David Rogers

Here's a little challenge for the end of term.  Feel free to ignore, and don't feel that you have to share. 1. Get an image. Personal images are the best, although you don't have to star in them 2. Add two - three statements that capture what teaching means to you. 3. Share it. Or stick it up in your loo. Here's my effort from 2013:

Kind of linked to my  vision post  from yesterday is this one.  I've thought for a while that teaching is one of those activities where having a morale purpose, a set of principles if you will, are quite important. Back in 2011  I toyed with the idea of a personal manifesto. I guess it's the list of attributes I'd like colleagues to think of.  I doubt they do though! I revisited this  in 2013  where I wondered if others could develop and share their own manifestos. This approach is probably too simplistic (I am a simple bloke really), and it's really difficult to distil into a few lines.  It's probably far too pretentious. Nice mountain though. A couple of lines that have always appeared on job applications have included these questions, which I try to be driven by: // How does this make teaching and learning better? // How does this help adults make teaching and learning better? This has also attracted criticism and there are...

One piece of advice that I give to middle leaders and individuals, whether they are new to teaching or not, it to create a manifesto that reflects their style of teaching.  This is an exercise that I do with NQTs and trainees and it can often help set the sights.  It also creates something to reflect back upon. In April 2011 I created a rather crude personal manifesto.  It was an attempt to set out my core values. Looking back, there’s no real, overt mention of leadership.  No, I a subscriber to the view that we are all leaders as leadership operates at all scales from the personal to the organisational and beyond.  However, the third statement is linked to leadership. I should also probably add that everything should have a picture of me.  What can I say – all I can do is tell the stories that I have been involved with In terms of the department, each yeah we hold a curriculum development day.  One of the activities to to revisit, evaluat...