This isn’t the blog post I wanted to write so I’ll have to come back later … sorry!
For the first time in three years of blogging and tweeting have I doubted myself. After an episode on twitter I’ve spent the last 15 hours wondering if my chronicling of the accreditation process is being seen as a crusade … no … that isn’t what I mean. I am wondering if people see me as a “negferret” – you know the kind of person that says “this’ll never work .. its sh1t! … it never works”. .. I’m sure you know what I mean.
Let me start at the beginning …
Yesterday I responded to a tweet about the new maths GCSE with the below. I know there was the whole “frequency” tree thing (New Maths Post , Frequency Trees and Frequency Tree Update) and making up maths, but all along I have said that I quite like the content. In fact I quite liked some of the SAMs (yes they were challenging) … all along I have said that we shouldn’t be thinking about the new GCSE with our current cohort in mind. My issue has been the accreditation process and the fact that we are now speeding into the summer term and still nothing, but I suspect that people are “busting a gut” to get something out sooner than the end of June.
This was shortly followed by the below response and accordingly I responded. I have never knowingly set out to make personal criticisms (apart from taking the mickey out of some of my twitter buddies!) especially any that criticise another teacher’s professionalism.
Anyway the conversation continued and this person (you will note that I have redacted the tweets) went onto say that I was negative.
What I really wonder is in what world do people think its ok to make personal assumptions about me and then I got thinking about blogging. I put it out “there” so does that mean I am fair game, so to speak … ummm no! This person in my opinion stepped over the line and made it personal, especially assuming that by raising awareness it is being done at the detriment of my planning and preparation … well I can assure you that is not the case. The accreditation process is something I am passionate about and I will make the time, but it certainly will not affect the important stuff.
What is even more disappointing though and perhaps indicative of teachers having been through changes in the past. I’ve heard things like “oh it’s just another change”, “yeah that’ll pass” but even more worrying are comments like “what’s the point in replying to consultations? They never listen to us anyway”. So what I am doing is the exact opposite I am shouting it from the rooftops and even if it makes no difference I will continue and unlike someone’s naïve and narrow-minded point of view – Ofqual and the Dfe are not “administrators”. They have the ultimate power of changing the shape of education … maths teachers are feeling the pressure in a climate of more accountability than we have ever seen before. I take issue with education, and by association our students (particularly years 8 and 9 – especially year 9!) being used as political footballs.
Anyway the conversation ended with a couple of tweets reminding me how negative I am and that I was wasting her time – I didn’t ask her to reply to my initial tweet. I didn’t ask her to follow me.
Anyway one last time, before I write up my next post about my letter to some very important people … if in doubt ….
PS: As I’m just about to press “publish” I have just received an email which ends “Thank you again for all your positivity, it helps more than you could imagine”
It’s sad that you have had to defend yourself / actions. You are an extremely positive person and the way in which you’ve investigated and persisted shows how passionate you are about the subject and for the outcomes of the students (not just those you teach!). The easy thing to do is just put your head down and plan lessons and not try to hold those higher up to account. The more people (teachers) get involved with holding others to account, the better (planning/organisation) it should be when the next changes come around (you’d hope!).
Thanks Tim, Lovely message … I didn’t write it to get that kind of response (but I’ll take it!!) it was more to get it off my chest x
People have different ideas on everything, especially on issues involving ED. We are constantly remind of non-judgemental or non-confrontational communication with students. We need the same when comment on ideas of professionals.
Hope this is a lesson for us all. Thank you put it on. Appreciate your open minded and +ve attitude.
Anyone who follows what’s going on in the world of maths or spends time on twitter following the people who are brilliant and generously share the resources they make, knows that you are a machine and you not only spend time campaigning for the maths GCSE to be held off a year so it can be planned and organised properly but also spend time planning lessons and creating resources for your own classes and for others like me! I still don’t know how you do it (I came home on Friday, fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at 10pm so you have way more stamina than I do!!) I know you will respond saying you didn’t write this to make people like me and Tim above comment in this way but I felt I needed to. Some people out there are more than happy to comment on others and try to make out they are better but no doubt will be the first to complain when their students aren’t ready for the new GCSE. It’s very easy for people to live in their own little bubble and just concentrate on the 30 students they have to get through their GCSE but some people do more. Do they think the resources they find on the internet just appear by magic and forget that someone put the time and effort into creating and then sharing them with us all. From me and all the others out there who do appreciate what you do, thank you for everything you do 😉
Anyone who is remotely aware of how you have helped so many teachers and therefore students with your resources could not, with any rationality, blame you for wasting your time. It’s sad that this has happened but next time, don’t rise to it and remember the old adage, “you can’t argue with an idiot.”
Thank you!
Mel.
You are my inspiration.
I don’t need to say any more than that.
Em
🙂
I should have said this much earlier… Thank you for doggedly sticking with your questions and following up all the less than satisfactory responses from civil servants. I truly admire your patience and tenacity. Nothing negative in wanting to know what’s going on!
Keep at it Mel! I’ve followed your blog and wish I still had the energy to do what you’re doing. I’ve been teaching Maths for over 20 years and these changes take us back to the GCSE of the early 90s. Like you, I applaud the motives but feel sorry for the year 9s caught in the middle. Thanks for keeping us all informed, you’re doing a fantastic job x
As part of his preparation for today’s paper 2 I gave my son the Edexcel 1ma0 SAM paper 2 to do for practise because he had completed all the past papers. It was clear that this is very different than any past papers; less questions and more demanding. With this in mind, I wonder how important is the SAM process for the GCSE 2017. The actual exam is unlikely to match the SAM anyway.
At the end of the day if teachers over the next two years teach the GCSE 2017 content with the intention of providing their classes with mathematical understanding rather than through rote, those students will be well quipped to deal with whatever level of demand of their exam boards throws at them. It may be wiser to spend energy on convincing teachers to teach maths with understanding and provide the students with problem solving skills instead of a collection of rote learned methods. Two rote methods I see time and time again at A level are moving algebraic terms and students writing 2/1 when multiplying or dividing fractions both are indications of rote teaching. Algebraic manipulation is about balance and inverse, and 2/1 is 2 and really shouldn’t be written down.
Hopefully the exam boards will have the courage to vary their exams and stop robbing students of the chance to use their mathematical knowledge appropriately in exams, rather than just rote learning the past papers.
Thanks for the comments. To some extent I do agree about questioning how important the SAMs are anyway and my issue is not about whether or not we have them at the minute and I agree in principle to the philosophy behind the changes. I just want Nick Gibb to confirm that he is confident in the accreditation process and see no problem with wanting accountability from people who are running our country.
Hi
I saw that tweet about “get out of the profession” and thought it poor. You are absolutely right to question, probe and demand answers to an appalling administration of a very important process. To be honest, the tweeter sounds like someone who just does whatever they are told and deems anyone who seeks clarification to be “negative” (but then I would be judging them!). Keep doing the tremendous job you are doing. People need to ask questions and not just be “yes” people all the time – doing things that we know are wrong, THAT is being negative! Without sounding melodramatic, if no one asks questions, it leads to Savile, FIFA, Rochdale et al. Keep positive and thanks for a cracking website.
Thanks. I have been genuinely blown away by the response and am touched. It is great to know that I am doing the “right thing” and is making me even more determined to see this through. I had a very supportive email today that said something very similar to your comment: Reminding me that “the reason you may feel like you are going on and on about it, is because the people you have asked for answers quite reasonably, are ignoring your requests or fobbing you off, hoping you’ll go away and give up. The choice is really to let their tactic work, or continue to press on in the face of criticism from the odd person who has had enough of the whole charade. Based on the responses to your recent blog post, I think most people who read the blog, value what you are doing and those that don’t have every right not to read it and bury their heads in the sand!”
Thanks again x
Mel – you are bloody amazing !! The work you do IS appreciated by the majority and there are a number of people who (like in class) are nodding in agreement (or clicking if at KSA – Bruno) but are too scared to put their hand up or share their concerns. You are a voice for so many.
I know that some of my ideas (tuck shop at a Maths Conf) are a bit out there but good things happen (raising £180 for Macmillan). I am sure you know we’ve got your back.
Thank you! I think you’ve hit the nail Rob some of us are to scared to put our head above the parapet and voice an opinion but discussion is the way to reaching an agreement x
With any online presence there will be positive and negative comments. Naturally as soon as we post anything that voices an opinion then we invite people to form opinions on us.We can’t fall back on “You don’t know me” because all we provide is online evidence for people to go on. Just as many comments here are making assumptions now on the original tweeter.
If you have a large online presence so have to take the rough with the smooth, you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone. If you don’t want someone’s view then block them.
Twitter/online forum arguments are pointless: it’s like playing chess with a pigeon, no matter how good at chess you are the pigeon will strut around the board, knocking over pieces and crapping on the board. The pigeon will always believe it has won.
Don’t get angry/upset about online conversations. The human race is not emotionally intelligent enough to cope with social media.