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This Just In: New Book at Education Library
Silent Moments in Education:
An Autoethnography of Learning, Teaching, and Learning to Teach
Colette A. Granger’s highly original book considers moments in several areas of education in which silence may serve as both a response to difficulty and a means of working through it. The author, a teacher educator, presents narratives and other textual artefacts from her own experiences of learning and instruction. She analyses them from multiple perspectives to reveal how the qualities of education’s silences can make them at once difficult to observe and challenging to think about.
Silent Moments in Education combines autoethnography with psychoanalytic theory and critical discourse analysis in a unique consideration of the relations teachers and learners forge with knowledge, with ideas, and with one another. This provocative and thoughtful work invites scholars and educators to consider the multiple silences of participants in education, and to respond to them with generosity and compassion.
~from University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division © 2011
Year-round schooling within five years: Vancouver
We’ve heard before that Vancouver school district is considering year-round schooling, but still I was surprised by the lead paragraph in a story today in the Globe and Mail.
“Vancouver students may soon have to say goodbye to their two-month summer vacation. Over the next five years, the Vancouver School Board’s superintendent of schools, Steve Cardwell, plans to move the district to a year-round calendar.”
Later, he’s quoted as saying he expects three to six schools will have a balanced calendar by September 2012 or 2013. That sounds doable. But a district-wide change in five years??
The story prompted a tweet Tuesday morning from board chairwoman Patti Bacchus asking: “OK people, what do you think?”
Good question.
District communications manager Kurt Heinrich said discussions about year-round schooling are community driven, with the greatest interest emerging at Thunderbird elementary school.
February 14, 2012. 11:57 am • Section: Report Card
By Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Back to the Future
While conversations are ongoing in BC and around the world focused on innovation that are linked to larger system goals including a greater focus on personalized learning and giving kids greater ownership of their learning, these are not new objectives. Some practices worth highlighting are not only 21st century, or 20th century learning, in fact, some date back to the 19th century, and are an excellent fit for our current educational directions. At least, this is true of Montessori.
Maria Montessori, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, developed teaching methods which are often described as part of the “21st century learning” phenomena. When I spend time in our Montessori School, Eagle Harbour Montessori(currently expanding from a K-3 to a K-5 school), I am always in awe of the self-regulation and keen focus these students have. When I walk into the room, students continue to work and there is a sense of calm and alert focus. Students are owning their learning, the conversations with primary students are very articulate; they talk about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what they need to learn next.
What I have seen at Eagle Harbour is also supported in the recent book from Shannon Helfrich, Montessori Learning in the 21st Century: A Guide for Parents and Teachers which links Montessori teachings with the latest neuroscientific findings.
So just what does Montessori look like in our setting:
Principles Include (from the Eagle Harbour Montessori Program 2012):
January 10, 2012 by cultureofyes
THIS JUST IN: New Book at the Education Library: So You Want to Write a Children’s Book
So You Want to Write a Children’s Book: An Insider’s Handbook for Children’s Writers and Illustrators Who Want to Get Published
By Peter Carver
Ever wanted to write or illustrate a children’s book and have no idea where to begin or where to seek publication? This handbook for new and aspiring children’s authors and illustrators is the ultimate guide to the whole process of writing your book and getting it to the publisher. Written in clear and expert prose by Peter Carver, one of North America’s leading children’s book editors, this book will show you how to begin, how to develop the story, how to speak to your audience, and how to refine the work for publication. Peter does not beat around the bush: Wring a children’s book is hard but rewarding work that requires the kinds of skill and dedication you can develop from the wisdom and guidance found in these pages. It includes: How to get started; Writing for you audience; Producing the Manuscript: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama; How illustrators get hired; Illustrating picture books and nonfiction; Planning your portfolio: Fiction and Nonfiction, trade or Education markets; Should you get an agent? Submitting for publication; Self publication; Contracts; Copyright; How a publishing house works; Lists or writers’ resources, and associations. And much more.
~from Google Books description.
About the Author:
Peter Carver is currently Red Deer Press’ Children’s Book Editor. Under his direction, Red Deer Press has published notable talents as Kevin Major, Martine Leavitt, Cora Taylor, Ted Staunton and many more. Peter Carver was awarded the Canadian Library Association Award for Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada and the Writers’ Union Freedom to Read Week Award. When he’s not editing children’s books, Peter Carver teaches creative writing classes in Toronto.
Publisher’s Website Book Information: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
UBC Library Catalogue Information here.