We are the ones we've been waiting for

Had a great Year 10 lesson today based on the Hopi Elders prophecy:

You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you
must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are
things to be considered. . . .

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?

Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a
good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and
swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on
to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer
greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let
go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes
open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in
history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For
the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All
that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

http://www.matrixmasters.com/takecharge/hopi-prophecy.html

I asked the students to search for this an also for the speech by Barack Obama in Febuary 2008 (before he became president): http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/05/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_46.php as well as for Puttnam's video based on the same phrase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRi8_fXz1D8

They then had to write 500 words about what this meant to them and pick one or more of these ideas about how we should take opportunities to improve the world instead of moaning about it.

The responses were great and varied - from Lance Armstrong to the Welfare State to Hero Within .... I was very impressed with the work.

learning design

New post on learning design on Janshs blog

things I've read lately

Go to Janshs blog for a new post about Twitter and teacher Professional Development

We aprticipate therefore we are?

Post on Janshs blog about particpation in learning

If Ofsted was about praise

Following on from some Twitter chat last evening (started by @Missbrownsword regarding Gifted and Talented and linked into by @thegreatgar regarding Ofsted), I started to muse ....

It's probably virtually impossible to do all the time but when you are able to plan work geared to individual students' strengths and areas for development, we all know it goes well. Even if that isn't possible or even appropriate all the time, an ongoing 'log' (or register) of these strengths - regularly and frequently updated - must be helpful to both teacher and student. I remain to be completely convinced about learning styles but I do believe that a teacher should endeavour to present learning material in a range of styles wherever she/he can. I also believe that developing reflection can be a major (but not the only) way of promoting real learning.

In case I am sounding a little evangelical, I want to point out that I do think that some learners seem to do better with a didactic approach and that people might not become true learners until long after they leave a formal school environment - I know the penny didn't drop for me until I was in my late thirties. Then again - who knows if I might have got there sooner with a different approach of course?

What has all this got to do with Ofsted? Well, during the Twitter chat mentioned above, @thegreatgar pointed out that "g&t or sen we make them all sit the same outmoded exams which must be reformed!!!! Pen and paper exams for digital natives ?!?!?!"

I think one problem is we still try to 'catch people out' with exams, testing what they don't know rather than what they do. I don't see this changing any time soon. Earlier today on Twitter, I saw this from @jpallis001 referring to a comment from head of Harrow who said "Let us not deceive our children .. carrying their certificates around in a ­wheelbarrow" http://tinyurl.com/ylgyrbh and then this "From 2013 only quals:Dips, Apprenticeships, Found Lrning, GCSE/A Level funded http://tinyurl.com/yjs6dgb "

I wonder how different these qualifications will really be in judging learning?

And so to Ofsted. These school inspections still tend to be designed to 'catch us out' don't they? Have we made accurate judgements about our school - based, incidentally, on categories which we don't choose for ourselves? Have we forgotten anything - yes of course we have I expect. Have we failed to please all of the people all of the time ... ?

Wouldn't it be great if Ofsted was designed to let schools show off all the wonderful things they do and to acknowledge their areas for development? We could choose our own categories and we could be praised not only for doing well but for knowing where we can still improve.

It could all look something like this:

-- young learner builds up a portfolio of what her/his strengths and areas for development are, guided by exemplar learners (we used to call them teachers)

-- this portfolio is regularly updated and qualifications are awarded when progress is made

-- exemplar learners have the same professional development/performance management system as their charges

-- schools are rewarded and praised for what they do, not castigated for what they don't do

Ah well...

Sir John Rowling

Sir John Rowling's talk at our school - has anyone else used Sir John's ideas? would love to hear how it went

What have I learned in 2009?

At the risk of starting a bit like A Tale of Two Cities: It’s been a long year and yet it’s passed very quickly.

Just as a reminder I have very diverse roles in life (it keeps me young thinking, I hope): I am a Deputy Head Teacher in a comprehensive school in an outer London borough (this includes a role as Professional Development manager), I teach on the Masters and EdD programme for the Open University, I study with the Open University for my second MA, I have a family to look after and some writing/research to do.

In January 2009, I was looking forward to enhancing my knowledge of e-Learning with an Open University course H809. Little did I realise that this would lead to blogging and Twittering like – especially as I had only an inkling of what these even were! I had been dabbling with wikis for High School students and teachers for some time but these took off in a big way and I even ended up having a short article published in Education Today about using wiki technology to assist reflective practice for school teachers. I ran a workshop about this at the EdD residential weekend in July and have just been asked to run a workshop on the same topic at a conference at the Institute of Education next February.

I have gone on to study another Open University course which looks predominantly at the use of ePortfolios for teachers at all levels. This has been a challenging course, not least because of the online collaboration we were asked to so. It has helped me to restructure my own Masters level online forum and has led to greater participation levels on that.

That’s mainly about my study opportunities.

I have learned some other truths this year. I’ll call them truths although we all know that truth is elusive and possibly a personal perspective on reality. I have struggled with why some people feel they have little left to learn and with my role in that. On the positive side, I have been thrilled with the people (aged between 11 and 80 approximately) who have taken on new ideas and even run with sharing these with others – especially some of my younger colleagues at school.

I have learned the joy of achievement – even at my age.

At home, I have learned that one’s family do best when not nagged or goaded – actually I’ve learned that before and will probably learn it again.

It’s been a good year.

What have you learned?