Ian Carmichael's Blog (9)

I'm just pondering the rise of twitter. And the hints, or suggestions that this is the networking of the future (ie, the next year or so) which will sideline blogs and forums. The thought returns me to where I began a couple of years ago - on thinking and its objects. How much of a thought do we need, in order to be thinking? It seems to me that real thinking - reflective, processing, creative mental work which has as at least one of its outputs something new, something stronger, something fres… Continue

Connie asked me to say a little about the Australian bushfires. At my last news on the situation, there were some 126 confirmed deaths and about 700 destroyed properties through the hill regions in Victoria. The locations of the deaths are little-known placenames, even for Victorians Kinglake - 33 St Andrews - 6 Callignee - 9 Kinglake West - 9 Marysville - 10 Location details not specific - 6 Steeles Creek - 7 Flowerdale - 3 Hazelwood - 4 Wandong - 4 Humevale - 4 Koornalla - 4 Tagge… Continue

G'day folks, I was going to blog about 'label and destroy'. There's so much of it about - liberal, fundamentalist, extremist, right-wing, left-wing, fundy, pro-choice, pro-life... It's such a distasteful, and dishonest way of putting people in a box and making them non-people, or putting ideas in a box labelled 'do not open' (or perhaps "Pandora") ...but it's lunch time, and I couldn't really be bothered. Maybe more later - but there's cricket on, I hope! Continue

Yes, I admit it. I've just discovered how to get useful information from feeds through an aggregator. Great for finding out what's posted on FL without drilling into my emails. And I've learnt a whole heap of stuff by hooking into pages I thought I'd like to browse but never did; hence the various bits of curious information I've peppered here and there. Ah, but then - for unknown reasons my aggregator began to fail - first, it failed to collect the feeds from the Guardian (not too bad, could li… Continue

I just been buffaloed by some acronyms today (have been a few times here) and thought it was time to raise the white flag. As a foreigner, there are mysterious terms to me - and I'd reckon for others too. I've found out about GPA's, I think there was one called AP or AD, but today I've hit GED from Ellen and LPN (?) from Ed, and.. who knows what else lurks for my confusion. (For acronym users, just one translation once would be nice to dispel my ignorance.) Well, TTFN. (Ah that's goodbye - Ta-… Continue

One of my favourite modern authors is Alexander McCall-Smith - a grand writer of whimsical, reflective novels and stories, set in Botswana, or Scotland, or Germany. In one of his Scots works, he has this quote which should set the nerves of educators a-jangling. In Love Over Scotland he writes There were so many things that were just not being taught any more. Poetry, for example. Children were no longer made to learn poetry by heart. And so the deep rhythms of the language, its inner… Continue

Kelly just blogged on moving the mountain. In many places now I've recalled the mantra of Postman and Weingartner of Teaching as a Subversive Activity. It is part our calling to provide tools to critique as well as inculcate, so that we are engaged in self-aware values development with our students. (Yes, I think that's even so in maths, and science and IT.)

What intrigues me is the incredible way that we, as teachers, can hobble initiatives and developments - and sabotage pro

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Some years ago, James Sire wrote a book with the title How to Read Slowly. No, I haven't read it - I didn't have the time. But as I hook into this busy, busy world, I wonder how often we pause to savour what we're involved in. I notice as I open the posts and foray the fora that I'm rushing to skim for the main point(s), and seeing if there's a spark which kindles a story of mine, or a thought, or a bypath. That's a pity: because many of us write with care and thought. We craft with

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I was thinking last night - I've made a few comments here and there about being an Enneagram 5. (Which reminds me of the joke about there being only 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't). In this personality grid, tradition or whatever there are 9 personality types (hence enneagram - picture of nine). When I played the game of 'what type are you' it fitted me to a t, and I became very keen on the system for analysis and understanding.

In fac

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