Scottish Learning Festival #SLF15

Day 1

Excitement on the train as I head towards Glasgow to my second ever Scottish Learning Festival

 

When I arrived after a slight hiccup at Central Station, I couldn’t find platform 17 to get the train out to the SECC! I joined my GTCS colleagues at our stand in the show village.

Lots of interesting stuff in how PLAN C can support teachers of computer science to adapt pedagogy to make the learning up to date and relevant. Commonality in all STEM subjects are the language barriers from natural to formal language.

 Next stop keynote from Angela Constance MSP

Great aspirations for our education system but how do we achieve this?

The idea of sharing your inspirational teacher is wonderful but will that encourage more people to teach? It is always good to hear the direction of travel but the devil is in the detail!

After a wee stint on the GTCS stand – which was great fun, I went to hear Education Scotland’s take on Transforming Learning and Teaching for the 21^st Century.

I am liking the phrase (below) repeated a few times throughout the festival by Education Scotland

It just reminds us to be continually looking for improvements, some may be small incremental, some may be a whole cultural change but who can help us improve our practice to be the best we can be.

 

Next stop was to support the boss @GTCS_Tom and Lindsey

Before I worked with GTCS I had an ‘itch’ around values, I think we need to discuss our values more, make them more up front and be honest about what it means to be a teacher. What behaviours, dispositions and actions are essential for us to say we are ‘professional’ and what is the basis of our not only ‘why did you come into teaching?’ but then ‘why do you stay in teaching?’

Explicitly linking my journey with values I then attended Learning for Sustainability. LfS is not just Eco schools, outdoor learning, getting your hands dirty (I don’t do dirty hands!) but the values that underlie our practice who we are as teachers, the commitment to social justice, trust and respect, integrity and professionalism. 

And so bring to an end day 1 of the Scottish Learning Festival. I decided to go to the #SFLteachmeet to lurk and listen to colleagues discussing their practice, and having a chat with @MissJ0nes about the forthcoming Pedagoo #enquirymeet.

Day 2
My joy for today was I got to stand up all day and talk to people! Yeh! I know it sounds lame but going from school into an office environment it is amazing the things you miss!

Day 2 started with the HGIOS 4 launch, I am always interested in the partnership model and how the is achieved in the ‘real’ world. The aspiration cannot be argued with but within the busyness of school and learning and teaching how do we create time, space and energy to create and sustain partnerships

What do we need to stop/change doing to create the space for partnerships?

HGIOS 4 looks like an excellent tool for self-evaluation and was described by @GTCS Ellen as a ‘white shark’, it looks beautiful and impressive but has teeth to get into what we need to do to support improvement.

For the rest of the day I was at the GTCS stand talking with practitioners, aspiring practitioners and being asked mental maths questions by some primary pupils. @MartinOsler was impressed with the mental maths, he had to do the calculation and share his thinking then he was ‘schooled’ in different ways to do mental maths by 8 year olds! Great learning and sharing learning strategies.

For me, a great couple of days, my highlight was being on the GTCS stand, being able to talk with teacher and other educators, it is such a buzz to share learning experiences and help dispel some myths around Professional Update.