Kristianstill

I have squeeze a lot into today; reading my RSS feeds and sharing the best with my most immediate colleagues, tagging for those a few clicks away, browsing one or two selected websites. Listening to, (watching) and syncing my podcasts (most positioned for later listening). I emailed a little, talked or rather ‘Skyped,’ I caught up on my tweets and twiends (twitter friends, it seems if you throw a “tw” in front of a familiar word it is immediately modernised?!?), as I latterly listen to a Prof Michael Wesch presentation. The point most referential to Hamble College, and I would have to regrettably agree with Michael Wesch, is that many of our students ‘are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education.’ Without meaning and significance in lessons, the motivation for our students to engage is significantly reduced, if not lost. This is particular pertinent as many teachers nationallt embark on the task of interpreting a new National Curriculum and designing a ‘refreshed’ learner experience.

I am determined to emphasise both meaning and significance (M&S) in the ICT curriculum. This may require impressing the importance of M&S with our staff but also listening to our students current reservations and applying some of their own ideas on how to make learning more integral to planet teen.

If you were still wondering about the title, I felt that I gained alot for my (multi tasking) time today, as research confirms, so do many young people everyday. A point emphasised by this Prof Wesch viral Youtube contribution.

This is not a typical post. I am not writing about work but why I work in education. Half term was great til Tuesday…. wednesday through Saturday I was struggling with a cold, today was the first day I felt a little better and its back to the grind stone tomorrow. Still, too much to do…

Refocus -

I received an email from Dean today reminding me about his blog. I changed the name of the wiki, more of that later. I introduced Dean to blogging, well, updating a wiki page some 7/8 months ago (its all I knew back then) and eveytime I read one of his posts it makes me proud. Not just the ‘proud’ cos hes one of my students, but proper proud becuase I know wirting and sharing his experiences has made a real difference to his growing maturity, to him showing appreciatation to his family here in England and his adopted family and friends in the States, but also I am proud of the choices he is making and that he even wants to share them with, well with everyone.So now its about time he sets up either a blog or a tumblr, whichever is most appropriate.

Just in case you want to read his work, first prepare yourself its an emotional rollercoaster, and click….

To Dean, how I wish I had my memories written down like you have. One day, when today seems like a life time ago, you will be able to flick through the posts and re-live them first hand, how jealous am I! Why work in education? Read Dean’s blog, read and listen closely and you hear the answer.

I thought that by making an initial post midway through the week that the weekend post would be more straight forward. Sadly, I am not sure that this is the case. This job is currently impacted by so many different aspects of school life, it is impossible to manage all of them. I think the key here is to prioritise.

Teaching and Learning remains my focus; a rather simple title but it includes many different components. I have spent some time trying to organise and refine the KS4 curriculum. There are undoubtedly some rather significant pot holes in front of the department. They are clearly visible but we have to work out a way to avoid them. There are some training demands and perhaps more importantly, not all the staff feel comfortable delivering the specification. To support staff I am visiting Perins school and also trying to source exemplar materials from ICT colleagues. With the head agreeing to streamline the qualification I believe it is more manageable and I hope to include a Level 1 qualification for 10-15% of students where appropriate. This pulls in both Learning Support and other curriculum learning initiatives such as Work Experience and functional skills.

We are still in need of a strategy for tracking student discipline, a formal expectation of both staff and students for Out Class or Extended Learning (not homework).

The first seeds of curriculum ICT are being sown. This is an important aspect of the post, although the sharing of tools and knowledge must be delivered more efficiently than ‘Just in Time’ – but I do sincerely believe that there are a number of staff keen to use teachnology. Voicethread gets its first showing this coming week in a Year 10 English class.

The departmental meeting went relatively smoothly and I am looking forward to working more closely with a colleague from Science.

IT Management and Network Development; the team are looking at our VLE but this is considered secondary to the development of teaching and learning. There is also a thought on how ICT can improve the school communications and management.

I have now included my del.icio.us feed into my blog (thank you Edtech talk) and I will soon be attempting to streamline / categorise my reflections. Over half term I hope to write an ICT Strategy (thoughts of Jerry Maguire), so that I can focus my time and efforts efficiently.

Quick thoughts

• How do we recruit the best ICT teacher (or staff) possible for Sept.
• How do we create an unforgetable welcome?
• Access form to replace Yellows?
• Discipline tracking? Traffic Lights?

Up until now, I had been waiting until the weekend to write… This week I was determined to hit a half-way marker.  Although its not halfway, there is little to report in just two days.

The Middle Leaders meeting reinforced the need to tidy user areas, noted the use of the IT tech reporting form and general to do. I think this is a good forum for this information but the IT Newsletter is also important.

I have put up some posters telling the students to use F1. Learnt that you need to know more about students then just trying to connect with them. More students are using the ICT resources, but its hardly mass knowledge consumption.

I continue to research how best to develop our ICT curriculum and also how to best serve the school curriculum. The Horizon Report 2008 is out, some ideas in there I hope.

After school football, the students needed a real ‘boot’ up the back side. Not sure I am happy to continue to give up my time for that level of commitment? What are the students expectations? I need to ask them.