It was a depressing experience. I was faced with an overwhelming number of Tweets, most of them filled with frustration and unhappiness. I haven’t made any attempt at a formal analysis, but I have [...]]]> As an educator, when I saw that #ReasonsWhyIHateSchool was trending on Twitter, I clicked through to see what was being said.

It was a depressing experience. I was faced with an overwhelming number of Tweets, most of them filled with frustration and unhappiness. I haven’t made any attempt at a formal analysis, but I have picked out some that seem typical.

There were quite a few who wanted school to be like the movies:

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool: It’s not Hogwarts.

— The Dark Lord (@Lord_Voldemort7) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool Because Its Not Like Zoey 101, High School Musical, Napoleon Dynamite, Fame, Bring It On, Or Ferris Bueller.

— Princєtons Swαg Tho. (@Princeton_Diggy) January 7, 2012

Actually, I’d like school to be like the movies, where the hard-working teacher wins over the hearts and minds of all their students, so that by the final scene even the most disaffected have achieved amazing things. Who wouldn’t want that?

I wasn’t surprised to see criticism about the behaviour and attitudes of teachers, but I was taken aback but some of the comments:

#reasonswhyihateschool : teachers who clearly chose favorites ;

— ☑VERIFIED SiiRPaul (@SiiRPaul) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool The teachers loose our work and blame it on us ,

— ♥01/01/2012 M.W (@2jayDoriginal) January 7, 2012

#reasonswhyihateschool Teachers that hold grudges and try to make you fail

— Jerome Banks (@CaughtHerEye) January 7, 2012

It wasn’t just teachers though:

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool because everyone judges you no matter what you do. you’re not good enough for anyone there.

— Selena Gomez▲ (@heckyesjaybee) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool it’s a non stop status competition. Long live the nerds!!!!

— kye sones (@KyeDIAGRAM) January 7, 2012

#reasonswhyihateschool the 45min bus journey with screaming idiotsthat announce their life story every single day

— Aylin Akineden (@Its_Ayleen) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool…I’m surrounded by immaturity, stupidity, & people who are going no where in life…& I can’t do anything about it.

— Jessica Kolcheff (@JessicaKolcheff) January 7, 2012

Getting up too early in the morning was a frequent complaint – which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has worked with teenagers. I’m convinced that a later start to the day would benefit many of my students, especially in Y9, 10 and 11:

#reasonswhyihateschool I have to get up before the sun does -_-

— Peter Francis Geraci (@FollowDeez__) January 7, 2012

#reasonswhyihateschool who want’s to wake up that early and do something they don’t like

— LIFE PROBLEMS (@weEKendproblms) January 7, 2012

Boredom was mentioned so often I’m surprised that wasn’t trending too:

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool I get so bored so I begin to laugh at everything, and eventually cry from laughter or for no reason at all.

— Savannah Wolfgram (@SWolfgram) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool Some classes are long and boring.

— Jasmine (الياسمين) (@Poohbear1030) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool nothing interesting ever happens

— Khalie R. (@Khalieeaaaye) January 7, 2012

One word said it all on this topic:

#reasonswhyihateschool Homework.

— King James Or Die. (@xox_Asfiya786) January 7, 2012

No surprises there!

The thing that left me feeling the most frustrated of all was the number of Tweets expressing the pointlessness of it all – especially in my subject:

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool because 90% of the things we learn we won’t use in the real world #pointless

— Cami ∞ (@AuthenticCami) January 7, 2012

Most of the higher staff are only concerned with grades, not actually teaching valuable skills and information. #ReasonsWhyIHateSchool

— Matt Ashmore (@FallenNocturne) January 7, 2012

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool i will never use -0.2x^2 + 12x + 11 in real life

— kj.(@0beyK) January 7, 2012

I don’t think many teachers would be surprised by any of these complaints, but the sheer number and vehement negativity of the comments staggered me. It’s inevitable that a hashtag called #ReasonsWhyIHateSchool will expose negative attitudes, but there were almost no dissenting voices. I find that very sad.

I’m just going to share one final Tweet, the one that stopped me in my tracks:

#ReasonsWhyIHateSchool it kills the relationship between my parents and I…

— Eric Nguyen (@OhLetDoItNguyen) January 7, 2012

Wow.

I’m left thinking about my own classes. I wonder to what extent this stream of Tweets reflects the feelings of my own students? Obviously I’d like them to be happy at school, but I wonder if they really are.

Jim Docherty, assistant secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, told BBC Scotland that teachers should follow his advice: "First thing is don’t bother telling anybody else about your social life. Nobody is interested about your social life and it doesn’t help.

"Secondly, never make any comment about your work, about your employer, [...]]]>  

Jim Docherty, assistant secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, told BBC Scotland that teachers should follow his advice: "First thing is don’t bother telling anybody else about your social life. Nobody is interested about your social life and it doesn’t help.

"Secondly, never make any comment about your work, about your employer, about teaching issues in general.

"There is always a possibility it will be misinterpreted."

from ‘Teachers warned over Facebook and Twitter use’ on bbc.co.uk

Earlier today I read Jim Docherty’s advice to teachers, warning us not to discuss either our personal lives or professional issues online. I have no doubt that Jim Docherty offered this advice with the best of intentions, we have seen some horror stories about the misuse of social media. No one would suggest that it is ever acceptable for students to be the subject of derogatory comments, neither would anyone suggest that it is ever acceptable for teachers to be harassed.

I have no doubt that as assistant secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, Jim Docherty has teachers’ best interests at heart.

Unfortunately his advice is misguided and I hope most sincerely that no-one takes it seriously.

Facebook and Twitter are simply channels via which real people communicate. I accept that online communication is not the same as face to face communication, but the same is true of other publicly visible media – are we also expected to stop publishing comments about teaching issues in the TES or in academic journals, lest we run the risk of being misinterpreted?

Social media are not inherently dangerous, but they do provide teachers with opportunities for high quality professional development that simply do not exist elsewhere. How else could I connect with inspiring and innovative educators like Tom Barrett or Dan Meyer or Simon Job? How else would groups of educators collaborate effectively to organise and deliver high quality, free professional development? How else can I share resources and ideas with teachers from around the world? How else can a network of teachers from across the UK ‘meet’ to debate current issues and share good practice – and do so for free?

Whenever I drop into my digital world, there are teachers online discussing, debating and sharing. The fact that thousands of teachers are writing considered, reflective blog posts or Tweeting about education rarely seems to get mentioned in the media. I don’t expect to see ‘Teacher gets brilliant idea for teaching stem and leaf diagrams from colleague 100s of miles away’  hitting the headlines any day soon.

I cannot see any valid reason for suggesting that educators should avoid engaging in professional dialogue, but what about the personal stuff? Jim Docherty stated that “Nobody is interested about your social life”. Is that true? As educators, should we confine our blogging and tweeting to educational matters only?

When I meet up with colleagues face to face, we don’t restrict our casual conversations to professional matters. Chat about holidays, families or our social lives is normal human behaviour. It builds personal relationships and is part of what bonds us together as a team. Why should my relationships with colleagues in the digital world be subject to different rules or conventions to those in the analogue world? Of course I’m interested in what colleagues from my online network do outside of the classroom. We are using a digital medium, but we are people, not automata.

I don’t believe that guidelines about acceptable use of social media are necessary. Do we really need guidelines to tell us not to call our students rude names? Do we really need guidelines to explain what we should or should not say in front of students or parents? Would guidelines actually have any effect on the individuals who have engaged in unprofessional behaviour? Somehow I doubt it.

If individual teachers behave in a way that brings our profession into disrepute then that needs to be addressed on a case by case basis. Unprofessional behaviour exhibited by a minority of educators should not be used as some kind of justification for an attempt to ban the entire profession from using the social web appropriately. Administering a group punishment for offences committed by individuals is never acceptable.

As a professional teacher I expect to be able to participate in debate and discussion about teaching issues, whether it’s considering the purpose of education, discussing an ethos for teaching my subject or sharing ideas and resources.

As a professional teacher I don’t intend to stand idly by whilst well-intentioned people suggest that our profession should abide by a voluntary gagging order.

As a professional teacher I am angered and disappointed by Jim Docherty’s comments and I urge him to withdraw them.

2011 was always going to be a busy year for me – I was still in my first year working at a new school and I had finally [...]]]> I don’t usually do end of year retrospectives, but looking back on 2011, I find myself in a reflective mood. It has been quite a year.

2011 was always going to be a busy year for me – I was still in my first year working at a new school and I had finally embarked on studying for a master’s degree. Everything started off well; I was enjoying my job and my studies. Then things got a bit complicated.

In May my Mum was taken seriously ill, a month later Mr MTM fell and broke his leg – badly enough that he required surgery and an external frame and pins to hold it together [pictures via that link may not be suitable for those of a squeamish disposition].

However I count myself lucky. Both my Mum and Mr MTM received very high quality care from the NHS and both of them have now made excellent recoveries. The head and my colleagues were incredibly supportive when I had to take some time off to care for Mr MTM when he first left hospital. People covered my lessons with the greatest goodwill you can imagine – including when Ofsted turned up. My colleagues are fantastic. I even managed to finish and pass the first module of my MEd – I only just made the deadline date for the final assessment (which fortunately was at the end of the summer holiday), but I made it.

It’s not surprising that the second half of 2011 represented something of a digital drought for me, with very little posted here and several extended absences from Twitter. I was too busy in the analogue world, riding the roller coaster of life.

I’m looking forward to 2012. I’m looking forward to trying out new ideas. I’m looking forward to enjoying my MEd studies again, rather than racing to meet every deadline. Now that normality has returned to my analogue life, I’m really happy to be resuming my digital life again. I’ve missed blogging and picking up ideas from the amazing network of educators on Twitter. It’s good to be back.

So far I’ve made four versions: French, Spanish, German and Italian.

To play you will need:

I’ve been using a few starter activities for my classes as a bit of quick revision on some topics, the ones listed below are all [...]]]> It’s that time of year again, GCSE exams are imminent for several year groups, end of year exams loom for others. The revision season is definitely in full swing.

I’ve been using a few starter activities for my classes as a bit of quick revision on some topics, the ones listed below are all on PowerPoint files [pptx format], if you would like any of them, please help yourself – Creative Commons licences apply to them all:

• Algebra terminology – aimed at OCR units A and B on the new modular scheme, where candidates have to distinguish between expressions, equations, formulae and identities. My definitions aim to be straightforward and comprehensible for Y9 and Y10 students. This one uses Microsoft Mouse Mischief for interaction. If you prefer, there’s a non-Mouse Mischief version too – easy to use with mini-whiteboards.
• Pythagoras – straightforward questions. Starter slide with questions, followed by model solutions.
• Circles – area and circumference – starter questions followed by solutions and key formulae to learn
• Prime factors, HCF and LCM – using factor trees and Venn diagrams
• Angles in polygons – the first slide has wordy questions, subsequent slides have diagrams to use as hints, or to help the teacher or a student to explain how to solve the problem
• Percentage changes – starter questions followed by solutions and a key rule to learn
• Volume and surface areas of cuboids
• Decimal calculations, rounding and estimating – not exciting, but it covers some key questions!

Anyway, having spent a bit of time grappling with the wonders of combing Flash and WordPress, [...]]]> I’ve been doing some more work on MoreThanMaths.com over the last couple of days. It was high time that I added some content to the Learning Zone. In the process of doing this I learned something. How appropriate.

Anyway, having spent a bit of time grappling with the wonders of combing Flash and WordPress, I thought I’d share what I’ve discovered:

1. Embedding Flash files in a WordPress site

I’ve been doing this for a while (here’s an example) and I’ve found the easiest way is to use a good plugin.

I recommend SwfObj – it’s reliable and really easy to use. I usually add some code to my posts/pages, eg:

[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/puzzles/coins-01-triangle-to-square.swf" height="450" width="600"]

Alternatively, I can use the link that the plugin adds to the WordPress dashboard. When writing a post or page, just look for an icon with a little f. It’s sitting next to the other media upload icons. Click it and follow the instructions. It’s easy!

There are two functions from the SwfObj plugin that I don’t use.

- Alignment

I find it easier to align the movie by placing the code inside center tags:

<center>
[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/puzzles/coins-01-triangle-to-square.swf" height="450" width="600"]
</center>

- Full screen view

I offer a hyperlink to a full screen version of the file rather than using the built in function (example on this page). This makes it easier for anyone who wants to grab a copy of the movie (eg to embed in a flipchart file for an interactive whiteboard), or who wants to hyperlink straight to it.

Incidentally, if you are going to do this, make sure that your Flash movies don’t have things going on offstage – otherwise they will show up! Many of my movies do have things going on offstage, but before publishing I cover these with a ‘curtain’ – actually a big white rectangle with a hole that shows the stage. Yes, I could deal with this by setting opacity on a webpage, but that won’t help if someone downloads the individual file.

2. Linking one Flash movie to another

Some of my resources aren’t single Flash files, they are too big for that. For example, Measure Island is made from a set of Flash files: one for the introduction, one for the map, one for the flea circus activity etc. They are linked together using Actionscript commands within the Flash files. This command is used to load the flea circus:

_root.loadMovie("ruler_flea_circus.swf");

After trying to get this to work with WordPress, I learned that this doesn’t work quite as I expected. I knew that the loadmovie command was a relative link. I was surprised to learn that it doesn’t point at the folder/directory that contains the Flash movie; instead it defaults to the folder/directory that holds the webpage that the movie is on.

My old site consisted of static html pages, with the relevant Flash files held in the same folders, so that wasn’t a problem. On my WordPress site, it was an issue, because the ‘folder’ containing the page doesn’t exist as such on a database driven site.

I tried lots of things before realising that the solution was easy!

I tried putting an absolute link in my loadmovie commands. The result was crashing Flasherama. Not pretty. Not recommended.

I discovered the base command on Adobe’s page listing Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes

base -. or [base directory] or [URL]. Specifies the base directory or URL used to resolve all relative path statements in the Flash Player movie. This attribute is helpful when your Flash Player movies are kept in a different directory from your other files.

I failed at using this in various ways before eventually deciding to try a base command with SwfObj. There is no mention that this is supported on the plugin’s page, but the plugin does use the SWF Object 2.2 library and I was getting desperate…

[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/mi_intro.swf"</a> height="450" width="600" base="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/" ]

It worked perfectly! Now when a user clicks on a link in my Flash movie, it looks in my www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/ folder for the Flash file. No crashing, no gnashing of teeth. You can see the results here.

As I said, I recommend SwfObj – it’s reliable and really easy to use. And it does even more than it says on the tin!

I’ve been hiding some Easter Eggs. No, not real ones, not even the chocolate variety. I’m talking about the type of Easter Eggs that you find lurking on websites, DVDs or in games. Or [...]]]> I have lots to do, but it’s the school holidays, so I’m feeling no guilt about doing something fun instead.

I’ve been hiding some Easter Eggs. No, not real ones, not even the chocolate variety. I’m talking about the type of Easter Eggs that you find lurking on websites, DVDs or in games. Or on my site for my students, MoreThanMaths.com

There is a purpose to this. When I made my first student website, I filled it with things that I thought were interesting, then sat back and waited for students to explore it. Some did. Most didn’t. So I decided to come up with ways to persuade them to look around, such as the Easter Egg Hunt – and a Christmas present hunt, which operated in much the same way, but with pictures of Christmas presents.

Later I hit on the idea of hiding Easter Eggs, such as the not very cunningly concealed bad joke page, which was surprisingly popular given the awfulness of the jokes.

If the site content is good, students will use it, but getting over that first hurdle of hooking their interest and getting them to explore was harder than I expected.

Anyway, I’ve transferred the bad joke page over to the new site. I should probably find some new jokes though. Preferable some that are actually funny.

I’ve also been having fun creating and hiding one or two other bits and pieces.

I wonder how long it will take for someone to find them?

Photo: Easter Egg Hunt by Leigh Jay Hicks on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

I’ve not been experiencing many of those lately, so I’ll tell you about the “Aha!” moment’s less glamorous relation instead. I like to call [...]]]> I love it when I have an “Aha!” moment. No, I’ve not been listening to 80s pop, I’m talking about those moments of real insight, when everything clicks into place.

I’ve not been experiencing many of those lately, so I’ll tell you about the “Aha!” moment’s less glamorous relation instead. I like to call it a flash of the bleeding obvious. It’s like a flash of inspiration, but without the inspiration

At the start of the last school year, I was thinking about some lessons that had gone particularly well, when I experienced a flash of the bleeding obvious:

My best lessons are often the ones I’ve practised.

See, I told you it was obvious!

For example, I often use a Harry Potter themed ratio lesson. It is always a cracker. It started as a suggestion from a colleague which I developed into a workable lesson. Since then, I’ve delivered it myself many times and shared it with colleagues. Those colleagues have offered suggestions for improvements. Considering how many times I’ve been through a cycle of practising this lesson and improving it, it’s no wonder it’s always a success.

What does this have to do with planning you might ask?

I decided that I wanted to build up a bank of lessons that were tried and tested, with all the resources readily available and with a reasonably detailed set of lesson notes. These would help me to remember what I’d done (I frequently forget things) and allow me to share the ideas with other people. After all, my best lessons are often the ones where I’ve collaborated with colleagues to improve them. (There’s another flash of the bleeding obvious for you!)

The result was that after years of increasingly minimal lesson notes, I’ve returned to detailed lesson planning. Not for every single lesson, but for a surprisingly large number.

Guess what I’ve discovered? My best lessons are often the ones I’ve planned in detail.

I wonder why it took me so long to work that out?

Photo: house bricks by Minimalist Photography on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.