He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.  ~Harold Wilson.

This afternoon I started to join in to #edchat on Twitter. The conversation was heavily leaning towards the emergence of online learning and it’s potential impact on education in the future.

A lot of people were voicing the new regime of online or virtual learning, against the more conservative, traditional view. This got me thinking about jumping on the bandwagon before the path has been thought out. I am of the opinion that the best changes often happen slowly, affording seamless transitions between sections. This, in itself, is a great management technique, although there is, on occasion, the need to rip out bad practice quickly and noisily.

But I digress, as usual. Where was I? Change.

Because things are the way they are,

things will not stay the way they are.

Bertold Brecht

Trust a playwright to sum things up so well. I welcome change, but I do not rush to the dam and open the floodgates, as I fear the effect will not be well received. I think that a shift in educational priorities is essential for effective teaching to take place. As I said in a previous post, we are teaching tomorrow’s teachers, today. We must be careful, as we were yesterday’s learners.

I think that all the discussion in regard to teachers not being face to face with their classes is pie in the sky – at this point. As a primary school teacher, the main role I have to play is not using the Educator Hat (nod to DeBono), nor the Facilitator Hat, but the Nurturing one. We, as teachers, act as in loco parentis. The last time I looked, no one was suggesting their job should be done via a computer.

I would not class myself as a traditionalist, ‘jug & empty vessel’ type of teacher. More the opposite, in fact but I can’t help thinking that jumping to a complete reliance on distance learning will not answer the problems properly.

I think that the speed at which the digital revolution has taken hold of education has been the largest factor in school change. A catalyst of sorts, affording us, as teachers, the opportunity to try new things out and utilise new technologies in class. It has also reduced even the most tech-minded adult to a second-class citizen. An Analogue visitor in the world of the Digital Native. I think our biggest worry is being left behind. As a result of this, we panic into changing too quickly, without first thinking about the whole picture.

I think there needs to be some corroboration and organisation of the integration of online learning in classroom contexts. What is to be classed as what?

In primary, a child goes online to play a game, say http://www.poissonrouge.com  - a great website to introduce children to basic mouse control, puzzle & interactivity. Is this classed as Online Learning? As a teacher, I merely told the child to go on it, I needn’t have been in the room but, when I turn my back and the child accidentally clicks on minimise, I need to be in the room to show them how to correct their mistake.

I understand that I am probably not getting the point. That’s true, but education isn’t about what’s easiest or most readily available. If learning was supposed to be like McDonalds, we’d all be getting the McDiploma in 5 clicks, but we don’t. We look back on the hard yards and cherish them, mostly because we recognise that they were the ones that helped us become who we are today. I wouldn’t have made the hard yards on my own. I would have quit. Does that mean that in tomorrow’s education system, am I just the webcam that doesn’t tune in? Am I the plagiarised German essay translated badly by Google? I hope not.

I honestly believe that it is the human interaction which shapes the learner into a person able to adapt to change themselves, rather than simply using the most convenient method at the time. My view is obviously based on primary education, where the need to support physically as well as mentally is balanced. I’m sure that, as we move further up the education scale, the balance shifts, affording more  freedom & independence as befits the learners. But please, don’t write the importance of human interaction out of the education process. 80% of our communication is through non-verbal & often subtle body language & mannerisms. Hard to pick up via a pixellated webcam.

I’ll leave with a line that, although not education based, fits quite well I think:

There’s a reason why people go to stores. It’s for good old-fashioned customer service that involves human interaction. We seem to be getting away from that somehow.

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It’s funny how quickly 5 years passes in the blink of an eye. On Friday, I’ll leave Hawes Side Primary School, in Blackpool, the school that I started my teaching career at. It’ll be strange, starting at a new school – with different coloured uniform for a start off! There’ll be new expectations, roles and colleagues too. Like anyone would, I worry that I won’t be what they are expecting; some strange unknown quantity who’ll park in the wrong car parking space and use their cup to make a brew at break time. I worry about my way of thinking in regard to education. Has it been rigidly shaped by the organisation I work for, or is it flexible; able to settle over the unfamiliar new routines with aplomb?

I am fortunate, too, to have created some fantastic links with people in different schools and authorities with whom I can talk to. I believe that communication is a pivotal to staff development as anything & affording ourselves opportunities for professional dialogue is a priority that I am wholeheartedly taking with me to the new management team.

Mostly though, I’m grateful to my current head teacher. He is a visionary who has an unerring knack of backing the right horses, in terms of initiatives (although he’d be the first to admit there have been a few non-starters at times). He has introduced me to a range of learning pedagogy & practitioners that I would otherwise have been ignorant of. It was he that talked me into using Twitter (a fact that I often use in defence against my wife’s arguments) and we still have conversations about different technology that we use in and out of school.

I think you know when you’re ready for a change, but deciding to make the change was harder than I thought. I was eager to move on, but reluctant to leave as I really feel my whole teaching identity is intrinsically linked to my experiences at Hawes Side & the ideology of the school.

I also worry about taking on a management role. I sometimes wonder whether Homer Simpson has better multitasking abilities that me. I’m sure he and I are on a par when it comes to paperwork, though! I am worried that people will view me as a threat, a joke and a b^llsh!tter all at the same time.  How will I cope with being the link to the Head & Deputy? Will I still be able to bitch in the staffroom with the teaching assistants or will they all stop talking when I walk in, worried that their conversations will be reported directly to the boss? It’s new territory & the fact that I’m going to mess up at some point regardless of how hard I try and get it right is inevitable.

That simple fact reminded me of two quotes, both of which are displayed in my classroom and both of which I have talked to previous classes whenever failure or the unknown was a possible outcome for them.

“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practise being brave.” Mary Tyler Moore

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius

With these in mind I stop typing and start thinking positively about my next steps, safe in the knowledge that whatever the task, I will do it to the best of my ability, “Quant Je Puis”.

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Well, the nerves have cleared now and the day is done.

The morning started off well at a fantastic, newly built school called Murton Community Primary School (or ‘The Ribbon’ as it’s known locally). Their resources are phenomenal. Loads of iMacs, Dell notebooks & plasma screens instead of whiteboards.

I started off with twitter, displaying the fantastic response from my PLN and their tips as to why you should use twitter. The staff were all geared up to signing up, when twitter reported being ‘over capacity’.. grrr! Still, most people said they would go away and sign up. A fantastic response about the generosity with which the people I know on twitter share. Thank you, for convincing others of how beneficial it can be.

We then looked at primarypad. A great piece of kit, I’m sure you’ll all agree. I went down the road of explaining that technology – however fancy – needs to be used in the correct context, in a structured and beneficial way. There’s no point using it when a piece of paper will do the job more effectively. That seemed to get their attention. Eh? Isn’t this guy all about tech? Why’s he not telling us we have to use it?

I like the idea of thinking clever, not thinking lots.

After showing the staff twitter & primarypad – both of which went down really well, the unthinkable happened. At 10:30, a mere 1hr into my day, the servers crashed. Completely.

We took an early break. In my head I was repeating various obscenities & wondering whether the staff there would want to come back afterwards. They did. Luckily, my blagging abilities came into their own and we talked about various things that I would be showing them (if the server fixed itself…), StoryBird, VoiceThread, Learning Logs, Blogging & I talked about how I use  it – For an hour and a half. After lunch, which was lovely, we were told the problem wouldn’t be resolved today, but a school 20 mins away had a room we could use. The problem was, there wasn’t enough tech for them to be interactive (which was one of the main points of the day). I felt that the staff there were receptive though, understanding that we had to make the best of it.

After a whistle stop tour of blogging, a look at storybird & voicethread we finished early. I’d have kept it going for longer if they were able to participate, but I get conscious of how tedious it can be to simply listening to someone at the front who won’t let you actually have a go at using what they’re talking about – and how many training sessions has that happened at….

Still, tomorrow is a new day, the technical issues from today have been resolved (hopefully) and there are teachers & children to work with tomorrow. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone via twitter who contributed today, either on the wallwisher or on #tweetmister_jim. It’s very much appreciated.

I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes… tomorrow!

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Tomorrow I am working with a group of teachers at Murton Primary School, Co. Durham, who are coming to learn about engaging through technology. It’s a big leap for me as I’ve never really done any sort of teacher training before.

The usual questions leap to mind. Will I be any good? Will they get anything out of it? That sort of thing. I also think of the cost of getting me here, accomodation, day rates, supply cover for the teachers attending. It starts to make me nervous. Am I really able to provide good value for money?

In my worrying, I turn to the content of my day’s work: I’m introducing Twitter as a way of creating additional communication for students in the classroom and also for teachers to expand their professional learning network.

I’m looking at PrimaryPad and the impact it can have when used correctly.

After that, I’m talking about storybird & voicethread. Two fantastic tools that can be used in creative and effective ways – and that can be linked in seamlessly to existing plans.

I’m also talking about our learning logs. The homework that revolutionalised parental & child attitudes towards home learning.

Finally I end with blogging. What we’ve done, why it’s worked and how they can make it work in their schools.

All in all, when I reflect on the content, I know I’ll deliver the goods. It just worries me that I won’t be able to do it perfectly. Still, as Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Let’s hope I have the chance to turn my act of consultancy into a habit.

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Right, this week I’ve been having a play with some different things that I can use in classroom situations. I’ve interested in storytelling at the moment and affording children an opportunity to share their work.

1. Storybird

This is by no means new, but I’ve found it really useful for a range of topics and year groups. It’s ability to pitch at specific age ranges is great for focusing upper juniors into writing for an audience.

The pictures are emotive and the vast selection of topics ensures individuality in the finished product. It’s really easy to make an account &  the kids get loads of enjoyment out of it. 

2. Zooburst

I’ve only had a quick play on this, but the possibilities of this for classroom use are quite varied.

To sign up for an account, you simply fill in a quick form and Craig, who I think created it, emails you back within a day.

The bit I like is that you can use your own pictures or photos so, combine this with a visualiser or a class camera, and you can start to really personalise it.

It would be useful in topic lessons, where you could create non-fiction pop-up books, or recounts of learning. In fact, it could be used as a review tool, asking children to create a book based on their learning of the unit.

3.  Voicethread

This is a great website for both staff & pupils to develop speaking and listening. For examples of how this has been best used, you need to go to www.primarypete.net the website of Peter Richardson, a Year 4 teacher in Preston. He’s created peer assessment opportunities and we, as teachers, have moderated work to ensure consistent levels. It’s a really adaptable tool which affords collaborative approaches to learning.

Right, more to come at some point, but these are a few of my favourite things!

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Before I go into detail of the event itself, I’d like to thank everyone that turned up – physically or virtually. It was really great to see you all.

Tom and I had such a blast in January that we thought it’d be a good idea to run another TeachMeet. Well, that was the beginning of a whole horde of silly ideas we had. But do you know what? They were the best type of silly ideas. They were silly ideas that worked.

Last Wednesday, just shy of 140 teachers descended on our school. They came both locally, nationally & internationally. In fact, one teacher from Germany was so impressed that he’s gone back already plotting his own take on it. I’ll admit now, I don’t really remember much about the event, which is why it’s taken me so long to actually post on it – I’ve had to read other people’s blogs and go, “oh yeah, that was good.” or “I presented…really?” This post isn’t going to be a generic recap of the event, however. I’ll endeavour to keep it short, light and humourous.  We were fortunate enough to have Professor Stephen Heppell open the event. His first words were great, epitomising the whole movement when he said,

 ”this is the most fun and the most autonomy you can have in your whole career, so why wouldn’t you enjoy it?”

Well put. We did enjoy it as well. There was one major difference in the way that this teachmeet was organised in as much as some schools attended instead of staff meetings. The support from Senior Management afforded all staff the opportunity of finding out about new technologies from the TeachMeet regulars. This is fantastic, in my opinion, as it provides them with an instant fix of technology that they can become enthused about. I’ve bumped into teachers from other schools over the past few days and they have all said how much they enjoyed it and how they have used things that were presented on.

Power to the Masses.

I’m not implying a revolution in the way CPD is run, but the feedback forms all suggested that they were prepared to stay til 7 or 8 -granted my timekeeping meant that people were still here at 9:30 (if it’s any consolation I still blush about that now). Interestingly, most people have asked for it to be run as a shared inset day – which I think could have great potential as a quango busting economic alternative.

One, slightly, errm, jaundiced teacher was happy that she had someone else finding things for her. I smiled as I knew secretly that she had really enjoyed herself and has subsequently used poissonrouge and storybird in her class - to great effect!

The goal that Tom & I had was to open up the TeachMeet model to everyone. Especially as so many teachers were unaware of it. I’m pleased to say we managed to do that and I think we did it pretty well.

When we totted up the numbers, we saw that over 80% of attendees were either teachers, or working in schools (heads/deputies etc). Compared with other large scale TMs, this is by far the best attended by classroom practitioners and I couldn’t be happier.

Of course, this event would never have been as successful as it was without the support of lots of different organisations and businesses. It also wouldn’t have been a success without people giving up their time to help. Leon Cych, our director behind the lens, spent not only 9 hrs in school on the Weds itself, but also edited and uploaded and tweaked into the wee hrs after that – and still now! Chris Ratcliffe provided some truely brilliant goody bags (blackpool rock & the ‘eye pad’ notwithstanding) and Andrea Carr’s generosity (£250 worth of e-books per person) was heartwarming. Others also supported with similar aplomb. Chris from BrainPopUk came up from Oxford to support us, and gave away a full year’s subscription worth over £750. The plus side of this? All this went to teachers. They can use it in their classes. Now.

The SSAT, Vital, TES Resources, PTS, 2Simple, PrimaryPad all donated either time, money or resources which allowed the event to be organised and those who were there were professional in their approach. They didn’t sell, they supported. And we were grateful for that support.

My favourite part of the event was looking at people who were told it would last til 6, stay til 8. That, to me, spoke volumes about the impact they perceived it was having on them.

I’ll stop rambling now, but if you go to the links below, you can see the posts of people who came, who spoke and who inspired.

Leon Cych interviews me about teachmeet

Better posts to read than mine:

Leon Cych’s Video Channel - Presentations from TeachMeet Blackpool

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I’ve been reading various posts about the proposed future of TeachMeet & its events and I worry that the very act of regulating it, will cause people to shy away from a movement that I have got a tremendous amount of information, ideas & enjoyment out of.

I came across TeachMeets last year, and since then have been to 4, organised 2 & caught up on more than 3 others online. I have used ideas and implemented them into my teaching – and shared them with colleagues who have subsequently implemented them themselves!

I can’t pretend to know the origins of TMs, but I know what I perceive them to be now. I perceive TeachMeets to be a refreshing alternative to formal CPD. We live and work in an increasingly informal environment, where we take learning opportunities when they arrive, rather than following prescribed textbook activities – at least most of us, anyway.

Over the last few years, CPD has changed for teachers in schools in the UK. With the inclusion of PPA time, schools simply haven’t been able to afford to send teachers on as many courses as they used to – and teachers feel hesitant about losing their PPA time to go. This presents a quandary that TeachMeet offers a solution to. Could schools club together to utilise each other’s existing resources? Could teachers share experiences in a way that is mutually beneficial and, most importantly, non-threatening? The very format of TMs is a fantastic model for staff meetings & insets (or even assess & review days).

Obviously, then, I was a bit worried when I read that:

Organising TeachMeets should not be easy.

Why? If it is to be organised by teachers – who already have tremendous amounts of work thrust upon them, why make it hard to organise? Isn’t this just another elitist restriction to ensure the purity of the TeachMeet Brand?

I suggest an alternative. A TeachMeet Evolution. Rather than creating a Limited Company who would oversee the events & structure it – therefore potentially restricting the content & organisation of individual teachmeets (say those that are rough & ready or extremely informal), I suggest looking at the component parts of the TeachMeets – specfically the way in which it is organised – for teachers & by teachers; random presentation selections; inclusion of free & accessible techs; social as well as informative; informal; specific; useable talks.

I think that these components should be transferrable. Let’s face it, TeachMeet doesn’t fit the general masses in regards to CPD. It is embraced by those who want to challenge themselves, or push the boundaries. Surely the Evolution would be by allowing these adventurers to take the model and force it to evolve to fit the needs of the people around them, rather than forcing the people around them to evolve to the needs of the TeachMeet Hegemony.

This would allow a real polychotomy adding strength in depth to an amazingly unique and effective idea plus it would actually reach the teachers who wouldn’t necessarily turn up to the existing TeachMeet setup.

Now before I end, I want to add that I fully believe in the premise of TeachMeets, but I worry that if it is regulated, it will lose it’s appeal and its charm. 

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Every so often, you start to think about things in more detail. With me it is not a regular occurance. I have what my wife calls selective ignorance syndrome (my apologies if this actually exists – as far as I know she made it up). All the more reason why this particular wave of fresh thinking has perturbed me. Over the last few years, I have been amending my teaching based on the needs of the children I taught and my own desire to better myself and become the teacher I wanted to be. No harm in that, but I was looking inwards, seeing myself as the only one who needed my help.

Selfish. In a way, yes. What I perceived was that by furthering myself as a teacher, I would be better able to meet the needs of the learners in my care. If I had been a deeper thinker, or a more humble person, I might have considered how I could help my colleagues by looking outwards. Be that as it may, I have reached a point in my career where I feel that a strong, well-rounded collective is far more beneficial to the long term success of children than any one maverick teacher – however good he purports to be.

That’s one reason why I am ready for the next step. A new challenge where I am able to provide opportunities for others to develop their skills with my support – and where I can develop my own through theirs. There’s really nothing groundbreaking about this type of thinking. What’s new is that I seem to have somehow changed my perspective on my individual role. When did this happen? Seemingly overnight as far as I can tell.

With the disappearance in the UK of various Quangos & agencies due to the new hegemony, I fear that schools will potentially lose the support networks that they have relied upon for the last 10 years. Networks which supply CPD, resources, advisors & opportunities. That’s why looking outward is more important than ever. We are all in glass houses, but rather than cover them up in our own individual maverick ways I suggest we could open the doors and paint the outsides of each others, showing our colleagues across districts, counties & countries that, actually, together we are able to provide CPD without the approval or consent of the status quo.

Take the upcoming event at our school – teachmeet Blackpool - for instance. Tom Sale & I went to an event last year, around autumn in Manchester & were so enthused by the potential of it, that we immediately set about planning our own. Once that was done, the response from local schools – those away from the ‘twitterverse’ prompted us to rethink our approach to the next event. We wanted TeachMeets to reach everyone, rather than solely those who were actively looking for the next challenge. So far we think we are on the way to achieving this. Lots of local teachers, to whom the concept of a TeachMeet is alien, are attending. The hope is that, very soon, they will take the benefits back to those who didn’t want to come & the next teachmeet will be bigger, locally & nationally – perhaps even internationally.

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Photostory + children = chaos

A few weeks ago at TeachMeet Yorks & Humber 2010, I presented on how effective Photostory had been when used by Key Stage 2 children (7-11yrs). Ever the optimist, I decided that I would attempt to use photostory with my class (5-6yrs old). On top of this, I thought, I know, let’s link up with a year 1 class in a different school, switch children so we’ve got half each. Design, plan build and watch the photostories – all in 50 minutes.
The work was aimed to fit in with our literacy unit of information texts, and hit various other curriculum areas such as PHSE (teamwork & collaboration), Geography (locations), Speaking & Listening and others besides.

Children were to organise pictures of their school into a storyboard, looking at including either key words, a phrase or a sentence for each one. Children worked in groups of 3 to collaboratively create a photostory. The theory behind this was to incorporate discussion & compromise into the activity and to provide children with a peer support system if they felt that they were struggling or were less confident with using technology.

One last minute addition was to include year 5 pupils as helpers. Not as a get out for me as a teacher, but as learning mentors for the Year 1 children. It meant that they could problem solve and ask questions, keep the task moving forward and provide a link from the class to the teacher. They were brilliant and were a key factor in the success of the lesson (I would say, however, that if were I to not be able to expect this support, I would have had to have scaffolded activities over a series of lessons). Their role meant that the children were better supported and the yr5s acted as a catalyst for learning, prompting & engaging the children in my class well – without doing it all for them.
I took my new ‘class’ which consisted of my naughty/untrustworthy ones and the other teacher’s (Caroline Lang, Anchorsholme Primary School) ‘nice/well behaved’ ones up to the ICT suite to work on the computers up there with her Teaching Assistant, Miss Croft. Caroline stayed in my classroom with my Teaching Assistant, Karen Walker and had, surprisingly, my ‘nice/well behaved’ ones and her ‘naughty/untrustworthy’ ones (Teachers will be teachers after all)!
The only difficulty we had was a technical one. The laptops wouldn’t connect to the strongest network signal (in my class) and were pulling off the office (admin) signal which is rubbish at the best of times. This in itself isn’t the worst thing, but the children were still engaged and busy and had a good time.
So, the success criteria of the lesson was as follows:
1. Children can use Photostory3 to create a movie
2. Children can work in groups
3. Children can select pictures, uploading from a file
4. Children can select music, uploading from a file
5. Children are aware of differences between the photostories of other children and can comment on those differences positively.

Ouch. Quite a lot there when you think about it. The children achieved the first 4. Some with support, others with ‘help’. The most interesting point was looking at the children who were working ahead of my instructions. They were so engrossed in the activity that they were actively developing an understanding for the software themselves. That was great to see.

To have a look at some of their fantastic photostories, go to http://1m.hawes-side.net/photostories

NEXT STEPS

Our next step is to peer assess over a program called VoiceThread. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it is simply great. Click on this link to see our early attempt at using it. Pete Richardson (a yr 4 teacher in Preston) uses it extremely effectively and you can link to an example of it here it’s call peer assessment 2.
As an addition to this, we are planning a reciprocal visit for my class to their school. This affords us the opportunity of experiencing a different classroom and school – and celebrate our differences and similarities.
I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a good and long-lasting working relationship that the children can have throughout their Primary School lives.

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I was on twitter a few weeks ago and I saw a tweet, I can’t remember who by, highlighting someone else’s blog. @chrisguillebeau‘s to be exact.  You can find it here.

The article itself was ok and had some salient points, but there was a quote on it from Hafiz, a 14th century Persian poet, that mesmerised me, in fact it made me think very deeply about my teachers and me as a teacher.

It described, in far less words than I could possibly manage, the type of person I am and, more importantly, the type of person I strive to be.

I guess that everyone has a moment that makes them evaluate what they’re doing with their lives. Are things turning out the way they planned? Are they serving themselves, or others? What is the purpose that drives them to succeed?

Big questions. All of which were prompted by this poem.

I looked first at the opening line, ‘The small man‘ and thought, is this me? Have I, as a teacher, ever done this? Have I limited children’s expectations or ideals. Honestly? I have.

It’s easy to do and doubtless others have done it as well.

It also made me think of the good teachers I had and why their teaching impacted on my learning. What did they do that was different? What ingredient was missing in my teaching that was prevelant in theirs? The answer was simple. Consideration of the learners’ needs. They empathised rather than patronised. They encouraged rather than intimidated. In my case, they were trying to catch a 8lb fish on a 4lb line…

The remainder of the poem talks about the sage, the knowledgeable one, illuminating those who have been imprisoned. I inferred a teacher, a considerate teacher, to whom falls the task of re-engaging those who have been switched off to learning. Providing opportunity to inspire, encourage and educate. I feel that through concentrating more on what is beneficial to the children in our care, we can become the sage that Hafiz refers to. Not as the font of all knowledge disseminating it as we see fit, but as a facilitator of change, inspiring children to push out of their comfort zone and discover things that might have seemed out of reach. To lead children toward life-long learning,  not whip them into shape with the yard sticks from yesterday.

I am striving to be like Hafiz’s sage. I seek to better myself and improve the quality of my teaching. I am sure that I will have slip ups, but I hope, over my career, I will unlock more potential than I imprison. So I ask, which one will you be tomorrow?

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