Salut ma co-bloggeuse,
It occurs to me (again) that responding to posts with 'comments' runs the risk of things slipping under the radar. I've just been back through the comments and see I've missed yours because I don't seem to get any notification about comments, so I thought I'd bring them back from the dead and combine them with some of mine in a housekeeping post. Well, that's the plan but you know me...... Here goes. Your comments are in
italics. Mine are as is. I'll put my responses to your comments in
blue.
Loving the new found discipline, secretly wishing it was going to be a
constant as it is really a huge bonus for our conversation here! It is
all very coherent Ruth and highlights the need indeed for a "method to
our madness".
In my case the discipline is entirely generated by hedonism!! You know me well enough to realise that if there were any sense of obligation or duty associated with this undertaking then I would be off like a rocket. I'm doing it because I love it. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION PAR EXCELLENCE. You couldn't coerce me into blogging previously because I would've derived no pleasure from a one-sided conversation. I'm an interactive dude!! Actually, although I often claim to be ill-disciplined I think I may be motivated by a deep underlying discipline driven by perceived needs or wishes to go down a particular path when the time seems right. Synchronicity. I also prefer to have things ordered in my mind rather than on a piece of paper that I may not refer to. You can't escape your own mental order. I spend a lot of time just thinking about things. I've discovered about myself that I have to be very careful not to impose too much obvious order on what I do as it tends to elicit a rebellious response in me. If, for instance, in a fit of uncharacteristic efficiency I decide to plan my day in an orderly fashion, I can almost guarantee that I'll end up doing something else (unless the plans involve others). It'll always be something worthwhile as I'm not a time-waster, but it just won't be what I planned to do. That's just me and it's something I've come to understand about myself. I'm a great believer in the old Delphic oracle tenets 'Know thyself' and 'Nothing in excess', both of these help to keep my life in pretty good balance while still leaving scope for risk-taking and exploration. Having said that, I can be highly disciplined in certain spheres where there's no margin for error, such as planning for our school France trips. I could almost have been described as a control-freak. They went off very smoothly due to meticulous dotting of 'i's and crossing of 't's.
None of this above is very practical for "la rentrée" I am afraid. We
need a list of classes (year group) and a list of key ideas to tackle
the diversity with gusto! I have a couple more ICOT posts to add to the
smorgasbord, I know you dont do recipes. Or can this too evolve?
I'm sure it was practical, whatever it was. However, I now have a list of classes but I'll have to wait until I've got to know the students a bit before making too many decisions on how to tackle the diversity. I have a number of things that I'm interested in trying, for example designating at least one lesson a week for completely student-directed study where they're identifying their needs (a la Ewan McIntosh) and devising their own strategies (with my support) for meeting them. There remains the question of harmonising with the departmental goals and I can't walk in with hob-nailed boots and presume to change the world, if indeed it needs changing, but I envisage making incremental changes, some of which will involve quite a mind-shift for the students who, I suspect, have been fairly spoon-fed and exam-prepped. I'll be teaching in optimal conditions, for teacher well-being, anyway, as my largest class has 20 students. The others are in the 17 - 20 range with the smallest being a Year 10 of 11 students. Given that they all have laptops and the classroom is well equipped and supported for IT, there should be scope for integrating IT creatively. Yesterday I was planning with Ostiane Amigues Mathon, who has a CM1/CM2 (as well as her teacher training) to see if we could get an exchange going with my youngest Year 4 group. Her class has both a Twitter account and a blog. That's what's generated my latest appearance on Twitter. Will it last?
Yep.
(re ICOT) It's certainly great to be able to benefit from others' synthesis
and analysis of such events. Even though I would love to have been
there, I feel that I haven't missed out, thanks to the conversation
we're now having and reading of the links.
As far as Twitter is
concerned, I can see you've missed your calling as a super saleswoman. I
have never doubted the value of Twitter for creating a sense of
community and sharing of great stuff but for me it's just too fast. I'm a
bit like Mainland Cheese and take a long time to mull over things. I
find Twitter vaguely unsettling, as though I can never quite catch up
with it. You're a speedier person in every respect. So I rely on other
ways of accessing great ideas. As you know I'm somewhat of a Facebook
junkie and following various pages and belonging to various groups, as
well as exploring links suggested by friends from all over the world, in
areas other than education, is about the right pace for me. As far as
developing a following is concerned, it would be nice to think that
whatever I write could be of potential value to someone else out there
but it's mainly a reflective tool for me at this stage, as I undertake a
major challenge. The other thing about Facebook I really like is taking
part in educational conversations in the threads and having random real
time chats with Art teachers in Lithuania, English teachers in Turkey,
friends from closer to home that I don't see often enough. Since I
joined Facebook I find I feel connected and think about my friends more
than I did before. I've tried Twitter 3 times and failed to get hooked.
It's just the way I am. I'm a long-winded and ruminative old carthorse
rather than a thoroughbred racehorse. We both get there in the end.
Would love a job with Twitter :-)! Yep I find Twitter hugely unsettling
too (and horses too by the way!)and it needs some taming to extract the
goodness. And also if I am not careful it is very easy to follow and
read from people that sort of think like me, and that does not make me
progress in my thinking much. One can only take so much affirming! I get
my head out of the "education" thread. I am enjoying following a range
of tweeps, who keep me real: fashion, activists,journalists,
businesspeople etc. People I am unlikely to meet in real life.
I
would not go as far as envisaging to develop a following and making the
buzz, but you and I have friends and colleagues whose awesome
contributions would be very beneficial to help us in our thinking.
Lesley is very keen on "Starting with the end in mind", Kheya teaches in
an inquiry school, Simon has huge experience and expertise in language
teaching, at that is just to namedrop a few! I would like to think that
we could at times invite their feedback.
Yep, it's great to get inspiration from outside the educational sphere. Things that you can mull over and perhaps incorporate into your teaching. Important, as you say, not to limit your reading/viewing to those already of your persuasion.
Broadens the mind and opens you up to new possibilities. It would be very good to share ideas with Lesley and Kheya. 'Starting with the end in mind' is a logical modus operandi, as long as the end isn't too set in concrete. There has to be room for flexibility. As my colleague and friend Simon put it 'If you know exactly what it's going to look like before you arrive,
what's the point of going there?'
Likewise, it's helpful to know what the objective is (preferably an open-ended one) but maybe you don't need to map out the entire itinerary, which could be different for each traveller. It might be convenient and tidier for the driver or tour guide that everyone travel together by a predetermined route but possibly less interesting and rewarding for the travellers than if they had more autonomy and input into the process.
I'm thinking a lot about the affective element of learning and Ken Robinson's 'exile of feeling'. I couldn't agree more.
As far as a more scientific approach is concerned, it isn't really a method that I warm to. I know it might unsettle some of the students not to know at every step of the way where they're going but isn't this a more accurate microcosm of life? I may in the short term be obliged to stick with some of the tired old material but together we can devise ways of making it relevant, in some wider, more open-ended context.