When did teaching become so formulaic?

Reposted from StaffRM

This past few months I’ve been doing a lot of reflection and one thing that keeps coming to the forefront is how teaching has changed so much that we no longer allow teachers to just ‘teach’.

When I was an NQT some 17 years ago, I remember starting at my school and being given a scheme of work and left to it.  Of course there was an expectation that what I was doing was going to develop the students and let them progress but in those years it was never checked upon except for exam results each summer.

Flash forward 10 or so years and suddenly as a Head of Department, everything I do is being scrutinised but not only that I’m also being told to teach my classes in a particular way – the schools way.

This was the beginning of when I started to question what we were doing.

In the (good) old days we were left to our own devices; we knew our students, we understood what worked and didn’t work – if we wanted to differentiate we knew the best way of doing so for our classes.  If we were being asked to push on literacy we knew which students would need that extra support and how best to manage that.

But by and large we chose what to do and how to do it – we knew the class and that was enough.

But times change.

Schools/leaders don’t want teachers to be free thinking individuals anymore.

We don’t want teachers deciding how they teach a topic or how often they mark or even what type of marking they give.

We want to control everything.

A student going to 5 or 6 periods a day; we want them to experience the same lesson structure in everyone of those lessons.

Why?

Are we that convinced in our ‘generic’ practices by forcing them on to all we will obtain, not only the right results, but a well rounded educated individual?

It seems strange that in a profession where people will develop a deeper understanding of their preferred subject to degree level; to have them spend a year gaining the confidence to plan or to deliver a lesson in front of 30 individuals that as soon as they are qualified we restrict them into teaching how we (leaders) want them to teacher.

Regardless of individuality in the class.
Regardless of particular needs in the class.
Regardless of their untapped into skills.

We (leaders) know best so therefore you teach in the manner that we want you to teach.

We want a starter
We want literacy in your lesson
We want numeracy in your lesson
We want differentiation to allow all to achieve
We want an opportunity for progress to be checked
We want directed questions
We want the most vulnerable targeted
We want the most able targeted
We want written work
We want feedback in books
We want multicoloured pens
We want evidence you have seen students work
We want evidence you have seen students responses to your comments.
We want pace
We want consolidation
We want quiet
We want discussion
We want, we want, we want…
…all in a 50/60 minute lesson.

And how are we going to check to make sure all the above are actually met?

Well we have our tried and tested 15 minute learning walks and our regular work audits – that’s how.

And if you don’t follow what we want, then we’ll have to start using the ‘C’ word when we meet with your – ‘competency’.

When are we actually allowing teachers to actually teach to the best of their abilities?

When are we going to allow a teacher what is best for their class in terms of delivery decide?

Teaching is not something that can be prescribed; not something where one size fits all.

Teaching is always all about the individual, whether that be in front of the class or a member of the class.

Lets allow the person at the front decide what is best for those students in front to them; lets allow the teacher to decide how to teach; lets allow the teacher to be daring and dangerous.

And if that doesn’t work, well we can always say ‘I told you so’, but lets at least try.

Intimidating Bullies at Ofsted

Reposted from StaffRM

I need to start this by saying from the outset that I appreciate the work that Ofsted try to do, it can’t be easy or really rewarding to just spend all your time criticising others.
I’ve been through 6 different Ofsted inspections now, with each one feeling like we were working with the inspectors and the outcomes were a fair representation of who we were as a school.
Unfortunately during our recent inspection (May 2017) we experienced a lead inspector who tried to bully and intimidate not only us, but the other inspectors with her.
These are just a few of the issues of the two days.
— Referred to us for the two days as ‘school’ – never by name
— We supplied all information in packs prior to the inspectors arrival – they never looked at them once and preferred to ask for evidence, when it was supplied they complained it was taking too long – despite out efforts to point out the same information was in their packs they told us they ‘didn’t have time to look through them’
— Put their hands up in people’s faces to prevent someone from talking
— Told us that they wouldn’t include some elements in the report but if we complained about her conduct then she would
— Asked leading questions to staff repeatedly but when challenged denied it
— Since the inspection we have been contacted several times to ask further questions as they’d forgot
— When asked about why a particular student didn’t perform we informed her of how they had been frequently absent due to outside issues, we were told ‘that’s not an excuse’
— When asking Sixth Form students about their aspirations, one informed them they wanted to go into medicine; the inspector replied with ‘Well at least someone in this place wants to do something with their lives’ loud enough for other students and the teacher to hear
— When one inspector was challenged by the lead about a question they should have asked they lied and told her we didn’t have the information – we attempted to explain the information​ was never requested and we did have it, only to have the lead put her finger on her lips and say ‘its not your opportunity school’
We have complained about the actions of the lead inspector, and I’m not naming her, but the damage has been done; those that met her feel dejected, frustrated and just downright​ angry at what was done.
Reading what Sean Harford wants Ofsted to be is encouraging and using the #OftedMyths he is clearly trying to put his actions into words but he first needs to look closely at how to remove the poison from inside.

Motivation

Reposted from StaffRM

Does anyone else during a school holiday sometimes feel a bit absent minded in terms of education matter?

It’s happening more to me since having children, my daytime is spent running around playing with them that I often forget to engage my brain to think about teaching at all.

I always feel a bit guilty when this occurs and that I’ve lost my motivation for teaching but in reality I find it this state quite cleansing and allows me the time to shift out of my head the nonsense and to refocus my energies.

With a week of the holidays to go I know that come midweek my brain will kick back in again to thinking of all things to do with school and that certainly by next Sunday I won’t be able to sleep because of the adrenaline.

Formative Feedback

Reposted from StaffRM

As is always the case when looking for evidence or guidance I turn to social media to find out what others are doing around the globe.

Formative marking, for me, serves as a extremely powerful tool that enables students to move from Point A to Point B but it is interesting to hear/read others views on this.

The above is hugely interesting when you start to look at formative marking across subjects, what may work in English may not work across Mathematics and don’t get me started on the prevention of formative marking in BTECs.

So educators around the world, I’m looking for what you believe to be good examples of formative marking to share with others in my schools.

I’m not asking without sharing though so here are a few I’ve shared previously;

Basic Formative Feedback

Why is…
Label the…
State…
Explain how to…
What is the…
Apply this theory to…
find the meaning of…
Define…

More Generic Statements

How would you do this differently?
Why did you do this work like this?
Describe this further.
How did you manage this?
What do you think should be done to improve this?
Why is it important to…?

Further examples would be very much appreciated and especially any that relate to Mathematics who find it difficult due to the nature of their subject.

Thanks in advance

GAFE

Reposted from StaffRM

During the #29daysofwriting challenge I wrote a piece about where I believed VLE’s were going, it generated some comments from @markanderson  who mentioned ‘Google Apps for Education’ (GAfE).

Well this week I attended a very enjoyable day on the very subject of GAfEs.  It was at the South Staff College who are a FE establishment deep in their GAfE life.

The course itself was was being hosted by a consultancy company so I went very much expecting to be hit at every opportunity to buy into their product but was pleasantly surprised to find out that the day was to focus fully on teaching and learning in the digital world and there was no discussion of costs or purchasing at all – a very welcome/unique day.

As a group we saw excellent uses of GAfE, from how the college use it to deliver their courses to students and how students access material outside of the college i.e. on the bus home!

We we enthralled by Bob Harrison who gave us stories of his personal life, history lessons about the streets of London and why we shouldn’t just be using technology to repeat the teaching mistakes of the past.

We listened to a very passionate Yousef Fouda who showed us some of the pitfalls of introducing GAfE and told us of the mistakes he had made.  He was inspirational with his use of Google+ across the college to make a safe and secure social network for students and staff only.

The afternoon was the technical aspects we met a representative from Google, complete with an American accent, who talked through security issues surrounding using GAfE.

And finally themselves the college themselves talked very opening about their journey with GAfE and what their expectations were for the future with the technology.

The whole day had a big impact on not only myself and my network manager but certainly many other people there.

Since the day we’ve set up the Admin side of GAfE, given access to a few staff to test and are running pilot schemes with different classes and ages – we have run at it at full pelt and although clearly very early in our journey I’m certainly excited about where we go.