(cc image by The Majestic Fool)

I’ve got a big dilemma at the moment. Do I stay with what I’m doing or leap off the edge?

I’ve just spent a year teaching NCFE2 to a fine group of teaching assistants. I’ve built up lots of resources and lesson plans and I’d actually started to feel that I might just know what I’m doing.

Then whoosh, everything changes, again. The place I work isn’t offering NCFE2 next year, only NVQ 2 because of changes in funding. They propose that I just switch to that instead but NVQ2 is a very different proposition:

1. Ideally meant for those already employed, it is less easy for people on voluntary placements. Yet it is mostly volunteers that have already signed up for the course.
2. It involves a much higher commitment to placement observations than NCFE
3. No scope for simulations - everything has to happen in school, no role plays.
4. Much more involvement from placement schools and teachers. Hard to get for volunteers rather than staff members.
5. The dreaded grids need to be tracked, collated and generally understood by all concerned.
6. It’s just been revised and the text books are now all out of date.
7. I haven’t a clue how to organise the materials or sessions so I’d have to start again from scratch with my planning.

Add to this a higher tutor/ student ratio and I’m left wondering if this is going to be more trouble than it is worth.

All of this doesn’t even begin to address the other issues I have with teaching at the moment.

I have been totally unable to find any sort of online network of UK based peers interested in adult education at pre-degree level. No forums, bloggers, twitterers, ning groups, nix. So no personal learning network of peers again this year. (Nothing wrong with all my great primary school network but a few peers would be nice)

The paperwork is daunting, hard to keep on top of and NVQ has even more of it.

I hated the Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector course with a vengeance. It was a real pain and had me tearing my hair out. Teaching NVQ would mean embarking on yet another course, this time for assessors of NVQs.

On the plus side I mostly enjoyed the actual teaching sessions, the interactions, watching people grow in confidence and competence. I quite enjoyed the school visits and learning to navigate my way round unfamiliar parts of London.

Not teaching next year feels very high risk. It means I’m totally dependant on my writing and my online activities to provide me with an income. The return might be that with more energy and input from me my other stuff really takes off.

Shall I jump and hope that I can fly?

(cc image by SFTC/Gill)

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Unison finally noticed that teaching assistants are being used as cheap teachers:

Christine McAnea, of Unison, said the practice was “endemic” as it cost less to use support staff to cover teacher absence than to buy supply teachers.

England schools Minister Jim Knight said teaching assistants eased the burden on teachers, but should not lead classes “for more than a short period”

It costs about £150 a day to employ a supply teacher, but about £50 to pay support staff.

Rosemary Plummer, a Unison representative, said in the last few months more than 40 teaching assistants from a small area of London had told her they felt they were being asked to do more than they were qualified for.

“They’re delivering maths, they’re delivering literacy and marking work - that’s a teacher’s job… they’re being used as cut-price teachers,” she said.

You don’t say? Can you believe they’ve only just noticed? I don’t understand why is the NUT not screaming about this too, it is teachers they are replacing after all. Maybe supply and part time cover teachers don’t matter either.

Many teaching assistants are extremely competent but they are not teachers. I know TAs in primary who are doing all their own planning, target setting, and marking for the teachers whose PPA time they cover. For this they are paid only for the hours they actually teach, (no planning time), at Level 3 - not even HLTA rates, even though they are qualified to that level. They also have the joy of teaching with no support, which never happens to the normal teacher in that class.

source

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But sometimes, like this chap, we can’t and we have to make the best of the here and now. It’s like a game we occasionally play where we sit outside a city cafe with our expresso, our backs to the road and pretend there’s a harbour behind us. A way to survive the city.
I see other people finding their own ways of creating a bit of personal space, on the trains and tubes. Mostly this seems to involve iPods, phones and newspapers.
I like this chap. I’m not really sure what he’s doing there, just sunbathing, maybe saving a parking space? Who knows? All I know is that there he sat, in the sun, relaxing and he made me smile.

The other thing I know is that if I hadn’t had my camera with me I would never have seen him. It was only because I was casting around for something to photograph that I saw him at all.
So there he is - a slice of city life. Did he make you smile too?

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I’m following my twitter friend Amy’s series on photography with great interest. Amy is always a great source of inspiration and I really love the way she mixes words and images. Her first couple of posts on the theme have made me think hard about why I’m not taking many photos these day and I think I’ve worked it out.

Mostly I have always photographed scenery, nature, flowers, things I think of as beautiful. I make an exception for Paris because though it is undoubtedly a city to me it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. However, the city I now live in does not look beautiful to me.

Now I’m prepared to believe that this is just me, that the beauty is there if only I could find it. So that what I’m going to try to do for the next few weeks. I’m going to take my camera everywhere with me and try to find some beauty here every day.

The trouble with this image is, I fear, I’m looking at the sky and the river, listening to the quiet, and filtering out the city. Generally not what I’m trying for but it’s a start.

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A classic combination of questions in action research. I’m going to use them to try to help me reflect on this blog. I got very bogged down in the 31 day Blog Commenting Challenge. It made me really think about what I’m doing with this blog and, well, why I write it at all. I’m going to use a reflection technique to help me sort it out. It’s one that I used a lot when I was at uni and which might just be helpful now.

What?

State the problem -

I’m only a very part time educator these days. When I do work in education it is with adults and it is very limited. Most blogs that I read or comment on are primary school teachers. After 18 months out of school I’ve lost my common ground with them. I thought I’d find adult education bloggers to be my peers and provide a new community. I haven’t. They are either not there or I can’t find them. It’s not like I can just use university bloggers either - their issues are as different to mine as the primary school teachers.

Mostly now what I do is write: blogs; articles; wiki pages. Some about education, some not. I like to write. I enjoy it.I love the whole gamut of writing from simple factual things about dates and times to long, in depth, opinion pieces. Mostly it’s the sort of writing that combines words and images. Heh - I wasn’t going to get less visual was I?

Put simply then, the problem is that what I read (blogs and twitter) and what I write about (and reflect on) here does not improve my practice. My practice has changed.

So What?

Why is this important? Well, it’s important because I still want to take actions and improve. It’s just that what I do has changed. I still want to use a blog to help me do that. I know it’s a useful tool and I want to use it.

Now What?

Now I get to re-invent my RSS reader and this blog. If you come with me on this journey you are very welcome. If this is where we part company, thanks for being around and goodbye.

I’m going to use these insight to plan radical changes to the blog over the next couple of weeks. It might get a bit bumpy along the way. My focus is going to shift to writing and reading in all it’s forms.

So here’s a few questions for anyone who’s still here after this announcement.

Who writes really well?

Who should I be reading?

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I’m a little behind with the 31 day challenge so this is my day 7 reflection.

Progress to date:

1. Audited my own commenting behaviour,
2. Commented on a new blog,
3. Installed a blog comment tracking service,
4. Asked a question in a comment,
5. Commented on a post I didn’t agree with
6. Responded to another commenter on a blog post.

Task 7 is to identify 3 things I’ve learned in the challenge so far. I’m to think about what I’ve learned about myself as a commenter, what I’ve learned about the act of commenting, and how I think my recent commenting activities have impacted me as commenter and a blogger. The idea is to quickly identify the significant learning. Familiar and not all together comfortable territory from Ultraversity days First the:

Reflection

I learned that I am a reluctant to post comments part because I worry about what people will think of me. I think I sometimes misjudge the tone of what I write and there can be cultural differences that make global blog commenting more difficult. Yet I have no problem commenting on lots of flickr photos, engaging in conversations about the images and their meanings, implications etc. I am more confident in that environment. I also discovered I’m quite likely to respond to a blog post from a contact on twitter rather than on their blog.

Recurring themes? Feeling safe, comfortable and ownership

About commenting in general I’ve learned that it’s harder than I thought. It’s given me an insight into why people might be reluctant to comment on my blogs. I read so many things and am interested and enjoy them but I still only respond to a small minority. It’s made me more aware of the need to get a response from the blogger, to be made welcome and comfortable even if I’m disagreeing with them. Hard! See the point above. I might just face the fact that avoiding conflict is a deep seated personality trait and stay in my comfort zone.

Recurring themes - difficulties, balance, conflict avoidance

Now for some quantitative data:

There seems to be a 10% responding to 90% reading balance now compared to 2% - 98% before the challenge.

Ok - that’s pleasing This is partly because I culled my feeds and removed a lot of stuff I skimmed and wasn’t relevant to my current needs and interests. Even so I think it’s progress. None of these comments were just “me too” posts and I tried to add something and engage with the poster and other commenters in all of them.

However - I still commented on 3 times as many flickr photos as blogs! These comments were almost never of the ‘lovely photo’ variety

Themes - progress, engagement, visual stimuli

Significant Learning

I avoid even minor conflict - even on blogs,
Visual stimulus is important to me
I can change my commenting habits with a small amount of effort

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Exterminate!

Originally uploaded by Cloth cat

So they bring these kits out when I don’t work in a school anymore Grrrrr!
If you do work in a school they’d make a great change from fairy cakes. It’d be a great way to get through to some year 5 or 6 reluctant readers!
Or how about a post SATS Year 6 Dr Who project? The Beeb have some lovely multimedia resources you could use as well. See the Dr Who site for those including an interactive trailer maker.
There are lots of creative commons Dr Who images in the Dr Who Flickr group you could use too.
Have fun

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It’s so often the way of it. I’m busy, or a should be , and something comes up that seems worthwhile on the blogs. There are soo many other things I should be doing right now! But I’ve been feeling annoyed with myself for hardly ever commenting on other people’s blogs of late.

The Bamboo Project Blog: 31 Day Comment Challenge Begins–Day One: Do a Comment Self Audit

How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?

I comment when someone new links to the Classroom Displays Blog. So on average that’s once or twice a week. Then I also very occasionally comment on contacts blogs. I’m trying to say a maximum of three times a week on average but I’m avoiding it because it sounds so bad!

Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?

I set up co.comments a while ago so I could track conversations more effectively and discovered that mostly I don’t comment! I feed my tracking into my RSS reader so I can see if there are new comments added, and so then in theory I can go back and join in the conversation. I almost never do.

Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?

The people who link to Classroom Displays Blog are often trainee teachers, or, occasionally teacher educators. It’s not joining a conversation because they’ve mostly written the blog as part of a course and often I am the only person commenting who’s not on their course. They almost never reply. I suspect they’ve completed that aspect of the course and have moved on.

Otherwise I mostly comment on the blogs of a very small group of contacts and friends and then only occasionally.

2. Now review Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments and ask yourself how well you’re doing in each of the different areas.Are there any specific areas where you think you need to do some work? What do you want to do to address these issues?

The first thing she says is that blog commenting is like walking into someone’s living room and joining the conversation. Is this supposed to reassure me?? I’m the one that finds herself squashed on the uncomfy sofa, smiles a lot says nothing and then spectacularly knocks her wine all over the new carpet!!! Blogs are way less daunting than that

I’m not good with metaphors at the best of times and I hate it when people make online things seem like an equivalent of offline ones . Sorry, slight rant

Anyway, on to the meat of the topic, which is

1. Stay on topic - ok I can do that, except occasionally when I manage to leave a comment on the wrong post by accident
2. Contribute new information to the discussion - I am really good at reading all through the comments and then deciding I’ve nothing new to contribute. It’s one of the main reasons I don’t comment! She doesn’t actually suggest a remedy for this….
3. Don’t comment for the sake of commenting - OK, saying ‘nice post’ will get you tagged as spam. I wouldn’t do that but then that’s another block on commenting.
4. Know when to comment and when to e-mail - personal stuff belongs in e-mail, got you. Someone needs to tell some new blog commentators that public stuff belongs on the blog not in my e-mail though.
5. Nobody likes a know-it-all - got to be respectful when pointing out errors, typos or dead links. Erm. Ok. Actually I’d just rather people did it quickly I can use all the help I can get with spell and fact checking. Maybe that’s just me and my dyslexia.
6. Make the tone of your message clear - I can do this. No sarcasm, in jokes etc. Use emoticons. I like smilies. OK.
7. Own your comment - OH yes! I’m a firm believer in that.
8. Be succinct - I like the bit about long comments being for college professors, she’s obviously read some of the people I read I usually blog it rather than comment on someone’s blog if I’ve got a lot to say. Does that count I wonder? Where do trackbacks fit into this challenge?
9. Cite sources and link to them - OK good practice. Would you like those Harvarded? LOL been spending too much time writing assignments recently (which, BTW, is what I should be doing now!)
10. Don’t post when angry, drunk, upset or emotional - Good advice, I’ll try to follow it.
11. Do not feed or tease the trolls - leaving aside my feelings about labelling people as trolls, (Did no one ever teach these people to separate the behaviour from the person? Or to even think that there’s a person behind that text you are reading who might not understand why you think they are a troll?), I do know that it’s not a good idea to set out to upset or tease people. See 10 above for what to do if something someone’s written made you angry.

So that’s it then.

Day 1 Conclusions

I need some strategies to deal with my feelings of having nothing to add to the conversation and I need to find some different blogs to comment on.

I’m all set for day two, if I can get my head round whatever it is you are supposed to do with your co.comments. Some sort of group thing… er???

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Unison gives TAs strike advice

Unison has warned UK teaching assistants that they could be disciplined and lose pay if they refuse to turn up for work on Thursday. Up to 7,800 schools will be disrupted with as many as 1 in 3 schools completely closed in some areas.

Unison has told its members that legally they should work as usual on Thursday if the teachers’ strike goes ahead. They should just not do any work normally done by teachers. It’s not really clear if this includes covering classes that the TAs might cover normally for PPA time. Those classes are, at least in theory, supervised by teachers so it’s definitely a grey area.

Unison suggests TAs can show support by attending meetings outside their working hours.

For TAs in schools that are expected to shut fully on Thursday, it is possible that they will lose pay or be expected to put in the hours at another time. In some areas schools will only be partially closed with some staff in but no pupils. TAs will be expected to turn up to school and get on with other duties. I can see a lot of resource areas getting that much needed clean up no one ever has time to do!

People will have to check the position in their particular school. Don’t just stay home because the school is closed, check with your local union rep. There shouldn’t be any picket lines as the NUT has asked members to attend meetings instead. If you turn up and there is a teachers’ picket line I don’t envy you. Personally I couldn’t cross one and then look those people in the eye over tea break the next day. Having said that I don’t remember a huge amount of solidarity from teachers the last time TAs took strike action….

Meanwhile, on Twitter, lots of teachers are planning to spend the day catching up with paper work and planning lessons! Sheesh - you are meant to be on strike guys! Y’know, going to meetings etc, not working! Oh and by the way, that probably includes not edublogging, twittering about work to your personal learning network, finding cool new resources to play with and all those informal learning activities you don’t get paid for anyway!

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Music seems to be a bit of a theme on the blog at the moment. An old friend from Ultraversity days, Sarah Hackett, got in touch recently to tell me about her new venture. Sarah did some fine research (First Class in fact!) for her final year project on using Moodle and video coaching to work with groups learning folk fiddle. If you are going to TeachMeet08 North East London edition you might be lucky enough to hear her talk about it.

Her new venture takes that work and extends it out to a wider audience:

Folk Fiddle lessons online

Learn OnLine 4 life and Laugh Out Loud 4 Life
Learn Folk Fiddle tunes by ear and and improve your aural skills, memory, musicianship, awareness of harmony, violin technique, appreciation of musical form and structure, and enjoy practical application making sense of music theory in a logical way. Most importantly though - have a great deal of fun and get involved in a really sociable activity!

Sarah’s work is always innovative and interesting. She provides a flavour of what people can expect:

A free course of online lessons

I have posted videos for the tune Trip To Matlock that you can access without charge so that you will be able to get an idea of what to expect.

Please would you give a donation to one of the charities suggested in the Trip to Matlock News Forum for the use of these videos. There is no need to sign in - just click on the blue i button to find out how to access.

The site is great for individuals or could be used by schools groups. Sarah’s charges are very reasonable and you’d certainly be getting expert coaching.

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