Closing the gap on aboriginal education

Brian Tompson writes about the exclusion of indigenous students and communities in education. He explains how teachers have looked at issues such as misbehaviour and absenteeism and attributed a lack of achievement against an indigenous label.

If we are to help our students learn then we need to look at student-centred classrooms and learning techniques that encourage learning. It is recognised that Aboriginal students learn best by doing rather than by theory. Neil Harrison recognises that students learn by imitating others (Harrison 2011). Teachers need to differentiate their teaching methods which include avoiding the overuse of textbooks and provide authentic learning experiences which deal with real life situations or themes that students can relate to.

He stresses the role of collaboration with the local communities and parents in developing a meaningful education and have a more informed cultural awareness, moving away from textbooks and other formal learning materials

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Making the Connection, or Doing the Learning

Mercer Hall and Patricia Russell refer to a recent class where a specialist came to teach Arabic calligraphy where the children learnt about the calligraphy then had opportunities to practice it as well. There are some beautiful illustrations on the blog post. The lady teaching was a parent of one of the children.

We are extremely fortunate and grateful to have such a wonderful parent volunteer her time to help the students understand a writing system less familiar than their own. In addition, it brings the heritage of our Muslim students into the classroom to better bridge the multicultural views of the world.

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An interesting online calligraphy tool

• http://reallifeartist.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/online-calligraphy-toy-and-lessons/

Do you know of any other good visual design tools?

Brazilian city uses computer chips embedded in school uniforms to keep track of students

Stan Lehman in Newser reports that

Twenty thousand students in 25 of the of Vitoria da Conquista’s 213 public schools started using T-shirts with chips earlier this week, secretary Coriolano Moraes said by telephone.

By 2013, all of the city’s 43,000 public school students _ aged 4 to 14 _ will be using the chip-embedded T-shirts, he added.

The “intelligent uniforms” tell parents when their children enter the school building by sending a text message to their cell phones. Parents are also alerted if kids don’t show up 20 minutes after classes begin with the following message: “Your child has still not arrived at school

They are receiving interest from other Brazilian cities interested in absence management.

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