Differences

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--- awhi_world [2008-12-18 20:38] – 118.93.164.11
+++ awhi_world [2009-01-22 01:07] – 118.93.84.195
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 **Overall Results**
-Teachers comments:
+In general teachers were keen to repeat the experiment and this time embedd this into their long term planning to ensure it was given quality attention, and was more sustainable as a project.
-"Great for boys to keep them engaged". "Excellent to stimulate their imaginations". "Much harder work than normal curriculum as you are working with their imaginations rather than hard data". "Fun to not give The Truth..but to play with this with the kids". "Needed a little more focused energy..too many other things going on in the school and couldnt do the concept justice".
+Their comments showed that they saw behavioural shifts as a result of the material and the the children loved it. They also recognised areas for improvement and possibilities for the future. Many of these areas were related to factors that effected the whole school such as poor resources internally and issues related to poverty spilling over into the school at different times.
+Teachers comments as narrative extracts from interviews:
+"Great for boys to keep them engaged". "Excellent to stimulate their imaginations". "Much harder work than normal curriculum as you are working with their imaginations rather than hard data". "Fun to not give The Truth..but to play with this with the kids". "Needed a little more focused energy..too many other things going on in the school and couldnt do the concept justice"."Children loved portals and gatekeepers theme". "The dramatic introduction into the school worked..needed to have more of this on a regular basis". "loved the portal examination" ."Hard to plan for but exciting to plan for..we could take any direction, children could go off on a tangent and I could follow them". "They really got the gatekeeper idea, one boy told me: "I'm a gatekeeper because I look after the school, and the gardens"". "Great way to get them thinking about Kaitaikitanga [guardianship in Maori]". "Notice that children are behaving differently around the gardens - at the beginning of the year were running over the gardens and dropping litter, now that is rare"."The forensic investigation was fantastic - it made them observe more closely and that is a real area of need". "Our children need to be introduced to things they would never be introduced to. Exposed to different ways of thinking, things and experiences. This did that for them". "Need to have a much simpler storyline for the little kids"."Teacher knowledge, skills and pedagogical framework plays a big part in how a project like this is delivered" "The trip to Nextspace was amazing. It was the highlight of the year for me and opened a door to a whole new world"
 My comments:
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   * Too many ideas and not enough resources.  This school was a Decile 1 School which means it is in the poorest catchment area possible.  With more physical resources and time it would have been even more successful. But staffing and money were a major issue.
-  * Give that was the case the project was a successful experiment in so far as it developed the teachers and pushed them to extend their learning and practice. It also introduced children to different ways of learning maths, science, social science and english making links between some of their leisure activities and learning.
+Overall comment:
+  * Given that was the case the project was a successful experiment in so far as it developed the teachers and pushed them to extend their learning and practice. It introduced children to different ways of learning maths, science, social science and english making links between some of their leisure activities and learning. It also taught children to pay attention to their environment in a way that they would not have previously.
+More fundamentally, it exposed both teachers and students to a paradigm that is beyond traditional concepts of true and false, and reignited their capacity to imagine.  Exposure to new ideas and technologies was in some cases life changing, in so far as it generated a sense of awe and expansion of understandings and cognitive boundaries. And disrupted previously held notions and assumptions about what 'teaching' and 'learning' is about.
+The teachers are keen to take the project forward and move it to another level. Integrating this even more fully into the curriculum and the community development initiatives taking place around the school. With further funding and support this is possible, as is the potential to further develop trans-local gardening iniatives with foam, brussels.