Nice to see this newsletter pop into my inbox infrequently. Always interesting links, ideas and poems.
Of course it is really a blog with a RSS feed π
This link, might be fun for schools.
The tree in our front yard starts turning yellow in late August. By the end of September, it has shed almost all of its leaves, leaving a dusting of golden...
Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom, and From Teachers to Schools: Scaling Up Professional Development for Formative Assessment. Dylan Wiliam (@dylanwiliam) on Twitter Welcome toβ¦
I was thinking of Dylan Williams the other day and remembered David Noble, my partner in Edutalk partner had interviewed him back in 2012. This was the second round of AIFL in Scotland.
I gave it a listen on the way to work this morning. It is a great interview. Dylan is very positive about teaching, makes some great points and David asks great questions. I think it is still relevant 11 years later!
Well, I think that Scotland did a very good job of kicking off this process right at the end of the 1990s, the early 2000s.
So I think that the original focus was very welcome, the idea of assessment is for learning.Β I think people got slightly seduced by the tips and techniques rather than thinking about this as being a vehicle for teacher learning.Β So I think it got rather, and this may be inevitable for any innovation, it got rather packaged as being a thing that schools could do.Β And many schools think they’ve done assessment is for learning, and so they’re moving on to the next thing.
“inevitable for any innovation” – My emphasis.
After listening to this I though I might like to grab some quotes so remembered I’d downloaded the free app Aiko, which is an AI-powered audio transcription, and ran the audio through it. After a hiccup when the app though the language was Welsh it seemed to do a great job. I’ve added it to the original post. David & I alway regretted not being able to provide accessible transcriptions of our broadcasts/podcasts. I am wondering about picking out some other episodes to transcribe. The audio is not attributed to the two different speakers, but I think it is easy enough to understand.
Radio Edutalk is a project I am extremely please to have been part of. We were a bit ahead of the podcast curve, but it gave me an amazing opportunity to talk to all sort of amazing educators. It ran from 2009 till 2019 starting as an open to any contributor, mobile podcast and developing to include regular internet radio broadcasts which were archived as podcasts. About EDUtalk has a bit more information.
This is a simple test.
Read: Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead β
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More Harlem corruption, criminality, horror & fun. 3 linked episodes across the 70s. Wanders into back alleys & backstories in an engaging way.
Read: So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan β
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Very short, disturbing & moving tale.
Read: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston β
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I read this decades ago and was not disappointed by this re-read.
I really like the iOS micro:bit app as do my class. I was intrigued by the data feature when it came out but had not used it. Delighted to see this:
Fetch MY_DATA
Selecting this option lets you retrieve data that has been logged during a data-logging session with the micro:bit. Β This is only available with Version 2 micro:bits.
iOS App – Summary of changes in August 2023 update : Help & Support