teaching Scout

I arrived in the nick of time as John Johnston was halfway through his presentation on scotedublogs. I thought it was a perfect introduction for the evening - an excellent insight.

 Terry Freedman showed us that if we want to contribute to the HUGE new “coming of age - an introduction to www” book, then head over to www.ictineducation.org. It is a print on demand project with profits going to a good cause. The first edition of this book was downloaded or read by 60,000 people. A big audience….?

Iain Stangers’ presentation really stood out. For me he showed us the COOLEST software around. dartfish allows you to edit and annote video really easily. You can do it, the kids can do it. You can create these ‘mediabooklets’ that the kids work on, annotating or editing the videoclip to their hearts content. In Technical Education, I had some immediate ideas… Iain talked about using it for internal assessment (kids can do voice over), peer assessment,  using it as record of achievment - he had the SQA approve this method of internal assessment. This would clearly be a good way of engaging those kids who hate writing out screeds of text . In the school I am in, the use of ICT in the classroom seems to be a key focus at the moment (eg HGIOS), I will defenitely be trying to persuade some people to get this used in the classrooms! I really enjoyed Iain’s presentation, although his software seemed to be playing up a bit, his enthusiasm and passion for what he was talking about, was very clear.

Next up, Ollie Bray. If I could some up Ollie’s point it was that really simple, small things can have the greatest impact on learners. I am sure he will put up his presentation on his blog if he hasn’t done already! Also if George W can use “the google” anyone can

David Gilmour talked about  replacing standard school websites with a weblog  and the effect on the parents. (in my opinion, surely as it is the parent who has the most effect on the child this was one of the most intsightful points of the evening) As David explained, the parents said: “we want to be involved in the school though we are really very busy. We will only get engaged if you can give me the information to get engaged in my kids class.” Weblogs anyone?

Out of the nanopresentations, Lee Carson made a fantastic point “You have a moral obligation to comment”. He was talking about his P7 class blog, and the simple need that the children had - to know that other people were interested in what they were doing. It struck me of the complete simplicity of all this “web2.0-ness”,  everyone, on all different levels and in all different ways, just want to be connected.

Dobee (doo be doo). These seemed cool. “Get those digital natives on board”

Nick Hood: Move over moodle and GET WITH THE WIKI! He went down the long road of using moodle and through his experience is encouraging us all to use wiki’s for collaborative learning. Will Glow stand up in comparison?

Andy Black. “I want to scare you to death” ummm - yup, he did! Andy was funny, enthusiatic, and had a clear message: “It’s not about the device, stupid”.

Alastair Thin gave an honest and interesting presentation about his “Martini media lectures” which was followed by Steve Beard who wanted to show us Second Life as an alternative learning environment.

And then it was over! I only looked at my watch once, when IslayIan said the bar was closed! I finally found out where AB is - sitting next to IslayIan I met Mr W, briefly, who gave me a ‘moo card’, very smart. I also saw John Johnston on the way out the door, though I’m sure not many people knew who I was

Hello to everyone who was there - it was a refreshing experience for someone like me who has so much to learn. I look forward to meeting and collaborating with you in the future.

A ”starter” with my first years. The question went “Choose three of the colours listed and write down any words that you associate with that colour”. Three minutes.

 They all completed this, I was then going to bring it together on the board using a mindmap. The rest of the lesson was to complete ‘mounting’ our wee freehand sketches of iPods.

Well I did bring it together, although this took 40 minutes. I hadn’t planned this of course, but what I thought would be a wee starter turned out to be the most diverse and rich conversation about colour theory. I didn’t think 1st years would manage 40 mins of whole class discuss, but they did. Idea after idea. Some were met with “whit?” but most were met with, “ahh”. I will post up their end result (which was huge) and you can explore the fascinating exploration 12 and 13 year olds had on just what colour can mean to them.

For me, once they had left I had a huge grin on my face as I had, well… managed to do my job!

Have just joined the scotedublogs page. Great! Also I am the only one from my council - East Ren. eeek - here I go ‘pioneering’ the way. lol, not really.

Though I think I should now add a disclaimer widget: “These views are suprisingly enough my own and not my employers”

I’m not really one for getting too involved in Education theories or thinking. Of course these have their places and when I read about Vygotskies ideas in 1st year they made a lot of sense but I have always felt there is a risk of practitioners getting too bogged down under the weight of too many pamphlets.

 When I read about the head of an Education Authority going round and visiting classes something clicked. For me it makes complete sense that the focus of debate in education remains firmly fixed around the classroom. The teaching and learning. It’s not just NQT’s and students who should get observed, it should really just become part and parcel of our classroom lifes. The NQT should feel happy going into a PT’s class to pick up some tips and vice versa. But is education ready for this? Would the majority of us be ready to welcome the ‘top dog’ with open arms into our classroom? Probably not, but that’s because we maybe view him as the top dog and not as another man who was once in the same position as I am now.

(This post was prompted by my first observed leeson this Thurday. Eeep.) 

Being an NQT there seems to be a million different things to do. From planning lessons (this seems to range from lessons that cover the basics and we just get through the work, to the few that I’ve managed to give more thought to and use more inventive approaches), interim reports, CPD, wider school life, department life. Gettting used to school policies, getting used to department procedures (in a technical dept there is a LOT of things). You get the picture.

I hope that as I start getting more into the swing of things my impressions won’t be so overwhelming and will settle in to normality. Though to be honest, I am starting to feel it already. The pupils are recognising me about the school and a few that I don’t know seem to know my name.

My intentions over the next wee while are really to get on top of my lessons. T o make sure that I don’t get comfy in ‘just getting though them’. I feel this could easily happen as the other areas of school life, all the bits and pieces which contribute  to the big picture. So in saying this, I guess it’s achieving the balance of making my lessons smart whilst easing the pressure of all the ‘other things’ by getting on top of organisation.

and the discipline issues I talked about before? I ‘m making progress - hopefully for the better.  

I’ve made it to the end of week 1. Phew! 

I’ve really realised what I’ve got ahead of me for the next year - one hell of a learning curve. At the moment it doesn’t really feel like a curve, more like a very steep slope. But, I’m determined to get up it.

I guess that being a new virtually non experienced teacher I am bound to be tested by the kids. No reputation precedes me, I am young, female and generally teaching boys (only a few girls in my middle school classes, some none at all). So far it has gone OK, though I feel that I may have a battle on my hands with a couple of classes. I strongly feel that to have a good learning environment I shouldn’t be entering into a class with a folder of punishment exercises at the ready but is it the case that at the start of a school year this is necessary to establish boundaries particularly as kids are VERY willing to push them?

A good few of my classes are highly enjoyable. The pupils have good rapport with each other and allow me the leeway needed to let my personality help with the teaching. When my personality is tempered and I have to enter into constant reprimands to keep pupils on track I feel that the whole learning process/pupil enjoyment is restricted.

Is it a stage that is necessary? Is it time or experience that will help me overcome this restrictive stage? Do experienced teachers have these classes where they have a battle on their hands? I am hoping that by establishing and maintaining decent conduct through the use of routines and procedures that these classes will ‘lighten up’. Though how long this will take I have no idea.