Questions and Reflections

This post is prompted by a post from Don Ledingham regarding the automatic exclusion of pupils for swearing at a a teacher.

I taught in two tough inner city Dundee schools and  exclusion and shouting were both equally ineffective as the pupils were quite used to  shouting, swearing and possibly beatings etc., in their home environment. What really got to them was a slow and lengthy discussion of how poorly they had behaved and how disappointed I was with them and how would their parents react when I told  them about the incident and were they not therefore disappointed with their own behaviour.  More in sorrow than in anger.  Ten minutes of that would often make the brashest thug go to pieces.  Mind you I do have the same effect when I trap a colleague in a corner at a meeting!

The problem in many schools is that incidents come so thick and fast that the SMT do not have time for anything but a cursory approach.  It is back to a question of numbers.  The best schools probably have an incident rate with about 1 or 2 percent persistent offenders in the school population.  Logging persistent offenders over a number of years in poor schools only reveals about 7 or 8 percent persistent offenders but that is enough to run teachers ragged, because it encourages hangers-on to get involved.  Furthermore guidance and SMT are then only fighting fires not preventing them.

Fiona Hislop, the Eduction Minister, announced major changes to the Scottish exam system.  Amongst other things she put forward the idea of a national certificate for literacy and numeracy.  I am reminded of the old O Grade Arithmetic exam.  The questions always tested the same basic skills, just the numbers changed.  I know that sounds a little simplistic but unlike some modern exams which seem to be designed to show candidates what they don’t know, this aimed to show them what they did know.

I remember some Computing Studies exams which were designed to catch out teachers who failed to cover every last detail of the syllabus and made only a passing nod to the essence of Computing.

It would be good if this new exam made certain that all candidates who passed had a set of basic skills which did not vary or dumb down from year to year.

Gordon McKinlays’ post about the teaching of Computing in Scottish schools very much endorses my feelings as an ex Computing PT. The subject has had a very mixed existence highlighted by the fact that the name kept changing from Computer Education to Computing Studies to Computing. In its very early days the programming element for an O grade certificate once included programming a BBC computer to display a simulated car dashboard with flashing indicators and a moving fuel gauge and speedometer if my memory is not exaggerating it. Nowadays programming hardly features in the curriculum. Partly I suspect the emphasis on word processing etc., came about through an ex Business Studies teacher being on the national subject panels.

Today, I think the only justification for Computing as a subject is teaching the analytical skills of programming and the fundamental structures of hardware and software, i.e Computing Science. This would be very much a minority subject and would free up the hundreds of computers in Computing rooms for more useful purposes as you need very little access to a computer to teach the subject in that form. Then they could be used across the curriculum to improve access to Glow.

Something of a steep learning curve today.  There has been a problem for users transferring address books from RM EasyMail to Glow Mail.  I attempted to illustrate the procedure with a screencast complete with commentary.  Having spent most ofthe afternoon on this I discovered that when converted into Flash the sound and picture no longer synchronised.  So just now I have finished a silent movie with captions which you can see on the Dundee FAQ site.  The video is linked to the Glow Functions category of questions.

Michael Gove is suggesting that anybody will be able to apply to run a school and the pupils who go there will bring with them the same sum of money which they would attract in a state school.

The subsequent discussion on Radio 4 Talking Politics mentioned once again the link between sink estates and poor schools which everybody in the area wants to remove their children from. Starting new schools in a sink estate would unfortunately just move the problems from the existing school to the new one. Schools are part and parcel of the community they serve. Improving sink estates will tend to improve the schools.

John Low and Learning at Teaching Scotland has mentioned a colleague of my, Elspeth Scott, in his blog, underlining the importance of librarians to the learning process. Their role can only increase as experts in searching for and marshalling information, and in guiding pupils’ online enquiries.

It may sound a bit too radical but it is perhaps appropriate to suggest that teachers should become more like librarians, guides rather than instructors. Stephen Heppell as mentioned in a Neil Winton blog is pointing in a similar direction.  There is so much information in the world and so many ways of learning about it that teachers can no longer regard themselves as the sole fount of knowledge for their pupils.

Watching BBC News at 10 I was struck by the thought that the attempts to manipulate the school selection system will never succeed as middleclass supportive areas foster good schools and deprived areas make it much more difficult for any school to become a so-called good school. The teaching staffs in good and bad schools will not be substantially different. It is the community which determines the character of a school far more than the teachers.

This is an idea which John Johnston has put forward and which he talked about at teachmeetperth. The more I think about it the more I like it.

Adding to its acceptance and relevance I think perhaps a national Glow group of the same title and with a webpart link to the opensourcecpd site should be a high priority.

This gathering has been reported elsewhere and is on flickr tagged teachmeetperth. As always I really enjoyed myself and gathered a great deal of useful information. I managed to speak to a number of wellken’t personalities who are at the cutting edge of educational ICT in Scotland, among them David Noble and David Gilmour, John Johnston, Ian Stuart, Tess Watson, Robert Jones and a few more. Every presenter gave me food for thought and different insights into the uses of ICT, plus much laughter and a good meal to finish. I have already congratulated Neil Winton on his organisation of the event and also on his finale presentation.

Others have give reports of the presentations, but I would like to add that this is actually an ideal format for a quick overview of a very specific topic which because of our huge ability to communicate in so many ways can be explored later at leisure, either with the presenter or through links provided. I have learnt far more in a shorter space of time at the various Teachmeets than I have in more formal settings. If for instance the Scottish Learning Festival could provide a short synopsis with the presenter’s links for all the hundreds of seminars each year I for one would have a far better chance of attending the ones I thought most useful.

It was with great sadness that I read in yesterday’s Dundee Courier of the sudden death of Tony van der Kuyl. I have known Tony for twenty or more years. A huge man he was also a much larger than life character, never short of an opinion, usually controversial, on any subject.

The last time I met Tony was at a Scottish Learning Festival dinner. He and I were at a table right at the back and somewhat hidden from view. As usual he regaled us with stories through the first course and then moved to an adjacent table to talk to another friend. While there, he was served with a main course, but our waitress also left one for him at his original place. On his return he quickly demolished the second plateful, talking all the while. At the speeches, he was forced into silence which he endured for about five minutes. Then leaping to his feet, with hasty farewells, he crashed into the night through a convenient fire door. Exit the King!