Design Thinking – Deadly!

Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett +design thinking in catholic school, Sydney = brilliant! So good to be inspired. Motivated. See new possibilities. So I resurrect my blog after a long hiatus. Here is what the two days look like!

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The State of Digital Education……American style

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

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Space for creativity

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Stunning version of Nick Cave’s Ship Song

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Go Noni!

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Too funny!

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One of my favourite posts…still relevant!

Here is Julia.

Julia is busy.

Julia is important.

She has an idea.

She calls it “My school.”

See Julia smile.

“Look parents!”, said Julia.

“Look teachers!”, said Julia.

“I have a website.’

“It is good”, said Julia.

“It will weed out bad teachers.”

“It will compare school performance.”

The website crashed.

It is bad.

“Wake up Julia!” said the teachers.

“NAPLAN is a diagnostic test!”

“It is not an achievement test.”

“Wake up, Julia!”, said the Principals.

“Myschool is not helpful”

“Myschool is simplistic.”

See the media run!

See them publish a league table!

See no change to student learning.

Wake up Julia!

(Apologies to the “Gay Days” Basal reader, NSW Dept Education…somewhere in the twilight zone of the 1960′s)

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I’ m back!

After months and months of absenteeism, I have decided to start blogging again. My addiction to Facebook curtailed my blogging. But I am still pondering the question…….is blogging becoming outdated?

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Bilingualism at work!

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Bloody disgraceful!

The lack of compassion shown towards the asylum seekers/refugees who attended funerals of those killed in the Christmas Island shipwreck is appalling. Scott Morrison’s insensitive comments (as opposition minister for rednecks apparently!) and the federal government should hang their heads in shame.

The photos in various newspapers showed the raw grief of distressed relatives and in particular, one Iranian boy, who survived the shipwreck.(Nick Moir’s photo as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald.) He  lost both his parents and a sibling. No words were needed. The photo said it all. His distress, his vulnerability is laid bare.

Today the government announced he would be released into his Aunty’s care. She will be his guardian. This was after he and many others, sat in a plane in the middle of a runway at Port Headland in Western Australia, stranded, as a cyclone was bearing down on Christmas Island where they were to be detained. Again.

How will he deal the the loss of his parents in a country he is unfamiliar with, where the language, the customs, behaviours, landscape are so different? Where is the security for him in this great time of distress? How is he even putting aside the horror of his experience in that terrifying storm that caused the shipwreck at Christmas Island?

As an aunty myself who has recently become the guardian of my nephew after the shocking and sudden death of his mum – my beautiful sister – I feel particularly sad for this Iranian boy. The distress, the overwhelming grief, anxiety, anger and 1001 other emotions that we are feeling at least are occurring in a familiar environment for us where we have some sense of safety. The Iranian boy doesn’t even have this luxury.

Bloody shameful day for Australia.

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