Yesterday I experienced one of the great days in education. We had a film crew come in (It was awesome to meet the tag team superhero duo of Ruth & Ralph – do you know them?) Ruth and Ralph were really nice and they were making a film for the Teaching Awards and Becta profiling the innovative use of ICT. They came and spent a whole day filming interviews with my Headteacher Isobel Bryce and myself but the best part of the day is where they filmed one of my lessons and interviewed the students.
They were really impressed with the work the students produced in such a short time and were bowled over by how effective their use of ICT was and how articulate they were about their own learning using ICT to enhance it. The students challenge in the short time was to produce a presentation to communicate a balanced argument for and against intensive farming. It was a similar lesson based on the famous recharge the battery project. If you haven’t heard of it, firstly where have you been? Ha ha Secondly you can read it now here: http://www.danjjroberts.co.uk/2009/06/07/recharge-the-battery/
Students then led the lesson creating their own success criteria for their presentation, then they selected the appropriate tool to use, some students chose to use moviemaker, some used photopeach, some used animoto. The students then collected their research and created their presentations. They obviously had a fantastic life example right on their door step too so within 10 minutes or so the students headed down to the schools livestock area to capture images, video and audio of the schools very own rescued battery chickens. If you haven’t visited our livestock area then please do so www.saltash.net/livestock you can keep up to date with some of the animals there on the pigcam or eggcam. Actually at the moment we have had a new pig arrive so please say hello. She is called Felicity and is the daughter of Boris and Princess Alice. (You may have seen Alice on the twitcamming sessions when she gave birth in July last year!)
Once students completed their videos they uploaded them to their ning community where they then peer assessed each other’s work before we discussed as a group what they had learnt from the lesson. The best bit of the day was hearing the conversations the students were having with the film crew, they were so passionate about their learning, and they loved using technology because it gave them the tools and confidence to take risks and to be creative. (This is why I became a teacher) One of the greatest compliments they had was when one girl said Mr Roberts is a good teacher because he lets me do things for myself, I am definitely becoming more independent but is there for me when I need some guidance. (I am not writing this because I am blowing my own trumpet, as I am not doing anything special, I am just highlighting the approach that any teacher can do) Just like Pink Floyd said teachers leave those kids alone! Kids need the space and time to make sense of their own learning teachers should be facilitators not the didactic dinosaurs disseminating their precious knowledge at the front of the class at the chalkboard.
As always would appreciate your comments and look forward to discussing this more (sorry didn’t mean for it to turn into a mini rant at the end!)
When I was a new teacher in France, as I packed my book-bag for an assignment, my then-boss said, “I hope you like being on stage.” Well, I do. I really do.
My experience in theater has revealed that being a teacher is better. My students are a captive audience (well, most of the time). Where else can you feel the adrenalin rush of opening night, “break down the fourth wall” and interact with your students, have your lungs pump with a satisfied sigh as the curtain comes down and get instant feedback without waiting for a review in the morning paper? I teach for all of the reasons listed above.