Masters and the March

Saturday saw the biggest march in the history of the British trade union movement, with some saying 500,000 people turned out. This has not gone unnoticed. “The most sustained squeeze on living standards since the 1920s is about to hit the UK,” explains the Financial Times. “There is no telling how the general public will react, or indeed what will be the impact on the Coalition’s cohesion. Mr Osborne would be wise not to count his chickens just yet.” (FT, 27/3/11) More news...I've been writing part-time Masters courses in Literacy to join the Masters framework at my University. They will begin in September. One is the core literacy course which is concerned with literacy and learning and enriching the practice in classrooms from foundation to Key Stage 3 and the other concerns the texts - oral, written and multi-modal - which are used in schools. They are exciting courses which also involve teachers in their own creative participation. Sign-up now!

Tolstoy

I'm a great admirer of the fiction of Leo Tolstoy. Here's some interesting footage from his last years.

Robin Alexander on the New National Curriculum

This article was in the Guardian newspaper.

The photograph was taken by Phil Polglaze

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/15/national-curriculum-ministerial-meddling

New Standards for Teachers

Michael Gove has announced he wants new standards for teachers. The press release says:

The new approach will set out rigorous standards teachers should meet in order to:

• provide excellent teaching
• crackdown on bad behaviour
• improve pupils’ skills in the basics of English and maths • provide better support to those pupils falling behind.

New standards will help raise the bar for performance and help identify those who need more support to improve. Under the current approach, teachers and headteachers say:

• it is hard to measure a teacher’s progress • there is a lack of clarity about when a teacher is meeting the standards • the standards do not fit easily with the procedures for tackling underperforming teachers.

The review will be led by Sally Coates, the outstanding Principal at Burlington Danes Academy in London. Other excellent headteachers, teachers and education experts will sit on the review.

They will recommend to Government a simple and clear set of key skills that teachers must meet.

'Simple and clear' - the profession may wish to decide if these 'simple' standards represent what good professional teaching should be or whether this is an attack on the professionalism of teaching.

TUC March: March 26th

For those of you who wish to demonstrate your disquiet with this government's policy on public services, pensions, education and health reform...etc etc. the TUC, which is the organisation containing most of the Trade Unions in the UK, is organising a march in London on Saturday 26th March.

Here are the details:
http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/2011/01/tuc-national-demonstration-against-cuts-26-march-london/

The TUC are expecting large numbers of people

Teachers as Writers

This is an interesting article about a teacher attempting to interest her class in reading and writing by authoring her own novel.
This teacher has got into a great deal of trouble as a result.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/22/teacher-risque-novel-tribunal-result

Well worth serious discussion.