Wednesday 30 January 2008

Crocus

Crossing the Meadows this morning I noticed some orange crocuses pushing up beneath the trees. In the past this has always been sign that we are just about to enter Spring and escape from Winter. It's little memories like this that remind me that things will never be the same again.

We were joined by another 12 children this morning and one other adult, in addition to the 8 who had arrived yesterday we now have 60 kids. One other adult had joined us - another secondary teacher from a different school who had read about us on the emergency website. The morning get together proved even more important as we needed to share again our "rules". The families are still coming up with ideas about what we are going to do but we did agree that it still wasn't safe enough to go and visit local people's homes (as had been suggested). It's great to see the kids looking out - not in.

One thing which did emerge in the course of the day was that they wanted to see learning as something which wasn't just something they did in school and socialising something they just did out of school. They were very adamant that we need to "blur" (my word) the edges so that they "mixed up" (their word) the two to the point where you couldn't really tell the difference. I have to admit to being a little unclear how we might achieve this but at least we have an idea where we want to go.

It looks as if we have lots of IT expertise amongst the kids - they see this world as an extension of reality. They don't talk about on-line learning they just switch quite naturally from one enviroment to another. I suppose we need to let them take the lead on this but how do we decide upon what they learn - or am I trapped in my thinking from the past?

My worry is that I am starting to get stuck with lots of organisational details - who will make lunch?; when do we finish?; what do we do tomorrow?. I know that people will fall into that expectation that others will decide for them but I do so much want to try to avoid that old thinking. The one thing we do have is time. We need to use ot tpo get things right but above all else we need to do it "together".

My one concern is that I've just had a phone call from Deputy Head from another school. He has read about us and wants to come and lend his "leadership experience". I feel guilty that I'm even feeling like this but I'm worried that he will want to take over. Is that a bad thing - especially if he is experienced? It might be for the best.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

0Phone him back and make it clear that you've got a kind of workers co-operative happening. Otherwise, I'm afraid you may have a conflict on your hands.

Anonymous said...

Suggest to him that he start his own group in another location. See if he really is serious or is wanting to simply walk in and take over what the kids have already started.

Since it appears that everyone is having to walk, a second school/family set up wouldn't be a bad idea.

The other issue is that while the society that you and the kids are building may very well work for this group, others may indeed need something more traditional.

The more options available to people the better. Standardization does have its place, but not necessarily right now.