2009 is nearing its end and the time comes to think about the New Year, I have a number of personal and professional resolutions swimming around in my head, but will choose, as always, to keep them private.
At the previous Geography Flash Meet, we discussed our geo-resolutions for the year, I summarised my own with the word SEE.
Share- I intend to continue to share my practice and resources with others. Over the last couple of months, I’ve found this difficult, both internally and externally, for a number of reasons. I’ve never set myself up as an example of good practice, but often worry that sharing can be a viewed by others as self-promoting, perhaps I’m overly thinking about this. Sharing is also incredibly difficult because your work is open to review by your peers: I like discourse and really enjoy when constructive criticism helps develop an idea or resource, but it seems increasingly of late, that some individuals are too quick to criticise without necessarily providing the constructive element. I also feel that often I don’t necessarily have anything to add to the discussion.
Engage- I intend to engage more within the professional communities I inhabit, both real-time and virtually. As an introverted character, virtual communities are a great way to engage with other professionals, though of late I’ve tended to distance myself from certain places, real-time engagement is much more difficult for myself personally, but I intend to have a go!
Experiment- I’m intending to experiment a little more over the coming year, something which I think I have lost from my practice over the last year or so, now I feel comfortable in my classroom, I think it’s think to push my boundaries a little more.
7 Responses to “See what I mean?”
Nice new blog Tony. I look forward to hearing about your experiments!
David
Thanks David
Hi Tony,
have to watch how I phrase this, but I find so much common ground in the sentiments you express, unless I am misreading them. One of the things about sharing for me is not so much that it hangs you out there, but that it gives my students access to materials we have used in class and helps me find them when I use them again. If others feel they want to critique my work, I’m big and ugly enough to recognise whose opinions I should value, so I don’t feel that it’s self promotion to share for the reasons that I do. If colleagues find it useful, then that’s brilliant, and I get so much from talking to and working with other people that I am glad if I give a little back. My point is that for me and you and most others who share, they really aren’t the primary audience or (hopefully) beneficiaries of those resources, it’s the people who sit in front of us every day. Which is why I have a major problem with the culture of profile which exists in schools. I feel I work hard for the kids I teach to give them a good deal, but am increasingly finding that there is an expectation that in a promoted post it’s important that it’s not only those kids and their parents who know that. I am constantly being reminded that I should be telling other staff and the wider school community about what I do. Until now, I have always failed to see the reason, and have seen that as something rather egotistical and unneccessary. I think that might be where you are coming from too. I am coming more and more to the conclusion that building a profile can be similar to a record of work though. Record it. Let people see it. Say what you would improve and what you would keep. Accept the valid criticisms and argue the toss with the ones you don’t agree with. It’s what I would do if I was being reviewed. I am just realising that in the age of information, I might just be reviewed by a wider group of peers, and if I share my thoughts on a regular basis, my record of work/achievement is there for all to see. Hopefully this ramble makes some kind of sense, this post really touched a nerve so thanks for authoring.
[...] This post is largely in response to a comment by Kenny. [...]
Kenny – I also share your dislike of the profile culture. However, I think that the reason to share within school is to make the learning better for young people across the school.
I understand that, David, and agree to a certain extent with your comments. Where I fall away from that thinking is where the act of promoting someones actions becomes more important than the reasons they have for making them. Unfortunately, I think that type of individual and even more depressingly, that type of expectation is becoming more common in schools and the wider educational community. I believe that everything we do is aimed at making learning better for young children, the me culture shouldn’t be a part of that because it removes the focus from the most important person in the whole process.
Completely agree Kenny. I would hope that all that we do is motivated by making learning better. Not everyone that self promotes is in it for themselves