Tag Archives: productivity

David James (@EducationFest): This is how I work

  April 22, 2013 - 10:36 |
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I am David James and this is how I work   @EducationFest; http://festivalofeducation2013.org.uk/category/directors-blog/ Current job: I have a few: Director of IB at Wellington College, Senior MYP School Consultant for the IB and also Director of the Sunday Times Festival of Education. Oh, and teacher of English. Been a teacher since: 1995 Location: Wellington College Current mobile device: iPad, iPhone 5, Blackberry, Nexus 7 Current computer: iMac, Toshiba laptop School-issued devices: Toshiba laptop One word that best describes how you work: Connectively How do you manage your calendar/diary? I prefer to manage it myself, although other people have access to my calendar and can make appointments; I find it saves time to control it myself using Outlook and Google Calendar. … Continue reading →

This Is How I Work for Teachers

  April 8, 2013 - 11:48 |
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Inspired by a similar category of posts on LifeHacker (re-posted on Doug Belshaw’s excellent What I Learned This Week) and What’s In Your Bag on The Verge, I thought it might be an interesting idea to do a version of this for teachers. So, I started off with questions asked by LifeHacker and added a few more teaching specific questions that might interest readers. There is an emphasis on technology but all tips and tricks learned are welcome to share with whomever might sign up for a weekly update. For now, these posts will be a category on my blog which you can subscribe to without my other posts should you wish to. If the posts are well received it may be moved … Continue reading →

ICT Innovator AUPs for teachers

  March 31, 2013 - 14:58 | , ,
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Acceptable Use Policies are a necessary and important document – contract – for teachers in any school because it is imperative that we are protected from the potential danger working online can bring. Following an intense scrutiny of safeguarding and child protection at our school, we published a strict and comprehensive Staff ICT AUP. For example, staff should not connect with any pupil on facebook until one year after they are of school leaving age, and only then with caution as through siblings and friends it can connect you to current pupils. However, two years on we have included in the new ICT strategy a review of this policy to incorporate a section for innovative teachers who want to employ … Continue reading →

Digital Textbooks – Yes or No?

  February 22, 2013 - 19:10 | ,
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Digital textbooks are an interesting beast. Do you use them? My school subscribes to Kerboodle, Doddle, Dynamic-Learning and others. Today my daughter asked to see if I might borrow copies of a science textbook teachers roll out during lessons that seems to be much better than the issued course book she has. I found out that is available to her electronically via kerboodle. But this was not sufficient: “but that’s no use to me is it?” she quipped when I suggested she already had access to this material. She wanted the paper version. Why? She wants to be able to use the book on her desk (where her lovely iMac is also located) without using her computer because she wants … Continue reading →

Touch Typing in my school

  February 18, 2013 - 11:32 |
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When should people learn how to touch type? Should it be compulsory in schools? Should it take precedence over handwriting? These questions can raise some interesting conversations, but as a secondary school teacher I have never managed to do much more than introduce pupils to touch typing, always in the knowledge that it was not enough to get them interacting with the keyboard through muscle memory. They would practice daily for a week or two but only some of them would actually improve their speeds to a beneficial level. But now, I can offer something more… “Learning to touch type was the best one thing I ever did at school” A Colleague It’s half term. A week off the usual … Continue reading →