Wow Steve! What an interesting and exciting experience for you! I had a giggle when you talked about people talking to you but "looking over your shoulder"...From the names you have mentioned, if I was there, I would have preferred to talk to you!Lucy :)
You do know, I hope, that he has accomplished almost nothing of value short of name-calling, union-busting and chaos in New York?
Klein's competition argument is complete and utter nonsense.
Kids in private schools are
Why do you think you were invited? Is there a danger of you being exploited? How many state school educators were there?
Why are you inclined to refer to yourself as being part of the education INDUSTRY?
If you heard about philanthropy at your soiree, then the efforts are not secret. Companies get tax advantages from their philanthropy. There are good reasons to be suspicious of corporate investments in education.
I won a government award in 2007 so I think my name must be on a list somewhere. When I was invited I originally suspected there would be lots of other teachers there. I assumed our government wanted to convince teachers. I also thought there would be media there.
In fact, I was only teacher, or possibly there was one other – a teacher/librarian from a state school. So I think we were there as ‘tokens’ – to tick the box so they could say some teachers were there. The real agenda for that night was getting businesses to donate more to educational projects, and I suppose to convince those business people to think Klein’s way (not sure why). There were some educational bigwigs there too, heads of this or that, but they seemed to be resistant to Klein’s line. It was worth being a token, to be there. A rare chance to peek into a world I was utterly unaware of.
Ha the ‘education industry’ did I say that? What an awful phrase!
What do you think constitutes a good approach to improving learning in schools? How do you move teachers forward? In our schools there is a strong territoriality in the classroom. Teachers are threatened by visitors to their classrooms. They want to be able to teach in private, so to speak. This really worries me. The classroom stagnates. Teachers find methods that ‘work’ (order & control) and stick with them for life. I wonder how that can be changed. What do you think?
Personally, I don’t have much faith in conferences or training days to lead to much change. Instinctively I think about team-teaching, observing colleagues or observing great teachers and their students in action… mentoring I suppose, but taking place right at the front line, in the classroom, on the shoulder. But due to the territoriality this is very hard to do. Keen to hear what you think.
You know I saw the strangest thing at IS 339 in the Bronx. Teachers there were mentored by a consultant in Australia! He’d come out to the US to visit for a couple of months each year. The rest of the time he spent communicating over Skype and email with the teachers, making himself available at USA times (which don’t match Australian times at all).
I would welcome your thoughts about how to transform educational practice. Have you seen successful transitions? How did they happen? Ever seen it happen school-wide?
Sorry for the incomplete sentence!It's hard composing and typing in this little box.
I meant to say that Kids in private schools are advantaged in a myriad of ways - faculty qualifications, physical environment, class size, food, richer electives, access to more materials - oh yeah, and they tend to be wealthier. That said, I have yet to see any evidence that private schools compete on any basis of merit. They merely change their blazer colour and announce that they are better than the school up the road.
Please read some (or all) of the links I provided.
Joel Klein is unqualified for the job he has. He has done a terrible job while in his current position and under no circumstances should he be advising any other nation.
In short he is a divisive BS artist and all-around bad guy. People on all sides of the political spectrum in NY believe that.
How anyone can visit the NY schools I've been in recently and applaud Joel Klein is beyond me. In fact, I suspect you might be sufficiently horrified if you visited some state high schools in Sydney.
As for the Aussie consultant. What's your point? I consult in Australia. It's also worth mentioning that the Aussie "helping out" is probably part of the big firm that NYC contracted with. Your comment implies that this is an act of transPacific charity.
As you know, in America private schools receive ZERO tax money. That's why rich people like Klein think the grass is greener on the private school side.
I can't possibly communicate all I think and know about effective schooling, educational leadership and reform in this tiny blog window. I agree with many of the symptoms you diagnosis, but suspect that we might disagree on remedies. Neither Joel Klein or Julia Gillard seem to have any beyond union-busting and name-calling.
As a start I suggest you read http://tinyurl.com/5u78sh . The author, Dennis Littky has led decades worth of successful scalable public school innovations.
Don't think I agree with Klein, or applaud him. I am quite slow to take up a position on these things. I am not qualified to comment much on Klein. Yes I saw 4 schools in New York but that doesn't qualify me.
I've also read some newspaper articles and heard him speak for 15 minutes (a speech that stuck with abstractions). But I can't take a position unless I'm prepared and ready to defend that position in an informed way. But I've been a teacher for only 7 years, and that is at the one school, and frankly my passion is for the classroom, not policy (& I simply hate the paperwork of teaching).
I should get more informed, especially if policies are going to affect education in my country. But for the moment I am not - well not enough to articulate and defend a position on Klein.
My blog is about relating information and experiences - I deliberately avoid pretending to be an authority on things I don't know enough about.
I like hearing from you because you have well defined opinions and will go out to bat for them. That's why I am interested in your thoughts on how to improve education. No I don't mean test scores, I mean moving out from same-old routine lessons and getting something inspired and organic happening.
Yup the blog window is probably too small for that!
I had no 'point' with the online consulting - I was simply amazed at it. You keep thinking I have an axe to grind! It just amazed me that professional development is happening in this manner - that's all. I've just never heard of it before.
Vous êtes drole...Oui j'ai déjà regardé une patate dans les yeux! Votre Tweet n'a pas de lien direct avec vos méthodes d'enseignement j'espère!Vous m'avez fait rire...
Policy 
Reader Comments (8)
On behalf of my nation, I apologize for Joel Klein.
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20081201-Nothing-Good-Can-Come-of-Chancellor-Kleins-Visit.html
I also recommend the following:
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/soe.htm
You do know, I hope, that he has accomplished almost nothing of value short of name-calling, union-busting and chaos in New York?
Klein's competition argument is complete and utter nonsense.
Kids in private schools are
Why do you think you were invited? Is there a danger of you being exploited? How many state school educators were there?
Why are you inclined to refer to yourself as being part of the education INDUSTRY?
If you heard about philanthropy at your soiree, then the efforts are not secret. Companies get tax advantages from their philanthropy. There are good reasons to be suspicious of corporate investments in education.
I recommend you read the following:
http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/school_warshttp://tinyurl.com/5byrwj
I won a government award in 2007 so I think my name must be on a list somewhere. When I was invited I originally suspected there would be lots of other teachers there. I assumed our government wanted to convince teachers. I also thought there would be media there.
In fact, I was only teacher, or possibly there was one other – a teacher/librarian from a state school. So I think we were there as ‘tokens’ – to tick the box so they could say some teachers were there. The real agenda for that night was getting businesses to donate more to educational projects, and I suppose to convince those business people to think Klein’s way (not sure why). There were some educational bigwigs there too, heads of this or that, but they seemed to be resistant to Klein’s line. It was worth being a token, to be there. A rare chance to peek into a world I was utterly unaware of.
Ha the ‘education industry’ did I say that? What an awful phrase!
What do you think constitutes a good approach to improving learning in schools? How do you move teachers forward? In our schools there is a strong territoriality in the classroom. Teachers are threatened by visitors to their classrooms. They want to be able to teach in private, so to speak. This really worries me. The classroom stagnates. Teachers find methods that ‘work’ (order & control) and stick with them for life. I wonder how that can be changed. What do you think?
Personally, I don’t have much faith in conferences or training days to lead to much change. Instinctively I think about team-teaching, observing colleagues or observing great teachers and their students in action… mentoring I suppose, but taking place right at the front line, in the classroom, on the shoulder. But due to the territoriality this is very hard to do. Keen to hear what you think.
You know I saw the strangest thing at IS 339 in the Bronx. Teachers there were mentored by a consultant in Australia! He’d come out to the US to visit for a couple of months each year. The rest of the time he spent communicating over Skype and email with the teachers, making himself available at USA times (which don’t match Australian times at all).
I would welcome your thoughts about how to transform educational practice. Have you seen successful transitions? How did they happen? Ever seen it happen school-wide?
Thanks for the links.
I meant to say that Kids in private schools are advantaged in a myriad of ways - faculty qualifications, physical environment, class size, food, richer electives, access to more materials - oh yeah, and they tend to be wealthier. That said, I have yet to see any evidence that private schools compete on any basis of merit. They merely change their blazer colour and announce that they are better than the school up the road.
Please read some (or all) of the links I provided.
Joel Klein is unqualified for the job he has. He has done a terrible job while in his current position and under no circumstances should he be advising any other nation.
In short he is a divisive BS artist and all-around bad guy. People on all sides of the political spectrum in NY believe that.
How anyone can visit the NY schools I've been in recently and applaud Joel Klein is beyond me. In fact, I suspect you might be sufficiently horrified if you visited some state high schools in Sydney.
As for the Aussie consultant. What's your point? I consult in Australia. It's also worth mentioning that the Aussie "helping out" is probably part of the big firm that NYC contracted with. Your comment implies that this is an act of transPacific charity.
As you know, in America private schools receive ZERO tax money. That's why rich people like Klein think the grass is greener on the private school side.
I can't possibly communicate all I think and know about effective schooling, educational leadership and reform in this tiny blog window. I agree with many of the symptoms you diagnosis, but suspect that we might disagree on remedies. Neither Joel Klein or Julia Gillard seem to have any beyond union-busting and name-calling.
As a start I suggest you read http://tinyurl.com/5u78sh . The author, Dennis Littky has led decades worth of successful scalable public school innovations.
-=Gary
I've also read some newspaper articles and heard him speak for 15 minutes (a speech that stuck with abstractions). But I can't take a position unless I'm prepared and ready to defend that position in an informed way. But I've been a teacher for only 7 years, and that is at the one school, and frankly my passion is for the classroom, not policy (& I simply hate the paperwork of teaching).
I should get more informed, especially if policies are going to affect education in my country. But for the moment I am not - well not enough to articulate and defend a position on Klein.
My blog is about relating information and experiences - I deliberately avoid pretending to be an authority on things I don't know enough about.
I like hearing from you because you have well defined opinions and will go out to bat for them. That's why I am interested in your thoughts on how to improve education. No I don't mean test scores, I mean moving out from same-old routine lessons and getting something inspired and organic happening.
Yup the blog window is probably too small for that!
I had no 'point' with the online consulting - I was simply amazed at it. You keep thinking I have an axe to grind! It just amazed me that professional development is happening in this manner - that's all. I've just never heard of it before.
Thanks for the Dennis Littky link.
Cheers,
Steve