Time to write and reflect has been almost non existent the past two weeks.Time? What time? Certainly time appears to be elusive, so here is a quick list of highlights from the past two weeks; Y11 ’Drive to the finishline’ Assemblies, sitting with Y11 students for breakfast clubs Maths revision and even convincing two bright Y8 girls to attempt the worksheets, the amazing response from our students to the bookmarks / book reviews, my first JCQ – Joint Council for Qualifications exam inspection, the ‘Get Caught Reading’ success, Edmodo with Y7 engaging students in learning conversations plus hooking one student on the joys of reading. A successful staff collaboration INSET day and car pooling with our new VP and sharing a copy of Fierce Conversations with three leadership colleagues.

Then to round things off today, an update on Exercise Book 2.0. Even better, Dan’s sent a sample in the post! Nice one Dan. Oh, and if you are not following the progress of this fantastic project, then follow @dandesignthink, drop him an email or visit his design think agency’s website. This is absolutely no commercial interest or bias here, but for what it is worth, Dan is very support of the education community and his design work for schools is bloomin’ brilliant.

Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be. – Rita Pearson

It’s worth spending 10 minutes watching Rita Pearson’s recent TED talks education pitch. She just emanates passion and persuasion.

I gave [my students] a saying to say: ‘I am somebody. I was somebody when I came. I’ll be a better somebody when I leave. I am powerful, and I am strong. I deserve the education that I get here.

Never say never. Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion – Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan quote from his speech upon being enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 2009.

There are only a few MJ quotes I have missed. Boy did I miss this one.

This Friday’s Year 11 ‘Drive to the finish line’ assembly was led by an inspirational young man, former elite gymnast and aspiring stuntman, Jay Young.

Just two years on, and following eleven months of gruelling physiotherapy, Jay is commanding the respect and attention of our Year 11 students. Not a whisper could be heard in the theatre as Jay retold the events of his tragic accident and challenges of living life as a quadriplegic.

To be active like that all day every day for as long as you can remember and to suddenly have that taken away in a split second is difficult. –  Jay told our Year 11 students.

Jay broke his neck during a routine dress rehearsal at Legoland, Windsor back in March 2011. And whilst he himself is still adjusting to life as quadriplegic, he sees the value in sharing his daily challenges and experiences. His modesty and openness was powerful, humbling, and over whelmingly inspiring. Jay’ simple message – pursue your dreams with conviction and do not take for grant the simple things in life; a hug, scratching one’s own nose, sending your own text messages and removing an annoying eyelash. No pyrotechnics, special effects, not even a whizzy Powerpoint deck, just hard reality, facts and a drive to live life to the max.

Both staff and students left the assembly re-evaluating their own goals, inner strength and values. Truly humbling, truly inspiring. We hope to being Jay back to The Academy soon to contribute to our Humanutopia programme running this year.

Jay is keen to access a wider audience and work with as many young people as possible, schools and youth organisations in particular. If you are a teacher or school leader and would like to bring Jay to your school, drop me a note and I will put you in touch.

Waiting for @FOD3… (the message left in the workbook for the Head of English.)

After a morning of experimenting, I have mocked up a simple wire frame for departments to report their curriculum maps, KS2 transition, KS3, KS4 and KS5. The aim, to maximise and deepen student learning by adjusting and modifying our content and scheduling. Yet what seems to be a simple task, takes too long, and the KS2 transition rarely happens and students get to learn about internet safety in four different subjects over three years.

The reporting frame originally contained three sections: Curriculum Overview, Knowledge, Skills and Understanding and Assessment. Added to this triad is ‘Additional resources or materials’ to support learning. The difference this time is we will be using Excel Web App. If you have a Skydrive or Outlook.com account why wouldn’t you.

So, I upload the write frame or excel workbook and shared the link. Thirty minutes later I am upgrading the wire frame and contemplating why we need to wait for the INSET day to get started. That’s the beauty of the cloud. I am also relieved to think that no one-person will need to collate the evidence from half a dozen different returns, whilst chasing the non-returns. (I can fore go this imposition, if it means a handful of staff take 15 minutes for staff to stop sending one another comedy messages as they explore the benefit of instant collaboration.

In much the same way as myself and @numpty_teacher discussed how we might use collaborate documents.

@numpty_teacher – Managed to create new sheet.
@Kristianstill - cool – anything needed for KS5 or can we use the same format?

@numpty_teacher – Format looks good, but we’ve been talking about making more of independent study / reading around the subject. So maybe something like…
@Kristianstill okay – but also need to think whole school nuances
Additional resources / materials – That could work for all subjects – nice

@numpty_teacher – We were discussing it Thurs morn in our KS5 meeting (although only 4 remembered it was on!)
@Kristianstill – How do you find the web app?
@numpty_teacher – I like it. It’s close enough to the prog we all know to be useable. And it allows for instant feedback on ideas if you’re working in separate places.
@Kristianstill - Do you think staff will ‘get it? Writing and seeing what other depts are doing at the SAME time – and weave it together?
@numpty_teacher – It’s always reassuring to see other’s doing the same thing. But it will also make cross curricular a lot easier. If we could see when history are doing WW1 we could tie in war poetry, for example. Or when science are doing genes etc we could study ‘Unique’
@Kristianstill - Do you think you would be happy helping me, help depts. Just dropping in. Trouble shooting?
@numpty_teacher – No probs – I’ve always had an interest in tech & love a good gadget!
@Kristianstill – So true, so true – history WWI poetry, Science and Unique. I would like to post this chat as a blog post too.If thats okay.
@numpty_teacher – Sure.
@Kristianstill – I just wanted a very simple layout and I think we have it.

So there you have it. Our first experiment in collaborative, cloud based INSET is this Friday. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. For what it is worth there is an app for that too. Confused? Skydrive on your iOS device, very handy.

[qr_code_diaplay]

This is the first time I have EVER been in a library.

Is there any single more important duty of an English Department, of a school even, than introducing our students to the wonders of reading? I would like to think that almost any Head of Department worth their salt could put up a good fight defending that statement. My parents did not have a love of books, but there were books in my home. I did not have parents that made me read, but they occasionally read with me – Charlotte’s Web (“Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother”) mainly. I did get books as gifts that often, though occasionally an annual appeared in a Christmas stocking.

We did have a library at school. Now, I only used the library on rainy days, when I could not be outside at lunch playing football, or tennis, or cricket or when we had to renew my class reader. As a result, I read more than I would have done and probably did better in school generally as a result. Hence my passion for our library I think. This week saw the green shoots of our reading drive. In years seven through nine, we have introduced 45 minute library visits with every student issued a library book and random DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) moments in class. We have a community-supported library listeners programme who meet us there to listen to our students read. We have a parents and carer engagement plan, student rewards and extended reading or book club. We have Accelerate Reader purchased for Sept 13. ‘What we are reading posters’ adorn most teachers doors. We are addressing the fact that some of our students have never, ‘EVER’ been to a library.

In class, my experiment with Edmodo is going very well indeed. Students have engaged with post lesson polls, which in turn have steered the following lessons introduction recap. Within the group I have two further sub-groups, a stretch group ‘Challenge ‘em’ and a support group ‘Zues.’ Additional activities are set for the challenge students and the Teaching Assistant is setting support tasks for those that need more help. Today, one of the ‘Challenge ‘em’ students is leading a short Miss Marple activity based on her favourite Miss Marple film. She has asked for a 15 minute slot – very exciting. Homework via the site is trickling and marking via the site is very easy. Meanwhile I am still considering whether or note to send a letter to parents and  to outline the project and share the class code?

I am still listening to Grammar Girl, ‘How to use a Hyphen’ and ‘Tuxedo Verbs’ this morning though my Sentinel project has temporarily stalled.

Finally, a few resources for you. A ‘Welcome to English’ banner and ‘Don’t forget your reading book’ banner.

The cut and thrust of Y11 exam preparation includes SAM Learning, small exam intervention groups, course catch up, “study-plus” resources for student disaggregated from other subject areas and half term revision days.