Ok. So, maybe I did have a bit of a rant about Twitter in my last Blog Post. Maybe I did liken Twitter to a two-faced Crazy from Batman. And yes, I still did feel a little overwhelmed by the known faces around, all looking something like an assembly of Avengers, as I tweeted yesterday.
Yesterday we saw all the positives that come from collaboration – the ‘whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts’. This, in essence, is also true of a good school – the joined-up thinking of SLT, Middle Leaders, Teaching Staff & Support staff that ensure all the cogs turn.
The atmosphere in the Institute of Education yesterday was refreshing and exciting. Here were teachers discussing the minutiae of their daily practice and openly, happily, warmly talking about when they don’t get it right, or as @learningspy said, actively getting it ‘wrong’.
I welcomed the overlap of ideas. In every session I attended, including my own, Cognitive Psychology, Interleaving and Spacing were referred to. My own presentation owes a huge debt to @atharby and his fantastic blog reflectingenglish.wordpress.com, particularly his work on Modelling, as well as @joe_kirby for his synthesis of current research. Open credit for and reference to the abundance of thoughtful reflection and research being carried out.
As a keen Mountain Bike rider, I thought this story was pertinent. The bike company, Cannondale released a completely innovative bike with a revolutionary design – the Lefty. It has a single front suspension fork rather than two. Cannondale patented this design essentially meaning no other bike company can build upon the idea, develop, challenge and force growth. That is not to say it isn’t a creative solution BUT how much better are things when we enable others to make suggestions, expand, elaborate or give their perspective – wholly different from our own sometimes?
That’s what Pedagoo was for me – an opportunity for me to question what I’m doing and accept that sometimes I am actively getting it wrong. But that there are many people out there working on Getting it Right.
My own goals which I want to reflect on over the next few months include:
1: Develop my use of Modelling and use of the Success Criteria Mats
2: Focus on feeding back on Progress rather than Effort
3: Look at embedding ‘testing’ in class and develop ‘freedom to learn’ during tutor time.
Finally, I took your advice @kevbartle and went for a bike ride this morning and felt happy that I was doing something just for me!
Huge thank you to @hgaldinoshea for everything!
Link to my pedagoo 2014
gettingitrightsometimes 