NATE Teachmeet Burnside College, Wednesday 13th November.
Our first NATE North East Teachmeet for this academic term was a great success. It was great to see so many enthusiastic practitioners of English all working together with a common aim – to make the students’ experience as positive and inspiring as possible. One of the reasons for the theme of ‘Creativity in the Classroom’, is that with a content heavy curriculum, creativity can get lost along the way. Our Teachmeet gave everyone a opportunity to share ideas, resources and approaches, and remind us all about what is so fantastic about being an English teacher.
Getting Involved
Peter Thomas Chair of NATE was as ‘inspiring as ever!’ Peter gave us a brilliant insight to the creative projects he is working on at schools in Cumbria. He is looking for English teachers to trial his media work at KS3 – contact him on [email protected] if you would like to get involved. His trials have been a great success and even the most disengaged students have loved the projects. What he really wants is as many students as possible to benefit from a media based approach to the teaching of English – something that too many schools have lost due to the recent reforms.
We need Research…
It is so important that we continue our classroom based research. Accepting researchers like Martina into schools, ensures that we don’t lose the concept of teaching creatively and looking at how and why we teach. We also need to support our fellow academics and ensure they get the necessary support to complete their research in a productive and inspiring way. We are looking forward to meeting with Martina at a later date and getting her to present the outcomes of her research to us.
Martina Diel – PHD student – Martina is looking or schools to support her with her primary support – if you are willing to help her with this, please get in contact with her at [email protected]
GCSE Pod
GCSE Pod provide digital resources to support the independent learning of students. Emma took the opportunity to demonstrate how the programmes work and how they support students as well as lesson the workload of teachers. Contact Emma at e[email protected] if you would like further information, or if you would like to take a small group of students into GCSE Pod.
One delegate said, ‘GCSE Pod – Heard of it but didn’t know how it worked until now.’ The importance of face to face contact and getting the opportunity and time to discuss approaches. This is why teachmeets can be so important for everyone!
Improving Creativity
In my carousel activity, I always like to give teachers an example of a resource that they can take away and use, or take away and adapt and use with different texts. The example I gave was linked to how to minimise preparation by having the activities for the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ by Ted Hughes all on one page, in the format of DART activities. This allows for differentiation, minimises photocopying, provides extension activities, does not rely on technology and avoids an over reliance on powerpoint. It could also be used as a homework activity. This style of resource could be used for all poems that are taught. My other resources was an example of how you can create a scheme of work which minimises content, but maximises creativity and productivity – all linked to ‘The Lady of Shallot’ by Tennyson. In addition, I showcased a resource published by ‘illuminate’ about ‘An Inspector Calls’ as an example of how as members of NATE you get a weekly resources delivered straight to your inbox.
Ofsted – the ‘Deep Dive’
As he is currently supporting schools in their Osted preparation, Peter Thomas from Everything English led this session. As schools are coming to terms with yet another Ofsted framework, we thought it would be useful for teachers to get a full insight into the new expectations for English teachers and English Departments. We had a mix of staff who had been through Ofsted in September, staff who were in the middle of Ofsted and others who are awaiting the dreaded call. This activity allowed teachers to have an open discussion about how best to approach the day and what departments needed to do to ensure they presented themselves in the very best light. If you would like further support or training for your school or department – contact Peter on [email protected] at Everything English Education
Feedback – ‘Useful Ofsted information on ‘Deep dives’’ ‘Good to balance creativity & less inspiring but important Ofsted stuff!’ ‘Great insight to Ofsted’ ‘Really liked the Ofsted ‘Deep Dive’
The Importance of Creativity in Building Self-Belief
Below is our film that outlines our World War One project with Tow Law Millenium Primary School, take a look at this to gain an insight into the projects we can deliver. Our focus is always to use the arts to explore history and social history, and in this project the children had to imagine the experiences of war by expressing them as stories and poems. If you express and interest to us about delivering such a project, we will look in to getting full funding for the projects. Go to the Building Self-Belief website for further information.
Future Plans:
As the spring term is so busy with exam preparation, we are going to hold the next Teachmeet in mid to late June potentially the w/b June 22nd. In the feedback, a few people have suggested that they would like to share their practice– the theme will be Sharing Outstanding Practice in English. If you have an idea/scheme/resources that you would like to share, get in touch and you can present for us. Another suggestions was a focus on A level – where we could look at encouraging Y11 students to take A level (There is a major national dip) As well as the actual teaching of it – Peter Thomas -Chair, has agreed to lead on this.
Here is the link to the next NATE Conference in Manchester – we would love to see you there.
Pledges – ‘I pledge…
As part of our feedback, we asked delegates to pledge what they would implement in the classroom based on the activities form the evening, here they are:
‘…that I will inspire students through their engagement in creative activities.’
‘…to look in to transitional projects with our feeders similar to the Tow Law project.’
‘…to give more time to be creative especially with Year 11.’
‘…to take time away from the content driven curriculum to embed more project based work – thus enhancing the creative experience.’
‘…to choose more inventive strategies to teach / inspire students in poetry lessons.’
‘…to foreground creativity in my planning for every class.’
Thank you to:
Lindsay and the team at Burnside College for being such fabulous hosts, once again.
Delegate Feedback
‘Excellent’
Varied & interesting
Used a good range of visual and discussion based activities
‘Ready to use’ resources from professionals who are in touch with classroom practice.
Incredibly informative
A range of different activities / talks / presentations.
Found the take-away resources hugely helpful – thank you.
Great ideas about how to incorporate creativity in the classroom – particularly enjoyed the poetry carousel and WW1 project.
Will be using ideas in practice.
Excellent focus on creativity
‘’Reminder of what teaching is all about.’
‘Very relatable and a broad mix’
Informed & inspiring
‘Superb knowledge and hands on experience’
Opportunities to see technologies / resources to support learning in different ways
Recent Ofsted experience
Lots of useful resources
Time to discuss ideas with colleagues
‘So refreshing to hear what matters in teaching – not data etc.! Inspiring!’Time to discuss and share strategies with other practitioners
Ideas to adapt our curriculum
Ideas to implement in the classroom
How to improve
More videos of projects / examples in practice.
Could we have a bring a resource /idea so delegates can share something from their teaching.
Share PowerPoints afterwards for time to reflect
Wider comments
Excellent structure
Thank you
Excellent – thanks
Like the goody bag
Good mix between KS3 & KS4
Could A Level be a possibility?
Enjoyed the lecture / carousel format
If you would like to join NATE as a department or individual, go to: www.nate.org.uk
If you would like to be involved in NATE Teachmeets contact Christine Thomas at [email protected]