The H-Blog

So, as of Monday this week, I have completed 2 out of 4 – that’s exactly 50% folks – of the assignments for the PGCE I am sitting this year as part of my CPD. Although it has been hard graft – studying at the same time as working as a teacher is waaaaaaay different from studying at the same time as working in a shop or behind a bar! – I think on the whole it has been a worthwhile and beneficial experience. It has allowed me to take a bit of a step back from the coalface to analyze and reflect on what I am doing, which has turned out to be a pretty satisfying experience.

Another experience, which turned out to be equally enlightening, was when I took part in a final year student’s research project. Whilst it was interesting on many levels to be a participant in someone else’s research, the real surprise came at the end of it all, when I was lucky enough to read the final draft of the dissertation (which was, I must say, remarkably good!). I was interviewed as part of the project, as were a number of my colleagues, and I was surprised to read a fair amount of what I had said in the dissertation. I was even more pleasantly surprised by how open, honest and positive what I had to say was. Sometimes in the midst of the daily maelstrom that is education we forget exactly why we do what we do. It’s nice to be reminded from time to time. J.X. – thank you!

Having been shamed by the amount of blogging being done by colleagues, friends and former pupils, I have resolved to make a real effort to blog more often this year. In fairness, last year’s blogging was undone by a double whammy of regular edublog-outs and my discovery of Twitter but hopefully this year will be an improvement.

Have been reading and hearing a fair amount of negative stuff about ACfE recently, and am becoming increasingly worried that like some highly-powered, finely tuned, precision-engineered Formula 1 flying machine with a clodhopper at the controls it is going to be left stalled on the grid. The saddest thing about that possibility is just how many people working in education will be secretly (and not-so-secretly) delighted if it does. There are so many people I meet who never mind not having the inclination to make ACfE happen, they actually have an inclination to make it NOT happen. As a reasonable newcomer to the profession, this is my first real insight into such professional inertia and, well, conservatism. Has been a bit of an eye-opener, actually.