Nov 18 2005
The perils of IT
On Thursday the 17th I visited Innerwick Primary School and passed a very pleasant morning teaching a composite 5/6/7 class how to make basic use of Apple’s Garageband, then sorting out all the ills of the world speaking to Angus. I squeezed three lessons into one and the pupils coped extremely well, achieved all of the objectives I set them and had FUN! I must say that the pupils there were polite, enthusiastic and keen to learn. I was very impressed with their attitude, dedication to the task in hand and the Ethos in class. It made me reflect on two issues one being the pace of learning versus retention of skills and knowledge. Having observed hundreds of lessons taught over many years I admire the ability of the staff I work with to judge the pace of their lessons. At risk of offending anyone it seems to me to be more of an art than a science. The more experienced teachers take it in their stride. An experienced reflective practitioner will make good use of assessment techniques, their knowledge of the pupils, past success and a calculated risk in measuring the pace of their lessons across the whole curriculum. How to teach that to a new teacher? It takes time and surely there must be more time spent observing good practice. The NQT programme has “slack” in it to allow for this to happen. How to roll this out across the authority is a challenge to which I have no immediate answer. When the teacher is able to motivate their pupils the pace of learning can exceed expectations by a wide margin whilst there is still a high level of retention of skills and knowledge. I will take the risk and ask Angus in a week or so if the pupils I taught remember anything.!
Off home now to see my two sick wee boys, they had me up all night and early in the morning with coughs, or a sparky cough as Lewis calls it, and bunged up noses. Can’t wait! I know I’ll fall asleep on the couch tonight watching a third rate movie with a half finished dram of Black Bottle in my hand. If my wife is kind to me she might give me a kick before she goes to bed! I’m sure many a tired parent has woken at an outlandish time on the couch, telly still on etc etc etc. Roll on!
