “1” enter stage left: Postmodern Critical Theory – however first I need to do some more reading.


“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me”William Shakespeare “King Richard II”, Act V, scene 5, line 49

Two Blogs - How confusing

Over at http://cued1223.blogspot.com/ I had to post about how to analyze an issue. My issue being; why teach this bloke?

The best thing about doing such a blog was looking for a snazzy quote to finish it off with.

The following were all in the mix:

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me”


"Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips I pray.
The time is out of joint, O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay come, let’s go together.”


"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."

Some one once said that quoting people was the worst kind of showing-off (or something like that) I will have to find that quote...

Chocolate to Share - Part 1

Hi all, I wanted to tell you about a number of great trips that I have made recently, (Canberra, Fyshwick, Yarrawonga, Shepparton) however I can not find the photos to share with you. So instead I will go on a tangent.

In Mooroopna, a country town in Victoria about one minute's drive from Shepparton, there is a 'SPC Ardmona' factory where you can get bulk canned fruit for cheap prices, usually the packaging might be dammaged or have no labels (or similar). However they often have other bits and pieces too, such as wine, chocolates, fresh produce, toothpaste. The trick is to remember how much everything costs normally and work out if you are really saving money or not.

I was looking around the factory when I spied a box of Crunchies, a beautiful bar of honeycomb covered in milk-chocolate. The box cost eight dollars.

I looked at the box.

It was still a while to the use-by-date. It did not look damaged in any way.

It should contain at least eight, I'll get it.

I took it to work on Monday and left it in the car. By the time lunch arrived I was feeling like some chocolate so I walked to the car, got the box out of the boot, opened the box and realised that there was

FORTY-TWO CHOCOLATE BARS IN IT.

And they tasted beautiful.

University and Blogging

Hi people,

It is funny what people become scared of. For the program I'm doing at uni, we have to blog on a group blog out there in the big wild blogosphere. I find that more scary than a lot of things, spiders for example. To make things worse it will also automatically link to this blog and everyone will see that I have been rather pathetic at posting here. I think I need a new reservation....

SFX: Drumroll

I will post something every Friday(ish) and will get my nerves out of my silly system.

Cheers,
Andrew