Who is it for?
'Inspirational teachers, inspirational learners' (by Will Ryan) is a book that should be read by all teachers. The book itself is truly inspirational itself and a must have.
Outline of the idea
Essentially this is a book made up of 8 chapters that make you smile, ignite ideas, strategies and emotions and is so beautifully written. I haven't put it down since buying it and carry it everywhere with me. It is a reminder, it is a prompt of just how exciting our teaching can be. The book will validate and support ideas that 'push the boundaries' in terms of enterprise, deep thinking, curriculum design and classroom environments.
When was the last time you used anywhere outside of your classroom to inspire and excite young people?
Just one question posed to you in the first chapter.
How it worked
Reading this book has helped me to completely rethink my KS3 in D/T: curriculum design, enterprise based projects, designing schemes of work based on paintings and poetry, taking students on 'learning journeys'. I will be taking a completely different look at how I inspire my youngsters to think and solve problems. Watch this space!!!!
Next steps
Change KS3 DT and introduce an early certificate at Year 9. Take students away from the immediate school environment every half term. Learn more about the school's locality: it's history and future prospects. Build on the theme of enterprise. Immerse D/T into the school's specialism of Media and the Arts.
3 comments
Tim Mardle says:
July 6, 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC 0 )
I’m afraid I don’t personally have any solutions to preventing work from being used and/or stolen. The post, recommending publications on this blog, are suggested based on their content and relevance to established staff and new staff to the profession.
In terms of publishing and/or sharing resources via the blog, I don’t personally have a problem with it. The D/T Top trumps are a good example of this. Using the blog has already allowed three other schools to make contact with myself and organise the publications of such resources. The resources are branded with my identity and will remain my idea, but by using other intersted staff I am able to further modify my design and use the products to build my profile nationally.
Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help.
Tim Mardle says:
July 7, 2012 at 9:00 am (UTC 0 )
Thank you for the compliments. The blog is a combination of ideas from two schools: Comberton Village College, Cambridge and The Voyager Academy, Peterborough. Speaking personally, I really only write about ‘things’ that I am truly passionate about and believe in. This particular post focusses on an amazing publication that can inspire teachers world wide. It excites me and when read in conjunction with many other books through ‘independent learning’ (Ian Gilbert), can really help feed my passion(s) for teaching.
Working with fantastic students, training new teachers and never wanting one day to be the same as the last means I have had no problem in finding things to write about. Sorry!
So in short, my advice would be to write about things that genuinely excite you and that you know will make an impact on someone else.
Tim Mardle says:
July 13, 2012 at 4:33 pm (UTC 0 )
Many thanks for the compliment. It was originally set up by teachers at The Voyager Academy (Peterborough) and Comberton Village College (Cambridge). The posts are entered by staff at both schools. Hopefully the site will have some more innovative, exciting posts added to it, over the next few months.