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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 
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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.
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Pic the winds of skagit. by heanster
Introducing Google Docs To Your Class: It’s about communication, not the tool! 2 of 3
16 months ago
This is the second in a series of 3 posts I wrote for the Official Google Docs Blog – in this one I share some common challenges teachers face when students begin working together on collaborative projects.
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Communication is important, not the tool
The success of our own class projects was not influenced by how well the children could use Google Docs. After all, it is not really about the tool — it’s about the group’s ability to work together as a team. My class found this difficult throughout the year. I did not expect that just because we were using technology that the outcome would be any different. In fact even though each child was engaged with a role within the group and a task to complete, the technology exacerbated the lack of communication. The groups were plodding on with their own tasks and when it buffeted with someone else’s they would get upset. They may be working in the same online space, but that does not automatically indicate they are collaborating well.
With this in mind we raised the profile of the sense of communication within the groups and discussed with the children their teething problems and how we can best resolve them. With every resolution I drew it back to the idea of better communication. The class had a fuller understanding from these discussions of what they were doing when working together in Google Docs and some of the ways that their own communication was causing problems. To reinforce this in future sessions I would regularly stop the class to talk about an excellent example I had overheard from an individual or a group. One such example was when the children in one group lowered their laptop screens so that they could discuss the progress of their work so far. I raised it with the wider group ,we briefly discussed why it was such a good move, and through this we then saw the majority of the groups adopting this strategy.
How student personalities and familiarity with technology affect group work
You know what it is like: you try and balance a team and consider the characters that you put together in a group, but within moments they are falling out! I suppose using Google Docs does not make the task any easier. Out of the 5 groups in my class, 2 worked very well together, 1 was OK and the other 2 had lots of problems and struggled. On reflection, the groups that worked least well together were made up of perhaps 2 or 3 strong personalities that would naturally like to take a lead and this caused conflicts and problems as it has in other activities. When the children have their own laptops and a clear contribution to make within a document, that is appropriately structured, in my experience it can help a group work together.
I had children in my class that were very capable at using technology and were motivated and enthused at its use in our lessons but who often struggled with their literacy or maths, they were more confident when collaborating with Google Docs because of their own personal comfort with technology in the classroom. They pushed themselves forward to take a lead and be more involved when in a more traditional paper-based activity they may not have done. Similarly, the flip side of this is children who are very confident and capable in literacy who perhaps have less confidence when using technology. Even though composing groups within your class to collaborate is similar for any activity, it is important to consider the type of characters who grows in confidence when embedding technology in their learning.
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Next: Interesting Ways to Use Docs in the Classroom
Introducing Google Docs To Your Class: Tips for introducing online collaboration to students 1 of 3
126 months ago
In 2008 I was invited to write a series of blog posts for the Official Google Docs blog. I have decided to repost them here to highlight some of the challenges I faced at the time and in an effort to help you, not only with the use of Google Docs but also other online collaborative tools.
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Modelling expected behaviour and good practice first
As our first Google Docs project began to gather pace last school year, I realised that the children were finding it difficult to work together. With hindsight it is easier to recognise that the children were not only being introduced to a new piece of technology (the Docs tool) but also their traditional way of working was to be challenged by the new concept of working collaboratively in an online document.
It was clear that the children were unsure about the way they should be working together. They were each working on their own laptop and it was not the technical side of things that they struggled with, it was the fact they were expected to interact with others in their group as well as use a screen. I found it very useful to model the process. Just as I would if I were showing the children a style of writing in Literacy or a type of stretch in PE. I worked with a colleague on an example document and gave the class a running commentary as to what we were doing. As we worked we talked to each other and I underlined some of the key features of what made that short demo collaboration successful for us.
I think that every class of children will respond differently to the challenge of working together in an online doc, but it proved incredibly valuable to our classes to model what is expected of them. In September, I’ll have a new class and I will be keeping in mind this idea from the outset. Another idea would be to encourage the students to demonstrate the concept to the class – this is much harder to show but valuable nonetheless. I will be planning in time to model the technical and communications side of working together and also reflective time with the groups throughout the project to discuss and review the process of collaborating.
Introducing group collaboration: entire class, working in pairs, and groups of four
With the 9 and 10 year-olds in my classes, I found it valuable to take small steps towards an open collaborative project with 4 or 5 group members. As I introduced Google Docs to the class, we began to work together on documents that everyone could contribute to, revealing the ways that it worked and how it updates. In many respects this could be labelled as modelling the process that the children will in turn use later on. It proved valuable to be able to prove the concept to the children in a simple “step in, step out” controlled type contribution, nothing protracted. We added ideas to a large grid within a spreadsheet, with the children being told to choose any cell to write in – you could also invite them to fill in some information about themselves next to their name in a class list document. This single contribution to a whole class document was our first step.
It was followed by children working together in pairs on one document – a laptop each, sitting next to each other and sharing the document between them both. Finally the children worked in a larger group of 4 in a more lengthy collaboration as part of a Geography project. I believe it is important to progressively build up to bigger group collaboration and for this coming academic year I will be taking the same approach in developing the children’s collaboration experience over the first 6 weeks of term.
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Next: It’s About the Communication Not The Tool
An iPad For Every Child in My Class? No Thanks!
249 months ago
I was recently interested to read about a group of parents in Auburn, Maine, in the US, who were objecting to a large scale iPad project being rolled out for many children in Kindergarten (Nursery / F2).
According to this blog post:
The committee that governs schools in the district voted to spend about $200,000 on the iPads, which also covers insurance, educational software aimed at the appropriate age level, training and other program costs. The program will eventually serve all six elementary schools in the small community.
And so nearly 300 iPad devices are set to be purchased and every Kindergarten pupil will have one. Apparently the parents opposing the use of the device were concerned about the amount of screen time the children would have as well as the detrimental effect it would have on concentration and social skills.
I have worked in a school where teachers were using iPads in the early years and from the ongoing discussion with them and from my experience of how these Foundation stage classrooms are structured I have a few reflections.
Firstly just because you have 25+ iPads in your classroom any teacher worth their salt is not going to be slinging everything out with the boxes the iPads came in. The curriculum that is being delivered in these formative years still needs such breadth that the iPad can only support a small part of that.
I think that the district are to be commended for attempting such an ambitious project, young children love using the iPads and I have seen it many times myself how they take to the device so naturally, testament to the intuitive interface. The bitesize apps are also aimed at narrow parts of the curriculum and so I think they have much to offer schools.
However in my experience I don’t think that it would be a good investment for every child to have a device. In terms of the amount of use you would likely plan in and the way the days are structured, a group of 6-8 devices would be ideal for the group phonic sessions. Perhaps colleagues in the US could explain a little more about how small group work is used in the Kindergarten classes as I have no experience of it.
From conversations with colleagues having up to 8 devices that could support teaching in those small groups would be just about the right balance – the management of 25+ devices even in the older age groups is an ongoing challenge.
When a prospective technology emerges as purporting to have some positive effects it seems that pushing all the way to 1:1 is the answer. But I dont’ agree. I have worked with netbooks and laptops in my classroom for the last 4-5 years and the ratios have always been about 1 device to 2 pupils. It has not hindered what we can do.
I was lucky enough to meet Sugata Mitra in Doha in 2009 and his research highlights that self organised learning can occur when children have the tools and the space to themselves, but I was always interested in the number of devices he used in these experiments and what can be achieved with nowhere near 1:1 devices.
I can see both sides to this one. I would have spent less money or certainly explored ways to use those funds in other ways such as app creation or training staff to create their own content (this may well be part of it, which would be good to find out). However it still offers the district a great opportunity and for the children involved to enjoy access to an engaging technology. It is now, as always, up to the teachers to make the most of that opportunity in the most appropriate ways.
What is the purpose of education?
6211 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.
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Posting from Create-a-Graph to a Posterous Blog (and Blogger too)
21 year ago
One of the nice features of the Create-a-Graph site from the NCES is the ability to email the completed chart. In the past I have used this when working with Google Apps for Edu – the children handed their work in to me by sending it to my school email. We had my inbox open on the board so the children could see their submissions.
We have been using Posterous as our class blog platform since September. It is a fantastic site for school or class blogging due to it’s simplicity. I made the link with Create-a-Graph because Posterous is built around being able to email content to a specific address which will then post to the blog.
In a nutshell I have worked out a way for my children to post their charts and graphs from Create-a-Graph directly to the class blog.
Here is how to do it.
**Requirements - the following instructions are only for a Posterous blog, but the idea will work if you have a Blogger site. You can find the email you need in your Blogger “Settings” under “Email & Mobile”. If you have a post via email option for your blogging platform in theory this should also work**
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1. Send a graph from Create-a-Graph to your own email. Now locate the sender’s email address – it should be something like kidszone@ed.gov
2. By default a Posterous blog only allows agreed contributors to post – you need to make kidszone@ed.gov a contributor to your blog, basically saying content from that source is OK.
3. Go to the Settings of your Posterous account and click on Contributors, add a new contributor and paste the email address we have for Create-a-Graph: kidszone@ed.gov
4. Now you are ready to post from Create-a-Graph (worth testing this before the kids get a go) – the email you need is the one for contributors as the additional email you have added is not recognised as the primary one for the site. The email address you will need will be at the bottom of the Contributors page (see screenshot above)
5. Add this email into the Create-a-Graph “email this graph” box (leave it as html) and hit send.
6. Your graph should be posted – the nice thing about Posterous is that it will automatically resize the image to suit your blog, which saves a lot of fiddling around with multiple posts. Here is an example blog post we did this week from someone in my class, we were looking at the climate of Australia.
That is pretty much the top and bottom of it – for Blogger just use your unique email address in step 5. Over the period of time we have done this I have a few tips to share:
- Expect to have multiple posts, children click send numerous times as they are unsure it has been done – it takes a bit of tidying up. (I also take a few moments to add the children’s names as tags to the posts so that I am collating work on the class blog)
- Ask the children to add their name to the Graph Title in Create-a-Graph – this is under Data. The graph title will appear as the blog post title and will now include the child’s name for you to see who owns it easily.
- If you display the blog refreshing on the board you can check work quickly and children can have the reassurance their work has been submitted.
- Once submitted the children can still edit their graphs – if you see something you need them to change, delete the post and ask them to correct it and resend.
I hope you find that an interesting tip to perhaps try – good luck with it and let me know how you get on.
QR Codes Improve Web Access
271 year ago
In the last week I have finally had the opportunity to use Quick Response (QR) codes in my classroom. I have found them simple, straightforward and very effective in improving access to digital resources.
I have been thinking about ideas to use QR codes in the classroom for a long while and many colleagues have joined me in contributing to a shared “Interesting Ways” resource. It outlines many useful and innovative ways to utilise the QR codes in the classroom and around school.
I have noticed that some people consider them to be exclusive to mobile devices. (The printed code needs to be read by some software that then displays a link, information or similar.) It seems many people think that only mobile devices like the new iPod or smartphones could do it. However we have been using them with desktop software on our class netbooks and the in-built webcam.
Another assumption I have spotted is that we use QR codes that are displayed (static) and we take the device to the code. I have seen it in a different way, producing printed codes which the children use on their own netbook to access websites and other digital resources. Taking the code to the reader.
We use the desktop version of the QuickMark software that is a free dowload. The children load up the software, hold the printed code in front of the camera and away they go. The URL is displayed, a double-click and they are on the site.
Now I did a mini experiment and monitored how many children had trouble loading a website that I gave them as a shortened (bit.ly) url – so not even the full address. We had 4 pairs of children who needed help to enter the url correctly. Using QR codes I have had none.
I know that QR codes can be, have been and will be used for far more innovative and creative ideas – but I know that my class can all get to a website faster and with less intervention using the codes. That is technology increasing independence and solving a real classroom problem.
I print lots of the same codes out and just let the children hold up a whole A4 sheet of them or little row of three of the same code backed onto card. The software reads a bigger area and it seems to increase the likelihood it reads the code – after all you don’t want to have to go and help them use the codes, that would defeat the purpose.
As an extension to a maths activity this week I had a website lined up for some children who had finished their planned activities. In the past I might have made a link on our blog or used Delicious, or perhaps displayed the address or had to show them myself. Instead I had a zip wallet of codes and the children just scanned them and they were away – in fact it seemed to me to not only improve access but speed it up. (Google Chrome helps too)
I am keen to talk to the early years staff to begin to integrate the codes into their environments, such as having a little roll-a-dex of QR codes for Nursery children to choose from – on the back of the codes perhaps a picture or symbol of the website they want to use. I know it would help them to independently choose and structure their own web use and ultimately rely less on staff intervention.
We must not forget about the most simple ways to use these incredible technical developments – put simply: using QR codes improves the ability of my class to quickly and independently access websites.
Your Advice Needed On Mixed Age Classes
91 year ago
In September I will be teaching a mixed age class of Year 5/6 children. This will be first time that I have had the unique challenge of working with a year group comprised of two different ages. Your advice and expertise about some of the questions I have would be most welcome.
Much of my concern relates to the content of the curriculum and how best to plan to suit the needs of such a broad range of children. No doubt this is just the same as any classes we have, however a Y5/6 class has the added dimension of (possibly) doing SATs in 2011.
My class will be made up of children from 3 separate classes: a Year 4/5 class (who followed the Y5 curriculum), a straight Year 4 class and a straight Year 5 class. This mixture means that they have had a mixture of curriculum content too. Some have had the usual Year 5 curriculum whereas others have not.
We will be able to provide the older children with TA support to booster them nearer the time for SATs and also ensure that the coverage is in place for Literacy and Numeracy. Another challenge with such a class.
We’ll need to consider any impact on the Year 6 curriculum as there will be children moving into Year 6 next year.
It has been established that we will be using the Year 5 curriculum as a platform to build from and I will be working closely with the other Year 5 teacher (not the Year 6 teacher). Much of the content of the curriculum (especially topic based work) will have to be brand new, as there is the possibility of patchy repetition from the other classes.
Importantly we need to continue to engage and inspire this group of learners, no matter how old they are and I want to provide them a time that they will remember.
Faced with such an intricate challenge in terms of curriculum design I would greatly appreciate your help, advice and expertise.
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Pic: Sabotage #4: Mixing noodles with rice by Stéfan
