So Much to Learn...So Little Time

The Importance of Learning Another Language...or not, if league tables are invovlved

I caught this from Education Guardian in my Google Alerts for "languages" today and although I'm not directly affected being an MFL teacher in Scotland it got my goat.

Headteachers today blamed school league tables for a dramatic decline in the number of children taking languages.

I'm am in no way a supporter of league tables, but it is blatant rubbish that it is the fault of league tables that fewer kids are studying languages. I am willing to be corrected if wrong but is it not the choice of individual schools whether or not languages are compulsory post 14.

As the government published the latest tables for GCSE and A-level in England, John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said they created perverse incentives for schools to skew the curriculum for 14- and 15-year-olds towards easier subjects.

So is Mr Dunford saying that the sole incentive for dropping the obligation for language study is the incentive to make a school look better in a league table? Hardly the most educational rationale is it?

I always thought we were in the business of producing well rounded young men and women with a drive for lifelong learning and an ambition to to their best in whatever they attempt. Yes it is important to kids and mums and dads what grades appear on their certificate but it also important...no vital, that students come out of their time in school as confident, responsible ,world aware citizens. The study of a foreign language goes a long way to doing this.

I think more H/T's need to be stronger to resist the temptation to make their school look good through tables. A good school with good teachers and a strong ethos of achievement in the broadest sense will always shine through...except to those who are so blinkered as to believe that a league table in something  like education actually means something (politicians for example.)

But Dunford said the target had contributed to a dramatic fall in the numbers taking modern foreign languages now that pupils were no longer required to a take a foreign language after the age of 14. "This is widely regarded as a hard GCSE, a view that is supported by reliable research evidence, so, instead of taking French or German, students have taken subjects in which it is easier to reach grade C.

Oh dear, so languages is seen as a hard subject...SO WHAT?. What is wrong with a little academic rigour? Nothing for those that respond to that. But learning a language doesn't always have to be so difficult. Surely in England there are lower level courses students can take where students don't dwell so much on the hard grammatical stuff, but learn more about the culture of the countries where those languages are spoken, whilst still covering the basics. Any language teacher will tell you that parents at parents' evenings constantly bemoan the fact that though they didn't like languages at school they wished they had paid more attention because they go to France every year on holiday...

It's easy to blame league tables...they can't exactly respond via a blog can they.It just seems to me that everyone is taking the easy option: H/T's because they get to skew their stats a bit and pupils because they don't want to do something thats a bit difficult.

There have been so many articles written worrying about our lanck of linguistic prowess and what it means for future generations. This is just one I picked up on. (The Language of Ignorance?)

The rest of the world is becoming more multilingual - and monolingual English speakers are being left behind. Those that have learned English as a foreign language have every right to compete for jobs in the English speaking market, and if they are more qualified than those that speak English as a primary language, this could leave a huge chunk of the UK population without jobs.
Many think of languages as a non-vocational option of study, but in reality learning a foreign language can open up a vast array of career opportunities, ranging from work with well-known multinational companies to international organisations or charities, with the added benefit of travel abroad.

  

Without a language skill more and more of our kids will be at the back of a queue for all the good jobs. Come on give them a chance. Yes its hard, yes it can be a pain in the arse sometimes but it is encumbent on  us as educators to give our students every chance to succeed in a world which is changing everyday...it's then up to the students to grasp the opportunity given.

And yes I know H/Ts have lots to think about when making their decisions about the curriculum but simply blaming the league tables is to my mind down right daft.

Technorati Tags: languagelearning, language, johnduford, educationguardian, adamsutcliffe, gcse,

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Stinkin'Thinkin'

I know this  article on bbc has already been blogged about by Ewan and Doug Dickinson, but just felt the need to add my 2 penn'orth.

Children often bring the fascinating gadgets they were
bought as Christmas presents into class, but these can cause disruption
and hamper learning.

I wonder if Kevin Brennan has been into a classroom where this disruptive technology has been harnessed to fantastic  educational effect. Let me think off hand who do I know from the blogosphere in MFL teaching has successfully disturbed a lesson with great educational output. Lynne Horn, Sharon Tonner, Me, Ewan, etc.
Yes these "toys" can be disruptive IF the purpose of using them is not explained and the penalties for misuse calmly pointed out. My classes erupt with joy when I say get out you phones and turn on Bluetooth, but this is always accompanied with a proviso that if a student uses their phone in class for something other than waht they have been tasked to do it will be confiscated...thus far no probs. Don't worry I have heard all the arguments about losing things and damaging things as well and these are real arguments, but they should not be excuses for trying.

When oh when oh when are politicians going to shut up about education and leave it to those who really care or alternatively see what can happen in classrooms before reacting to

Technorati Tags: education, teaching, web2.0, technology, "kevin brennan", gadgets, mp3, ipod

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The state of welfare

How ill does someone have to be to find out exactly what is wrong and how bad it is?

I apologise for this post but I need it to be some kind of catharsis. I am puzzled, dissappointed and quite despairing of what has become of the NHS and how it functions (not the people who work in it because they are as put upon as educators but the system)
Background.
At the beginning of October I had 2 weeks off work, I was diagnosed with a ruptured lumbar disc (slipped disc). In November I went back to work still sore but capable of doing the job. After 2 weeks I caught a bad cold and coughing fits put my back out again even worse than before. As a consequence I have had another 3 weeks off and will not be back until 2008.
All this while both my GP and physio both explained that although I had a cut an dried case the hospital would not accept a referral until I had been ill for at least 6 weeks. So GP finally referred me 2 weeks ago. YESTERDAY I got a letter from Neurological outpatients kindly telling me that yes they had received my GP's letter and that they would write to me 6 weeks before they had a date available in the clinic. Not even the vaguest idea of when this might be.
In the mean time with all this waiting, I am still not physically capable of standing (or sitting) in my class to deliver lessons. Mentally no problem but I can't stand for much more than 30 mins without starting to feel pain. This means that my employers are paying me full salary whilst being off work (not complaining obviously), but they also have to pay a supply teacher to be in my stead at around £200 a day (you do the sums 5 weeks, £200 a day.) My colleagues are having to set my classes up, so taking time out from their own classes and my own students are not benefitting from having a trained MFL teacher in front of them. The costs to my employers and my students are big.
BUT I will still have no idea about where exactly I have this problem and what needs to be one to sort it out (surgery / rest etc.)
Why can a GP referral not be seen asap? Why are waiting lists so long?  How much is all this costing. On a personal level I am hoping that I  will improve on my own and be able to return to work before I start to pay (i.e. when my entitlement to full pay stops and goes down to half pay.)

I will leave you with this thought. When I caught malaria in Cameroon i went to the hospital. Within an hour I had a blood test and was told to get the results  3 hours later.  My results showed a high level of infection, I was prescribed the right drugs had 2 weeks off work and went back fine. This is in a supposed developing nation. Ok so I had to pay up front whereas we have free at the point of delivery.
But I am just so annoyed at being left so long in limbo.

As an aside: I've been trying to think of ways to still invilve myself in my classes via the web and stuff. I've posted useful listenings to my int 2 class blog (thus far non of 'em have bothered themselves to download them.) I was also due to give a presentation to all S4's about the LAFTAS ( we are challenging them to produce films to promote the study of languages.) I did the presentation in keynote, then imported to quicktime. Unfortunately a couple of short films I had embeded in the presentation didn't work so I then imported the quicktime movie to iMovie cut out the offending films and reimpoted the originals in their place. I then sent it to iDVD, made the DVD and sent it to school (3 hours work in total). They are going to use it this week I think.
So I am still capable of doing some things.

Click To Play

Accepting responsibilty

Politicians constantly wonder why people (especially young people) don't "engage" (hate that use of the word) with politics any more.
Is it really any wonder? With all that's been going on in the last few weeks (no make that years) you'd think the morons in charge of political parties would really get a grip...but no. Why should any decent tax paying law abiding citizen pay heed to these incompetent idiots.
Politicians should be models of society and everything they do should stand up as a shining example...but no it all about self. All the spurious expenses they are able to claim, the flagrant flouting of their own laws which when caught in the act they deny like naughty children. Why, when they have done wrong not just say so straight away? I for one would have more respect for that person.
We have come to a point in the political life of this country where there are really no options for those who don't hold extremist views...Labour, Tories, Libdems, SNP all the same just different words.
As teachers are trying to encourage our students to be responsible citizens, unfortunately this country's politicians provide no solid role models for them to follow and they are therefore stuck in the rut of believing in and looking up to the likes of Jordan and Peter Andre.
How can we change this? By not voting? Definitely not the vote is a civil duty that was hard to gain. Maybe voting should be compulsory, ensuring that everyone has a voice and that our leaders must appeal to everyone. Just a thought. I don't know the answer but would like to see something change soon...vain hope!

2 Big Questions

Over the recent 2 week October holidays we have here in Scotland I spent an inordinate amount of time watching and listening to various presentations from the K12 Online 2007 Conference.

The last day of the conference was devoted to a marathon 24hr live online discussion via elluminate which I was lucky enough to visit on 2 occasions; quite early on when I "met" Joe had a first verbal contact with Paul Harrington. I was enjoyable but there were too few participants to ensure a wide ranging discussion. I also joined later with about and hour to go and it was fascinating. There were educators from all over the world, all kinds of time zones, all talking about the wonderful world of the web.
This was great and I feel happy about my contributions...and shhhh maybe I'll get a few more readers.
However it really brought to mind a couple of big questions that have been turning around my head for a while. Questions to which I have my own ideas for answers but questions which I feel we should all be asking of ourselves and others.

1.    I love web 2.0 stuff and can see the advantages it can bring to education but how can I persuade the 30 year career teacher that it might be worthwhile (for the kids sake) to take a step out of the worksheet comfort zone  and take on the risk on potential failure in the classroom by trying something new?
The thing that just kept leaping into my mind whilst enjoying K12 was that whilst it is great to find same-minded people across the globe, where were the doubters, those that would force us to counter their arguments to help us prove our point. I think that the answer to this conundrum lies in Derek Wenmoth's presentation Holding a Mirror to Professional Practice. The persuasion will come I am sure when more and more of us seriously evaluate the work we are doing and prove to the doubters that this is not just another passing educational fad...like non-competitive sport.

2. When you look at the cluster maps posted on blogs you see swathes of red dots over North America, Europe, Australia/NZ and parts of Asia. The world is often still green across Africa, South America and large parts of Asia...Hmmmm I wonder why? Could this be the developing world? Not only do these parts of the world often miss out on even basic educational (and health) needs how far behind us are they going to be in the wonderful world of the web. (I have often thought about trying to help my brother-in-law in Cameroon set up a cyber cafe, but as he says there's no point, they only get electricity every other day...30km away from the capital city.)
How can our use of web 2.0 technologies help my little nephews and nieces "au village"?
Yes you all cry there's the One Laptop Per Child Initiative, which is a fantastic idea, but they are relying on governments, who struggle to ensure a simple basic level of education for all children, to purchase a huge number of units. If there is intermittent electricity there is hardly likely to be the capacity to create large bandwidth.
The thing I find most frustrating is that at the moment I don't think there is all that much we can do to help. Our governments and big multi-national corporations need to get serious...more serious. STOP ENFORCING ALL DEBT REPAYMENTS, STOP STEALING MINERAL RESOURCES, STOP BRIBING EASILY ENCOURAGED OFFICIALS. Then maybe individuals like myself and many of you out there in blogger world can kick in.

This article from the BBC shows people are starting to think abpout how to address this issue. But where will we be in comparison by 2012?

Let me know what you think.

An Englishman in Scotland

For a man with a very Scottish name Kelvin MacKensie really has made a fool of himself this side of the border.

Obviously as a former sun editor, sense and dignity do not figure highly as personal characteristics, as opposed to narcissistic self-aggrandisement. How can someone on such a high profile show as Question Time come out with such generalised comments, that, as an English man working in Scotland, I find insulting to the extreme. Has he forgotten all the oil wealth that has left this Scotland to fund the South East?Where would English football be without the influence of Scots: Ferguson, Shankly, Paisley to name but a few. What about all those Scots in Westminster, you can't say they have lacked drive? Gordon Ramsay...not entrepreneurial?

He has obviously not visited a school in Scotland recently and seen the extraordinary work going on to encourage the development of enterprise skills (including social enterprise), which can only bear fruit in the future.

I for one am proud to work in a country which has one of the best education systems in the world and has some of the most forward thinking educationalists in europe.
Sorry Kelvin, you are wrong and extremely ill-informed. Not something you should expect of a former editor of a national newspaper...but then again when we remember your editorials post- Hillsborough...'nuff said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7041128.stm

This month's SEJ

Thank you, thank you.

This months SEJ contains some interesting stuff, in particular because the articles relate to topics which I am interested in. Firstly let me send a big hurrah and thank you to Larry Flanagan (new EIS Education convenor) for his article on assessment. A few weeks ago I wrote about the ridiculous situation we found ourselves in with regard to our STACS results and how pointless I find the whole exercise...entirely my opinion by the way. Larry says he found it depressing faced with

...a set of decontextualised statistics [that] had been manipulated into various tables which, in many cases bordered on being meaningless

He goes on to say that it's not the stats in themselves that are not worthwhile just the purpose(s) for which these figures are sometimes used. In some cases they seem to become the be all and end all of a school's success.
I agree wholeheartedly with Larry's  assertion that it is not our appearance on a list which motivates teachers but our relationship with our students.  When it comes down to it each August we look at the individual results of our students and reflect on how they did basing our decisions on our relationship with and knowledge of said pupil.

 

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You know that famous quote about statistics...

STACS...

It's that time of year when our statistical chickens come home to roost. Each department is issued with a STACS analysis of their results.

Maybe someone can explain the statistical validity of the statement indicating that one gender in AH French have under-performed (our one candidate of this gender got an A). Maybe I am ill qualified to judge but statistically to me this means 100% success.

There was also the line about SG German achievement being below par when compared to predictions in other subject areas...MFL is not an elective in S3 & S4 unlike most other subjects (apart from core of course).

When are we going stop paying number crunchers huge amounts of money which generate meaningless figures which mean that teachers get to fill in more and more paperwork just to make sure that statistics add up.

As a frontline grunt can somebody tell me whether the much anticipated Curriculum for Excellence is going to put a halt all this, or if not halt it make these analyses make more sense to those of us who deliver education day after day?

An Interesting Week

It's going to be an interesting week.

I thought that on my return from Addis things would get back to some kind of normalcy. No chance. I thought I'd at least be able to do some room tidying during my now free S4 periods. No chance.

So much stuff to try to organise and do.

• multi cultural day
• edit films
• teach
• P7 Languages Work to film
• teach
• INSET presentation in front of all MFL teachers from Grampian
• Blogging workshop in Graz to prepare for
• Blogging/Podcasting workshops in school for teachers

Thats what I can think of at the moment...oh I forgot another one TEACH.
Often have to remind myself that's what I'm actually paid to do, compared to most of this other stuff, which I'm not.

At the moment my S1's are trying an experiment wherein they are learning their school unit stuff by doing. Instead of teaching them the vocab they are preparing films and radio shows about the school. As ever in their eagerness to produce something interesting they keep  forgetting to use their vocab guides which leads to all kinds of internet translator-ease. I have given them til the end of the month. I'm quite prepared for failure in this venture as I'm not convinced that we've gone about it in the right way. I think a certain level of direct teaching will be necessary if there is to be a next time for such a project.

Anyhow. I've been putting together some more of my Addis footage so here's a video trip through Addis Abeba starting at Mount Entoto.



 

Consumerism is really crap.

Somebody please tell me what is good about shopping.

Am I getting older or am I just becoming infinitely more cynical about the society in which we live?
I had to go into Aberdeen today for a couple of reasons.

1. to buy some great African food from The Spice Shop
2. to put my wife's mobile in for repair
3. to get some kabanosi from Lidl
4. for my wife to get a ring she has been wanting from M&S

First reason was fine, 'cos I love eating plantains, halal lamb, carp etc which we can only get from the brilliant Spice Shop on George Street in Aberdeen.
Third reason was fine because Lidl is just ace. I know it from Germany and the quality of some of its stuff is great especially the Polish Kabanosi, which we put in Spag Bol, Chilli, or "petits porcs" (smoked bacon lardons in a tomato sauce).
It's the second reasons which **** me off. How on earth can a cracked screen on a mobile phone seriously cost £45 to repair/ replace. I bet the person who repairs it will spend 30 mins max on the job and he/she will be on max £8/hour. No way the part costs £37. Nice little earner for a certain mobile phone shop that sounds like a huge storage facility of in-vehicle communication systems.
Next and this is what I get really brassed off about. Into M&S racks and racks of similar looking stuff. Hordes of folk looking as miffed as me holding carrier bags full of crap. WHY? WHY? WHY? What purpose does spending your Saturday (beautiful weather as well) hidden away in mall spending cash that if you are like me you don't actually have. As you all know I was in Ethiopia recently and went to the market there. Still loads of people all still rushing around, 2 major differences:

1. you could chat to them (I did)
2. they were buying what they NEEDED

I think we here have a great tendency to buy what we want, thinking it will make us feel better. I do the same but thankfully not to the same extent I have in the past. Shopping can never be the way to a better life. The way forward for us is to start to think more about others again and what we can learn from other people's way of life. Our society is so stressed by the desire to have the latest stuff that it is forgetting how to enjoy the simple things...listening to your kids laughing, birds singing in the garden, going for a bike ride, eating simple no frills home cooked food AND NOT READING MY OWN AND OTHERS' BLOGS FOR 24 HOURS.

POSTSCRIPT: IDIDN'T THINK I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT THUS BUT READING JANET STREET-PORTER YESTERDAY REALLY MADE ME HAPPY. CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE.