Looking toward 2011

It’s going to be a big year 2011 not withstanding the wedding of the year to look forward to in August (that’ll be mine, not our future King!), there are many exciting projects to look forward to. In previous year’s I have made a habit of publishing goals. In retrospect, these always seem either a little ambitious (nothing wrong with that) or aren’t completed. Another complicating factor is that I never really know where the year will lead, or what opportunities may present themselves. I remember being a teenager determined to spend all of his pennies in the holiday slot machines of our Tenby campsite, passing up the opportunity on the way to spend some time with two girls climbing. I soon learnt to take opportunities, although sometimes this can leave me spread a little too thin. As a consequence, this year I’m focusing on a small number of projects that are in addition to the normal . Here are some events and projects that I am looking forward to in 2011 (and in no particular order):

Meeting a target of climbing 18 Munro’s during the annual winter climbing trip to Scotland in February. Running and mountain biking along the local South Down’s has already started. All I have to do now is convince my other half that I really do need a new jacket…
Travelling to Iceland with the Geography department in April and our Eco-Challenge residential in the North Downs in March.
Further work with The Geography Collective – 2011 is going to be a big year for us with a number of events and projects due to come on line. This will include the launch of Mission:Explore books 2 and 3 and I believe a Scottish Road Trip. It’s worth subscribing to our blog to follow developments.
Attending the GA’s Annual Conference.
Continuing to move toward the acceptance of hand held technology in the classroom of our school and the use of third party websites and blogs in school – both for the time being are banned, blocked or busted.
Hearing all about my department colleagues Jo Debens’ trip to the European Innovative Education Forum in Moscow.
Working with the Atlantic Rising team in developing some teaching resources and further international links.
Discovering how Controlled Assessment will affect our GCSE results and whether we have interpreted the mark scheme correctly.

Celebrating the successes and helping some to overcome the disappointments of the (mostly) wonderful students. I won’t be travelling to BETT this year as our students have an examination on the 20th January so I’ll be running after school workshops and support sessions. we have almost 100 students completing GCSE Geography this year, a further 80 in Year 10 and 750 students at Key Stage 3.
Celebrating the successful completion of department colleague Lisa Whiting’s NQT year and continuing our work with Portsmouth University PGCE students.
The many networking opportunities that will be presented at various conferences and speaking events over the year.
Meeting the very good friends that make up the grooms party in Bristol to get suits fitted.
Leading the Secondary Phase Committee of the GA and tackling the challenges and changes ahead, some imposed, others fought for.
Finishing some writing projects – I do enjoy these as they either come from or directly influence classroom practice and department leadership.
Getting Leadership Pathways out of the way.
Working with a great group of teachers and students on a co-constructed enquiry day (5 days that is….)
Working with my lovely, dedicated and awesome Geography Department to write, change and tweak our curriculum (because, regardless of external pressure, the curriculum should never stand still) and generally have fun (in a school – a crazy concept I know!). I put this last as they are less likely to see me giving them praise

And most of all, I’m looking forward to finding out where and to whom the adventure ahead will lead!

High Impact, Low effort

This month is the start of the #29daysofwriting challenge. I enjoyed this last year and will be using my Staffrm account to post. I'll also be reporting here, both to give a little more detail and to keep a log of what I have written. The challenge developed a great sense of community last year, which is why I'm choosing to write on Staffrm. What I would say to those who are new to writing or don't want to run out of ideas is: Write for yourself. Clarify an idea, write something out loud. The process of distilling thoughts into writing is immensely beneficial to your practice. If other read, comment and respond, that's a bonus. Ignore the muppets who know nothing of your context, style or students. Mix it up - I like to read about real stuff from real classrooms and schools and also about other stuff. If we always write about school, how does that work for workload? If you've nothing nice to say, don't say it. So, the following has been

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 is not always conducive to profound

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

JDebens3 January 2011 at 15:25
Some great things to look forward to - afraid you were caught out with complimenting your department though! And another classic photo makes it to the blog!
David Rogers4 January 2011 at 19:37
Thank you Jo - I do work within a great team :-)

Ollie - I deleted your comment by accident but thank you for your kind words :-)

David Rogers

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