Neu-Thinking

I like this picture. It kind of describes me. I always think of myself as an early adopter, an innovator, an implementor. I am definitely not big on finishing. From the laundry list of tasks that I have, and projects I have thought up only about 10% ever see the light of day.

Is this a technology thing? Is my need to gather and process information so strong that I actually don’t get anywhere. I research and learn, but rarely actually put things into gear.

Or is this some kind of fear. Fear of doing something wrong. Or just plain ol’ fear of failure?

I read, I think, I blog….. what next? I act. Oh yeah, actually do something.

I have spent most of this week looking through and organising all my lecture notes and hand-outs (all paper), from my year of teacher training. I started to wonder whether I had forgotten more then I actually know!!! Even by doing this, clearing some space in my house, has led me into finding material that I want to explore and blog about.

Overall I think the biggest reason why I personally am not implementing as much as I would like to do, is by asking myself these questions.

Where do I get the time?
How much effort does this involve?
What is the benefit to me/pupils?

Nearly always there is a negative response to one of those questions. I have not time, it is not doo-able. It will not help me/pupils.

Truth is, I probably need to spend less time questioning myself and more time doing. As Bruce Lee once questioned (and I paraphrase):

“Stumbling block? Or stepping stone? What is the difference?”

3,2,1 go.

Tags: thinking, motivation, planning, projects, implementer

Popularity: 3% [?]

Wow.

Tags: animoto, example, wow

Popularity: 4% [?]

Oh man, it’s getting real. I have a timetable for my teaching next year. I have a year 7 form group. I have met their parents. I have visited my new classrooms and written 2 Schemes of Learning, for OCR Nationals Level 3, Units 1 & 2. My next job is to finalise the new KS3 programme of study and write Schemes of Learning for a few units.

I have also been trying to get involved in the social side of my new school too. I took part in the annual Lawn Tennis Championship, but was unfortunately knocked out in the 1st round. This might have been because I haven’t played tennis since 1996!

I have also been involved in a CLIL training day. This is Content Language Integrated Learning. Basically using a target language, in my case French, to teach in your own subject area. In my case, ICT.

Here is a short video explaining CLIL:

I was initially reticent about trying to do this, after all, it is hard to teach in English, never mind in French!

But, after spending a day planning and preparing resources I think it could really add benefit to my lessons. I think I need to be careful to focus on the core ICT learning, but the ability to bring in a new language or cultural viewpoint could be really interesting.

As I develop some more resources I will add them up here, and hopefully get some feedback from the learners of whether they like interacting in French.

Bonne Chance!

Tags: CLIL, planning, NQT, Language, France, French, ICT

Popularity: 4% [?]

Aaay! The Fonz wows at the Teaching Awards

Aaay! The Fonz wows at the Teaching Awards | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk

This article is pretty interesting. It goes to show a few things. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that just because something is different, doesn’t mean it is bad or wrong:

Speaking of his dyslexia, Winkler said: “I was told I was stupid, lazy and not living up to my potential most of my life. And, when you’re younger and you’re told that, you believe it. It’s part of your self-image.

“Just because we learn differently, that does not mean that we are not incredibly smart human beings. That’s something I need every child to understand.”

I think it also shows, that for someone to make a difference, they need at least one thing. Charisma. Something he has bags off.

I caught the end of an interview with Henry Winkler on C4 yesterday, (Richard & Judy I am ashamed to add!) and he showed the problems that he has faced, and i wonder really whether things are much different today. As I don’t suffer from dyslexia, I can only imagine the difficulties that young people face.

This also makes me think back to another experience this week, a trip down memory lane shall we say. I discovered my Year 9 end of KS3 report and got a really interesting shock from it.

It is fair to say I underachieved in Maths. English, and Science, but excelled in History, French, and Design Technology. This is interesting, as I seem to have caught up to average by the time my GCSE’s occured. Another thing of interest is that on every single report, every one, there were the same comment. “Needs to improve his presentation”, “Work is not clear, presentation is poor”.

My perceived academic ability  was actually curtailed by my handwriting. Was this really less then 10 years ago?

This blast from my past makes me even more determined to find other ways to assess my students learning, rather then just written responses!

If I had trouble with it then, I bet people still struggle now. The knowledge was there, I just couldn’t get it out for people to see.

I will allow students to get their knowledge out in different ways. In any way I can.

Tags: knowledge, presentation, past

Popularity: 5% [?]

The government is to double the number of high-flying graduate teacher trainees placed in tough inner-city schools, the prime minister will say today.

Number of high-flying teacher trainees set to double | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk

<Rant>

This got to me. The government want to send “high flying graduates” into inner city schools to help raise standards in departments. But what use are graduates? What use are people who have spent the last few years in lecture theatres, in academia, in all terms irrelevancy?

What experience could they bring to a challenging classrooms who students who have social and emotional difficulties?

Further more, how are they good role models?
Yes, they may be extremely intelligent and academically gifted, but  how could these people inspire people who, if not supported will fail, if they themselves have never failed at anything?
I doesn’t make sense to me.

And from 1st hand experience of a SCITT course and 2 teaching practices, a summers worth of training just will not prepare you for a classroom.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “It’s an interesting idea but it’s wrong to assume that a short immersion training course is enough preparation to teach in schools that are particularly challenging

Number of high-flying teacher trainees set to double | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk

Yes, I am a graduate, but you could never describe me as “High Flying”. I am “Hard Working” and there is a difference. I don’t find academic study easy, but I know its worth, and feel that I have a better ability to pass that on to other people. I just don’t feel that these graduates will be effective teachers, and will in the end damage the profession as a vocational career choice, rather then a way to remove student debt and get a wage for 2 years.

</Rant>

Tags: Rant, graduates, teacher training

Popularity: 6% [?]