INSET Day at Animal Farm

[Piggywaspushed]

I think I genuinely endured this yesterday :

occamshairdryer.wordpress.com/2019/06/28/inset-day-at-animal-farm/

For those who wish to know, I am Benjamin. My HOF is the poor duck.

Has anyone else had to rewrite schemes of work or write massive development plans, or huge statements of intent this term??

I’ve seen this ‘curriculum intent statements’ thing being bemoaned on twitter a lot recently so clearly you’re not alone! I missed an INSET day recently (part time) about the new Ofsted framework so this was probably trumpeted then. Such a shame I wasn’t there.

Agree that we seem to be lurching from unevidenced shit being forced onto us to evidenced shit being forced onto us. I mean, I get that evidenced shit is better, but as Dylan Wiliam says, teaching will never be a researched-based profession. Too many variables in the classroom for a start, for everything to work everywhere.

I’m also very wary of how little your average SLT member is able to evaluate the quality of research. Just because some research has been done and found something out, that doesn’t mean it’s actually true.

Are you Benjamin too, noble ?

Hah, I think you can tell from my posts on MN that I’m very Benjamin

Schools just seem to be desperate for someone to tell them what to do. We’re so very prone to cargo-cultism. That school did this and got an outstanding so therefore we must also do this even if it makes no sense in our context.

Maths is a funny one when it comes to ‘knowledge versus skills’. A bit like the art teacher. I sometimes think that maths has more in common with PE than history, you need to spend more time actually doing it than reading about it. Knowledge organisers in maths are a bit shit for that reason.

Yes, I have seen some. I am a magpie so get very (over) excited about new ideas, but am also able to analyse them. So , viewed as Benjamin but actually really a Snowball (if you know the book) except they haven't managed to run me off the farm yet. Like Benjamin, I am still here, many long years after 'they' have all come and gone. Tutting.

KOs are hit and miss in many subject. Essentially, there is definitely knowledge you need in English but it is tested through very distinct skills : you can know all the stuff, but if you can't express them and apply them , you've had it.

In six years , people may well debunk all this but at the moment the knowledge rich leaders are crowing on Twitter.

I am a bear of little brain who stepped into the cycle path of supply teaching a few years ago. I started teaching 3 years before the first NC came in.
So, is it now acceptable for the teacher to know stuff, or are we still in the guideonthesidenotsageonthestagestage? Where the children learn by osmosis and peer review each other at 5?
I have danced with a little metacognition, and meditated for mindfulness quite recently, but haven’t put away my pinkngreennpurpkepolishingpens just yet.
Odd how some parts of INSET have remained unchanged as the years roll by, and how the pigs are still in charge.

It’s now acceptable to think the teacher might know more than the kids and that telling them stuff is a more efficient way to transfer knowledge than trying to devise learning experiences where they are supposed to figure out quantum mechanics and you end up having to tell them anyway, but in less time.

Growth mindset is out, mindfulness should be on its way out. Triple marking is out.

These things seem to go in cycles though.

Yes, cycles. With new, shiny vocabulary to try and disguise the fact you’ve done this before. Although if teaching becomes a 5-10 year job, they could keep recycling and No One Would Know.
I’ve only just learnt about Growth Mindset, and it’s now obsolete?
We need a ‘Restore to factory settings’ button implanted, so we don’t have to constantly unlearn stuff. Or a Pensive, like Dumbledore.

Just been introduced to Intent, Implementation and Something Else Beginning With I this term. Glad to hear that growth mindset is already on its way out. Remember that ‘personalised learning’? I think that lasted about two years as well.

Unfortunately for Growth Mindset, people have been completely unable to replicate the original research.

Plus telling people who aren’t doing well in a subject that they only need to try a bit harder and they’ll be getting A*s like the top set turns out to be not very motivating.

My school is currently very into different tasks for LAPs, MAPs and HAPs. Instead of All must, Most should, Some could, it’s Some could, Some could, Some could. And wanting all kids to get some basic practice in before going onto the extension task is ‘wasting their time with stuff that’s too easy’. I have a lot of issues with this approach so I’m hoping it blows over soon too.

@Piggywaspushed thanks for a giggle and a nice reward after I have just finished attempting to fit the last bloody SOW I wrote and never looked at (complete with plts!) into the new and exciting curriculum intent ‘maps’ launched at our last cpd. Have I found my people??!

I think you may have done!!