David Rogers

I know that it’s a random title for a blog post, but I urge you to stick with me!  I grew up with Mint Sauce, the mountain biking sheep.  The cartoon strip was published each month in Mountain Biking UK.  Most months, the strip was thought provoking. The strip above sums up some frustrations that many have with education: many stand around and talk but very little actually gets done.  In other words: It’s about behaviour, not devices. It’s about learning, not tools. There’s also quite a depressing message developing at many events: Teachers are rubbish at their jobs and are failing our pupils.  There seems to be some mileage in saying how out of touch teachers are.  Now, we all know that in some cases this is true. But, we need to start recognising that change is happening…. With this context, I’m pleased to say that the conference organised by Northern Grid was full of educators sharing what they are doing to support learning.  In ad...

The first TeachMeet that we have organised here at Priory School is taking place on the 13th July between 5pm and 7pm.  We are happy for this to be fairly small in scale, but it would be great to get as many teachers as possible along. You can see who is coming already here . You can sign up using the Google Form here . We are using Google Docs so that we can encourage as many people as possible to come along : they are slightly easier than the wiki. The other exciting news is that some lovely sponsors have agreed to help toward some refreshments and presenter / attendee raffle prizes.   So, apart from getting lots of great teaching and learning ideas, there’s even more reason to come along ! More details of these to come but thank you so far to the following:

Here are some of the session details as promised.  The screencast below is not of the best quality, so expect it to be replaced as soon as I can get around to it.  I’ve posted it here now though so that readers can get the general gist. The session explored a number of naughty learning strategies within a secondary school context. All of these can be scaled according to your location. You could take the risky, whole school approach or create micro-naughtiness in your own classroom. 1. Matching music to locations / photographs or creating a soundtrack for a walk. This activity allows young people to explore how they feel about spaces and places.  Their descriptive and persuasive writing can be extended. It’s about the conversations around the selection of music rather than the act of listening that’s important. 2. Little Notices This is all about getting young people to communicate their feelings about space to wider audiences.  Mobile devices could be used ...

Big thanks to Ian Addison on this one! TeachMeet Hants is coming to Portsmouth.  For those of you not familiar with the TeachMeet format, the following video should help: The main thing is to come along to tell a story about learning adventures! This could just be by listening to those doing the talking, or chatting to the others that turn up. It would be great to see new (and old!) faces.  There’s no need to talk about technology, you could just tell a story about how you’ve used your school grounds, a new group activity, something slightly naughty even… The details that you need: When and Where? Priory School Specialist Sports College , Fawcett Road, Southsea, Portsmouth, PO4 0DL. Wednesday 13th July 5pm to 7pm. If you’d like to come along, whether it’s to listen or talk, there’s a Google Form for you to fill out. It’s also embedded below.  Sign up closes on the 1st July so that we can get out heads around the exact venue etc! All tweets e...

This is one of those messy, reflective posts…. I’m no stranger to looking into the abyss. It sounds like a clichéd No Fear t-shirt slogan, but life on the edge really is quite fun.  This week has been a particular roller coaster ride and one in which my core values have been challenged and my motivation for being ‘in’ education.  As well as a chance for me to reflect on the week (which is far from over!), I guess this is a message to leaders of education. I understand the need for long term plans, development plans, strategic visions, schemes of work and the like.  However, sometimes these constructions create well trodden paths.  Paths which sometimes mask well trodden routes and result in cultures where deviation from the norm aren’t encouraged.  Not because they are seen as evil, but because that’s what has always been done. Having no path is scary. It is also stressful, lonely and hard work.  From outdoor and school adventures I know that ...

This post is aimed at Year 10 students at Priory School.  Please remember that comments are moderated and student comments will not be published. Here are two resources that you would have seen in class.  Use them to plan at home. Data Collection Grid Data Collection Grid Guidance View more presentations from David Rogers . Data Presentation Data presentation Help View more presentations from David Rogers .

This post is aimed at Year 10 students at Priory School undertaking their Controlled Assessment project.  Please remember that comments are moderated and none that appear to be from students will be published. The Flickr set below contains a wide range of photographs taken in and around the study area.  Remember that you will gain more marks if you use your own images.  If you decide to use these images (or any others that are not your own) remember: Include a link / reference to the original location and credit the photographer. There are many images in the set. Not all of them will be relevant to your key questions or hypothesis.  Quite frankly, some of them are not much use at all. Remember that you gain marks for being able to select the best data for your work. The images have a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence.  Your teacher will explain to you what this means – but essentially you should acknowledge the source image (see a...