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.

Jan meeting

I have been quite blown away today. After attending training on the new standards unit materials then going to our AR meeting, it has really struck me how wonderfully creative we are in the classroom.

I have come home and read through the blog. The first 2 posts took me to some student blogs, firstly Beth's L2 class, then Tina's new E3 evening group. The L2 blog has demonstrated how the Ss have embrassed this medium of communication. There is a real mixture of posts and comments. I can see why Beth says there has been a coup in her class - they seem to have really embrassed the idea of taking a lead in their own teaching. Tina's class blog is very new, but already there has been so much work done. The response from her posted questions is quite fantastic, I'm so impressed by them. Some of their answers were more insightful than some teachers i know!

There are 2 things i would like to say about the meeting today: about the peer obs forms and the individual projects.
After much (internal) deliberation I'm glad that we decided not to give the proformas first, but to brainstorm ideas. The two groups approached it from different angles, and although their finsihed products looked different i think they really did the same thing. We got a little bogged down with 'observation'- thinking about what was needed, but once clarified that this was for no-one but ourselves there were some great ideas. I'm very excited about being able to observe different people and hope to start with Beth on Monday. It also became clear to me in this session that the form had to be developed for the tutors, not for our evaluation. If there is any useful data on the forms i think this will be a bonus, but the forms shouldn;t have been developed from the evaluation perspective.

i know i had said that i wouldn;t be doing a project myself as i have enough to do already - but i really can;t resist. I don;t have it fully formed in my head, but i would like to try something similar with my E3 grp that i did with the L1 grp - getting the Ss to think about what they will cover in the classes. What has been great about this is that Beth took this idea to her L2 grp who have embrassed the whole idea and given her a great project.

FMC was the final person to talk about her project, which has been going since Nov. so she had a couple of great stories to report back - that one student has been writing stories at home to bring to class and another (new to IT) emailed her from home on sunday evening this week! As one of her aims was to encourage indepedant learning, and learning outside the classroom, these 2 events are really positive signs. We also talked a little about why the students may have embrassed this technology so much - is it the tech. itself, is it the way she introduced it (by explaining about the project and giving them 2 networks to choose from, ie giving them some ownership), or something else? it would be really interesting to find out.

She also talked though some of the things she has been doing with the social network - one of them being quizzes - which Beth and I agreed would link in really well to her L2 class (which i will teach CALL to from this Thurs) and i was just thinkng about how great it is that the network has created this link. I talk to Beth a lot about teaching, and FMC, but rarely do the three of us chat. If i end up using social networks with the Ss it will be down to the network.

everyone is doing such great things, i would just love it now if they would blog it!

planning for next session

some questions and issues that have arrisen in the past 2 weeks:
1) having spoken to Paul I think i may have finally been able to seperate out my different roles in this project. This has been done by called the part V and I are involved in evaluation, rather than research. This really helped today when meeting with the other STs to plan the next session on Weds. They also acknowledged that there was confusion between roles within the proejct.

2)discussed with other STs how setting up and running with the network has been impacted on beacuse of the NRDC project. Tina said that it has been both positive and negative - positive that it's been an external motivator to keep it going, that there may have been a chance that it would have folded, esp. as my role as ST has changed. I said that this was a shame to think like this, as this kind of a project was exactly what i thought being a ST is about - creativity in teaching and learning and supporting tutors in the classroom.
We then talked about other areas in the college, and how each area is at different stages, and that SfL is actually taking a lead in teaching and learning, and being innovative- in it's INSET programme, supporting new Ts, teaching, etc. This project is just another step in this. She also talked about her own difficulty in switching roles - between taking a lead in developing the network and being a tutor within in and needed support for her own action research project.
3) what kind of support is needed for the ind tutors for their projects? is this something that the people at NRDC can support with, or is this different to the evaluation that the bid is about? this is one of the reasons i haven't responded to Maria yet, as I'm unsure what support is needed and how we can best utilise her skills. V and I are well supported in terms of gathering the data from James, and it's been great to see Paul at Lancaster, the last 2 ten min f2f meetings have been really useful. I realise it;s such a long way for Maria to come up from London.
4) re:the fourth meeting of the network. V and I met last week to talk about the peer observation forms, and what we needed in terms of evidenec for the evaluation. Is this/could it be the same thing as would be developed for the network had we not be invovled in with the NRDC? I would like to think so, but I d think that a peer ob form for the network would be different that a sfl or cross college form.
V and I took the form from the ESOL effective practice study as a starting point, and eliminated unnecessary info and added some others. We then thought it was a useful process to go through, and therefore ask the network to undertake the same exercise. However, having met with the STs and talked about how long this may take, i don;t want this meeting to detract from everyone sharing their AR projects and getting support from each other. Therefore, is it more useful to just present the form that will be used?

A final thought from me
I've come to realise that this project incorporates everything that I love about all my different roles. I am getting to do some research, which for the past 2 years has had such an impact on my practice. I'm working with other tutors developing their CPD, and my own practice with both my E3 and L1 class. All this is wrapped up in an e-learning package - both in terms of how the network is communicating (the blog) and the ind projects themselves - some are using blogs, social netqworks, digital technologies. How exciting. :-)

What info I want out of interview?

Thinking over the meeting with James I realised that it was all getting rather foggy and that I need to record some of it asap. I remember he asked us what we wanted from the interview and talked about the merits of unstructured vs more structured interviews with practitioners. What I want to know when they have finished their mini projects is the answer to the questions that you wrote in your 5 things + more. So I want to know
how far they have travelled,
will they do it again,
would they experiment again if they had the network for support,
would they experiment again without the network
did they feel that peer observation was useful as observers
did they feel peer observation was useful as observees
how do the senior tutors feel it went
do they feel there was any benefit
will SMT implement something similar and provide organisational support for continuing this
from learners I want to know if they noticed a difference
how it made them feel about the college
did it make them feel included in a higher level of things
did they like experimenting

If I think of any more I will post them

5 things

Thinking about 5 things I want to have achived by the end of the project I have come up with these: First I want to be part of a finished product. So I will find a lot of feelings of satisfaction by being able to hold a file or folder or booklet in my hand and say 'we've done that'.
Next is having gained insights into people and what makes them tick as teachers. What they choose to work on if it is outside their comfort zones will be interesting in terms of what it tells us about them and their own perceptions of themselves as teachers. For example Tina thinks she is a bit control-ish in the classroom.
3rd is the idea that all the tutors are working together in a supported way. Tutors often work together unofficially. Well they attend meetings and insets which are considered working together with the sanction of the org but I feel that this is an opportunity for them to really work on their own interests with support and that is an outcome I will feel is a real achievement. As teachers we are not give the breathing space and support and rewards to really develop in a way that meets our needs. I hope this will give that to the tutor's taking part.
4th is the feeling of doing something that challenges me academically. Teaching ESOL students is challenging in its own way but it isn't academically challenging. So I will feel that my mental/ academic barriers will have been stretched.
5th is the charting of distance travelled for all of us, senior tutors, researchers and practitioner researchers. It will be interesting to see the impact of the growth, if any in all of our attitudes and development and also to see how long it lasts. It might be that the project is till impacting on people's practice in months or even years. So I would like to do a follow up interview in a year with these tutors to see if they can see long term changes which aren't accomodated in the project because it is so short.