Tag Archive for ‘school’ at dougbelshaw.com

Tag Archive for 'school'

A cluttered desk is a sign of genius.

Published

on 10 April 2008

. 4 Comments

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Cluttered desk

My Dad was Deputy Head of the High School I attended. I remember him having on his (very untidy) desk something he had received as a gift. It was stuck to the desk and consisted of a triangular piece of wood with a brass plaque on it. The words inscribed simply said,

A cluttered desk is a sign of genius.

It’s always stuck with me. I remembered it the other day, so whipped up a banner in Publisher, got it laminated and have stuck it to the front of my teacher’s desk. Ironically, the above picture was taken at the beginning of a new term when my desk is actually at its tidiest…

I’ve started using Twitter with my pupils…

Published

Doug Belshaw

on 9 April 2008

in Education

. 7 Comments

My Year 11 (15-16 year old) History groups - the ones who blog, can use a wiki (until Wikispaces became unavailable/unusable through the school network), use Google Apps for Education and on occasion submit YouTube videos instead of essays are now Twittering.

It’s about time: I’ve been talking about doing this for over a year now, and even suggested 3 different ways Twitter could be used in the classroom. So, over at my new (Google Sites-powered) Y11 History revision wiki I’ve shown my pupils (in great detail) how to go about signing up for their own Twitter accounts.

Usually, Twitter’s a fairly open-ended thing, with each user as a node on a (potentially) huge network. ‘The network’ is actually a series of larger and smaller sub-networks which are linked together by ‘bridge’ users. A little like a large wireless network, in fact.

(image credit)

But that’s not how I wanted to use Twitter with my students. Not yet, anyway. I had intended to use the promising-looking Edmodo but, after discussions with Jeff O’Hara discovered it wouldn’t be ready until after my Year 11s go on study leave. I need a closed network, at least at first. At the moment - and during this trial period whilst they’re revising for examinations - I want something like the situation exemplified by this image that I included in that blog post last year:

So far, each group has spent one lesson in the ICT suite making sure their @mrbelshaw.co.uk Google Apps for Education accounts work, getting acquainted with the new revision wiki and signing up for Twitter. The test posts from myself to their mobile devices go ahead this week and we shall hopefully iron out any problems next week.

Issues so far:

I wanted to have a separate Twitter account for each group. However, as I can only link my mobile phone to one Twitter account this was not a good solution. I’ve therefore been forced to have one account that will be used with both groups.
Putting +44 in front of their mobile numbers and missing off the zero caused some problems, even amongst the more able and digitally-literrate pupils who read all my instructions!
Network connection issues and Javascript error messages due to school-based problems.

Hopefully this will tie in with a Becta/Historical Association-funded project of which I’m an associate member. More on that and how my pupils get on with Twitter next week!

House up for sale

Published

Doug Belshaw

on 30 January 2008

in Everything Else

. 2 Comments

For Sale I came back this afternoon to the scene depicted to the left. It made me feel a bit strange actually, but then things that go from being theoretical to ‘real’ usually do. We’re selling up and renting for a bit. Why? Well, many reasons (volatility of the housing market included) but mainly due to my uncertain position for next academic year. Although the Head at my current school is making all the right noises, I don’t have a permanent position and my contract ends in the summer.