I've had such and inspiring and also a frustrating two days. Our school is part of an ICT cluster of 6 schools, and I am one of 3 lead teachers involved. For the last two days we have had a workshop, run by our school, which is the host school. We visited two very different schools, and had another session on blogging and wikis. We also had some time for reflection and sharing what we had been doing at our schools.
Inspiration:
At one of the schools I was really inspired by how the kids were working independantly, sitting around laptops in their huge, media centre. A class of children were being talked through the process of designing ePortfolios, and others were sitting in ones and twos working on theirs. The layout and design the kids were doing, was mindblowing. (They were designing interfaces in Glogster.com and embedding it in the school intranet system, KnowledgeNet, that our school also uses. Now, KnowledgeNet is really boring and bland compared to 'real' websites, so I've never really like the look of it. (Probably because I have a Graphic Design background.) These kids hadn't let that limit their creativity at all. They were just using the tools that they knew, and simply finding a way to make the system work for them. What a valuable lesson I learnt! I can't wait to get my kids working on some flashy, exciting, creative, classy layouts.
Frustration:
The Facilitator of our cluster, however, keeps saying that what she calls the 'whizz-bang' and 'pretty' look has no educational value, and that we should 'focus on the pedagogy'. (Whatever does she mean?) So I'm afraid I will probably be told not to go that route. In many areas we're still limiting our kids, for no apparant reason other than it feels safer to do so, than to let them fly! I know from my Graphic Design days how important the visual appeal is, for effective transference of written information. Yes, it may be pretty, but what on earth is wrong with that! Research has proven that attractive women / adverts / cars / layouts get the most attention. I can't help feeling that she is just using this as an excuse to keep me and my colleagues in line! Every time I want to try something new, I get stopped in my tracks and told that it is not part of the school's plan. I've stopped counting the number of times I've had to retrace my steps when my kids and I are halfway through a project, because it's 'not the way we do it here'. UGGGHHHH!
Anyone have a solution, or had a similar experience?
I love teaching. I've left the profession several times, and tried my hand at several other professions, but I always come back, and this time I'm not leaving again! I qualified as a teacher 21 years ago. I've seen students change from shy blonde haired, blue eyed 5 year olds to swearing teenage punk rock musicians to responsible adult parents. I've witnessed the change from Chalkboard to Smartboard. I've gone from 'Doing a Project' to 'Inquiry Learning'. And I'm still learning every day. Most exciting of all is to be a part of a global teaching community, where we are learning not just from our colleagues, but from teachers all over the world. After all, we share the same passion: Teaching!
Please visit my other blogs, and leave comments with your details.
http://raenettesblog.blogspot.com/ - focus on eLearning
http://raenettetaljaard.blogspot.com/ - focus on balancing family life with teaching in New Zealand
http://sparkle24.edublogs.org/ - this is my class blog, where my students' work is published
I would love to hear from other teachers. In New Zealand we have a really exciting methodology, and I would love to share how we teach with the rest of the world!