teaching Scout

Here is something that really sums up what I love about teaching. The man in the picture is a colleague of mine who has been teaching Technical for about 25 years. It is a fairly recent picture. When I first saw it I was struck by a few things.

The nature of teaching: collaboration is the key.

The fact that after 25 years teachers are still driven to help people learn.

The great practical and fun nature of my subject.

 Thanks to Stuart and John who made me come up with this picture and I would ask David Cain  , Nick Hood , Ant Jessop , Pat aka “loonyhiker” and of course Ian Stuart to come up with a picture that shows why you are passionate about what you do!

I have figured out (roughly) how to use Wordpress MultiUser and am about to introduce my high school to ‘blogging’. There seems a multitude of options and I know I have to focus it a little to get us started. I am interested in the notion of kids ”blogging about their “educational journey” until they graduate“  although am concerned that without careful thought, I may be in danger of “the abomination of “blogs as on-line diaries” (or)… “blogs as the new way to turn in homework” “.

My simple idea is this,  using the blog as a way to showcase pupil work and life in the Design and Technology Department/School.

Have it as ‘pupil-run’ as possible.

I like the idea of bringing other people into our learning. Stuart Meldrum posted this simple question a few months back as did Don Ledingham with his ‘Leadership Dilemas’ and both generated response related to their own learning. In a similiar way I would like to bring the learning of others into our classroom. On the otherhand, I don’t want the blog to turn into another method in which to hand out assignments.

I will leave it like that at the moment. Any bright ideas, or uses of technology would be greatly appreciated. Acceptable user policies? Best year group to start off with? What has been done to death? What becomes dull and boring? Why have you kept that blog in your feed reader? How can I engage the kids in putting their work/thoughts/learning online?

What do you like to look at when reading/interacting with a class blog?

I have just read “Birdsong” by Sebastian Faulks, and although a work of fiction, has really made me wake up and realise the absolute horror of war. 

When in fifth year at school, my English teacher introduced us to Wilfred Owen, which not only started an appreciation for poetry but quite simply a knowledge of things that are often not spoken about.  Although I may not be a History or an English teacher, I would encourage people to read this book. 

How many times have you heard ‘Aye, they did that 20 years ago, and then changed it and now they’re changing it back again”. Or “Yeh, it’s the next flavour of the month”.  I’ve only been a teacher for 10 weeks or so and I’ve heard it plenty. From a lot of different people. Different backgrounds. Different schools.

At our council CPD meetings the most people address us (the NQT’s) with the words “You are the future of teaching. You are young. You can make change happen”.

Change. It’s a big theme, and it’s not like it is new or is the flavour of the month. It is something that no-one can escape from. People 400 years ago were thinking pretty similar things to what you are thinking just now. Maybe in a different context, but essentially the same stuff. But turning to the voices of those cynics - why do it? “If its not broke, don’t fix it” Is education a series of cliches? Sometimes from my young eyes I feel that it could easily be if we let it. “Do you want a learning intention with that?” I heard that one in the staffroom. But I’m supposed to be part of something, the new blood, the teacher of the future. But how do I battle against the cynics? Why should it be a battle? Why do things seem to change so much? And why should they?

Even in this web2.0 arena which provides us with ‘tools’ that are coming out our ears, we seem to go through fads. I honestly hardly blog about all these technologies because I feel that by the time I blog it, it will be out of date and the next thing will have come along. In the same way (I am told) Education goes through fads. Does it? I seem to have started my career at the start of a God almighty changing point. AcFE, AifL, Sustainability, Citizenship, Health Promoting Schools, Enterprise. 

Could we all just not agree on something and stick to it? It would satisfy the cynics of change. But I know that this couldn’t be the case as education really is an evolutionary process. It needs to be diverse and different and suit the learner and teacher. So why, when I go to CPD, am I constantly told to incorporate a million different techniques and values into my lessons. I feel I should make up a checklist for myself: Enterprise, yes? Citizenship, yes? Use of technology, yes?

 I feel if you want us to be the ‘teachers of the future’ advise yes, but don’t suffocate.

“Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities. From a child’s verbal description of a snowflake, to the detailed scientific analysis of the properties of magnetic fields, the concept of structure is an essential foundation of nearly every mode of inquiry and discovery in science, philosophy, and art.”

I wonder what my S1’s will make of this?

Funny how education really is one of the most normal things in the world. Sometimes when you speak to teachers you get the impression that we should all be due some sort of royalty at the end of it. Over the past few weeks the normality of my job really has hit me. I’m not here to waltz into a classroom, produce some kind of fantastic all singing all dancing lesson that makes use of every technology under the sun and to be then congratulated by myself or others for my splendid efforts. Nope. I’ve realised that educating kids should be a largely normal process. I think the more that culture changes over the coming decades, where educators become used to the notion of simply trying new things and that change is just a natural process and shouldn’t be resisted, that there will be less people from the “I cannae dae that” camp. In the same respect, there will then be less kids from the “I cannae dae that” camp.

What I’ve learnt over the past couple of weeks is the truely humbling nature of my job. I’ve learnt that I thouroughly enjoy it! Often I am frustrated and really wish that I could manage that class better. Often, I find myself repeating discipline procedures and wondering if my actions are making a blind bit of difference to the kid who refuses to look at me when I’m talking to them A good few times I’ve thought despairingly “Oh God: This is it. Can I really do this for the rest of my life?”

But that is the point. It’s normal. And it is a reflection on the fact that education is as ordinary and essential as breathing. When I think of it this way, I feel grateful to be in a country where we have such an opportunity to make innovation  commonplace.

I hope that I can play my part!

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 am sitting at the kitchen table with my beautiful daughter, Renia, sleeping next to me in her wee bouncy chair. She was born on Sun 22nd July, 8lb 7oz.

I was waiting till after she was born and things had settled down to see if I was still feeling the same about starting school. Good news - I am. Still enthusiatic and full of daft ideas. I’m going to take two weeks of maternity at the start of term till we’re all back to normal.

 I’m only 24, have two beautiful kids, am going to start a job career that I want to do and my husband is going to quit his work to look after our wee family. I really hope that in a years time I can look back at this post with the same happy sentiment.