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*I thinnk i probably meant between the teacher and the class!

For example

Open ended tasks - all well and good - but in my experience (13 years in propoer schools - not King Henry the V111 independent school fro rich privilaged boys and girls) and in the experience of many of my colleagues who ahve taught between us in a multitude of such schools - students when presented with such a task will simply discuss the football or X factor.

Constant teacher input is required and a structure for them to follow is essential if any meaningful learning outcomes are to be achieved.

so what might sound good in theory to an Oxbridge professor (maybe even one who has spent a bit of time in a school with a small group of handpicked students) if rather different for the majority of us in practice

weebecka:

As you can see from my profile Karvol,

- I've lived and taught in Hong Kong.

- I've worked in the Middle East and have taught quite a few schools out there (about 6?).

I'm interested - you were heavily critical of the use of RME in the Dutch system.

Why?

 

I'm rather interested in your profile.

Having worked and lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years in the late 90's (worked for Chubb at Chek Lap), I must say that I've never heard of Little Beetles. What kind of school was this?

You then mention that you worked in 6 schools in the Middle East. However, this would appear to be for a total period of just over 1 1/2 years, which doesn't leave much time at each school. Additionally, were these teaching roles in addition to your larger project brief?

It would be interesting to know about your time at St Benedicts and what your final role was at this school? With a C+ pass rate in Maths of almost 80% and as commendable as that is, I'm guessing that this school wasn't overly challenging with regards behaviour, motivation etc.

And then of course we have this challenging school in Cumbria. A school where in the final Year 11 cohort there were only 2 statemented students and I understand a Year 9 cohort that totalled 34 students (by many standards that doesn't feel like a challenging cohort, although I accept working in a school that is closing brings its own problems, but still it would appear that you haven't really faced a challenging cohort).

Your time at the successor school West Lakes isn't specified. What happened to your role when the two schools merged?

I would be interested to know what your efforts and contributions were during your freelance consultancy days, as I have yet to see much evidence of your contributions (bar two ATM articles and a number of messages on forums).

Then finally what is your role at MMU? There is no mention of you on any of their websites as far as I can see (feel free to link anywhere that does). How regularly do you lecture there and what are your contributions? 

Now you (and others) may call this prying and I think it would be fair to say that I would not normally be so interested in someones background and experience. However, with the manner, tone and content of your contributions I'm just trying to build up a picture of yourself and why you hold yourself in such high regard (because being honest, your contributions on here to date, along with a rather patchy Profile/CV does not fill me with the same confidence that you appear to have of your own abilities).

MathsMA:

I must say that I've never heard of Little Beetles. What kind of school was this?

Little Beetles was/(is) a private primary wrap around school.  I'm sure you know that the Hong Kong Schools double shift so students are free either all afternoon or morning, so there's a lot of this kind of thing goes on.

I chose to work there rather than in an English speaking school (as you know the secondary schools are) because I was looking to work in a properly Chinese environment (I was the only native english teacher there).  I'm also TESOL trained and it gave me the chance to explore how we can use activities to overcome language barriers and so on, which I found interesting.  I could have taught secondary maths but chose this instead as it gave me quite a few opportunities I couldn't otherwise have had.

MathsMA:

You then mention that you worked in 6 schools in the Middle East. However, this would appear to be for a total period of just over 1 1/2 years, which doesn't leave much time at each school. Additionally, were these teaching roles in addition to your larger project brief?

If you see I was actually teaching in the UK at that time - I did this teaching during trips to the Middle East - so it was demonstration lesson and so on rather than employment.  This teaching was part of my project brief for the British Council where I was working with the Ministry for Education in Jordan.

MathsMA:

It would be interesting to know about your time at St Benedicts and what your final role was at this school? With a C+ pass rate in Maths of almost 80% and as commendable as that is, I'm guessing that this school wasn't overly challenging with regards behaviour, motivation etc.

That's stunning Bennies - I'm seriously impressed.  It wasn't like that in my day.  Bennies is the school of choice for most parents in West Cumbria (which is not the Lake District for anyone who has romantic ideas of Cumbria).  It's very overcrowded and has plenty of difficult classes and students.  I'm guessing it has about average stats?