dougbelshaw.com/blog

Welcome back!
#uppingyourgame: an educator's guide to productivity is now up to v0.4!
(I'm looking for people to translate it into other languages when finished - if you're interested get in touch!)

I spent last weekend in Turkey at the request of EUROCLIO presenting and facilitating workshops with long-time collaborator Nick Dennis. The government of the Netherlands sponsor civil society-related projects in Turkey, one of the things they’re focusing upon being the better teaching of History in Turkish schools.

At the moment, the Turkish government provide textbooks free-of-charge to schools leading to the situation where, in effect, the textbook is the curriculum. The first thing we had to emphasise, therefore, over and above showcasing ICT was that teachers don’t necessarily have to follow what’s in the textbook.

In addition, in the discussion following our presentation we found that the common lesson structure in England of having at least three parts to a lesson (starter, main, plenary) isn’t common practice in Turkey. In our workshops on the days following this discussion we felt the need to model what we meant.

We knew that we weren’t going to be able to touch on every tool we mentioned in our presentation, but including (and explaining the need for) a key question, learning objectives and success criteria, meant we could focus on only four. In addition, whilst the translation was excellent, it necessarily slowed down the natural pace of the workshop.

The Turkish educators also had to lead workshops demonstrating the innovative lessons they have been developing. These were of varying quality. Most that I saw, however, simply needed some tweaking to move them to being focused enquiries. History is a very difficult subject to teach well.

I greatly enjoyed our visit to Kizilcahamam – my first visit to Turkey. It’s a beautiful country with wonderful people. Although it’s a different experience working that being on holiday, it was fantastic to be part of such a worthwhile project and to share good practice with colleagues despite a language barrier.

You can access our presentation and workshop slides (in Turkish!) at the link below – along with some videos of Nick and I in action:

Short link: http://bit.ly/EUROCLIO

Long link: http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/presenting/presentations-archive/euroclio-third-authors-and-experts-workshop-kizilcahamam/

Finally, I’ve updated the presentations archive and my CV to include this trip (check out the Presenting icon in the sidebar!)

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finished working on version 0.4 of #uppingyourgame: an educator’s guide to productivity. Three of the five chapters are now complete:

1. The Philosophy of Productivity
2. Productivity & Motivation
3. Productivity as ‘getting on & doing’

#uppingyourgame is the first book to be published using the OpenBeta publishing model and will be completed over the course of 2010. The chapters yet to be written are provisionally titled Productivity 2.0 and Making others more productive.

Version 0.2 is available as a preview here

Buying into the ideas that this book contains (and will contain) NOW costs £5. You will receive free updates and notifications as each version is published. Buying into the contents means you have access to each subsequent version up to 1.0. If you decide not to purchase now the price will increase as I complete each chapter (and release each version) – up to a maximum of £10.

Once you’ve completed the payment process clicking on the orange button to ‘Return to DAJ Belshaw’ will take you to the download page.

Permanent link to the book’s page at http://bit.ly/uppingyourgame

Image CC BY-NC-SA nzbuu

I grew up and have returned to live on the edge of a very deprived area. What caused its deprivation? Going from once being the largest mining village in the world to having no coal mines in the area. We’re talking (at least) third generation unemployment for many people.

But I’m surrounded by wonderfully different and independent people, proud of their mining heritage. Which is why it makes me sad when those in a position to make things better conflate two different forms of ‘culture’.

On the one hand, we’ve got a dialect (‘Pitmatic’) audibly distinct from ‘Geordie’ (that of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), along with different traditions, customs and even artwork that’s a product of the areas mining heritage.

On the other, there’s the drugs, graffiti and crime ‘culture’ that’s been a result of the decline of coal mining.

So when schools and local organizations remind young people of their area’s past, they’re doing them a favour. I was part of a local history project in Doncaster that aimed to do just that. We disseminated video interviews of people involved in the coal mining industry – leading to some wonderful learning conversations and realisations.

But when schools and local organizations allow (or even encourage) young people to graffiti, make drugs references and reward them with gift vouchers that they know will end up being spent on cigarettes and alcohol, they’re doing them a massive disservice. That’s got nothing to do with culture and everything to do with crime and social disadvantage.

We need some clear thinking and action on this. I doubt my area’s any different from others in anything other than specifics.

There’s a difference between meeting young people half-way with cultural references and capitulating to the criminal underworld.

Some people talk of ‘learning styles’ but I think that, really, we use each main type of style (kinaesthetic, visual, aural) depending on what it is we’re learning. In fact, as a teacher, I’ve observed this in the classroom.

Those (high-flyers) who have the groundwork understanding to quickly assimilate concepts need merely aural input to learn effectively.

Those (most of the class) who need some consolidation of the groundwork before assimilation need things explained visually.

Those (SEN, etc) who need to re-explain the groundwork completely before moving on need kinaesthetic activities.

Feel free to shoot me down, but that what I’ve observed. And the same is true for my own learning.

At the moment I’m trying to apply Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity to my Ed.D. thesis. Specifically, I’m interested in finding out how terms such as ‘digital literacy’ and ‘electracy’ are ambiguous. It’s confusing. So I did my equivalent of breaking out the Duplo:

Note that this is visual learning for you but kinaesthetic for me – I did something similar when doing my MA.

Thoughts/comments? Do you do something similar?

I was interviewed last week by Tim Bradburn of Connected Teaching (@cpd4teachers) who was interested in having me expand up the ideas contained in #uppingyourgame: an educator’s guide to productivity.

In the extracts below (taken from the interview) I explain my belief that productivity is a learned behaviour based upon serenity, reliability and focus.

 

 #uppingyourgame: Serenity: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 #uppingyourgame: Reliability: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 #uppingyourgame: Focus: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(if you’re reading this via email or in a feed reader you may need to click through!)

I have to.

I wouldn’t know what else to do – I’d have to leave the circus.

I heard an interview with Carly Simon recently. She’s in her sixties now and most famous for stuff she did before I was born – such as the song You’re So Vain. The interviewer asked her if she would keep on making music “even into her eighties”. Her response is above.

She meant, I think, to come across as someone with a lifelong passion. To me, however, it came across as quite sad. She’s no Bob Dylan, after all.

And then I got thinking about education and about teaching in particular. I know quite a few people who just wouldn’t know what else to do if they weren’t teaching. That’s not always a positive thing. Sometimes people need to leave the circus.

(Image CC BY-NC hbp_pix)

I need your input and help. It’s for a good cause. I’m a firm believer that educational innovation is a bottom-up process. Could you help me (and others) prove that?

I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible if you promise to do the background reading and try to contribute in some way.

Introduction

EduCon 2.0 is both a conversation and a conference.
And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.

This year’s was 29th-31st of January at the Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia, USA (which is why I wasn’t there).

Background Reading

Will Richardson blogged about what happened at Educon and the next steps required to turn conversations into action:

• Continuing the Educon conversation
• The Big Questions: Now What?
• The Big Questions: Next Steps
• Time For Action: The Big Questions

Results

Will crowdsourced 10 questions that educators need to answer effectively:

1. What is the purpose of school?
2. What is the changing role of the teacher, and how do we support that new role?
3. How do we help students discover their passions?
4. What is the essential learning that schools impart to students?
5. How do we adapt our curriculum to the technologies that kids are already using?
6. What does an educated person look like today?
7. How do we change policy to support more flexible time and place learning?
8. What are the essential practices of teachers in a system where students are learning outside of school?
9. How do we ensure those without privilege have equal access to quality education and opportunity?
10. How do we evaluate and validate the informal, self-directed learning that happens outside of school?

Actions

The next step was the creation of a wiki - 10fored.wikispaces.com. This is a place to continue the conversation and provide tangible results. Taking a step back but keeping an overview, Will has asked for volunteer moderators for each of the questions.

I volunteered for Question #6: What does an educated person look like today? I’m interested in how it relates to my thesis, the original title of which was ‘What does it mean to be ‘educated’ and ‘digitally literate’ in the 21st century’.

Help me out. Send a tweet to @dajbelshaw with the #10fored hashtag with some ideas. Or, better yet, add your thoughts to the wiki page!

• 10fored.wikispaces.com/educated

Thanks in advance!

(image CC BY CarbonNYC)

I’ll keep this short.

#getthatjob: an educator’s guide to finding, applying, and interviewing for teaching-related jobs is now available free of charge. Gratis. No strings attached. Why?

Everyone who bought it has been refunded.

You can view it in its entirity and download it here

Sharing link: http://bit.ly/getthatjob

This story pretty much tells itself. We. Need. To. Do. Better.*

* For the benefit of those not in England:

• KS1 = Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2: ages 5-7)
• KS2 = Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6: ages 7-11)
• KS3 = Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9: ages 11-14)
• GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education (Years 10-11: ages 14-16)

To get any kind of decent job, young people would normally require 5 ‘good’ GCSEs (i.e. A*-C)

Definition of ‘looked-after’ (City of Westminster):

The term ‘looked after’ was introduced by the Children Act 1989 and refers to children who are subject to care orders and those who are voluntarily accommodated. Wherever possible, the local authority will work in partnership with parents. Many children and young people who become looked after retain strong links with their families and many eventually return home.

#getthatjob is now FREE!

It’s the time of year when people are applying for teaching-related jobs. I decided to write this 40-page ebook as I’m being asked more and more for advice, tips and guidance about the whole process involved. To be fair to everyone, and to make sure my advice is consistent I’ve written it all down in one place.

It’s 40 pages and costs £4 is FREE! No OpenBeta iterations. It is what it is. Preview and purchase Find #getthatjob at the link below!

http://bit.ly/getthatjob

(image CC BY Kain Kalju)