Wednesday Period 6 – Teachmeet Virgin

/ Mr J Dexter / 1 Comment

So my first ever teachmeet, 25th June 2014 – sorry to those old hand teachmeet -ers. Tempted as I am to compare it with my blog about meetings, and give a score, this is a very different sort of meeting. No one is compelled to go and it seems only enthusiasts do the presentations, and teaching is blessed with many enthusiasts, truly! Note that carefully any readers who are not teachers!

So what happens is you sign up then turn up – I did so with about 100 others in Nottingham attending the National College. What a great place to meet on a sunny summer evening! I am so jealous, there are many new buildings around the Nottingham City area for education thanks to the investment of two great Universities, and our local FE colleges and lots of bsf investment in many schools. I am deeply jealous as my school lost its £16m BSF as we were deciding the colour of paint at the end of 18 months planning, despite a judicial review Mr Gove took the money back. (So still crossing a road between sites in the rain and loving those 60’s corridors!) Hey but that’s not what my blogpost was about and neither is it what a teachmeet is for, except the building, the room, the hospitality, food and drinks are pretty important when the show runs 5.30 to 9.00. So well done organisers, that was all as it should be. The technology needs to be up to it too, there is swift movement between presentations for laptops/screens etc and twitter seemed compulsory, so accessing wifi and clear screens to read and watch video etc is vital to success.

There were some ‘goody bags’ give aways; some fliers from sponsors, some advertising materials. We sat on tables of up to about 10 people and the most enthusiastic discussions came undoubtedly from tables where there were a number of staff from a school or maybe two schools. Murmurs of excitement during a presentation and enthusiastic chatter afterwards.

Once the show kicks off, if you haven’t been to one, there are presentations lasting 2 minutes, 5 minutes or 7 minutes and some people did keep spot on with time, and there were others! We started with @Hywel_Roberts who was fantastic, definitely stimulating and every point was well made with great (northern) humour, great imagination and creativity. Secondary classrooms might benefit from a good dose of that. I couldn’t help be carried along, drawn in and excited by his challenges. fast moving but uplifting – hey there is the word in my blog about meetings. I was a bit frustrated because there was no overall theme or topic and the evening covered items across all sorts of sectors, however I reminded myself that I am an educator, albeit in secondary and we build on stuff from primary or early years etc [Thank you Primary ppl; Thank you EY ppl]. There were some great ideas shown off, really great – could I use them all, not really in a secondary classroom but seeing beyond that was interesting.

There is also the spin off of the network, I was very pleased to see a number of colleagues and some ex pupils now teachers. Networking isn’t easy though if everyone stays on their own table. Not quite true of course because there is the old twitter hashtag #tmm14 and thanks to @paulyb37 a running commentary and some good work from @MarcWithersey and @PeteBevington. There were supportive tweets when their school colleagues presented (difficult to cheer or whoop but anything goes on twitter!) and commendable comments for good presentations and the usual humorous banter, and I saw nothing critical or nasty- that’s teachers for you. If you wish check out the twitter feeds.

So I am now wondering and pondering where teachmeets fit into the CPD spectre:

Q1 Are themed teachmeets effective CPD ?
Q2 Are they more effective in say a primary sector where a meeting brings together lots of schools and their staff?
Q3 Is the model that is “teachmeet” something we should try within say a big secondary school? A model for a twilight, for an INSET; a way to bring different groups of staff or even different school staff who teach e.g. Science together? [I shall investigate this with my next teachmeet]
Q4 Is there any research about the success of a teachmeet, save the attendance numbers?
Q5 Why do you go?

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Thursday Period 6 – Purposefulness or just a meeting

/ Mr J Dexter / 5 Comments

Dictionary definitions ->

“The meeting” = The act of coming together; an assembly or conference of persons for a specific purpose; the body of persons present at an assembly or conference
; a hostile encounter; an assembly for religious worship, especially of Quakers.

Meetings. Do they happen in all work places or are they just a huge part of the mystery of how schools work? I have sat in so many over 30 years and I have even contributed to some, yawned in many, played EduAcronym ( hey and won!) and led some. I can recall teaching many great lessons and frankly a few poor ones but can I remember any meetings…not really. Does it matter? I think it might.

Staff meetings, dept meetings, pastoral meetings, SLT meetings, governor meetings, Ofsted prep meetings, Ofsted feedback meetings. All those initiatives I have long forgotten TVEI, Diplomas,GNVQ Exam Board in fact just writing this I wonder how much time was spent there…….oh its exhausting just thinking of my life and energy ebbing away. I recall an “Excellence in Cities” meeting locally with every school given an extra INSET day whilst the project was launched with “At least you don’t have to teach today”. Just how uninspiring was that to be? No wonder that died a deserved death. After all I am a teacher and I love teaching, school might be different when empty but it’s not what the job is truly about.

I propose two things which I am going to look closely at in my school

Do we have too many? and What quality and impact do they have?

1) Perhaps we can all get rid of as many meetings as possible. It is 2014 and we don’t need to meet as much as we used to in 2004 or 1994 because information can be accessed so many other way and it is! There is email, learning platforms ( meeting platforms), conversation and of course bits of paper. In fact if we are not careful we tell each other the same information in every conceivable way via notices, email, platforms and of course the message in a pigeon hole and then in case people might miss we tell them too. Actually we do this because some colleagues don’t seem to listen or hear or follow the plot. But I am yet to be conviced a plethora of meeetings gets the message through as these people often don’t listen to any forum. In fact, maybe, there is a lot of meeting noise in their lives. We need some meetings, we have profession duties to do so, we share about children, we share what works in our subject. WE have training, its a vital lifeblood : child protection, sims, first aid etc But do we need a meeting about assessment or appraisal or levels or no levels? Did a committee design a camel? Can we find better ways? Evolve stuff, not just bringing in more stuff. Get someone good to design say assessment, talk with other colleagues, maybe pupils, maybe governors and then test those ideas with respected staff, talk informally to people, pilot with a well chosen group, not just the keen staff but representative of all of our views. It’s harder work, has a greater impact but avoids wasting precious time.

We all have busy lives, just becuase someone rushes home at 3.30 does not mean they are not interested, they have other responsibilities and tasks and are under pressure. They fit in work when children are in bed or elderly parents checked up on. hang it we are professionals and as twitter often reminds us: “some people have complicated lives….be nice”

2) Make sure as far as possible we aim for those attending our meetings to leave most of them uplifted, something to encourage us, challenge us, something to think about, something to help us improve. Or having listened to someone who passed on a great idea. Even boring planning can be like that! Many teachers ( at least many of those who are effective in the classroom) worry and bother about their work so the encouragement is pretty vital, and distraction by tedious time wasting meetings is little help. Realistically there is occasionally a meeting with bad news at its heart so we cannot always be uplifting, the meeting is called perhaps with sad news about pupils or colleagues or families or redundancy but lets overlook those exceptional meetings and consider those planned ones. I think even training sessions can bring a lift….”we are going to be able to do  (this) better”

Staff meetings- why? Once per term, 15 mins a week? Check your meetings schedules and ask why? Middle leader meetings, senior leader meetings, are they training sessions and sharing sessions, do people come along vaguely excited or watching their clock ready to leave? How much work goes into agendas and minutes or action points compared to some serious thinking about purpose and impact. Let’s look for a clear reason to meet, and tackle that wholeheartedly. Choose the topic, lets have some of the research on the topic, maybe even read up beforehand. Some briefing from those in the know, those with some wisdom and then a hearty discussion. Pertinent questions asked or raised and some solutions or suggestions created. Some simple actions which we can all trial or pilot and come back and report on – or just blog about or just post a summary on the learning platform. It’s then somewhere we can find it to go back to when we have time or need or both. Much of the recent twitter noise on research ed just shows we are good with endless ideas of what might, should, or ought to work but we just struggle with feedback, lets work that feedback into our school structure if it is important. In fact we might start with some feedback about our meeting’s effectiveness.

We also need to encourage better contributions and show everyone’s views or ideas are valued, from the most experienced to the new colleague, then mash that up and take away something which positively helps. This might help to move us all forward, confirming what we thought was the right direction. I am conscious some of you will think it’s your job to lead, you are HoD etc I am paid to lead, yes you are paid to lead, not to waste time, not to talk all the time, to have impact. So it might be your leadership job to gather the ideas and bring the policy to birth

My favourite meetings aren’t even on the calendar [which I spend so long planning for at our school] they happen spontaneously, often with unlikely combinations of colleagues. They focus on children, often certain individuals, they pick up on general themes but concern a given situation, they end up bringing clarity and thoughtfulness. They drop out of something which happened in a classroom and so bring an added interest. They help me see what sort of teacher, with what sort of philosophy other staff are and help me think what sort I am. They are conversations which usually lift , inspire and show much humour. They make me think. I love this time of the year (summer) when this happens a little more. I love overhearing those conversations, before school lunch or after school or in a free. I love zipping through the staffroom and observing these conversations, or hearing my science colleagues sort out “how to teach this better”. I know many a reader is thinking hey ho typical SLT with their light timetables and time to chat – sure agreed, the job is delivered by you ( well and me) in a classroom. We do need the occasional whinge, the job has many challenges not helped by the beloved SoS or Ofsted or Ofqual or the decision to go to progress 8 or ditch levels, that useless parent..hey this could be a long list….. but we are in the job because for better or worse we all #loveteaching. Establish a culture where these spontaneous chats happen more and more. Maybe I should ask Ofsted to “observe” meetings and grade them? Then count those vital golden nuggets of staff chat.

Classroom teachers do not have a lot of time, there are endless blogs about work/life balance and stress. Can we aim to help with our meeting programme and not worsen that workload? Let’s not waste each other’s time in meetings with endless agenda points which depress but instead clear the decks and get something inspiring, uplifting, purposeful – hang it we are intelligent people. Science meetings could ditch the agenda and in 45 mins do three “classic’ inspiring demonstrations that others might use; English can share new ways to introduce Shakespeare to the weakest learners; Design can show off what pupils have done and look at how they can be pushed to be even better…..there are lots more ideas, I’ll call a meeting to tell you.

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Some questions to ponder:

Q1 What are the most effective meetings in your school and why?
Q2 How might meetings help in the workload stakes and work life balance for the conscientious teacher?
Q3 What ways can you find to encourage and capture those intimate uplifitng good humoured conversations?

For those (like me) in a faith community
The importance of Christian fellowship for growing th faith and the warning about meeting for a purpose (the Eucharist) without abusing the true reason for the meetings

Hebrews 10:25
do not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more……
1 Corinthians 11:17
In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.

Tuesday Period 4 – Subversive activity

/ Mr J Dexter / 1 Comment

So if, like me, you are a teacher preparing for Tuesday period 4 here is something to help us. Do not be caught out, just be prepared, make sure you have planned and stay calm.

Hang on! For what?

If you are reading this you are a good or outstanding teacher, or you support them or help create them, and sustain them. I want you to imagine you preparing your  most liberated lesson. Yes imagine no Ofsted telling you what to do (in fact I’m not sure they do really). Imagine no governors or Head telling you what to do ( that may not be difficult if they don’t really tell you) and imagine no SLT interference. I am SLT so I know we really do tell you what to do, because each of us often tell you something different.

So this time the only matter to worry about is you and the class. Bet you are smiling, this is what you came into teaching for, this is the dream and vision you had all those years ago (or not so many years ago). Now I want to warn you, want to do so big time because now you are about to discover the subversives, yes now stripping away accountability you spot the subversives.  Not the subversive staff,  the subversive pupils, yes whilst we all worry about all those we are accountable to, there are those cunning individuals preparing disruption on a potent scale. They are in the disguise of older pupils usually matured and effective by Y13 but equally competent in Y12 and mastering the art in years 9 to 11. The art of teacher distraction , played out to avoid….a test, an e=assessment, a topic which feels “hard”

This is not silly behaviour issues, of course not,  they know you and me are good, they won’t mess us around, oh no they have discovered a more subtle approach. Operation Distraction.

I first learnt this at school myself. Back in a Grammar School in Coventry ( note Coventry; bombed, blitzed, historical Cathedrals new and old, Coventry) I was in the first generation to learn German and French not Latin and French (oh Mr Gove where were you?). Our German teacher (strictly our German Master) gave us a mini lecture on the Weimar Republic, the rise of national Socialism, and practical matters such as why the salute was so deeply offensive and why we mustn’t bring any light heartedness about such into the classroom. One occasion when we did, he changed, he halted from being our teacher, he reran his lecture taking almost the full hour. We were stunned, but we noted how he was riled, and whilst one of us had to suffer a Saturday morning detention it was worth it, not for the lecture, but to avoid the planned lesson , especially the vocab or grammar tests. (another blogpost will reveal the results at O Level of such a tactic from a class of 32 boys taught in the same class for every subject every year for 5 years).

So dear reader watch for the subversive, they come in various shapes and sizes

1)    The very personable polite enquirer (PPE), the pupils equivalent to the progressive teacher. These take an interest in the everyday lives of teachers “How was the weekend Sir? How is your sick kitten? Sir we have all been wondering as no one has mentioned her again. The affable subversive

2)    The educational politicist subversive. (EPP) These are able to draw out us to distraction by picking up the debates from twitter or even a quick look at the TES.  “Surely you agree with Mr Gove’s latest idea Sir? Do you really think the GCSE is harder?” “Do you think Ofsted would…?”

3)    The pseudo academic subversive (PAS) shows a more subtle approach, by bringing stuff up during the lesson rather than at the start. Their’s is a distraction tactic. “Miss, didn’t you say we should have all read…. only it made me seriously consider…?” “Miss can you remind me where was that article about what an unpleasant if brilliant man Haber was?” Especially colleagues you must be very aware of the A* grade PAS who can also pick the topics which so much more easily get the teacher riled. Along the lines… “My great Uncle is a Chemist, he says the most important aspect of Chemistry is pH Sir, not atoms and bonding, which you occasionally mention.” (Note the politeness). “This is based on his study of Anfinsen when he won his Nobel prize, stated every young man who wants to be a scientist should study pH, Sir.” This sends you into Wikipedia whilst you set some hurried task to the class, in response to your part embarrassed (Who? Did he? Is this Unlce correct?) and in preparation for the return volley. All of which really deserves a QED because the test you were going to give…well it just doesn’t happen

4)    My last group are the wind up subversives (WUS). I have to say I have a secret admiration for these pupils. They are a mature version of group one. They discover your Achilles heel, for example that you are a Coventry City supporter. Mid lesson as they see you about to announce the test having given a few minutes to “check the notes” they come out with. “Sir, what did you think about Coventry buying back their ground thanks to that huge donation from Qatar?” These comments have enough truth to stun , to stop you in your tracks.

 

Of course none of us really fall for this, we know how important are relationships with children, we know the delicate balance of getting them involved and getting them thinking outside the box of the classroom, in fact we are actually hoping to create subversives because we come from a PGCE course where we all read…..”teaching as a subversive activity” but from now on colleagues do not allow a single chink on the armour of making those carefully made lesson plans be executed according to your plans, not ever ever distracted by subversive pupils. They are a much bigger problem than Ofsted will ever present.

I once planned a technically challenging and innovative practical for my Y12 Chemists. Like you I then thought long and hard about the students and the lesson and just knew many wouldn’t be able to get it to work with such complex kit. I then face the rare and unusual comment “oh this experiment didn’t work” so my decision was in addition to demonstrate the set up. So after looking over the instructions with them, there it was a demo of how to connect up the kit to make a conducting polymer. “Now just before you get going…are there any questions?” “Yes Sir?” What’s that Anna ?( not her real name she’s a fully qualified Dr now, and you never know…) “Yes Sir……..where did you buy that necktie, in fact where do you buy all your wonderful neckties?” …and by the end of the explanation and the rant…she didn’t get to the practical.

 

NB for those of you who are outstanding teachers you will have spotted more subversive pupils, click on reply and add their styles – let’s get them back.

By the way Sir “how did you enjoy Warhorse at Bradford Alhambra?”

Some questions to consider
Q1 How do we encourage pupils to “think”, to “question” and “argue” without hijacking our planned lesson, and without it becoming effectively low level disruption?
Q2 Teaching has relationship at it’s heart, we like to take an interest in our pupils, so are we surprised when they take an interest in us? We can say “not now” or “not about this particualr matter” Of course we can, but how do we keep the balance?
Q3 Some points made by pupils bring spark and life to a lesson so how can we foster this to make progress and help support achievement?

For those in a faith community
Moses and Aaron got into trouble in the OT when the suggested to Pharaoh they take a break Pharaoh wanted none of it.
Exodus 5: 4 -5
“Who do you think you are?” Pharaoh shouted, “distracting the people from their work? Get back to your jobs!”
In the NT Jesus wanted a focus on the call people felt was from God. Ultimately Jesus himself had to be fairly single minded in approaching his work on Earth
Luke 9:62
But Jesus told him, “Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Friday Period 5 – Perseverence

/ Mr J Dexter / 4 Comments

I doubt any teacher reading this hasn’t stood in silence in the summer term and looked long and hard at THAT piece of paper. The timetable appears in our pigeon hole or active in the new season of sims. We all look to check which classes, how many non contacts, but above all we head in one direction, to Friday period 5. The last lesson of the week, what I am teaching?

I love Friday p5. Except this year when I am free (more later). Friday p5 means the week of formal work is almost over and the weekend beckons. The bigger gap (a weekend) between a period 5 and the next period 1 (Monday) gives a welcome breather to staff and of course pupils. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten Sunday periods 3, 4, 5……etc but wine O’clock, beer O’clock or frankly just BreakfromSchool O’Clock all beckon.

For several years…

What I have learnt is Friday p5 needs prep like no other lesson. Oh I know some lessons need a lot of attention when difficult concepts or challenging skills have to be delivered, or even when feedback is not going to be easy ( after mocks when we feel we worked harder than our pupils). But Friday p5 is a challenge. Pupils are ready for home, staff can see the light at the end of a tunnel, even the TES ran their articles “Thank God it’s Friday” .
What I have found is:

  • Plan a Friday period 5 lesson well in advance
  • Now prepare that really good lesson (as always) with the fine tuning
  • Take the teaching and learning seriously (no easing up just for Friday p5). It may be difficult for us as teachers to be so challenging on Friday p5. But try, don’t give up
  • Don’t go soft and bring in cakes and biscuits – neither choose that easy lesson, maintain your standards. Do what we say on Monday period 1 > persevere
  • Think all the more carefully how the class and individuals will react
  • Choose activities to suit but keep up your passion and inspirational leading, your pupils usually follow.

I’m a chemist so we have a great subject to deliver and there is an array of weapons for defeating any Friday p5 blues from demo’s, practicals, videos, software as well as the reading, quizzes, worksheets powerpoints and of course for us just great chemical stories. For several years I had a Friday p5 and Monday p1 ‘double’. Yes two lessons split by the weekend. I tried to have a ‘practical Friday’. We (class and me) agreed we were not at our best and so we would take a slower pace and do a practical. This soon turned out to be an error on my part as some pupils sat back, didn’t engage, let others do the practical and then did not learn the skills. The practical did not help the theory. On the Monday when we came to look over the results I faced a spectrum from those who couldn’t remember what we had done to those who had lost results, with little in between. I was tempted to do a rerun demonstration but that sent a message equivalent to ‘forget Friday p5 he’ll do it all again”. I have done tests and assessments Friday p5 too, they don’t bring out the best but they are of course necessary.

But school is more than just that timetable and so as the Friday 3.30 bell rings out school and rings in the weekend it’s farewell. For us, bus duty has an additional ring. “Enjoy the weekend, get a rest, have a break, do your work well” is a great message to pupils getting on the bus but it’s not a bad one for staff.

So this year I am free Friday p5 and find it difficult to be productive – I struggle to do any serious planning for the next week, I am too tired to do marking and it seems to be less books per hour than it does at other times. I try to think what might be happening in the next week and planning that to save time and worry on Sunday period 3, but frankly not much comes very easily. In fact it is my response to a first non contact in 30+ years which has made me think all the more of the importance of lesson prep for Friday p5 and of course all our lessons. Way back in the early 80’s on teaching practice my mentor said to me that every hour long lesson needed an hour planning – he might have been right but I have neglected that, perhaps inevitably as an SLT member. The hour you leave for prep can be hijacked by some crisis, or ‘more important’ task and too often my lesson Friday p5 wasn’t prepped by an hour but by 15 min the night before and 50 metre ( journey from office to classroom). There is a lesson in there and it isn’t an outstanding Friday p5 one.

I’ve done some Friday p5 covers this year, looked at the class on sims and wondered…what mood will they be in? What work has been left? How best do I tackle…. and I have found the solution. Just arrive with the big smile and say it’s Friday period 5 lets get this last hour of learning done really well and then it’s the weekend. So with an enthusiasm covering  my state of mind we crack on together.

One last thing though. Friday p5 has a little gem of a bonus. Possibly six times a year it is swallowed up in an end of half term event. In my school we never finish a half term early, school time is too valuable….well and we can’t get buses any other time! My lesson prep planner says: Christmas liturgy, Easter, Sports awards, Summer farewell. As a younger teacher this meant nothing to do save escort my class or tutor group, and reflect with them the term passed and the holiday ahead. Or as I recall in my first school keep my y11 tutees from being rude about the Heads final assembly ‘ the best part of the holiday can be likened to the first bite of the cherry, after which a little has been lost”. Same words every year. As part of our SLT there are now the arrangements to be made for a whole school activity; logistics to plan, and the cajoling and supporting of others leading those occasions. Some planning as to what should be celebrated, in what appropriate manner and by whom.

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Over the course of a year I think these 40 Friday period 5 sessions epitomise a lot of what schools are about:

  • Teaching and learning at the sharp end of making the very best of the time in a classroom;
  • Of enthusiasm and passion in the face of personal and pupil fatigue
    Of what might be important in the wider community and family, well and frankly in life -ours as teachers, for our pupils and for our community
  • A reminder of the work life balance and that rhythm of life for pupils and staff
    the reinforcing of ethos – what a school, a school leader, a teacher and a pupil think are important and expect.

I think there is a special magic about Friday period.

Oh hang on – Friday period 5 finished and Friday period 6 mean it’s the deputy head detention night……oh well let’s see if anyone is waiting, even that’s all part of the magic too.

 

Some questions to consider

Q1 How do we help our pupils to learn about perseverance, can it only be modelled? Or can we teach it, mark it and inwardly digest it?

Q2 What about when we feel like giving up or giving in, what is it makes us persevere?

Q3 Is perseverance too difficult a concept, it’s not a proper skill, just get back to teaching facts? Hey….. Employers want them to be able to write a decent letter, not interested in perseverance? Hmmm

 

For those in a faith community

The NT is full of references to perseverance, even the classic reading for the wedding day in the character of true love. Paul seems to realise it’s pretty necessary and commends the Roman Church for showing such.

1 Corinthians 13:7

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

James 1:4

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

2 Peter 1:6

and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

Rev 2:2

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.

 

Wednesday Period 0 – Literacy

/ Mr J Dexter / 11 Comments

I must confess I haven’t ever taught anyone to read, even my own children just (did) – thank a teacher there oh and Biff and Chipp. At times in my career I have wished I could really do that. It is so difficult for a poor reader in Y7 to access some parts of a curriculum and I’ve not got much idea how to help them improve reading. As a Y7 Science teacher I’ve got a load of things I want to do with them and for them and they are ssooooo keen, but I have spotted the odd struggler, especially when we read aloud. I do my bit for literacy but I sense I might be a bit late arriving at the party. I am pretty useless at teaching to read and must sound to them like my Dad did to me when he taught me to ride a bicycle “just balance it John, pedal and balance” – as I fell off for the nth time. Dad just could not explain the concept of balancing to a child. I too just seem to say to those Y7…..read, just read, and read more. I think this is also the nearest I got to teaching my own children to read. We read together and I echoed read read read. It can work though, one of my children did read, read, read to the extent I had to persuade her there was more to life than reading (sorry English colleagues) Whilst her SATs and GCSE and AS Levels showed the benefits, that was a mere flicker of what a true love of reading and literature brought to her and can bring whatever any of us “do” for a job.

Kansas State Library

Kansas State Library

I have therefore always sensed literacy skills and reading ability was much more than just accessing school, it’s about all the lovely, wonderful things literature can bring to us. As a child we had very few books at home, an old encyclopaedia (remember them?) and a few dusty ‘Jennings’ books, and the odd ‘Swallows and Amazons’. I have to say that I made up for that once I had some money. But don’t be misled I wasn’t deprived, my Dad took me every week to the local library ( not by bicycle), we took 3 books out for the week. Yes we did, he took three and I did too. I was never very good at English though, I never could see how my own teachers could draw such conclusions from a narrative, to me it was a story, to them there was allegory, moral, message – I was heading for Science. BUT a strange thing happened on the way. In the sixth form (Y12) I found my timetable said Maths, Physics, Chemistry and “English for Scientists“. The first lesson was a difficult one, as Mr Cecil Scholar arrived and asked us what we wanted to do; after all we all had Language and Lit O-Level. We didnt need a qualification, his duty was to help continue to improve our English. On balance I think he wanted to be in that room slightly less than us, he probably had a slightly light timetable and got pushed our way. His eyes did though light up when we made a suggestion. “Sir just come in and tell us about your favourite books, the poems that inspired you, tell us about the plays on at the Coventry Belgrade or the Hippodrome, or even at Stratford (though not the big serious stuff)”. He did, and for the first time in my life I really enjoyed reading; I knew where to start, I could see some sense, even some morals, some hidden meanings. I began the journey into a whole new world. I was destined for Chemistry but I was on track with what we tweeter people would describe as a geniune #lovereading.

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There was all the noise on twitter over the Gove decisions about ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird” and “Of mice and men”. Opinion may be split – ‘what is he doing?’ vs ‘It never did anything for me’. In the 70’s I had few distractions, little on TV and a life of sport and studlibrary on t beachy, today the activities are endless but we neglect giving children the love of reading at our peril. Long might our school keep it’s literacy sessions, stopping only occasionally for a tutor group or a year group (and a teacher) to share what they are reading and why, to encourage the window to be thrown open yet wider. We might need all the tools we can find, so I hope teachers will still use those books and plays and poems and tricks that they know work, and on occasions when they don’t work for a learner, they try something else from the canon. I hope the introduction to a library treasure trove continues. I liked that poster below from the Chicago library about the letters, there really can’t be anything more magical.

In the near future we might be trying to get ‘more Maths” for all those post 16 not doing Maths, I do hope we never neglect the mission to inspire the learner to read, read, read, and #lovereading. Oh and if you are still around Mr Scholar, thank you – the school got no points, no inspection comments but this little scientist was genuinely grateful. As they say if you can read this, thank a teacher.

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Some questions to consider:

Q1 Knowing how important reading is and our desire to foster a genuine love of reading, but do we have to do some forcing when pupils are younger, and older?

Q2 What ways have you found to encourage reading, what works , what doesn’t work for you; for your classes and for your school?

Q3 what got you into reading?

Q4 Should we discipline ourselves to reading an hour a day of fiction, or Educational research, or is a scan over the TES and a bag full of tweets enough?

For those in a Church school:

I’m not Bible scholar but I do note in the New testament Jesus says at least ten times…”haven’t you read?”
reading cartoon

Saturday Period 1 – Research Ed. Me, really?

/ Mr J Dexter / 5 Comments

This is my first attempt at a blog – it probably ‘requires improvement’ (RI) most things do. I hope it might help encourage teachers to become Tweachers(use twitter), read blogs (not necessarily mine) and learn about CPD opportunities. #NTENRED

So Saturday period 1 I usually like to make a long lesson mainly because it comes between Friday period 5 and Sunday period 1 which obviously brings Monday period 1 ever nearer. I try and do very little work Saturday period 1 because everyone tells me we need a work life balance, so no planning or marking or admin, but there is always thinking about school, almost always – there was when I had a full timetable and there is now (as Tom Bennett put it) that I have a fuller wallet and easier timetable being SLT.

This Saturday 3rd May I was in school, not mine but Huntington, there were lots of teachers SLT, heads, researchers and maybe 400 in total (someone can correct me) on a bank holiday Saturday. I got there really thanks to twitter and have tweeted with many people who were there. I think I have met two of them before, I felt I knew them from their writing, their tweets, though not from their twitter images and well it turned out the reality was even better than the virtuality. So my purpose is to encourage you to get on twitter, to get along to a Research Ed conference or maybe a teachmeet. Why?

I wish that I had been able to do a wordle of the day – most common words I heard were: teachers, learners, thriving, progressing, inspiring, sharing, reflecting, evaluating (well and a few more). What I didn’t hear much about was inspecting , Gove (one mention) politicians, targets. So frankly I found myself enjoying Saturday assembly with the inspirational John Tomsett, who in talking to us was as good as his blogs;

Period 1 with Mary Myatt I was seriously reminded about the aspects of teaching and learning I so love. She showed us that research is already happening and easy to encourage and profound in it’s ability to raise energy and passion in the day to day job and its ability to bring life cannot be unedrestimated. I agree

Period 2 with David Weston proved my decision to ‘work’ on Saturday was right as he said so much CPD gets lost once we return to that hurley burley which unlike in ‘that play’ is never “done”. David’s point ‘ the best CPD is aspirational, collaborative relevant, differentiated, sustained, underpinned by research, evaluated and led by leaders who model great learning and demonstrate trust and distributed leadership’ wow just that pearl makes me think about what we can do.

Period 3 we looked at some possible NFER evaluative tools. I find evaluation so hard to do, time being a major issue and was encouraged to see there is no easy, obvious way to do the task. However the tools here looked useful -we’ll see.
Lunch without supervision meant I could talk with a colleague who was also in York. An enjoyable conversation, a chance to catch up with a valued teacher colleague a reminder of the importance of finding a bit of time to do so.

Period 4 is a tricky slot and Jill Berry spoke about the transitioning from deputy to head and her research in that area. I tweeted this was more helpful than much of my NPQH but it was refreshing to hear from a wise practioner who is looking to help the profession on this task and who hasn’t joined the inspection brigade (sorry if you have).

Period 5 was Tom Bennett – those blogs, tweets and books of Tom’s came to life, an enjoyable session reminding us despite being busy practionors that we need to bring research and practice closer, we need to ask the right questions in our quest to find out what works for us, our learners, our strugglers. There is a challenge here, which was recognised as we do have frameworks to work inside and I am acutely aware myself that children get the one chance , but the idea of at least trying to get some overlap between proper research and the classroom is well worth the risks. I reminded myself we teach 80,000 lessons a year in my school, we need to get most of them right, not just worrk about ‘you know what’.

Period 6 OH NO I am only used to a five period day so was this an after school session, revision or just detention. Stephen Tierney showed us how he had made it work in his school. In a skilled presentation with good humour he showed how much he valued the research, how he had moved from sharing good practice to joint practice development. He brought me full circle as we thought about that busy brilliant teacher balancing workload and a home life. If they are doing a good job for young people that’s fine by me but to make sure it keeps on happening help others take on responsibility and spread the effective ideas.

Now if you led a session and I was one of your learners , just maybe you hoped I had learned more, well I have but I can’t get it all in a blog. As well as content there is the inspirational and the challenges. The latter is what I now need to consider. So my starter for four:

1. How do we help staff see they do research now?
2. How do we get more research going and make sure the “good stuff” we already do is caught, shared, lifted and trialled?
3 What do we ‘stop’ to make room for this in the ‘hurly burly’?
4 Evaluation evaluation evaluation.

Well and lots more questions too but they can wait until Sunday period 1 or for this bank holiday weekend Monday period 2.

I work in a faith community, today is the first Sunday after Easter and in church we were looking at story of the road to Emmaus “and they had their eyes opened” Our call and our duty too?