Trying to write.

My son sat down and wrote the beginnings of a short story this afternoon. That's my seven year old son, happily writing a story and seemingly having no difficulty with the process! OK, so it was about Pokemon (not exactly original), but the structure of the story was great and it impressed me.
Later in the evening, as I put him to bed, we were talking about his efforts and he gave me a challenge. All he said was "why don't you write a story, Daddy?" but somehow it became a very real idea. With an acquaintance of mine having his first novel published this coming month, it seems more believable that I could do it (even if I know I might not be anywhere near his level of talent).
So watch this space. It may well be just a short story (in the first place, at least), but I am determined to create something. Now, what shall I write about..?

Procrastination

Why is it that I'm sat at my computer at 11 o'clock on a Sunday night when I have a full day's teaching tomorrow?
Why is the work I started over an hour ago barely touched? Come to that, why did I only start it just over an hour ago even though I could have done it at any time over the weekend?

This is not a long post (after all, I must get on with that work), but it's something I must get down. I was thinking the above thoughts when it came to me - I'm really good at procrastinating! Whenever I have jobs that must be done, but aren't much fun to do, I manage to leave them as late as possible before doing them. Sometimes, I leave them even later than that! It wouldn't be quite so bad if I was doing something useful instead, but I rarely am.
Having identified this flaw in my character, which I suspect my wife will tell you she identified years ago, I think there's only one course of action open to me...

But I'll worry about that tomorrow!

Gove gets it right?

(This is my thoughts on Michael Gove's speech about the ICT curriculum in English schools: click here for the text of the speech from the DfE)

Normally, when I hear that Michael Gove has made some new pronouncement about education I don't have to think too hard about my response - most of them so far have been pretty dreadful for us teachers! This time, I am finding it very difficult to keep up my usual disdain, as I actually believe he has got the right idea.
Put simply, what Mr Gove has suggested is that the current ICT curriculum ceases to be a requirement for teaching as of this September. ICT will still be a compulsory subject in schools, but we will be free to teach what, and how, we like. Courses leading to qualifications are also expected to change, with coding, programming and computer science becoming more important than being able to use an office suite.
What this means in the short term is not yet fully clear - will we be expected to develop new schemes of work this summer to begin teaching in September, or can we introduce these new ideas a little more gradually? What about pupils who have begun working towards a qualification in ICT? Will it be withdrawn by the exam board in favour of a new course (I doubt they would, but you never know)? - whatever happens, though, it looks like there will be scope to engage pupils much more effectively in lessons from now on.

I feel that in some way Mr Gove has heard my prayers (and I found it difficult just typing that!). I have been feeling for some time that we waste a lot of energy ensuring that pupils can demonstrate how to put together a PowerPoint presentation or that they understand which is a row and which a column in Excel (yes, we're stuck with Microsoft Office for now). In theory at least, we can now deal with those office-type skills more simply - while still ensuring pupils obtain a good level of skill - before moving on to topics they should find more interesting. Not all pupils will be able to create their own games or apps (or whatever), but I suspect most will enjoy the attempt.

Why blog?

I was following the news today and wanted to say something about it.
My first thought was to use Twitter, but I couldn't find a suitable way to say what I wanted to in a short, pithy, comment that few people would see and even fewer would pay attention to. I considered my Google+ account, but on Google+ I have even fewer followers that would be interested in my thoughts than I do on Twitter and I have been rather absent from there; it just didn't seem the right place.
Weighing up the options, one thought occurred (and stuck) - "why not finally start that blog you've been considering?"
So here is my blog. How much I'll use it I can't say and how long I'll keep going with it is also an unknown, but for now... Welcome!