Skip to main content

What am I up to at BETT? ( #BETT2013)

image

I’ve always had a bittersweet relationship with BETT.  Essentially, it’s a huge hall filled full of people trying to see you stuff.  However, if you get over this (mainly by pretending you aren’t a budget holder – most sellers soon leave you alone) there are some gems in terms of professional development. 

This year I’ll be doing my best to tell stories of guerrilla subversion; getting students to create school policy and getting teachers, students and artists together to co-create and team-teach lessons.

You can read my unofficial guerrilla guide to BETT here.  This is where I’ve put some sensible stuff….

Come along to our Learn Live session on the Friday to hear what we’ve been up to a Priory School.  The session details are here:

Mobile devices account for only 1.6% of negative behaviour incidents at Priory School since the introduction of its student written-mobile device policy. Listen to the story of how our Rights Respecting School empowered young people in order to create a mobile policy that has brought about a pedagogic revolution. You'll hear how 'Guerrilla' and 'Naughty' learning played a part in engaging the whole school and how a bench with a twitter hashtag got teachers talking about BYOD possibilities. Our policy was created by students and supported by professionals and has resulted in young people co-constructing lessons and co-teaching with staff.

Secondly, I’m very excited to be part of the Microsoft Team this year.  I’ll be speaking twice a day on their stand.  I want my talk to be as up-to-date as possible, so it’s not planned yet Winking smile.  I will be talking about mobile devices, BYOD and how to use freely available Microsoft Tools to create some pretty cool learning.

It would be great to mete up with you there.  Best to tweet me!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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.