Session 1 - 16th November 2011
It was with a certain degree of trepidation that I sat
down at my desk on Wednesday night for the first ever #NIedchat. Would the people
who thought this was a good idea really turn up or would I be left like a man
shouting down a well…"Helllllooohoooooh…"?
I needn’t have feared because turn up they did and the first
every #NIedchat got of to a flier.
Question 1
What are the biggest issue facing NI educators?
Participants in general thought that we were in a period of
great change in education and the feeling was that many teachers had
not grasp how seismic the changes would be. The rationalisation of the school
estate, the transfer system and the likely impact of ESA all got a mention. It
was generally felt that rationalisation could be a good thing in terms of
creating a more holistic approach to CPD but school closure, redundancy and
lack of opportunities for newly qualified teachers were also envisaged.
Question 2
What have been the success stories in NI education?
Many teachers welcomed the freedom that the NI curriculum gave them to be creative
and to incorporate new methodologies and technologies into teaching and learning. There was some
debate as to what extent all teachers had entered into the spirit of the NI
curriculum with some suggestion that lip-service was being paid to it at times.
Others suggested that a balance was required between skills acquisition and
knowledge and that it was difficult to do this. Another issue raise was that of
parental attitude to the curriculum. There was a fear that parents would not appreciate
how education had changed and would expect to see children receiving a
traditional type of schooling. A way around this was is to involve parents more
in the schooling of their children through effective communication between
teachers and parents. Many also welcomed the recent relaxation of web filtering
by C2k through “grey filtering” Well done C2k (there…I said it!).
Question 3
What do you hope to gain from #NIedchat and how can we
promote it?
Some suggestion was made that we should produce posters and
have C2k promote or forum through their portal. The general view was that
#Niedchat should be a supportive and friendly environment for teachers to share
ideas. It was generally held that although we shouldn’t shy from controversy it
would be a better idea to let the forum develop before more challenging issues
were tackled. The term 'supportive environment' was mentioned by a few and it is what we aim for.
Question 4
How often do we want to meet?
Most participants who responded to this question felt that a
weekly twitter chat would work fine. It was generally held that we should have another
chat next week.
Question 5
Any volunteers to host next week’s chat
No reply!
Thanks to all who took part. We hope you can all make it for
the chat next week. If you have a topic you wish to have discussed please send
it as a tweet or DM to @niedchat.
Top Tweets
MrMalcontent Barry Corrigan
Rationalisation within all sectors is surely a pertinent one for teaching professionals. Fearing for jobs?
medv2 Donna Vaughan
Well just in from a BoG finance meeting, budget cuts has got to be up there at the mo :(
ict4mfl Edmund Ellison
Budget and funding cuts here are causing a lot of anxiety amongst colleagues n PGCE students I've spoken 2
AnGaeilgeoir1 D Mac an tSionnaigh
I've a feeling we may well see the end of training during term time. These could well be organised into agreed staff days.
Nic5Harrison Nichola Harrison
I'm feeling overwhelmed - 6 new ICT initiatives this year, Emergent leaders course, cross curricular assessments, AB involvement
medv2 Donna Vaughan
@MrMalcontent do parents understand the value of this or is it not learning unless its sums and reading homeworks all the way?
AnGaeilgeoir1 D Mac an tSionnaigh
Another successful change is being allowed access to YouTube in the classroom. It did take a while though!!
its about getting balance right between traditional&creative to embed the knowledge& trans skillsmedv2
I think that CPD is def an important element to support colleagues and should maybe take priority #NIedchat
Tweet of the week.
Ohhh...it's a toughie but considering it was our first chat I think that Tweet of the week should go to @medv2 for
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