Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

So, not the advertised topic. But I never was one to ask permission, but I wonder - what do we take back into classrooms and corridors?

Lots is written about how to change education, but very little actually helps anyone to achieve it. It's far too easy to wriggle out of good intentions and a sense of well being. There's a gulf between theory (and rhetoric) and practice. So how do we get to the other side?

So what is the main thing?

What is often needed is a plan. This helps maintain focus on the main thing (which is making teaching and learning better so that educational outcomes improve) whilst navigating the trenches of daily teaching. It helps avoid initiative fatigue. Whilst action plans take a while, they help sweat the small stuff. When I took over a Geography department, I knew that I wanted to transform the place and turn it into a national centre of excellence. I wanted to build the foundations upon clear and supportive schemes of work; ensure that expectations were as high as possible and that every lesson should be mega from lesson one of Year 7. Thing is, we needed to figure out and what this was. Writing a plan also make a commitment. (the actual plans are available for 2008-2011 and 2012 - you can see the difference between them which reflected the change in culture.)

It was listening to Eddy yesterday during the 6 Nations that I was reminded by the importance of the plan. I follow the format below.

If you visit the action plans, you'll notice that they were living documents. The job is too full of other busyness to do things for the sake of it.

To me, a detailed plan is what keeps me on the right road when distractions try to tempt or force me off track.

Another example would be the research bursaries in my school at the moment. It's far too tempting to just implement 'feedback' or 'metacognition' without any forethought or planning. Too many times have I read 'It's all about brain, buddy, book, boss' or 'visual strategies' without the evidence within the school itself.

One final example is how to plan the implementation from blogs, books and training - these can far too easily distract us from our main goals and the effect can be a rather haphazard approach to change that leaves people confused. I tend to consider each bit of new information within the context of current development plans - how would they add value? I also tend to ignore something if it's only from one source and am high sceptical of bandwagons, especially from the on-line world as it isn't representative of the real-world. Of course, plans cam be adapted, changed and enhanced, but whilst keeping the main thing the main thing. After each I reflect upon:

// What do I want to implement now?

// What's just background noise and won't fit into my style / plan / ambition?

// What one idea will I add to the plan?

This way, I come away and actually implement an idea - the rest is background.

I'm interested - how do you project manage change? Are plans important, or should we just wing it? What will you take away into the classroom tomorrow from this #digimeet?

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 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...

David Rogers

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