I am currently Leader for Media Studies and Key Stage 4 English at The Chalfonts Community College in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.
This is my personal weblog. I primarily write about education and technology. By writing this column I aim to explore, reflect on and evaluate my own learning; sharing my thoughts, ideas and experiences as an educator who embraces technology and the opportunities that it offers in improving learning inside and outside of the classroom.
I also write about productivity, design and blogging itself. A significant by-product of writing this blog has been the way that it has improved how I, as an English teacher, teach writing. I believe that blogging is a powerful way to improve any learners ability to write and also be more reflective. It has certainly worked for me.
I publish on average six posts per month. This fluctuates, usually dictated by the time of the year and my school workload. I have blogged about my writing process here and what I have learned after a year of blogging here.
To make sure that you don’t miss any of my posts you may wish to subscribe via RSS or Twitter.
TOP POSTS
If you are new here you might want to start by reading some of my most popular posts. Here are the top ten according to page rank and number of comments:
- QR Codes in Education: A Burgeoning Narrative
- Gove + Zuckerberg = Elitist Victorian Education 101
- …on Learning Objectives
- Thinking Space
- Busting a hole in the wall (the purpose of education)
- Ceci n’est pas une pipe and the death of Media Studies
- Learning Taxonomies: Why ‘creating’ is a cognitive skill
- Enough
- Design as Teaching
- 3 things I do every school day that make me a better teacher
You can also check out the archive to see every post I have written or use the search function at the top right of the blog to find posts that might be of interest.
BIOGRAPHY
I have been an educator for nine years, having completed a degree in American Studies (2001) and a PGCE in English and Media Studies (2003). I currently teach at The Chalfonts Community College, which was designated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in January 2011.
My position as Leader for Media Studies and Key Stage 4 English allows me to continue to improve my classroom practice while also contributing to the wider school community and curriculum. I was part of a working group that implemented a series of integrated learning projects at Key Stage 3 and I had a leading role in the development of the schools use of Moodle as a Virtual Learning Environment. Moreover, I regularly contribute to the schools professional development program delivering sessions in the use of video editing, podcasting and the VLE.
Technology plays a significant role in the learning of my students; you can see a full list of the tools I use here. One of the most prominent has been Google Docs about which I have written a series of blog posts reflecting on my experiences. Also, I have been encouraging student blogging in Media Studies (student blogs are in the sidebar on the right) for some time now and this year I began to do the same in English. I am currently working towards a Masters in Education. You can read more about this here or by searching: #mainedu.
I married Jennifer in May 2004. We live in a small cottage, just twenty minutes outside of London. She also blogs and tweets and is in my opinion a wonderful writer. I read a wide variety of books and blogs. I’m a film buff, a lover of art and photography, and have a broad interest in history. I enjoy walking and love to travel. I subscribe to certain minimalist and Buddhist ideas and these are reflected in the way I try to lead my life at home and work.
I have presented at conferences and Teach Meets. If you would like me to present on E-Learning, Blended Learning, AFL, Independent Learning, Blogging or other related areas please get in touch.
COLOPHON
This blog is written on an 11″ MacBook Air. It is so light and minimal that it makes the perfect focused-writing machine. I draft all of my posts using nvALT (a forked version of Notational Velocity), before copying them over to WordPress to proof-read and publish.
At work I use a MacBook Pro. Between teaching Media Studies and English I need a more robust machine, running Adobe CS5 as well as a wide range of open source applications.
My blog is hosted by Bluehost and powered by the latest version of WordPress. The design is a customised version of the Origin theme.
CONTACT
You can contact me by email, Twitter, Google, or via my home page.
DISCLAIMER
The opinions that are expressed here are my own and in no way reflect the opinions of my employer. Comments will be subjected to moderation and remain the responsibility of those who posted them.