Steps in Teaching and Learning - Latest Comments

Re: We do make a difference

Jim Farmer — Sat, 12 May 2012 21:32:10 -0000

Awesome! Tough to stay positive in these times. Sometimes it takes the perspective of a 9 year old to remind us of what is important.

Re: We do make a difference

Ross Mannell — Sat, 12 May 2012 20:21:31 -0000

There is no doubt I have many fond memories of children I have taught over the last 30 years but some of the fondest memories have come when they, in their later lives, have told me how I made difference in their lives, whether in their choice of career or by being there when they needed someone. Maddy, without doubt, has given you one of those fond memories to keep with you for the rest of your life. The letter is a credit to the efforts you have made to make a difference in young lives.

@RossMannell
Teacher, NSW, Australia

Re: Switching off the Interactive White Board for good

Amanda Warner — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:59:28 -0000

Hi Mr. McLaughlin, My name is Amanda Warner. I am a student at the University of South Alabama, majoring in elementary education and currently a student in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I found this post to be quite interesting. Recently, in my EDM 310 class we were assigned to do a project using these boards. Although for our project we only had to show that we know how to use the basic tools. Within the next few weeks we have another project coming up using these boards again, but we have to teach an actual lesson this time. I am looking forward to this project because I think these boards are great, though I still have a lot to learn about them. I actually really enjoy using these boards and think they are very neat. However, I do agree that these boards have been around for a while and most teachers don't use them the way they should be used. For all I know so far, these boards are amazing tools for an educator and student to use and be engaged with. I also agree that newer and better things have come out and will continue to before my teaching days even begin. Technology is amazing and we learn more and more about it daily but it's truly hard for me to keep up with all the great devices out there which can be used to educate and learn.

Re: Digital Literacy in the primary classroom

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:20:13 -0000

Hi Kevin,

This is a great example of taking something and running with it - I like it! I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out in practice. :-)

The only thing I'd say, and I hope it doesn't sound too pedantic, is that it's important to focus on digital *literacies* (plural). As I try to explain in my thesis and my TEDx Warwick talk, digital literacies are contextual and socially negotiated, but also many and varied. It's easy to conflate 'literacy' and 'literacies' but the former (I believe) has the connotation of 'one literacy to rule them all'!

Thanks also for investing so early in my e-book. Others who are interested my like to do the same: http://dougbelshaw.com/ebooks/...

Re: Digital Literacy in the primary classroom

James Michie — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:38:48 -0000

...and I look forward to hearing all about it.

In particular, I'm interested to find out how your students get on developing their critical literacy. It is a skill that is of fundamental importance. I spend more time working on this with my A-Level students than any other.

Re: Digital Literacy in the primary classroom

Paul James — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:18:04 -0000

Hey Kevin. Very interesting post. As a teacher of (the now defunct?!) ICT, I've been wondering about how I might change the "how" and the "what" of my teaching over the next few months. The thoughts and ideas you have expressed using Doug's elements structure resonate with my own ideas and the experiences I have had whilst trying to use and teach ICT more creatively over the past 2-3 years.

Learners do need to gain practical skills in the use of new technologies (what you might call old-school ICT skills), but more important is what they do with those skills and, increasingly, how do they learn to function effectively in the digital world (digital literacy). Using the 8 elements to evaluate what we do or as an aid to planning learning activities would ensure that our practice supports learning that is more about digital literacy than ICT skills.

Like you, I will be using the 8 elements to support my thinking about what goes on in my classroom in the new term.

I look forward to reading how things go for you.

Re: Digital Literacy in the primary classroom

Kevin McLaughlin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:49:52 -0000

I've gotten rid of the linear appraoch to learning that had been apparent in my teaching for some time. By focusing on the learners needs and ensuring resources are never far away my class has become more motivated to developing and improving learning. I love the expression 'messy learning' that's definitely one I must share with my class.
My intention for term 3 is to give more of the agenda for learning over to my class, exciting times are ahead.

Re: Digital Literacy in the primary classroom

James Michie — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:44:01 -0000

Great post Kevin. I have been thinking about the 8 elements too... like many concepts they serve as an excellent diagnostic tool. You can evaluate a lot of what you do in class by placing them on top of your existing practice and evaluating what you see. I found that in my efforts to improve my students literacy I was giving very little time or thought to 'Civics'. One way that I have sought to address this is by engaging each of my classes in discussion surrounding the skills they developing, asking them to consider where else they use these skills when they are outside of the classroom. Opening this up has garnered interesting outcomes, particularly in that it has impacted on the motivation of some students. The old notion of 'what is the point of learning this' is addressed in such a discussion and some of my students have begun to see more value in what we are learning because they can map the skills against their own interests.

Another point that Doug raises and I think that he explained this best during his TEDxWarwick talk is the idea that learning is not linear. This ties in nicely with an idea I am working on - 'Messy Learning'. Learning is constructed through a diverse range of experiences - formal and informal. There is no hierarchy. Taxonomies and concepts like the '8 Elements' open this idea up, in that while it is possible to view skills as being more difficult than one another or that certain literacies are more important, we do not acquire them in a step by step fashion. This is something that I plan to iterate on more in the coming weeks/months. I find that I agree with you re: planning learning. If we accept the notion that learning is not linear, that it is messy then trying to plan/structure learning is somewhat futile. We need to embrace the remixing and multi-faceted nature of learning more readily in the classroom; allowing learners to set their own agenda and supporting them in their endeavours.

There, a couple of thoughts for a Friday morning. :-)

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Kevin McLaughlin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 07:25:51 -0000

My class are year 4 so 8-9 years old. They have taken to this approach so well that I have found myself wondering why I haven't delved into it sooner.

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Kevin McLaughlin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 07:20:43 -0000

In previous posts I talk about the use of personalised learning in my class. As a one off example, the personal journey is used as my planning and the child's learning journey for the week ahead. Due to working in a state school I am bound by the national curriculum so I add targets of learning to the PJ for each and every child. They decide on the approach to meet those targets and if required, they can work independently, with others or come to me for further demonstration. Their PJ gives the opportunity to pursue learning in their own way and it has benefited every learner in my class and me. I have found I have more time to give every learner than before when my planning would have been so prescriptive that I would have had very little opportunity to focus on every learner.

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Ian — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:14:58 -0000

This sounds really interesting. Can you suggest a practical example of how you've used this please?

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Kevin McLaughlin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:06:39 -0000

Absolutely, send me an email with dates you could come along and I'll sort it out.

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Oliver Quinlan — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:59:57 -0000

The approach sounds very interesting, particularly as you are finding it is supporting standards as well. Could I come and see it in action some time?

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Kevin McLaughlin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:36:09 -0000

My class are aged between 8 and 9 years old. Thanks for your comment, are you considering using the approach?

Re: Personalising Learning does more than get results

Kojk30 — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:25:53 -0000

I found your article fascinating but wonder what age the children you teach are. Also really agree with your comments on the phonic test.

Re: Learning Objectives – Who are they actually for?

Sam Brook — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:03:39 -0000

Well I, like you, have been waiting for responses without knowing when they might arrive... but your discourse was sent to me, for some reason, and I was glad because I got chance to read other comments... and say that the way I approach teaching has changed dramatically since my last/first post.

I am particularly interested in what the lesson structure is in your school. I've been working with the Whole Education movement who are promoting Project Based Learning, and this makes total sense to me. In fact it looks rather like this will become the way forward FOR THE KIDS, not FOR THE GOVERNMENT BEING ABLE TO MEASURE EDUCATIONAL PRACTISE., so can you possibly give more detail about how 'no LO's' works??

My main passion is that society/teachers/government force kids to learn stuff rather than allowing them to discover their own learning routes. Blooms rather directs this for newer teachers - and it helps. For someone like me who is an aged and experienced (and, perhaps, mad) practitioner the child is paramount, and I have known for a long time that enforced structure is not helpful. Finding ways to pursuade Ofsted is what I need!

I wonder how long this will take to reach you... or if I might get back involved soon?

Anyway, your response has given me hope!

Thanks.

Re: Learning Objectives – Who are they actually for?

Julian S Wood — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:43:37 -0000

Hi Deb-sorry for not replying sooner-only stumbled across this when investigated Disqus and it doesn't email if someone posts a response!

Anyway-school getting on fine, big weight of our shoulders and has improved creative approaches to learning. Lesson observations have been mainly graded as good or better (even by 'outsiders') and despite no LO in pupil interviews most understood what they were learning about and why they were doing it etc.

Interestingly I had some training on new OFSTED framework and 'alternative teaching methods' was mentioned, which basically means wild stuff like no LO's etc.

The OFSTED trainer said that these were not necessary as long as covered in 'learning dialogue' with pupils (thru AFL, S& L etc).

Re: Assessing on the fly

Stuart Spendlow — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:46:34 -0000

What a great idea (again!!). Something to trial, definitely.

How do you distinguish between what's what? Do you evidence for all children or just some?

Re: About me

Mandanakeshmiri — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:38:46 -0000

Hello Kevin,

I was at the Fast Forward Conference today and found your speech very inspirational. I think the way you have appproached children's learning sounds creative and inspiring.

I was wondeing if you could give me any more information on how a day runs in your classroom and how you started the personalised learning with your class. When are the core literacy and numeracy skills taught? I am still a little confused on how it is managed to ensure children receive the best learning.

Thanks,
MK.

Re: Education England 2015 – a warning

James Michie — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:17:40 -0000

As a fan of analogies, I like to think of it like this:

I love a lot of what Google offers but I don't have to buy into it all, hook line and sinker. As such I have turned off my web history and am currently using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine in Google Chrome. I don't want to be a product.

I take the same approach with education. I may be teaching in a public secondary school but I am helping my students to value feedback rather than grades.

Fight back from within the system - reshape it to suit your values and more importantly to meet your learners' needs.

Re: Education England 2015 – a warning

Kevin McLaughlin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:44:50 -0000

How very apt. Too many of us are unknowingly accepting government measures as the only choice. If we do nothing we are part of the problem. The simplest way forward, as a start, is to ignore rhetoric and teach the way we know will benefit our learners.

Re: Education England 2015 – a warning

James Michie — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:40:48 -0000

Great post Kevin, fantastically well expressed.

As Sir Ken Robinson told us at #LWF12, we (the teachers) are part of the education system. "We need to be part of the solution for the revolution and not part of the problem".

Re: Photo Story3 – simply brilliant

Hernandezandrei13 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:29:26 -0000

Great blog! Your information are great! It is easy to digest compare to other sites that bombard me with so much unecessary data. What I really love about Photo Story 3 is it allows me to quick and easily make a video slideshow and for FREE! The photo story tutorials are also nice and easy to understand.

Re: Leashes not required

Katrina Williams — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:04:24 -0000

I enjoyed reading and learning from this post. I will be a teacher in the near future and I also feel that finding a way so that the students may feel superior while learning is an awesome idea. I was introduced to your blog by my edm310 teacher, but I think I'll be referring back on my own to see what you have in store next.

Re: Why I’m not bothering with Safer internet day

Alan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:33:39 -0000

Nice write up Kevin, and I agree entirely. It should be up to you, the school, what and how you manage. This is something which Ofsted makes abundantly clear yet some LA's and ISP's blatantly ignore this. I discuss internet filtering in UK schools in my blog if you would care to take a look --> http://www.esafety-adviser.com...

Alan @esafetyadviser