Solihull College

by Tony Davis · November 30th, 2015 · · Comments are off for this post

21st Century Pedagogy

• Breath-taking.
• The session encouraged us to think about how learners themselves can be more proactive.
• Refreshing.
• Time well spent to reflect, share, questions, engage rather than react.
• Enlightening.
• It helped me to know how important aims and objectives are.
• A challenging climb to a rewarding view.
• A re-evaluation of what I want from my learners – in what ways do I want them to develop?
• Excellent session. Tony has incredible insight and exciting, fresh ideas.
• Refreshing to be challenged during staff development.
• (I need) more focus on how learners move to aspirational goals through specific and aspirational lesson planning.
• (We need) trust from upper management that we as a team want to develop – not so much ‘one size fits all’.
• The session was very informative and thought provoking. All aspects were relevant and I look forward to the other 2 sessions.
• Someone turning the light back on.
• Inspiring and motivational.
• Found the expert learning traits particularly useful.
• I find writing learning outcomes difficult. This did help, and also helped to identify the difference between skill and attitude.
• More confident to take risks and stretch and challenge learners more often.

Formula for Happiness & Creating unmissable learning experiences

• Very busy day. Hugely inspiring. Thinking of ideas without boundaries has enabled me to develop new strategies.
• Blinding.
• The moment the ship starts to slip down the launch slipway.
• Andragogy. Re-designing and refreshing learning space.
• The observation process was at first daunting as an observer, but then it really clicked.
• Being given permission to try something you were dreaming of.
• I would like to experiment with learners being involved in the planning of the course
• Really interesting and engaging experience. Thank you so much.
• Less is more.
• How peer observations throughout the year can also keep you as a teacher curious to learn and develop your delivery by seeing other colleagues’ sessions. Having the opportunity and time to experiment without restrictions.
• Lots of ideas of how we can change and make learning more accessible to all learners. Build in strategies to be more independent and reflective to achieve higher.
• Enjoyable, engaging, empowering, enlightening, evaluative, constructive. Unchained Melody.
• I’ve really enjoyed today, even though I was anxious the night before about peer obs. (Can be harder to be observed by those who know you than strangers.)
• Felt stretched/challenged – delighted that learners were in the zone. Big impact on Adam.
• Exciting, inspiring. I really like the creative ideas that you spoke about in delivering a lesson. I found this really inspiring.
• Insightful. Less talking – allow students to steer their learning. Students being involved more in the planning.
• Consider business unit [of the qualification] and Blendspace – independent learning.
• Breath of fresh air. This is what we’ve wanted/needed. How we can change our teaching to benefit student development and learning good practice from our peers. Thank you for coming.
• An unshackling – we are free again to create. A reminder of the drive to create and reinvent. ‘New’ is exciting and possible. Excellent – truly inspiring.
• Positive constructive process. [I need to] take more positive risks.
• [I need to experiment with] levels of support built into resources to help scaffold all learners to higher level skills.
• Be creative in planning for new academic year.
• Mind opening/expanding/interesting.

Independent Learning

• Really great session and fantastically delivered. It’s good people like this that challenge and question the established way of things.
• Inspiring. Curious to learn more.
• You brought back memories of how I felt when I first began to teach.
• Eye-opening.
• Upwards!
• I’ve had another Gestalt moment!
• Motivating
• Enlightenment.
• Insightful.
• There were some excellent points illustrated with some indications of solutions.
• Inspired.
• Questioning traditional lesson planning. Lightbulb on.
• Really good to come out of a training session and feel a different perspective in how to teach. Thank you!
• An awakening to new realities.
• Awesome.
• Inspiring and exciting to try new approach.
• It’s really made me think about how to inspire students. I’m already questioning how to use Moodle to ‘ferment’. It is scary to think that this is a complete change to my usual practice, but exciting to try it. Def one of the best training sessions to date.
• Zoom! This will help me to deal with learners who don’t have the ‘fertile ground’.
• Have made copious notes for use in schemes of work.
• Far more thought provoking than usual sessions on ‘training’.
• I was a reluctant hill walker at the start – weighed down with baggage. I’m now inspired and heading in the right direction.
• I like that you are verbalising the thoughts that almost all learners have the inherent ability to achieve. I hope I can continue to use that in my teaching.
• Sparrow to peacock.
• Such an interesting topic and an ‘obvious’ fix – why isn’t it happening more already?!
• It helped me enormously. A truly inspiring session!
• Liberating.
• Independent learning is what makes a life of independence possible.
• Brilliant. Tony is a true scholar with an amazing ability to enthuse and encourage great discussions.
• Being in a nightclub and the lights come on too soon. More dancing to be done.
• Made reflection of teaching practice a crucial focus.
• Changed my perception of the importance of these skills and how to develop them.
• Radical.
• Some genuinely fantastic ideas and I hope to see some of them in practice.
• Vision of Utopia through the prison bars, but the key in on the floor… But am I too scared to use it?
• Opening the blinds to sunshine when clouds were forcast.
• Sunrise – the start of something new!
• Excellent session. Great delivery (pace/structure). Very impressive.
• Out with the old, in with the new! It’s time for a sea-change in FE teaching. “Viva la revolution!”
• A start, but perhaps a bit daunting.
• Back packing on a journey where you’re unsure of the destination, but results in one of the most memorable experiences to date.
• Brilliant session. Even the teaching technique used helped me for future lessons I will deliver.
• I need to adjust my strategy for delivery of subject material to make learners curious.
• Challenging, inspirational and a much needed breath of fresh air.
• Some good ideas needing back up from SMT.
• Spacebound.
• Interstellar.
• You have given me tools to change my practice.

Inspiring Induction Practices

• A journey along a new road.
• (I need to) think in a long-term way, developing strategies to establish expectations, motivation and higher skill sets.
• Happy, excited to change.
• A fresh breeze let through a stuffy house. Really refreshing.
• Jaded to Jazzed.
• Focus on exciting them about the things they normally hate.
• Informative and experiential.
• I will endeavour to implement changes across the whole faculty of art and work out ways of continuing this through the year.
• (I need to) get our learners to become enthusiastic, confident, happy, sociable, independent, to create a fearless learning community (so that they) look forward to new and further challenges.
• Eye-opening.
• I feel empowered to take control of induction.
• Tony was extremely professional and inspiring.
• (I need to) make it more inspiring from the take off, and maintain momentum.
• (We need a) different approach – what do the learners want, not what do we want!
• Think big. Reinforces what induction should be about.

Perfecting Progress Reviews

• I love your style, you are different and engaging.
• I am bubbling with excitement for my reviews.
• My learning journey today is like collecting seashells.
• I can see clearly now the rain has gone.
• Reviews are the most powerful tool we have to empower a leaner and raise the standard.
• Several points that should be obvious, but are often difficult to put into practice, so useful to reflect.
• Playtime in an art room.
• As a new assessor I have been focussed on the tick boxes but I have good communication and motivational skills so I need to chill out and use them effectively.
• Ensure I structure my questions during the progress review meetings in a way that would encourage the apprentices’ to freely reflect, share and fully express how they are feeling about their learning journey.
• Try using scenarios more. Gave me a different outlook on the importance of the review making a difference.
• Allow the leaner to lead the review.
• I will shift more towards the ‘no feedback’ approach, giving my learners more air time.
• I am new to this, so it has given me an insight into a new aspect of my job.
• Great session. Learned a great deal and a new approach to carrying out reviews.
• The approach to the training session was refreshing and engaging. Would love the college to do a day on the Assessment and the Art of Lazy Teaching for our next staff development.

Supercharged Evaluation Skills

• Super-charged journey today!
• I wish all schools could have you in to give them training.
• Dynamic.
• First class.
• The concept of ‘colour writing’, and highlighting this technique to learners, will help them to think critically.
• Very well resourced and enjoyable session.
• Given me ideas about how to develop learners’ higher-order (thinking) skills.
• Out of this world!
• Eye opening.
• Tree, branching into new ideas.
• Learnt how to get students to be evaluative and how to do it.
• His evaluative vocabulary sheet was particularly useful.
• Some excellent ideas for developing students’ descriptive skills for written work.
• A tool-box of vocabulary and effective scaffolding techniques to improve students.
• Inspired me to stretch my learners.
• This has encouraged me to focus on developing students’ evaluative skills.
• (I need to) have high expectations of individual learners in what they can achieve.
• Utopia. Achievable.
• Use of language – teach them how. This is the missing link in my teaching. Fantastic.
• Incredibly beneficial, a much better use of time compared to the usual development sessions.
• This was really helpful in how to structure and build support to enable all learners to achieve critical thinking skills. I will definitely embed this into induction.
• These sessions have been amazing and the team have lots of ideas.
• Fabulous. I really enjoyed the Adverbage game.
• The use of colour to identify terminology, judgement, opinions and impact will be a very interesting way of targeting the improvement of students’ evaluation and analytical skills.
• Very enjoyable and informative.
• I’m going to change my handouts and start scaffolding learning.
• Zeus’ thunderbolt.
• Gave me different parameters to engage with tasks.

The Art of using Target Setting

• Informative – Thought provoking.
• I will visit the website and proceed to download!
• Will take away new ideas.
• The day helped to widen my thoughts on many ways to improve.
• Tony Davis is very expert at drawing out answers and it was a pleasure to enter into the conversations.
• Provoked an alternative thought process and approach to learner interaction.
• Exciting – the use of a Quality Standard to lead my tutorial and review process.
• Insightful. I want to put these new skills into practice.
• Our review paperwork is clearly not fit for purpose.
• Look at how we can build learners own skills in identifying and setting their own targets.

Perfecting Development Plan Writing

• I now have a much clearer idea about how to address symptoms when writing QIPs.
• The day was really well scheduled and managed. I cannot think of any improvements.

Transformational Lesson Observation

• Eye-opening/inspiring.
• I have become more aware of how to measure the impact of learning and critically reflecting on my own practice.
• Things I would do differently: allow students to be more involved and take ownership of learning situations as well as ensure I use measures to consider what learning has taken place.
• Rollercoaster.
• We identified what an outstanding lesson looks like.
• I feel confident to let the tutor lead the feedback and not feel like I need to do all the talking.
• The video observations were extremely useful.
• (I need to) focus on the impact of the (teaching) strategies – rather than what the tutor did.
• (I need to) be more empathetic when observing others.
• Good to see things from an observer’s point of view. Also, very good to introduce a change in the way observations are done and perceived.
• Self reflection is key.
• Enlightening.
• I fee peer observations could be a very positive experience.
• Mind expanding.
• Inspired reflection.
• Feel confident to discuss the observed session more openly and positively and change the way in which questions are asked to allow a more positive outcome.
• It was interesting to sit on the other side of the lesson observation form, to consider what was successful and why.
• Forensic without judgements.
• Hopefully this could be implemented as part of the overall college observation process.
• (I need to) review and reflect more on how I can make improvement to my own practice and share skills, ideas, concerns.
• Thank you for recognising that one size fits all approach doesn’t suit all.
• Educational.
• Other side of the fence!
• Someone turning the light back on.
• The day has been constructive and something to build on.
• Incredibly beneficial, and has given me a greater understanding of the observation process.
• Very positive and eye-opening. Inspired to revamp sessions and discussions around this. All areas of the institution need to agree to this strategy.
• I feel positive and more confident to evaluate observations.

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