Beginning the school year . Seven ideas to consider Pass on to interested teachers. Beginning a school year is a challenge to all teachers - even the most experienced. In teaching, it seems, there is no shallow end! Check out the links below the seven ideas below - you might find some of them useful to you. 'Begin with the end in mind'  Business 'guru' Steven Covey advice is to 'begin with the end in mind'. A good idea ( for an individual teacher or staff) is to define the attributes of a great learner that you would like all students t ..read more

The 'New Normal' - Post COVID 19 ‘Where have come from? where are we now? and where are we going?’ This is the title of a painting by Paul Gauguin when he was feeling depressed and suicidal. Which when he completed it he felt better illustrating the power of creativity in moments of despair? In the midst of the pandemic Covid 19 it seems relevant. We cannot go back to the ‘old normal’! The question is where are we going in the futures because it seems we cannot go back to ‘normal’ because the normal it no answer to challenges that lie ahead, most of all Global Warming, which require ..read more

Learning at Home during the 'Lock down' (I haven't written a blog for months but thought I would share a few ideas that i had posted on Facebook. There are still people viewing my blog so here goes) Learn Five New Things a Week I heard yesterday on National Radio an interesting idea for students to do at home ~ get them to learn five new things a week ~practical things like learning to cook something new, or study something of personal interest etc Students could make a list of things they want to learn about - a personalized curriculum. I note a lot of school sending out workshee ..read more

Its been a while since I've posted on my blog but I thought the below was worth sharing - Bruce Teaching the Best Practice Way By Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar. A valuable book for teachers wanting to develop a modern learning environment. The other day I heard an interview on National Radio expressing the sad fact that a great number of students leave school with no idea about what they want to do. It made me wonder about what’s the point of school? For me, school ought to be premised on developing the gifts, talents and interests of all students. Sadly, primary education i ..read more

Time to call it a day? Readings week 2 July 2019 Our Leading-Learning blog has a long history.  It began as Primary Arts Magazines set up by Wayne Morris and Bruce in 1980. Over 25 editions were printed. They were hand compiled and posted and when subscribers got over 500 it was all too much. Some of the 25 Primary Art Magazines The premise of the magazine was to share the ideas of creative teachers – teachers who were developing student centred programmes with an emphasis on using the local environment, the importance of the creative arts and develop stimulating room environments featuring ..read more

Real creativity – the missing element in educationReadings 24th June 2019 We are coming to the thought that we are speaking to a minority in our efforts to encourage an education system that places creativity and the creative arts central  to teaching and learning. Confirmed by views seen recently on TV The views of classrooms on show (with a couple of exceptions) through the teachers’ strike indicated to us a system featuring an emphasis on literacy and numeracy with work on display more to do with teachers than celebrating student creativity.  As well, postings on the Teachers’ Facebook ..read more

Time for educational transformationReadings 14th June 2019 Now that the salary negotiations look like they will be settled it’s time to focus on teaching and learning. There is a reading below written by Sir Ken Robinson about the need to move from standardisation to transformation. A good read. Time now to place the NZC central to learning We both believe in the need for primary schools to now place the intent of the New Zealand Curriculum up front and central and move away from the, as one commentator has said, ‘the evil twins of literacy and numeracy that have all but gobbled up the enti ..read more

New Minds for a New Millennium The Past Present and Future of teaching and learningReadings June 9th 2019 For a number of years, we have published our blog which often includes a set of readings that we hope teachers might find worth reading. We know that teachers are far too busy to spend time searching but we also know that keeping up with reading about new ideas is an important part of being a professional. We appreciate that only a few will read our blog but as someone once said there is nothing like a hopeless cause – climate change comes to mind. New connected mind Our Vision ..read more

 Simple advice to make teaching easier - slowing the pace of work  in an age of distraction Readings 3rd June 2019 Allan Alach and Bruce Hammonds This week has an introduction by Bruce I was asked the other day what would the one thing I would suggest to make a real difference in teaching and learning. It wasn’t hard to answer ‘slow the pace of student’s work’. It might seem strange advice in this age of speed and continual distraction.  We now live in a ‘attention deficit ‘society where all too often things happen so fast that we miss many important things. In classrooms students seem t ..read more

Time to put Sir Ken Robinson into actionReadings Saturday 25h May 2019 Time to transform education? Most teachers have heard or read the thoughts ofSir Ken Robinson's about transforming education ‘from the ground up’  as outlined in his book Creative Schools. He writes, ‘creativity is as important as literacy and numeracy’. We think it is now time now to put his ideas into action. This is all the more important after hearing on the Sunday Education TV programme where it was  said teachers are spending 60 hours pus a week to cope with what is required of them.  Time surely for teachers to g ..read more