tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65142243425229725662024-02-19T08:22:29.556-08:00Manic Street Teachertangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-45000173761308404082021-04-29T15:40:00.001-07:002021-04-29T22:52:28.465-07:00Condemned to burn in the hell of a fireplace salesman's incompetenceOn the 21st of September last year, I wrote a blog which asked about 'what if' there's another lockdown/disruption to learning as it's handy as a teacher to have an idea of what the plan is, then you can help your students do the right stuff and y'know, teach them things they can use to pass the course. <div><br></div><div>In response (not to my blog specifically) I received many assurances that exams would go ahead. Definitely. Gavin was as certain a certain thing from Certain City. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm just a normal person with no particular scientific knowledge. I'd vaguely heard of the Spanish flue and watched an occasional bit of the news. I had a pretty good idea that Covid was coming back at some point. </div><div><br></div><div>Even if it didn't, I was teaching a mixture of remote and live sessions, had lost a lot of time from the first lockdown and had yet to recieve any update at all about how the exams might deal with that despite it being several months since lockdown had ended. It was mid October until that arrived, by which time, I'd already taught the stuff I could now take out to save time. Nice one. If an individual student had missed four months of teaching, my workplace would have been a frenzy with plans and support contracts. If all the students missed that much, then it seemed the DFE were prepared to do as little as possible. </div><div><br></div><div>All I wanted was a sense of plan B was. If you're going on a long journey, it's reasonable to think of a couple of routes to get there. </div><div><br></div><div>"let's go to Devon!" </div><div>"M5 might be be busy"</div><div>"Well, we could always go via Wales then across to Bristol if it is" </div><div><br></div><div>That sort of thing. </div><div><br></div><div>That's all teachers needed. A sense of what the back up plan would be. That's really not unreasonable to ask for. In fact, if you are in charge of all the exams in the country, it's not really something a humble grunt like me should even need to ask for. It seems an obvious thing to provide. Instead,we've effectively been sat in a traffic jam for months, waiting for the Sat Nav to get a signal, having set of on the journey into peak time bank holiday traffic with only a dogged insistence that "the road will definitely be clear and anyone saying it might be otherwise is a negative enemy of the state who hates holidays and doesn't want us to get to Devon at all" </div><div><br></div><div>Gavin dithered, doing absolutely nothing. Literally nothing at all. I don't know how many people actually work for the DfE, Ofqual and the JcQ combined, but between them, they provided no clarity at all between the end of the previous years exam mess and April this year. </div><div><br></div><div>Bits of information dripped out, rumours and titbits being fed at various meetings and people guessed what might happen, but nothing substantial upon which a school or a teacher could base their plans. In turn, that meant a whole lot of confusion for students about what their exams might look like, whether they'd happen and how and what to prepare for them. </div><div><br></div><div>Finally the plan appeared. Exams were cancelled (cue rejoicing students) then a month later, into the vacuum came... exams (confused students) But they weren't exams, they were assessments. They were like exams. They just weren't exams because the exam boards weren't doing them. Apparently, it's not an exam if you don't put the papers in a big envelope at the end. It's an assessment. That's very different. </div><div><br></div><div>This was all dressed up in so much rhetoric, you'd think the guidance was a constitutional document for a complicated minor Eastern European nation with a border dispute on three sides. </div><div><br></div><div>The result is workload for teachers (tiny violin sounds) but more importantly, for students, a rushed, confusing and absurdly intense period of assessing often incomplete and patchy knowledge. </div><div><br></div><div>These are students who at VERY BEST have learned online for 6 months of their courses. That's the optimum disruption and many have missed significant chunks of time, content and suffered challenges to their mental health from the circumstances. Students who've been stuck in houses they hate, stuck with siblings, unable to concentrate, sent out to work because parents have lost work when zero hours contracts stopped, students who've grieved over their family or just gone a bit mad because you aren't supposed to stay inside for months on end at any time, especially not when you are 15,16,17... </div><div><br></div><div>The response to that from the government hasn't been to offer teaching to fill those gaps, or space to work out what has happened or to appreciate the historical significance, scientific causes of cultural and economic impact of what they've just lived through. It's not been some space to think or an opportunity for people to resocialise or anything even halfway human or remotely thoughtful. </div><div><br></div><div>It's been to test the living shit out of them in a crudely designed, half thought through back of a fag packet, last minute system which uses long words to disguise that it's just a half arsed too late fudge. It doesn't matter what they've missed, what they've been through or what they think. All that matters is they get measured. </div><div><br></div><div>Why? Because Boris wanted to play politics with Covid, because Boris caused a longer lockdown by rejecting lockdowns until he had to lockdown. Because Boris didn't have the backbone to not lockdown because the papers and twitter wanted him to not lockdown in November then lockdown in January. Because Boris is just a windsock.</div><div><br></div><div>The education system was dragged in the wake of the generally muddled and innefective maelstrom of government where everyone was certain but the opposite happened when a different thing became popular opinion. </div><div><br></div><div>So here we are. Living in the hell created by a fireplace salesman who must be the least proactive man in history. Whose reaction to having created a spectacular mess in the previous year was to do absolutely nothing at all until no one could do anything about it the next. </div><div><br></div><div>There is little doubt in my mind that guidance was held back until it was unfeasible for any teaching bodies to reasonably take action against it. Because teachers are utter bastards for wanting to know what the plan is. Imagine that. Being responsible for the education of young people and asking for a plan! Utter bastards, everyone of them. </div><div><br></div><div>If your a fan of passive aggressive control mechanisms, you'll love it. If you are a fan of students being taught well planned and sequenced lessons, leading up to a final point they are prepared for, you won't. </div><div><br></div><div>The lack of planning, communication and clarity was perhaps understandable in 2020. No one really thought there'd be a mad pandemic situation. Even the algorithm could (very generously) be described as 'an idea that went wrong' and we all have those. This year, it's an absolute disgrace, a dereliction of duty and an indicator of a grotesque incompetence or worse, a contempt for the education and wellbeing of the young people of the UK. </div><div><br></div><div>Education has long been a cattle market where the weighing of pigs takes place. This year, it's a shit covered, chaotic place where no one is entirely sure what the right weight is and that is firmly, without question, the fault of the DFE putting politics before basic planning, information and communication. </div><div><br></div><div>We are the algorithm now. That's the trick they've played. Human algorithms for a minister who must be able to write down his thoughts about education on half a post it note and a government whose sum total of ideas is 'outsource it' and whose one major success came when they didn't. </div><div><br></div><div>Bastards. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-15581672163803176692020-09-21T04:20:00.005-07:002020-09-21T14:28:32.576-07:00Covid in Colleges<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgMXO-g4rYSTJGPR8NfXe4FQgn80z6x8mygCIalPgW3cjrSwAeOPJPqPWzy3bEWf-KJ7sj2PA8AklLwxSupOjol6qPadJwLXXegkXmm-qXKgZtVOBeaSlVskUDFxsJA-6as2oVbfBNKC-Q/s640/boris-johnson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgMXO-g4rYSTJGPR8NfXe4FQgn80z6x8mygCIalPgW3cjrSwAeOPJPqPWzy3bEWf-KJ7sj2PA8AklLwxSupOjol6qPadJwLXXegkXmm-qXKgZtVOBeaSlVskUDFxsJA-6as2oVbfBNKC-Q/s320/boris-johnson.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Is this a college? How could I tell? </span></i></div><p>It's been a while. Blogging angrily about teaching isn't good for my mental health. But neither is a global pandemic and silence so here we are. <br /><br />Words, words, words. I'll try and keep it brief and to the point. <br /><br />I was struck by Grant Shapps' announcement today that people must conform to social distancing otherwise there would be a second wave of death. This was a surprise after absorbing a lot of material around June/July which confidently proclaimed social distancing was an optional extra in education. <br /><br />Still, this isn't a time for churlishness. It's a time for clarity. Which again, I could do a riff upon at the expense of our dear leaders, but I won't. <br /><br />The simple fact is thus. I work in a post 16 education setting. It is a large one with significant numbers attending daily. <b>'Obeying social distancing' in any meaningful way is somewhat difficult</b>. It varies across the buildings and classrooms but it's extremely challenging as a whole - <b>Here's some basic reasons why. </b><br /><br />1) Classrooms are simply not designed for students at 2m+ distances. <br />2) Class sizes are not designed for students at 2m+ distances<br />3) Many subjects are not designed to be taught in neat rows with everyone facing forward and listening or writing. Try teaching sewing from a PowerPoint.<br /><br /><b>Colleges have 3 basic options to respond: <br /></b><br />1) Continue as normal or a variation of 'normal' - i.e. all learners on site and clean as much as they can and distance as much as they can. This is clearly and demonstrably not going to square with 'social distancing at 2m+' (which is the widely agreed upon effective range) <br /><br />2) Provide a blended approach. This reduces class sizes but increases workload as teachers are delivering physical lessons and also preparing online lessons for students who aren't present. This will give 2m+ but it won't always provide the level of experience that learners would hope to get and also presents significant problems for vocational or practical classes who clearly can't access equipment or spaces they need to work. To achieve this, colleges need funding in technology, staffing and training. Some colleges barely have satisfactory computer and WiFi facilities for teachers, let alone machines to plug the gaps in students home provision and access. <br /><br />3) Provide remote learning. This will solve social distancing completely and arguably provide a more manageable workload but it's got the clearest implications for learning. All the issues of model 2 are exacerbated and funding for technology and training become even more important. <br /><br /><b>Complicating the issue are a number of factors (these are not exhaustive) <br /></b><br />1) Colleges educate the most virulent group of all - the 17-20 yr olds. Unlike primary schools, this group are also in work much of the time (and bearing a significant load in covering for older staff in part time work) and are also generally more social, have wider friendship groups and finally, travel from a much bigger catchment area. Colleges typically serve an area stretching up to 10 or 15 miles in any given direction and sometimes much more in rural areas. <br /><br />2) Colleges don't have meaningful options to create bubbles outside of purely vocational courses where students study a single subject. A typical student will be in different classes each day and thus the primary model of 'small class bubbles' collapses. A year group bubble can consist of thousands of learners. This is not really a bubble. It's more like the air outside the bubble. <br /><br />3) Colleges sit uniquely between schools and universities. They have an intense programme of study and a significant amount of information to impart. Their learners are there, almost entirely, to 'get qualifications' - Primary schools have much more freedom (as do secondary schools for some year groups) to adapt curriculum to address changing circumstances. Universities effectively set their own assessments and thus can adapt as well. Colleges have to deliver a crammed post Gove curriculum from day 1 and have no input into the assessment process. <br /><br />It is therefore the case that the friction between 'Health and Safety' and 'Learning' is at a high point within colleges. <br /><br /><b>What therefore must colleges do? </b><br /><br />1) Ensure that they are not treated as magic places where Covid19 doesn't transmit, or treated 'the same' as a primary school. Colleges are more akin to the largest workplaces than they are to a primary school. </p><p>2) Measure costs of providing effective learning, be it through additional staff and reduced class sizes or through significant investment in technology. That is currently extremely challenging for budgets as they are. Either route requires external funding. <br /><br />3) Pressure exam boards and Ofqual to reflect further on exam content. There needs to be a reduction in content and a clear plan B. As it stands, learners are receiving and have received a wider range of delivery methods than at any point in the living memory of State education in the UK. Students have faced and are facing disruption. Simply saying 'no changes' is not good enough. <br /><br />The result of carrying on regardless is conflict between guidance. Stay distant but teach everything. Less contact but catch up. The instructions cannot resolve. It's not a case of reframing or attitude. You can't make 2+2 equal 5. <br /><br /><b>Why do exams matter so much? </b><br /><br />The pressure this puts on learners is the biggest issue. Some students may have had continuous input from creative, tech adept and well resourced teachers. Some may have very little input from teachers who have not had the resources or experience to provide quality online learning. Some learners will have faced significant disruption, some may even have been forced to work to support families. Some will have had access to technology to receive input, some may not. Some may have been ill themselves and others not. <br /><br />In essence, we're facing a lottery with regards to students preparation and a lottery that the chances become slimmer of winning, the lower down the economic scale we go. <br /><br />The very group for whom education has the most potentially transformational effect is the very group who loses out most by charging on regardless and paying no heed to the situation because they are most likely to be under prepared and under resourced. <br /><br />Our students need to know 'what if?' - they need reassurance and clarity. They need to know their grades will not be subject to the contrived and ultimately calamitous circumstances of the previous set. They need to know that the system 'has got this' - come what may. <br /><br /><b>And? </b><br /><br />We've had a dress rehearsal. Now the system needs to step up. <br /><br />To achieve that, we need to put aside the notions of competition and speak as one about how we get through what is to come. We need to unite and make clear that without structure and clear, timely communication, without targeted funding to solve problems, unless a structure of support and openness replaces a structure of guarded secrecy and punitive inspection, then we will let down the young people in our colleges and potentially place our wider communities at needless risk. <br /><br />We need to share answers, resources, and ideas. We need to be honest and forget about 'reputation' and 'marketing' as these factors simply muddy the situation and prevent us from making the right choices. As a sector and as a country, we should be able to deliver high quality education. We should be able to do better than scrabble around constantly reacting to change with cheap solutions and half measures. We should be able to make educated guesses about the future and plan different strategies that then get followed through. We should be able to include different voices in this process. <br /><br />We should be doing better than back of the fag packet responses and pretending it's 'normal' <br /><br />This is the duty of us all but currently, I'm looking at the DfE with my glasses on the end of my nose and a hard stare. <br /><br />Keep safe x <br /><br /></p>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-43460107062058772018-03-13T14:29:00.002-07:002018-03-17T03:04:34.664-07:00Efficiency and exam boardsI am sick of being told to find 'efficiencies' so I'm going to tell some other people to find them for me.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://slightlychilledporcupine.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/image7.jpg?w=625&h=426" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="625" height="218" src="https://slightlychilledporcupine.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/image7.jpg?w=625&h=426" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">source: https://slightlychilledporcupine.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/the-grinding-gears-of-bureaucracy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've always thought exam boards are really bizarre organisations. Who knows quite how they work? They seem to work on a shoestring, with hoards of part time staff on 0.05 contracts and spend their time passing the job of marking out to anyone they can get their hands on with a pulse and a vaguely relevant qualification even though most of those people already work 50 odd hours every week. In the mean time, someone who runs them gets an OBE and everyone says it's a jolly good show and we all go around for one more dance.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I've got a fish tank and some free time between 9:06 and 9:21pm?" </i><br />
<i>"Great, you can mark biology A-level then!" </i><br />
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I have every sympathy for them in some ways. They live in shadow of the QCA, soaking up the ire and frustration of teachers which really should be aimed at 'the man' itself. Lets be absolutely fair - it wasn't any of the exam boards who were sitting about saying '<i>what these kids need is more grammar and remembering' </i><br />
<br />
but...<br />
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I do think there's a huge amount exam boards could do about general teacher workload and here's a few ideas and reflections based on my experiences with new specifications in the last couple of years. (I'll name no names as I understand from my colleagues that the experience is pretty universal)<br />
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1: Think about the fact a <b>specification should be a document for students to read (at least in part)</b> and carefully consider the way things like assessment criteria and coursework requirements are presented. At least <b>some part of the specification should be designed to give directly to students</b>.<br />
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In my spec, criteria spread across pages - I want to print out and give to students but every single student needs two pieces of paper, not one.<br />
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In my spec a lot of the language describing the tasks and criteria are obtuse. It is fair to expect different levels of outcome, but <b>it's not fair to leave students baffled about what exactly it is they are supposed to be aiming for.</b><br />
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2: Provide some<b> simple student focussed resources that can be used in class</b>. Video would be great. A simple talking head video explaining what the assessment is, what the criteria mean. Why not? Why leave students at the mercy of varying interpretations by teachers, some of which will be inevitably inaccurate.<br />
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3: <b>Organise the information properly</b>. My specification has some criteria in it whilst some others are in sample mark schemes. Some content is outlined in the specification, some things are in notes on the website, somethings can't be discovered unless I log into a secure site and find additional material. Some further things have been added to the 'news' tab of the website and still more emailed or revealed in online training sessions.<br />
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It's 2018, <b>digital information is really easy to organise and update</b>. As a member of a subject support group on facebook, I'd say 60-70% of posts are people asking 'where is X?' - that can't all be people who are too lazy to look - it must be an indication that the information isn't well organised.<br />
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4: <b>Provide a hub for teachers to share resources</b>. Why not? It's the absolutely ideal point to bring staff together and share resources. Why is this happening in 'the TES resource sharing area' (a private organisation profiting from education) or within ad hoc groups online but not at the source (i.e. the exam board web page)<br />
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Perhaps particularly useful resources could be 'endorsed' by the exam board, reducing their own workload in terms of providing training and support. In time, the exam board website could become a really well used hub <u>saving people lots of time and sharing good practice</u> which could only benefit learners.<br />
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5: <b>Actually encourage teacher feedback</b>. It's genuinely hard to speak to anyone who is actually responsible for the content of the spec or the information on the website. It can be a positively Kafka-esque conversation and getting a response beyond 'Thanks, we have logged your comment' takes real perseverance.<br />
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As someone who is essentially the user of a service, I'm amazed I've not had a survey to fill in, or a phone call to discuss my impressions of the new specification and points where it could be developed. It's not that I think I have amazing insight, it's that ultimately, I am paying the exam board to enter my learners, I am paying them so I can fill in reams of (sometimes ill designed) paperwork or to sit trying to work out what the hell criteria x or y actually means and I feel as if it doesn't matter what I think, it doesn't matter what my experiences are, it's a 'put up or shut up' arrangement which seems to be<br />
<br />
-----<br />
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These five suggestions would (I think) go a long way towards eliminating some of the long evenings spent trying to work out exactly what it is that 'the exam board want'<br />
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I'm well aware that it might be challenging for the boards to fulfil these points as I get the impression they aren't exactly generously funded at 'ground level' but if the Government is actually serious about teacher workload, it could do a lot worse than look at the work which could be saved 'at source' which for many of us is the exam board.<br />
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A small amount of funding here, to enable proper oversight, to update technical expertise, to provide a really good service and some full time commitment (at least in the first year(s) of a new specification could pay itself back many times over in time saved by teachers and thus more time to actually teach, assess and do things that really develop and benefit young people.<br />
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I'm not sure me endlessly rooting through quasi legal documents really is the ideal use of my time in terms of educating young people holistically.tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-59197528351316632412018-03-11T05:27:00.004-07:002018-03-12T03:05:51.629-07:00When your taxes get spent on adverts then you know something is wrong.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for Boardroom" src="https://green-park.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2016-01-15-1452878597-5079383-gender-392x224.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'We need a more aggresive YouTube presence - lets get rid of some TA's and hire a marketing assistant!'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Hello reader. I pay tax.<br />
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I don't really mind cos I'm not that handy with my fists so I'd probably get eaten in a total anarchy and also they pay my wages so it would be a bit contradictory to be against taxes cos I'd have no job cos it'd probably be only rich people that went to school beyond the age of 7 and I'd be working in the silicone chip mines instead or have a job tending the maggot farm at 'prole foods inc' or whatever dystopian alternate reality scorched earth disaster porn vision floats your salvaged boat.<br />
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I'm not that fussed about paying tax because I'm not planning to open an armed gated survivalist community and I can afford potatoes and even stuff like that posh ginger cordial in a glass bottle. Neither am I planning on living in a tree with free loving like minded souls living only off nutrients leached through the souls of my feet.<br />
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I do think, though, that it might be an idea to question what tax gets spent on sometimes because (and this is where the fun bit ends) I'm not sure that public spending and a free market style vision for the public services really works that well.<br />
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I see on a daily basis (using my eyes which then sends signals to my brain which I use to process and make sense of the images in front of me) evidence of the fact that there isn't enough money being spent on some things which should have money spent on them.<br />
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You can make your own list using your own eyes and brain to eye wiring - It shouldn't be that hard if you have access to a high street or any public services.<br />
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Anyway, to keep things on track, what surprises me is the fact nobody seems to be outraged at the fact that a big chunk of the money given to schools to spend on their stuff, like teaching and learning and going on trips and all that normal 'getting kids to know about stuff and be able to do things' gets spent on advertising.<br />
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Sit in a school boardroom. Listen to the endless conversation about 'market share' and consider the number of hours spent 'considering what the competition are offering,' the money spent on branding, the hours spent trying to convince potential pupils and parents that school A is better than school B, the sloganeering, the full colour glossy brochures, the photo shoots, the videos on websites, the time spent creating 'positive news stories' the search for 'our USP' and so on and so on.<br />
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Think about how with academisation and the impact of central funding cuts the razor's edge of the 'marketplace' gets even sharper.<br />
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Think about how we can't afford<br />
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- to properly resource SEN support<br />
- to finance either decent workloads for teachers or pay them in line with interest rates<br />
- to do anything especially innovative or unusual<br />
- ten million other wider social things which inflict problems on education system.<br />
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Think about how it maybe cost effective for the individual school to compete but ultimately how the money spent on competing for students overall is a waste as no matter how well marketed and branded every school is you can't increase the overall consumption of the service offered. One school will win and another will lose. This is fucking schools we are dealing with. Not Shreddies or computer consoles. Schools forced to fight within a closed marketplace set up as an ideological experiment.<br />
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The total number of schoolkids is the total number of school kids. End. There are x numbers of school places and y number of kids. Overall. No amount of marketing can change that.<br />
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It's not like a can of coke where you can buy a variable amount of the commodity on offer. Parents aren't going to think 'wow, I like this school thing, I might send my kids again in the evening' or 'can I get a bigger size or a multipack?' - There is a woeful lack of deeper thought about this.<br />
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Even if the <a href="http://manicstreetteacher.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/bad-satire-some-maths-and-bit-of.html" target="_blank">average marketing spend is only 2% per schoo</a>l (that figure is misleading as it represents only the direct costs, not the indirect costs of time - for example, the indirect cost of a head teacher drawing up a marketing plan, which is drawn from ideas generated by a head of department, drawn in turn from ideas from the staff body or the cost of x number of staff representing the school on a weekend open day and receiving time in lieu) - then we are wasting a massive chunk of public money on playing a nonsensical game of 'survival of the fittest' instead of considering what it could be spent on to benefit the learners and manage the duties of teachers so they can in turn, benefit the learners.<br />
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What is frightening is no one seems to really know what the 'norm' is in relation to marketing spend. It doesn't seem to be monitored and scrutinised in the same way that a 7 year old's mastery of reflexive pronouns are. It doesn't seem to be subject to the same kind of penny pinching meanness that school milk or free lunches are. It's apparently wasteful to give a child a meal or some calcium but perfectly fine to give an ad agency a brief for a pointless logo change. I couldn't find any government papers or analysis relating to the impact of marketisation or it's recent acceleration.<br />
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Think about everything we apparently can't afford in the UK and think about how we seemingly CAN afford to allow schools to compete over pupils with little or no thought given to it.<br />
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<b>Think about whether you want your taxes spent on adverts or something else.</b>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-1702678480637783422017-11-01T12:33:00.000-07:002017-11-01T12:48:49.172-07:00Deserters will be shot!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAvkAAAAJDQ3ZDIzZmFlLTNjMWEtNDJiMy1iN2NkLTFhYzFmNGE2MjQyNQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="180" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAvkAAAAJDQ3ZDIzZmFlLTNjMWEtNDJiMy1iN2NkLTFhYzFmNGE2MjQyNQ.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's pretty clear that teaching is a toxic profession right now. The combination of botched curriculum reforms that are unfit for the needs of the students, a performance management system that forces us to take responsibility for things we can't control, pay freezes, creeping private sector involvement, workload, Kafkaesque data systems and a pathetic amount of reflection time in comparison to more enlightened countries make working in teaching a pretty joyless experience at the moment.<br />
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I want to write a short piece starting with a reflection about the prevalence of the TES and Guardian 'That's it, I can't go on' articles which seem to be particularly en vogue at the moment.<br />
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There is a common theme to them. Summarised they tend to go like:<br />
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I wasn't a 'struggling teacher'<br />
I did everything I was asked and did my best<br />
I pushed myself to the limit for the sake of my students<br />
I found myself in a terrible place mentally<br />
I battled on and tried really hard.<br />
A straw broke the camel's back<br />
I quit.<br />
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There is no doubt about the validity of the personal experiences these articles cite. There is no doubt that there are some monstrous management regimes in education (as in most walks of life) and little doubt that teacher burnout is a major problem. I have nowt but sympathy for the people who have actually broken under the weight of what is a pretty impossible job to actually do all of.<br />
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I think the prevalence of these articles on 'teacher social media' <i>(I want to kill myself acknowledging I know that is a thing) </i>is symptomatic of a misunderstanding about what brings about change - Essentially it's a collective naivety, it's like we keep expecting someone to change it<i> for </i>us. For someone to sweep in and make a magical decree on behalf of everyone and click their fingers and suddenly teaching is a great happy place.<br />
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The only people who can change this system meaningfully are teachers and if we keep celebrating the fact teachers quit by enthusiastically sharing, publishing and recommending the stories of their breakdowns we are really only serving to further our own misery. We are perpetuating the idea of ourselves as victims of a cruel system we can do nothing about.<br />
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<b>What we need is a clear understanding of the key problems facing schools and a broad agreement around what we want. </b><br />
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We need a common framework that the majority of teachers agree would improve both their conditions and the experience of learners. Year after year after year we swing from political regime to political regime and like a pendulum move back and forth adapting to ideological changes and political career making. It's time to say - no more! Yes, it's satisfying to fantasise about walking away from a job but it doesn't achieve anything beyond throwing another NQT on the bonfire, rinse and repeat.<br />
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I'm not going to quit. You shouldn't either. At least not if you enjoy at least some of your job on some level. You should start seriously thinking though. Wha<i>t I </i>think is important is the following:<br />
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1: Schools should be controlled by LEAs. It is more efficient. Maybe the LEA model needs reform, I don't know, but academies are fundamentally damaging to employment rights and inefficient.<br />
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2: Schools should co-operate not compete. Funding must be a longer term arrangement, not simply based on x number of pupils = x amount of money. This forces schools into competing for learners which is a significant expense of time and money, and can result in forcing learners to complete courses which don't suit their needs because they dare not 'lose' or 'fail' a learner who might be better suited to a different environment or course.<br />
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3: In order to achieve 2 we really need to consider the impact of league tables on standards. Has there *actually been a positive impact?* (I'm interested in any evidence if anyone has any - it's always struck me that 'competition improves outcomes' is a truism that in 15 years teaching I've never seen any actual evidence of that isn't either statistically questionable given the shifting nature of exams and 'standards' or just a basic re-framing of an essentially ideological belief - clearly in sport, footballers try harder in competitive situations but they also get lots of rest, can see their opponent and are playing a simple game - lets not just accept the situation 'as is' as true.)<br />
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4: We also possibly need to really consider carefully whether outcomes tell us the real story of education. There's a fascinating study which suggests the real impact of education is not how children perform NOW but how they perform much later in schooling. It suggests that teachers who focus on real skills and underlying concepts and attitudes as opposed to cramming for the test are punished for not cramming for the test, but actually add much value to their learners on a longer term basis. In other words, feed the pig junk food and it'll get fat. Feed it health food and it'll live much longer or produce much better meat. We reward the junk food feeding. If I was actually writing a book I'd link to it. You'll just have to believe me because I haven't had any dinner yet and this is a bizarre cathartic ritual for me to try and clear my mind because it's full of thoughts and I seriously need to switch off. If anyone wants to send me a few thousand quid then I'll take my academic duties more seriously and start adding footnotes and all that jazz.<br />
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5: Teachers need to focus on teaching, assessment and reflection. Nothing more beyond an open day and a parents evening. The clue is in the name.<br />
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6: To do this effectively on a 23-25 hour timetable is already an almighty challenge. We know that genuine AFL and other effective strategies are built around reflection, preparation and thoughtfully constructed lessons. We know parents and learners want a system where staff have time to actually engage with kids and know them on some level. Not possible in the current system.<br />
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7: So therefore the priorities for us must be to a) reduce teaching hours per week by a significant amount. b) to guard against any reduction in teaching being filled with admin/marketing/data generation. c) to ensure this time is given to creativity and development of teaching d) because only this will improve the outcomes (both measurable and not) whatever model of pedagogy we subscribe to.<br />
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8: The money this would cost could in part be clawed back from the funding not being spent on competing and more efficient use of LEA services. I also think we could vastly simplify the exam system and save money there. The point being, that yes, we do need funding increases, but these increases must not be simply spent on making a broken engine run faster. Plug the leaks in the exhaust.<br />
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9: We must stop working 60 hour weeks. In simple terms, by doing so you are cheapening your labour and the labour of everyone around you. You tell yourself 'it's for the kids' but you are modelling a world in which the adults around them don't value themselves, don't value their rights and opportunities, don't stand up for themselves. In an increasingly volatile labour market and faced with stagnant growth, automation, gig economy bullshit, these learners are going to HAVE to stand their ground and demand a world that affords them dignity and humanity.<br />
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10: If you spend your time running miserably from job to job, doffing your cap to authority all the time how is that 'modelling' anything positive? 'Hey kidz, work hard, stay in school then you can get a good job and be miserable as fuck' - Teacher mental health and student mental health are entwined. Live with someone who is constantly unhappy (hello partner, I'm sorry, I love you more than I can say) and it'll grind you down (again, I'm sorry! I WILL be happier!) Don't give me some 'I don't let the kidz see' bullshit. They aren't stupid. They see exhausted, tired, drained adults trying desperately to communicate stuff they don't really see the importance of and understand absolutely the game being played. It's not a nice one.<br />
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Neo-liberal education isn't a pleasant bedtime story.<br />
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<i>"Once upon a time there were some grown-ups, they were sad because they had to make some children try and do some things when they'd really rather have asked the children to do some different stuff. They didn't really understand why the children had to do the things but they did their best because it was what is called a 'target'. So, the grown ups all did it even though it took ages and seemed pointless and it made them even sadder because they felt rubbish doing it and the children were sad because they didn't like it or know why they were doing it and that made the grown ups sadder and it all just carried on because that's the way it is and next year the grown ups had to do it better to beat another school down the road because that matters more than happiness or sunshine or anything and that's all anyone can imagine because 'targets' are a bit like God" </i><br />
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I'd MUCH rather read a child Nietzsche. Less scary.<br />
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11: We MUST support direct action. There are no excuses. None what so ever. Ask yourself seriously, genuinely, honestly, even if you<i> want</i> to work the hours, even if you want to climb the ladder, even if you love the job from bottom to top, from every intervention to every single column of data in every spreadsheet; can you look around your school and not worry about the staff? Can you look at your learners and honestly think 'this current incarnation of British education is working really well for them!'<br />
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I'm having my dinner now. It's over. Revolution begins and ends with you*.<br />
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*I don't really know if that's true, in fact, I suspect it isn't, but it's a nice way to end. What does truth matter anyway?<br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-18734006212324929522017-10-12T13:51:00.001-07:002018-11-29T13:55:48.234-08:00There's a maniac on the loose in the school<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>In which I begin with a moment of levity before writing an unremitting splurge of bleakness</i></div>
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Lets imagine a scenario. A masked person (of unspecified gender) bursts into a school. They open fire, killing, maiming and injuring both children and teachers.<br />
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The government, fully aware of this just shrugs and says 'carry on as you were'<br />
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That scenario seems unlikely.<br />
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I am old enough to remember my primary school (and high school) being a pretty 'free range' kind of environment. It was eminently possible to walk in (and indeed out) of the school but despite this it seemed fairly unthinkable that it wasn't a safe place to be. I remember Dunblane which changed that belief forever and now your average school resembles a low security prison.<br />
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It seems unlikely that the government would just shrug and allow things to remain 'as they are.' Evidence suggests when faced with a threat like Thomas Hamilton, the authorities act with fairly swift and decisive action.<br />
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Lets consider now that this 'gun wielding maniac' is a device. A manipulative weapon wielding device employed by the writer to grab your attention and focus your mind on the issue at hand. We are not actually considering the unlikely and almost impossibly painful possibility of a school massacre.<br />
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Let me present you with a few facts to guide you to what we are considering:<br />
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The suicide rate amongst primary school teachers is<b> double the national average (according to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/primary-school-teachers-suicide-rate-double-national-average-uk-figures-a7635846.html" target="_blank">this</a>)</b><br />
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One of the prime causes of suicide amongst young people is exam pressure (according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/13/suicides-by-young-people-peak-in-exam-season-report-finds" target="_blank">this</a>)<br />
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This <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/exam-stress-linked-to-teen-suicide/" target="_blank">well researched exploration </a>explains that 27% of the suicides of young people studied in the report had at least some link to exam pressures.<br />
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-antidepressants-stress-workload-suicidal-one-in-ten-nasuwt-a7684466.html" target="_blank">This article</a> explains that <b>the majority </b>of teachers feel their job has impacted on their mental health in the last year<br />
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<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/04/30/sats-risk-giving-children-mental-health-issues-education-select/" target="_blank">This article</a> - reports on the education select committee findings on the impact of primary testing on the wellbeing of learners.<br />
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However trite my analogy is (and I'm aware it's not exactly a sensitive one) the point is clear. We can link 'the education system' to the poor mental health of teachers and learners and even go so far as to suggest some link to the deaths of teachers and learners.<br />
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Even if we take away the hysterical proposition of the gun wielding maniac and replace it with someone who at the school gates intimidates, frightens or physically harms the children, it's really quite unthinkable that action wouldn't be taken. Not taking action would be considered a gross neglect, heads would roll, scandal and outrage would have its day, newspapers and phone in shows would fill with frothing fury and bilious outrage. 'Schools MUST be safe places' we would shout.<br />
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Danger is not always visible. Sometimes you have to look beyond what you immediately can see.<br />
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Now, lets take the analogy a little further. Suppose the gun wielding maniac had attacked and escaped. Suppose there was nothing to suggest they wouldn't do it again.<br />
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Suppose the response from the government was to <i>take away the fences, security doors and id badges? </i><br />
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Perhaps you're ahead of me here:<br />
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- <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/04/30/sats-risk-giving-children-mental-health-issues-education-select/" target="_blank">Here is an article</a> that deals with a parliamentary enquiry explaining the impact budget cuts have on mental health services<br />
- <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39592567" target="_blank">Here is one</a> of many articles explaining how workload increases are putting increased pressure on teachers<br />
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IF you've read this far, your probably aware of the corrosive impact of targets on education, you probably know that schools have to invest a huge amount of time and energy into the exam performance (at 7,11,16 and 18) of their learners. You probably know that if local authority schools fail to achieve a certain standard they are threatened with forced academisation which strips teachers of their hard fought rights and fundamentally changes the school's relationship with the support structures which surround it. You might be aware of the confusing and often botched changes to the GCSE and A-level structures and the removal or loss of focus on many of the more 'humanistic' subject areas in favour of measurement of a specific group of subjects.<br />
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You might possibly just look at the above articles and the brief paragraph of context and humour my overstretched analogy.<br />
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What if there was a threat to pupils and teachers alike, what if it was demonstrable, real and happening right now and the government just did nothing? What if our schools were infested with mould or dangerous wiring or some other kind of physical course of illness?<br />
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Why don't we take the raft of evidence of the impact of a target driven education system seriously? Why don't we listen to teachers and pupils when they speak out about this? How many breakdowns and suicides does it take before we take reform seriously and commit ourselves to properly looking at the needs of pupils (which are intrinsically linked to the needs of teachers.)<br />
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How do we allow education and the lives of those who live in it (young and old) to be subject to the whims of a tiny group of elite ministers who often have little or no experience of either comprehensive education or teaching?<br />
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I'm not suggesting that suddenly we can instantly turn education into place of happiness and joy unconfined overnight. Teaching is inevitably challenging and young people will continue to have complex mental health needs and suicide is something we should never simplify to one cause.<br />
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I am however suggesting very clearly that there is an identifiable human cost to some of the bad decisions made in education policy and a real negative impact from the structures imposed on schools and that we must, collectively, as parents, teachers and learners demand a more human system in which we are all encouraged to learn and teach in a more healthy way.<br />
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If we don't address this, the costs will keep mounting. We have to focus our energy, not on whining but on action and clear demands - not just for pay settlements and bribery for teachers to join shortage subjects, but for real changes. For pupils to receive an education which is broader and healthier than being drilled in grammar and Pythagoras or whatever 'because it's on the exam.' For teachers to be able to reflect, plan and access professional development and find some joy in their work. For us to be able to understand and appreciate that learning counts even if it isn't attached to a grade. To understand that teaching should be about giving people liberty, giving people skills, giving them things that make their lives better and that this isn't a stupid and romantic notion, it's actually the foundation and reason for the development of humanity.<br />
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We spend an increasing amount of time marketing schools, fighting in a competitive market place for learners, badging, branding, proclaiming USP's and asserting our 'identity' - why are we doing this? Does it have any impact on the actual experience of our learners or the quality of our teaching? Let's play a little mental exercise based on 'They Live' (a film in which a bloke discovers some magic glasses and sees the world as it is)<br />
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If we don these glasses, do we see signs like 'St Winifred's Academy - Our teachers are unstable and our support systems are overwhelmed, but with luck your child will escape with their self esteem intact' or 'Crowsend Primary - where 60% of the teachers are 'overwhelmed' and year 3 +6 are a miserable nightmare where you kid will learn a load of crap and forget about childhood'<br />
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Please can we properly discuss the mental health of our education system like grown ups? Can we drop the rhetoric and assumptions and have a <b>really good think about it.</b> Please can we at least <b>try</b> to fix it? We can send people to space, we can collide hadrons and have 76546 TV channels to choose from but we can't manage to make the innate (and very socially necessary) human skill teaching of young children a job that doesn't directly increase your risk of serious mental health problems?<br />
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<b>What is this world we live in? Who is it for? Why do we keep perpetuating it? </b><br />
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What would your answer be to the problems posed above?tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-80058616132662005942017-04-27T14:43:00.000-07:002017-04-27T14:43:28.068-07:00Bad satire, some maths and a bit of literature at the end. <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I really get annoyed with the 'Now Show' on R4. When I occasionally catch it I am struck by its mediocrity and the image it evokes of its audience irks me to. I presume the audience to be people with nice big oak kitchens baking a recipe from a guardian supplement chuckling to themselves about how witty TV rejects Punt and Dennis are about the government mishandling of social care which is a terrible shame. Sigh.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is the attitude of envy. I consider myself to be a cheeky banter monkey with an eye on the topical pulse but as yet R4 haven't offered me a contract. I haven't asked them but trying is the first step to failure and we all know a chip on one's shoulder is a serious medical condition worthy of a living allowance and ideally a medical prescription for two or three pints with someone who agrees with you about things. Plus I've got a shit kitchen.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Anyway, I'm going to take the brave step of attempting to create my own 'Now Show' style sketch. Granted, it's a radio show and my sketch includes visual imagery but again, if politicians don't have to live up to their promises, why should I? (that was a warm up gag. See, it's going to be a doddle...)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">An office setting - two people dressed in business uniform. Gender and ethnicity of cast is unimportant but they must be well dressed. An air of anxiety pervades. This could be politicians, leaders of a school or hospital or the management team of a large business. </i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A:</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There's a serious structural crisis in the heart of this organisation. Our systems simply don't work.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">B: Call a branding manager</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A: But... couldn't we go and Google something and make the decision ourselves - It can't be that hard surely?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">B: No, because then we'd be responsible for something if it went wrong + the whole exercise would be over in about 15 minutes and then we'd have the rest of the week to fill. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A: That's what I call </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">strong leadership</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">B: We owe it to the organisation to do this properly.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I'd carry on but I can't be bothered. My teeth are getting blunted with all the biting savagery contained in these words.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Frankly, the sketch is awful, but I do think it contains more truth than much of what passes for communication in our lives. I'm all for well being and positive thought, but it feels like we've passed through a looking glass into a world where everything is what someone says it is and not what it actually is. Linguistic games matter more than truth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Now truth is a tricky concept, I concede this. We can wrestle over 'the truth' but I'd suggest that it isn't to be found in branding exercises. Recently I conducted some independent research (I googled stuff for a bit) and found that the average UK school has a marketing spend of about 2% of it's budget. This is a questionable truth, but even if the figure is closer to 1% it's quite a spectacular figure if we do some maths.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There will be some maths in a moment. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I absolutely understand why school managers would pay this money. It is after all, essential to attract learners to schools as the funding of the school and therefore the jobs in the school depend on it and so on and so on. We could even probably do some maths to decide its money well spent in a lot of schools.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVkobdjzzkmINdAiFwwnlh9x54ueGhYBvrQI1vavXR-QkaLI0qrusC3j74xzsBfPyupPgQdh6_z1TqUl1FqBphZyy9bFqE1KT-9MloyKCsVgf9wU4ufjw6UBa0tRFdqPiXVBaNT1Fl7-5/s1600/Screenshot+2017-04-27+at+22.16.19.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVkobdjzzkmINdAiFwwnlh9x54ueGhYBvrQI1vavXR-QkaLI0qrusC3j74xzsBfPyupPgQdh6_z1TqUl1FqBphZyy9bFqE1KT-9MloyKCsVgf9wU4ufjw6UBa0tRFdqPiXVBaNT1Fl7-5/s400/Screenshot+2017-04-27+at+22.16.19.png" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;">This is an extract from the first result I found when I googled 'school marketing budget' </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It isn't this 2% figure that scares me per se. It's the fact that </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">this sort of policy is required as schools need to compete with each other</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">. It's that no one questions it seriously beyond a little griping.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Here's a little maths exercise. If we assume (falsely) that teachers work 40*37.5 hrs per week then what time benefit could that 2% have if the money were spent on teaching? Let's just assume the money is spent on more teachers thus freeing the existing teachers up a bit.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Neatly enough 2% of 37.5 is 45 minutes. 45 minutes X 40 is 1.25 days. Someone from Pisa (the global education league table people) suggested (in an article I can't find but does exist) UK education is stuck in the doldrums because UK teachers lack reflection time. Without reflection time, teachers mentally can't produce the high quality lessons, engage in the professional development required to improve, consider their learners as individual people and the things that every decent teacher aspires to do. Without reflection time, teachers are 'getting by' or 'burning out' (or climbing out if any managers are reading this, I see you!) </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">According to </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/533618/SFR21_2016_MainText.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">government figures</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> there are over 450000 teachers in the UK (statistical equivalent if we add up all the part time ones to make full time ones)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This means that, if schools stopped having to pretend to be businesses and spending money on glossy brochures, adverts, staff managing outward facing social media accounts and painting the face of a teenager on the back of a bus with the slogan 'Thropp Academy - a pathway to your future' we, the UK publicly funded education profession would be gifted with precisely 571125 days of reflection time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">That is 47500 months of reflection or over 1500 YEARS of reflection time every year.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">So, lets remind us of my sources.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A) PISA (I assure you, there is an article! - but the point works anyway even if there isn't, reflection = better teaching, PISA state quality of teaching is vital)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">B) Government figures. (I even linked them)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The above isn't taking into account the time that goes into meetings and 'fact finding missions' worrying about 'what the competition are doing' that doesn't appear on the balance sheet by senior staff (on larger salaries) or the cost of time spent by teachers on marketing exercises - it is clearly a conservative estimate of the true</span><b style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> cost of competition</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">. Whilst the 2% figure is a fairly educated guess (coming from a survey in which 300+ schools were surveyed to attempt to establish 'best practice' in marketing schools) the fact that academies and free schools are likely to push marketing spend UP not down makes disputing it's precise accuracy a fairly moot point in the humble opinion of this blogger.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In other words, my shit sketch is trying to show that </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">applying the logic of capitalism to something that isn't essentially capitalist costs money</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">. Costing money costs teachers time. Teacher time lost costs learners. Marketing might be cost effective for school A but school B either improves its brand image (spends money on marketing) or suffers the lost students (loses money.)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">the trap</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> we are in.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A business can expand exponentially or alter its product fundamentally if it loses market share. Whilst of course a school can change its character or build another building, ultimately it is a school, providing GCSEs, SATs tests and various other aspects of the national curriculum to a local population - it is a service.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">My final point occurred to me as I wrote. It seems the homogenisation of education created by first a national curriculum and second, a stringent regime of pseudo 'standards' (measurement would be a more apt term) coincides almost precisely with the boom in school marketing. It's almost as if we collectively believe that being told we have choice and freedom in our education means we have choice and freedom in our education!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">To badly paraphrase Kafka, the door is open, but for some reason, we just don't seem to see it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We are trapped by our imagination. By perceiving what is as what has to be.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want to rebrand the word 'efficiency' I want us to really work out what it means to us.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">(Now work through the exercise above and change teaching to 'the railways' or 'the council')</span>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-62467750345023328762016-12-04T05:43:00.001-08:002016-12-04T05:43:57.072-08:00Workload thoughts on the side of a mountain. <p dir="ltr">It's the weekend and I'm in the hills. Right now. In the beautiful, raw countryside. In a minute, I'll set off and hopefully walk these thoughts out of my head but for the moment they hang like a cloud in a windless sky, refusing to go away. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I've got quite a lot to do. I'm sure you do as well. I don't know any teachers who don't. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I need to work tonight and initially I felt fine about this, a bit of planning, sorting some resources to put online and tidying up a bit. Then I remembered another thing, and another thing, and another thing. Now I don't want to get the laptop out at all because I've got a stark choice, either choose one thing and don't do the other things or try to do all the things and do them badly. </p>
<p dir="ltr">See, it's not like I've been taking it easy recently either and I'm hovering on the edge of being ill. I'm probably a bit 'ill' in a mental way to be honest at the moment though to be fair, I feel no worse than I usually do generally, I just notice I'm more emotional than usual and I react badly to anything unplanned happening. So, what I'm trying to say is that getting a good night's sleep is also important to me. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Therefore, the third option, stay up past midnight to do all the jobs 'to a standard' seems like a bad idea. </p>
<p dir="ltr">As a teacher, I yearn for a bit more simplicity, a bit more focus. A bit more time to reflect and breathe. An opportunity to do a good job on one thing, not a bad job on six. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm tired of having no space in my head to think about other stuff, of being cantankerous and stroppy at home because my family seem to have about 10% of my focus. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm tired of working with 8 other exhausted people who in all likelihood feel like me. I'm tired of the dark mornings and dark nights. I'm tired of never having an 'easy' day, of never cruising and always challenging, questioning, motivating and pushing. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm tired of feeling like I'm behind, even though I've worked to point where I'm yawning all Saturday and in a foul mood most of the weekend. Even though I've no discernable life and think about teaching virtually constantly. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm tired of academies and faith schools and pay disputes and pay scales and learning walks and making every second count and no hands up starters and purple pen marking and learning journeys and evidence and inspection readiness and everything else. </p>
<p dir="ltr">So I'm going for a walk and I'm not going to think about it at all.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I hope these thoughts resolve themselves into a plan. They often do. The best ideas tend to happen when you don't try. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Now, out with darkness and in with light and air. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Nearly the end of term. </p>
<p dir="ltr">X </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qHfnQI1QmYrt7RVXNNkiBtw-9b_QDHlomkSvWtTogZ-O1lSM6vZ5Fms2SDnja00Ynd0qIOXILqiLdycP9puNIMBjzOAQMSCFIJrhPDKoWvYIOjjCUU6HWAGw9Xm249CHW11JNK0IF_Xm/s1600/1480858987477.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qHfnQI1QmYrt7RVXNNkiBtw-9b_QDHlomkSvWtTogZ-O1lSM6vZ5Fms2SDnja00Ynd0qIOXILqiLdycP9puNIMBjzOAQMSCFIJrhPDKoWvYIOjjCUU6HWAGw9Xm249CHW11JNK0IF_Xm/s640/1480858987477.jpg"> </a> </div>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-15567422136638653472016-11-08T19:21:00.000-08:002016-11-08T19:24:12.114-08:00Work/life balanceI can't sleep.<br />
<br />
I know why I can't sleep.<br />
<br />
I can't sleep because I didn't work tonight. I did go in work early and work productively all day, (9 hours) but I didn't come home and work more, so I can't sleep.<br />
<br />
The reason I didn't work is that I'm tired and I'm prone to becoming insular, grumpy, downright unpleasant and alienating when I work too much. This isn't good for the people around me. Like the 5 year old for example.<br />
<br />
The problem is, when I don't work, I become anxious. I get worried that I'm going to 'get found out' or that somehow I'm doing a bad job, being lazy.<br />
<br />
But if I counter that feeling by working all the time, I alienate those around me. It's a viscous circle. Here's another one below. I wish we could all think about this one collectively. When did we decide collectively stress was good? What kind of stupid macho pseudo-american dream are we locked into?<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image result for vicious circle" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAWmAAAAJDEzYjYzOGQ4LWY2Y2QtNGE2NS1iZjNiLWNjZjljZWFmNWM1ZQ.png" /><br />
<br />
To get to sleep I tried<br />
<br />
- writing a plan of the day tomorrow<br />
- 7/11 breathing<br />
- visualising somewhere nice<br />
- the radio<br />
<br />
They didn't work.<br />
<br />
In the end I wished I'd just worked all night instead as then at least my time wouldn't have been wasted worrying about the 100 million jobs I've got to do.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I really, really, really hate this job. I hate working to a timetable, I hate not being able to go to the ebb and flow of my own creativity (I'm the sort of person who works in bursts,) I hate the fact I have to stand in front of people all day tomorrow and try to present a chirpy, cheerful and happy face. I hate the fact I have to be coherent and empathetic, strict and soft, make a hundred human judgements, maintain high standards whilst also showing understanding and all the time be an expert. I hate the fact I'm supposed to do all this whilst simultaneously recording it all and demonstrating I'd anticipated it all beforehand somehow. I hate boiling everything down into grades. I hate chasing learners who just apathetically shrug knowing that teachers will flog themselves into the ground for them because that's what the stupid system has taught them will happen. <br />
<br />
I hate the fact <b><u>everybody knows</u></b> the profession is facing a mental health crisis, a recruitment crisis and a retention crisis and the best we get is a few tips on 'mindfulness' as if that's going to fix systemic problems and the underlying general anxiety of being a teacher.<br />
<br />
If I did a 'normal' job, I'd have the day off, I'd take some leave, I'd work flexi-time to earn it back or whatever. I feel like absolute shite. I've not had a day off in 3 years. This is not a normal job. I will not have a day off.<br />
<br />
I'm fine with mindfulness. I really am, but it's a sticking plaster on a gaping wound and we deserve better.<br />
<br />
Am I the problem. Is my mind the problem?<br />
<br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-59145880568242316002016-11-08T12:45:00.000-08:002016-11-08T12:46:14.023-08:00Rethinking the room<div dir="ltr">
We see a lot of debate, and rightly so about the efficacy of tech in the classroom.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Does it impact on results?<br />
Does it lead to positive measurable outcomes?<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
That's all fine, of course we should want to prove the benefit or otherwise of technology with something evidence led.<br />
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We shouldn't head sheep like towards the future, seduced by vague notions of digital literacy (however self evident the benefits may seem) or by branded visions of a seamless and slick personalised experience with every child at the centre of their own (i)education.<br />
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What I believe we should do, is start to look beyond the technology itself and think about the spaces we ask our learners to deploy this technology in. As education becomes (at least potentially) more student centred, the vision of groups arranged in lines or horseshoes (or whatever) seems increasingly anachronistic.<br />
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Devices potentially free us from desks, allow us to consume in our palms or literally on the tops of our laps. Should we get rid of the desk? If so, how can we utilise the new found space in our rooms? Perhaps we could divide off part of the classroom for quiet contemplation, for reading or watching with headphones. Maybe we could add a couple of booths for recording documentary voice over, video diary entries and viva voce responses.<br />
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In creative subjects like music or drama the 'practice room' is a fairly normal concept - should this be part of life in an average classroom? The project room or spaces, where small groups of learners prepare work to demonstrate to the rest of the class?<br />
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That whiteboard? It belongs to the learners. Teachers are able to distribute materials without limit now, so gone are the days of copying or all looking at the projection. That can happen on learners devices so the whiteboard(s) are free for learners to map ideas, make plans, explain concepts and record as photographs.</div>
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Come to think of it, shouldn't everything be wipe clean? We don't want to lose handwriting but can't we capture it more creatively? Are your windows potentially a resource for learners?<br />
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Does the dark have a role to play? Can we focus learners on their task by turning off the lights and therefore focusing attention on their back lit devices and away from themselves and each other and all that self conscious awkward noise...<br />
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And when we put the lights back on and put the devices away, are we actually more likely to have a conversation about our learning (that can be recorded) if we don't have the barrier of desk or little cliques and can sit in a circle. Perhaps desks make much less sense if we don't actually know where the front or back of the room is.<br />
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I'm not a big advocate of education following business but I think there is some value sometimes in comparing school to the workplace. Just about the only workplaces I could think of which asks their workers to sit in rows or lines is the call centre, the Victorian Mill or some Dickensian vision of a deathly dull banking job. What does it say when we can still see classrooms, even ones equipped with multi thousands of pounds of technology essentially set up this way?<br />
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So, to come back to the essential point. Let's think about how technology can shape our spaces and therefore our relationships. Only then can we really judge it's true impact. Using it in the current setting is crudely like trying to write on paper with chalk. Let's stop breaking our nibs on slate and be brave in our designs for our learning environments.<br />
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If we want our students to engage in the technology to its true potential, we have to create the environment that enables it.<br />
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All of this rather suggests we should think about doing something about the<a href="http://manicstreetteacher.blogspot.com/2016/09/digital-lobotomy-bearded-tits-and-exam.html" target="_blank"> exam system as well as ultimately having the world's most exciting classrooms counts for nought if we are preparing learners for a series of rote learned memory tests conducted in factory conditions</a>. </div>
tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-61587362697377852222016-11-03T13:11:00.000-07:002016-11-03T14:45:00.414-07:00Do they REALLY need time to eat? Couldn't they be LEARNING? <img alt="Image result for melting clock" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/17/ac/c9/17acc9b408971c61123354fe050d00e5.jpg" /><br />
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I've blogged several times about the mental health impacts of over working and pressurising young minds.<br />
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<a href="http://manicstreetteacher.blogspot.com/2016/09/national-education-service-and-one.html" target="_blank">(here</a> and also <a href="http://manicstreetteacher.blogspot.com/2016/09/let-play-flaws-in-this-idealistic-vision.html" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
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Today I want to showcase the thoughts of a young mind. (I apologise to said author for describing him in such horribly patronising adult tones) </div>
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A good friend of mine posted their son's thoughts onto a social media site. He wants to point out the absurdity of the demands of the education system and the impact it has on his life. He is absolutely right. I don't actually know the lad in question, but I know he is keen to do well in school and generally motivated. I know his mum has brought him up with all the good stuff we as teachers would want parents to do. The point is, he's a 'good' learner who wants to do what he's told and values his education but has spotted the flaw in the instructions...<br />
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Below I share his post, (in his own words) as he has expressed the absurdity very succinctly. </div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"At school all teachers say</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> we should read through our books for twenty to thirty minutes each night to reflect on what was noted last lesson. Altogether I have eight subjects each day and if you do the maths, school think I should read for 4 hours each night then taking in the factors of maybe extra curricular activities and other clubs in which we may participate which can take up to and hour so, altogether 5 hours is spent doing homework and activities. We leave school at 3:25 then depending on your bus journey to wherever you live, could potentially be another half an hour . </span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">So let's say you arrive home at four then add on the 5 hours from before, and it's nine o'clock. The average amount of sleep should be ten hours for a person my age taking in the fact that you might have to wake up early to catch a bus.</span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">On an average night I will go to bed at nine to wake up at seven, that is exactly ten hours so that's good but that means on most nights there will be no social activity or leisure.</span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">So for five days straight you're practically being drilled by work and other things that may be on your agenda so your only free time is your weekend and at the end of maybe a seven week term you will have a lot of tired students that cannot perform to their maximum capability. </span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Hang on though I haven't even got time to do any of my set homework or even eat at the end of my day."</span></span></div>
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<b>You can stop reading now if you like as that's the main point really, but I've got a few thoughts below. </b> </div>
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1) If we train learners that overwork is 'normal' then we are not setting a good precedent for healthy lives in work. Even if a 15 yr old is 'tough' enough to last the course in education, continue to work all night every night and sooner or later the black dog is going to come knocking. </div>
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2) If our learners have no time to engage with news, culture, friendship, family, hobbies or whatever else <i>how are they going to relate their knowledge to anything</i>? How are they going to develop the ability to question anything they are told? How are they going learn anything deeper than the textbook? </div>
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<i>How are they going to cope when the net of school is taken away and their time isn't planned and mapped out?</i> </div>
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3) As a teacher I bemoan my lack of time. I feel anxiety when unscheduled events happen as my life is a never ending attempt to balance work and personal duties like sleep and occasionally acknowledging the existence of people like my child and elderly frail grandmother. </div>
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How does the child of a chaotic home feel? The child who is a carer, the child who suffers a trauma, the child for whom the demand of a 10/12 hour day is plain ludicrous. The child who struggles in a 'normal' day to get to school but is being told consistently that it's 'not enough' </div>
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I chose my career, I'm mature enough to have developed strategies and I still wobble close to the razor's edge of mental health all too often. </div>
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Learners haven't chosen their path, they haven't the pragmatism, the coping methods, the CPD and often the support network of caring and experienced colleagues who keep me sane.</div>
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<i>If constant long hours and draining, intense days leave us empty, then why on earth are we making learners go through the same thing</i>? </div>
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<b>In conclusion (a slow build to a rousing crescendo) </b> </div>
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I'm not going to say 'there's no place for homework' - there is, clearly, some place for learning and working and thinking between lessons especially at certain points in the year and as learners move higher in the system, they must learn to work independently. </div>
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However, it's reaching an absurd situation when it takes a pupil to point out to a school that they haven't factored in time to eat. What is the collective salary of that school's management? This lad isn't even sitting his GCSEs yet and he's worked out your advice is bobbins. </div>
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It's an absurd situation when 7 yr old kids are practising exams at home. WHAT FOR?! WHAT THE HELL ON EARTH FOR?! It's an utterly ludicrous disgrace of elephantine proportions when a thoughtful, clever, witty, worldly wise A-level student says to me "<i>I don't have time to read anymore</i>" - There's more knowledge and wisdom in the works of a great author than most a-level syllabus' combined. </div>
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Have we lost sight of what we actually want? It's not just about 'children being children' - that's an overly romantic and sentimental way of approaching a wider malaise. Deep down it's about understanding the value of wonder, play, daydreaming, rest, philosophising, exercise, friendship, exploration and freedom for all of us.</div>
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It's about our humanity. We are not just empty vessels to be 'filled up' by someone else - We are the sum of our experiences and the less time we have to have them and understand them, the less human we are. We learn all the time, from everything and education must be a focal point for making sense of our lives, working out who we are, what we want, helping us with choices and bringing clarity to thought but it must not be our lives. </div>
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<b>Work does not make us free. </b></div>
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We demand a human education system, not a factory education system. If you're a teacher reading this, make it happen <b>now</b>. It matters. Stop being pathetic and bleating <i>'oh the government, oh the targets, oh my career development'</i> - <b>WE are the education system, not them</b>. </div>
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Now read a good book and have a good night's sleep. You deserve it, you've worked damn hard today. You did your best. Tell yourself this more often and you might find the courage to tell your learners the same more often. They might not look so drained and the energy might be infectious. Hell, we might even enjoy ourselves from time to time. </div>
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tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-60195999760805296212016-10-03T14:50:00.002-07:002016-10-03T14:50:42.101-07:00Finally some tech!If you don't know me, I'm one of them tech teachers. The ones who go on about tech like it's going to change the world.<br />
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Well, it is, it has and it will continue to do so, so shut up, sit down and listen.<br />
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I bought a new laptop, for myself. I've used Apple stuff for a long time and have experienced a slow falling out of love with their ecosystem. Their devices are nice enough, it's just a shame they see fit to fill them up with laggy bloatware operating systems and nagging reminders to update x or y every time you move the mouse.<br />
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I have bought several Chromebooks for others. I've recommended many more, but I've never actually owned one myself. I use Google's ecosystem constantly. Hey, I'm even a 'Google Super Admin' - get me!<br />
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I wanted a Chromebook. I wanted a cheap laptop that I could use myself, something I could pick up that wasn't stinking all over with the sweat of work and was my own. That didn't cry 'check your work email' seductively in my ear when trying to do something for myself.<br />
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So, I bought an ASUS flip.<br />
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Why? Because loads of people said they were really good. Because I wanted something that would work a bit like my tablet but had a keyboard. Because I couldn't be arsed buying a PC laptop and putting linux on it.<br />
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Is it any good?<br />
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I love this machine. It's light, fast and the keyboard is perfectly respectable. It feels slightly cramped if you think about it, but it's more than adequate. This entire blog is written on it and if you've read it, you'll probably testify to the fact I can go on a bit!. The trackpad is small but responsive and feels very natural - it's a world away from the horrendous excuse for a trackpad on some of the PCs I've used. They've got the 'tap to click' function exactly right. That bit works better than my MacBook pro (work machine.)<br />
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The keyboard isn't backlit, which is a minor shame, but the quality of touchscreen is a revelation. I thought it would be a bit shonky. I was expecting not much better than the old pressure based phone screens but it's lovely. It's seems more 'slidey' than the the iPad air2. I don't know why, but it seems my finger glides better across it.<br />
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The screen is probably the weakest part. It's an IPS screen, so it's got lovely viewing angles but it's only 480p resolution. That's not a massive issue as it's only 10" - I wouldn't watch 2001 Space Odyssey on it, but it's fine for watching iplayer or something. For typing and web browsing it's perfectly good. <br />
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Chrome OS is so simple and slick. I knew that already though. But it is. It really is. It deals with loads of tabs well. (I'm a tab-whore) and the 4gb ram lifts above a lot of other Chromebooks about which are slightly under powered in this department.<br />
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The integration with Android apps is excellent. I've not found anything that it doesn't deal with. An app like 'medium' feels like a native app. Oddly, the tablet element feels more natural at times in laptop mode in certain apps. It's lovely to rest it on my knee and use the screen at the normal laptop angle in certain apps. Drawing feels more natural this way somehow. I don't know why, but it does. Apps do <i>occasionally</i> glitch, but I was able to play GTA SA on the Chromebook with no major issues beyond a glitch if I switched it to tablet mode. I was also using in for a long time in developer mode.<br />
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The flipping aspect is well designed, the bezel is solid and tent mode makes a mockery of those horrible tablet cases which never properly stand up.<br />
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It's a lovely machine to look at in full aluminium and the real joy (in comparison to a tablet) is the connectivity - two USB ports, HDMI out and a micro SD slot. It can deal with my (android) phone perfectly well and I can add music/files with no fuss.<br />
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The speakers aren't bad. They're laptop speakers. What are you going to say about them?<br />
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It boots up in 7 seconds. I can switch between accounts in 7 seconds (switching between accounts on my Macbook often requires a full restart as MacOS grinds to a halt when I ask it to do this)<br />
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In short, I couldn't really be happier with it. It's a device I use to consume but it's also (and this is key here for anyone interested in edtech) a lovely device to produce on. The fact I can scribble on the tablet OR use a full fat version of Google Apps with a responsive keyboard OR turn to the Android market place gives it a real edge over a tablet for me. <br />
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It cost...<br />
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£199.<br />
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Which I think is really quite a bargain.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for asus flip chromebook" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/laptops/Asus/Chromebook%20Flip/Asus%20Chromebook%20Flip-10-970-80.jpg" /><br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-18272730858906632922016-10-02T05:21:00.001-07:002016-10-03T13:17:21.712-07:00Wanted! Depressed and anxious adults to look after young people. This is my lunch break from marking. It's Sunday and I've already alienated my family because of work and am missing the sunshine. Oh woe is me. (tiny violin) I really hate moaning teacher stories. It does my head in.<br />
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I know why they moan, but the lack of direct organised action is pathetic and the same people who moan are the idiots who mark all weekend and make the job impossible for everybody else who wants a sense of balance in their lives...<br />
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<i>Wait a minute. Um... Er... </i><br />
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<i>I have become the thing I hate. Next I'll discover I drive an estate car and have a mortgage! </i><br />
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Anyway, on a day when my 'happy place' is a bit difficult to find, I'm consoling myself by trying a new way to mark more efficiently and effectively (oh, the delicious irony of preaching efficiency on a Sunday) and listening to Terry Riley. The latter is wonderful and is just about the only thing stopping me driving to Dundee in my bare feet. The former seems to at least have novelty value that makes the mind numbing task of saying the same thing again and again with slight variations slightly more bearable. It's a bit like being Terry Riley. (one for the fans of avant garde neo-classical composers there.) Hey - I've got another one for you - wait for it.... Should I give them all a C? For slightly different reasons? (that's 95% of the blog readers gone then. Still, the joke was worth it) <br />
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Anyways, I was just chuckling wryly to myself as I stood by the kitchen window, allowing myself the guilty treat of seeing outside for a minute and thinking about teacher mental health in a different light.<br />
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<a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/eight-10-teachers-have-had-mental-health-problems-and-workload-blame">https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/eight-10-teachers-have-had-mental-health-problems-and-workload-blame</a><br />
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Imagine the outcry if the government announced they were specifically going to employ people with mental health issues to teaching positions.<br />
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Could you imagine if a core requirement of the job description was to be '<span style="color: #0b5394;">currently experiencing or recently have experienced chronic stress, crippling anxiety or a total sense of hopelessness and overwhelming misery'?</span><br />
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Oh, we're all for inclusion of people with mental health issues in wider society but <i>'what about the children' </i>etc...<br />
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It makes you wonder doesn't it? What if the powers that be deliberately constructed a situation in which young people were looked after by people experiencing the symptoms and reality of mental health problems? What if indeed? It makes me chuckle wryly. Or slightly insanely. I don't know any more.<br />
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The essays aren't bad to be fair. There's always that. It's worth flirting with semi permanent clinical fed upness for. I get paid I suppose.<br />
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File this under 'top teacher banter'<br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-61516526131016722016-09-28T13:15:00.001-07:002016-09-28T13:16:58.623-07:00National Education Service and one reason why it matters. <div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="82dc" name="82dc" style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">
(originally posted some weeks ago elsewhere) </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">I’m sorry - I’m going to post a political viewpoint. I’d like you to read it. That’s the way social media works I think. It’s quite long. I think you are supposed to tweet or post memes and that.</span></div>
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I work in education and have done for nearly 15 years. In that time, I’ve seen funding come and go but never really felt like a politician really did anything because they 'get' education especially.<br />
Politicians always focus their ire on 'standards' as if setting targets will have a miraculous impact on educational standards and teachers are lazy, poor, lacking in ambition for their learners and so on.</div>
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Increasingly I’ve seen students pressurised by this target driven culture - if you give teachers targets, that passes on to students. I know as I am a teacher but it’s obvious really, even if you weren’t. I could write more, but I don’t want to get into details, you all get the idea if you have a kid or have a passing interest in education. Targets have perhaps driven standards up in some ways, we certainly coach exams better, but are they effective in developing genuine literacy, critical thinking and autonomous learners. I’m not sure. I’m not saying that targets don’t have any place. Clearly some teachers and some leaders require oversight, I’m not daft, I’ve worked with and been taught by poor teachers but its as if targets have become the entire education policy.</div>
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I am convinced that this target culture is having a detrimental effect on mental health. The health of young people and of the adults in 'loco parentis.' If you really want to know more about target culture and why it’s the great white elephant of our time, please watch 'The trap by Adam Curtis. It explains it better than I ever could.<br />
But the targets keep coming and crucially, vitally and disgracefully, the second chances stop. Targets and standards. Cost effectiveness. Rigour. No resitting, access to HE and University costs. A lot. An increasing amount. Access to basic skills and adult courses slashed, costs increased.</div>
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This increases the pressure on students. Not only are they being pressured by teacher to succeed in an outdated, outmoded system that only tests a small proportion of their human potential, they are also clearly and economically told 'If you don’t get it right now - you don’t get a second chance'</div>
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In my life I’ve met many people, from being 15 in Wigan with mates who were cleverer than me but never went to college, to going to University and sharing a house with an older bloke who left school at 16 with one GCSE and won an award for the quality of his degree work and was fighting off offers from the university to stay and become an academic and all that, to the kids who are brilliant, witty, incisive, who understand stuff in an instant but can’t write an essay, to the managers and colleagues I’ve had who’ve told me they failed first time round who have convinced me that branding people for life by their achievements at 16/18/21 is a failed endeavour.</div>
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That no amount of hot air, pressure, investment or pedagogy is going to make EVERY CHILD SUCCEED AT THE SAME TIME. None.<br />
I try hard, I try very hard. Some of my colleagues try so hard I think they’ll burn out, some of them have and yet our kids drop out, pick wrong courses and even occasionally fail. We do our best.<br />
The girl I taught in Stoke, who was utterly wonderful who I couldn’t believe had joined the college 4 years ago without a single GCSE and was now doing a foundation degree. What happens to her life if there’s no second chance, no access to adult education, no stigma about not getting it right first time? Does she have to scrabble around trying to find a course and if she’s lucky pay through the nose just to make up for suffering debilitating eating disorder which nearly *killed* her? Did her teacher 'not care?' - or is the truth that in this case and many, many others, she just wasn’t in the right place at that precise point.</div>
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There is no panacea, no world in which every teacher is the perfect teacher and every child overcomes the barrier. All that is a useful thing to aim for, to try to achieve, to want, an aspiration. But when that becomes the only hope or option, lest kids get frozen out the system and aren’t on 'top form' at exam time because of a broken heart, or the death of a parent, or an eating disorder, or just not getting it right there and then or misreading a question or being a bit immature or getting into drugs or being a carer or having to work too much or whatever else we are in a situation where the education system is letting these kids down. Not the teachers there then and now but the system which should, could and must be there for them when they are right and ready.</div>
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There is no excuse for not trying for kids in the now. None. That’s a million miles away from my point. This isn’t defeatist rhetoric saying teaching isn’t important, of course it is but if want a real effective education system it has to be a life long thing.</div>
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Which is why, Corbyn’s promise to restore universally free education to all should be being rejoiced and praised to the high heavens by people who care about learning and the prospects of young people. A society worth anything would give people opportunities. Progress, culture, technology requires risk, a by-product of risk is failure. Only an education system that has a safety net for failure can ever really produce the country where the population meets its potential. A system where blanket targets reduce kids to statistics being coached desperately to pass exams for the sake of passing exams that have no meaning other than labelling 'success/failure' and that further to that, seems to be gluing those labels ever more securely, making it harder and harder to remove or replace them will only ever produce an insecure, uncertain and unhealthy population. This much Corbyn gets. No matter if he’s scruffy or cantankerous or too laid back or not as witty as Dave or as 'strikingly leader-like' as Teresa, he actually gets the fact that education really, really, really matters and you can’t just shout 'do it better! ofsted! standards standards standards, league tables' - that education is about EVERYONE, not just schools.</div>
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Life is education far more than school. That should be only one bit of it. School matters, but you are old for a long time. Adult education matters more to working class people and minorities than it does to people who are middle class. That is a statistical fact. The more culturally alienated you are from the white middle class values of the school system, the more it labels you 'thick' and the more you deserve a second chance. Similarly if you are have a barrier to learning or perhaps discover later in life that you have. Or if you are in a job and the job ceases to exist. Like they do.</div>
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It also matters if you, like me and millions of others think you’d like to learn something new to contribute to society, the economy and increase your employability but can’t afford to even think about it.<br />
I don’t think I’ve ever believed in anything as much ever. Sorry for the long post. Just shit matters and that and too much in my head and all and people are trying to make out that not sitting in a train carriage matters and believing a private rail operator is a really trustworthy news source when it comes to rail privatisation and I don’t know about that because I wasn’t there, but I *do* know about this and it matters more than shitty spin and stupid press games and Westminster.</div>
tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-43600777083023787482016-09-27T13:48:00.000-07:002016-09-27T13:54:09.967-07:00The cost of success? Vocational Qualifications and their flaws. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>A song about work. It's sort of vocational.</i></div>
<br />
Let me get something very, very straight before we begin. I am a huge fan of vocational education. I'm an even bigger fan of any sort of qualification which allows learners the opportunity to express the thoughts outside the straight jacket of the exam system. In no way shape or form am I seeking to denigrate the potential of 'non traditional' options - in fact, just the opposite. I believe<u> at their best</u>, these qualifications are more exciting to teach and produce work of greater value and depth than their academic equivalents.<br />
<br />
Lets be clear on that. <br />
<br />
A colleague of mine (a fabulous, committed teacher with lots of integrity) expressed a view today that because of the x number of learners they taught last year two of them failed to achieve the top grade (we're talking maybe 5%-ish) the 'value added' score would be unsatisfactory.<br />
<br />
This is a story I've heard before. Many times. I've watched teachers of vocational qualifications attempt to apply rigorous and realistic standards but end the year demotivated, having given everything, having taught with vigour and vim, with creativity and sensitivity, with innovation and intelligence.<br />
<br />
Why?<br />
<br />
Because their work in gaining learners qualifications is deemed 'not good enough' when even what seem on paper to be the outstanding pass rates and high levels of achievement, are placed in a national context.<br />
<br />
Lets think about why this happens. Lets do a little thought experiment about what happens when people under intense pressure to improve constantly are give qualifications where more or less, the outcomes are up to them. Lets call it 'subtle, creeping grade inflation' for want of a better name. The temptation is obvious. Each institution thinks 'we can do a little bit better' - each institution thinks 'we must do a little bit better' - each institution looks along the line and sees their neighbours, their peer referenced colleagues 'doing a little bit better' and they encourage staff to do what it takes to eradicate 'pass' grades.<br />
<br />
Teachers feel as if those grades are not available to them, as if giving a learner those grades will create scrutiny, will create negative feedback so they avoid at all costs those grades. The best teachers achieve it by teaching brilliantly, by reviewing content, reviewing assessment, motivating learners, finding interventions that work and so on. The worst simply don't give out 'pass' grades and carry on pretty much as before.<br />
<br />
A few years pass and it's the middle grades under pressure. 'Lets minimise the number of merits' suggests an ambitious manager. It seems the best way for a school or college to climb the league tables.<br />
<br />
See the above process but now it's harder. The best teachers still battle and try and reinvent the wheel, looking for less drag, less resistance, better grip or whatever else suits this wheel based educational analogy.<br />
<br />
Soon teachers find they are under pressure to give only the highest grades. This comes at a terrific cost for those teachers as the qualifications aren't designed for everyone to achieve at the highest level. If they were, why do the pass and merit grades even exist?<br />
<br />
They discuss this. They think 'it's my school! - they put terrible pressure on me...' but when they look at the VA scores it suggests that it isn't. The senior managers say 'well, our expectations are in line with national trends' and who can blame them for that? What senior manager is going to ask their staff not to work to national baselines? What senior manager is going to last long if they do?<br />
<br />
In a purely hypothetical world entirely unrelated to this blogging teacher's reality someone who is a union rep might ring their union to discuss this, to attempt to get this on the agenda at a national level, to get the topic of grade inflation in this area seriously explored and challenged. They would be surprised to be met by obfuscation and 'confusion' about the issue from their union.<br />
<br />
They might then discover that the previous week their teaching union doing a conference seemingly sponsored by the large and powerful body which provides many of the vocational qualifications which seem to have caused the issue. They might wonder cynically if the lack of interest from the teaching union might be connected to their seemingly cosy relationship with the exam board. They might wonder why a body whose sole purpose is to represent the interests of their members isn't interested in this issue despite being provided with an explanation that the pressure on staff teaching these qualifications is the single biggest workplace issue and despite the clear explanation that "if you stop pretending not to understand and actually think about the fact that this set of results only yields a VA score of 4, it can't be a question of malpractice from one particular institution can it?" and that either the union doesn't understand VA or aren't interested and either outcome isn't especially satisfactory. <br />
<br />
Long sentences can result from frustrating situations. It's a little known rule of grammar.<br />
<br />
<b>So where do we go from here? </b><br />
<br />
We start demanding the right to use a range of grades which reflect learner outcomes. We demand it of ourselves, our colleagues and our institutions. It takes <i>every single teacher </i>to take this deadly seriously. Let's not even consider the madness of performance related pay in this context. The sheer insanity of making pay judgements related to to grades which in some cases the teacher is almost entirely responsible for giving. <br />
<br />
<b>Why do we care?</b><br />
<br />
- Because if we don't it means these qualifications get a bad name. The learners who genuinely apply themselves to the challenges and come out with fabulous work which puts your average GCSE or A-level work to shame are prejudiced against by universities and employers.<br />
<br />
- Because if we don't this sort of schools based vocational education will go the way of coursework. I remember coursework being a brilliant thing. I was good at it. I still remember doing it and what I learnt. I can't really remember sitting any of my exams. What does that tell you? Coursework became synonymous with 'maximising grades' or 'making the most of the coursework' - a thinly veiled reference to practices of dubious educational merit or value. Where is coursework now? I don't agree with Gove on much, but I do agree that in some ways coursework was becoming a joke, a cut and paste exercise in learners slugging through draft after draft after draft, with little room for expression or actual enquiry. In short, the opposite of what it should be if you believe in the power of independent enquiry and innate curiosity and so on.<br />
<br />
- Because if we don't grade learners accurately they soon become demotivated. They stop learning as what's the point?<br />
<br />
- If we never allow failure (in a relative sense) we never allow risk, creativity, innovation. These qualifications rely on this.<br />
<br />
- Because it's a betrayal of the importance of vocational qualifications. We actually need, as a society, to know who excels at Health and Social care or Engineering or Arts or whatever. <i>These things matter</i> as much as who gets to rub shoulders with the Bullingdon boys at Oxbridge. We need to treat this branch of education with the same attention and care we do 'academic' qualifications. We need a rigorous system of external examiners which should include schools and colleges quality controlling each others assessments in the spirit of critical friendship instead of competing to out do each other. The awarding bodies need to actually provide some support here, instead of sitting back and raking in the cash. The application of GCSE/A level style exams within vocational qualifications is a start, but it does rather beg the question - how are these actually distinct from their 'academic' equivalents. If they can't afford to properly moderate coursework, then they need to be funded equitably so they can provide the same level of support as exam boards do.<br />
<br />
So. What do we do?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-64566499383377406472016-09-26T14:11:00.003-07:002016-09-26T14:11:37.994-07:00Busy... So, I don't really have time for a long blog tonight. Two things spring to mind. One, I had a double session with a class today. I showed them something complex and interesting which I felt they needed to see in order to understand the concepts and requirements of the forthcoming work. I felt constantly anxious that I should have 'chunked it up' and got them to 'evidence learning' all the way through. I felt that despite the fact that doing it would have destroyed any engagement with the complex thing and rendered the whole thing pointless. Hmmm. Am I institutionalised by any chance?<br />
<br />
I've done what is a 'bit of work at home' - out of interest I did a quick word count. 2500 words.<br />
<br />
That seems like quite a lot of words to write for a 'a bit of work'<br />
<br />
To be honest, I barely noticed it. It didn't seem out of the ordinary. It does make me wonder what I could do if I put my mind to something else.<br />
<br />
Anyways.<br />
<br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-76727511730447566762016-09-23T14:20:00.002-07:002016-09-23T14:33:25.804-07:00Friday feeling...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
The normally calm and thoughtful learner drops his book for no apparent reason. This is followed by the phone which I'm too tired to spot on another usually studious girl's knee crashing to the floor face down. The whole class emits a groan of terrible empathy. The nuanced discussion point we were working on is lost, the fate of the lesson now rests on the strength of the gorrila glass (tm) which has met the floor with all the grace of a flabby belly flopping 40 yr old crashing into an ibiza swimming pool from a diving board too high for his abilities. Only a spider has the same power as a falling phone.<br />
<br />
The phone is fine, the lesson is coaxed back on track. Things go ok, then another learner gives (in a perfectly valid way) the answer 'vagina' to a question. I try not to ask too many closed questions but it takes all of my skill and self restraint not to scream 'in what fucking world is the answer to that question 'vagina!'' The learner is embarrassed as his peers howl with laughter and I do my best to contain my mirth limiting my self to a sort of knowing world weary smile.<br />
<br />
To calm things down and move on I say 'Hey, it's only a word. We've all got one.'<br />
<br />
This would have been a smart, sassy, streetwise way to draw a line under things were I not male. Cue more howling. I howl. We all howl.<br />
<br />
'What am I saying?' I splutter.<br />
<br />
Another looks up.<br />
<br />
'It's Angela again' she deadpans.<br />
<br />
I used the idea of a female alter-ego to try and illustrate a point about shock and confusion a few lessons previously, asking them how they'd react if I turned up in full drag and asked them to call me Angela. Unsurprisingly they rather enjoyed this conceit.<br />
<br />
I have to credit her with excellent timing.<br />
<br />
We try again. We get maybe ten minutes further. I set up a group task. I wander round, restlessly. My pacing is distracting. I'm walking too fast. It's making the class restless. I sit down. My sitting down is a cue for the learners to stop. I stand again, make some token noises about not wanting to have to set the task for homework.<br />
<br />
I'm asked about 10 questions as I resume my pacing. Only one of them bears any resemblance to a relevant question. I bat them away like an in form cricketer but then I chase a wide one and get drawn into conversation. They got me. I acknowledge this and say something else 'teacherly' and the task eventually gets done.<br />
<br />
We do a plenary. It goes surprisingly well. I am pleased with the fact they've obviously managed to think certain stuff through despite not giving any appearance of study.<br />
<br />
We get sidetracked by the issue of stereotyping. A girl makes a fairly blunt (but contextually valid) point about 'looking like a lesbian' and I ask her to consider the fact that lesbians come in many shapes, sizes and styles. She is confused and a bit defensive. I try again to make the point more clearly (she seems not to comprehend she's said something tactless) and another girl (who is a lesbian - I know because I've talked to her when she's been having some problems, but some of the class don't know her sexuality) makes a decision to challenge her. 'Do I look like a lesbian?'<br />
<br />
There's palpable tension. They aren't the kind of kids to back down. I decide it's worth letting it breath for a moment. Neither of them are malevolent characters, so I'm not too worried, but you never know...<br />
<br />
'No, I mean, I don't know, I don't mean, look, I just meant, you know what I meant!' insists the first girl.<br />
<br />
Girl B smiles, point made.<br />
<br />
'I think what you meant was 'the stereotype we are fed about what a lesbian looks like''<br />
'Yeah, that's what I meant! I wasn't having a go, I don't care about anything like that'<br />
<br />
The tension has gone, girl A+B aren't looking angry.<br />
<br />
The plenary resumes. A quiet kid makes an amazingly intelligent point I've never thought of on a topic I've taught for years. She's got a diagnosis of aspergers but I mostly think she's just clever. It fits in a way, but she's so astute about human nature. She'll never get an A but I wish I could frame some of the things she says.<br />
<br />
The plenary has finished. I set a written task to consolidate learning. I've asked them to do something on technology so stuff comes out of bags and I fix two tablets and explain to another girl that 'memory full - no more space' means the memory is full and there is no more space. I then patiently explain that I don't know what she should delete as I don't know what is on her tablet and nor do I want to know. She looks confused at the notion of a free choice. I suggest she puts some stuff in cloud storage. Her eyes light up at the procrastinatory (I think I've invented this word) prospect of asking 'what exactly *is* the cloud' but fortunately someone else seems to have a genuine question I can turn my attention too.<br />
<br />
The question turns out to be 'what are we doing?'<br />
<br />
I point to the instructions in front of the learner. They recoil in shock as if the words have just appeared by magic and go through the motions of refocusing. As usual, one person enquiring 'what are we doing' snowballs into at least three people needing the instructions from about 3 minutes ago reaffirming.<br />
<br />
I ask for silence. I point out they could complete this task at home or do it now. I make an appeal to reason. The work is fresh, it's in your mind now. Use this time, don't waste it.<br />
<br />
I say something vaguely cute about that being a useful maxim for life.<br />
<br />
I realise I shouldn't have said that as me babbling is not role modelling the behaviour we need. I shut up and complete the register. There's miraculously focus.<br />
<br />
Naughty boy who has been really trying to be good is even sort of working. He never does more than about 2 lines and always has an answer for any critique. He's really clever. I don't know how to coax the words from him. Everything he says is short, smart and often (not always) indisputably intelligent. He never expands. He's brilliant at any physical, active tasks but it doesn't seem to help him write any more than he otherwise would do. I wonder for a minute if I should do another sweep of the classroom. It's just going to prompt another wave of inane questions.<br />
<br />
I focus on slightly strange but lovely girl who never does the right thing. I ask quietly if she knows what she is doing. She nods and shows me her screen. It looks vaguely in the right ballpark which is good news. She's not full of confidence and to be focusing is enough for me at this point.<br />
<br />
There's about 4 minutes to go. The able writers are finishing. I ponder a stretch task but I can't think of a pithy 3 minute task of any relevance. I decide to ask them to tidy up. This is cue for everyone else to abandon ship and start to tidy up.<br />
<br />
Several people just leave their resources right where they are. I shout 'Oi, I didn't print these just to get trees chopped down' They turn, grab them, I smile. I don't mind disorganised kids. I just want them to try. It's all I ask. It's all I can do.<br />
<br />
There's 60 seconds left. I start every lesson on time. I never finish early. The chairs are away. The tables are away.<br />
<br />
"Right, go on, I can't stand the sight of you for another second!"<br />
<br />
The majority charge for the door, some wish me a nice weekend. I return it. I feel like high fiving them. Release at last... Girl B from earlier who likes to wind me up says 'I'm offended' - I return with 'get out you dafty' and she smiles.<br />
<br />
I shout after them something along the lines of 'Be good and see you next week' - I dread to think where the conversation turns as they snake out along the corridors and thoughts turn to weekends.<br />
<br />
They break my heart. All the uncertainty and precocious intelligence, all the energy and doubt. All nervous in front of a blank piece of paper. Most of them terrified of themselves.<br />
<br />
I could do with a few days off.<br />
<br />
(This started as a sort of 'what do you do to make last lesson Friday work?' and turned into something else)<br />
<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-69950151275731533762016-09-20T13:54:00.001-07:002016-09-20T13:54:13.286-07:00Performance management reviewI had a really good PMR last year. The manager who did it actually got the fact that focusing a large part of the meeting on setting me a data based target wasn't constructive or motivational. They actually understood the fact that the end result is an abstract and that it is more important to focus on the now and the how, then the end result. I have to say, this degree of understanding is a rare thing.<br />
<br />
Signing up to data targets is a bit like trying to guarantee you'll be home at a certain time in rush hour traffic. No one is going to set out not to get home ask quick as they can but it's the unknowable nature of the targets, set against national averages which have yet to be set and dependent entirely on other people's physical and mental well-being which makes them ludicrous.<br />
<br />
It's a bit like being Jack Lemmon's character in Glengary Glenross but without the ability to try and find new leads.<br />
<br />
'Improve high grades by x %'<br />
'Um... I don't think this year group is as strong as last year - look at the target grades!'<br />
'Don't make excuses - Just do it'<br />
'Er... how?'<br />
'Y'know, teaching or something, we're not here to discuss that for heaven's sake!'<br />
<br />
It's not just that the data/target culture is alienating learners and turning them into mere punchbags for the flailing and often desperately misguided blows of various intervention strategies, it's that so many people in education just aren't very good with data. It's taken long enough in my workplace for people to wake up to the fact that setting targets based on 'last year' is nonsense. That to preach that every class and child is its own unique snowflake but to set blanket targets which take no notice of the data we already have about that group's individual performance is insane.<br />
<br />
So is the practice of looking at ever smaller subsets of data. It might just be me, but I thought the bigger the numbers, the relevant the study. Why then slice up data by cohort, then by class? Do you really think I went in to one classroom and tried to teach them 'less well?' Honestly?<br />
<br />
I get the point of reflecting on data. I get that. I learn from it. I monitor it daily, it IS useful to me. I'm not advocating some kind of hippy paradise where we pick a colour to represent our feelings for the year ahead and do a dance of optimism together to try to please the great god OCR. I just want to have some time to discuss my practise, to reflect with others as an equal and to self reflect on what has gone and what will come.<br />
<br />
I want to discuss teaching (an ancient human skill, an innate facet of life) with people who revere and respect it, who find it as intriguing and fascinating and fabulous as I do. I don't want to be told 'focus on Jonny Cottonsocks as he'll make a bigger difference to the VA score than Monica and Kevin.' These learners aren't just data. They aren't sales units or productivity figures. I know them. I like most of them. I tell them I'll do my best and I point blank refuse to prioritise one above another on the basis that they suit the data better.<br />
<br />
I'm honestly not sure it's healthy to force 'help' on kids who don't want it and deny help to kids who need it according to some secret data set. I wouldn't trust anyone who managed me in that way. I wouldn't develop a very healthy view of merit and value. I expect my manager to form a human judgement of me and my support and development needs, based on a range of factors and not simply one unit of performance data and I want to treat learners the same way.<br />
<br />
There's a reason I didn't go into marketing.<br />
<br />
To that end, here are my PMR targets. These are the real ones I will live by.<br />
<br />
- Create a series of digital skills based tutorials learners can access anytime. If I do one per week, I'll have an amazing resource by the end of the year.<br />
- Make better use of online testing where apt to ensure technical language is engaged with<br />
- Return to some previously successful strategies where technology enabled deeper discussion and greater leaner involvement<br />
- More variety in the teaching of the more able learners. Expect more from them and ensure there is more interesting, provocative material available to challenge them.<br />
- Flip more lessons, not because it's hip, but because it makes more sense and because it's genuinely useful as it makes more time to coach 1:1 or small group.<br />
- Give learners more voice. Consult them more. Let them tell me what they do/don't understand. Do this well. Basically do AFL better. Make sure the learners understand this concept.<br />
- Make better use silence in the classroom. Individual work can be very useful and I default to pairs/groups too often.<br />
- Make learners reflect more on the work they've done. Do it, even though it seems to be wasting time at the time. The gains can be spectacular when they realise for themselves what I've wasted 6 months writing on their work but them ignoring. Set more work but mark the same amount (or even less) providing I can give a meaningful feedback experience. (ugh... feedback experience wtf?)<br />
- Have more varied tasks where learners learn from each other. Well managed these have worked very well for me previously but I seem to have returned subconsciously to one size fits all and a bit of differentiation on top. I don't know why?<br />
- Let learners experience the material and make their own mistakes. Being an experienced teacher shouldn't mean trying to prevent any learner mistakes. It means being ready to give the students the tools to learn from them. Stop getting in the way of learning by trying to prevent mistakes.<br />
- Brook no bullshit from anyone. Colleagues included. I haven't got the time.<br />
<br />
My data target:<br />
<br />
Do the best I can for each learner according to their need. What will be will be.tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-28740612606008491402016-09-18T14:15:00.000-07:002016-09-18T14:15:16.117-07:00Meeja studies. In need of CPR. I don't have a qualification in Media Studies. None whatsoever.<br />
<br />
I have however read a bit of Chomsky and watched Screenwipe so I've as good as got an A-level. Lol! ROFLCOPTER. LOLOCAUST.<br />
<br />
Top banter for the media staff there. Subject denigrated in the first two lines. Dodgy internet joke. This is SURE TO GO VIRAL!<br />
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But stay with me. Stay with me in this newly chill freshly minted autumn night as I keep you warm by rekindling the flame of Media Studies. I've actually taught it. A few times, when there's been no one else to do it and I've been struck by the potential of the subject. Really quite taken with what it could be. Let's be honest, teaching sitcoms, soaps and scanning a few newspapers is a bit shit. ('Oh, here he goes again' shout the Meeja staff... yeah, like I did anything different!) but oh my word, what a subject it could be...<br />
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Here's why I think the current strategy of sidelining it in favour of hardcore grammar and forced daily sessions at the cemetery gates is wrong.<br />
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Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all in favour of studying dead poets. Or even Roger McGough or Russell Brand if you absolutely must but in the 21st century literacy is far more than this. It has an important place. A very important place but c'mon. People. How can kids leave school without being able to read an image? How can they not decode an advert or understand how focus groups work? How can they go through life without a really clear understanding of lifestyle marketing or hegemony? (Hegemony isn't difficult, I've understood it and my head spins at yr6 grammar tests.) How can they avoid exploitation, debt and misery without understanding how basic needs are cynically targeted everyday? </div>
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We need to study Shakespeare because it's our culture, our heritage and says something about our emotions and essential human nature. I'll accept that. I've been to the Globe. I've seen Mark Rylance act conjuring magic from the ether with only his cadence, a tilt of the head, caressing primal meaning from the Bard's ghostly words. I'm not going to argue against it. But if Shakespeare is 'our' culture, so is Brighthouse. So is Britain First. So is an unquestioned torrent of commercialism which drowns out any hope of meaningful discourse. So are so many things which insidiously exploit and manipulate. We write people off for being 'thick' for falling victim to stuff we don't even discuss because we are tied up trying to ensure they have something to say about love sonnets for the examiner. </div>
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Literacy is visual, digital, and often violently capitalistic (and thus often racist, sexist and divisive) and it is crucial to recognise this if we aren't to produce a production line of victims who sit with arms and mouths wide open waiting for the next faux need or moral panic to sweep the nation. </div>
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Children who truly understand how images are produced and consumed might have more of a chance of resisting the bizarre and dangerous tide of eating disorder and general dysmorphic attitude which seems to afflict otherwise sane people.<br />
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Children who know how to produce images and communicate might mean a society without a) newsletters printed in comic sans using clip art and b) young people equipped for life in a sector which is growing where others decline.<br />
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Children who understand how an advertising agency works can not only work in one, but can form one themselves and put across their own ideas.<br />
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Children who know you can communicate an idea without writing a novel could be downright dangerous.<br />
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Move on. Quick...<br />
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Think of the discussions. (discussion is vital to developing genuine literacy as it happens...)<br />
In the 1960s influential theatre guru Peter Brook wrote engagingly about the way theatre needed to become more visual and visceral in response to the image culture of the everyday world. He said (more or less) that traditional literature, presented in a traditional way was actually less dramatic than the spectacle of the everyday.<br />
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This was the 1960s. This was before your average 14 yr old* was sexting, accessing images of beheadings, constantly monitoring and curating their own media image via multiple social networks and viewing 300+ channels of always on TV as 'so yesterday.'<br />
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*I have taken some tabloid style liberties with this sentence.<br />
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Think of the discussions... Think. We don't teach this shit because we don't understand it. It scare us. It seems too big. It's hard work to get our heads round. It doesn't fit easily onto a worksheet. It changes. Man alive, <i>it changes all the time</i>. How can you teach that?<br />
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We box up media as a kind of irrelevancy when really if we were serious about teaching the 21st century we'd be dissecting the very soul of the subject and wondering if there's actually 3 or 4 vital subjects hiding in the elbow patched corpse of someone who was 'quite with it' in the 90s (hello) propped up in the corner of the staff room.<br />
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We might find at least some answers (beyond the obvious one of testing the crap out kids and austerity) to the mental health crisis. We might equip kids with the tools they need to deal with the reality of the year 2016 and beyond.<br />
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Are we not big enough to do this? Are we not big enough to teach the world around us? Are we forever doomed to founder on the rocks of 'how do you test what the examiner doesn't understand?'<br />
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I will return to this subject another time. I'd welcome thoughts.<br />
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Meanwhile, here's one for the kids. Liberals will love it.<br />
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tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-87236090782943658142016-09-18T13:18:00.000-07:002016-09-18T13:18:13.128-07:00A new system?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Something I wrote a while ago which has resided on my hard drive ever since. I'm not fully convinced by my own argument. Not least the failure to properly cater for scientific knowledge/coding etc. Still - I think there is an idea hiding in here which is far better than what is being served up currently. </b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a teacher, I feel I’m faced with ever less resilient students. And I know why. We all know why. Since it was decreed that no student must ever fail anything increasingly teachers are placed under intolerable pressure to ensure that learners pass. Real skills go out the window, replaced by exam technique and remembering arbitrary facts that will leave heads 5 minutes after the exam. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-cc810476-3ee9-c080-1975-dfceeb3f7f6f" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coursework and vocational courses are ruined by the fact that all students must achieve the maximum possible outcome and all enjoyment or risk is sucked out of these courses as learners submit multiple drafts and teachers desperately over mark and hope to get away with a forgiving coursework sample. Teachers are ‘in competition’ with other teachers, institutions ‘in competition’ with other schools. We don’t really care about anything, other than grades. Not really. If they aren’t good, then we lose our jobs. Sometimes, in between the cramming and the drilling we have time to care a bit, but not much and not really. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learners are bullied into submission, threatened and told their coursework or exam grades matter more than life itself. Some cotton on to this being a con and do as little as possible, knowing the teachers will have to make up for the deficit and others become dangerously fearful and obsessive. Few retain a healthy perspective and for all the pressure and tensions, I’m deeply sceptical that we are producing better learners. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My solution is simple. Every school teaches a spectrum of subjects. Each pupil receives a grades at the end of the school year consisting of numeracy and literacy, creativity and general knowledge - that grade is formulated by assessment by teachers throughout the school and moderated by a series of online assessments that can be taken at any point within the final 18 months of school. The assessment is deliberately not drawn from the content of syllabus in order to prevent ‘teaching to the test’ - for example, assessing literacy by asking students to comment on stimulus material from a historical period which is NOT part of the history syllabus or solve a novel scientific problem via a range of clues and calculations. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We continue to teach subjects and skills in such a way that fosters interests in discrete disciplines - each teacher is responsible for creating an interesting and stimulating range of assessment and content but shares equal responsibility with their peers for that child’s cognitive development. Teachers are working towards common assessment criteria (broadly speaking numeracy/literacy) and can truly share good practice rather than a few tips which are often next to useless, given the differing demands of exams and exam boards. We abandon the notion that high grades in 10 subjects tell us anything other than a pushy parent or a child dedicated to learning the hoops through which to jump. Instead, we create schools which have simple common goals.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Foster the child’s potential to think, teach them to express themselves and give them freedom to do so. Provoke them, feed them things they want to write about, shape their mind with exciting lessons and let them respond. Stop telling them exactly how to do it and let them work it out. As long as they are thinking and trying, praise them. Stop telling them useless things about Assessment object 1 or 2 and actually engage with the coherence of their work. Stop filling their heads with KEY WORDS and actually just let them choose the right words. Let them make mistakes for god’s sake! Let them learn from them. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this way, we could take pressure off both teachers and learners. When I’ve taught post-16, I know I can’t rely on my learners having any particular knowledge. I simply want them to be able to think, have some self confidence and to express themselves with a bit of fluency. Instead, I get too many students who are fearful, can’t write and don’t want to think in case it’s wrong. I then spend a long time, teaching them a new set of rules for writing yet another series of essays that have nothing to do with anything they’ll ever have to do in their working lives. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'd love them to have had the chance to really have explored and researched something in genuine depth. To have developed a passion or created a project. To have something to say other than "We did 'Of Mice and Men' *shrug*" </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To be fair, it’s not the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>content</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of specifications that’s the problem generally. It’s obviously good children understand Hitler, global warming, some good books and how a lightbulb works. It’s just the testing of that. The fact that these things have to be reduced to pithy paragraphs or diagrams of a certain form. It destroys them as knowledge, reduces them to a post it note or something the learner hates and fears. Many of them don’t learn these things anyway. Not meaningfully. Not deeply. Not with any depth of understanding or likely recall in later life. That’s the things with facts. They go. Pop! You’ve forgotten…. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we actually taught skills instead, and I mean, really taught skills, then maybe we’d have deeper learning. Logic isn’t easily forgotten, language isn’t easily forgotten. For too long, we’ve ignored a key fact about the modern world. Knowledge isn’t power any more. Knowledge is cheap. Being able to do something with it is what matters, being able to manipulate it, shape it, interpret it and process it is absolutely paramount. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make education vibrant. Ask students questions that matter - link humanities to media, link the news to science, link maths to answering why unemployment is rife or whether immigration is a strain or a boon for the economy. Teach RE in an English class, discuss philosophy after watching Life of Pi, talk about dead rockstars and do some personal and social education, design a new football stadium on AutoCad. This isn’t dumbing down. It’s breathing life… </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For too many of my learners, education is separate from life. They don’t see a connection between the things they think, feel and experience and what they do in classes day to day preparing them for outdated tests written and assessed on the whole by people with little connection to many of their lives. While we continue to rely on the current system, that will forever be the case and perhaps if teachers had a simpler job - Teach children to express themselves confidently and have the tools to solve problems for themselves, then everyone involved in education, most of all learners, might have a much, much happier time and the key standards which every Government trumpets time and again, might actually rise. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In short, it’s time exam boards and qualifications bodies stopped strangling education and teachers stopped strangling student’s abilities to learn. Stop measuring facts and measure skills instead. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe passionately in state education and that every child deserves the very best possible. If teachers can’t teach without long winded assessment criteria and get children to think then they aren’t teachers. I don’t think that’s the problem though. I think it’s the fact that our leaders are often bureaucrats with little interest in the content of classes or learning (other than grades) and we teachers spend hours, months and years coaching children in skills which don’t translate to adult life, whilst being ‘performance managed’ to better waste both our time and our learners. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change is needed. Change must be radical. </span>tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-69534681326440548842016-09-15T14:51:00.002-07:002016-09-15T14:51:28.682-07:00Dear Justine GreeningDear Ms Greening<br />
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I wonder if you could take the time to read my comments. I hope you can understand them, product of secular comprehensive education that I am, it may be possible I have not fully mastered the art of communication without access to the hidden learning that only selection and divine influence can unlock.<br />
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I write to express my heartfelt concern regarding the proposed expansion of the grammar school system and also the lifting of restrictions on faith schools.<br />
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I write primarily as a parent and citizen, though I am also a teacher. Were I not a parent, I would also be concerned but I refer to my child directly during the letter as it is him, not me, whom your policies will impact upon.<br />
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In short, can you kindly explain how prejudicing against people of different faiths or no faith at all is going to allow my local Catholic, CofE or Islamic faith schools offer a 'better deal' for my child as he approaches high school age?<br />
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Can you explain to <i>him</i> in clear, plain English why my thought-out position on faith and belief (for clarity, I happen to believe that religious teachings are useful as philosophy and that a sceptical agnostic position is the only real justifiable position to take) is going to potentially deny him access to local schools? Can you do this without recourse to sweeping rhetoric and generalisations about 'better schools for all' or whatever stock phrase your PR gurus have advised you to employ.<br />
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If it helps you choose your language he is 5. He also believes that the big bang started the world, finds the existence of God unlikely and I would describe his philosophical view as broadly utilitarian. If this all sounds a little precocious, rest assured he's an average child at an average secular 'all in' primary school and I've never achieved an A* in anything. I am merely trying to provide you with information that helps you communicate. I believe that understanding the values and positions of people will help you communicate with them effectively. Like most children he understands rational argument to a point and he is capable of understanding discussion based on broad statistics and reason. <br />
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I'd personally also like your advice. In my immediate area there are 5 schools. 3 are the aforementioned faith schools (one of which is private) which are currently at least only partially selective. I would prefer my child receives a secular education, being informed about faith dispassionately and by a teacher who understands a broad range of belief systems. Should he choose to adopt a faith, I will accept his position as different to mine.<br />
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As it stands, I would be able to encourage my son to at least consider these faith based schools and I would support him to choose whichever he feels most comfortable with. The position is far from ideal as I can cite several friends who have had children effectively 'barred' from these schools despite living within sight of them but at least my son, should he wish too can enter the lottery with a degree of hope.<br />
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Under your proposals it is possible that these schools would be closed to him unless his mother or I were to create a sham performance of a religious devotion that neither of us feel or believe. Would you advise I ignore the convictions of my studies and considerations and adopt a pragmatic approach? If so, I have to say it seems an absurd position to have to take in order to access state funded education. I do worry that I might need to start praying for utilities or having my postal service approved by my local Imam<br />
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What complicates the matter further is the fact that the fourth school is a grammar school. We all know that grammar schools require coaching and the entrance exam is difficult. That's the point of the grammar schools. They exclude people, they are difficult to get in to.<br />
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I feel I was privileged in my education. I was lucky to have parents who encouraged me to read books and took me places. I also had some fabulous teachers who fostered in me a spirit of enquiry and the ability to appreciate and question the world. I also have memories of being about 10 and playing football, climbing trees, riding down hills on skateboards, helping my neighbour who ran a mobile chippy van, going to bonfire night on my own for the first time and playing computer games till my eyes hurt.<br />
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I would ideally like my child to achieve the same balance in life. I don't recall school causing me a particular degree of stress. I remember being a bit frightened of a particular teacher but I don't recall crying over tests, sweating over levels and worrying over homework. I don't recall feeling the symptoms of depression or anxiety or a deep seated fear about 'performance.' I largely recall this time in life positively.<br />
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I would like my child's life around the age of ten to have a similar blend and am uncertain how putting him through rigorous extra schooling will help that. Would you suggest I start saving now for the private tuition to ensure he can access this school. Again, it seems odd that state education requires private intervention to access. I could cite stats to back this point up, but I assume you are aware of them as you have considerably more data and resources than I have! Will we soon have busses that are only for certain people? Trains which require a passcode? I assume education to be a basic inalienable right, not something I need to pay extra for because someone has put a crystal maze-esque series of cryptic challenges that a child needs specialist coaching to pass. <br />
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Finally, lets assume the only option left to us (or more to the point, him) is the local comprehensive. Allow me to expand slightly. <br />
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I feel privileged that when I went to school, I went to the local school with many of the people I'd grown up with. I formed friendships with a wide range of people and I learnt not to look down on people or to look up to people unless they really deserved it. In other words, I learnt not to take that much notice of how someone was doing in English or Maths but rather to pay attention to who they were. My high school was just about the most ordinary school you could mention but I met all sorts of people from different backgrounds. I feel to a certain extent that has shaped who I am today. I feel I am able to relate to a wider range of people as a result of engaging with a wider range of people during my formative years.<br />
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I can't put this into statistics or turn it into data. I can't do this any more than it appears your government can quantify the reasons why grammar and faith schools are a good idea. I have however justified in a rational and coherent way, why I support comprehensive education and why I feel your ideas are absurd and divisive. It would be nice if you could reciprocate with an argument of your own, explaining why this important aspect of schooling, this 'socialisation' is not relevant if you are intelligent or your parents believe in a deity.<br />
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I will of course let my child choose the school which suits him. Ironically, I'd be most comfortable if he chose the local comprehensive. This would suit me well. It seems however a shame if that's his<i> only </i>choice because your government have vandalised the state system with misguided beliefs about social mobility and outdated views about the place of religious faith in 21st century teaching and learning. It would be even worse if my child's education was effected by a series of policies which seem designed to make some sort of political statement within the conservative party about the direction of the party.<br />
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It seems a shame that education is a political football kicked between warring parties and even tossed about within parties to make points and please the aspects of the electorate you want to appeal to. This policy has 'win back wavering traditional Tory voter + appeal to faith groups especially in cities' written all over it.<br />
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It seems a shame to have to explain all of this to a five year old. I suppose it will be an education of sorts for him. I would like him to realise the reasons things happen and I'm sure he will be able to accept that you need to make political capital. I could probably explain it using ice cream or chocolate as an analogy. I haven't really noticed any great attempt to explain either decision, analogies or otherwise.<br />
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It seems a shame that you can't look at the data and understand that with investment and a consistent approach, decoupled from political interference that the comprehensive model can work, for all. That providing a range of schools of different sizes and characters, but all with a broad entry policy and reliable consistent funding and support from the huge body of professional research is the only logical way to improve standards.<br />
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It seems a shame that the government's idea of 'radical change' is a return to the values of an era that never even existed. It is a shame that the education policy of this government seems to be a collective riff on John Major's memorable image of a traditional Britain. The spinster cycling to church, past the grammar school with its rigorous history curriculum and proper English authors.<br />
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It seems a shame that a government cannot see the folly of dividing children at 11 on the basis of the faith of someone who is not them. It seems a shame the government cannot see the folly of dividing children at 11 into 'cans' and 'cannots.'<br />
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It seems a shame that a broad education system, organised and centrally administered and able to react to demands has been splintered and fragmented into a mish-mash of private enterprise, faith projects and meaningless corporate slogans and that the government have the Orwellian gall to refer to 'choice' and 'for all' when pedalling a divisive and segregationist idea.<br />
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It would be shame not to dignify my letter with a reply.<br />
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Your sincerely.<br />
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<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-28768919664298005382016-09-14T14:13:00.001-07:002016-09-14T14:13:49.363-07:00Advice to your younger self?This is a precis of advice I'd give to NQTs or any younger/newer/prospective teachers based on my own experiences. I'm not entirely sure it's worth much but it was what I wanted to write about so I did.<br />
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1: Have another job before you are a teacher, at least for a bit. A real one on which your mortgage or rent depends, not a Saturday job. It will help you keep things in perspective. Some jobs are worse than teaching, some jobs are better. The time I did a 28 hour shift and got paid for 8 hours would be a particular highlight of my pre-teaching career. It still helps to remember that I had a much worse job once.<br />
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2: Learn quickly that you aren't Jesus. Don't carry the cross everyday. If you allow it, you will become the focal point for the suffering and pain of all your learners. If this is what you enjoy about the job, get a job in the pastoral system or learning support. Be approachable by all means, but get used to the fact you are a small cog in a wider support network.<br />
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3: Get used to the fact that some of your managers are fucking idiots. Hopefully not many, but some of them are. On the other hand some of them are fantastic and have an incredible amount of wisdom to give. As they don't wear badges marked 'fucking idiot' or 'sage' you'll have to work it out for yourself.<br />
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4: In a similar vein, if you have a poor manager, they will probably ask you to do about 45% of the department's jobs for them based on the fact that it's 'great career development' for you. This probably means 'no-one else will do it.' Very few of your managers really give a toss about your career development, they just see you as someone who hasn't yet learned to say no. Learn to say no. Your learners (which is why you do the job) will thank you for it.<br />
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5: Watch the Wire. At first you will think - why am I watching a programme on drug dealing in Baltimore, then one of the cops becomes a teacher and you get to see one of the most beautiful, painful, heart-breaking things you'll ever see. It will teach you that the system is stacked against some kids but that doesn't mean they can't be taught or are 'thick' - It won't teach you haw to get great SATs scores or brilliant exam results, but it might make you better at communicating.<br />
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6: On this note, so many teachers are very middle class. You probably are as well. Open your eyes to the wider world. It's really quite important to do this.<br />
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7: You are not Jesus (again). One of the best pieces I've ever had was from a head teacher who told me 'they just want you to know your stuff and do your job' - Occasionally you will get moments of visceral pleasure but largely it's a grind based on achieving learning objectives and keeping yourself (and them) on task.<br />
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8: Cynicism and criticism is not the same thing. Don't become cynical but retain your critical faculties. Some of the systems and strategies you will encounter in your career will be bilge. Equally, you will sit amongst colleagues who will scoff at brilliant ideas, based in research and practice just because they are different.<br />
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9: If you find you don't enjoy being with the learners, then don't bother continuing. There is no point in carrying on if you don't like being in the classroom. Find another career. If it is other things which reduce you to tears (and there will probably be tears or rage or frustration at some point) then carry on. A wonderful manager I had very early in my career was kind and honest enough to admit they didn't get through all the things they were supposed to do and let me in on the biggest secret (you just do the important things)<br />
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10: Learning support, estates, technical support - these people are your friends. They will help you more than many of the people who are your line managers. Be nice to them (it is surprising to discover not all teachers are). They can make an enormous difference when your printer breaks, you need another whiteboard or one of your learners has an uncontrollable outburst of rage.<br />
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11: It's OK not to be top of the class. I've seen teachers burn out simply because it's the first time they've not been 'the best' at something. Similarly, I've seen really bright, well educated people who can't empathise with failure or understand lack of ambition. If you want a job where everything goes well and you get lauded, this isn't it.<br />
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12: There will be a lot of talk of 'team' but the truth is, it's a lonely job. You might be lucky to share your classes or course with a great colleague but you might also be ploughing a really lonely furrow. It is surprising how you can find support and succour from teachers of subjects outside your own area. You might teach art but find your teaching philosophy is more compatible with that of a maths colleague. That's fine.<br />
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13: Learning the nuances of exam boards is painful and you should apply to go on training as soon as possible. It will help. It won't help with the rage and frustration you will feel about exam boards as time goes on, but it will at least help you understand what you are trying to achieve with exam classes.<br />
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14: That PGCE folder full of theory. You will wonder what it is for. At least I did. I still couldn't tell you what a 'learning cycle' is.<br />
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15: You will inevitably try to teach people in the way you learn and will be baffled by their failure to achive enlightenment.<br />
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16: If you are working harder than your learners, something is not right. You will work harder than your learners. Something is not right. It isn't you. It is the wider system. It is still useful to remember this rule when planning and preparing.<br />
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17: If you are unlucky your school will insist your planning and preparation looks exactly like the next person's planning and preparation. This will be painful because you have a totally different brain and working methods. Remember when you wrote that mediocre essay with lots of words just to get it in? This is the planning you do on the school template. However, you do need to plan properly and it is worth spending serious time on meaningful planning that you actually intend to use. I always break down topics, learning objectives etc by the value to the course and the time spent and produce a colour coded document which I never submit to anyone. I'd be lost without it, but it's for me. It's not for OFSTED or for evidence for my managers, it's for me.<br />
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18: Don't be afraid not to know. It's OK to tell a learner to look something up or ask them to correct your spelling. They won't mind as long as you are trying your best.<br />
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19: Classroom management is simple. Be calm, be polite, have clear tasks and have some strategies for groups. If you are reasonable and treat them with respect, they will reciprocate (99% of the time.) A few consistently applied rules with a rational justification works better than a rule book. You need to be enthusiastic and pleased to see the learners everyday.<br />
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20: Praise (when earned) goes a long way. It is especially effective if given 1:1. Equally, don't avoid challenging laziness. My only real rule (beyond not hitting/bullying each other) is that if you try, I'll be nice to you. End of.<br />
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21: Don't be a hypocrite. My learners aren't allowed food or hot drinks in the classroom. I don't have them. I don't check my phone whilst teaching. I think that goes a long way.<br />
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22: Some of them are cleverer than you. That's ok. Respect that.<br />
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23: It does get easier. You build a set of lessons you can take 'off the peg.'<br />
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24: The fact I am writing this should tell you a lot about how difficult the job is but also how rewarding it is.<br />
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25: The fact their are 25 points also indicates there is no magic answer to 'good teaching' but there are things worth investing time in. AFL can shape and guide you lesson by lesson, week by week. Knowing how the learners feel about the work helps you plan. If they realise you are planning for them they'll appreciate it. They might not buy you flowers but hey, they're forced to be there! What do you expect? Gratitude for shoving the ideology of the state down their throats?tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-18501508889711465782016-09-13T13:04:00.001-07:002016-09-13T13:13:44.006-07:00No shouting...I am trying to get through a year without shouting.<br />
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It's hard work because I'm good at shouting. By that, I mean, I'm very good at commanding a room with my voice. I should have had a career in the military really. Apart from the fact I'm a cowardly pacifist with no discernible fight mechanism I'd have fitted right in.<br />
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Anyways, where was I? Tuesday. Oh yes, I was talking about not shouting. It's not like I shout AT learners. No one has done that since at least 2008. Ever. Fact. It's more that I shout over them. My voice is like a klaxon at the end of the shift so to speak. So, I'm trying the 'teacher puts their hand up and the class raise their hand in response thing' as it's officially called in all good education textbooks.<br />
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For the following reasons:<br />
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1: I use a lot of discussion and group work. It's probably best that tasks come to a gradual halt as opposed to me yelling 'RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!' and clapping my hands like a maniac and expecting the students just to stop thinking and talking the moment I decide time is up.<br />
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2: For a long time my teaching style was built on manic enthusiasm but I've learnt to reign it in and apply it at the right time. I think this is just an extension of that.<br />
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3: My voice. My poor voice.<br />
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4: The learners who are deep in concentration must jump out of their skin as I bellow at the top of my lungs.<br />
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5: I like to try to model a sense of calm and focus. <br />
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Why am I even blogging about this? I think simply to record that I've committed to it and also reflect that after a week or so of doing it, even the students who know me and my style have happily conformed. It also pains me to say that it works because I seem to recall learning this technique a few years ago in a CPD session and dismissing it on the basis that whoever was delivering the session spent an hour explaining it like it was alchemy. In a way, I wanted it not to work. But... it does. So far. Can't really see why it will stop.<br />
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Also Google has a timer. That still thrills me.tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-91790858641510910762016-09-12T13:42:00.003-07:002016-09-12T13:42:44.978-07:00Digital Lobotomy. Bearded tits and the exam system. So, you get asked to do a presentation on something. Anything really. It could be the pollution of the seas by plastic, a history of theatrical stage design or an evaluation of the branding possibilities of paralympic sportspeople. Whatevs (as young people said a few years ago)<br />
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You go (or at least I do and reckon you probably do too) for the internet.<br />
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You start to research, looking for zippy phrases, interesting reading, nuggets of useful information, particularly striking photographs, maybe a whole series of youtube documentaries or even, if you are feeling particularly researchy and need hard serious sources quickly, an ebook.<br />
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You don't think twice. You're not cheating, you're living, you're planning, you're constructing something from the ether, the collective thought, surfing the wave of knowledge so to speak.<br />
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You're not cheating. Lets be very, very clear. You are not cheating. Perhaps, you could, if you wanted wait till you have a free Saturday, go down to your local library, order some books, wait another 2 weeks for them to arrive and then spend hours reading no doubt fascinating information, sifting the information for the salient points.<br />
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You'd probably be a wiser person, but I doubt your presentation would be ready on time. <br />
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The internet is basically brilliant. I can find out anything I want. Look, I'll go and find something new out now. t's 20:54. I'll be back in a minute...<br />
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20:56: There's such a bird as a bearded reedling. You can see them on the Norfolk coast. This is news to me<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="213" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Panurus_biarmicus_2_%28Martin_Mecnarowski%29.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Bearded Reedling (probably unaware of it's place at the heart of this polemic)</td></tr>
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20:57: I wonder if Bearded Reedlings are rare? <div>
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20:59: I'm not entirely sure how rare they are, but I do know now they are also found in Belarus and Azerbaijan</div>
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21:00: Still not sure how rare they are, but I've discovered they are sexually dimorphic. I've connected this to other things, like mallards and pheasants as it means difference in character/appearance beyond the sexual organs. This is a phrase I've either never heard of or have erased along with almost all of my GCSE biology. Exploring further and using my brain I've realised many things are sexually dimorphic and that sea mammals tend to display the biggest size differences between gender. I'm on a roll. </div>
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21:03: I'm pretty certain they are what is also known as the Bearded Tit (insert hilarity here) and there's between 1/4 and 1/2 a million pairs of them in Europe. </div>
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21:06: Ok, controversy hunters. It seems the reedling is a tit, but not a tit. It seems it was placed with the tit family before then being catagorised as a parrot bill but then (get this!) it wasn't one of those either and it was placed in it's own category entirely... called 'Panuridae'</div>
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21:08: Further research suggests that the 'Panuridae' family is an umbrella term which includes Parrotbills and the bearded tit. </div>
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I could go on. I really could. But this blog started as a process of self reflection and a chance to air my thoughts in the hope somebody would respond and subject them to <strike>lavish praise and promote me to shadow education minister </strike>, critical rigour. I'm not sure further delving into the world of small birds will hasten this process. </div>
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The point is, I can turn raw information into knowledge. I can research and find things at the drop of a hat. So can young people. It's quite a feature of my job role at work as I'm sure it is in yours. I've found it's had an effect on things like my short term memory. Who really needs one of those eh? I've learnt new ways to improvise round this. Google Keep is a godsend. Alarms on my phone. </div>
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Sometimes I even wonder if I'd like to put the genie back in the bottle. It doesn't fit though. The genie got fat and used to living a free range live and me and the genie just need to learn to co-exist. </div>
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The young people need to learn to live with him too. He's a scary genie sometimes. He can grant wishes and not all wishes are good. Some of the wishes are though. Some of the wishes are amazing. Some of the wishes could change the entire face of life and learning. </div>
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Yet we send them into rows of drafty, echoing halls, year after year, armed with a pen and a piece of paper and then wonder why they are disconnected from education. We wonder why they roll their eyes and sigh at endless 'technique' classes and being drilled to remember stuff half of which is going to be outdated by the time they have picked up the exam certificate. </div>
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We tell them 'it proves you can learn' or 'it's what employers want' as if the only reason to get an education is for someone else. It's not about teasing threads of enquiry or following a trail of curiosity. It's so 'you can get a sticker which proves you can learn' </div>
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We chastise them for 'being bored' then rush to the staffroom to check social media and I think we're threatened. We're threatened by a world that doesn't <i>need </i>us to learn things. </div>
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It does need us to<i> learn to learn</i> things though. We could do a such an incredible job if outside the idea of the 'connected classroom' we also had 'connected exams.' </div>
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Lets start by introducing a new GCSE - we'll call it GCSE Information Synthesis. </div>
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It's going be a 3 hour long exam. The question paper will be as follows: </div>
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<i>"Take a topic of your choice (or choose one from the list below) and present your learning on that topic in the form of an engaging presentation which demonstrates knowledge of the subject and of any debates or arguments surrounding it </i></div>
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<i>- You should use your own words and clearly cite the sources of any quotes you use in support of your argument or explanations</i></div>
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<i>- You may link to webpages to support your work, alternative you may choose to screenshot any data, images or statistics you wish to use"</i> </div>
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We'll make the mark scheme up another day. I'm bored of writing the paper now. You get the idea though. You get a U for trying to hack into a VPN so you can look at porn. That much I've decided. </div>
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There's no earthly reason in my mind that can excuse the failure of the exam system to even acknowledge the 21st century. It makes me angry. It shapes my lessons. That makes me angry. </div>
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We don't even think of giving learners the chance to showcase the kind of skills they'll actually need to possess in the 21st century. </div>
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tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514224342522972566.post-58557732310502182562016-09-11T13:24:00.002-07:002016-09-11T13:24:26.996-07:00Can you be both a perfectionist and a teacher? Let's be clear. I'm not a perfectionist. Far from it. There are things I have very high standards about and other things I'll let slide. I think that's as true in terms of my attitude towards myself as it towards others.<br />
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During the term, their are many aspects of my practice and many aspects of my life that leave something to be desired. Be it the confusing mess of half finished ideas I call paperwork or the fact my partner and I sometimes talk for about a total of 20 minutes in a week.<br />
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I'm sanguine. This is the job. My resources are good. I'm focussed in the classroom, I try new things. I use objectives and criteria for success, AFL and I'm approachable and calm. I help colleagues plan, I create things for our department marketing, I run visits, I run CPD, I cover lessons, I attend union meetings, I am working parties and I offer strategies for issues college wide. I run extra curricular activities. I write lengthy and personal comments on work with literacy guidance and strategies to improve. I read with my child, I run around the house with a hoover, I cook food and freeze portions of it. I even sometimes go for a walk in the countryside or read a book. I almost never, ever, never, ever have a day off.<br />
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Were I to really dedicate myself to being any better at any one of the weaknesses (personal or professional) that are not directly focused on my classroom practice I'd probably keel over. I'd have days off. I'd not get the marking done. My partner would leave me (justifiably). My child wouldn't get his book read to him and the house wouldn't get hoovered.<br />
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That's OK, because my standards aren't so high that I can't cope when things aren't perfect.<br />
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It makes me laugh when you hear rhetoric about hiring 'only the best people' into teaching as if there isn't already a load of great people walking away from it.<br />
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I do wonder if the fact it's almost impossible to get a sense of a job really well done, or perhaps more accurately, a sense of 'completeness' is one of the reasons for the high turnover of teachers. It would be interesting to do some sort of survey about how NQT's saw themselves at the outset of their career and how they saw themselves now.<br />
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I'd be surprised if many of them remained 'perfectionists' <br />
<br />tangerinedreamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555803051770601790noreply@blogger.com0