I’ve just picked this up from Gareth, who has always been a delight to work with. Thank you so much for your encouragement and I look forward to seeing you at Silverstone soon. I knew there was a poet somewhere inside that ICT guru! I dare you to perform it;-)
His blog remains a must-read!
Terry asks whether a passionate poet like Taylor Mali performing ‘What Teachers Make’ can
… make a difference, to anyone or anything? I’m inclined to think not, especially for a UK audience, where we tend to understate everything.
That’s just the point. Here in the UK we understate everything including the excellence in our classrooms and schools. That is not something of which we should be proud or a status quo that we should want to maintain. A bloody window into a bit more grassroots passion might just be the transformative antidote to the insipid reputation of teaching among the general population as a whole.
This is not a rant about Terry -far from it - he is one of the good guys 
The post just resonates with me because I have spent three years making extensive use of the Taylor Mali poem to try and get teachers to realise how crucial they are to the whole process of transforming education in 21st century.
Mali has made a difference to 160 people so far, inspiring them to teach. I wonder how many of the educational advice or consultancy community can boast that kind of influence? My personal answer to that question is why I am returning to teaching - a place where I feel I really can make a difference.
The final dissemination workshop of the ECML Blogs project is under way! Here are the first photos from the intro.
I wasn’t looking for a new job but was immediately captivated by the prospect of working at a motor-racing circuit as manager of the Silverstone Study Centre.
Part of the Playing for Success scheme, I will get to teach in a really exciting and innovative environment. Making full use of the excellent facilities and creative opportunities at Silverstone, as well as developing partnerships with schools and motorsport partners, will be exciting parts of the post.
In true Fordy fashion, I created and used a Poetry Grand Prix blog during part of interview process to add real purpose and audience during an observed teaching session that I carried out with Year Five pupils from local schools. I’ve still got to add the performance poetry podcasts but it gives you an idea of what the children and I accomplished.
Feel free to comment and to offer any great ideas for innovative work learning and collaboration on a motorsport theme:-)
Peter Rafferty of Green Park School fame sent me a YouTube link to Dave Kirby’s poem ‘A Tale of Two Kensingtons’ that he wanted to include on his class blog. Even as an Everton supporter, I recognise that this is a great resource for getting boys interested in poetry, particularly if you are teaching on Merseyside.
The problem is that if you click through to the video on YouTube, you are forced to read comments that are profane and unsuitable for his Year 1 audience.
At the top of KS2 (10/11 year-olds) I would happily grasp the nettle and discuss the appropriateness of the commenting but not at Year 1. It’s a shame that the software doesn’t allow the link back to YouTube to be disabled while still allowing the video’s level of google juice to increase. Then everyone would be a winner.
I’m going to undertake a full evaluation and investigation of YouTube with my children and students to canvass their ideas and views.
This short video was uploaded directly from my mobile phone. What fantastic opportunities… and I managed to do it without happy-slapping anyone!
Will Richardson has been on the road this year and wonders:
…. why we aren’t inviting kids to these conferences or workshops as a way to keep the presenters (myself included) honest, number one, but also to help teachers understand the realities of their worlds.
I think this is an important issue for conference and training organisers to at least consider. Students and teachers learning together and from each other - there’s a novel idea. Surely, it must be possible to come up with a construction that could work… Communicate06 gave a glimpse of the potential of engaging students at a training event.
Adding a few 7 year-olds to conference proceedings would soon make the presenters engage with reality and the ‘unconference’ format;-)
What dynamic is at work when schools or LEA’s take unilateral decisions to ban sites like YouTube without even consulting students (or teachers for that matter)?
Toss out a few negative soundbytes based on unbalanced media coverage and harp on about ‘duty of care’ and the decision is soon justified. Often though, there is not even a decision that anyone, in this era of transparency, can challenge or track. Where are the lists of sites published that are banned so that they can become an agenda item on the school council or at a staff meeting? Evaluating real websites for their suitability for task would be a purposeful learning activity for both teachers and students. Identifying, weighing up and avoiding potential risks while enjoying the benefits of a website is a creative challenge that faces everyone. Going through this process as a school community offers ownership of internet use decisions, something that is sadly lacking in many schools.
And what do students thinks about this state of affairs? Nothing! They do not care because it simply confirms to them the increasing irrelevance of their formal education to their everyday life. Whatever!
I was browsing Alison Mitchell’s Mulhall’s British School of Amsterdam Senior School ICT blog and came across Pivot, a simple but very effective stick animation software. Sometimes the most simple software is the most fun. Loads of creative fun to be had with this. I think I am going to organise a Pivot Animation Competition. It would be cool to see what everyone else created. Click on the thumbnail to see my efforts.
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