“I want to go back to work tomorrow!” sums up the general feeling of review and reflect group 8.

What did we enjoy most?

• The buzz of the event
• The passion and enthusiasm of all in attendance
• A chance to meet with like-minded professionals and engage in a dialogue with people sharing / challenging our interests
•  The positivity boost that many of us needed on the run up to October break
•  An overview of areas of research with practical ways to implement them
•  The chance to ask frank and challenging questions in an environment which encourages you to do so
• This list could go on………..

That’s not even mentioning the lovely lunch catered by staff and pupils, the decoration or the dedication by all of the people who set up the day/ presented!

Our group managed to attend a wide range of seminars but the overarching feeling was that we had taken something different away from each of them. A small few that stood out for us:

Kenny Piper’s “I Love Marking. No, Really” reminded us of the importance to not only check books and give meaningful feedback but also of how important it is to MAKE LEARNERS ACT ON THE FEEDBACK!

Claire Young’s “Co-Operative Learning Lucky Bag” was described as an engaging, practical session which an opportunity to try activities which are sure to be used in many classrooms from Monday.

Ruaridh Nicolson’s “Introduction to Edmodo” was an excellent opportunity to reinforce ideas on using Edmodo and introduce ways to use it differently. A little reminder for some that it is okay to just use what works and not feel guilty about the other bits that aren’t necessarily helpful to your particular class!

Emma Webster’s “The Learning Cycle” brought the idea of contextualising knowledge to the forefront and provided a reminder of how important it is to make that visible throughout teaching and learning.

It was clear from the conversation that each of us has something to take back on Monday be it spreading the pedagoo message with others, changing our own mindsets, changing our approaches to marking, re-evaluating the way we use praise or even taking a hard look at the way our own schools approach teaching and learning.

And again I could go on….

Over the course of the next year we are looking to involve ourselves with MORE professional reading, trying out the learning cycle, making time and space for joint and cross-curricular planning and maintaining the momentum we will each take back with us on Monday.

PEDAGOO WE NEED YOU – to keep running these events, keep encouraging sharing and keep building our confidence to SHARE!! [We’ll see what we can do! – ED]

How are we going to go back and support others? By sharing the message of Pedagoo! By continuing the conversation and keeping each other motivated! By making it clear to others that the time for taking responsibility for our own professional learning is now! By creating environments where sharing is commonplace and supporting one another is second nature! We want to take this message back with us to colleagues and not be afraid to shout it out loud and clear:

“We have something useful to say and we want to hear your message too!”