Teachers - your thoughts on this? (Essay help!)

[badgermonkey]

I'm planning an essay for my Master's course, and I want to write about the barrage of new initiatives that teachers face and how we have to adapt every time. I'll be looking at the last 20 years or so, since the start of the National Curriculum, I think, and I want particularly to comment on ideas that have been brought in with great fanfare and dropped later on, especially if they've been disproven or shown not to work (ahem, Brain Gym...). I'll also be writing about new schemes that are coming into play at the moment, like APP and topic-based learning.

I've been teaching 7 years and I can think of quite a few things myself, like the Lit + Num Strategies, learning styles, peer assessment, and, obviously, SATs, but I would really welcome examples from other people. I'm a secondary English teacher so often 'experimented' on with new ideas but I don't really get to see what goes on at Primary level. Any examples or opinions gratefully accepted!

It looks garbage on the ad they do (if its the same one...)

Our kids would not respond well to "who knows what a atanding order is?"

Because they're on a daily diet of Strictly Come Grammar possibly ...

COMMUNITY COHESION!!

god yes siree

After 10 years of teaching I have realised that every new inititive is a pile of poo and what the kids actually want is for their teachers to:

a) be able to control behaviour
b) know their subject well
c) get on with the business of teaching them in a straight forward manner

Oh yes. And what I want to do is teach the subject I know well to a class of reasonably well-behaved kids, mostly by the revolutionary technique of talking to them for a bit, asking some questions, and then getting them to do some writing.

We had a CPD thing about 6th form teaching in which the results of a student survey were presented. Students dislike the amount of time spent discussing LOs and SCs. They don;t like constantly being reminded what their target grades are - they know what they are. They want to be taught stuff so they can reach them. This was echoed by a survey of other years by teh school council. Of course, we are not to change what we do because of this. Student Voice is only listened to when it criticises individual teachers, not SLT initiatives...

attendance targets - there's enough on here about reasons why they're so crap, how do you make a chronically ill child less ill? you send them a letter point out how often they've been ill.

Yep, cheers them right up!

Message withdrawn

Thinking Hats.

FFS.

The business of actually teaching stuff has been lost hasn't it?

Teachers at our school have been rated 'outstanding' in internal IPRs to then get poor GCSE results. The reason being that their lessons looked good - LOs on the board, targets discussed, whizzy interactive whitebord stuff, VAK and so on but there was no substance at all.

badgermonkey your thread has given me quite a few chuckles but for your essay do you have to discuss actual initiatives or just some of the wackier fads that we all love to hate?

Bloss - we have to call the kids 'learners' now, not pupils or students. I bet it won't be long before teachers are rebranded as 'learning facilitators' or some such.

I don't have an actual essay title, I can make it up as long as it's related to change or leadership in education (so basically anything I want then!). So I'm using the term 'initiative' to cover all these ideas/schemes etc that we've been subject to.

Message withdrawn

"talking to them for a bit, asking some questions, and then getting them to do some writing. "

LOL badger

you on fire

Thinking hats - rogl bet the person who came up with that lolled.
next it will be dunce hats

Has anyone's school brought something in which they then had to backtrack sharply on?

Not an educational thing, but when knee-length city shorts were in fashion, they changed the uniform to allow "tailored shorts" in summer. Cue one year of girls in long, smart shorts. Then next year, all the shorts in the shops were micromini length! The uniform policy was hastily rewritten.

I read somewhere there were something like 2 "real" government initiatives every day in 2009 in education

I must teach in a bubble because I just don't notice this. New ideas come out, I take what I need from it and ignore what I don't need.

AFL has transformed my teaching for the better.

Our vle IS fab, I use it everyday as do my students.

I love a WALT and WILF, although I can never use a WILF beyond year 9 as it sounds like MILF.

My classes love a game of blockbusters and millionairre. Although my favourite is sayin to a class right kids today we are playing bingo ( this works especially well for me as being from Blackpool they know I am a Bingo expert) They get very excited , I even have a glittery microphone and am considering a sequin jacket and kiss me quick hat. Anyway I then say come on kids its RE bingo and they all groan.

However the one huge fail I have seen was having an hour of Learn to Learn a week as well as an hour of PSHE.

they night love pissing abotu wiht millionaire but its just another gimmick isnt it

I suppose it depends on the questions, I use it as a revision tool. I post the games on the VLE so they can play at home. Which of course they all do.

Just an aside - I was going to write my dissertation on the introduction of the KS3 strategy (a good few years ago now!) but following some very good advice from my tutor had to narrow it down considerably. I ended up looking at a particular element of mathematics (the introduction of early algebra) and how the KS3 strategy had affected its teaching (I found it interesting!! ). All I would suggest is that you pick one small element to focus on and not try to cover all the initiatives possible.
Good luck with it.

Oosabeuta r.e. One to One tuition - it's dropped already!

yes i dont think we really do al this

I think I am the only one who sniggers when the Theatre Group Visit is announced. I think I asked if Olly Plimsolls was coming once. I got a row of blank looks.

Oh and in answer to OP, the New National Primary Curriculum (or whatever it's called). Loads of schools attempting to implement it despite it not being brought in yet. And now it won't because it's been dropped before the election and will probably die a death.

What do you mean, passay?
At this very moment I am trying to set up a video link with a nomadic tribe in Ulan Bator to tick our global cohesion box. Seems that their strolling internet connection isn't working. Bloody O2.

what negril baby said