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Showing posts from July, 2014

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Every stop is a story - Darwin to Adelaide River

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  Every stop is a story - Darwin to Adelaide River The Adelaide River Rupture (image to be uploaded - subscribe to be notified) The storm did not break over the Adelaide River plains; rather, reality tore open along the track. To the left, the familiar Top End landscape clung fiercely to its quiet melancholy. A lone gum tree stood sentinel over the charred scrub and dry earth, its leaves catching the last bruised light of a brooding wet-season sky. In the hollow below, the old fictional homestead crouched beside the rutted dirt road, enduring the heavy stillness that always settles before the atmosphere ruptures. Then came the tear. It began not with thunder, but with an overwhelming, luminous heat that shredded the grey overcast into molten ribbons. You could feel the vortex of raw energy sweeping through radiant ambers, searing cadmium oranges, and blinding celestial whites. The vortex descended like a folded dimension brushing against the earth. Where the atmospheric rift touch...

Origins of school leadership

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I am particularly interested in the origins of industrial-based educational values and the operational systems that emerged in the late 19th century. Despite a century of teaching and learning the structural design, values, and operational outputs continue to display a lingering influence on 21st century education. Ironically, we are in similar conditions where technology is revolutionizing society, and significant educational reform is required. The birth of the industrial era presented societal leaders with a complex problem and this problem called for educational reform. A on-mass educational system was required to output a supply of disciplined workers to satisfy the production needs of factories demanded by the emerging manufacturing economy. 21st century nations (such as Australia) are now presented with a new problem and this problem is also calling for educational reform. Whilst we do have a mass and comprehensive educational system it’s rooted basis, the manufacturing era, i...

Australian Standard for Principals reflection

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Reflection My understanding of the Australian Standard for Principals, as compared to the Standard for Teachers is that it is not a regulated nor a compliance framework. Principal registration is not based on meeting standards identified within the Principal Professional Standards. Principals are expected to meet standards identified within the Standard for Teachers to maintain teacher registration. An essential criteria with Northern Territorian Principal  J ob  D escriptions is have teacher r egistration. Whilst, the Australian Standard for Principals doesn't have a compliance mandate, the strength of the standard is the explicit and descriptive understandings/expectations gained through (what I call) a common language statement of expectations. The Australian  Standard for Principals ensures a common understanding of what is expected across Australia. The benefit of a common understanding is that it explicitly describes 'standard based expec...

Innovative Learning Environments and Transformative Schooling

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Transformative Pedagogy, Platforms and Digital Technologies Author:        Bennett, John, J Alias:        JJFBbennett.com University:     Charles Darwin University (Casuarina) Course:        Masters of Education International Title:              Innovative Learning Environments and Transformative Schooling. Purpose: Apply analytical and critical thinking to promote innovation in the context of global demands on educational performance. Apply theoretical concepts to an analysis of international, national, regional and local media representations of education and training. Topic Theme:       Transformative Pedagogy, Platforms and Digital Technologies. Completed:    May, 2014 -------------------------------- Index Introduction 21st Century Autonomous Schools, Learning Culture and Technology Transformative and Constra...