Barry Smith - Stuff and things

It has been a hectic few weeks as I think I’ve mentioned ad infinitum recently with the launch of ALPs, SQH Unit 3 and other ‘enjoyable’ pressures.   However, I think I was beginning to feel a bit empty in the fuel tank, the red light was certainly on.  I knew that the brain was threatening to become full [...]

The PTs conference in North Berwick was good fun.  The sessions on Appreciative Inquiry and the Dragon’s Den exercise were my favourites.  I read that some didn’t feel the atmosphere of the Dragon’s Den exercise was in keeping with the tone of the weekend.  I disagree with that because I think people took it in [...]

The purpose of what we do and how it relates to our motivation on a daily basis came up in conversation with a colleague today.  I was describing how I felt I had gained a very clear sense of purpose, for a number of reasons, in the past 18 months or so, and how this translated into [...]

Ice-breaker fun!
We finally got ALPs off the ground today with our induction day at the Pennypit Community Centre at Prestonpans, a really top class facility.  It was a great day and it was tremendous to see all the ‘thinking’ becoming ‘doing’. 
I was also delighted that the input from all the different people connected together to present a [...]

….is tomorrow!  We have our induction tomorrow and it looks like everything is in place for the start of the programme.  We’ve had a couple of last minute issues with students, but that is the nature of things, so we will be starting with a slightly reduced group size, but hopefully will be back up [...]

We had what I’d call a ‘feel good’ and ‘develoment plan’ sandwich today at our in-service day.  The development plan business was the bread and the feel good was the meat in the middle.  A nice idea, and hopefully one that we can build on.  Some of the sessions on offer were ‘an introduction to body conditioning’, ‘relaxation’, [...]

Tonight I finished my first reading of the Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.  I know it will not be the last.  It is a really challenging book, I have found it particularly so given my choice to undertake the SQH.  As much philosophy as pragmatism, very inspirational.
I have to share some words from the end [...]

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about reading Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline.  Over the last few nights I’ve been reading about the concept of mental models.  The idea is not new to me, nor I suspect to many others who have read the book.  The interesting thing about Senge’s description in my opinion is what we do with [...]

Today I’ve been meeting with parents and potential ALPs students.  So far we have had agreement from 6 of the 8 we had selected.  The feedback we received about the content was very positive and both students and parents are looking forward to the programme starting.  We’ve invited parents along to the induction day to meet with [...]

We had a full staff meeting on Friday afternoon.  The agenda was filled with what looked like some of the usual issues, litter, graffiti, the behaviour of certain groups of students etc. However, far from turning into the possible greetin’ meetin’ it could have been, it became a very positive discussion of classroom practice and the [...]