Saturday, 28 April 2012
Learning from Experience
I had my 1st interview for an Assistant Head post this week and it was my first real interview for anything in 12 years - and it has been a long time since I played this game. I won't find out the result until early next week but I am not hopeful. The day wasn't a disaster but I know I didn't do as well as I could have. I am disappointed about this because I really liked the school and felt that I could do a good job there.
The experience has made me realise that I do want to be an Assistant Head - something I have fought against for a long time. I do believe I have something to offer School Leadership because I am passionate about teaching and learning being the 1st and last priority in schools.
I have also learned from this experience that I need to prepare more thoroughly for interviews and spend more time planning how to answer interview questions. Whilst most of the day went well, I wasn't happy with how I performed in the final interview. I tended to answer questions too quickly without really thinking them through and not explain my thoughts in enough detail.
I am determined to learn from this experience. I have tried to write down every question I can remember being asked so I can start to build up a bank of them and will continue to apply for jobs - but I do now fully realise j it's how much I am going I have to raise my game.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Recreating the Past
Oops - suddenly realised I just went through the whole of January without blogging. Sorry - been a busy month.
The real highlight of this month was undoubtedly a workshop I was involved in for Yr 11 GCSE History students. They are just starting the OCR Depth Study Unit on Britain 1890-1918 - the Paper 2 unit which they often find difficult to get into. I think they find it hard to switch mentally from focussing on black civil rights in the USA to going right back to the beginning of the Twentieth Century. As this unit also involves using evidence, it seems to add an extra layer of difficulty.
I had decided to put together a workshop which would give students a real sense of time and place of what it was like to live in Britain as it moved into the Twentieth Century. I enlisted the help of 2 good friends that I had really enjoyed working with in the past: Tracey Clowes, Outreach Officer at the RCM in Truro and Chloe Phillips, Learning Officer for Cornwall Records Office. We worked together on the Civil War project last year and I know how brilliant they both are to work with.
Over the course of several meetings we put together a 2 hour experience which took them from 1891 to the outbreak of the Great War. Tracey got the workshop off to a great start by recreating a Victorian classroom and getting the students to play along with a 20-minute lesson including writing on slates, mental maths with pre-decimal money, inspection of hands and nails and even a singing lesson. The students quickly got into role and many of them were happy to dress up. Chloe had scoured school log-books to find some brilliant excuses for missing school which students read out as we did the register - my particular favourite was the boy who took a day off because a man in the village had just bought a car for the 1st time and he had to go and see it.
Chloe then took over and put the students into families by giving each of them a name and they then had to study extracts from the census to find out where they lived and who with. The fact that they were genuine entries from Liskeard really mattered to the students who were able to locate where some of the places were. Tracey had brought a huge number of artefacts along and students chose things which they thought their "family" would have used. To me, this was the best part of the day as students gathered informally around objects, investigating them, picking them up and asking questions about them - real hands-on history.
Chloe then produced some fantastic documents which showed early 20th Century solutions to problems such as old age, poverty and unmarried mothers - students were shocked to find out how easy it seemed to be to find themselves
in Bodmin Asylum.
We then looked at the impact on Cornwall of the Great War - again with some brilliant documents from Chloe from which students listed the huge number of changes they could see recorded in the documents. The session finished with the students creating their own army recruitment posters posing in costume for photographs.
We ran the session 3 times - each time the students were totally engaged and came away inspired. The evaluations from the students were stunning - you know you are doing something right when the only criticism was that it should have been longer.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. To me this is what teaching History should be: students recreating a sense of the past, using genuine artefacts and documents and given the freedom to ask their own questions. It also proved the value of using outside experts to give students access to another voice. The great shame is that these opportunities are likely to become more difficult to set up. A few days after this event I learned that my AST role ends this year and restructuring at the RCM means this is probably Tracey's last outreach experience. We have to find a way to keep doing stuff like this. Education should be about creating special moments in young people's lives that inspire and excite them and give them something to remember for years to come.
The real highlight of this month was undoubtedly a workshop I was involved in for Yr 11 GCSE History students. They are just starting the OCR Depth Study Unit on Britain 1890-1918 - the Paper 2 unit which they often find difficult to get into. I think they find it hard to switch mentally from focussing on black civil rights in the USA to going right back to the beginning of the Twentieth Century. As this unit also involves using evidence, it seems to add an extra layer of difficulty.
I had decided to put together a workshop which would give students a real sense of time and place of what it was like to live in Britain as it moved into the Twentieth Century. I enlisted the help of 2 good friends that I had really enjoyed working with in the past: Tracey Clowes, Outreach Officer at the RCM in Truro and Chloe Phillips, Learning Officer for Cornwall Records Office. We worked together on the Civil War project last year and I know how brilliant they both are to work with.
Over the course of several meetings we put together a 2 hour experience which took them from 1891 to the outbreak of the Great War. Tracey got the workshop off to a great start by recreating a Victorian classroom and getting the students to play along with a 20-minute lesson including writing on slates, mental maths with pre-decimal money, inspection of hands and nails and even a singing lesson. The students quickly got into role and many of them were happy to dress up. Chloe had scoured school log-books to find some brilliant excuses for missing school which students read out as we did the register - my particular favourite was the boy who took a day off because a man in the village had just bought a car for the 1st time and he had to go and see it.
Chloe then took over and put the students into families by giving each of them a name and they then had to study extracts from the census to find out where they lived and who with. The fact that they were genuine entries from Liskeard really mattered to the students who were able to locate where some of the places were. Tracey had brought a huge number of artefacts along and students chose things which they thought their "family" would have used. To me, this was the best part of the day as students gathered informally around objects, investigating them, picking them up and asking questions about them - real hands-on history.
Chloe then produced some fantastic documents which showed early 20th Century solutions to problems such as old age, poverty and unmarried mothers - students were shocked to find out how easy it seemed to be to find themselves
in Bodmin Asylum.
We then looked at the impact on Cornwall of the Great War - again with some brilliant documents from Chloe from which students listed the huge number of changes they could see recorded in the documents. The session finished with the students creating their own army recruitment posters posing in costume for photographs.
We ran the session 3 times - each time the students were totally engaged and came away inspired. The evaluations from the students were stunning - you know you are doing something right when the only criticism was that it should have been longer.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. To me this is what teaching History should be: students recreating a sense of the past, using genuine artefacts and documents and given the freedom to ask their own questions. It also proved the value of using outside experts to give students access to another voice. The great shame is that these opportunities are likely to become more difficult to set up. A few days after this event I learned that my AST role ends this year and restructuring at the RCM means this is probably Tracey's last outreach experience. We have to find a way to keep doing stuff like this. Education should be about creating special moments in young people's lives that inspire and excite them and give them something to remember for years to come.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Getting Better
And so this is my last blog of 2011 and a chance for me to look back over the last 12 months and think ahead to the future.
Right now I cannot believe that this time last year I didn't blog, tweet or use Facebook. I didn't have an IPhone, had never heard of Edmodo or Plannerlive and had no idea what a Teachmeet was. All of these things have significantly changed how I live, spend my time and influence what I do in the classroom. They have brought me back in touch with some old friends and linked me up with some fantastic people that I would never have come into contact with in any other way. Perhaps most importantly it has reawakened my love of teaching and reinvigorated what I do. My 1st Teachmeet came along at exactly the right time for me and gave me a renewed level of enthusiasm.
Other highlights of the last 12 months have to include Magic School as part of Challenge Week. In those 5 days I saw some of the most inspirational learning of my career. It was a pleasure to be part of and I can't wait for next year's event which promises to be even bigger and better.
So - what's next for the next 12 months. Some things I want to do include continue to experiment with new technology in the classroom. I have felt like I am back at the cutting edge again and want to stay there. Twitter in particular will help with this. I am very interested in 'flipping the classroom' which I have read about on a few American blogs. I think we are closer to doing this already than some schools and need to find a group to try this out on - Edmodo looks like it could be a great tool for this.
I want to pay more attention to detail from now on. I tend to be very good at big, bold ideas but not so hot on the nitty gritty and detail. This is something I will work on. This includes being more organised and tidier and making better use of time by identifying specific periods of time in the day to work in and prioritising what to do. I will also aim to do the most difficult and least appealing jobs (OK - so I mean marking) first.
I know that I am really good at entertaining and motivating students. They like being in my room and enjoy the lessons. I believe that they are learning many important things including a bit of History. But my exam results have not been great in the last couple of years - and whilst they are not the only measure of success I want my students this year to achieve better. Partly for them and, if I am honest, partly for me to vindicate my methods and my approach. This year I will look very hard at the best ways to prepare my kids for success.
I suspect there will be big changes ahead for me this year. It looks like the AST wagon is finally going to run out of steam and will be replaced by something else and I don't know where that will leave me. The new Master Teacher proposals are too vague at the moment to know whether this is what I want to do. This will also be the end of my 12th year at my current school and my beloved tutor group will leave - maybe it is time to look for somewhere else. What I am going to focus on is being positive - there have been lots of ups and downs this year and there will be more of both ahead but I want to keep smiling and keep looking at the positive in everything. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Thanks to everyone who read any of this stuff in 2011 and particularly those of you who have been kind enough to comment - your words have been a source of inspiration. Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for 2012.
A few specific goals for 2012:
Reach 2,500 Tweets sent
Get to 500 Followers
Post 35 blogs in 2012
Post 1 photo online every day of 2012
Perform 5 acts of kindness every day of 2012
Right now I cannot believe that this time last year I didn't blog, tweet or use Facebook. I didn't have an IPhone, had never heard of Edmodo or Plannerlive and had no idea what a Teachmeet was. All of these things have significantly changed how I live, spend my time and influence what I do in the classroom. They have brought me back in touch with some old friends and linked me up with some fantastic people that I would never have come into contact with in any other way. Perhaps most importantly it has reawakened my love of teaching and reinvigorated what I do. My 1st Teachmeet came along at exactly the right time for me and gave me a renewed level of enthusiasm.
Other highlights of the last 12 months have to include Magic School as part of Challenge Week. In those 5 days I saw some of the most inspirational learning of my career. It was a pleasure to be part of and I can't wait for next year's event which promises to be even bigger and better.
So - what's next for the next 12 months. Some things I want to do include continue to experiment with new technology in the classroom. I have felt like I am back at the cutting edge again and want to stay there. Twitter in particular will help with this. I am very interested in 'flipping the classroom' which I have read about on a few American blogs. I think we are closer to doing this already than some schools and need to find a group to try this out on - Edmodo looks like it could be a great tool for this.
I want to pay more attention to detail from now on. I tend to be very good at big, bold ideas but not so hot on the nitty gritty and detail. This is something I will work on. This includes being more organised and tidier and making better use of time by identifying specific periods of time in the day to work in and prioritising what to do. I will also aim to do the most difficult and least appealing jobs (OK - so I mean marking) first.
I know that I am really good at entertaining and motivating students. They like being in my room and enjoy the lessons. I believe that they are learning many important things including a bit of History. But my exam results have not been great in the last couple of years - and whilst they are not the only measure of success I want my students this year to achieve better. Partly for them and, if I am honest, partly for me to vindicate my methods and my approach. This year I will look very hard at the best ways to prepare my kids for success.
I suspect there will be big changes ahead for me this year. It looks like the AST wagon is finally going to run out of steam and will be replaced by something else and I don't know where that will leave me. The new Master Teacher proposals are too vague at the moment to know whether this is what I want to do. This will also be the end of my 12th year at my current school and my beloved tutor group will leave - maybe it is time to look for somewhere else. What I am going to focus on is being positive - there have been lots of ups and downs this year and there will be more of both ahead but I want to keep smiling and keep looking at the positive in everything. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Thanks to everyone who read any of this stuff in 2011 and particularly those of you who have been kind enough to comment - your words have been a source of inspiration. Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for 2012.
A few specific goals for 2012:
Reach 2,500 Tweets sent
Get to 500 Followers
Post 35 blogs in 2012
Post 1 photo online every day of 2012
Perform 5 acts of kindness every day of 2012
Monday, 14 November 2011
I Believe in Learning Styles
I did a session tonight as part of a staff meeting on Learning Styles. It does seem to me that it has become a little unfashionable recently to look at VAKD and learning styles and accept its' validity as a model. I have to say that I still like the model and genuinely believes that it goes a long way towards explaining how each of us processes information, learns and remembers.
I have quite happily nailed my colours to the mast of NLP a long time ago and VAKD is a core part of NLP. It certainly explains how I think - I am predominantly a visual and digital learner. I think in pictures. I plan lessons by visualising what I see happening in the room, what the work the kids will do will look like, the images I will use on the board, what they will look like when they are working. I remember in pictures. My memory works like a film and I remember what things looked like. I make sense of information in my own head and need space to work things through. I am very aware of the voice in my head and talk to myself a lot. I rarely use sound, voices and discussion to make sense of things - I am not a strong auditory learner.
I think part of the problem is that VAKD was hijacked by companies and people who wanted to simplify it to make it easier to market and sell. So we get lots of simple questionnaires, charts and labels which mean nothing. One of the keypoints I push with students is to take more notice of your weakest learning style and not your strongest. If the teacher is predominantly using your weakest learning style you will struggle to understand what is going on.
I think Learning Styles strengthens students and builds confidence. It helps students to be aware of what they are best of and understand why they find some things more difficult - it's not because they are thick, they just need to approach it in a different way and be encouraged to by their teachers.
VAKD is a model - as such it is not intended to be perfect and all-encompassing. It has it's faults but also lots of strengths too and I will stick with it for a while until a better model comes along
I have quite happily nailed my colours to the mast of NLP a long time ago and VAKD is a core part of NLP. It certainly explains how I think - I am predominantly a visual and digital learner. I think in pictures. I plan lessons by visualising what I see happening in the room, what the work the kids will do will look like, the images I will use on the board, what they will look like when they are working. I remember in pictures. My memory works like a film and I remember what things looked like. I make sense of information in my own head and need space to work things through. I am very aware of the voice in my head and talk to myself a lot. I rarely use sound, voices and discussion to make sense of things - I am not a strong auditory learner.
I think part of the problem is that VAKD was hijacked by companies and people who wanted to simplify it to make it easier to market and sell. So we get lots of simple questionnaires, charts and labels which mean nothing. One of the keypoints I push with students is to take more notice of your weakest learning style and not your strongest. If the teacher is predominantly using your weakest learning style you will struggle to understand what is going on.
I think Learning Styles strengthens students and builds confidence. It helps students to be aware of what they are best of and understand why they find some things more difficult - it's not because they are thick, they just need to approach it in a different way and be encouraged to by their teachers.
VAKD is a model - as such it is not intended to be perfect and all-encompassing. It has it's faults but also lots of strengths too and I will stick with it for a while until a better model comes along
Monday, 31 October 2011
Pace in the lesson
Today was the first day back after half-term and was an INSET day. I had been asked to run a session on Pace, Progress and Active Learning. I have to admit I do enjoy delivering INSET sessions - they make me raise my game because I still get really nervous before each one but they are a great opportunity to show off what you have been doing. I was also quite pleased to be asked to do this session as I do believe that setting and maintaining a brisk pace in lessons is something which I do quite well. I delivered the same 50-minute session 3 times this morning to 3 different groups. What was really interesting was the different reactions from each group - they were all positive but in different ways. In this blog I thought I would like to put in some of the stuff I did in the session and add in some extra thoughts.
When I was putting the session together I thought about what my key principles are in planning lessons and how they help me to put together pacy, active lessons. Here they are:
1. Plan the lesson properly
I have been teaching for over 20 years and I still plan every lesson I teach. Whilst I have had the occasional good unplanned lesson and the planned lesson that went totally wrong - almost all of my terrible lessons have been because I didn't plan it properly. Planning is the one thing I never compromise on - even if it does mean some very late nights.
2. Concentration span
I know some esteemed educationalists have criticised this idea and I know that it is not strictly true and that lots of things affect concentration but - I like the idea that concentration span is age in minutes + 2 minutes. As a rule of thumb I think it works very well and I plan my lessons in blocks of 15-20 minutes. If kids have been doing something for 20 minutes - there needs to be a really good reason why they haven't moved to something else. Often I will do a quick break-state activity or simply make them move to sit somewhere else just to refocus concentration.
3. Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Digital thinking styles
Again, I know it has become fashionable to ridicule learning styles and deny their existence - but I like them. I have done a lot of research into this and I am an NLP Practitioner and I do believe that we all use these representational systems to process information. I do believe that we all have the ability to use each of the systems but have a preference for one or more of them and, more importantly, one we are less likely to use. I do therefore plan every lesson with these things in mind. There is always a Visual element - a picture or image to hook some students in. There is always an Auditory element - an opportunity for those kids who think out loud to express their thoughts. There is always a Kinaesthetic element - an opportunity for movement but also to connect emotionally. There is always a Digital element - time for students to make sense of information in their own heads. Juggling all these elements helps to create pace in the lesson. A Kinaesthetic activity is often followed by a Digital one - movement, discussion and activity followed by a period of quiet processing and reflecting.
4. Movement in lessons
I have a general rule that no kid will finish the lesson sitting in the chair they started in. I don't have seating plans because they are obsolete 10 minutes into the lesson. Sometimes I will move them to help them think differently. Having just spent some time looking at the advantages of something, move seats to look at the disadvantages. Some kids find it easier to move mentally if it is accompanied by a physical move.
5. Time Team Task
When I was training to be a teacher, one of my tutors was the late, great Mike Hayhoe who tried, in vain, to turn me into an English teacher. The one thing he did drill into me was TTT - so much so that I do it without even thinking about it now. Every instruction I give the kids is based on Time - tell them how long they have to do it exactly; Team - how they are working - individually, pairs, groups; Task - exactly what they are doing. Like most of what Mike Hayhoe taught me - brilliantly simple. Keep reminding them of the time - nothing helps pace quite like a countdown.
So that is me and pace - hope it was of interest. Putting together the INSET session certainly helped me to reflect on what I do and why I do it.
This is the Learning Journey for my INSET session today:
When I was putting the session together I thought about what my key principles are in planning lessons and how they help me to put together pacy, active lessons. Here they are:
1. Plan the lesson properly
I have been teaching for over 20 years and I still plan every lesson I teach. Whilst I have had the occasional good unplanned lesson and the planned lesson that went totally wrong - almost all of my terrible lessons have been because I didn't plan it properly. Planning is the one thing I never compromise on - even if it does mean some very late nights.
2. Concentration span
I know some esteemed educationalists have criticised this idea and I know that it is not strictly true and that lots of things affect concentration but - I like the idea that concentration span is age in minutes + 2 minutes. As a rule of thumb I think it works very well and I plan my lessons in blocks of 15-20 minutes. If kids have been doing something for 20 minutes - there needs to be a really good reason why they haven't moved to something else. Often I will do a quick break-state activity or simply make them move to sit somewhere else just to refocus concentration.
3. Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Digital thinking styles
Again, I know it has become fashionable to ridicule learning styles and deny their existence - but I like them. I have done a lot of research into this and I am an NLP Practitioner and I do believe that we all use these representational systems to process information. I do believe that we all have the ability to use each of the systems but have a preference for one or more of them and, more importantly, one we are less likely to use. I do therefore plan every lesson with these things in mind. There is always a Visual element - a picture or image to hook some students in. There is always an Auditory element - an opportunity for those kids who think out loud to express their thoughts. There is always a Kinaesthetic element - an opportunity for movement but also to connect emotionally. There is always a Digital element - time for students to make sense of information in their own heads. Juggling all these elements helps to create pace in the lesson. A Kinaesthetic activity is often followed by a Digital one - movement, discussion and activity followed by a period of quiet processing and reflecting.
4. Movement in lessons
I have a general rule that no kid will finish the lesson sitting in the chair they started in. I don't have seating plans because they are obsolete 10 minutes into the lesson. Sometimes I will move them to help them think differently. Having just spent some time looking at the advantages of something, move seats to look at the disadvantages. Some kids find it easier to move mentally if it is accompanied by a physical move.
5. Time Team Task
When I was training to be a teacher, one of my tutors was the late, great Mike Hayhoe who tried, in vain, to turn me into an English teacher. The one thing he did drill into me was TTT - so much so that I do it without even thinking about it now. Every instruction I give the kids is based on Time - tell them how long they have to do it exactly; Team - how they are working - individually, pairs, groups; Task - exactly what they are doing. Like most of what Mike Hayhoe taught me - brilliantly simple. Keep reminding them of the time - nothing helps pace quite like a countdown.
So that is me and pace - hope it was of interest. Putting together the INSET session certainly helped me to reflect on what I do and why I do it.
This is the Learning Journey for my INSET session today:
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Half Term Review
So - we got to half-term. I have to admit I have really enjoyed this half-term. It has been frantic at times and I can't believe where the time has gone but overall it has been great. I really like all the groups I am working with this year and have loved the new school day with tutors delivering PSHE - I love my tutor group and it is great to work with them, and making me a little sad as they are Year 11 and I don't want them to leave.
At the beginning of term I set myself some targets and thought it might be worth having a look at how I have got on so far.
1. Use lots of new technology.
Lots of work with edmodo this term and got more teachers trying it out. Just set up a new edmodo group for revision - the hope is to get all of Yr 11 onto it in the next half-term and use it as the 1st step for students to get revision advice. Ideally they will start giving each other advice
2. Audioboo lessons - did lesson reviews for most GCSE lessons but haven't done quite as many as I would like. Still having a bit of a problem persuading school to unfilter audioboo. I have used it with great effect with classes to record audio presentations. Yr11 did some brilliant analysis of what The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has to say about civil rights, Yr 7 told some great versions of the Robin Hood legends and Yr 8 were hilarious reporting on the Shocking State of the English Church in 1540. Recording on the iPhone was really quick and easy and helped to focus the kids and led to them raising their game. Have a listen at http://audioboo.fm/JohnGolding
3. Learn names quickly - OK so not so good but probably not a few more than normally at this stage of the year
4. Be more organised - surprisingly yes. My classroom -and desk- are still tidy, my folder is up to date and a couple of cool apps have really helped - Evernote has made virtually paperless in all meetings and AwesomeNote is brilliant
5. Provide better feedback - following OFSTED our school has been told to do more marking and provide better feedback but I wanted to do more myself anyway. I have certainly marked far more often and more rigorously. We have gone back to weekly homeworks and as I was one of the people pushing for that I did feel that I had to make sure I was marking it all. The truth is that marking regularly does become easier - there is less to do each week and it does help you to get to know the kids you teach better. It does allow you to get a glimpse into how they are thinking and whether any of the stuff you have been doing in lessons has worked. Mind you - still marking at 9.30 at night is not fun
6. Keep positive - been tested a few times but generally I feel much happier. I have now realised that I am genuinely happy as a classroom teacher and that I honestly don't want to be anything else. Yes some of the crazy decisions SLT make drive me mad and our school seems to love creating more bureaucracy - but I am trying to rise above it
7. Take risks - as always no problem. Big find this term has been Learning Journeys - best idea I have come across in years
8. And finally...blog - and again yes - every fortnight and had a great response on Twitter and Google + from the last one
So I am really pleased so far. Determined to have a good rest this week, recharge the batteries and get ready for next half-term. I always think this is where the real work starts. The groups have settled down, we have started to get used to each other and now we can focus on some great learning.
Have a brilliant half-term everyone
At the beginning of term I set myself some targets and thought it might be worth having a look at how I have got on so far.
1. Use lots of new technology.
Lots of work with edmodo this term and got more teachers trying it out. Just set up a new edmodo group for revision - the hope is to get all of Yr 11 onto it in the next half-term and use it as the 1st step for students to get revision advice. Ideally they will start giving each other advice
2. Audioboo lessons - did lesson reviews for most GCSE lessons but haven't done quite as many as I would like. Still having a bit of a problem persuading school to unfilter audioboo. I have used it with great effect with classes to record audio presentations. Yr11 did some brilliant analysis of what The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has to say about civil rights, Yr 7 told some great versions of the Robin Hood legends and Yr 8 were hilarious reporting on the Shocking State of the English Church in 1540. Recording on the iPhone was really quick and easy and helped to focus the kids and led to them raising their game. Have a listen at http://audioboo.fm/JohnGolding
3. Learn names quickly - OK so not so good but probably not a few more than normally at this stage of the year
4. Be more organised - surprisingly yes. My classroom -and desk- are still tidy, my folder is up to date and a couple of cool apps have really helped - Evernote has made virtually paperless in all meetings and AwesomeNote is brilliant
6. Keep positive - been tested a few times but generally I feel much happier. I have now realised that I am genuinely happy as a classroom teacher and that I honestly don't want to be anything else. Yes some of the crazy decisions SLT make drive me mad and our school seems to love creating more bureaucracy - but I am trying to rise above it
7. Take risks - as always no problem. Big find this term has been Learning Journeys - best idea I have come across in years
8. And finally...blog - and again yes - every fortnight and had a great response on Twitter and Google + from the last one
So I am really pleased so far. Determined to have a good rest this week, recharge the batteries and get ready for next half-term. I always think this is where the real work starts. The groups have settled down, we have started to get used to each other and now we can focus on some great learning.
Have a brilliant half-term everyone
Sunday, 9 October 2011
I hate Learning Objectives...and love Learning Journeys
At last I can come clean and say it - "I hate Learning Objectives. I never use and I have never used them". That was such a relief. For years I have hated being told that unless Learning Objectives are up on the board my lessons cannot be "outstanding". This is totally crap - and 6 of my last 7 lesson observations were graded as outstanding even though there were no Learning Objectives on display. I hate Learning Objectives because I don't believe they do a damned thing to promote learning in the classroom - in fact I think they can actively block learning for the following reasons:
1. It is incredibly arrogant of us to believe that simply by saying what they are going to learn - they will learn it.
2. The Learning Objective takes away all the mystery from the lesson. Who in their right mind gives away their biggest and best secret at the start? Did Agatha Christie reveal the killer in the first paragraph? Did Hitchcock show you Norman Bates' mother in the first 5 minutes of Psycho? Did Bob Hope start a joke with the punchline? A good stripper never starts the show naked (or so I am told).
3. The Learning Objective can be an obstacle to learning - some kids will look at it and say "But I don't want to learn that today" or even worse "But I have already learned that" - where do you go as a teacher from there?
4. I hate that some people tell me to use a Learning Objective solely because "OFSTED like it". I don't even believe this is true. I think OFSTED want to see Learning Objectives in planning - and they are the 1st thing I put in all my lesson plans - they don't need to see it on the board. The most ridiculous thing I ever saw was a Foundation class teacher who put Learning Objectives up for her class because she was told to. Her class was made up of 4 year olds - none of them could read!
So - I have never used them. Recently however I came across something called Learning Journeys - and I love them. I found out about this by following a Tweet from David Didau @Learning Spy and checking out his blog http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/09/21/learning-journeys/. The idea is to give students a visual map of the lesson. Using images, arrows and keywords you can give them an outline of what is coming - but it is in the form of a puzzle. As a visual learner - I love it and couldn't wait to try it out. Over the last 2 weeks I have used them in every lesson from Yr7 to Yr 12. I use Powerpoint to put up a slide with Today's Learning Journey on it and usually 4-8 images. I also put some keywords on which relate to the specific skills which students will use during the lesson: investigate, communicate, analyse, create, visualise etc.
I deliberately do not mention the Learning Journey to students at all at the start of the lesson - it is simply up on the screen when they come in - but so many students notice it and have started to talk to each other about it. I often take the screen away during the lesson to look at something else but bring it back often and refer to some of the images but without explicitly explaining it. I want the kids to work it out for themselves. I love it when at some point in the lesson someone shouts out "Oh yeah. I get that now" and then proceeds to explain it to someone else.
I do feel as if I have only just scratched the surface with this and look forward to exploring it further and experimenting with it. I had 2 mini-lesson observations last week and both the teachers who came in were very interested in the Learning Journeys - so give them a try. Do also check out David Didau's brilliant blog and also a guy called Darren Mead http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/ - who I believe inspired David. Thanks to both of you.
1. It is incredibly arrogant of us to believe that simply by saying what they are going to learn - they will learn it.
2. The Learning Objective takes away all the mystery from the lesson. Who in their right mind gives away their biggest and best secret at the start? Did Agatha Christie reveal the killer in the first paragraph? Did Hitchcock show you Norman Bates' mother in the first 5 minutes of Psycho? Did Bob Hope start a joke with the punchline? A good stripper never starts the show naked (or so I am told).
3. The Learning Objective can be an obstacle to learning - some kids will look at it and say "But I don't want to learn that today" or even worse "But I have already learned that" - where do you go as a teacher from there?
4. I hate that some people tell me to use a Learning Objective solely because "OFSTED like it". I don't even believe this is true. I think OFSTED want to see Learning Objectives in planning - and they are the 1st thing I put in all my lesson plans - they don't need to see it on the board. The most ridiculous thing I ever saw was a Foundation class teacher who put Learning Objectives up for her class because she was told to. Her class was made up of 4 year olds - none of them could read!
So - I have never used them. Recently however I came across something called Learning Journeys - and I love them. I found out about this by following a Tweet from David Didau @Learning Spy and checking out his blog http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/09/21/learning-journeys/. The idea is to give students a visual map of the lesson. Using images, arrows and keywords you can give them an outline of what is coming - but it is in the form of a puzzle. As a visual learner - I love it and couldn't wait to try it out. Over the last 2 weeks I have used them in every lesson from Yr7 to Yr 12. I use Powerpoint to put up a slide with Today's Learning Journey on it and usually 4-8 images. I also put some keywords on which relate to the specific skills which students will use during the lesson: investigate, communicate, analyse, create, visualise etc.
I deliberately do not mention the Learning Journey to students at all at the start of the lesson - it is simply up on the screen when they come in - but so many students notice it and have started to talk to each other about it. I often take the screen away during the lesson to look at something else but bring it back often and refer to some of the images but without explicitly explaining it. I want the kids to work it out for themselves. I love it when at some point in the lesson someone shouts out "Oh yeah. I get that now" and then proceeds to explain it to someone else.
I do feel as if I have only just scratched the surface with this and look forward to exploring it further and experimenting with it. I had 2 mini-lesson observations last week and both the teachers who came in were very interested in the Learning Journeys - so give them a try. Do also check out David Didau's brilliant blog and also a guy called Darren Mead http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/ - who I believe inspired David. Thanks to both of you.
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| This is a Learning Journey of a Year 12 lesson on the 1905 Russian Revolution |
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| This is a Learning Journey of a Year 11 lesson looking at media representations of black civil rights in the USA |
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