"Effective teaching relies on honest introspection", a philosophy adhered to by Education Professor. Matt O'Leary (Birmingham University, 2014). This quote epitomises the theme of the final blog post for this academic year. If we do not take the time to reflect on the journey we have all been on this year, professionally, we might not fully appreciate quite how far we have come as a T&L community.
For me, one of my greatest professional achievements during this extraordinary school year, has been my involvement in developing our virtual CPD platform. Starting in Term 5, an urgent agenda item focused on how to best prepare ourselves to tackle for the huge gaps in learning our students were developing. Through carefully planned CPD, we hoped to trigger discussions that centred around a strategic approach to closing the gaps for all Mangotsfield students. Due to your overwhelming willingness to share good practice, we now have an extensive bank of strategies for retrieval practice and formative assessment and for the application of both via Google Classrooms.
I want to extend my thanks to each and everyone of you who has contributed, shared, discussed, debated and engaged with the weekly CPD. I have proudly observed how far our T&L community has evolved during this time.
To that end, I have handed a large section of this final post over to you, my wonderful colleagues, with your own views and reflections on this terms CPD and most specifically the implementation of Google Classrooms, We hope to continue the momentum with this virtual platform into the next academic year, and will continue to deliver 'soundbites' of T&L discussion through it. If you wish to post your own reflections on the Google Classrooms discussion board.
Laura Markwell recalls: "Google Classroom is a tool I have used frequently over two years and have very much become absorbed in it since school closed. In my mind it is like the gateway to the student brain, gone are the days of students 'losing' work on their computer and missing their deadline because as a teacher we have access to all of their work all of the time. This is one of the biggest perks of it, particularly for coursework based subjects. Yes it takes time to grasp how to work, however it is time well spent. We need to move with the digital times and I am looking forward to making the most of it next year with both KS3 and KS4 using multiple different tools".
Caroline Bates recounts: "I've enjoyed rediscovering Google Classroom. It does so much more than when I first used it which has made the process of communicating with students easier. I really like that I can pin point the areas I want to feedback to a student on. There are of course still teething issues with helping the students to understand how to use certain features, but this can be ironed out over time as we all become more familiar with it".
Gemma Gilpin summarises: "I love how simple it is to set a task/assignment and add resources. This includes that it can be kept very simple or that you can choose to add layers to make it so much more interactive. I’ve been using Google Classroom for at least four years now and I’m no expert, I still make mistakes and I’m learning how to do it better/easier/quicker all the time. The tips and video’s shared by colleagues have been inspirational - thank you".
Tristan Hawkins celebrates: "I've really enjoyed using the Google Classroom, especially for the virtual sports day. It has developed into an online community where students and staff have been able to share achievements and experiences using various forms of media".
James Gilpin expresses: "I like Google Classroom. I was sceptical at first, however having used it both as a History teacher and as part of setting the Prefect Programme up for this coming year (and more recently for making a fool of myself in sports week), I have to say I am a fan. I like its versatility but also its simplicity. It is not overly complicated to use and if you get stuck you can just ask Google!".
As the much needed summer break approaches, I want to wish you all a very well earned rest. Next academic year I would love to welcome more of your contributions to the blog so please do send me any of your thoughts on readings, blogs, articles, video clips that you stumble across. We hope to launch in Term 1 with some exciting news on professional development and the expansion of the Google Classroom community. Please look out for my additional blog post this week on Guided Reading, an area requested for further investigation by some colleagues.
Stay safe and have a wonderful summer rest,
Ruth.
Firstly Ruth can I just say what a lovely style you have with words, i'm not a fantastic reader, in fact i am quite easily confused but your words flow so nicely. I can see so many benefits of google classroom and I think once I start using it with classes more it will bring increased consistency between classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Vicky, that's so kind of you to say. Have a lovely summer, Ruth.
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