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The Done Manifesto
12 months ago
Bre Pattis from MakerBot and Kio Stark gave themselves 20 minutes to capture everything they knew about bringing a creative vision to life – the result is The Done Manifesto – 13 Rules for Realising Your Creative Vision (Beautifully illustrated by James Provost)
“These maxims are really a super concise and clear way of restating one of the founding tenets of so-called design thinking: The idea of creating prototypes as soon as you can, and failing as fast as possible so you can evolve your way to something great. ”
My favourite of the statements has to be this one:
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
This type of outlook on the creative process is pretty commonplace for start-ups and other such industries, but failure is rarely fully embraced in a school or education environment. In my opinion if we were to consider the curriculum design as a start-up industry – not the whole school – just the creative process of designing engaging, enriching, meaningful experiences for children – then it has to rank as one of the most creative industries of them all.
I always enjoyed seeing roughly where we were heading and immersing myself in better understanding the topic, research and the options for learning that was available. Creating implementations of a standard curriculum is a hugely creative process. All too often the workshop classroom is all about getting it right, rather than getting it wrong.
I think this is misguided and developing an ethos of mistake leadership in our classes is key to creating meaningful experiences for children in school.
“So do mistakes.”
Why I turned my back on teaching
353 months ago
It has now been 6 months since I left the classroom as a Year 5/6 teacher and turned away from my role as Deputy Headteacher which I had only started a year before.
I have never really spent time writing about my decision on this blog and so thought it was about time, after all many of you helped in a small way to me actually getting the Deputy post in the first place and have been there to provide encouragement and support.
The last 6 months have flown by and I have enjoyed every minute!
I decided to leave teaching because of a variety of things, but the elephant in the room which was nagging me for months, was my desire to work with teachers and student beyond one school. Thankfully I rubbed my eyes and embraced the elephant, so to speak!
I chose to apply for a Deputy Head post not out of any deep desire to run my own school or be a headteacher, it was simply that I needed to change my circumstance and needed to feel I was contributing more to the running of a school.
I don’t regret my decision, but I think the specific challenges of the position and school went a long way to dampen my enthusiasm and zeal for school leadership. Sadly it led to some of the lowest times I have ever had in my teaching career.
It all seemed to come down to compromise. Due to my time being unnecessarily stretched compared to other Deputies I knew, I was making compromises with the quality of my teaching, the quality of my admin and the quality of my preparation. I had never really had to deal with such forced compromise in the past, on reflection that unsettled me deeply and is certainly something I never want to see again.
In my first week as a Deputy I wrote that, “No other 5 day stretch has ever examined and pressurised my professional facets as those just gone.” Well those 5 days continued on and the remainder of the year proved even more challenging than that tumultuous first week.
So what has changed?
The most notable things are a better quality of time with my family, variety through project work and being able to work with more schools and teachers.
I never really got to a stage that I was comfortably balancing work and life during my year as a deputy and so the quality of time with my family was hugely affected. There was always something nagging in my mind that hadn’t quite been completed or needed doing. I was never 100% focused on the here and now, and time was lost with the family.
This contributed to an unhealthy cumulative pressure I hadn’t experienced, both physically and emotionally – needless to say I am now glad to see the back of it.
The variety of work we have at NoTosh has been such a brilliant foil to the trudging monotony of the last few years. No week is the same – we will be wading in the deepest of intense research one week and design thinking with teachers the next. We are are also working with lots of schools and supporting teachers so I am never far from the classroom.
I have also enjoyed the ebb and flow of project work which allows you to see things to a natural completion in the relatively short term. At school the long term completion of a poject would feel most satisfying at the end of terms or the end of a year.
This “shipping” as Seth Godin would put it generates motivation and your energy levels rise as you move on to the next project. I am enjoying this way of working and although I have really felt I have had to adjust over the last few months, success and completeness is always in sight, something markedly lacking from my experience as a deputy headteacher.
One thing I realised, from those closest to me, was that things are not set in stone ad infinitum, even a job as all consuming as a deputy headteacher, and when things don’t work out you have to plan and actively choose to get yourself out of it. Linchpin by Seth Godin proved to be an important read for me in those difficult times and which underlined the importance of action.
All of that said I know that perhaps given a different set of circumstances I would have had a completely different experience as a new deputy and I have not discounted that maybe one day I will give it another go. But not right now 
–
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Neil Hopkin, his kindness and generosity helped me steady the ship and find the elephant again in the darkened room. And also thanks to my good friend Ewan McIntosh for giving me hope and believing in me, even when I didn’t!
Thank you for your support over the last year and half, things took a wrong turn for a while back there but I am now doing a job I love (again), the future is bright.
–
Pic the winds of skagit. by heanster
What is the purpose of education?
6212 months ago
Six or seven years ago my answer to this question would probably have been different. I am now both a teacher and a father, in fact I have been for nearly five years. I am both education consumer and provider. My son has just begun full time education and my perspective on what it should be is mixed.
I don’t have a clear idea about education’s purpose. I believe it is a whole range of things that I am sure are applicable to all of us in some respect.
My son is naturally curious, he asks questions when it seems there are none to ask. I don’t want education to answer them all for him necessarily – I want education to be there to listen to him, and to encourage him to question more. Education should help us to question what we see, hear and experience, and challenge the world we inhabit with our curiosity.
He dreams up imaginary characters / worlds / situations / predicaments / plot lines / battles / relationships and plays them out with what he has around him. I hope education shines a light on this creativity and seeks it out. Education should draw from him these precious sparks and help him craft them into something beautiful. Education needs to nurture the different precious sparks we all have.
I want him to struggle and to feel challenged. I want the education he encounters to be brave enough to let him fail and to support him if he does and help him learn the lessons. Environments that encourage risk and innovation will also intrinsically understand failure. Education should embrace all the ups and downs, the bumps in the road, the setbacks and hurdles, the scraped knees and bruises, the ‘Let’s have another go’, and not just the success at the end of the road / line / course / year .
To work in education it helps to be passionate. I want my son to see the drive and determination in another person at some point in the next few years. I want him to feel that human to human inspiration that is so powerful. Education should be about giving young people inspiration and belief – these can come from the environment that surrounds them. But it will probably resonate more strongly from one passionate person.
Looking out is as important as looking in. Education needs to support children to find out who they are as well as their place in the world and how they can make a difference.
My son is happy at school, he has made a great start. That makes us happy. Education should be about cradling happiness.
//
Seeing School Differently
11 year ago
by tombarrett
in Leadership
Since moving up to senior management the story of school has changed for me. A school is the centre of so much activity, central to the daily lives of so many people, each with their own part to play in it. Each person sees school in a different way, everyone has their daily narrative.
My story as a student teacher was exciting. We had the opportunity to work in lots of different places, the role we played meant we were new people in classrooms and so the children would often respond warmly to us. We had the freedom to explore what it meant to put together a lesson and find exciting ways to do that. There was an amazing sense of companionship with other students as we got through our placements, each one held it’s own narrative. These school stories were very linear with an end point we often focused on. Each story was about improving and getting better – each experience shaping what I am now.
As a full-time teacher the story of school changed. Suddenly there was a greater sense of responsibility as I had my own class. All to myself. The story shifts to learning about each child and the huge part we play as their teacher. The daily narrative focused purely on my own class, of the children that may have been unwell – “Are they feeling any better?”, of those that are having a tough time at home. Our classes consume our attention and devotion. We are committed to the learning journey we are on together.
At Easter I moved to another school and so my school story had to start from scratch. The familiar plot lines and characters had changed and I needed to establish fresh ones. My role had changed too and I no longer could focus on just my own class, but needed insight and awareness of the myriad of tales from right across school. I have spent a long time establishing relationships and finding the part I can play in this new story.
The most significant new contribution to my school story is the awareness of the difficulties many of the most at risk children face in their daily lives. I am now embroiled in their narrative too, learning about the help they need and often actively providing it. This parallel, often unknown, story that occurs in every school is a new chapter for me. It has rewritten my school story with a new challenging layer of meaning.
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Photo: Petals, Toil and Business at Dadar’s Phulgalli [PHOTO 2] by lecercle
Challenge, Instinct and Resilience
131 year ago
My first week in my new post as Deputy Head Teacher has probably been the most challenging five days of my career. Unfortunately I cannot be as candid about my experiences as I normally would be, due to a number of reasons, including some legal ones. Let’s just say “a baptism of fire” would be an understatement.
The week has been all about firsts. When you are starting somewhere new, everything you do will be for the first time. Learning about the routines for assembly, end of playtime, dinner routines, seeing behaviour policies in action, dealing with incidents. When you are thrust into situations where you are a little unsure or even completely unsure, it is a huge challenge.
Carrying something to write on has really helped as things to do, information and names have come thick and fast. I have also punctuated so much of my work with a smile, a joke to lighten the air with colleagues.
Strangely enough I have walked away from the last 5 days with a better understanding of myself, my resilience and ability to adapt. I understand the importance of my open mindedness and have a clearer appreciation for the inner strength you need to stray way beyond your comfort zone.
I have learned that you cannot plan for every outcome in certain situations and that sometimes you learn a lot more about people and yourself when all you are able to do is react. No time to think, just react. With everything stripped away, you are just left with your professional instincts.
This week I have learned that I can be visibly calm under intense pressure and the impact this has on those looking to me to lead. In fact I have surprised myself with my ability to think with clarity when pressed, it hasn’t been an act, but simply how I approached situations this week.
No other 5 day stretch has ever examined and pressurised my professional facets as those just gone.
I know for certain that I am lucky to be part of an amazing staff, a fantastic group of professionals who have supported and helped me through a tough week. I am very grateful to them for that. It is a week to be included in the memoirs one day.
Pic: Father’s Strength by Shavar Ross Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Whispering Change
61 year ago
Is the sun beginning to set on a cumbersome educational landscape? One that is too rigid to quickly adjust to what leaners need and what they want from the future. A system that looks on as grass roots spread wider and wider beneath it.
I am in revolutionary mood as I return from some inspiring conversations with people at #BectaX.
Can those of us who recognise the need for change, rise above the cynicism? Rise above the barriers and the blocks. Let us be determined and positive, and make change happen in small ways, where we are, where we can.
Perhaps it is wrong of us to ever have believed this change will occur from policy. I am sure you are like me in that you have never waited for policy to define your practice. Each of us has a certain amount of influence, an ability to change 1 or 5, 30 or even 500 students’ experiences of school. If we believe it should be done, we need to make it happen in every small way we can.
I have stood in a room with hundreds of people whispering. It is very loud.
If we all make a small contribution, a small effort of change – if we all whisper, our voices will be heard. Here are some whispers:
- Talk to your students, to your classes about technology. Find out how they use it at home and what they enjoy. Plan to do it again soon.
- Take what you find out (formally or informally) to someone else in your institute. Better still get your students to explain it.
- Show someone how you use Twitter or other online tools to connect with teachers. Do it as often as you can.
- Write a blog post about your ideas. (Or even start a blog for your ideas!) Share your experiences, frustrations, successes and hopes for your work.
- Share an interesting blog post you have seen with someone who may never see it.
- Ask on your blog or on Twitter for other schools to connect with. Share the process with your class and give them an insight into what is happening at schools in other countries.
- Help someone on Twitter by retweeting a request for assistance. You never know where that ripple will stop.
- Let your children or students teach you how to use something.
- Find ways to help parents better understand what you do in school and how their children are using technology.
- Find out what your students think of blocking websites. What do they think is “safe” internet use.
- Consider managing your own internet filtering. At least have the conversation.
- Ask your local authority to unblock useful websites. Keep asking.
Whatever form your whisper takes, raise your voices. We are louder together.
IMG_9566.JPG by fabola - Attr-NonCom-NoDerivs Lic
