I Should Be Marking

I was planning to write two blog posts; one descriptive and one subjective. Thankfully, Chris Harte has already done the first for me, so I can concentrate on the reflection and thoughts – which could go on a bit, I warn you.

I remember back at the start of March (I know, because I checked), I saw a blog post by Lisibo about speaking at a TeachMeet, and I wrote my own blog entry saying that my aim was to attend one within the next 12 months. Not to speak, but to attend. And so here I am, barely 3 months later and I have exceeded my own goal. The next one will have to be world domination (or at least he downfall of published league tables).

Without gushing too much, I had an absolutely brilliant night. The attendees were fantastic – supportive, friendly, keen, enthusitic and much more besides. Our hosts and sponsors provided us with accommodation, wine, canapes, wine, notepads, wine, a little cash and some free wine (all of which were greatly appreciated).

The presentations themselves varied in content, but each and every one had ideas that I need to write a separate (or several separate) posts about – and I certainly will. I’ve already been in touch with a number of new (to me) colleagues in a variety of subject areas and have even managed to carry some of that enthusiasm through a full day of teaching.

Now if I can find a way of entering students early for GCSEs after turning them into more independent learners that have collaborated via e-twinning, demonstrate their work using documentaries, Go-Animate, Crazy Talk and Glogster and use PEEL to assess their understanding whilst monitoring their alpha waves and playing the Helicopter Game simultaneously with their eyebrows then I will have achieved something very positive. Otherwise, I just don’t think I’ll have time to fit it all in!

If anyone wants to see my part of the presentation, you can watch a fairly low-res video of me talking very quickly for 9 minutes and/or view the full presentation and see a list of links to real-world examples of the tools in action at my website.