foolfillment: the blog

At last night’s TeachMeet for students and probationer teachers I gave a 7 minute presentation on my own probation experiences. It was all very self indulgent I thought but people seemed to like it so I’m going to share it here.

I used Prezi for the first time to collect a few images together, last night I saw some really good uses of prezi - while some people think it can induce headaches I saw last night how fantastic it is not to be stuck in a linear presentation.

Here’s the link to the prezi I used, though I fear that on it’s own it won’t make a great deal of sense as it was really just an aide memoire for me. My main points were somthing like this:

• Make sure you get up to the staff room and speak to as many other people as you can. Don’t hide away in your classroom on your own working.
• Observe as many people as you can, it needn’t be formally but just get into classes all over the school if you can to see how other people do what you want to do.
• Make sure you have a life away from school, find a way to switch off and stop thinking school
• Set aside some time each week to get the GTCS housekeeping done, the stuff you need to do isn’t too onerous but if you let it pile up it can be very difficult to get back in top of.
• Spend time reflecting on how you are doing, it needn’t always be formally, just chatting about things with people helps - see the first point.
• Write up loads of mock application forms and get people to read them. Pester other teachers for their opinions. If possile ask people outside of your subject. Do the same for interviews - get loads of previous interview questions and prepare some answers for them, do as many mock interviews as you can.

Far from a comprehensive list but I think doing those things last year helped me.

Last night was the very first TeachMeet for student teachers and probationers. I was a bit sceptical when David Muir suggested that we could arrange it in just 6 weeks, but I supported it and signed up to attend and even to present if I was wanted.

Then the most amazing things happened.

Everyone pitched in to make last night an amazing success. I think last night was truly crowdsourced, the event organised itself with people from across Scotland helping to sort it all out.

John Daly, Iain Hallahan, and of course David Muir all deserve special mentions, but there was one time in particular that stood out.
Iain was trying to find a way to get in touch with all the NQT co-ordinators in the 32 Local Authorities. Over the course of a night a plan was formed, a collaborative spreadsheet on Google was set up, and a gang of teachers organised themselves to send a letter that had been written collaboratively onto the LAs they had contact with. Within about and hour we had people signed up to speak to over half of the LAs.

And how did we do it? With the power of Twitter and Google Docs. Wonderful stuff because not only did we get this sorted out but a lot of us learned a lot more about how we could use Google Docs to do some really cool stuff that would be useful for teaching.

A 6th year at Hawick High School has been working on many projects this year, including Global Ambition which I have been involved in. One of the big ones though has been with LTS and their Student Advisory Group.

He has had some great ideas about how school should work, and stunningly he has taken them right through from idea stage to analysis. I could try to write about what he has done myself, but I think he puts it better than I ever could. Below is a contracted version of the email he wrote to all Rectors in the Scottish Borders (good on him for having the guts and the nous to do that!).

I’m adding it here to extend his invitation to anyone else who may be interested. We will be recording it and also making it available online somehow - possibly as a live flashmeeting.

The National Student Advisory Group is made up of eight pupils from around Scotland (Who come from different schools), Stewart Hay and Javier Vasquez from Anderson High School, Shetland, and Professor Kay Livingston from Learning & Teaching Scotland. Each pupil was given the task to return to their school and create a curriculum which they thought was better than the current curriculum that is in place at the moment.

The presentation day is one part of my idea. The pupils who have worked extremely hard on Scotland in a Global Society will come together with teachers, other pupils and parents as well as other key figures to present what they have learned and found most interesting. Not only will this give others the chance to discuss the work that has been done, but it will give the pupils themselves the chance to evaluate their work the new curriculum is primarily about pupils having more of a decision on how they learn.

What is the new curriculum that is being tested at the moment?

Each member of the National Student Advisory Group has a different idea that means there are currently eight curriculums being trialled. One of the many differences to projects that have gone before is that everything is by the pupils. All the ideas etc. have come from the pupils without being told beforehand what to say.

My idea concentrates mainly on freedom, creativity, and above all, responsibility. I am trying to see what happens if we give the junior school more freedom in their lesson. This means that the kids organise their own time, aware of the fact they have a presentation at the end of it all, and do their work in whatever style they want.

The curriculum starts with brainstorming sessions that have been run by Sixth Years not teachers. The lesson starts with a brief explanation of the reversal of roles in the classroom, and the pupils are quickly told that they have one task:-

What are all the things that make up Scotland, and how do these things link Scotland to the Global Society and the world?

The pupils are then set free, discussing amongst themselves and with the Sixth Year pupils present about the things they can put into their mind map. Meanwhile, the teacher remains nothing more than an aid as the pupils work together in a relaxed, calm, and very productive environment.

After all the ideas have been gathered, the pupils share their ideas in an aid to give those pupils who have struggled more ideas about what could make up Scotland. It should be kept in mind that everything that is written down has come from these younger pupils nothing has come from a textbook or a teacher.

Soon ideas are flowing and pupils must choose which things they would like to research and form a report about. There are no limits other than their idea must allow them to make links between Scotland and the Global Society. The pupils think for a while, and eventually all have a few ideas which they would like to research.

The next stage is learning and teaching. The pupils learn about their topics which they chose earlier and begin to research them, keeping in mind about the link they must create and the presentation they must give to their group, their class, and finally the audience at the presentation you are invited to.

What is the Presentation Day?

The presentation will take place on the 19th June 2009 at Hawick High School. It will be a day that mainly concentrates on the pupils (Both Sixth and Junior School) work and a time for both themselves and others to comment on the effectiveness of the new curriculum. Not only will there be presentations, but there will be a chance for anyone and everyone to discuss the work that has been completed. This will bring the parents closer to the work in the school because they will also be evaluating the work.

I over heard a conversation at tutor group this morning, some pupils using two different names for the same thing. So, I posed a question to twitter this afternoon when I got home.

totally unscientific study, pleae DM me what you think this bridge is called. results later in week. http://bit.ly/1A7qJ

The image I linked to was just one I found through a google search. Perhaps with a little more time I would have found one that didn’t have the answer in the url, but hey ho.

The results came in as I went back out for the S6 leavers’ ceremony. This evening I’ve collated the votes and as I thought people are split.

Interestingly people who went for ‘Forth Bridge’ as the answer were pretty forthright about it. Good on them I say. This was the first big bridge over the Forth, the road bridge came later. The one in the pic is the rail bridge that crosses the Forth, but it is not the Forth Rail Bridge.

Semantics. Pedantry. Two of my favourite things all wrapped up in one nice little teatime voxpop.

David Muir floated an idea a while ago about a TeachMeet for student teachers, it was very well received, and now he’s pushing it ahead which is excellent.

Go and read David’s latest blog post and the TMSE wiki and then blog about it, tweet it, email people who might be interested and find some way to help make it the wonderful success it deserves to be. Tag everything with tmse09 so we can track it.

I’ve been spending some time recently writing up a book of notes for Standard Grade Craft and Design. There is a booklet of notes that have been in every school I’ve been in. I think they were originally written by a teacher at Penicuik High School, but I’m not sure.

They are a pretty comprehensive set of notes and I use them a lot, however nobody seems to know about where they came from or what the copyright issues are for sharing them about. So, I’ve been writing up my own booklet based quite closely on these existing notes, with the intention of releasing them freely under a Creative Commons license so people can change them to suit their own needs. I’ve done about 45 pages so far.

Then I got thinking though, after reading We-Think by Charles Leadbetter, if I should be doing this all myself or if I would be better to try and get them written collaboratively, in a more open source sort of way. I’m not sure how if would work but I envisage some place - like a wiki but with more control over the layout - where people can contribute, edit, discuss, and importantly take, the content.

Does anyone know of something like this happening for a school book already? Or of an online environment that would allow for this easily?

Does anyone think it could work?

And the big question: Does anyone want to help? Or would I end up writing it all myself anyway?

Over the Easter holidays I had the enormous privilege of accompanying two Hawick 6th years to Cape Town. They have been part of the Global Ambition project this year and it has all been leading up to gaining a better understanding of that slippery term ‘diversity’ and finding ways to contribute to their community.

I’ll not write too much here as the students will be writing up their own report soon (before they go on study leave!) and I’ll link to that when it’s done.

Cape Town is an incredible city, I found the trip a really thought provoking experience, I hope the students got as much out of it as I did, they seem to have done. We took part in a lot of activities but the day and a half that we spent in the Red Cross Hospital will probably stay with me longest.

I can’t possibly write this post without mentioning the staff at the Shetland Isles who organised the whole trip - thanks guys!

‘Mister, you’re on google!’ That was how my tutor group incredulously greeted me this morning as I got to the classroom door.* My first reaction was an instant, ‘So are you!’
I was pretty sure that most of them would be online in one way or another and I knew that a lot of them have been shown at some point on the school news podcast. They were pretty taken aback by this, they genuinely did not realise how much information google (or any other search engine) takes in.

I’ve not really used my websites much this year for a variety of reasons, so the majority of my pupils, I think, are not really aware of my web presence. My tutor group seemed stunned that I would have a website. I was asked quite determinedly why do I have a website? The first thing that popped into my head was ‘why do you not?’

Tutor time is always busy and usually a bit of a battle to get the register done and the announcements all read (and heard!) but today I said I would answer their questions if I could get the register done quickly which we managed quicker than normal. I explained to those who hadn’t heard the start of it all that I had been discovered and that someone had asked why I had a website. Then I asked them to put their hands up if they had a bebo account, I didn’t count but it was almost every one of them. I explained that meant each of them had their own website - they didn’t seem to realise. I ventured a few questions about how careful they are with personal information and was heartened to hear that they didn’t seem to do anything too silly.

In less than 10 minutes it is never going to be possible to cover everything but I did manage to broach the subject of future employers searching for them, put forward the idea of a portfolio site, asked them their views about filtering at school, and asked about levels of filtering at home. Most responses were fairly predictable.

I will have to spend more time on this with them, they sat and listened very well and were clearly interested to explore the issues.

I was struck by how much there still is to do to educate them. Do I put myself forward to get set up to run some CEOP training?

(Hawick pupils seem not to go in for ‘Sir’ preferring ‘Mister’ instead)

For me one main attraction of blogging was the conversations that crop up around what I write, or what others write. I’ve been gradually aware of something recently and I wonder if others feel the same.

I want to know if anyone else thinks that they comment less (or receive less comments ) on blogs now than they did before they used twitter?

Teachmeet last night was great! Around 30 people made the journey down to Galashiels in the Borders last night for the 11th (well 12th really, but hang the details) edition of TeachMeet.

David Muir did a sterling job and wrote up two posts live on the night, and no doubt others will follow shortly. I am not going to do the same, to be honest I didn’t take most of it in as I was riding along on a wave of excitement. I have however put together a quick post about what I talked about in my 7 minutes.
John Johnston, Scotland’s premier edu-aggregator, has already set up a page that will collate all tweets, flickr posts, delicious links, and blog posts. This depends on you tagging all your stuff with tmxi, so please add that to anything you post about last night.

It was awesome to see so many people come from so far away, as I say about 30 people were there in person, with notable mentions for distance travelled going to Theo Kuechel, Andy McSwan, and Louise Jones. It was great that everyone came along and made it such a good night by contributing and by pitching in. As ever it was the people who made the night, and it was really nice to put some faces to names I’ve been in touch with for ages online but not in person.

As well as the people there in person, an amazing number of people watched the event live through the flashmeeting, when I looked in there were 17 people there and I know more people popped in and out throughout the evening. You can go and watch the flashmeeting again, and at the time of writing it has already been watched an incredible 56 times!

I’m sorry to both Andrew Brown and Iain Hallahan who missed out on presenting, maybe next time?!

Again, a huge thanks to everyone who came along and made the night what it was, I really enjoyed myself and am so glad I stepped up in September and decided that we’d have a teachmeet down in the Scottish Borders. I have to make special mention to Liz Marroni for arranging the venue for us and for getting the unfiltered internet access.

I am now looking forward to the next edition - maybe it will be TeachMeet Extreme-North edition? I think Louise Jones volunteered to sort out our trip to Aviemore, but maybe we should make the journey that bit further and go and visit Sinclair in Thurso?