This is the fourth of five posts about five amazing speakers who have made an incredible impact on our school since our professional development event called Engage and inspire – the possibilities are endless in March this year.
You can read more about the conference in this general post: http://bit.ly/kRCP8W
Well what can I tell you about Stuart Ball, well a lot of it I can’t tell you on this blog and would only be able to tell you in person, I have travelled many exotic places with Stuart from Manchester to Reading to Hong Kong, he also saved my life in both Zagreb and Vienna but that is another story. You are probably also aware that he basically created me and the household brand that is the chickenman so it is all his fault.
Aside from all of this Stuart is someone I hugely respect and admire as a real inspiration, he has helped and nurtured so many teachers both here in the UK and worldwide, he is simply awesome, the only slight issue I have is that he is from Wales (only kidding)
I would like to end this post with some comments about what Ben spoke about from some of the delegates as I feel this is more appropriate than me saying what I thought of it.
“Stuart Ball was so creative, I had never used some of the programmes he demonstrated (other than ppt) which has given me the opportunity to increase my teaching resources”
“Many software applications can be used for teaching and learning. I can engage my students by getting them to play with the software and making it work for them.”
“I really liked the fact that Stuart wasn’t promoting just the use of ICT and software. He was right to say that we have to find out what we need in our lessons and use only the products that will help us teach and help our students learn. He also made me look at some products I already know in a different light and realise that I can use them not only socially but also in my job.”
“Few ideas for tools to use. Again, the important idea about setting a challenge, providing the tools + resources + letting students roll with it.”
“He was very engaging to listen to, the liquorice allsort experiment was brilliant and he again made you want to try new things.”
Have you heard Stuart talk? What did you think? You can follow Stuart on twitter @innovativeteach or visit his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/teachers/