Who are you?
My name is David Mitchell (aka @DeputyMitchell) I am the Deputy Headteacher at Heathfield Community Primary School in Bolton. I have been the Acting Headteacher since the summer of 2011 but now look forward to handing over the reigns to our new Headteacher from January 1st 2012. In addition to my official role, I am also a Google Certified Teacher from the first Google Teacher Academy outside of the USA. I am also a Toshiba Education Ambassador and have been fortunate enough to have been on the receiving end of some awards in 2010 and 2011.
What first attracted you to teaching?
My father (@gog40) was a teacher so I have always had teaching in my blood. However, that isn't the reason I wanted to become a teacher. I didn't do very well at school due to many factors, the biggest being that I wasn't challenged or engaged. I left school with only 2 GCSEs after my first attempt with an additional 3 after my second attempt. Although I tried many other paths to employment, my learning journey only began the moment I started my teaching degree in 1993. I truly thought that I could make learning more engaging than my teachers did for me. I wanted to prove to Mr. Clegg (Maths teacher from my school) that I wasn't the class clown.
What excites you now about teaching?
The tools at my disposal excite me! I have seen the most powerful learning moments come when my pupils learn with me and learning isn't done 'to them' but 'with them'. As I have said above, my learning journey began the moment I started my teaching degree, I'm still on that journey and so long as I keep excited about learning then my learners will too. I'm so excited about the unknown future that we are preparing our learners for. There isn't a checklist of things we need to tick off. So long as my learners LOVE learning they will be able to tackle the unknown the future will undoubtedly throw at them.
What would you change in education if you had the opportunity?
If I had the chance to change things in education, I would take education out of the hands of politicians. Education needs protecting from the games of politics. I think the profession isn't used enough in the governance of education, how come one man or one woman's vision for education can become policy? There are teachers, school leaders and Governors out there who have decades of experience who should be able to guide progress in education with much more impact than the current system. I don't have the answers but if the politicians asked the profession how education could improve I have 100% faith that we'd get it absolutely right!
Why is blogging so important in education?
Blogging suffers from a very narrow definition! I know this as I'm that blogging bloke who was on the telly. What many people don't know is the pedagogy behind the good practice that goes into the learning behind a great blog.
Firstly, a blog is an outcome, this outcome has seen many stages before it is made public. And in the public nature of the outcome lies the magic of the engagement that so many teachers that use blogging preach about.
"The child's tray is a hospice for their writing, where their writing goes to die." (Bill Lord, 2011) This concept is so easy for me to understand as this is what my own education lacked. We ask our learners to consider their audience daily or weekly. What's the point when they are writing for their teacher alone? From my experience the learner also knows what we will be writing in their books for developmental points too. Give a learner a global platform to publish their learning and you'll see these learners apply 100% effort because if they don't, their audience will tell them!
At another level blogging is so important in education because of the community that surrounds it - a generous group of sharing learners all at different levels of their learning journeys. Comments from other learners are more powerful than any other comments. Over the last 12 months, my learners have received over 8,000 comments. These 8,000 comments are sometimes 300-400 words long with links to examples and suggestions too. How powerful is that? More powerful than my 3 stars and a wish? My learners think so!
What do teachers need to know about social media in schools?
Teachers need to know that social media doesn't need to hurt. From Facebook to Twitter, from YouTube to Blogging, put these tools in the hands of an educator who has a sensible outlook about how these tools can be used and you'll see the benefit from the learning that is taking place at the hands of that educator. Collaboration, teamwork and peer support are all offspring of effective use of social media in my classroom. Once you embrace a tool like Twitter you'll have access to many people that have already used social media within schools and they will be more than happy to share the experiences.
What is QuadBlogging?
QuadBlogging was born out of a tiny idea to help out a school that was doing some fantastic blogging but not getting the audience that they deserved. There was a danger that the pupils and teachers might lose interest. This would have been a travesty as the learning being showcased on their class blogs was wonderful. Heathfield is blessed with a very healthy audience and I also knew a couple of other people who also had a healthy audience. I saw an opportunity where 3 schools could help one school. This is where the number 4 and the term Quad came from. Each week one of the 4 classes or schools would be the focus where the other 3 classes or schools would visit during that week and leave comments for the learners. Each week would see a new school out of the 4 being the focus school/class and this would be repeated for the 4 weeks. While setting up this Quad, I publicised it on Twitter and within a few days about 10 other teachers asked if they could be a part of this QuadBlogging.
The concept has remained the same, however, the organisation be behind the scenes hasn't. Going from 4 classes to approximately 1000 from 25 countries has been a tricky project to manage. Each quad now has a volunteer from within that quad to be the Quad Coordinator, responsible for communication between the adults in the quad resulting in a smooth cycle where each class knows which is the focus class. The tools behind the scenes have also evolved. A Google Form linked to a spreadsheet embedded within the Quadblogging blog makes organising each quad quite easy. Up to now, QuadBlogging has directly impacted around 40,000 pupils from all over the globe.
What positive outcomes of quadblogging have you personally seen in schools?
Gathering evidence of impact from Quadblogging classes has proved fairly hard. It has been obvious from tweets from Quadblogging teachers that the impact is there in engaging the pupils and springing life into class blogs that might have been slipping down slope. It has also been evident that Quadblogging has added a global dimension that had previously been missing. There are more and more comments each month on the Quadblogging site: QuadBlogging Highlights. There is also a very nice tool called Scoop.It that collects Quadblogging posts on this site:
I am still working on gathering more evidence of the impact that Quadblogging has had on pupils, classes and teachers. If anyone has any suggestions, please add them to your comments!
What is your vision for the future of education?
My vision for education is one of 'For learners by learners'. I want to see developments and progress in education directly influenced by the profession. It's OK that we don't know what our learners will doing in 20 years time. Have teachers ever had crystal balls? The future of education will need to produce learners who have simply 3 things:
1. Experience of successful collaboration
2. How to quickly find out things they don't know
3. A love of learning
What links do you wish to share?
My Blog
QuadBlogging
Heathfield School Website
David Mitchell is one of the invited Spotlight speakers at Pelecon 2012.
Image courtesy of David Mitchell
10Q: David Mitchell by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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