JJFBbennett

Purpose of this Blog To encourage professional workers to recognize their small achievements, celebrate the small achievements, and share the small achievements across the work unit. Project Management - the importance of celebrating small wins at work Managing projects can be a complex process involving time, risk, and priority management. Managing multiple projects that involves working with a multitude of clients and within a hierarchy of positions, over distance, and involves "wicked problems" requires strong hard and soft management skills. Soft management is more difficult to identify and yet it has a significant impact on the success of a project. This blog discusses soft management skills. It focusses on enabling achievement recognition to benefit the individual and the work unit. Recognizing achievements and failures affect the personal attachment to the project and in general the potential successful outcomes. Most importantly it affects the ...

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessments) results are aligned with 21st-century skills (critical thinking and problem solving) The future of learning will focus on problem-centered instruction and will dismiss the 20th-century methods and curricula that are based on basic skills. Teachers need to dismiss instruction that outputs master memorizers, regurgitation, and fact toters (testing for the correct answers). Teachers need to enable instruction that outputs problem solvers.   Teachers need the skills to manage “ill defined" problem-based learning programs. Students as problem-solvers need to have critical and creative skills. Students need to access technologies that support problem-solving. Technologies cannot be limited to a standardized "one size fits all". The present situation in schools is that instruction is largely 20th century based.  Most teachers prerequisite learning ...

Why I like freedom Open Linux Open Ubuntu Open Google Forget privatisation of knowledge (it's so 20 centryish) If NASA can send an open source robot to the moon why can't you? One-off sponsorship You Tube

These notes are abbreviated; ebook text highlights and notes by JJFBbennett. I do promote the reading of this book to gain a deeper understanding of 21st C teaching and learning. 21st Century: Rethinking how students learn : Whilst the following notes are inspired by the book they are not directly associated with the book. The challenge To equip students with 21st Century skills. The connection  The link between skills and knowledge are interdependent Effective teaching requires students to learn skills  Life long learning ability requires adaptive learning skills Students need literacy and numeracy skills to have the fundamental capacities for lifelong learning Plan for the future Foreseeing what future skills students will need - is essential.  Teachers need to plan for adaptive learning skills. Teachers cannot focus only on present-day skills. The relationship between the educator and learner needs is key to students gaining 21st Century skills...

As an Australian, my cultural heritage was embedded heavily in cricket - through many hours of listening to, watching, playing, supporting, and discussing. I have now lost interest in the game - well more specifically test cricket, one-dayers, and now 20 20. Test cricket is just out of touch. One day games are too long and take too long to get engagement. Simply putting, I cannot dedicate one day to watch a game.  20 20 is slightly better but my interest falls from one 20 to the next 20 sessions. It is like reading two books one after the other. It is not a game it is two games connected by a score. So................. Get rid of test cricket. It is too centered on the players, ex-players, and a hand full of die-hards. It is tedious, there are too many non-events draws and is biased by climatic conditions. Borrrrring One day games just take too long. There are better things to do with a TV, mp3, or tablet. My day is too interesting to waste on one game. 20 20 is...

Questions Are your dream realistic? When do you move on? What do you have that you need to let go? How do you give up riding a dead horse? How do you replace a failure with a new dream? Should you disengage because of difficulty? How do you create a brighter future when the present is dark? Statements Finding it difficult in deciding how to move past an issue. Only remembering emotionally stimulated events and not day by day activity. It is a challenge to keep up and move with change. Emotional Intelligence recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior, know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence. You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, an...

Designing Professional Learning for Teachers Questions of expectations - from the participant's perspective - to assist in designing a user-focused event/program/workshop/webinar. This is a list of questions that a deliverer should ask of themselves when designing a professional learning event for teachers. 1. Why should I attend? 2. What do I need to know, to be ready for the event/workshop? 3. What am I expected to do with this knowledge once I return to school? 4. What will I learn & will it be at my level of knowledge? 5. Why is this training important to me - is it relevant? 6. How will this benefit my student's learning? 7. How can I logistically apply this in my classroom? 8. How can I share this knowledge with my peer teachers once I return to school? 9. What resources can I access once the event/workshop has concluded? 10. How will this benefit my job performance and my career? 11. How will this change my teaching practices? One-off sponsorshi...