Just last week (June 10), I attended a Professional Development Session organised by the Independent Education Union (NSW) at their headquarters in Ultimo.
It was themed as: Teach Survive Thrive.The presenter was Glen Pearsall, who has worked extensively with schools right around the country. In the two hour session, he focused on classroom management and engaging students in their learning.
It did look at many of the issues that were covered in the course that I did just a few weeks ago at the Centre for Professional Learning, and the evening for me really allowed me to consolidate what I had learned several weeks ago, as well as enjoying another perspective and learning some new strategies especially keeping students on task and positive reinforcement of student behaviour
It was also a smaller group with about 20 present. Last month I was amongst 180 participants.
The course is free for IEU members and is highly recommended. Click here to find out more.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Young Males & reluctance to read
This article was recently published in News Limited newspapers across the nation relating to boys reluctance to read for pleasure because it may not be seen as "masculine".
Being a male, I doubt it as such. While I may have preferred newspapers, magazines and non fiction literature as a teen, none of my peers actually looked down on it. Some of them wanted to at have a flick through the newspaper for instance. I was actually looked up to because they could ask me questions about anything or I could share something with them.
There were other peers that read only magazines for pleasure. They were reading and no body bothered to question it.
So as a professional, how would I encourage a young teenage male student to read? I think back to just a term ago and presenting "litgym" to the girls at the MLC School. Boys love to set challenges for themselves, and "litgym" could do it, because your setting them a challenge and they would try to work towards it. As I have pointed out previously, we need to advocate reading for pleasure. Let the boys take ownership of their reading.
Boys love their technology and that should be encouraged as I have suggested in general.
One comment in the article mentioned about time getting in the way of some reading. Giving tips on when are suitable times to read e.g. trip to and from school would help them especially if they are travelling alone or have a long commute.
Being a male, I doubt it as such. While I may have preferred newspapers, magazines and non fiction literature as a teen, none of my peers actually looked down on it. Some of them wanted to at have a flick through the newspaper for instance. I was actually looked up to because they could ask me questions about anything or I could share something with them.
There were other peers that read only magazines for pleasure. They were reading and no body bothered to question it.
So as a professional, how would I encourage a young teenage male student to read? I think back to just a term ago and presenting "litgym" to the girls at the MLC School. Boys love to set challenges for themselves, and "litgym" could do it, because your setting them a challenge and they would try to work towards it. As I have pointed out previously, we need to advocate reading for pleasure. Let the boys take ownership of their reading.
Boys love their technology and that should be encouraged as I have suggested in general.
One comment in the article mentioned about time getting in the way of some reading. Giving tips on when are suitable times to read e.g. trip to and from school would help them especially if they are travelling alone or have a long commute.
