I thought that by making an initial post midway through the week that the weekend post would be more straight forward. Sadly, I am not sure that this is the case. This job is currently impacted by so many different aspects of school life, it is impossible to manage all of them. I think the key here is to prioritise.
Teaching and Learning remains my focus; a rather simple title but it includes many different components. I have spent some time trying to organise and refine the KS4 curriculum. There are undoubtedly some rather significant pot holes in front of the department. They are clearly visible but we have to work out a way to avoid them. There are some training demands and perhaps more importantly, not all the staff feel comfortable delivering the specification. To support staff I am visiting Perins school and also trying to source exemplar materials from ICT colleagues. With the head agreeing to streamline the qualification I believe it is more manageable and I hope to include a Level 1 qualification for 10-15% of students where appropriate. This pulls in both Learning Support and other curriculum learning initiatives such as Work Experience and functional skills.
We are still in need of a strategy for tracking student discipline, a formal expectation of both staff and students for Out Class or Extended Learning (not homework).
The first seeds of curriculum ICT are being sown. This is an important aspect of the post, although the sharing of tools and knowledge must be delivered more efficiently than ‘Just in Time’ – but I do sincerely believe that there are a number of staff keen to use teachnology. Voicethread gets its first showing this coming week in a Year 10 English class.
The departmental meeting went relatively smoothly and I am looking forward to working more closely with a colleague from Science.
IT Management and Network Development; the team are looking at our VLE but this is considered secondary to the development of teaching and learning. There is also a thought on how ICT can improve the school communications and management.
I have now included my del.icio.us feed into my blog (thank you Edtech talk) and I will soon be attempting to streamline / categorise my reflections. Over half term I hope to write an ICT Strategy (thoughts of Jerry Maguire), so that I can focus my time and efforts efficiently.
Quick thoughts
- How do we recruit the best ICT teacher (or staff) possible for Sept.
- How do we create an unforgetable welcome?
- Access form to replace Yellows?
- Discipline tracking? Traffic Lights?