Good Teacher Magazine – This Goes to every school in New Zealand and is put out by the Ministry of Education.

The “Less is More” article refers to what is termed the “obese curriculum.”

Yes, people agree, but how? They wonder how they have “lost sight of the

centrality of learning in the whole school mix?”

Gwen Gawith states that now “the curriculum is on a diet” and that the pendulum

keeps swinging!  The revised curriculum has been out in schools since November. This doesn’t mean however, that it compromises the teaching and learning. Sound familiar? We saw evidence of this while visiting the Ta Mata School. The hefty curriculum was pared down so that teachers could read it and use it in a manageable way. However, they say that they were just getting somewhat familiar with it in its obese form before being handed the diet version (which is still quite comprehensive).  This is also what Heather was talking about when she said teachers had to know how to "unpack" the curriculum.  They had the pedagogy but not necessarily the content knowledge.  I think it is one of the reasons they had so many planning forms for teachers to use at Peterhead. The "obese" curriculum included everything in one place and the "skinny" one requires teachers to look elsewhere or have the knowledge in their heads.  

The big questions are: What will improve student learning, how will all the topics fit, and how is it managed?

This article states that the following four factors contribute to student learning:

1. Willingness and effort by the teacher
2. A social surround that is supportive of teaching and learning
3. Opportunities to teach and learn
4. GOOD teaching

What students need:  Rules and Tools!

Rules: for managing behavior both in classrooms and at play

Tools: for taking responsibility for learning

·      for literacy and numeracy

·      for cognitive – transforming information into deeply experienced personal knowledge

Ian Stevens says that the strength of NZ schools has always been about improving achievement for all students by improving teacher capability.

By the end of 2008 – The following schools will have completed two years of professional development on The Numeracy Project

   About:

• 95% Primary and Intermediate Schools
• 85% Maori Schools
• 40% Secondary Schools           

The New Zealand Numeracy Project is founded in a system of teaching number concepts

based on the Australian “ Count me in Too” Project.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/countmein/index.htm  I have only given this a cursory look, but it looks like a good source, in addition to the NZ maths site,  for information and ideas about teaching numeracy.  The children's section has some great games for kids.   

New Zealand – Newspaper article

            July 27^th – “National plan put immigrant teachers on fast track”

            ( all words in headline in lower case letters except for National)  hmmm…

There seems to be a “very, very, tight teacher shortage” so the ministry is no longer asking teachers with approved overseas qualifications to go through “ ludicrous re-training systems”. Before…they had to go through a three your course, now it is only one!..it is even being suggested that maybe a six-week crash course will be adequate!

We had many conversations about what it would be like to teach in NZ. We were

very impressed with the quality and high expectations of education by all the constituents. We also agreed that being a relief (substitute) teacher was attractive at $250.00 a day!