FM Update 26 May 2024

An item for my Kiwi readers as they begin their week.

FutureMakers Newsletter 26 May 2024 Kia ora koutou A bit late in getting this week’s newsletter our as I had an unexpected few days in hospital with accute appendicitis. Surgery complete and arrived home today! A few days like reminds me again of the dedication and commitment of our health professionals – does me good to be reminded of what it ‘feels’ like as a ‘customer’ of a services oriented industry – just as our kids in school feel everyday! This week’s newsletter a potpourri of items I’ve come across that I felt worth sharing… Ngā mihi In this newsletter… What School Could Be What School Could Be – Michigan Changing The Building Blocks of Reading Structured Literacy: A Surface Fix? What School Could Be While waiting for surgery and then in recovery I took the opportunity to re-read my copy of Ted Dintersmith’s  “What School Could Be” and spent time annotating and reflecting on the many inspiring stories in there. Many readers will remember a film that did the rounds a few years ago called “Most Likely To Succeed“ – based on the work of High Tech High in San Diego which  was Ted’s earlier venture. Following the success of this film he undertook a tour of around 200 US schools mentioned in this book. If you haven’t read it all I thoroughly recommend it. Ted has done an insightful job describing and reflecting these new ways of teaching and learning offer a vision of what school could be—and a model for transforming schools in any part of the world! What School Could Be – MIchigan What prompted me to re-red Ted’s book was a news feed from his website, “What School Could Be“, sharing the latest collection of video stories based on a number of initiatives in schools in MIchigan. This website newsletter is well worth subscribing to – and I recommend time spent simply reviewing the many video case studies that have been curated on the site. Changing the Building Blocks of Reading The changes being imposed by our current government are being met with a mixed reception by many educators. This podcast from RadioNZ’s The Detail titled Changing the Building Blocks of Reading was broadcast this week, and provides a balance of opinions from those in the sector who welcome the system change, and others disappointed by it. After listening to this episode I was reminded of just how important it is to spread our net widely when considering the rationale and evidence for the things we do and the ways we teach – there are no silver bullets! Structured Literacy: A surface level fix? On the topic of structured literacy…. I regularly enjoy the posts from Rebecca Thomas, and this one titled $67 Million for Structured Literacy: Is it a Surface-Level Fix? struck me as providing a balanced and questioning response to the current emphasis on Structured Literacy as the way to teach reading. I particularly like Rebecca’s delve into the underlying forces of marginalisation that are obstructing our students from thriving and her call for us to ‘dig deeper’ to find solutions at all levels. Free Playbook Download your own copy of Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook from the Aurora Institute Website and use this to help guide you and your staff/school through the process of creating a learning environment where learner agency can flourish. This playbook has been designed especially to be used either personally or as a focus for your professional learning community. You can download the whole book or separate chapters, and then capture your own notes and reflections in the areas provided in the text, But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. Subscribe to The FutureMakers Newsletter I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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