Ring in the new year with two months of accumulated news concerning preselections for the next federal election – not counting matters arising from Section 44, which will be dealt with in a separate post during the January lull in opinion poll news.
• After falling short in the Bennelong by-election, Kristina Keneally’s most immediate pathway to federal parliament is the Senate vacancy created by the resignation of Sam Dastyari. However, The Australian reports the position is being eyed by Tony Sheldon, national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, and Tara Moriarty, state secretary of United Voice – either in opposition to Keneally or in her absence, since it is not clear she would not prefer to await a lower house berth. The Canberra Times reports the looming creation of a third electorate for the Australian Capital Territory could present such an opportunity. Other possibilities mentioned for the new seat are Thomas McMahon, economic adviser to Bill Shorten; Taimus Werner-Gibbings, chief-of-staff to Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh; Jacob Ingram, 23-year-old staffer to Chief Minister Andrew Barr; Jacob White, staffer to Fenner MP and Shadow Assistant Trade Minister Andrew Leigh; and Kim Fischer, former territory ministerial staffer and current communications consultant.
• Another soon-to-be-created seat has been central to factional convulsions in the Victorian ALP in recent months. As in the ACT, population growth has entitled Victoria to an extra seat, which is expected to be established in Melbourne’s booming and strongly Labor-voting north-east. The Construction Mining Forestry and Energy Union wants it to go to Jane Garrett, who recently failed in a bid to move from her state seat of Brunswick to the Legislative Council after losing a Left faction ballot. Garrett feared Brunswick would be lost to the Greens, in part because of the efforts of the United Firefighters Union, whose dispute with Garrett over a pay deal caused her resignation as Emergency Services Minister in 2016. In tandem with other “industrial Left” unions, the CFMEU has walked out of the Left, which is dominated by Senator Kim Carr, and sought an alliance with the Right, which looks likely to proceed with the blessing of Bill Shorten. This will mean an end to the long-standing “stability pact” between the Carr forces and the Right, which has protected members including Jenny Macklin in Jagajaga and Andrew Giles in Scullin. However, Shorten insists he will ensure no sitting members are threatened.
• With George Brandis resigning from his Queensland Senate seat to take up the popular posting of high commissioner in London, The Australian reports a big field of potential successors includes three names from state politics: Scott Emerson, the former Shadow Treasurer who lost his seat of Maiwar to the Greens; John-Paul Langbroek, a former Opposition Leader who remains the state member for Surfers Paradise, but was unsuccessful in the post-election leadership vote; and Lawrence Springborg, repeatedly unsuccessful state Opposition Leader who did not contest the election in November (who would presumably faces a difficulty in being from the Nationals). Also in the mix are Joanna Lindgren, who had an earlier stint in the Senate when she filled Brett Mason’s vacancy in May 2015, but was unsuccessful as the sixth candidate on the Liberal National Party ticket in 2016; Teresa Harding, director of the Queensland government’s open data policy and twice unsuccessful candidate for Blair; and Amanda Stoker, a barrister.
• Surf Coast councillor Libby Coker has again been preselected as Labor’s candidate for the Victorian seat of Corangamite, after winning a local party vote over Geelong businesswoman Diana Taylor by 116 votes to 39. Coker ran unsuccessfully in 2016 against Sarah Henderson, who gained the seat for the Liberals in 2013.
• Mehreen Faruqi, a state upper house member, was preselected to lead the Greens’ New South Wales ticket in late November, winning an online vote of party members by a margin variously identified as 1301 to 843, and 1032 to 742. The preselection took place against a backdrop of conflict between the more moderate environmentalist tendency associated with the parliamentary leadership and Rhiannon’s hard left base in New South Wales. Anne Davies of The Guardian observes that Rhiannon will face “intense pressure to step down early”, so Faruqi can fill her vacancy and raise her profile ahead of the election.
Labor has completed preselections for the brace of Liberal-held seats where it is now reckoned to be competitive in Western Australia, after the resurgence in its fortunes in the state – all of which have gone to women:
• Hannah Beazley, policy adviser to Mark McGowan and daughter of Kim Beazley, will run against Steve Irons in Swan, which her father held from 1980 to 1996 before seeking a safer refuge in Brand. Hannah Beazley ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Riverton in 2013.
• Lauren Palmer of the Maritime Union of Australia has been selected to run against Ken Wyatt in Hasluck, winning out over the Left-backed Bill Leadbetter, a history lecturer who ran in the seat in 2016, and very briefly served in the state upper house earlier this year. This comes after the MUA threw its lot in with the now dominant Right (“Progressive Labor”) faction in pursuit of its oft-thwarted ambitions to establish a parliamentary power base, together with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
• Decorated police superintendent and Left faction member Kim Travers has been chosen to run against newly anointed Attorney-General Christian Porter in Pearce. Sarah Martin of The West Australian reported Labor’s administrative committee knocked back a nomination from Ann O’Neill, a campaigner against domestic violence whose estranged husband shot her and murdered her two children in 1994, who had not been a party member for the required period and was not granted a waiver.
• A little further up the pendulum, Melita Markey, chief executive of the Asbestos Diseases Society, will run against Michael Keenan in Stirling, and Melissa Teede, former head of the Peel Development Commission, will run against Andrew Hastie in Canning.
And so rolls in 2018.
Seems most of the preselection action is in Labor.
Presumably retirements are more likely to be announced during regular preselection cycles – so late in 2018 I think.
Alexandra Smith writes in the SMH about the dying gasps of the Reading Recovery (RR) program in NSW schools.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/primary-principals-slam-axing-of-reading-recovery-program-20180101-h0byoi.html
And, previously,
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/new-literacy-teachers-recruited-as-nsw-government-axes-reading-recovery-20171222-h09c5f.html
Defending RR is a rearguard action which deserves no success.
Even the principals who are complaining about the Department’s removal of support said most students did not benefit.
It was a lot like washing your clothes with washing powders which Choice has found are no better than plain water. Sure, some of the clothes are slightly cleaner, but that happened irrespective of the intervention of the washing powder.
With RR, research has shown that any improvements students make would have occurred whether RR intervention was used or not.
One of the researchers is Prof Kevin Wheldall, and his letter which stirred things up is here
http://www.kevinwheldall.com/2016/01/minister-reading-recovery-requires-more.html
Wheldall was professor of Special Education, which trains postgrad students how to teach reading to kids with learning difficulties – with outstanding success.
The fact that we need reading programs at all in our schools is a sad indictment of the training our teacher education students receive in our university undergrad teacher training programs. Philosophically they have been swimming against the tide of research for over 40 years. It’s time they changed.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers. I’ve worked hard to find not very much.
Michael West piles into the government and News Ltd on the misrepresentation of welfare data.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/treasury-buries-corporate-welfare-data-trumpets-pensioners-social-welfare/
Full marks to the police – none to Telstra/NBN and the under-resourced, inundated Telecommunications Ombudsman.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/police-called-to-remove-man-from-telstra-store-instead-solve-his-internet-crisis-20171231-h0btca.html
And Optus is not without its problems.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/optus-reseller-seeks-100m-for-alleged-breach-of-contract-20171220-p4yxwv.html
Primary principals have warned that young students who struggle with reading risk falling further behind after the NSW Department of Education axed its $50 million Reading Recovery program despite “almost no consultation” with teachers. Gladys has her hands full.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/primary-principals-slam-axing-of-reading-recovery-program-20180101-h0byoi.html
Why maths should be a compulsory high school subject.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation/the-case-for-making-maths-mandatory-in-high-school-20180101-h0c0q0.html
This contribution from David Wroe on Australia’s role in putting the FBI onto the Russian collusion issue is worth a read.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-discussed-downers-russia-revelations-with-fbi-20180101-h0c58c.html
Australian consumers launched into their annual Christmas spending spree with the average credit card debt at the lowest level in a decade.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/credit-card-debt-typical-balance-at-a-10year-low-prior-to-christmas-20171231-h0bsfa.html
Should methadone be destigmatised?
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/those-on-methadone-dont-deserve-stigma-20180101-h0c17q.html
Jenna Price has ditched New Year’s resolutions in favour of appreciation of the good things in the year just passed.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/happy-new-you-ditch-the-resolutions-in-favour-of-appreciations-20171231-h0bw7r.html
Former Chief Scientist Ian Chubb has had a big brush with severe cancer and has been “saved” by submitting himself to a trial of a new drug. Quite a story.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/02/is-ian-cured-maybe-the-astonishing-cancer-treatment-of-australias-chief-scientist
Global accounting giant PwC may face a big damages bill for failing to detect a $US2bn fraud that led to a US bank collapse. Google.
/business/financial-services/pricewaterhousecoopers-found-negligent-over-colonial-bank-failure/news-story/d3b4f50939944efaa52c981afd57d611
The NHS turns 70 this year, and it’s Britain’s greatest medical innovation.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/01/nhs-70-britain-medical-heath-service-penicillin-ivf
CHOICE is advocating for a general safety provision to reduce the number of dodgy products we see every year.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/same-old-summer-product-recall-20171230-h0blp2.html
The UK has had its fair share of institutional child sexual abuse too.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/01/london-catholic-school-abuse-survivor-speaks-of-constant-violence-st-benedicts
Stephen Koukoulas marks his own forecasts for 2017.
https://thekouk.com/item/558-2017-twas-a-very-good-year.html
Gerard Whateley has quit the ABC for Melbourne radio station. What a waste!
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/gerard-whateley-leaves-abc-radio-to-host-sen-morning-show-20180101-h0c5za.html
Cartoon Corner (for what it’s worth!)
Matt Golding’s measures of time.
And here we go again!
Clever work from Pat Campbell.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/pat-campbell-20120213-1t21q
Thanks BK. Sorry for pre-empting you re axing of RR program. It’s an issue close to my heart.
Gladys and Rob Stokes must fix the appallingly bad state of reading education in some schools. I emphasise it is not fixed by simply blaming the teachers.
Trump says US has gotten ‘nothing’ from Pakistan aid
US. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States has “foolishly” handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/trump-says-us-has-gotten-nothing-from-pakistan-aid/
Ex-Bush official: Australian diplomats give Trump-Russia probe a ‘new level of credibility’
A former senior official in the George W. Bush administration said revelations about Australia’s role in the Trump-Russia probe opens a new set of problems for the White House.
Australian officials aren’t happy that U.S. officials had identified their British ambassador as playing a key role in launching the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, reported The Age.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/ex-bush-official-australian-diplomats-give-trump-russia-probe-a-new-level-of-credibility/
It rather looks as if Trump is cutting Pakistan’s moderates off at the knees.
Largely unnoticed, Trump and his gang of generals have been smashing State.
And it shows.
Thanks as always BK. You are the best.
From the maths link you posted:
Maths needs to be fun.
Fun is for tiny children playing.
Mathematics is for pleasure and deep satisfaction and the joy of learning, as well as mastering difficult concepts which are nevertheless the only way to understand science and technology.
The biggest problem with mathematics education is that high performing mathematics students would be foolish (in dollar terms) to go into teaching, and in particular primary school teaching.
I have seen, again and again, students with very average mathematics performance in the HSC (or who drop the subject at the end of year 10) go into primary school teaching.
There they inevitably skim over the maths requirements, or are unable, with their shallow understanding, to make the subject come alive, be meaningful and satisfying. This is vastly different to making it fun.
It is not popular in some circles, but a good start would be to make complete and total knowledge of times tables up to twelve times, backwards as well as forwards, from grade three up, mandatory. It is vital for further studies.
I have taught students whose calculators have blank keys, because the numbers and symbols have worn off.
The further you go in mathematics, the greater the need for mental arithmetic. You haven’t got time to put 7 x 8 into the calculator, nor, more importantly, see immediately that 60 is 5 x 12 without resorting to trial and error.
We need top maths students to go into primary school teaching, but that won’t happen, because (thankfully! ) we now don’t have the pool of bright working class students we had fifty years ago for whom teaching and nursing were the only viable employment they knew about to fight their way into the middle class.
Teachers need to paid very much more, so that it becomes a more attractive career for top performing students, who otherwise will go into banking, insurance, and general business administration, where they get the remuneration their talents deserve.
BK
massive loss to the ABC re Gerard Whately. I’m still in shock.
SEN did a restructure about 12-8 months ago with most presenters shown the door.
Their ratings are neglible so will be interesting to see if Whately pulls any listeners from 3AW or 774ABC Melbourne…. and how long management will give Whately.
Commercial radio does not tolerate failure but AM stations cf FM seem to allow longer lead times for new shows to settle in.
Good Morning
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/02/morning-mail-donald-trump-pakistan
Don
I agree 100% with your comments about maths.
BK @ #13 Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018 – 6:45 am
Don and BK,
Plus 1 with your comments – it is so apparent in most graduate engineers that I encounter, they need to use a calculator to undertake something as simple as integer multiplication up to 12 times while I wait with the answer on the tip of my tongue.
RustyAway: I’m predicting a terror scare sometime in the next 48 hours. The “welfare costs” thing is dead and buried. The Somali Gangs thing will die now that figures have been released showing crime numbers dropped in Vic. last year. Terror is all the LNP have left. #auspol
Don,
I would also add that a lot of the best Maths students now see their work being monetised to best advantage, not only in the Finance sector, but in the Tech sector, via the development of Algorithms.
rtraister: “A legal defense fund, backed by $13 million…to help…janitors, nurses & workers at farms, factories, restaurants & hotels protect themselves from sexual misconduct & fallout from reporting it.” Ok, THIS is a step up from black outfits at awards shows. nytimes.com/2018/01/01/mov…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/movies/times-up-hollywood-women-sexual-harassment.html
C@tmomma says:
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 7:57 am
Don,
I would also add that a lot of the best Maths students now see their work being monetised to best advantage, not only in the Finance sector, but in the Tech sector, via the development of Algorithms.
I know what an algorithm is, but you are obviously using it in a specific context.
What does it mean in that case? Perhaps I know it by a different name, or as a general class of methods.
For example, I and many others can use pen and paper to work out problems in long division, or finding square roots, and these are algorithms, as are the computer equivalents, usually used for vastly more complicated and otherwise time consuming operations.
Perhaps you are referring to AI?
lizzie @ #12 Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018 – 6:44 am
Lizzie,
I appreciate that you are quoting another and maybe the decimal point has dropped out, I understand that the feasibility study cost $30 million.
I can only guess that Snowy Hydro would welcome any one of their three owners ‘tipping money into their funding bucket’ and Malcolm was after all desperate to have the study completed in 2017.
Since Snowy Hydro is owned by the three Governments and the haggle is on about the two states selling out to the Commonwealth, I can see how Snowy Hydro will finance the project, backed by the Commonwealth with the project off the Federal Budget (just as the NBN was originally off the Federal Budget) {of course, I would be happy to be corrected by any finance bludgers who know more than I do}.
IndigenousX: 8b. Eg why is it always ‘Aboriginal ppl are X times more likely to go to jail’ but never ‘Police are X times more likely to arrest Aboriginal ppl’ or ‘Judges are X times more likely to give custodial sentences’?
http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/new-laws-and-changes-that-will-affect-australia-from-january-1-2018-and-beyond/news-story/85825f4092834190a292a828aacb7c3d
moran_matthew: ‘Not a single country has expressed an interest in striking a free trade deal’ with #Brexit Britain.
Not. A. Single. One.
#StopBrexit2018 #StopBrexitSaveBritain huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/fox-node…
https://twitter.com/moran_matthew/status/947935529823293440
This has to be a coordinated Turnbull/Guy/Murdoch effort:
For the last couple of years I’ve been going into my sons’ year 6 classrooms for an hour a week to teach some advanced maths to the stronger half of the class, and it’s been a revealing experience (and one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done).
They love it. Love love love it. But not the arithmetic, rather the logic and the patterns. When you take them through Euclid’s proof that primes are infinite their jaws drop, literally. They think it’s so cool. And it is! Getting them to see that is the whole reason I’m venturing into their classroom.
But – nothing like that is in the curriculum. Kids love sports and music in part because they see them done well and aspire to do the same. So they are prepared to learn the basics. The maths curriculum teaches the basics but makes little attempt to show kids the destination they’re trying to get to, the beauty of maths. Without that it’s very hard to inspire anyone.
I wonder where our Publicity machine PM is going to appear today? He obviously has lit upon the idea that, while people are at home on their annual holidays, is the best time to get in their faces with a slew of picfacs supported by penny ante indulgences given to one community group or another so as to enable him to get nice photos for his PR campaign.
It’s also as a result of this hyperactivity to begin the new year that I am predicting a federal election this year. Probably towards the end. As Turnbull was not averse to making Australians trudge to the polls, and candidates campaign, in the depths of Winter, I predict he will send us to a Summer election, called after the Footy Finals, and held before schools break up for the year and everyone goes away and switches off for the year. So, early December is my pick, before Cricket occupies us too much and Xmas shopping gets underway in earnest.
Suffice to say, the man doesn’t deserve to win another term in government. His ‘Talkin’ loud, saying nothing, doing not much more’ government is only interested in perpetuating greater Inequality in society, and this is the issue of our generation.
TallebudgeraLurker
Thank you.
Perhaps the fault is in the poster’s lack of maths skills. Placing of a decimal point? Irrelevant. 🙂
Andrew says:
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 8:06 am
For the last couple of years I’ve been going into my sons’ year 6 classrooms for an hour a week to teach some advanced maths to the stronger half of the class, and it’s been a revealing experience (and one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done).
They love it. Love love love it. But not the arithmetic, rather the logic and the patterns. When you take them through Euclid’s proof that primes are infinite their jaws drop, literally. They think it’s so cool. And it is! Getting them to see that is the whole reason I’m venturing into their classroom.
But – nothing like that is in the curriculum. Kids love sports and music in part because they see them done well and aspire to do the same. So they are prepared to learn the basics. The maths curriculum teaches the basics but makes little attempt to show kids the destination they’re trying to get to, the beauty of maths. Without that it’s very hard to inspire anyone.
You are doing a good thing, Andrew. I’ll bet they look forward to your entry into the classroom as the highlight of the week.
Andrew
Some good time ago I went along to a large school in Adelaide and spoke to all year 10 students about mathematics. What I did was to take their text book and use each chapter heading to draw out an understanding of how each principle is of use in work or life.
It’s all about context.
JohnWren1950: Given that the ONLY way our constitution can be changed is via a formal referendum, a non-binding non-compulsory postal survey on Australia becoming a Republic seems a collosal waste of time and money. Well done Turnbull, you buffoon. #auspol
Here we go again – the RW’s obsession with sex (I thought we had enough of that last year):
Maths is a tricky subject. It seems to me that most children get lost when the syllabus moves beyond arithmetic into the manipulation of symbols – basic algebra – around the beginning of high school. Most are able to muddle through, memorising theorem to pass exams, but never really gain any understanding beyond basic arithmetic. It’s not an intelligence thing, where only particularly talented children can make the leap. Anyone who bets at the racetrack, for example, has a basic grasp of probability theory.
A talented teacher needs to help the child make the leap from arithmetic into more advanced and abstract concepts so that they don’t get lost. Such teaching talent seems to be, while not exactly rare, to be very much at a premium. It needs to be cultivated and appropriately rewarded.
Don,
Algorithms are the backbones of google, facebook, Apple etc.
Here’s some info:
This article explains how Algorithms in the tech industry are powering it on to new applications:
https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/new-tech-industry-macro-trends
Yo also have what are known as ‘Algorithm Engineers’. The Wiki on it is good for understanding:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm_engineering
The Quora page is also informative:
An algorithm developer would create a new way of doing things, or a better way of doing things. To me this would be a branch of creative mathematics.
https://www.quora.com/What-does-an-algorithm-engineer-developer-do
Hope this helps answer your question. 🙂
RichardAOB: The fossil fuel industry in Australia receives the equivalent of more than 350,000 years worth of Newstart payments in annual subsidies.
Reading the above, I wonder how many bludgers are or were teachers?
Once I was in a group of 20 people bushwalking at Melrose (and other places) and decided to have dinner at the Melrose pub. Two tables of ten people each. Unbeknown to anyone, it turned out one table was made up entirely of people who had taught at some stage in their life and the other table comprised of people who had never taught.
ReclaimAnglesea: International tourists should have to prove driving skills to help cut road toll, MP says (The #LNP strategy for 2018 so far seems to be to be an attempt to distract voters away from the big issues. Hint @SHendersonMP – it’s not working #auspol #springst) mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-0…
https://twitter.com/reclaimanglesea/status/947942735037603840
Don
If we can put aside nastiness for a time, we could perhaps have a rational discussion about Maths teaching in schools.
It seems to me that there is in Maths a real place for on-line or computer based programs. After all LOGICALLY an on-line tutorial/workbook is no different to the workbooks we used in primary school – I recall something about Jane and Peter weeding a garden (ie breaking the course up into 8 sections). Even at the highest levels I really do not see the difference between a text book and an on-line course.
A GOOD on line course supervised by the classroom teacher could remove the need for the classroom teacher to be super familiar with the subject – they need only to supervise, keep order and record progress. Where kids are struggling then they could be referred to a more specialist teacher (ie one who passed year 12 Maths or University trained specialist at the higher levels).
Another much more controversial idea I have had for higher level Maths training, especially in smaller schools, is to hire “experts” who would team teach with a qualified pedagogue. So for example you might hire a retired Engineer to teach higher level maths at yr 11 and 12. They might only attend once or twice a week – seminar style but would work with another teacher who would be responsible for all the usual class room stuff. With luck the school teacher would learn from the specialist so that after a year or two they would have the skill set to teach the class unaided.
As far as I know things like this are the closest kids get to advanced maths nowadays
I use advanced maths very very loosely.
https://www.apple.com/au/swift/playgrounds/
BK: “… take their text book and use each chapter heading to draw out an understanding of how each principle is of use in work or life.
It’s all about context.”
This is true, but my point is that it takes people like you or me to stage an incursion into the classroom to point it out.
And it doesn’t just have to be about usefulness, abstract maths is just as enthralling to children if you explain it properly and don’t assume they can’t understand.
Thanks C@t, much appreciated.
This is great analysis William, thank you.
What will Abbott do this year I wonder.
‘The fact that we need reading programs at all in our schools is a sad indictment of the training our teacher education students receive in our university undergrad teacher training programs. Philosophically they have been swimming against the tide of research for over 40 years. It’s time they changed.’
And yet, over that period, we have had one of the highest standards for literacy in the world.
Which doesn’t mean I think the system is perfect. However, given the nature of children’s development, not all children will be in the same place at the same time. Unless one has infinite resources, enabling each child to be taught reading individually, some are going to be left behind.
I’m subjecting myself to a modern, up to date, hip type literacy course at the moment, specifically designed for at risk readers and run out of the University of London.
The philosophy behind it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny for more than a few minutes. In promoting phonics as the solution to everything, and labelling every student with reading difficulties as dyslexic (both seem to be ‘what you do’ atm) it inevitably contradicts itself – one minute students with dyslexia have intelligence similar to the normal spread of the population, the next they have poor memories. One minute it admits that phonics cannot solve the problems, then next it’s what you do to tackle them.
The bottom line is that English is one of the most complex languages in the world, because it pretends to be phonetic and it’s not. (Try pronouncing ‘Loughborough” for example, in a way that makes ‘phonetic’ sense).
I’m fast coming to the conclusion that we could save millions upon millions of dollars and similar amounts of teacher time if we made the giant step of making our language truly phonetic.
More seriously.
My solution would be do an aptitude test. Those with mathematics talent to be sent to selective schools that concentrate on mathematics as their core priority.
This is due to the lack of teachers available so give our best their best chance to contribute. Then over time we may see an increase in teachers available as more people available to mathematics.
Some people just don’t have math minds. They have linguistic and other skills.
If thereis any value to Naplan to me this is it.
Happy new year bludgers!
2017 was a tough one at chez LU, culminating with my FIL having a heart attack and emergency stent insertion last week – he seems fine now, but he’s only in his mid 60 which doesn’t bode well for the future. We’re hoping for an easier ride this year.
Regarding maths teaching: Don, BK, Andrew, etal, I agree what you are all saying.
DTT, the issue with online courses for maths is proof-of-work. I use online teaching modes in my university teaching, coupled with video and face-to-face lectures. It is good for delivering content, but I’m limited in how far I can push it as an assessment tool because I cannot tell if the student has actually done the task. So we are still using pen and paper in tutes and exams.
DTT: Your seminar model is more or less what I’ve been doing, and it’s worked great. The teacher at the parent information night at the start of the year hinted that she would love to have someone come in to do some advanced maths and I put my hand up. So it was a private initiative on her part, and although the school has been very supportive once it became clear the arrangement was working well, it wouldn’t have happened without a bit of luck at the start.
Online courses and textbooks are fine for kids who are already interested. But to spark interest in those who have discovered it for themselves, you need a person in the classroom who cares about the subject. (This is true for any subject – kids can sense sincere passion and they respond to it.)
TallebudgeraLurker @ #20 Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018 – 8:01 am
The cost of buying out one or more of the owners of the current Snowy Hydro scheme (Snowy 1.0) should not be conflated with the cost of building the new Snowy Hydro scheme (Snowy 2.0).
Andrew – you seem to be one of those teachers who can get children to make that critical leap.
The GG doing what Rupes’ papers do best. What a headline !
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/islamic-terrorism-myth-and-conspiracy-theory-build-augmented-reality/news-story/51cb67316bb78ccab063a16e8605df56
Kristina Keneally should gird her loins (whatever that means), bide her time , go back to sky news, re contest Bennelong and wait for the coming apocalypse. Would prefer her in the lower house.
KenMcAlpine: Having rediscovered Victoria yesterday, maybe the PM could send us some infrastructure funding for once? #springst twitter.com/ghostwhovotes/…
GhostWhoVotes: #Newspoll VIC Federal 2 Party Preferred: L/NP 46 (-1) ALP 54 (+1) #auspol