From the caravan, I hear the fairground band (Rory Gallagher)

1 One about personalising education, Priscilla Chan, and Mark Zuckerberg

Interesting article about the pros and cons of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's funding initiative - like Facebook it involves algorithms that provide student users with content based on an analysis of their past behaviour and demonstrated interests.

For me, some of the objections raised in the article seemed pretty shallow. Interesting, though, to consider this innovation.

2 Dan Rockwell
Dan's Leadership Freak blog is a firm favourite as you know. Here is a list of his six best regarded posts. The guy posts every day and somehow maintains an exceptionally high standard.

3 Essential skills for teachers
I remain a sucker for these lists of must haves. Many of us do - must be something in the educator's DNA. Here are 10 skills for modern teachers.

4 Growth mindset
A lot of talk about this simple concept - teachers do like to over think things like this - but this mind/shift article gives a great lowdown on this latest buzzword.

5 Blended learning
Another great article on blended learning. This one is knowledgeable but also fun to read!

I usually played such things as rough-neck and thug (Captain Beefheart)

Roughing it in Eskdale with the Year 11's Part 1

Two words: school camp. 

Some love 'em (like me), some folks don't. It's all good.

Roughing it in Eskdale Part 2

This first week for the term, at our school, is all about a gentle start - just seniors and a load of non classroom activities - camps (Year 11 and 13), trips to universities, and visiting speakers is the order of the day.

The start of a school year is always different in each school. Some schools stagger the start with different year groups, some get everybody in. Some launch into classes straight away, some don't.

Each one is valid.

The point is we've started the year and the next 10 weeks at school will be vibrant, exciting, frustrating, rewarding, challenging and full to the brim of potential!!

So - let's get into it via:

1 Tube map education
Say what? What does the London Underground have to do with education? I like this analogy.

2 Engagement
I'm keen to immediately engage my students. I'm always thinking of ways to do this and always looking for the disengaged. Get 'em on board early and life is a lot easier for the next 10 weeks.

3 Try something new
It's a new year - fresh starts for students and time to retire some old texts and embrace some fresh ideas. Everyone needs a reminder about this!

4 Blended learning
Time also for a reminder about establishing a good classroom culture for blended learning.

5 Wildly audacious goals
This is the best time of the year coz we can all have wildly audacious goals!

You could follow me and lose your mind (James Taylor)

Five more things on a sunny but soggy Tuesday:

1 Kid President has some awesome ideas. Yes he does. Don't believe me? Ha ha ha - that was me laughing, nay scoffing... try these 100 great ideas on for size!

2 I use quizzes with my Home Room from this site (TriviaPlaza) a lot. It's pretty comprehensive. The kids love it (especially when I have chocolates as prizes).

3 Pretty sure I've posted on this but it's worth a revisit before I delete the bookmark. It's a detailed look at blended learning.



4 My love for Jerry Seinfeld has been well documented. His riding around in cars with other comedians is another genius move from a...genius! This entertaining expose will have you detouring off a number of times - I promise!

5 Leadership Freak is a...yup - Freak. He posts EVERY DAY!! Dude - even the big guy rested from time to time. I bookmarked this post on seven steps to new leadership. It's worth a look again before you delete my post.

I don't know why - throw it out and keep it in (Nirvana)

Welcome to the next edition of my bookmark cleanup. Five more for you to chew on:

1 Twenty one ideas to help students keep their momentum
This Te@chthought article is a useful run down of what it says on the tin. It's a site to dip into from time to time and I use it as a bit of a reminder.

2 and 3 Blended learning
A twofer: first an article from Mind/shift on blended learning. I'm a fan! I wrote a post using some key ideas from this but here it is again for your consideration.

Then one from eschoolnews, again looking at blended learning programmes.

4 Reinventing school
Another Mind/shift article - this one spoke to my strong desire to move away from industrial model education and embrace inquiry learning.

5 The science behind great teaching
I can't remember how or why I stumbled upon this one but an interesting article on what makes great teachers great is always going to hook me by the lapels!

Revelation reveals the truth (Bob Marley)

This one will sound like a no brainer but, what the hell... it turns out that building a culture of collaboration, respect, and trust is key to a successful blended learning/ student driven inquiry classroom. 

I'm finding after a term of a blended learning classroom that the key word in there (apart from 'culture') is TRUST. 

I operate on a high trust model in my classroom. Until a student abuses that trust - I will go the extra mile for them.

Now, clearly: computers (BYOD), Schoology and blended learning methods have the power to transform the classroom but it won't do much without the right culture of trust. In fact, it is the change in culture that will make the difference.

I saw the following acronym recently on the Mind/Shift web page: each letter stands for an important part of the blended learning classroom culture.

T = trust

R = respect

I = independence
C = collaboration
K = kindness

I'm not a huge fan of acronyms (hahahahaha he said through gritted teeth) but I liked this one because IT BEGAN with trust.

Trust in this case means the students trust each other to help in the learning process and I trust the students. The boundaries need to be established early. The key to building trust is to actually trust the students. If they let me down - well that's a learning moment for both of us! 

All this means putting students in situations requiring them to think for themselves. They may stumble and have difficulties, but the key is to support them in their efforts while letting them solve the problem themselves. This builds trust in themselves, in the class as a whole, and between me and the students.

Sounds simple right? Well that's because...it actually is!

I don't want to come back down from this cloud (Bush)

As you read in my previous post: I'm convinced that a peculiar hybrid of UDL/inquiry/ blended/ personalised learning is right for senior English classes right now! My next few posts will be using that premise as a basis. Hang in there - it might get bumpy!

• I'm always interested in what people think makes 'a good teacher'. This may appear to be a detour from that first sentence but bear with me.
• Recently I came across some University of Birmingham research that set out to specifically explore the most important character strengths, or virtues, needed for good teaching, and what character strengths, or virtues, were held by today’s teachers.
• It would be good to compare the findings with the views of New Zealand teachers. I suspect there would be a high correlation.
• Anyway, let's cut to the chase! What did they find out?
• There was widespread agreement on the personal qualities that are needed to be a good teacher.
• The six most important character strengths for good teachers were:

1. Fairness (78% of teachers )
2. Creativity (68%)
3. A love of learning (61%)
4. Humour (53%)
5. Perseverance (45%)
6. Leadership (40%)

• Sidebar #1: However, in describing their own character strengths they reported kindness (49%) and honesty (50%) in place of leadership and perseverance in those top six.

Sidebar #2: 37% of experienced teachers claimed that they do not feel that they have sufficient time to do their job to a standard they believe is right.

So what's this got to do with my UDL/ inquiry/ blended/ personalised learning hybrid?

In a word - compatability!

Think back twenty, ten, or even five years - would that list be different? I think so. Then, the teacher was the knowledge holder so students wanted  teachers to teach to the exam, have good subject knowledge, and ensure students understood things before advancing (yes this is stuff from an actual list from 20 years ago).

Check that Birmingham list again. That's right! It's different.  If good teaching now involves those things, and I believe it does, then it's imperative we embrace systems that are more compatible to those good teacher attributes and allow students to work to their individual strengths in their own time.  

To be continued...