Tony Cassidy

Mission:Explore London is a  free app for i-Devices, it is now available to download for free from iTunes.

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If you don’t own an I-Device you can visit the the Mission Explore website.

The Geography Collective are having a big push this week to get the book noticed by the media. With 102 missions to challenge young (and old) people, all of our author royalties are invested in free copies for ‘deprived’ children. You may want the book to inspire a child to go exploring.. or for 102 inspirational first dates.. you can buy the book through online stores such as Amazon, as well as in many book stores.

Text stolen and adapted from Daniel

One activity I renewed this year after feedback was the teaching and learning newsletter, it’s a new slim line version, the aim being to publish more frequently than previous editions.

Summers is finally here- hope everyone has a decent rest. After a challenging year, in which I haven’t shared as much as usual, I’ll be aiming to upload a new resource each day over the holiday that I have prepared this year on Radical Geography. The new resources will be announced on Share Geography. You can subscribe via email or RSS feed. Don’t worry, I’ll be taking a rest, some updates will be automated.

There are currently over five hundred free resources on the site and another three hundred without a page but linked to the blogs.

First up is this living graph, the aim is for students to consider the factors that have influenced the growth of international tourism. The resource can be downloaded from RG.

Work in progress…

I first came across Daniel Pink in his TED Talk speaking about motivation whilst thinking about systems of rewards in education, his Google Talk focuses on the same area. His focus is business, but much of his thinking rings true for education.

Some points to consider, with some educational thoughts-

We do things for our own sake because they are interesting- intrinsic motivation.

40 years of research in behavioural science shows that carrot and sticks work, but in narrow bands- in other situations they do harm.

Incentives work for tasks requiring mechanical skill. When rudimentary cognitive skill is needed, incentives decrease performance.

Practitioner offering rewards for the best piece of work/completion of work on time- you lose nothing if the work is not your best or not completed on time.

Punishment may encourage poor behaviour. Punishment becomes the ‘payment‘- this is worth paying to break the social convention of the community.

Lateness- late detention signals that the convention is not met by all, payment for breaking the convention outweighs the ‘risk’.

For work that is simple carrot and stick motivation techniques work.

Money is a motivator, but people have to be paid enough- when people are paid enough they concentrate on their work.

What motivates people?

Autonomy – freedom to be active and engaged, without carrot and sticks. i.e. 20% time at Google.

We have an urge for self-direction and autonomy.

Allow students to choose their own focus and topics- showing back their results.

Staff CPD inset?

Mastery – our desire to get better at something. The biggest motivator for an individual is making progress.

Purpose- we want to be part of a purpose that is larger than ourselves.

I’m sitting feeling quite contented at the moment, but this morning I was in a state. Sunday is always a difficult day for me, because it’s the day that I devote to getting myself prepared for the week. I’m a planner at heart, and have to know what I’m doing, with a back up plan if needed- I suppose it’s a control thing.

I do ask myself the question, why does it take so long? I remember a head teacher who couldn’t grasp the time I was still spending on planning; after five years I should be resourced and set-up.

Over my teaching career I’ve tried to make myself more organised and productive, I moved from a paper planner to Word document weekly template, divided into individual days and lessons. I use this to fill in the details of my lessons, it also works as a diary, so I put in reminders of tasks to do during the day. I started to use red text as well to denote points of importance, such as students I wanted to speak to, or changes that I had made to the format of my lesson. With teaching multiple groups I also wanted a way to show what parts of the lesson I didn’t teach, so I now highlight these blue.

I’ve been developing my model of planning over the last three years, so I now have a detailed record of how my lessons progressed on any week or day, because I can go back and look at what I was doing previously it saves time, I can now easily cut and paste lesson ideas ,and adapt them to suit the present class.

I’m also a bit pedantic about my lesson resources, so tend to order them according to Key Stage, topic and lesson. I’ve also started to hyperlink between my planning template and individual resources and folders.

As I change or adapt resources, the old versions  go to a more general thematic folder.  I also keep an external hard drive of resources at home, in readiness for new lessons, or as potential inspiration.

I suppose the planning part will always take time- each class often requires a slightly difficult approach or adapted resource, within Geography topicality can quickly influence learning- old case studies are dispatched for new, and about every two minutes a syllabus changes.

Just sat on the sofa trying my Iphone App for WordPress-

Seems to be working fine, but wondering whether I’ll use it, might be useful when I’m out and around, though I seem to be collecting a range of useless applications at the moment.

Just a personal reflection on the impact that technology has had on my professional life over the last ten years in my present teaching establishment.

Infrastructure

I’m lucky to work in a school where we have a stable network, that has been maintained and developed over the last ten years by a great set of support staff.

Still to be persuaded on the VLE- but I’m keeping an open mind.

Administration

Technology has had a huge impact on the time needed to complete administration tasks.

Teaching and Learning

How I prepare to teach, and the media I use when teaching, have been influenced by technology.

Though technology has changed the format and materials I use  to ‘present’ lessons, access to I.C.T. resources still limits the experimental type learning that I would like to use within the classroom.

Professional Development

One of the greatest impacts of technology upon  my professional development over the last ten years, has been the ability to access the resources and views of other practitioners.

It leaves me reflecting on the impact that technology might have over the next ten years…

I’ve been reflecting over the last couple of days, helped by some self-inflicted injuries, and have spent time reading excellent posts about the successes of other educators over the last year, I’m a bit of a pessimist, so tend to look at what I haven’t achieved, which is much- I suppose it helps put into context the way I wish to develop in the future.

So for the last year, ten areas that I need to improve within my practice and professional life-

I need to be less controlling- practitioners need a classroom ‘presence’, this control exists within the classroom because of detailed planning and long-term behaviour management. A major proportion of my practice is somewhat traditional, but I think I need to create time and space for students to work independently of my presence, the so called holy grail of independent learning.

I struggle with group work- It still fills me with fear, and I know it doesn’t reflect my preference of intrapersonal learning. I think this is linked to control; I struggle with the dynamics of successful groupings, ensuring ‘on task’ time, and the monitoring of quality. I need to observe other successful classroom practice in the near future and begin to incorporate this into my own.

I like students to ‘do’ more- I really enjoy kinaesthetic-type learning activities, and it’s something that I’ve been slowing incorporating into my practice, but once term time begins I find it increasingly difficult to spend the time needed to prepare for such activities.

I need to be more challenging- working in a truly comprehensive establishment with mixed ability classes, I have to ensure that lessons are accessible; though I think I’m still not challenging students. I like to incorporate a more challenging range of activities into my practice, to take students’ out of their comfort zones.

I’d like students to take the control of I.C.T. – I think I use I.C.T. effectively within my whole class practice, but I want to develop more tasks where students use I.C.T. to solve problems, report and present their findings.

I want to develop more depth to students’ work- irrespective of ability, I haven’t spent enough time helping students construct and develop arguments; part of this requires an AFL approach.

I need to be more rigorous with my feedback- one of the areas that I feel I’ve made progress with this year is my marking- I’ve set time aside during my PPA to regularly mark a set of books, but I still need to be more specific in my geographical feedback to students to help aid their progression.

I like to get out more- as a geographer it should be a done thing, but I would like to make greater use of outside learning, particularly around the campus where I work.

I haven’t solved my homework issue- a continuing issue for me, see previous post.

I need to develop a thicker skin- I need to be more resilient in the face of professional challenges, something which I struggle with, I get disheartened easily.

I feel better now; have a drink on my behalf… Welcome 2010

This post is largely in response to a comment by Kenny.

One of the most significant influences on my practice over the last decade has been the online sharing of ideas/resources, with other members of my subject community and the wider teaching profession. Ironically, the dialogue that I maintain with this wider sphere has more depth than my internal conversations with colleagues- I’ve always thought this shouldn’t be the case…

I remember starting teaching and having few connections to the wider subject community or profession, those connections that did exist were mostly P.G.C.E. colleagues and a termly copy of Teaching Geography from the Geographical Association. I didn’t have access to the Internet at home, nor was there much online; with the exception of Alan Parkinson’s Geography Pages: the rise of the Staffordshire Learning Net for Geography forum, once discovered, opened a new world of connections- the opportunity to discuss and share practice with a wide range of individuals. Of course, these opportunities have exploded over the last few years, to include Twitter, Nings, Blogs…

So why share? I remember Richard Dawkin’s discussion of altruism in the God Delusion, he suggests that this is not a unique human trait and has a clear evolutionary purpose. Part of sharing is having a common interest in the development of the group, as educators we share approaches to help further the practice within classrooms that are not our own, as Kenny suggests, the main beneficiaries are the students. The engaging practitioner also benefits from the dialogue, the opportunity to learn how an approach has been devised, or how a resource has been developed.

The practitioner also benefits from the collective altruism of the group in times of need, whether with resources, suggestions or support, this response in part is based upon the notion that by aiding an individual in their time of need, the same support will be received in the future, if not the system begins to unwind- highlighted by the annual frustration in some learning communities with lurkers and takers.

One of the concepts that I struggled with when considering Dawkin’s viewpoints on altruism, was the concept of power: that by being altruistic you project your power, in this case knowledge and experience. I’ve never thought of the consequence of sharing in these terms, but perhaps it’s disingenuous not to consider this point of view. Part of my work is my play; I sometimes prepare materials for the group, which I don’t utilise myself, because I enjoy it. As such I feel very cautious when sharing materials or ideas with my wider connections, I don’t want to be held up as an example of practice, nor do I believe I am a good teacher, and ultimately I don’t want to be regarded as self-promoting. Sharing does raise your profile within a group, but I would hate to think that this inhibited others from sharing their own practice.

I’ve also separated my wider contributions from my internal work, though the connections to my wider community have developed my practice and brought a number of opportunities, it is something that I rarely speak about to my colleagues, even my supportive line manager doesn’t really know the full picture. I do this mostly because I’m a private person, and don’t feel the need to justify my work to others, nor do I wish to be used as an example, but mostly because my main concern is not with my status, but the individuals that are sat in front of me.

A couple of weeks ago, at a Geography FM meet, I was encouraged by Mark to consider sharing my R.S. resources, so I’ve made a start here.

It’s very much a work in progress, but I tend to upload resources as I use them within my teaching.