Tony Cassidy

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