Teacher | doug woods

Posts Tagged ‘Teacher’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

: Image via Wikipedia

In a previous post I mentioned the opportunity I had to observe a group of teachers doing team planning. As well as the observations I noted in that post, there was a further observation that I want to talk about in this post. It appeared to me that most of the teachers taking part in the team planning exercise were essentially still creating what I’d regard as an old style lesson plan. That is to say, it was to be a lesson that was to be delivered by the teacher and the planning focused more on what the teacher was going to do or what the teacher was going to get the pupils to do and what resources would be needed. The lesson, while not always a straightforward ‘sage on the stage’ approach, was certainly one that emphasised teacher direction or teacher facilitation, focused more on the teaching rather than the learning or the learner.

This type of planning was very familiar and would have been easily recognisable to a teacher 10, 20, even 30 years ago, it was only the resources available which were different; the approaches were much the same. This led me to wonder how might we change lesson planning to be more reflective of modern learning approaches?

It seems to me that the plan could be less about the structure of the lesson and more about the learning. I know they are called ‘lesson’ plans and in the past they have tended to describe the content of the lesson. Nowadays, though learning doesn’t just take place in the lesson; it can extend into the home and via out of school activities. There are also a wide range of informal learning opportunities which a learner can bring to contribute to their learning. So there is no need now for our planning to be restricted to a traditional lesson structure.

I know some people will argue, quite correctly, that we have always given homework to learners, where appropriate, to supplement their learning in school. However, the concept of ‘homework’ is quite dated now. It would be wrong, perhaps, to continue to think in terms of schoolwork and homework. It would be better to think simply in terms of ‘learning’ and what formal learning that takes place at home is an integral part of the ‘school’ work that takes place also in school.

So instead of presenting the learners with schoolwork in a lesson and then giving them homework to be done afterwards at home, a teacher would present learners with, say, an area or topic for study. A lesson or a series of lessons would be made available for the learners to study this in school, supported by the teacher, a range of resources and the face to face guidance of the teacher. In addition to these school sessions, a learner would be required to continue or extend their studies outside lessons, bringing in any experiences, resources available to them together with outcomes from any informal learning they may feel is relevant.

So Learning Plans would contain more than just plans for a lesson, they would seek to set out a number and range of ways in which learners could explore a subject area. Each of these ways would be designed to ensure the learner encounters particular objectives. Each of the ways could incorporate a different learning style, so as to appeal to different learners. There could even be discussion between teacher and learner as to what particular types of activities they would like the chance to explore.

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.

Developing independent young learners through learning how to learn (slideshare.net)
Diverse Children’s Learning Styles And Activities (brighthub.com)
Creating and Using a Learning Styles Chart (brighthub.com)
Lesson Plans Integrating Differentiation (brighthub.com)
Designing Informal Learning (elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
Learning Score, a lesson-planning tool. [Review] (dougbelshaw.com)

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning styles, Lesson, Lesson plan, Teacher
Posted in Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Balby11 300x168 Iris Connect at Balby Carr

The other day, I was invited up to Balby Car School for part of their Professional Learning Day. My interest was principally upon seeing how the school was using Iris_Connect, an innovative system for self-reflection, observation and professional development that the school had recently implemented.

Iris_Connect, for those of you not familiar with the system, is a service which supports teachers to implement reflective practice for the purpose of reviewing and improving their teaching. Using Iris, teachers can observe their own lessons or invite a colleague to observe a lesson and also add comments based upon the observation. This can be done in real time or by use of recordings. By being able to view recorded sessions, the system fress up schools from needing to arrange for observer(s) to be free at the same time as the teacher delivers the session. The flexibility of the Iris_Connect system is one of its benefits in schools along with potential cost savings.

At Balby Carr, the initiative was being led by Matthew and Lisa, two very enthusiatic teachers. They had been using the system for a while themselves and had clearly been seeing the benefits of it, they had also got a number of other staff to use the system, they too had very positive experiences of it. The Professional Learning Day was the opportunity for Matthew and Lisa to introduce the system to the wider staff and to allow them to have some experience of it. For the day, a few staff had pre-recorded lessons so that other staff could see how easy it was to observe and add comments about the lessons. The system itself is easy to use and staff were impressed that comments they made were timne-linked and so could be clearly asociated with specific points or incidencies within the lesson.

After some workgroup sessions, the staff were invited to submit their comments about Iris_Connect and how it might be used in the school. These comments were divided into ‘hot’ and ‘not’. It was very refreshing to see that the overwhelming majority of comments were in the ‘hot’ category and nearly all the ‘not’ were not really negative points but were people expressing worries or anxieties, almost all of which could be easily addressed. So overall it was a very positive ‘thumbs up’ for the Iris_Connect system.

I stated earlier on that Iris_Connect can be used for self relection or observation by others. Matthew and Lisa, very rightly in my opinion, emphasised to staff that it is probably best to start with self-observation. This is important to my mind because Iris_Connect is primarily about reflective practice; the ability of teachers to observe their own lessons or their own practice, to observe and acknowledge what went right as well as anything that may have gone wrong, with a view to strengthening their skills and improving their teaching.

I think it is also important to start with self-observation because Iris_Connect is seen primarily as a tool for teachers to use. It is important, therefore, that teachers feel comfortable in using it, feel that they own whatever product or benefit that comes from using it and feel at liberty to use the system in support of their own professional development. It is also often true that when a person first starts to use a system such as Iris_Connect to observe their own practice, they are likely to be critical of their performance; this is human nature and it is usually things we may not like that we observe first, it is only when we become used to such a system that we can start to effectively use it to observe our positive practices.

In all, I had a great and positive day at Balby Carr and I am grateful to the staff at the school for allowing me to share in their professionalism.

Reflecting on Reflection (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Iris Connect – lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

If you would like to know more about Iris Connect, their website is www.irisconnect.co.uk

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Tags: Balby Carr, Balby Carr Community Sports College, Education, Iris Connect, K through 12, Observation, Professional development, Reflective practice, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | No Comments »

Do Learners want Teachers?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

Do Learners want Teachers?

It seems a strange question, doesn’t it, but do learners want teachers?

Over recent years there has been a shift in emphasis away from teaching and teachers toward learning and learners. This has been to such an extent that even a major quango spent thousands changing one of its departments from Teaching and Learning to Learning and Teaching.

I will say, though, that I think the change in emphasis is justified; learning is more important than teaching.

A teacher in a school can teach and teach as much as they can but if the people they are teaching do not learn, then the teacher has been wasting time; the role of the teacher is to enable and ensure that learning takes place. Of course, any and every teacher knows this and also knows different strategies and approaches to facilitate learning. At the end of the day, a school is judged on how/what the learners have learnt (or parts of what they have learned) rather than on what teaching took place.

Increasingly, we hear people say that the learner is responsible for their learning and that the role of the teacher is to guide the learner through their learning. The teacher standing in front of the class is something that is frowned upon nowadays, rather the teacher should be at the side of the learner to give support and direction; this is the ‘sage on the stage’ versus ‘the guide at the side’ argument.

While we can accept that the role of the teacher is changing, that learning is now seen as more important than teaching and that the learner now has responsibility for their learning, does this mean that teaching or the teacher are no longer valued?

I think not. It still seems that people want teaching and value good teachers. Let us consider an example; if you wanted to learn something completely new and, all things, such as price, being equal which approach might you choose? You could choose to learn from an online course, from text books or attend classes led by a teacher/tutor/facilitator.

Most people would appear to opt for an approach that involves a teacher over a completely self-learning approach. Even if the approach had just one session with a teacher, it would appear to be preferred over an approach that has no teaching element. It would seem, therefore, that learners do value being taught or, at least, having some teaching input.

Consider the training courses you have been on, though, and ask yourself what have been the most valuable parts of those courses. The chances are that you will say the most valuable parts have been those times when you have been allowed to trial, play, or explore for yourself. These have probably been the times when you have been able to learn what you have wanted to learn or to learn what appears most relevant to you or your work.

Other valuable parts may have occurred when you found yourself ‘lost’ or had made a mistake and called upon the teacher to help you fix the situation and to avoid it happening again.

How many of us, also, have been on a course that we initially thought would be a ‘waste of time’ only to have new light or new possibilities created because of the enthusiasm, passion or skill of the teacher?

So the value of having a teacher would appear to lie in having an expert on hand, in having someone to at least introduce an area of learning to us and in having someone open our eyes to new possibilities. So while it may be clear that the nature of teaching and the role of the teacher may be changing, it is also clear that teaching and good teachers are also highly valued.

Inspiring active learning with limited resources (guardian.co.uk)
Examples of Diverse Learning Styles (brighthub.com)
Reflections (gartmanbarryedm310.blogspot.com)
Fred Garnett on how to create new contexts for your own learning (alchemi.co.uk)

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, school, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | 1 Comment »

Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

Monday, November 28th, 2011

I had a laugh yesterday, I shouldn’t have done because the guy was quite serious but …

What caused me to laugh was a post on a forum about ICT in schools and why some teachers weren’t using it. The comment was made that sometimes technology doesn’t do what it is supposed to do and this led to some teachers not using it.

It was that bit about technology not doing what it is supposed to do, that made me laugh. I know what he means, I know exactly what he means but it does make it sound like the technology is being a naughty child. It does raise questions about peoples’ understanding and their relationship with technology. The technology does what it does; that may not be what you want it to do or what you expect it to do but it is, unless it is broken, what you are telling it to do!

I recall my early days in school, then if a teacher was faced with someone who didn’t do what they were supposed to do, the teacher had two options; they could stand them in the corner and ignore them, or they could give detention after school and make them do it properly.

In the case of technology, it seems in some classes, the same two options still apply!

What Skills Does an ICT Co-ordinator Need? (ictineducation.org)

Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

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Tags: Education, Information and communication technologies in education, Teacher, Technology
Posted in Classroom Technology | No Comments »

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

Monday, September 5th, 2011

There was a post on the inaugural #ukedchat twitter debate posted by @JamesClay which read

“Before you answer how, you need to really answer and explain the why you should be using tech in education.”

Unfortunately, I was travelling home on a rather crowded train and was unable to fully follow the online debate but this post caught my attention and made me think;

“Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?”

I go into schools often and also meet other teachers on training sessions. I often meet teachers who do not use technology or who use it only a little. It is clear, though, that each of them know that they could and should be using technology or using it more. Quite often, these teachers will express their worries that they’re not using ICT and that they sometimes feel their class are missing out compared to pupils in a different class.

In reality, the ‘why’ teachers use educational technology is well established and accepted, even among those teachers who rarely or reluctantly use it. I don’t feel it would be very productive to continue ‘banging on’ about why teachers should use technology in their lessons; this message has already been received.

What may be lacking in some teachers is the knowledge of ‘what’ technology to use or ‘how’ it can be used. This may often be accompanied by a low level of confidence in using the technology and possibly poor experiences of trying to use it in the past. Where this is the case, we need to be able to provide training to enable the teachers to explore technology and to ‘play’ with it in order to develop their confidence and allow them to identify for themselves the ways in which they might use it in their teaching.

In terms of the ‘what’ to use, it may often be the case that teachers have had exposure to only a limited range of technology. This is sometimes the case where the technology is situated in a special room, such as a computer suite, and can only be accessed if ‘booked’ or scheduled on a timetable. This can be further compounded if the technology is seen as being the ‘property’ or domain of a particular person or department within the school.

I mentioned, in a previous paragraph, the need for training, for me, the word ‘training’ is not the best word to use. What we are talking about here is more professional skills development and peer collaboration. At least that is the way I try to approach teacher ‘training’ sessions. Training seems to imply that there is something you lack and, until you get it, you are not a full professional. This seems to be an almost negative and demoralising, maybe even patronising, approach which doesn’t really convey a positive, supportive and professional approach.

In my many years of working with teachers, I have consistently found that if you give them a piece of kit, or anything, and ask them how it could be used in a lesson, they will come up with 101 suggestions, most of which you will never even have thought of before. Let us not forget that these are teachers; they are intelligent people with lively curious minds who genuinely want to give the best for their learners.

Okay, so we have established that we no longer need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons, it is the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that needs to be tackled. I have also suggested that, in my opinion, changing our approach to training would be beneficial. The question still remains, though, as to ‘How can we get more teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?’ which was the question posed at the beginning of the #ukedchat twitter debate.

a transcript of the #ukedchat twitter debate can be downloaded here

Top 100 Technology Blogs for Teachers (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader: Are You REALLY an Ed Tech Leader (ictineducation.org)
Outfitting 21st Century Classrooms with 21st Century Teachers (isteconnects.org)
The Best Blogs for Tech Savvy Teachers (brighthub.com)
Preparing Teachers for the Digital Future (microsoftontheissues.com)
Technology Does Leave a Permanent Record (haroldshawjr.com)
Educational Technology Quotes (slideshare.net)

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Knowledge, Professional development, school, Teacher, Technology
Posted in Classroom Technology, Training INSET and CPD | 1 Comment »

Lesson Capture and Flipping the Classroom

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

In a previous post, I wrote about Lesson Capture being used as a way of recording lessons for pupils to view afterwards. This was as a way of providing pupils with additional learning opportunities, the chance to catch up on anything in a lesson they may have missed and a chance for absent pupils to avoid missing out all together on a lesson. This approach would also be useful for pupils as they approach revision and exam periods as the recorded lessons can be viewed as an aid to revision.

In this post, I want to look at another use of lesson capture, one which might have a more profound effect upon class teaching.

When we approach a new subject or topic, we know that we have to introduce it to the pupils. Quite often this will involve giving over a session, in part or as a whole, to the introduction. The introduction is often the easiest part, though of course some pupils always take longer than others to understand it. It is often, though, the more advanced or in depth study of the subject which requires more time and more teacher support.

Wouldn’t it be great if the pupils could go away and study the introductory part on their own and then allow more lesson time to be devoted to supporting deeper study? I feel that lesson capture can be a tremendous help in allowing this. If an introductory session could be captured and the pupils (including the pupils in subsequent years) be directed to watch the recording as, say, homework, then the pupils will come to the lesson with prior knowledge of the subject/topic and, thereby, allow greater lesson time and teacher support to be given to more in depth study.

To some teachers, this may be a new idea but there are others who have already successfully tried it as part of an approach known as ‘flipping the classroom’. Doing an internet search for that phrase will turn up a wealth of resources but the following links could be a good place to start if you want to understand more about the concept of the flipped classroom.

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/teachers-doing-the-flip-to-help-students-become-learners-531.php

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-transforming-learning-536.php

http://www.learningconversations.co.uk/main/index.php/2011/03/19/flipping-the-classroom?blog=5

Lesson Capture : An for Introduction Teachers (dougwoods.co.uk)
Skype in the Classroom (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
How to Flip Your Classroom – and Get Your Students to Do the Work (sharingtree.wordpress.com)

Lesson Capture and Flipping the Classroom

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Tags: Classroom, Education, Educators, K through 12, Lesson, lesson capture, Teacher
Posted in education | No Comments »

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

Monday, August 1st, 2011

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sometimes it’s best to see yourself through the eyes of others.

I have to admit that, as a teacher, I used to hate being observed. Which was strange because I could always be very critical of my own teaching and my own performance as viewed with hindsight by myself. Having someone else view my teaching was, however, more intimidating.

I think the point was that when someone else was observing me, I no longer felt in control of the situation. The lesson and its setting was often artificially contrived either to show off the best or to avoid the worst of my teaching. Even just having someone else in the room would have an effect upon the pupil behaviour. I think, though, the bottom line was that I rarely felt that the observer was there in a supportive role; they were usually there to catch me out or there to support their subject agenda.

I daresay that no everyone feels the same about being observed. There are certainly positive benefits to be gained from having someone observe your teaching. An independent eye may often pick up things you may not notice yourself, they may notice things you did not even feel were an issue. Even if the independent observer does notice the same things you have noticed yourself, having someone else notice them tends to give them more weight or significance. Having someone else notice things makes them more difficult to ignore or push to one side, as you might be tempted to do yourself.

Of course, any observer is there, hopefully, not just to notice the negative things but also to report to you on the positive aspects of your teaching. Positive things which, again, you yourself may not have noticed or thought worthy of note. Yet positive aspects are ones that you can contribute to the school and maybe help influence the teaching of colleagues.

Despite all the possible benefits of observation, it is still usually the case that the teacher does not feel in charge of the event. Could this be changed by the teacher inviting a colleague to observe a lesson? How many of us have done that? In such an arrangement, wouldn’t the teacher be in a better position and the observer, having accepted the invitation, be in a supportive role rather than merely carrying out a duty? If the teacher not only invited a colleague to observe a lesson but also invited the observer to comment upon particular aspects of their teaching, wouldn’t this be a more professional and beneficial use of lesson observation?

In a traditional observation arrangement, the observer observes a teacher and at a later time feeds back to that teacher. Couldn’t we utilise technology in some way to enable the observer to feedback to the teacher in real time and perhaps suggest changes to try while a lesson is in progress? Sure, we would not want to disrupt the lesson more than necessary but what I have in mind is some form of audio feedback perhaps via an earpiece or maybe text feedback to a teacher’s laptop. Similar, I guess to being a TV presenter?

While on the subject of a TV presenter, many of us do not like being in front of a video camera and we would certainly not regard ourselves as presenters. Nevertheless, videoing a session, instead of or in addition to physical observation, can also have great benefit in affecting teaching performance. A simple video camera stood in the corner of a room or maybe even in the hands of pupils, can provide a fascinating insight into one’s teaching even without any added commentary or feedback. It can also be used to provide ongoing records of improvement or changes for the teacher and maybe even provide some evidence of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of such changes.

For me, the key in all of this is that the teacher should be in charge of all of it. It is used as part of their reflective practice and ongoing development more than as an intrusion imposed upon them.

Iris Connect – lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Struggling teachers can improve by watching great teachers in action (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
How to Teach with Reflective Teaching (brighthub.com)
Schools that go it alone do best – report (guardian.co.uk)
IRIS Connect
How does IRIS Connect work

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

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Tags: Lesson, lesson Observation, Observation, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD, Transforming Learning | 6 Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘Teacher’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

Do Learners want Teachers?

Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

Lesson Capture and Flipping the Classroom

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods

Posts Tagged ‘Teacher’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

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Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

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Do Learners want Teachers?

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Technology Not Doing What it Should be Doing?

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Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

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Lesson Capture and Flipping the Classroom

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Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

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Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods