I was revisiting my own teaching philosophy earlier today and began to wonder what other educators thought was important in guiding their own practice. I came across an article that asked some pertinent questions and helped me to clarify the validity of my own philosophy.

After reading Bill Jefferson’s post on Tribes I got quite a response from Australian Tribes educators (just see the comments section in Bill’s post!) One of the most respected Tribes Trainers in Australia, Coleen Davidge has kindly submitted a guest post on the subject of Tribes TLC to flesh out what was started by [...]

The Tribes TLC is mainly a process that incorporates a community-like structure. The purpose of this is to enhance positive social and academic development by creating a healthy learning environment. Each classroom is assigned active learning groups and each of these groups can consist of four members each. These groups are called tribes and they [...]

In a leadership meeting last week we had an unannounced guest speaker. In these circumstances you don’t know what you are going to get! It was Denise Wilcowski the head of the Territory’s Association of Educational School Leaders.

A school support assistant (or Teacher’s Assistant; in Australia they have several names depending on the State you live in) is someone who supports a teacher in every way possible making many of his/her tasks easier to accomplish.

It is a question I am asked sometimes, and for me there are two defining factors in my career as an educator. The first is how I actually got into teaching and the second is why I stay in teaching.

The more I read edublogs (a term that now rolls off my tongue) the more I read about teacher and parent dislike of the standardised test. I am certainly attracted to these conversations, as I too believe they are an educational tool from the industrial revolution that no longer has the same esteem it [...]

Social networking is getting a lot of attention these days. People have largely debated whether or not social networking in schools is beneficial or not. Popular social networking sites such as facebook.com comprise of around several million members, and although there is an age limit of 13 years old, many users are kids.
Schools do [...]

I initially became interested in blogs as an educator because of the isolation I felt in the classroom, and as a result of my geographic location. Working in remote communities in Australia made for a pretty barren professional life. I am now involved in several discussions each week that revolve around a range [...]

Talking with colleagues last week and we started to discuss what we see in each other that makes us good teachers. This got me thinking, and late last night (or was it early this morning?) I came up with this list. It is a list of the traits I have seen in great [...]