#pedagooglasgow Group 5 Summary!

[Fearghal]

The three main questions I was asked to go over during the discussion were:

1. From what we have seen and experienced on Saturday, what could we use in our classrooms on Monday?
2. What do we plan to be using a year from now?
3. What can Pedagoo do to support teachers?

(I hope I didn’t miss any)

So here is a summary of the discussion…

We were a mixed group ranging from Pedagoo and teaching newbies to seasoned veterans of both. However what we all shared was how impressed we were by the range and quality of the sessions we attended.

We all left with the aim of trying something new in our classrooms on Monday. There were a range of ideas and strategies that excited us from Charlaine Simpson’s starter activities giving power to the learners, to Craig Jamieson’s flipped classroom model. But what caught our attention and inspired us the most was that all of these approaches offered ownership to the pupils by designing lessons so that they are less mechanical through giving more choice to the learners.

In terms of long term impact we highlighted the benefits of learning outdoors as discussed by Joyce Hawkins of the Forest Schools.

The most important impact  that the event had was to remind us of the influence that we as teachers can have on changes in the curriculum. As a community we need to ensure that we keep these conversations going and to challenge ourselves and our schools. James McEnaney’s ‘Why sharing should be at the heart of how we teach’ and Mark Priestley’s ‘CfE as a process curriculum – possibilities and challenges’ sessions had us talking about how we need to continue working together to build and share resources, eliminating the fear of sharing in Scottish Schools.

What was clear is that we all want to work towards changing the culture of Scottish Education for better.

We appreciate the support of Pedagoo and hope that we as a community continue to remain active. To continue to push towards teacher led CPD that offers valuable experiences and advice for all everyone. We hope that Pedagoo can capitalise on its growing popular status and spread the word into Universities and councils. A clearer gap between primary and secondary could lead to experiences being tailored to the teacher’s needs.

This is just a glimpse of our discussion at the end of the event but I can say we all left with a real buzz, some of us away to think about our lessons on Monday and some of us to the pub to ‘continue our discussions’.

Chris.

[Author]

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