Sharing the Addiction

Well, it has been a busy week. Three days of Ulearn conference and then two further days of workshops: one with Sharon and one with Ewan. This post is the first in a series to look at my impressions in-depth.

Ulearn highlights

As I said in a previous post, it was great to see that many of the things Tony talked about are happening at some level in many schools. These included giving kids clear messages on what they are learning about and why, using mind tools such as graphic organisers, providing children with rubrics (or having them create them) and using cooperative learning techniques such as donuts. I liked the way he builds up kids ability to self talk by having them practice out loud first and then learn to internalise this. I also liked his reference to green light thinking. Teachers need to stop moaning about the system because we ARE the system and move into positive problem solving instead. This slide is one from his presentation that is available online.
I also enjoyed his talk on looking to the future. I can be guilty of feeling a little worried about the future but I really liked the fact he emphasised that we need optimism for the future and the kids coming through need to have the skills and attitude to believe that they can tackle the hard questions. Therefore, they need to be taught problem solving through tools such as Tony’s thinkers keys and De Bono’s thinking hats. What I found really interesting was the emphasis Tony placed on the sequencing of these tools to suit the situation rather than each hat or thinking key in isolation. Tony suggested that kids have the hats or keys on their desks and are asked to select and sequence these to solve particular problems rather than being which ones to use so that the kids embed this behaviour rather than it just being something they do with that particular teacher and it falls away afterwards. I also liked the way Tony, in his keynote, talked about teachers stopping this constant feeling of guilt that they are not doing enough and instead looking at what they ARE doing well and doing more of it.

Tanya Thompson’s Action Research Presentation
This presentation was one of the highlights for me and very useful as our cluster looks at bringing in action research next year. Some of the most important tips for me was that at least three staff meetings a term need to be set aside to focus on action research where teachers discuss readings (such as from Formative Assessment book) distributed prior to the meeting. Discussion leaders are selected from the teachers to lead these discussions in small groups. A ‘critical friend’ goes into your classroom about every fortnight just to ask how it is going. What really impressed me is that the school all seems to be talking the same talk and Tanya was able to share how this approach to PD had recultured the entire school for the better and had given staff greater confidence that what they were doing DOES make a difference.

More to come but I think it is bedtime now! Next it will be more on Karen Boyes, the new iWorks 08, thoughts on the keynotes and post Ulearn workshops.