UKLA Conference 2011
I will be speaking at the upcoming UKLA International Conference in Chester on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th July 2011. I will be running a workshop on the way I have used Twitter in the Primary Classroom as well as for professional development. In addition I will also be part of a symposium panel presenting alongside Vic Carrington, Lynda Graham, Angela Colvert and Sigrid Jones. I’ll aim to put the presentations online but it would be great to see you there!
#ngconf – A perfect tonic in these troubled times…
I have briefly returned from digital leave to write about the fantastic Northern Grid for Learning Conference (#ngconf) which took place yesterday in Newcastle. I spoke at the conference last year but was even more excited to attend this year as a large proportion of the speakers were folk from Twitter who I have spoken to online over the past two years.
My general despair at the state of education and the constant stream of bad news and budget cuts has led to a very sombre atmosphere of late. However, the impressive opening keynote from Russell Prue (@russellprue) was a reminder that there is hope in these troubled times. The line-up of speakers was outstanding and there was a real buzz and sense of excitement about possibilities of further innovation throughout the whole day.
I had the pleasure of finally meeting Dan Roberts (@chickensaltash) who I’ve known on Twitter for years but never actually met in person as well as the legendary Bev Evans (@bevevans22), the genuinely great Rachel Orr (@RachelOrr) and Dughall McCormick (@dughall). It was great to see Bill Lord (@Joga5), Ian Addison (@ianaddison), David Rogers (@davidErogers) and John Heffernan (@johnmayo) again and hear about the fantastic things that they have been doing in schools. Sadly I missed Jan Webb (@JanWebb21) and Lisa Stevens (@lisibo), which was the only negative of the day. I did manage to see Bev speak about fantastic ways of using free tools to support SEN in the classroom and she has forced me to rethink how I perceive tools such as PowerPoint. It was also great to see some of the amazing things that David and Dan had been doing in their schools, especially from a secondary perspective. I have so many ideas that I can use with my class next year. It was also great to share some of the things I have been doing with my class in my workshop too.
On a personal note the event also served as an important reminder and reassurance… I am not alone in my views and beliefs on education. I needed reminding of this and it has really inspired me.
Finally, I had the huge honour of meeting the legendary Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth) who I have followed on Twitter and through his blog for many years. His keynote was outstanding and I wish all of the members of staff at my school could have heard it. He pitched the balance between theory and practice perfectly. It was also very humbling for Steve to mention my work during the keynote and my upcoming work at the University of Tasmania. The stuff he said was pure gold. Referencing recent changes in education, Steve also made the important point:
“If you’re fighting a gorilla you don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
In addition to this, I think that #ngconf demonstrated that you’re never alone when fighting the metaphorical gorilla. There are always communities and networks like Twitter with likeminded people and I am exceptionally thankful for them. We might feel like we are alone in our views at times… but we never are.
A huge thanks needs to go to the incredibly modest Simon Finch (@simfin) who organised the panel of speakers for the day. I hope he realises how much of a success and inspiration the day was for everyone who attended.
A difficult decision – Semi Digital Leave
This is a sad and difficult post for me to write as I have decided to suspend my blog and some of my other online activities until September. This is mainly due to the fact that I have a large amount of projects going on at the moment including authoring another book chapter, writing my MA dissertation, speaking at conferences and coordinating creative learning across my school on top of my full-time teaching responsibilities. Although in the past I have been very effective at multi-tasking and organising my work I am at the point where any additional time I find needs to be focused on downtime as opposed to other academic activities such as blogging.
I fully intend to return to this blog in September 2011 when I have completed my MA dissertation and finished the other projects that I am working on. In the meantime I would like to say thank you to everybody who has made the time to visit this blog and comment on the posts I have written. I hope you have found what I have written useful.
I will continue to post items on my Posterous and Photoblog as well as as my informal ‘Good life‘ blog. I also intend to continue to use my Twitter account (@MultiMartin) to communicate and keep in touch with what everybody is doing. You can keep in touch with what my class is doing too on our class blog.
Thanks again and I’ll be back in September!
Conflicting messages…
Gladiator (Film)"The time for half measures and talk is over"
I watched the film Gladiator earlier today and thought this quote apt at reflecting the mismatch and conflicting messages teachers get from various organisations/bodies!
How do you inspire writers? – The finished resource!
Following on from my previous blog post I would to thank every single person who contributed views, comments and projects to the resource. I have collected the information and it is now available for all to see. Please feel free to share the presentation with other colleagues. There are some fantastic ideas in there!
How do you inspire writers?
View more presentations from Martin Waller.
How do you inspire writers?
I’ve been asked to run a workshop about how to inspire writers and help raise writing attainment across the primary-phase as part of a PD day at my school in a couple of weeks. I obviously have my own ideas, views and ways of doing so but I’m really interested to hear what others think. Particularly in relation to projects and using quality texts.
Therefore, I would really appreciate any input or ideas you may have that you think works well in developing children’s confidence, creativity and achievement with writing. I hope to use ideas from other schools in my workshop session/presentation. I would of course reference and give all credit for projects to the respective contributors. I’ll then upload the presentation to Slideshare for all to view and share.
So, what do you think works? Please consider posting below or, if you prefer, emailing me at martinwaller [at] multiliteracies[.]co[.]uk
Thank you in advance!
The Horizons of 2011
I’m slightly late blogging about 2010 as it’s now 2011. So, a very Happy New Year to you all. As I look back on 2010 and look to 2011, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on some of things that have happened in 2010 and then look to the future for 2011.
Some of the highlights of 2010 were:
- Managing to juggle being a classroom teacher with studying for an MA in New Literacy Studies
- Becoming a published writer and getting excellent feedback about my first article
- Sharing my findings at so many different places – the ESRC Seminar Series and Northern Grid conference to name two
- Attending the Google Teacher Academy in London
- Planning and working with my class on lots of exciting projects including a collaborative project with The Wren’s Nest Museum in Atlanta (USA) and the ‘Seven Seas Project’ where we found a buried treasure chest in the school grounds
- Becoming Creative Learning Coordinator and developing new and innovative practices across the school
- Pretty much single-handily organising the Growing Greener Futures Conference (and getting great feedback)
- Meeting so many of the marvellous people I know via Twitter
- A very nice letter from two parents to my headteacher and governors about my teaching and classroom ethos
- Continuing to develop the use of Twitter in the Primary Classroom as a means of developing confidence, motivation and independence with writing via @ClassroomTweets
- Being mentioned in The Times by Caitlin Moran for our work on Twitter
- Being awarded a prize from Sky and Global Action Plan for our work based around Growing Greener
- Beginning to taking a more relaxed approach to productivity
- Starting the process of buying my first house
- I actually started to attempt to understand photography and contributing to my Flickr stream More…
Merry Christmas
Lorinda Ruth LowenOpen your presents at Christmastime but be thankful year round for the gifts you receive.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for reading Changing Horizons and I hope that you enjoy some of the new posts and sections of the website I will be launching in 2011.
All the best,
Martin
Education cuts and the future of CPD
The recent education cuts by the UK Government are well documented with the cuts appearing to be getting deeper, particularly in relation to higher education. But what does this mean for schools? Organisations such as Becta and Creative Partnerships have already been axed, the Primary National Strategies have been disbanded, Local Authorities are being massacred and school budgets have been tightened. This has significant implications for continuous professional development (CPD) of teachers and schools’ workforce. Local Authorities are going to find it difficult to maintain the same level of CPD opportunities for staff after the cuts and the fact that the Primary National Strategies are being phased out makes this even harder.
Furthermore, schools are going to find it difficult to pay large sums of money to send staff on training courses operated by ‘professional’ CPD organisations. It is a fundamental right of teachers to have access to high quality CPD – the hint is in the ‘continuous’ part of CPD. But what options do schools now have with limited funding?
One such option is for schools to run their own CPD events and invite other schools to attend. I found that this worked particularly well for the Growing Greener Futures Conference last October. If a school organises its own CPD then it allows them to tailor it to their own needs as well as significantly reducing venue costs (if the event is held in the school itself). Our ‘conference fees’ simply covered the cost of catering and administration but if we had charged more we could have made a significant revenue which could have paid for more speakers. Conferences such as this can be funded solely by conference fees if managed correctly. Another successful approach is the TeachMeet ‘unconference’ model which has been very successful in recent years. This involves teachers and people who work in education volunteering to share their experiences with teaching and learning.
It is clear that CPD is going to have to change. What do you think is the best way forward?
Additional Note:
The Growing Greener Futures Conference included keynotes and workshops operated by outside speakers/professionals. All of the staff of the host school were delegates (apart from myself). I think this is mainly why the event was such a success and so beneficial to staff.
Visit The Land of Me… seriously
The Land of Me - Trailer from Made in Me on Vimeo.
A world of creativity & learning for ages 2 and up (that includes you)…
I recently discovered The Land of Me by the fantastic company Made in Me. It is quite simply one of the most charming pieces of educational software I have ever come across.
The software is based around the idea of promoting children’s imagination and creativity. Hence the focus on ‘me’ and it being an epic journey through your imagination. The Land of Me literally comes to life before your eyes with characters such as Eric the Racoon, Buddy Boo the Bear and Willow the Owl. The animation (see above video) and attention to detail is outstanding from the lavish interactive map to the tiny ants that carry leaves through Bramble Wood and the Scottish accents of the Otters.
You can download the first chapter of the Land of Me for free here. The CD is currently £29.95 and a School Site License is only £153.15 (Excluding VAT). It is definitely worth a closer look.