Kay C’s blog

An area that interests me. This site gives some history to it:

learning styles: http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm

Today I followed up with the teacher who viewed the pilot group of girls creating a puppet play at breaktime. She generally commented along the lines I did but with a few extras that gave me extra views:

• She was not surprised by the amount of laughter - she said they "enjoy nothing more than having to come to the board for a turn in lesons".
• She was pleased with how they interacted. She felt that although they are only 7-8 year olds, they were quite mature in thinking through the storyline and discussing it in a collaborative way.
• When one girl was slightly late in arriving, the others took it upon themselves to break away from what they were doing and to explain it to her before carrying on.
• It reinforced her experience in lessons that the interaction of using an IWB is beneficial for learning - in this instance in learning social skills as well.

Last week I watched a pilot group of 4 girls working at the IWB during breaktime. Their "task" was to create a puppet play using the tools. Throughout the time there was an awful lot of laughter - far more than I would have anticipated. My preconceived idea was that they would fall-out over who was hogging the board the most and that the quieter members would get left out.The most salient points I noted were:

Pupil A: "What's it going to be about?"

Pupil B: "I haven't had a turn"

Pupil D: "How do I change the colour?

Pupil C: "Do that one, let's see what happens"

It was interesting that after asking what it should be about, all four got involved in the discussion and quickly came to agreement that it would be a happy play and they would all fall in love - the dogs included! Normally shy Pupil B was quick to speak up when she hadn't had a go for a while. The collaboration was amazing to observe.

I shall post up later what the teacher thought too.

Not sure if I should have posted this on Friday before I went away  but was soooo angry that perhaps it's better in the light of a break!

Friday - after agreement from Head, after hours of work, after putting CI into genre and reflecting on it etc etc etc the teacher involved said she didn't want the "situation" discussed at a staff meeting. I had agreement from the Head, and only approached her out of politeness to say I was going to bring it up at the next staff meeting and then.... I could have cried but was too angry too. However, maybe I have learnt something since starting this course and that is that (a) I walked away from the situation without going to the loos and exploding and (b) that others do not want to reflect and learn but to, as she put it, "put it behind me".

Have to speak to LF and urgently too if I am to salvage my work.

Saw head today. Discussed the two CIs and asked for approval for approaching the participants ready to start data collecting for AI. Whilst describing the CIs, it became obvious to me that by talking to the SEN girls, that I may be getting them to think about issues which, in their minds, did not exist (ie them coming out of ICT lessons). The Head agreed and said the ideal would be to discuss it with Yr6 girls after their entrance exams in Jan. It therefore made perfect sense for me to swap my AI to my ILM and vice-versa. Hope the LF agrees on her return from hols.

I was very interested in what the Head was saying about if you approach a cross-section of people about an issue, some will immediately have a very set argument whereas others will evaluate and consider. She could even split the staff down the middle into the two camps!

For my AI she asked how I would approach the girls. I said I would give a hypothetical incident along the lines of what actually happened. She then said to approach just one class within the year group and so exclude the particular class/girl that was invovled. I now have to get 6 'volunteers' to come to me and I intend to record our discussion. I have the scenario ready and the questions, so just have to find the time.

Have requested a staff meeting slot on 5th to put situation to all staff and again record their thoughts. Hope by the time I analyse all the data I can implement a change and observe the outcome of it in order to identify a possible second cycle. Now worried about time on top of finishing RIWS2 - help!!!

Hooray - today produced a CI that I feel will be ideal as my second incident.

It was wet lunchtime break. Two Yr6's are allocated a class to look after. A Yr4 girl asked if she could use the IWB to play hangman. The Yr6 said yes. The class teacher returned towards the end of break and severely told off her pupil. The pupil went "ballistic" threw herself on the floor in a complete tantrum, finally running and locking herself in the loos. I only became involved when the deputy Head who dealt with the situation, came to me to ask if girls are allowed to use IWBs at wet breaks.

The teacher says that she's repeatedly told her girls that 'her' desk & PC (that links to the IWB) was her domain and that it was completely out of bounds to them.

The teacher claims the girl was using her account & was moving things around.

The teacher is new having completed just one term.

The teacher is known to be very strict and is often heard shouting at her class.

I have repeatedly told teachers not to leave themselves logged on, reminding them that they can lock their logon's to leave the room which necessitates a password to unlock. This is also written in my ICT policy document and inducation training manual which is given to all new staff, plus the ICT Training course.

The girl is a G&T pupil.

The girl claims she was just tidying up the information on the board & not deleting things.

The girl had locked herself in the loos once before (a couple of years back)

The girl has a different ethnic background.

On Friday: Having posted 2 suggested CIs, one of which I thought I had understood, I was so disappointed to discover that I was taking it too personally. My immediate reaction was that I hadn't and rarely do take things personally and so became quite defensive. Sharing the whole experience at home meant it was viewed differently in that I was 'making the situation personal' rather than the actual words that were used "taking it too personally" between which there is a world of difference (to me anyway).

Still doesn't get round that I'm not reading the requirements correctly and so now feel despondent that I'm struggling with the concepts. Perhaps I was too blase in thinking that just because I got a really good mark for RIWS1, then I'd understood the topic completely whereas RIWS2 of course should be extending & not covering old ground so I will once again find this difficult from the beginning (see previous posts where I note I ALWAYS start off feeling low until the penny drops). As a positive person, I'm hoping this time it will happen sooner rather than later, but I've learnt not to become complacent & assume that just because I've covered something before that there's no more learning to be had from it!

Work: have just managed to think of way around having to attend after school meeting next week. There are times when home  must come first and this is one of them. Started typing response only to step back and consider that my argument against going wasn't strong enough ie the organisers could come back with a solution so have rethought it to a watertight argument. Good example of reflection-in-action that I'd have not done before.

Fire Drill - went OK - gave in feedback immediately so that it was fresh in mind.

Looking forward to meeting with WA tomorrow to chew over possible CIs & AIs. It's so important to get the choice of CIs right as they can lead onto the AIs for us.

Why do I volunteer???? On Friday I was cursing myself for offering to take an aerobics class following the sleepout. Such a perfectionist, I had to work out the routines exactly, just like I used to, I really reallly cannot improvise - what does this say about my character... (hubby just the same, could not let me just 'do it', had to get radiomic linked into system and record tracks so they segwayed into each other...made for each other!

Saturday 7.00am bleary eyed I arrive plus teddy & dressing gown. 7.30am all over but what wonderful girls we have. They all followed everything I said, did not misbehave or chat at all (perhaps they were too tired?) and sang along to every track. Huge success thank goodness. Was it worth it? Definitely as it's all for the NSPCC. Thank goodness it's only every 2 years though!

From work:

L's drum teacher said did I want him to become a musician. I said I didn't care what he did (Astronaut or dustman) just so long as he was happy doing it. On discussing this in the staffroom, T said I would add 'and they're a nice person'. We then went on to discuss how parents so often live their lives through their children - why is this? She suggested they may not have achieved what they wanted at school and therefore want their children to do this for them. Whatever the reason, this puts enormous pressure on the child who, dependent on character, will either go on to actually achieve (they are an able child who is a conformist), rebel or at worst, crack.