TheTeacherBuzz.com

Huge growth of Academy chains in English school system

Mr Buzz — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:02:23 +0000

Chains of academies are becoming increasingly important players and a significant feature of the education landscape in England, according to a new in-depth study published today by the National College for School Leadership.

The chains – groups of academies run by the same sponsor or trust as part of an overarching governance arrangement – are already educating hundreds of thousands of pupils. Around three per cent of all schools and academies, rising to almost 10 per cent of secondary schools – will soon be part of one.

The research team, led by policy analyst Robert Hill, charts the rise of 48 “sponsored chains” of three or more academies – including some much larger ones – as well as 122 “converter chains” and examines the implications for school leaders and policy makers. Almost 350 of the 570 sponsored academies are or soon will be in chain of three or more, and around a quarter of the 1,775 schools applying to convert to academy status are doing so as part of a chain.

Researchers found that this expansion is being driven by schools – or other educational establishments such as Further Education institutions – sponsoring other schools, demonstrating how the sector is increasingly taking a lead in supporting its own improvement.

The main driver in the growth of chains, since the very first one in 2004, is the desire and ethos of the sponsors and academies to extend their school improvement model and expertise to more schools. Schools are also coming together to use their economies of scale to drive efficiency and organise central support functions, enabling heads to focus on delivering consistently good or outstanding lessons.

The most effective chains are adept at nurturing the best talent within their organisations and have a shared vision and ethos across their schools, backed by robust governance that helps them to focus on improving performance. The study also found early indications that sponsored academy chains are improving at a faster rate than academies that are standalone or working in pairs. However the very rapid growth in the size of chains is posing some challenges and the report recommends some strategies for managing these so chains can sustain improvement during growth and avoid becoming isolated from each other.

Robert Hill said: “Academy chains are a positive development within the English education system. They are bringing innovation and systematic improvement and helping to raise attainment in some of the most deprived parts of the country. They are growing an able new generation of school leaders and enabling school leaders to spend more time on their core business of teaching and learning. They are combining new approaches to learning with standardising the best aspects of school improvement.

“But academy chains are not a panacea for all the problems of schools. Being part of a chain does not necessarily guarantee success or insure against failure. Sponsored chains have challenges to address as they expand. They need to reflect on what it means to be a chain and be clear about their teaching and learning and operating model. The performance of weaker chains needs addressing. Converter chains too have a host of issues to consider as they consolidate and seek to maximise the gains from their new status.”

Steve Munby, Chief Executive of the National College that commissioned the research, said: “This is a timely study which captures the scale and pace of change with chains of academies becoming well established and increasingly influential.

“Rather than re-inventing the wheel, academy chains are extending the practice of schools leading other schools with some distinct and effective approaches. This is encouraging as we develop an education sector that is capable of continually improving itself. However there is still much to learn about the most effective chains and how best to manage the challenges. We need to ensure that chains continue to learn from each other so they can sustain improvement while supporting increasing numbers of schools.”

Pedagoo: More than a funny name!

Mr Buzz — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:25:02 +0000

We caught this great idea on Twitter and we just had to find out more about the movement that started in Scotland. Pedagoo is the funky name for something that has far more substance than may originally appear. We wholehearted support them because at the heart of their work is a drive for improving student outcomes fit for the context in which we live in. Read on…

What is Pedagoo.org?

Pedagoo is an attempt by a loose collection of educators in Scotland to move beyond the rhetoric and inevitable negativity that surrounds most new initiatives in education. If we stand for anything, it is making sure that those we teach are given the best preparation possible for the future. We are interested in ensuring that young people are given every opportunity, every support, and every helping hand as we guide them to master the skills they will need to thrive in an unknowable future.

Where did it come from?
On a random morning, David Cameron wrote the following tweet which kickstarted a big debate on twitter…

Huge interest in Curriculum for Excellence, Donaldson Review, self-evaluation in Scotland everywhere I am working – except maybe in Scotland

— David Cameron (@realdcameron) April 12, 2011

Rather than leaving this one as a discussion to be lost in the sands of twitter, this time a few us decided to try to do something as a result. After a bit of toing and froing, we eventually opted for a collaborative blog. This started life as Education Futures : Scotland, but that name didn’t quite stick, so hence…pedagoo.org

What’s with the name?

Although pedagoo.org won in an online poll, it does have a bit of a marmite tendency to split opinion. It’s intended to be a playful twist on ‘pedagogy’ with the ‘goo’ representing the mess we often find ourselves in and the sticky essence of collaboration. Plus it had the added advantage of not really existing out there as a domain name!

And what’s #PedagooFriday then?

The principle behind #PedagooFriday is one that encourages discussion, promotes success and simply reminds us of the great things we are doing in our classrooms every week, the things we simply accept as part of the routine. There is no pressure to give details, no expectation that you need to justify yourself. Just a chance to share the wonderful things that happen in our classrooms every week. Twitter is an excellent way to chat and share. Why not share the things you may never share otherwise? We are teachers and we are great at our jobs. Let’s not hide that. So simply stick on the hashtag #PedagooFriday and start your tweet ‘In my classroom this week,…’

Let’s finish our week with a smile on our faces or a wee bit of inspiration.

How do I join in?

Anyone can tweet on a #PedagooFriday and join in on the blog by going to http://pedagoo.org/join

TalkNQT.co.uk

Mr Buzz — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:58:44 +0000

We like people who like to spread the buzz about teaching and learning, and that’s why we like Kiran Arora. He’s recently launched a new website for Newly Qualified Teachers because starting out as a teacher is tough. You need support. You need a network of like minded people. And most of all, you need somewhere to vent your frustrations, joys and questions regarding your new role. The following is an overview (by Kiran) on his new website entitled ‘TalkNQT.co.uk’. Check it out and encourage those that are new to this wonderful profession to get involved!

Even though you interact with upwards of 200 people a day, are constantly in meetings and have millions more people to talk to, it’s surprising how lonely being a new teacher can be.

It’s hard. Your timetable has increased from 50% to around 80% in the blink of eye, and that person at the back of the classroom judging you has gone along with that safety net. These are your students now, you are solely responsible for their education. You could be the difference between them donating millions to homeless charities or needing someone to give them money in the street. You’re surrounded by people who have so much to say every other thing that comes out of their mouth is an acronym… APP, APC, PLD, PLTS… OMG!

What if you don’t understand these phrases? Can you ask someone what they mean? Who can you ask? Is it too stupid a question to ask? Will it tarnish my reputation? Will they laugh at me in front of the staff room? Will they realise I’m incompetent and cut my contract?

At the end of January, half way through my first year, I wanted to quit. I remember hoping to be involved in a 42 car pile up just so I didn’t have to go into school. I talked to my mentor about it, obviously leaving out the part about the pile up. Although he was very supportive, I still didn’t feel happy. Then I spoke to one of my friends who was on my PGCE course. Turns out he went through the same time a couple of weeks beforehand. I can’t fully remember what we said, but I do know I felt a lot better about school and life afterwards. After speaking to a few other teachers I knew, I discovered that there are a lot of schools where there is only one PGCE, NQT, GTP etc. That’s when the idea of TalkNQT.co.uk was born.

My hope is that it will be become a community where new teachers can log on to ask questions, give support and share ideas, resources and successes with other new teachers. We may be at different stages in our lives, teaching different subjects and ages, and be at different schools, but we’re all going through this journey of highs and lows together.

Whether you’d like to ask a question, get support, share ideas and resources, or recount a success story, TalkNQT.co.uk is the place for you!

ABOUT KIRAN: Former stand up comedian flirting with the idea of a comeback, author of “Let’s Take This Outside: Teaching Mathematics Away from the Classroom” as well as creator and owner of TalkNQT.co.uk, Kiran is a Maths NQT in a Buckinghamshire school.

’21C Tools for Teaching – People & Learners’ via Scoop.it

Mr Buzz — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:15:04 +0000

Whilst browsing the wondrous world wide web we stumbled upon this terrific curation of ’21st Century Tools for Teaching-People and Learners’ by Gust Mees. It acts as a central point for blog posts, articles, tutorials etc on many web2.0 applications for teaching & instructional purposes, and its well worth checking out for those interested in this area. After scanning through the curation *you-will* find something useful after ‘oh at least 20 seconds’ – probably less! A big thank you to Gust Mees for putting it together.

The web application that he used to curate this is called Scoop.it and without going into too much detail simply watch the video below. This article also provides more details about Guss and his work.

Active Administration in Schools via the Cell Phone

Mr Buzz — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:36:22 +0000

There’s a great buzz surrounding this blog post by Lisa Nielsen – AKA: @InnovativeEdu. We love it simply because it encourages school leaders to get out of their offices and use technology to amplify the things that they see via simple technology: their cell phone. As avid enthusiasts of the use of such tech, we reckon that there’s mileage in the ideas as highlighted below. Why not forward this link to your own Administration or Senior Leadership teams in order to adopt some of the strategies.

A big thank you to Lisa for giving us permission for her post to be included at ‘TheTeacherBuzz’.

Post begins:

Cell phones are being used by some administrators as a way to get out from behind their desk, away from the office, and become an active part of school! They’ve become popular not only because they are a tool that most professionals own and use but also because there is little to no learning curve and little to no additional cost.
The following uses of cell phones enhance a number of functions within the school community.

1. Group texting

Emergency Response System – Free group texting services such as Celly provide a free emergency notification system for principals to reach staff in the event of a snow day, school cancellations, crisis information, and updates. I used this just last week when the internet was down. I was able to send one quick text from home and let my staff know ahead of time that they needed to plan alternate lessons.

Newsletter – We have replaced newsletter and instead send group texts informing parents of events, meetings, and successes happening at school. These are sent regularly two times per week and parents report back that they love it! The paper newsletters were costly and rarely got home went sent with kids and even more expensive to mail and potentially end up in the junk mail pile. Parents may not check their email regularly, but a text goes right into their hands. According to motomessage.com, “Fewer than 20% of email messages are opened. Within 15 minutes of sending a text blast, over 95% of your subscribers will have read the message.”

PLC (Personal Learning Communities) – With a free group text messaging services such as GroupMe the weekly or montly PLC becomes a daily chat by having them become a group. Agenda items, successes, ideas, announcements, supportive messages, entire chats can all be done quickly through the cell phone or computer. The messages and replies automatically go to everyone. So much simpler and in the moment than email, the conversation is an instant chat, involves the entire group, and is documented online.
Survey

All principals value the input of their staff, parents, and students, but it is difficult to get everyone together, to collect input, and to respond. Using a free text message service such as Poll Everywhere principals can gain input and give everyone a voice through their cell phone. Much like voting on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, the principal can gather votes on calendar items, prom themes, course offerings, field trips, you name it!

2. Individual Texting

Intercom system – Rather than having classes interrupted with the secretary’s voice beaming over the intercom for a student (or the principal) to come to the office, a quick text message allows the teacher to send the student quietly. According to Principal Todd Markley, “Administratively, we text to communicate throughout the day as we are usually not in the same location in the building. Text messages can be sent to administrators from the secretary if we are needed in the office without using the school intercom which interrupts instruction.”

Note taking – Principals are out and about in their schools and carrying around a notebook, or even an ipad gets in the way of interacting with students. The cell phone provides an unobtrusive, in the moment, way to take notes of good things kids are doing, thoughts during lunch duty, incident details, teacher observations, and anything that needs dealt with once he/she is back in the office. These can be used later to share with parents, for discipline conferences, and for personal records. WeTxt offers a way to text notes to an organizable, searchable online notebook.

3. Pictures – Principals can capture the activities of the school, text or email home, improve connections, build student/teacher self-esteem, and document incidents pictorially.

Video Yearbook – The pictures a principal takes throughout the year can be sent immediately to Flickr and a “principal created” slideshow/video yearbook is done! This can be shared on the school website or wiki and used for assemblies throughout the year. Parents and students love it and it gives principals a quick and easy tool to show their connection!

4. Evaluation Apps (Power walk-throughs – McRel) – Principals often struggle with getting enough time in the classroom, doing a great job with observations, and having effective teacher evaluations. McREL has developed an app that allows the principal to use a smart phone to support these needs. “Collect classroom observation data using most handheld devices, including iPad™/iPhone®/iPod Touch®, BlackBerry®, Android™, or Tablet PC. Easily upload data from your device to our Web-based software, which lets you analyze data with a variety of charts and graphs” (http://www.mcrel.org/powerwalkthrough)

These are some ideas school leaders can try that harness the power of the cell phones they own. For more ideas and Instructions on using these tools order Teaching Generation Text or contact me about speaking to your group, school, or district.

Changing Education Paradigms

Mr Buzz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:53:40 +0000

This video by RSA focuses on the renowned presentation given by Sir Ken robinson on creativity. A key argument is his belief that schools educate creativity out of their students. If your living in the UK, we think this will resonate well with those who are being subjugated to the Government’s education secretary – Michael Gove.

Well Mr Gove – we hope you have seen this, but we doubt it. Your emphasis on grades, grades, grades and obsession with the ridiculous PISA league tables good have dire consequences for the future economy. Britain’s main export is its people – with creativity being at the heart of this. He’d do well to invite Sir Ken into the education secretary’s offices and discuss the real purpose of education!

Rant over. Enjoy the video.

The TES: 140,000 resources and counting…

Mr Buzz — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:04:48 +0000

We are blown away by the huge swaites of resources on the TES website. The organisation is based in the UK and all you need to do is sign up for free and get collaborating with teachers from across the world – at the time of posting over 1,500,000 teachers have singed up!!

Some of the most impressive articles from the site are highlighted below. We strongly recommend that teachers who have yet to discover this awesome collaborative network to sign up – and spread the buzz!

Interviews: maximising your chances of success

Ten best behaviour management resources

Advice to the new headteacher

A new selection of video resources from Teachers TV

Claymation Studio 3.0 – EdTech Review

Mr Buzz — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:08:22 +0000

When we got out hands on the Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe we were looking forward to becoming the next Nick Park of Wallace and Grommet fame. Yet whilst a product that costs £39.99 obviously won’t allow you to create the next ‘Wrong trousers’, students can effectively use it to storyboard their ideas and to make short movies to great effect.

Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe is both fun and educational for students. Creating stop-motion animation not only encourages the development of story-telling, it also provides an opportunity for kids to use the PC as a movie productions tool. By combining the power of your PC and stop-motion animation, users can to bring figures, objects or drawings to life. Honestech’s Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe can create output in WMV, MPEG1, MPEG2 and high-definition MPEG video resolution up to 1920 x 1080 (requires HD webcam or camcorder). The storyboard allows users to view the frames in sequence for easy editing, and users can add onscreen text, subtitles, sound effects, voice, and background music. Chroma Key effects allow you to easily change the background to create the best setting for your subject using a blue/green screen. In addition, auto capture, grid, and rotoscope features help users create more flowing movements with ease.

The delay function is superb for getting things done! You can set it to 5, 10, 60 second intervals and this speeds up the time consuming process that is stop-motion animation. Use lego, plasticine, army figures etc to create what you want. The Doggie Cam is clearly a gimmick but who cares? This tool belongs to students, and it engages them even further – perhaps even igniting their imagination even before the installation CD in put into your PC.

Overall, I remember using figures and a webcam to create a stop-motion animation whilst using printed images for backgrounds a few years ago in a City Learning Centre in the UK. It was extremely tricky to combine music, the imagery and the story boarding planning process. Well, Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe helps you to make that tiny little step further to becoming that famous movie Director as it brings all of these components together into a single piece of software that enables students to create their own masterpiece. Buzzin!

Big Academy launches to help schools deliver work experience

Mr Buzz — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:36:12 +0000

A NEW non-profit organisation has been launched that will aim to support schools in providing accredited work experience, as well as helping to tackle the rising numbers of young people out of work.

The Big Academy has been created to help support all young people in finding work opportunities regardless of their social or academic background and aims to get all students, school leavers and graduates ‘inspired to achieve.’

Focusing predominantly on the delivery of work experience in secondary schools, it will also help to support young people in getting prepared for and finding work.

Marketing Director Adrian Oldfield said: “We’re incredibly excited and proud about the Big Academy launch. Youth unemployment is at an all time high as more and more young people struggle to find work opportunities once they enter the job market.

“We believe that the Big Academy can help tackle the problem in a number of key ways. We will provide good quality work experience programmes that get young people ready and motivated for the world of work, engage with employers and provide young people with a website which they can access for free, to seek advice, be inspired and find work vacancies.”

The Big Academy has already attracted a number of high profile businesses onto its scheme including Deloitte, McDonalds, Network Rail and Hilton Hotels.

For more information, visit www.bigacademy.org

Livescribe Echo Smartpen – Edtech Review

Mr Buzz — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:07:48 +0000

The Livescribe Echo Smartpen has tremendous potential for use in our schools. We were blown away after playing with one for a few weeks. We showed it to teachers and students and our findings are below, but needless to say – we were mightily impressed.

Livescribe smartpens digitally capture everything people hear and write. To play back important information, a user simply taps anywhere on handwritten notes in a Livescribe notebook, on a computer, or on their mobile device, and you can replay and re-live the moment. Connect software makes it possible to quickly send these handwritten notes and recorded audio from your notepad as an interactive PDF or “pencast” direct to someone’s email, Facebook page, to Evernote or Googledocs or to a mobile device such as iPad or iPhone. The recipient can then click on the handwritten notes to hear the audio for themselves.

Livescribe is filling a gap by bringing written and spoken information online and into the personal cloud. Livescribe Connect not only makes it simple to create and share handwritten notes and recorded audio as interactive pencasts, but also makes it possible for anyone to interact with the information as a Pencast PDF. The Pencast PDF can be accessed by anyone who has the free Adobe Reader® 10 or higher. To use Livescribe Connect, a smartpen user simply draws a line and writes the name of the desired destination, for instance “Evernote” or “Facebook”, then taps the pages or circles sections of a page to send. The next time the smartpen is docked to a computer, the notes and audio are automatically sent as a Pencast. Llivescribe Connect can also be used within Livescribe’s free desktop software – simply drag and drop pages of notes to Connector icons to quickly send or share them.

The specifics and details above led us to think about the possibilities of its use in the classroom. We immediately asked our network of teachers for feedback and in a few words, those that have it – love it. Check this example out from @gersharpe1 – a Maths and Chemistry teacher from Ireland who uses it for post 16 lessons. The level of ease in which they can be used is evident in the videos.

Yes: iPads and the like are brilliant for learning purposes – but what about note taking purposes? We find that for classroom use, meetings and demonstrations the Livescribe pen takes up little teacher energy and its fast: the key elements for using technology in schools. One student described the process as: ‘I sometimes use my iPod touch in my A-Level Geography lessons for notetakeing but for diagrams its useless. This is where the Livescribe pen wins hands down. It allows to capture everything and in great detail. I want one to keep!”

Geometry 1/12/09
brought to you by Livescribe

After 3 minutes discussions our teachers were full of ideas for how they could be used within their own classrooms from the perspective of a student: designs with explanations, written paragraphs explaining choices of words and sentence structure, geographical diagrams with explained annotations. These could then be shared and stored within school VLEs. They were excited at just the thinking behind this, but when they saw the end result they were blown away.

For us, the key to the Livescribe Echo Smartpen’s success is the high levels of engagement that happens as a result of the recordings and the ability to allow 24/7 access via the videos that are created. What’s more your video can go global by sharing via the Livescribe.com community. It helps when you need to create notes for a student who has missed a key lesson. How many times do we as teachers hand over information for the student to read but what really matters is teacher input to make it easier to understand? That’s what makes Livescribe Echo Smartpen a huge #win and we love it.

Have a look at thousands of pencasts here

At the time of writing the Livescribe 2GB version is £99.98 from Amazon