Skip to main content

Work experience for teachers–help needed

4861184303_162f6537f1_b

Working life as a teacher can be very solitary.  This leads to tunnel vision, or a one track mind.  We get comfortable and tend to oppose changes that would shift us.  It’s easy to lose the perspective that other schools and institutions can give.

In my role as Professional Tutor at Priory School in Portsmouth, my plan is to use a whole Inset day in June to allow every teacher to visit another school or institution.  The aim is to go out, visit and share.  Think of it as work experience for teachers. 

In order to pull this off I’ll need some help.  So, if you could accommodate a teacher or two at your school for the day (and I’m not limiting here – we are an 11-16 Secondary, but I’m more than happy to receive offers from all phases) it would be great to hear from you.  You may even be an educational business and fancy offering a place. Your location should be in and around Portsmouth, although all offers taken!

If you could, get in touch with me by:

 

 

Image from Flickr user eric_mauer and used under Creative Commons.

Comments

  1. Tim2 January 2013 at 16:57

    I'm probably too far away to help (Norfolk), but staff may have relatives in the area, so the offer is there.

    We've been doing something similar. All teachers were consulted at the start of the year as to whether they would be happy to cover colleagues if it meant that everyone would get a day out with their department to visit an outstanding school. Everyone was up for it and the project continues!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 
5 comments
Read more

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
4 comments
Read more

The danger of Teaching and Twitter conversations: poorly formed bipolar arguments.

Sometimes in life, there really are only two options.  Get the wrong one and you can look like a muppet.  Take this useful sign for the toilets in Morocco.  I successfully navigated it, choosing the right option.  The result? No egg on my face.  As a mountain leader, there are many right or wrong decisions that I’ve faced, as there are all over life.  It’s not a good idea to let inexperienced young people walk themselves down Snowdon.  They may die or be seriously injured.  If someone is showing the signs and symptoms of hyperthermia, you need to treat it fast in a specified way.  There is no real arguing with this sign: Other options are less obvious.  Take this sign recently spotted near to where I live: Now, I wouldn’t consider sleeping in a bin.  However, faced with a sub-zero night, I could see the appeal.  The danger? Being tipped into one of those huge lorries with a compactor. (by the way, I only really considered all of this thanks to questions from my four year old boy).
1 comment
Read more