If only education could be like this...

I subscribe to a blog calls 1 to 1 Schools In the next few years the school that I work at will a 1 to 1 school. That is, each student will have their own laptop. In anticipation I am soaking up as much wisdom as I can from those who are already in 1 to 1 schools.

On the 1 to 1 blog there was a link to this video in which middle school students express their opinions about education.

Many of the wishes expressed by these students I am either implementing or working on implementing in my teaching practice.

There are two over-riding concerns that govern my thinking about my teaching practice.

1. First, As much as I am able I have to provide my students with a firm foundation for senior school mathematics
   
2. Second, I have to satisfy the assessment requirements of the educational culture in which I work.

Senior school teachers will (rightfully) expect their students to arrive in their classes with a requisite skills set and an understanding of the particular concepts that underpin the work that is about to be undertaken. There is no point providing my students with a rich mathematics education if they are not ready for the particulars of senior school. It is this very issue that has undermined middle school experiments here in Western Australia in the past. These experiments have failed to prepare students for the particulars of senior school. As such they have been seen as complete failures.

Good assessments are the key to a successful curriculum. Good assessments provide everyone with the feed back required: students, teachers, parents and the various governing bodies. Good assessments are assessments that can be trusted. At his point in our history the only assessments, in school mathematics, that are trusted by all stake-holders are pen and paper assessments performed by students on their own isolated from their peers.

So, don't give up on me, kids. I am working on it. I see things that you can't see yet. It's more complicated: there's more to it that just making it fun and engaging for you.

If the changes that you are seeking are going to be sustainable into the long term, then everyone involved in your education will have to be satisfied.

.... perhaps with the introduction of 1 laptop per child in our school in the coming years, we can move a little faster towards the kind of education that you say you are looking for.