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During the last year we have tried to highlight the learning needs of Gifted and Talented students. Working in an international school means that we sometimes implement UK education strategies a few years behind you guys in Britain.
An important part of our work was to evaluate what we had been doing. We undertook some observations in February 2013 across our primary and secondary provision.
FEEDBACK:
- Personal targets are very useful for all students, especially SEN and G&T students. Put simply differentiation.
- Interesting to see how G&T students have various behaviours for learning and that the lesson outcomes; either always fulfill the teachers expectations and will go beyond if there is an open, creative, challenging and competitive element.
- Questioning technique matters – a range of pre-planned questions can help stretch G&T students.
- Asking the students to explain their thinking behind their work, reveals an astonishing range of reference points often drawing upon an accumulation of knowledge that they have found easy to remember and cross reference.
DEVELOPMENT TARGETS:
1. Identification Process to be reviewed and policy written.
2. Differentiation for G&T students along the lines of open ended outcomes, challenge and friendly competition.
3. Learning and Classroom tasks that allow the creative use of media, materials and presentation outcomes, really benefit all students, but especially G&T students. It allows independence, motivation and high level communication.
4. Specific projects could enhance the curriculum provision for all students, but especially G&T.
5. Accelerate Programmes are being used.
This blog post is intended to highlight the urgent need for education to start teaching young people about responsible and critical use of social media, especially twitter. It is also reflection upon a PSHE lesson I led in which I posed the following question to a group of Year 9 students:
Should Twitter be censored? Discuss – Case Study – The Boston Bomb
As I watched the events of the Boston Bombing unfold on Twitter, I felt a strange awe at the immediacy of the updates. What appeared on my Tweetdeck or Flipboard would emerge on the radio or tv 10-15 minutes later. The immensity of a terrorist attack in the USA, coupled with the thousands of Smartphone users at the Marathon finish line, led to a quantity of uploads that I would guess, had never been seen before. The images and film clips that were being uploaded were in the most, arriving unedited; their rawness at times shocking; their reality intense.
The strongest examples of this have to the awful photo of severely injured man, whose legs had been blown off, being wheeled off in a wheelchair, and a two minute film posted by the Boston Globe, that took you directly into the disaster zone; provided a haunting soundtrack of silent shock, interspersed with shouts from rescue services; security barriers being dragged across the road to allow access; the cameraman repeating the words “Oh my God… Oh my God…” .
These images and films received thousands of retweets, and were joined by numerous others… and I finally realised that our World had changed… we were able to watch events unfold unedited by news media and we were now in a front row (our noses pressed against the screen) position to observe and interact with a images, sound and testimonies.
Although I looked at these images and videos I began to realise that I was being given access to images and film that didn’t have any respect or thought of the victims and their families. The moral codes of privacy for those suffering were totally removed. In general, the mainstream media has become the same, that said, I did notice mainstream media outlets not reposting the images in their original form.
Amatur photographers or, equipped with Smartphones are not like professional photographers… and their choices of what to publicise and what not to publicise are different.
The following days witness many more uploads and all sorts of amatur theories about who could be the bombers… much of these theories were derived from photos and crowd sourced onto websites like Redit… They were amateurish but seemed to have aspects that made sense. In some cases they were stereotypically xenophobic targeting anyone in the crowd shot who appeared to be of an arabic islamic heritage. In one such case, The New York Post published the photos of two men who had been highlighted on Twitter as been super suspicious… 24 hours later this massive media paper was issuing apologies because the FBI had finally gone public with who they felt were the prime suspects!!!
PSHE Class
It was on this morning, the Friday morning, that I presented my Twitter debate lesson to my class. I wanted to see what these young minds felt about the free publishing of material onto Twitter. I started the class with a vote.
“Stand on that side of the classroom if you think Twitter should be censored… and that side if you think it shouldn’t.”
19 of the 20 students agreed with freedom of speech and expression…
I then presented to the class the timeline of images and film that I had witnessed in the preceding days. I showed the blood pictures (edited) and haunting film…. I showed the Who Dun It theories… I showed them the mistaken identity photo of a victim who could not have possibly been involved in the incident because she had been tragically killed months previous!
To my students credit, they watched and responding with maturity and intelligence. They were moved as I was. Half way through my class I questioned the wisdom of risk I was taking – there was something crazy about seeing the images so big on a whiteboard. That said we continued and brought the class to an end by showing them the live twitter feed coming out of Boston… the feed that included the madness of the city lock-down.
We finished with a repeat vote…
“Stand on that side of the room if you….”
Things had changed…
5 students felt Twitter needed some control… they suggested a referral button where you could ask for images to be reviewed for their appropriateness…
2 students couldn’t decide
13 students wanted to keep it free… BUT they stressed the responsibility of users to think before they post, to question what they saw and to be selective… finally, do not look if you do not want to see.
The opinions of the children were excellent. I feel I had got them to be questioning users of Twitter and the internet.
EASTER IN SPAIN – SEMANA SANTA
At my school we get 10 days holiday for Easter, not the wonderful 2 weeks you get back in the UK – that said, the school year ends in June… so 2 months for summer is a significant compensation! We also miss out on half terms, with the occasional long weekend as substitution. Actually, the whole system of holidays out here is a confusion; there are special Saint’s Days, Constitution Days, 3 Kings Days, Local Fiestas…
The Throne carried by at least 60 – 70 men.
Living through Easter here is something special. The festival has much greater significance for society and the streets are full of life as local churches show their respect to Christ and his mother The Virgin Mary via the community show of faith through late night Processions of Thrones. In each Procession there are normally two thrones. The Thrones are huge wooden platforms that carry ornate statues depicting the story of Jesus’ crucifixion or a representation of the Virgin Mary. Under the platform, large beams of wood are placed so that the local men can carry and parade the heavy sculptures around their town and back to their church.
Accompanying the thrones, are a pageant of local dignitaries, women dressed elegantly in black, children carrying candles, priests swinging incense, the local brass band and procession guides wearing long pointed, full face covering hats and robes… In all, a feast of theater enhanced by the devotion and respect of the local people, including some who feel inspired to sing a haunting and passionate saeta to the Virgin, or walk barefooted behind the Thrones.
Easter here, is not a festival of chocolate. It is a week long celebration of Christian Catholic faith that culminates in a Good Friday (Vienes Santo) funeral where silence and mourning replace the the musical processions of the previous days. Sunday morning sees the grief replaced with hope, as the processions celebrate the rebirth, reincarnation of Christ.
All in all, the week is a cathartic expression of community, long lost from the cities, towns and villages of the UK. Here young and old join the remembrance. I will never forget watching one local band that accompanied a procession. They all had the appearance of the local chavs… eyes were bloodshot… hair styles more gangster rap… their uniforms, smart, but accompanied by Burberry Scarves… AND still they played the most beautiful and appropriate music. They showed dedication to their families, their faith and their community.
Semana Santa rocks here. If you ever have the chance, book a cheep flight down to Malaga and see the street processions. Your jaws will drop and you will feel invigorated by beauty and wonder of Spain.
“Who Bloody Thought of That?”
I discovered from an old colleague in the UK, that his school were preparing for a future OfSTED by having a MockSTED! A MockSTED! I couldn’t believe it when I read it. Immediately I thought, “What bloody idiot of a Senior Manager had dreamt up – a. the name and b. the concept of putting staff through two inspections in a year!”
Militant Response
I decided to offer my support to him in militant terms… a typical Them vs Us mentality I developed when I worked for the Royal Mail in my mid twenties. However, I have done a little searching on the internet and I discovered that the idea of dry run MockSTEDs wasn’t the work of just one Senior Manager… it was being used elsewhere. In one school’s case, the staff had rebelled, united, and forced a back down from their management – MockSTED cancelled!
Better Judgement
Now (if I am honest) if my school decided to do a MockSTED, I wouldn’t object. Militancy evaporates when you think a bit deeper about the objectives of such a seemly self-harming plan. I would look at it as a positive thing. I would get behind it and make it work in my benefit. It would provide confidence for the real OfSTED; allow the school to analyse it’s strengths and areas for improvement; allow staff to focus on getting a huge confidence building Outstanding judgement for their lesson.
Final Point
All my positivism would evaporate if I thought the results from the MockSTED were going to be used to criticise, judge or hammer the staff. Trustworthy leadership teams are vital for a school to truly benefit from this extreme form of self-evaluation. Quality coaching conversations are needed. Leadership will need to lead on improvement planning. They will need to plan to provide top quality CPD. They need to provide top quality resources. They need to inspire the whole school community to strive for excellence…
#ukedchat #edchat Today’s news that a teacher in the USA managed to convince an armed ex-student to put down a gun and stop shooting, is a real reminder to me of the risks teachers face.
The ex-student had been excluded from the school and was looking for revenge. He managed to shot two people, and I hope they will survive. In the UK, teachers do not fear gun attacks. Thankfully they rarely happen. Guns are not easy to find and own.
I was targeted for an attack by an ex-student when I was teaching in England. The boy, who was 15 years old, had been excluded from school. He felt I was responsible for this… in reality I had been insistent that he behave… I had been very calm throughout… but I had been very persistent. On the day of his exclusion, he left the school and then returned furious. He went looking for me. He found me sitting in my classroom, talking to my manager.
He flew across the room. I managed to protect myself by hitting the floor and curling up. My instinct wasn’t to fight with a kid… and after 3-4 minutes of him trying to hit me and me not moving… he stopped when I asked him “What he wanted me to do?”.
His reply… ”Say sorry.”
So I did… and he got up. I wasn’t hurt. Very shocked… but not hurt.
Naturally, the boy was taken away. I was given great support by my school. The whole school community (including students) condemned the act of violence, AND my teaching career is better for it… I now know that in the battle of wills between student and teacher… sometimes you need to know when to leave it alone and get another teacher to try.
Today’s terrible news reminds me of that day… and leaves me asking… What if he had had a knife… let alone a gun?
Please take care.
ALN Teaching - iLearning 