Being a 21st Century Teacher (a post I wrote some time ago!)...

When I first sat down to write this I was faces with one HUGE question... Where do I start??!!
So, in true 21st century style, I posted a status on facebook asking my fellow teachers for their first reactions if I said "21st century teaching". As I expected I got a lot of "passionate" responses. I set out looking for honest opinions and so this blog is my "musings", explorations and thoughts around some of the responses I received...

Google.
"Kids can use Google! I suspect that means they can know everything already! Or at least think they do!"
"Students are more accountable for their learning" 
"Teachers and students haven't ever had it so good. How amazing is it to type something into your search engine and find knowledge at the click of a button? Downside is everyone Googles and that means only one thing, students are becoming lazy as a generation, impatient if they have to research or do anything manually."

Personally, I love Google simply for the level of accessibility to information and skills but I do see the validity of the downsides presented in the above responses. I've recently implemented Google Apps for Education in my ICT classroom with my year 9's, they LOVE it! I LOVE it! I'm seeing a whole new side to my students as they exchange spellings via chat, use comments to leave constructive criticism and watch each other typing on their shared documents... it's been amazing to watch some of my students come out of their shells through the medium of Google. I should mention at this point that I teach students with special educational needs and this means not only low literacy and numeracy levels but also low CONFIDENCE in their ability in the classroom. To see them then offer up spellings and corrections with absolute confidence is really something to see. Are my students becoming lazy, impatient know-it-alls? I don't feel mine are as our school focuses so much on improving literacy and numeracy that they are doing things "manually" all the time and a large number of my students are at a low level using computers and technology. However, I confess that I don't have mainstream experience in this! If anything, we are improving DIGITAL literacy (and therefore literacy in general) through the use of word processed learning logs, email and Google. And this is soon to become more of a focus in the ICT classroom as the new curriculum for ICT and Computing brings in a focus on programming languages in September and the use of Raspberry Pi in many classrooms is helping students step out of their comfort zones and think "outside the box." As for accountability for their learning - DEFINITELY! A student came to my lesson on Tuesday this week having gone home, logged into her Google Apps account and carried on with her Google Slides presentation without being asked. It was their first lesson and she'd remembered all her details and shown it to her parents. Isn't this the type of learner we strive to make of all our students? Making it enjoyable and accessible but constantly extending their learning, pushing them to seek out more knowledge independently? And in the 21st century teachers have never had so much equipment available to support learning, deliver exciting, interactive lessons and cater to EVERY style of learner who crosses their classroom threshold.

And it's not just students - parents don't have the the 
skills and knowledge to support their children's learning 
when it comes to technology.

Social Media.
"Twitter and social media is slowly but surely creeping into schools and classrooms..."

And what a minefield it is!! The main walls I've personally come up against in this respect are the issues surrounding child protection and cyber safety. But surely by not allowing them to use these now integral parts of their social lives in a secure and teacher-monitored environment we miss out on a huge opportunity to teach responsibility and  cyber safety? Use of sites/apps such as Blogger, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more recently SnapChat is a daily part of life now and is used by millions to document and share lives and memories and to keep in touch with friends and family. Students are far too oblivious (or know the risks and ignore them!) to the dangers of adding strangers, sending pictures or becoming embroiled in Cyber-bullying and it is spilling over into the school day. Teachers are dealing with horrific cases of cyber-bullying and child abuse. The  security issues surrounding setting up blog accounts for pupils to share work and log their learning are myriad yet aren't we trying our hardest to engage pupils in improving their literacy and this yet another tool for us to utilise? But how do we keep our pupils safe yet still allow them the freedom to grow, socialise and learn online? How do we monitor"vulnerable" students' activities online outside the classroom? And how do we make sure that ALL teachers, no matter their subject specialisms are equipped to deal with, and feel comfortable with teaching about, issues of cyber safety? Too many teachers don't want to even approach the minefield because they are not confident enough in their own skills both online and with technology in general. I will never forget a fellow teacher who borrowed my ICT suite for a lesson and walked out with the statement "Well that was a nightmare, I'm never using the computers for this lesson again." #gobsmacked!
Of course the other "issue" teachers are raising (and there were too many of these to quote) is that of face to face social skills. Are the next generation losing the ability to interact with each other on a social level in person? Do they grow up to quickly online? Do they know how to play when faced with the playground at school? When I'm on break duty watching them hare around, playing football and climbing on play equipment it certainly doesn't look that way to me.

Technology in general
"With new technology it's so easy and helpful to share ideas with other teachers around the country."
"Fascinating when IT goes down for prolonged period as to which teachers are too reliant on technology."
"Technology is so fast growing now teachers have to keep up with everything going on in the world"
"Many children have great ICT skills, probably better than mine!"

The last of these is possibly my favourite and one of the biggest issues we face teaching in the 21st century. The students we teach have access to EVERYTHING. Many non-ICT specialist teachers are faced with the daunting dilemma of what do you teach a child with better know-how and skills than you? How do you keep up with it all AND manage to write all the reports, carry out data analysis, plan lessons, mark work in a reflective and constructive way, make sure al your pupils know their levels and targets, attend parents evenings, CPD, training and meetings, make resources AND actually teach whilst trying to make sure you have down-time for yourself and a healthy work/life balance? Are schools providing the training on new technology that teachers need to be confident embedding technology into their lessons (I refer you back at this point to the English teacher I mentioned!)? And are some teachers missing out on the wonders of sites like Google Apps and the TES because they're only just comfortable with email and Microsoft Word? I watched a PowerPoint presentation shown in an assembly about two years ago where the teacher was clicking on each slide in the preview pane because they didn't know how to make it come up as a presentation... #gobsmackedagain

And then on the flip-side we have those teachers who having never been without an interactive whiteboard who sink at the first sign of a technological blip... I was quite lucky when training to have an observed lesson go HORRIBLY wrong due to a problem with my PowerPoint... The lesson here? ALWAYS have a backup plan!!

Personally, I love being a 21st century teacher, for me the rewards far out weigh the challenges and I love to learn new things so keeping up with technology as an ICT teacher, to be fair it's almost not really work as it's fun! Are we tired out and stressed? Yes. Could we work better with less pressure to make sure every child reaches a specified (often not by the teacher) level whether or not they've made fantastic progress for themselves? Yes. Should teaching be 100% child focused and not so data focused? Definitely. Do a large number of teachers need better training to help them deal with almost daily technological advancements? Yes.
Would I want to do any other job in the world? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Who am I? What is this blog?

First up, who am I?... I'm a thirty something Computing teacher in a special needs school. I have a
degree in Music and Philosophy and trained originally as a Music teacher... bit of a U-turn huh? Yep, definitely!!

After teaching Music for four years I realised I was losing my passion for it both inside and outside the classroom whilst those around me seemed to be getting more of an enrichment of what they did in their own time from being immersed in it all day? So I took a break, decided I would just have to lump being one of those statistics (you know, one in 4 leaving and all that). I was told in no uncertain terms by EVERY recruitment agency I went to that I had no employable skills or relevant experience for such a competitive job market. WHAAAAAAT?!!! I hear you screaming!! Yep, true that!

So I wound up spending the summer as a temping receptionist at the local probation offices... Not the busy, super organised, highly skilled reception/admin lady, just a receptionist who answers the phone and books in the offenders (through bullet proof glass - but I trained and taught in inner city London so apparently I DID have some relevant experience for this one!). Mostly, I twiddled my thumbs and thought of inventive ways to finish myself off if I didn't get some kind of mental stimulation and my brain turned to jelly leaving me a vegetable. Then the reality that £6.45 an hour wasn't going to pay my bills once my precious savings ran dry hit home. So I started doing supply work. Turns out I hate supply work and teaching a load of kids I don't know something I hadn't planned myself and it turns out a lot of teachers leave tests and exam practice as cover work so I had to sit and once again twiddle my thumbs (which by now were becoming quite muscular from all said twiddling) while they sat in silence. Then I did a days supply in a local special school and everything changed...

I wound up covering ICT for a couple of terms and then landed the job permanently. Suffice to say that coming from a music background this was an entirely different kettle of fish so I had to retrain with regards to my subject knowledge. I was pretty IT savy with regards to use of software but then it all changed in September to Computing and I'm not going to lie "programming" freaked me out (still does to some extent!), but not one to back down from a challenge and being someone who likes to learn I attended Picademy (which was amazing!) and got myself a load of books and some online courses. It's been a very big mountain and I'm still only about 2 meters up!

Jump to three years down the line and here I am, starting to slowly become more confident in my ability of teaching Computing as it's now called but still struggling with Python and screaming in my head that our school network won't allow me to download software or files onto my Pi's!!

She likes to help me with my marking! 

Outside work I'm a big fan of fantasy, horror and sci-fi books/films, I bake and (attempt to) do sugarcraft, I'm a bit of a gym junkie, a trained singer, addicted to Plants 'vs' Zombies and Clash of Clans and because I am such a geek I like to do courses on Coursera. I'm also mother to one crazy little blue furred fluff ball who's antics keep me sane and smiling through the most stressful of times (and as teachers we all know there are plenty of those!! Good job the rewards outweigh them!)

So that's me. What is this blog? Well, hopefully, it's not just an account of my experiences teaching computing inside and outside the classroom/school but also an account of my life as a bona fide geek and a place to share resources with readers and get feedback and ideas from like minded (possibly way more knowledgeable) people!