Teachers need to see what other teachers are up to.

This is the third in a series of post reflecting upon the International Education Forum in Berlin last week. This time, I am going to reflect upon the opportunity to meet the best resource there: other teachers.

I have been to similar events to the IEF and one feature stood out: a lack of teachers. This wasn’t the case in Berlin and Microsoft and the organising team need to be applauded for that. When working with trainee and newly qualified teachers I always emphasise the observation of other teachers. I have also tried to encourage peer observation and team teaching (to varying degrees of success). My team are encouraged to watch me use a bit of kit, lesson idea before they jump in, or I’ll give them a hand. The point is that some areas of teaching have become fossilised. This has been caused by two linked items. The first is the culture of staying within the classroom – teachers are often isolated for most of the day from other adults and school structures often do not allow he flexibility for teachers to meet. Secondly, in my view, teachers are given too much independence in the CPD options and not enough of the ‘right’ investment in staff development is given.

At the IEF, there were almost 80 stands like the one above. Everyone manned by a teacher. Each of them enthusiastic about their project. Each of them innovators. Plus, as they were in the classroom, the could identify with the challenges faced. Don't get me wrong, I learnt a great deal from the keynote speakers and random conversations with people like Ollie Bray and Jim Wynn, but I learned the most from the other teachers there.

Teachers need to speak to other teachers from different contexts and personalise their CPD.

For example, I spoke first of all to the other projects that had used social media, then those that had successfully embedded technology….

This highlights one of the strengths of online communities: teacher-to-teacher networks are easily set up. I’ve thought for a while now that grand, keynote driven, workshop led face-to-face conferences are not working. This if for a number of reasons including budget, cover restraints, quality of the learning (e.g. keynote or workshop delivery). However, the main reason is that they usually have little impact when people get back to school. Also, as we are all a mixed ability group of learners, why aren’t we personalising our own learning? A Twitter network allows this to happen.

For example, to day I spotted a tweet from Tom Mclean:

Which led to me this post:

And this blog:

And so on……..

This personalised choice has helped me prepare a number of workshops for next week’s Geographical Association Annual Conference.

So, school leaders need to encourage and, more importantly, facilitate the opportunity for this continuous form of professional development. This should include internet cafe style places in schools where staff can access and get support (plus a lush cup of coffee;) I suppose it’s the ‘YouTube’ style delivery where everything is in a chunk of 10 minutes or less and where you are given recommendations of connected shows. You can also stop YouTube whenever you like if it’s not meeting your learning needs.

So, teacher to teacher sessions work, although I still do think that you need the odd, inspirational keynote ;-)

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey. As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others. Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up. I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions. From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment. From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die. How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach? Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment i...

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words...

Year 10 need your help! Can we get Twitter and Facebook in to a GCSE project?

I’ve been told that social media has no place in the classroom. Now, this post is not to battle that argument head on. Let’s smash it. This week, Year 10 are visiting Hengistbury Head . They are investigating whether this piece of coastline should be protected. They are wondering what you think? You may know the location well, you may not know it at all. But we’d like to hear from you all the same. This will either result in some usable data and comments, or not. Either way, we'll know and I’m sure that your comments will help spark discussion in class! What would Year 10 like me to do? Just simply comment on this post or tweet me, with an answer to this question: ‘Should Hengistubury Head be protected from the Sea? Just answer Yes or No and give a brief reason. It would also be useful if you could tell us whether you know the area or not. Many thanks in anticipation…… Image – my own.

David Rogers

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