dissertation 1

After much procrastination I have started writing an introductary chapter. Still feeling a little wobbly about whether this is the best thing to be doing with my time right now, with so many things to be done on the house before Brutus arrives in November. Am i really going to be able to juggle late pregnancy, full time job and MA dissertation? Need to remember to be honest with myself about what I'm able to do and be accepting of whatever decisions I make.

Found it quite hard to start writing today. Written bits, read around issues linked to professional development then written a little more. Not sure if CPD is the route I want to go down with this or whether focusing soley on the structure of the network is enough. This would mean looking at peer obs, (possibly linked to formal obs?); oral and written reflections and action research as a ........ tool for CPD? So it always seems to come back to it. It's not CPD as such, more like AR as a tool for being a better teacher, being better at helping your students to learn and being content and challenged in your own role in that. Is this what CPD is?

analysis and writing

Interviews - It is really important to have the tape when interviewing someone. When V and I did the pilot with Julia we both took notes as well as taping it (on her XDA2 mobile phone). After the interview we checked through each others notes and we both pretty much had to same information. However, there was a problem with the recording and so this is the only interview we don't have a transcript for and we both feel that while our notes give us the gist but the detail and the flavour.

we have both really really enjoyed transcribing - after all dire warning we had been given about how much time it would take. neither of us thought it took too long.

Writing - this has been a really useful process. It's made it clear that we have achieved what we set out to achieve, even if we were a little bit hazing about what the actual process would be. The template sent from Lancaster was very useful and we have gone through each heading systematically. The analysis this afternoon has been very tiring but so useful, we have both been looking for and finding trends as we read through the transcripts, and V started looking through the blogs, where we hope to find evidence to back up the interviews.

Learner forum - it was interesting to hear Vs comments about Maria's forum, how i felt it was very different to the ones i had led with other classes. I kept very much to the questions, whereas Maria was much more open and I was unsure is this was due to a) having Ss from different classes and therefore not having a shared project, b) her expereince as a researcher or c) other interests in teaching, learning and technology. It was much more difficult for V to pull out the threads/trends for our research questions, and again we discussed whether this was lack of experience on our part, lack of flexiblility or something else.

So we're leaving today with almost 2000 words under our belt and confident that we will end tomorrow with a reasonable first draft to send to Paul and James.

learner forum notes

I can't believe it's been more than a month since i posted. so many things have happened that i now feel a little sad that i won;t hvae my reflections of my time though it here. But it's been such a busy time (at home too with the wedding) that there has been no space at all the be able to reflect in writing. When i have some spare time i will try to write something, and i guess it will be interesting to see how my memory of my reflection read.

I have just spent 1 1/2 hours typing up my notes from the learner forum and listening through the tape. It has been so so useful to ahve the tape, as i think i did get most of the key points in my notes, but the tape definately helped to flush it out and add extra explanations.

I have all three of the classroom forums to write up and i have 2 tutor interviews in tape to do. I will need to chase Anita for the copy of Julia's interview 'cos this was recorded onto her PDA, and i now regret not taping the interview with Alison.

I'm really looking forward to starting to write this all up, but also a little apprehensive, as with only 3 weeks to inspection time is going to be really really tight.

I will be really interested to see how the learners forum, led by Maria, compares to the ones i did in the classes. I already feel that i was much more directive with my questions, while Maria allowed the discussion to flow more freely, so there was a lot of information that was much more indirectly related to the proejcts their teachers were doing - but also very much linked to their own learning and their views on this. very interesting.

coming along nicely

feeling v upbeat about the project. V and I ran a pilot interview with Julia on Fri which went well. It highlighted a couple of issues with the questions and we have to go back to our original research questions to ensure we're asking what we need to be asking. but on the whole it went well. we recorded it and took notes at the same time. When we reviewed the noted we had pretty much the same information so we both feel confident that doing them alone will get the same data.

Maria has offered to come up to lead on a focus group with the learners, so we need to get our fingers out and get that organised. I know we won;t be able to speak to all the learners, but i guess that's never possible with research anyway. It will be really interesting to see what they say next to the tutor interviews.

I think that's about all i need to say. Everything going well :-)

lack of blogging

Saw DP briefly this week, his Ss took the cameras home over 1/2 term and he returned them this monday - he said it has gone well but didn;t have time to discuss it. I think that Tina went to observe him Monday, but disappointingly neither of them have blogged it. I have been cathy of little brain and blighted with a dreaded flu-like bug that keeps mutating and coming back for more. Emailed the group on Mon to remind of meeting next Weds, about peers observations and to get blogging - no response as of yet.

It's been really useful having mini email chats with maria, feeling a little frustrated as at home and can;t access work mails. Would really like to be able to go back and review them, esp for tomorrow. Really looking forward to the residential.

What is it about writing things down that i find so theraputic? Is it just me? What haven;t the group embrassed the reflections? I know FMC is writing hers in a notebook, not sure about the others.

other STs

just want to blog this quickly before i go onto the netowrk blog to record my Thurs class.

Had an email from DP last week saying he;s missed that last AR meeting and hadn;t thought of anything for his class and therefore wouldn;t take part this time (but would still help to run it (sic)) I emailed straight back saying (in a nice(ish) way that it wasn;t ok, he was an ST and therefore T & L was our remit and if he couldn;t be seem to be being creative in the classroom how could we encourage others too? He came straight down to the office.

I had to work really hard to get him to even talk about his classes. He deflected ever attempt until i said in the time was have been spent discussing why he can;t do anythign we could hvae put a plan into place for what he could be doing. TB then joined us and there was some more general chat before i brought it back to his teaching and i told him about the cheap digital cameras and how i had let my Ss take them home. He said he never really used images in his class - and bingo. we had a project for him. Huurah

peer observations

I went to observe Beth 0n Monday morning then she returned the favour and came to see me on Tues. It has been a really positive expereince. After my class today Beth asked me which I found most useful - being observed or observing - and i very quickly wanted to say observing, but then had to check myself. I did get a lot out of seeing her, especially as it was so related to my project (and i got to steal her De Bono PP), but it was great to have her in my class today. I was a little nervous about the session, I told my Ss at the beginning that there was a lot to do (i said there is 8 hrs of work with only 3 hrs to do it in!).

What I felt most benefitted having Beth there for was her thoughts regarding the students. Firstly their reactions during the class to the discussion on making decisions and about the change to allow students to make some decisions about their own learning. Secondly at the end of the session when we had a quick review of the session and they said they really enjoyed the lesson and felt it was very different to what we had done previously. This was especially important as I was not sure HOW different it was to what I would normally have done, except for the De Bono PP. The rest of the class would have been the same.

I'm feeling quite upbeat about the lesson on Thurs (when i get around to fully planning it!) There's nothing like a winger. It would be interesting to see how they respond to Tina's Life in the UK class when she asks them what sort of things they want to cover.