Tony Cassidy

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.

I’ve been teaching for the last ten years, and spent all of this time at one school. Part of me is ready for new challenges, not being particularly organised I’ve never kept a record of the different projects and developments I’ve been involved with; I’ve tried to summarise my main external activities over the last five years, it’s a stock take, rather then a form of self-promotion.

I think over this period my career has taken three phases

Establishing- at the start of my career I was establishing myself as a teacher, coping with demands that this entails.

Engaging- after the challenges of establishing myself within the classroom, I think I then began to engage with the wider subject community- in part to enhance my practice and as an opportunity to seek external challenges.

Refocusing- external engagement encouraged me to evaluate my practice within the classroom, now that the challenges of establishing myself had subsided, I began to focus on the quality and effectiveness of learning opportunities. During this time internal challenges developed, that I was able to engage with, this somewhat limited the time that I had to work with other external partners.

I now feel comfortable in the role of an ‘educator’, but over the last two years, for personal reasons, I feel I have lost the confidence to engage with challenges both internally and externally, it’s something I hope to rediscover over the next year…

I suppose one of things about being a teacher is that everyone has an opinion on education to share with you.

One of my brother’s family is now in Year 8 at secondary school, his partner asked me about my opinion on homework- sadly it’s one of those areas I still can’t get right in my mind. There were two interesting and opposing viewpoints.

• Setting homework, provides additional burden to students, time when they could be widening their interests or becoming involved in different groups.
• Some students find homework difficult to complete for a number of reasons, lack of home space, or ability, homework tasks may cause friction at home, particularly if a child needs an adult to help, or failure to hand in homework has become an issue.
• Lack of homework from a class can cause friction between teacher and student, as a sanction is given to the student, the student may become less motivated, in extreme cases purposely missing the lesson.
• Some homework tasks set can be completely inappropriate, unchallenging and dull, thus they devalue the knowledge or the lesson where it is being provided.

On the opposite side-

• Homework offers an opportunity for students to work independently, as such it can extend knowledge and promote interest.
• Appropriate open-ended tasks can encourage students to think and produce creatively.
• It helps students develop time management skills.

We don’t have a specific homework policy, but over my time teaching I have evolved the following personal philosophy-

• I don’t set homework for the sake of it, why create the additional burden and stress, for a pointless piece of work?
• I tend to set open ended and more creative tasks over a longer time period. The aim being that choice will help engage students.
• I take in and mark homework, but do not use sanctions when individuals do not complete it.

The third point is contentious, one which I’ve had a quite heated debate over in the last term- A key Stage 4 student being given a detention over non-submission of coursework, I find this sends a very confusing message, you will be made to complete work that benefits you, as a result you may do just as well, or better, than the individual who is intrinsically motivated and has completed the work on time. What do both students learn from this? Happily the issue of coursework submission has died with the creation of controlled assessment.

This is not to say that as a professional I don’t have a responsibility to inform the student’s parents and offer support, sometimes failure to complete can be an issue of motivation: but it can also be symptomatic of a lack of understanding, or an inherent issue with the task.

But I see no reason to force an individual to complete work, nor do I wish to damage a relationship with a student so much, that they opt with their feet, and ultimately are turned off from learning and school.

I’m of the mindset that individuals who show effort, should be praised and rewarded, part of that ‘reward’ is intrinsic, but extrinsically it is also celebrated with improved skill, knowledge and progress.

I suppose my four point is more challenging, but I have given up on

• Deadlines

But that’s for another time…

One of the traditional messages I took note of over Christmas Day was from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a man who I have a great deal of time for, he spoke about dependency and independence, there were several points that spoke to me as an educator.

‘Yet we have over the long millennia of human existence created a whole culture in which there is a basic impatience about learning – we want to get to the point where we can say, OK that’s enough, I know what I need to know – and about receiving’

As educators we are focused on successfully preparing students for their examinations, within a tight time allocation and under the pressure of performance management, we focus on the content and skills needed to successfully navigate the exam hurdle, but at what expense?

The ‘expense’ is that educators feel restrained from deviating from the content through fear of not covering what is necessary; this creates a stress that I believe is transmitted to students, approaches become less creative, as a result student motivation begins to wane, relationships become strained.

Often students begin to ask what the minimum requirement in terms of effort and knowledge are in order to be successful, utility rather than interest takes over.

A notion of life-long learning evaporates… as we provide students with a narrow set of skills needed to be successful in the short-term, we create a negative dependency.

‘And in the case of children, we shall do our level best to turn you into active little consumers and performers as soon as we can. We shall test you relentlessly in schools… we shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regrettable stage on the way to the real thing – which is ‘independence’, turning you into a useful cog in the social machine that won’t need too much maintenance.’

Difficult to argue with this, students are under intense pressure to succeed, such turns students away from learning in some cases, a fixed mindset develops, where success is related to a grade or percentage, other successes and personal qualities are devalued.

Economic utility has become king, a liberal sense of exploring and engaging with knowledge for its intrinsic value has disappeared.

’Can we as a society accept and even celebrate the fact that there is a place for proper and mature dependence – that human beings need to receive and learn: not so that they can get to the point where they stop receiving and learning, but so that they can acquire the habits of receiving and learning in ever-new settings? Can we help children enjoy their dependency so that they don’t just leave it behind but get to manage it with freedom and imagination as they grow older?’

A call for a focus on life-long learning, we need to prepare students with the necessary skills to engage with learning throughout their lifetime, within a variety of contexts.

‘One is simply to reconnect ourselves to our own capacity to receive and learn with joy and excitement – to become like little children, as Somebody once said.   The other is to be ready to give the nurture and security that children need – to create the safe places where they can learn, where they can make their mistakes.’

Finally, as educators we need to promote our love of learning, but at the same time reassure that failure is part of learning…

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.