Sweet Dreams Diary 2015

Twitter throws up some interesting invitations and opportunities. One such came from Dr Carol Webb... Somehow she has managed to coordinate 43 teachers to produce a high quality diary to raise funds for the Family Holiday Association... I am Mr Easter Monday!

Over two million children live in families who cannot afford a day trip to the seaside - far less than a simple holiday! The Family Holiday Association works to help disadvantaged families get that much needed break away from home.

The diary is A5 spiral bound, 62 pages, month to a page and follows the theme of 'A Dream Holiday', with each teacher posing to camera with a backdrop of their dream holiday.

Diaries are available to order NOW in return for a donation of £10 (including postage and packing).

You can purchase them using Paypal via <here>

If you would rather just make a donation, you can do that via JustGiving <here>

www.familyholidayassociation.org.uk

#UKEdMag - The 10 Commandments of Tweets with Students

My third artcile for UKEdMag appears in the October edition. It features something I have written about a number of times and presented about at TeachMeets too. I hope it is useful to those who are trying to see how Twitter can be of use for learning.

Read my article in full <here>. There is also an abridged version on UKEdMag's website <here>

Image courtesy of UKEdMag

TMHavering also gets a mention <here> and Don't Change The Lightbulbs gets a mention too <here>

As always, feedback always welcome!

Find out more about UKEdMag <here> - you can now order printed copies!

Catholic REsource: Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands

Wednesday 1st October 2014 sees the official launch of a website that I have created called Catholic REsource (If you want a sneak peek, it's already live <here>). I have personally put many, many hours into this project as I firmly believe that sometimes 'that person has to be you'. It is easy to bemoan a lack of resources or networking, but seeing what has been possible via Twitter (The Headteachers Roundtable and ResearchEd spring straight to mind), I have been inspired to make this website happen.

I have had this idea for quite a long time. It is hard to find useful resources on TES for Catholic RE and not many people use the resource sharing offered by the CES (<here>). There are a few excellent websites I use, but I saw the need for a place to bring them all together, and give RE teachers an opportunity to add their own resources to be shared by others. Support via Dioceses can vary, and through speaking to others, there appeared to be a need for something.

Last April, I then got an email at school from a fellow Catholic RE teacher, Andy McMillan, which said:

"I myself am a Catholic RE teacher and after a conversation last year with my year 11 tutor group was surprised to know that many students used YouTube for revision videos for other subjects. However, when I asked them if there were any for RS, I was disappointed to find there was a scarcity of material appropriate for the Catholic papers. So, rather than bemoan the lack of resources, I decided to do something about it and create my own, which is why I am now writing to you."

Andy has been incredibly supportive, helping provide a list of email addresses he used. Make sure you check out his videos <here>; they are brilliant!

After building the basics of the site, I wanted to get more people on board and have tried via Twitter to recruit a few people. Completely understandably, it's hard to get people to commit to too much (who has spare time in abundance as a teacher?!), and so I hope the basic infrastructure is now in place that it will be simple to just add links. People can submit resources <here> and they can quickly and easily added. The site will really only be as good as the contributions made... I add the good things I find, and I hope others can do the same.

The most time consuming activity has been trying to find email addresses of people that can help promote this site. Andy had a large number of schools on his list, but I have gone through old emails connected to TERE meetings, my Catholic School Leadership MA, friends, family... as well as all the major RE organisations, Diocese education offices including England, Wales and beyond. On Wednesday, information will be sent to nearly 900 email addresses. 

This is one of the biggest things I've attempted.

I'm very apprehensive about the outcome. It's not about me personally, although I do worry that obviously my name is well attached to the site and I don't want to be the laughing stock of Catholic RE. It's more about this idea of sharing and networking... Can we do it? Can we find the time to do it? Can we do it via a website and social networks? Maybe the answer will be no, and the very idea of that is more crushing than the wasted hours put into this.

Perhaps the revolution will begin slowly, perhaps people will appreciate the site as it is and it will make a contribution for the next year or so for Catholic RE teachers (sadly websites and resources can date quickly).

However, it could be big, and it could be a great success. This would be brilliant for the Catholic RE community. Too often anything that does happen is 'top down'. This is our opportunity, this could be our moment... 

The internet, and especially social networking sites, have enabled teachers to reach out and become part of a 'sharevolution' (S Lockyer). This site is created for Catholic RE teachers by Catholic RE teachers. There is no budget, no time set aside, no agenda, no director... just teachers inspiring and helping other teachers.

If you want to receive the launch email, or know some else who would (teacher, head, chaplain, anyone!), please let me know their emails by dropping me a line <here>.

Perhaps I'll blog next weekend with the result. Wish me luck!

Edit: 1st October was the big launch! Read the Press Release <here>

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Here are the requests that will be going out in the mailing:

What can you do?

• Please spread the word. Forward this blog to every single Catholic RE teacher you know! Please forward within your Dioceses', your school, your friends, your family. Word of mouth will help the site grow and reach even more teachers.
• Please sign up to our mailing list, join our Facebook page and follow our Twitter account. 
• Please send us links to your best Catholic RE resources. We don't host (as that's expensive and we have no money!) so please use a site such as DropBox, GoogleDrive, Sky Drive and TES resources to upload and then send us the link. Please send links via this page <here> 
• Please join the RC Dropbox - there are already 60 teachers sharing resources <here>.
• Please consider helping edit the site. As it grows, we'll need people to help edit, add and tidy the site (only two of us so far!). We use a GoogleSites format. Let us know <here>.
• Please consider supporting or endorsing the site. We'd love to add a few logos to the site of people/organisations that recommend us.
• Please hit comment (or email) and give some feedback...

Low-Level Disruption

Jonah from Tonga, courtesy of the BBC

So this time it was The Telegraph who got the leak from OFSTED, see <here>, on a report of low-level disruption in schools. I was asked by the Guardian for a comment, then a blog, and then they decided they only wanted my comment. However I had already started the blog (500 word limit), so here it is...

“9F were really chatty today… Sarah in 10/6 is always fidgeting… Danny can never stop swinging on his chair!”

Low-level disruption is often part of the daily life of a teacher; the above comments could be taken from any secondary school staff room. OFSTED suggest that this behaviour is becoming more prevalent, occupying more learning time. I’d argue behaviour is always an issue for schools as it is the most stressful things teachers have to deal with and directly affects the learning and progress of a class. The perception of behaviour (and whether it is an issue or not) is also something that varies greatly, even within a school.

Behaviour management is the utmost important thing a teacher needs to learn to do. You can have a PhD in the subject you are trying to teach, but without the ability to control the students in front of you, not much learning will take place. Despite being an established and experienced teacher, every year I go back to basics; I dictate a seating plan, go through my expectations and routines, and outline potential rewards and consequences. This means we are all clear on what needs to go on. Do my students still fall short? On a regular basis.

There is no magic solution for behaviour. OFSTED can claim they want to see an improvement and inspectors may go to a school looking for a specific strategy in place. What works at one school will not necessarily work in the next, what works for one teacher will not necessarily work in the classroom next door; this is equally as applicable for swearing and chair throwing as it is chat and pen-tapping. Often there is often “two schools” within the one (see Tom Bennett) and a culture of “good enough” behaviour (see Andrew Old), whereby some teachers experience good behaviour and others get the poor behaviour with no necessary correlation of teaching ability or experience. 

There are things that school leaders can do, and this perhaps needs to be a more positive focus for OFSTED inspections. Teachers ‘on the ground’, teaching six period days, with 32 books to mark on a near daily basis need help and support with all aspects of behaviour. Often they physically do not have the time to chase up every incident. Do school leaders really know if the systems they have put in place operate efficiently? They need to think carefully about the questions they ask, and how they ask them. Do teaching staff feel that their concerns are a sign of weakness or will they be genuinely and supportively addressed? Can they work out how big the divide is between the "two schools"? Is their behaviour "good enough" or could it better, relieving some of the pressure and stress of staff? Some of this may be a useful focus of OFSTED inspections.

However, what exactly is the behaviour that needs to be addressed? My classes can be chatty, but often I see that as a good thing. Teaching RE I may have just given them a hugely controversial newspaper article or shown them a video that has affected them emotionally or spiritually. If they sat there in silence waiting for a task, I'd feel uncomfortably awkward. I love having 32 real life human beings in my class.

Low-level disruption can often just be the behaviour of children; young adults on the route to becoming 'well-trained', civilised adults; every teacher plays their part in getting them there. Many students will spend 95% of their time attentive and hard working. Sometimes a student will make an off-topic comment that I’ll respond to as it’s interesting or funny. That helps me get to know them, and then I can teach them better. It is important to keep behaviour to the forefront of educational discussion, but it is equally important to make sure we don’t use a heavy-weight OFSTED sledgehammer to crack a chatty, teenage nut. Especially if it distracts from the real issues about behaviour in schools and creates more pressure on frontline teaching staff.

Don't Change The Lightbulbs

Me with my chapter!

Using Twitter as a teacher has got me involved in many different things. TeachMeets, and in particular TM Havering, ResearchEd, Andrew Old's blogger curry nights, Caroline Webb's charity calendar and this, Rachel Jones's "Don't Change The Lightbulbs".

Rachel is an incredibly enthusiastic and innovative teacher who I always enjoy hearing speak at TeachMeet and other education events. When she asked me to do the Top 10 Tips for RE teachers, it was a real privilege. There are lots of RE teachers on Twitter and this burden weighed heavily on my shoulders as I embarked upon writing my chapter earlier in the year. Hopefully it gets a nod of approval from my RE colleagues when they have a read!

Rachel launches the live stream Q&A

From what was going to initially be an eBook, somewhere behind the scenes, Crown House Publishing got involved and decided that the book would also be going into print. I'm not sure that it was my name's inclusion that got them interested and more likely Vic Goddard, Jim Smith, Hywel Roberts, Mark Anderson, Ian Gilbert, Oliver Quinlan... all already popular authors in their own right. A fantastic job has been done with the book and it is something I am really, really proud to be a part of. 

The book launch, the first of these kind of events that I've been to, took place in The Centre For Literacy In Primary Education in Southwark, London. It was a great evening, if not a little overwhelming. In a small space, there was a huge number people that I follow on Twitter. People that inspire me and that I look up to. There was also cake and wine. 

Part of the evening was a live feed with a Q&A. Various people either volunteered or got selected to answer a question... there was an RE-related one and up I got up. I made a passionate plea to people to remember the importance of RE in the curriculum. I told them about the fact we create a space in the curriculum for asking and answering the big questions, including those about life and death. I told them that our subject is more important than ever as we still encounter students who have various prejudices that need to be challenged. My final plea was that people did not judge the RE of today with their own experiences at school. It is one of the fastest growing GCSEs and it is often one of students' favourite subject; the teaching of RE (in many schools) has been transformed in the last 10 years and there is so much great stuff going on in RE classrooms up and down the country. It seemed to go down well.

We got our first 5 star review from Acadmies Weekly <here>. The review importantly pointed out, "Much of their advice really is first-rate but what stood out above even that, was the commitment they displayed for teachers supporting each other and developing as a community.". This is perhaps the reason why I tweet and blog, and will continue to do so. The book launch confirmed the ability that we all have to make a contribution to improving education and raising the standards of teaching, without government intervention.

None of the authors were involved for financial gain, it started as a project to simply share ideas. However, now it is a published book, a final reason to buy a copy is that all the profits go to Action for Children. Not only will you get a really lovely book, full of inspiration, but you'll be donating to a really excellent cause.

So, what are you waiting for? Buy a copy from the publishers, <here> or from Amazon, <here>.

Thanks Crown House Publishing for this present!

You're 'The Tough Love' teacher...

"You are harsh and intense, but only because you know you have to be if your students are ever going to really learn. Your students may hate you in the moment, but will be grateful for your teachings later on in life."... The Tough Love Teacher

It's hard to resist a Buzzfeed quiz when it comes up in your social network feed. The "What kind of teacher are you?" one particularly slow, especially at this stage of the year.

I am always return to Tom Bennett's guide to returning to school at the end of August (find it <here>) as every teacher needs to remember that there is a real need to re-establish with new classes, whoever you are. Even established members of SLT need to show classes that they are 'good enough' (and ultimately this is why classes do push boundaries... they need to know you are good enough to teach them).

Entering my 4th year at my current school, I am reasonably well-established. As part of the RE department and leading assemblies, as well as now Head of Y10, I am also quite a visible member of staff who many students fell they know, even if I have not taught them. However, this counts for very little come September.

I always do a seating plan, except for 6th form. I always print off photos and try to learn names as soon as possible. I always spend at least one lesson giving out my classroom rules (this year, we're using <this>, my expectations (respect yourself, respect others, respect all staff, respect he environment and respect faith) and other basics' about how we are going to get along. 

Timothy Taylor and Jon Brunskill have recently written about training in slightly different ways (<here> and <here> respectively).

Tim focus' on the idea of tracking as a listening skill, as demonstrated in an accompanying video. He explores his thoughts on it and concludes (abbreviated):

"Children cannot be free in the same way adults are. They can’t just decide to leave school and do what they like. We can’t allow them the same liberties and opportunities we give to grown ups. But we can treat them with just as much respect and dignity... We all have to operate within limits – legal, social, financial, environmental – and children are just the same. Only they have more limits than adults.

I believe we should teach this to children. Being free is not about doing what you like, when you like, it is about thinking about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and having opportunities to affect your environment.

The problem I have with the strategy used in the video is that it is imposed, uncritically, upon the children in the class, without genuine discussion or understanding. It is not about learning or what the students themselves need, it is about adult control and compliance. It is teacher-centred pedagogy, where the adults know best and children are treated as people without the same rights as other human beings."

This raises may questions about the start of the year. I want to train my classes (although not explicitly in tracking, but I can see why you would, likewise for clicking - see <here>).

Jon gives a response that would be more in keeping with my thinking when he talks about the training of class room routines:

"This is not stuff that we would normally call learning, they are the things that have to happen for learning to take place. The better the children are trained, the more effective learning can be."

I expect my classes to enter the room, stand quietly behind their desk, get their equipment out and then go silent when I ask. We then pray (RE in a Catholic school), sit down, copy down the title, not the Objective, write the date and get going on with the learning ASAP. Someone is trained in GCSE classes to give out paper. Someone is trained in KS3 classes to go and get the textbooks to distribute them. I make no apologies for any of this.

As Jon points out, "We wouldn’t train children during an observation, but reap the benefits of being congratulated on children being well trained."

Like Jon, I agree that it is easy to slip in to the trap of not explicitly going through these things. Teachers sometimes want to be liked, want to be perceived as 'cool' or 'down with the kids'. However, I want to be clear here that I don't think this approach is what Tim is putting forward, some kind of 'kids know best free for all'; he just thinks maybe students should be allowed to consider certain learning behaviour.

Part of this training does come down to expectations, I expect excellent behavior. I do not expect certain things to happen in my classroom and if they do, I make it very clear that it won't be happening again. Likewise, there are many things that I do insist on, and dedicate time to it. For example, I expect GCSE folders to be neat and tidy... sometimes we need to spend 20 minutes of class time to get that in place. By Y11, generally speaking the folders are in good condition.

This all comes a lot quicker if it is done at the beginning. I am reestablishing myself as The Tough Love Teacher again. I have high expectations, I will tell you exactly what I want you to do, and you better do it! I don't see this as adult control taking away the rights of the child. I want to create an environment where learning can start as soon as possible in my room, and when it gets started it doesn't get interrupted by poor behaviour or silly distraction. 

"Do or do not do. There is no try." when it comes to some behaviour.

Reflections: As a new HoY

Me unwinding last Sunday in sunny Southend with my family

This year, as well as Assistant Subject Leader in RE (bigger deal that in most schools as it's RC), I began my adventure as Head of Year 10. Or Pastoral Development Coordinator, PDC, as my official title goes. Whatever the name, I look after the behaviour, learning, pastoral, moral, spiritual, citizenship, health... and more(!), of 125 young ladies.

A few things stick in my head. These are comments made to me when I was appointed.

"Ah... pastoral, the easy route to the top!"

"I thought you valued teaching and learning? Good luck with that now..."

The first two weeks have made it very clear that this job will be everything but easy. There were some attractive Head of Department jobs going in our Diocese, offering substantial TLR payments. I was confident I would be in with a very good chance and indeed got very close to applying. 

One day, I do think that I may end up as a member of a SLT. However I have always wanted to "walk before running"; learning and mastering the art of teaching. If I do get to that level, I want to still share the classroom skills I have learnt. I also worry about the day that I stop being in the classroom, that's the very part of the job I love.

Had I taken a Head of Department job, I could be applying for Assistant Head jobs within two years. Instead, I decided to stay at my current school and see what a pastoral role could offer me. If I was desperate for an AHT job, the 'easy route to the top' would be as a Head of Department for two years. It would never in a million years be this.

Is it a common perception of pastoral leaders? I can't understand it, but equally I struggle to shake it off.

These last two weeks have been an absolute baptism of fire. Obviously I can't and wouldn't go in to the details but I have seen, heard and dealt with a lot of things that have challenged me in so many ways. I have wondered for the first time in years, "Can I do this?" and have sat at my desk reflecting hard on my ability to cope with the demands of the position (not quite tears, but nearly!). I'll be honest, that's not often me. Maybe I've had it too easy until now?

On the flip side, I am really enjoying it. As I previously blogged, I love a challenge. I will do this job, and I will do it to the very best of my ability. I will put in every hour that I can find to do it well. 

Regarding valuing Teaching and Learning, I am already seeing in a very real sense that way in which factors outside the classroom get to the heart of teaching and learning. Why is that student kicking off in lessons? Why are they not doing their homework? It adds another level of understanding and helps me deal with those issues in my own classroom too. 

Additionally, I still have an 'academic role'. I lead KS3 RE, where we are still in the process of a complete syllabus overhaul. I am supporting a non-specialist, while also helping the Subject Leader in RE with all of her duties. I also still teach RE! 

I do understand that sometimes, something has to give and I need to work out how and what that may be. I need to get smarter at my marking. I need to use every second during the school day and thankfully many of my lessons are ready to go. This does not mean that I neglect differentiation, or lesson improvement, or creating things from scratch. I couldn't do that to myself, or my students.

It's going to be a tough year. I'm glad I've got a fantastic wife and family, a great department, brilliant colleagues, the best of friends, a highly effective PLN through Twitter/TeachMeets/Curries... plus lots and lots students who make it all worthwhile.