Neil Goodfellow

I have been listening to a few podcasts recently.  The most interesting one I came across is Booruch.  The most recent podcast has a very interesting interview withe fellow East Lothian porbationer Dave Cain.  The discussion was very interesting.  Dave talked about probationers who start blogs and don’t keep them up to date (guilty there I’m afraid).  In this time of interview and stress for all probationers, as Dave discussed, a reflective blog could be an excellent resource for helping to complete your application forms.  No flicking through folders or dredging the depths of your memory to remember the exciting and varied activities you’ve developed over the year.  Just look up your blog….if its well maintained!  I can only speak from personal experience but I have felt that my blog has slipped down my to-do list as the year has progressed.  I still read and learn from many many blogs.  I was asked at a recent interview “what my main development aim would be for next session”.  Blogging, both reflective and class based will be up there. 

Day 2, originally uploaded by Amazing Geography.

Day 2. Much moore snow!

With Celeb Big Brother hitting our screens this week, this is something I picked up from Alan Parkinsons blog and thought would be quite funny.  Haven’t heard of a few of these….Dirk Nowitzki…who??? 

A friend of mine made me aware of a website recently www.edge.org.

It is basically a club of leading thinkers who pose questions that are dangerous not because they are wrong, but that they might be true.  I then got hold of the book ‘What is your dangerous idea’ by Steven Pinker. 

It raises some interesting talking points.  There is an excellent part which argues that schools are bad for children.  Not something I entirely agree with, but something that as a teacher, I have considered.  I suppose the main point is that we are producing a bunch of stressed out students learning how to please the teacher and not themselves.  This then produces adults who hate learning becasue it reminds them of school.  Reading this I immediatley thought about the East Lothian Extreme Learning project.  The idea then must be to stop thinking children need to learn the same stuff and create adults who can think for themselves. 

It will be very interesting to see how the project evolves.  The school curriculum may be very different in a few years????