David Rogers

Well before Christmas, Sally Gunnell visited the school to give a talk at the start of an Inset day.  The session provided much to think about and mull over. I’m not one to tell others what to think of a session, I’d rather assume that they are able to figure that out.  As I lead on feedback at the moment, below is a summary of what I got out of the session.  There may even be some practical value: 1. Set dream goals. Setting goals is really important for feedback to happen.  Sally set her sight son Olympic Gold and a failure to get into the Olympic team at 18 cemented this.  In schools this would mean not setting mediocre targets and not allowing students to achieve what is expected of them but to go further. In addition, without a goal it’s just not possible to figure out how to get there.  2. Value negative feedback. There is no way to improve without acknowledging and dealing with failure.  Failure should be encouraged in classrooms. Te...

Alan Parkinson came up with the Landscape in a box idea a while back.  So, when I had a two week stint as a juror at the start of 2014, I set the task as homework.  I’ve picked a couple examples to show here as they demonstrate a different slant  and were totally generated by young people.  I’m not creative enough for this!  This is also a demonstration of how a teacher can use a mobile device to capture and celebrate creativity and learning. Enjoy these two examples, I have an office full of these beauties! Cave in a box: The development of Dubai: This post is also handy as I know what I’m on about with geography, unlike my previous post about other stuff!

I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been struggling lately.  Questioning my competence and ability to be part of life in schools.  That’s why I haven’t posted here in a while: in fear of being ousted as an imposter or found out as a fraud. This was a strange feeling. I’ve faced and overcome huge challenges before, both professional and personal.  Although I can be an instinctive leader and can be quite impulsive at times, I have a bomber record of making an impact.  I would even consider myself visionary at times when the wind is blowing the right way. I’ve compared teachers to priests in the past and the past few months have been a test of my resolve.  It took watching the Lego Movie to really snap me out of it.  Trouble is, I’ve been trying to follow the instructions instead of thinking creatively.  In a serendipitous coincidence, Deputy John , John Tomsett   and David Didau have recently written posts that convinced me that I’m not a stark r...