Archive for the 'Classes' Category

What would it look like for learning…to be at the core of every educational interaction?

Published April 10, 2013 4:01 pm in Classes and Writings

What would it look like for learning, and not the measurement of learning, to be at the core of every educational interaction?

In this timely article, Brockwood Park School Co-Principal Gopal Krishnamurthy and staff member Sunsong Clark (shown in this picture with other teachers at their Teacher Education Program in Ojai, CA) argue that “unless we closely examine our conceptions of teaching and learning and how this gets enacted every day, in every moment, reform may provide some reprieve, but not a foundational reframing of teaching-learning and a repurposing of schools for the values that we all really care about.” This leads them to pose the question, “What would it look like for learning, and not the measurement of learning, to be at the core of every educational interaction?”

Read their article, written with Craig Walker, here:http://journal.kfionline.org/issue-17/from-visibility-to-accountability-and-assessment-a-sleight-of-hand

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Spring Workshops 2013 Analysis

Published March 4, 2013 2:32 pm in Classes

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Vijay Raghavendran, our in-house data wizard, made this interesting visual analysis of our recent spring workshops. We bring in alumni and friends of Brockwood to conduct classes over  a short week every year. It’s a wonderfully active time!

 

 

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School-Wide Teachers’ Meeting

Published April 18, 2011 10:22 am in Classes

One of the highlights of the Autumn and Spring terms’ schedule is a school-wide Teachers’ Meeting, at which residential and on-residential teachers join forces to discuss topics of common interest. Feedback on classes, individual tussles and difficulties, questions and ideas relating to the coming term or next academic year can all shape the discussion. During our most recent (March) meeting we were given much food for thought in the area of Learning Support, and of Homework, and also listened to strong parental feelings with regard to the recently rejuvenated idea of an English baccalaureat. Which subjects are to be taught, and how much time they are given, together with the subtle or not so subtle expressions of their perceived importance, whether as exam subjects or not, are perennial themes for parents and educators, and Brockwood is no exception in this. Sharing our encrustation-prone perceptions, and recognising the need to polish and revise them, left us feeling glad for a morning well spent.

By Adrian Sydenham, Co-Principal.

Teachers' Meeting
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A Socratic Gathering at Brockwood

Published November 18, 2009 10:03 am in Classes

One of the mature students needed to read the Symposium and the Republic for her external degree, and was looking for people who were interested in reading with her. One of the students had never read any of Plato’s dialogues, and was very interested in doing so. In fact, I think he said he had not read any original text from the Greek philosophers. I had done a seminar a few years ago which covered some of the dialogues, so I thought that it would be a good idea to read them using the contents of that seminar’s program. Long story short, we ended up meeting every Wednesday with one of us in charge of making the photocopies of what we were supposed to read each day.

So, what is it that we want to get out of reading? Leaving aside the obvious academic interest of the mature student referred before, I think there are three pillars that hold our decision of reading the dialogues.

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Diego {Mexico}, Karuna {India}, Pedro {Chile}

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Modern Movement Introduction

Published November 6, 2009 3:04 pm in Classes

Modern Movement is a non-exam, team-taught class which was introduced at the beginning of the year to offer students 16+ an opportunity to pursue theme- and perspective-based learning.  It proposes that the changes which came about in all spheres of Western culture between 1900 & 1925 or, by extension, 1889 & 1929 are less a matter of subject specificity (science, art, literature, psychology, social science) and more a matter of how we see the world.  Multiple examples are given from all fields to support this theme/ perspective thesis.

Stephen Smith, Staff from UK

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Wood and Metalwork Design Department

Published October 30, 2009 3:10 pm in Classes

At Brockwood Park this subject is taught in small groups of up to 5 students.  The groups contain students of varying ability in design and practical skills, aged from 14 to 19 years old.  Some have had much experience in making things and others have not used tools before.  The students also vary in their intentions, some being content to spend all year on one ambitious project whilst others feel compelled to complete their idea within a lesson or two.  This absence of uniformity has influenced the way this subject is taught here.

A positive choice has been made to give students the opportunity to work on their personal ideas and interests, assisting them to develop these according to thematic, material or technical considerations in consultation with their teacher.  The classes are offered as a ‘non-examination subject option’ and lesson plans and whole-class teaching are not generally used because each student is following his or her own project based designs.  All work starts with the motivation of the student, and theory and technique are taught only as the need arises from the current project.  There are no tests or formal assessments, but what has been learnt from the project is reviewed on its completion.

Clive Dunkley, Staff from UK

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