Musings from the Plains
After a blockbuster four years at The British School New Delhi, it is time to move on to my next adventure. If you had told me this time last year that I would be leaving TBS, I wouldn't have believed you. The way the TBS community has embraced me makes me long to continue to stay a part of it, like that distant family member who comes back from time to time. Hopefully to enjoy the journey of growth and improvement TBS is well known for. I am reminded of the advice of my parents when we used to travel. "Say thank you and leave things 'ship-shape' and tidy for the future." This has guided me during the last few months and even though times are turbulent due to the COVID19 situation, the TBS ship is safe and set for the future. Led by our able captain, Mrs Vanita Uppal and her two first mates, Melisha and Mark, the ship is indeed steady as she goes. Rarely have I seen individuals brave the oceans and stand in harm's way to protect the institution as a whole. Now I might be biased but visitors who come to the school often comment on how happy the children seem and how everyone they encounter is full of energy and passion. That is indeed the right kind of infectious and a testament to the kind of place TBS is. Sailing a ship in the right direction requires vision and the support of crew members and a big thank you to the community who have helped us achieve some truly memorable achievements during my time onboard. The Innovation Lounge was one of our initial successes, a truly world-class place, a place of envy if I might say so, for other schools. But hardware on its own isn't great, you need to have the right software. Backed up by reforms to both Digital Citizenship and the Computing curriculum and providing a pathway for Innovation and STEM, turned a room with cool gear into a thriving hub of creativity and learning. Plans are afoot to provide a similar space for upper school and I can't wait to see the end results. Global success and thought leadership have gone hand in hand for us. I can't imagine a year when we haven't been recognised for our fantastic work. Now we have historically been modest and it was a pleasure to be part of the journey to showcase our achievements and inspire others. To paraphrase the iconic line from Three Idiots: Pursue excellence, and success will follow. And oh my, have we been successful. It doesn't get better than being recognised as the Best British International School in the World or as an Innovative School or a Future Ready School or being recognised for our use of technology for safeguarding and for learning. Much more importantly though was the success of our younger passengers. From academic success to representing India twice at the F1 in Schools World Finals, Young Founders success, Ideathons, Hackathons, Girls Who Code, Robot Wars, MITx, Harvardx, individual awards, the list goes on. None of this was possible without the tireless work of our Computing, IT, passionate teachers and support teams. There are often some secret missions that not everyone is aware of but these have a huge impact on the way we work. Thanks to our IT squad we have upgraded our wireless potential and brought in new hardware and software to better integrate technology for learning and these changes have really put us in a league of our own within India. We have upgraded all of our communications systems as we established a higher level of transparency and closer communication with home. This is an area we continuously strive to improve upon and our fab Communications team will no doubt build upon their successes. Thank you to the team who like the Energiser Bunny, keeps going on and on and on. There is so much more that I can talk about especially of all the individuals that have truly made an impact on me. The ones who have inspired me to go that extra mile, students and parents included in this. But one does have to save some stories for their memoirs. Well, I trust that you can see, the cabin is quite tidy, the bunk bed has been made up, we are ‘ship-shape’ but before I depart, it is right and proper to give my thanks to the entire TBS community, and my thanks to you all, are the most sincere. Farewell, for now, and I leave below a passage that neatly sums up my time at TBS. Global recognitions, innovative world firsts, unparalleled student achievements and some truly ground-breaking work. My time at TBS feels like a blockbuster movie. Every scene, an event to cherish, and the cast members, superstars. TBS takes your passion and has a way of amplifying it that it becomes addictive. No wonder, you find so many of us, not working but living and breathing the TBS vision. What a ride! and if you want to stay in touch, Google me, I'm out there. 😉
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A video of a talk as part of the #GlobalBrewEDIsolation Online event on Twitter in May 2020.
For those who like to read, transcript below: Moving school? Do or Don’t! Ladies and Gents, Welcome. Thank you for joining #GlobalBrewEdIsolation. A big Shout out to Ed and Graham for organising another fantastic live event. My name is Sunny Thakral. I am an International educator, originally from the UK and currently working at The British School, New Delhi, India. If you want to find out more or have questions after this session feel free to connect with me via Twitter or LinkedIn. The international school sector continues to grow at an astonishing pace and the demand for teachers has grown substantially in this sector. This leads to an annual migration of teachers across countries. This session is focussed on discussing the impact of COVID19 on international teachers who have resigned or have taken up positions in other countries. The focus of the conversation due to the crisis has been majorly on students and quite rightly so. Even where staff are discussed the focus has been on up-skilling, technology, procedures, general wellbeing but this niche group of educators and their needs have been overlooked. Well no more! We will cover the options available and ways forward for those teachers who might have resigned, are looking to resign or are planning to over the next year. It might also be useful to teachers who are thinking of moving into the international sector as it might give you some insights which could be useful in the future. This might come as a shock to many but most international teachers have to resign before they get their next job. The way the sector works is that schools expect you to resign 7-9 months ahead of your departure date. What it means is that most of the current batch of teachers who resigned would have done so by October 2019. If you are a local or national teacher then for most a term or three months is the normal period and most will probably have a job secured before they do. So why do international schools make teachers do that? It’s because this helps them plan for recruitment of replacements which often has a long lead time. Schools advertise their vacancies on portals like TESJOBs, Search, ISS Schrole amongst others and teachers then apply for these posts. With visas and other paperwork which can take months, schools need to plan ahead. So a number of international teachers this year would have resigned way before COVID19 ever appeared on the scene and quite a few would have accepted posts in other countries before the epidemic hit their current one. Due to the speed of the spread, Countries then went into lockdown. Travel stopped. Embassies shut down along with Government offices and Universities. Schools went virtual and suddenly what was an exciting time to begin a new journey became a nightmare. How do we go about getting documents attested and legalised for the visa process? How do we go about applying for visas? Often international teachers work in countries other than their own so if travel is restricted, they can’t even return home. On top of all of this is the ambiguity of the offer from their new school. Contracts might have been signed but will they be honoured. How would packing work? The logistics of moving house and families is another battle. What if the new school honours the contract but you can’t travel? What is your immigration status in the country you are in? Questions about salaries and how they will be paid to the logistics of virtual school to health insurances come to mind. If you have children, what happens to their education. Some International teachers around the world are busy dealing with all of that and ensuring high quality education for students in their care. Kudos to you all! Scenarios Let’s unpack this a bit more and consider some scenarios. If you are thinking of resigning then best advice don’t! If you have no choice and that could be due to a number of reasons like contract expiry, school closure, professional issues and what not. Let’s move on to: What to do if you have resigned and don’t have another job yet? Talk to your current school and see if you can work out a way of staying. The best option is to see this through in a country that you are familiar with. What to do if you have talked and they can’t offer you your job back or perhaps you don’t want it back? In that case, you have no option but to look for a new job. Start with international schools in the country you are currently in. You would be an ideal option, a candidate who is in the country, familiar with it, with reduced admin and reduced financial costs. If applying within the country you are in is not feasible then you need to look for places where visas etc. and travel might not be too complex. Failing that the world is your oyster. There were 1200 international jobs listed on TES as of this morning so I am sure there will be one for you and believe you me this is a lot for so close to the end of the international school year. What to do when you secure the job? We will come to that later. Next up. What do you do if you have resigned and accepted an offer or signed a contract? This is tricky. There are two schools of thought. One says offers and contracts are not really valid as you are in different countries and operating under different laws. Schools will not think twice of letting you go so you should look out for yourself. The other focuses on ethics and mutual respect. You signed the contract, accepted the offer in good faith and the school is banking on you to teach children. Withdrawing leaves them in the lurch and having to go through the cycle again. Whichever school of thought you subscribe to depends on your personal moral compass. If you withdraw from an offer, talk to the new school and outline your concerns first. Give them a chance to respond and process. Most reputable schools will be understanding. Follow the answer to the previous scenario and try to get a job with your current school or in the current country. If you don’t withdraw, let’s join the group who have accepted the overseas offer in the first scenario. What to do if you have decided to move overseas? Start talking to your new school. Outline the concerns about salary payment, accommodation, visa situation, medical insurance, virtual school, local visa situation, police checks, support they can offer. If you signed with a reputable school, they will have an action plan and they will be happy to talk to you through it. You might need to involve agents at some point who can help you with the paperwork once things get better and they will get better. You might want to start planning ahead and take care of all the bits and pieces that you can do now as things might move quickly. It is not all doom and gloom, as this might be an ideal time for teachers to move as opportunities might arise in top international schools with little to no competition compared to the normal recruitment season. If you take a leap of faith, you might end up in your dream school. Hopefully this gives you a brief insight into the complexities involved and there might be huge amount more questions that pop into your head as a result. Where to get help? Your current school and the new school would be the first places to start. After that forums on International School Review and TESJobs could be useful as long as you stay away from the trolls. Bit of a rabbit hole that one. Better than these are international educators in the countries you are in or travelling to as they can give you realistic advice and a Clearer picture of the ground realities in the country you would like to call your new home. If you are worried or have questions, feel free to send them my way via Twitter and I will do my best to help find answers. Mirror Mirror on the wall, show us what trends will impact the educational landscape, which ones will be the greatest of them all. Cognitive modification, metaverses, open-source assessment, personal learning ecologies are perhaps a bit too far out. Maybe a decade or two away. Let’s pinch to zoom a bit closer to 2020. What can schools and educators look forward to over this year? It is not a very easy question to answer as schools are complex beasts. You will have top tier schools which already have access to some of these technologies. The middle tier schools who will probably pick one or two of these trends and the majority of the schools which will still be struggling with trends that were supposed to be implemented over the last decade like effective student information management systems and learning management systems. For the purposes of this article, we will look at five tech trends which are still in their infancy and though the potential is great, they should be graduating this year into the mainstream. Learning Analytics Learning analytics is the process of identifying trends and patterns to reveal areas of improvement based on data about a student’s academic performance. The goal is timely action and relevant intervention strategies to improve attainment. Designing effective lessons and learning experiences using data generated allows the teacher to focus on helping students informatively. Learning analytics software can be part of other software or collation of data from different systems. It allows teachers to track students who are academically weak or measure engagement with the content. Student learning patterns can be identified to create stimulating lesson plans and additional resources utilised as a result. Finding out how students learn is quite powerful and this helps in personalising the learning experience. The software can though go further than individual lessons and it allows a holistic overview of student performance over time. Adaptive Learning Adaptive learning systems build on learning analytics and use data to adjust learning for students on an individual scale. The scope for personalisation of learning is immense. These systems often utilise machine learning/artificial intelligence or statistical analysis to inform content selection. The goal, as always, is to provide customised education to deliver the right content at the right time. The software can create engaging, personalised learning experiences which the teacher can build upon leading to a more inclusive approach to education. More and more ed-tech software will be utilising both learning analytics and adaptive learning over the year. Here the software does a lot of the grunt work that teachers often do saving them time and that is a quick win and sell in schools. Augmented Reality Augmented Reality (AR) seems to be around for a while, overshadowed by its big brother Virtual Reality. AR has the potential to tap into education much more due to its ability to create shared experiences. All one needs is a phone and teachers and students can participate in an AR experience. Allow each student a device and you have a truly personalised experience. Invest in an AR headset and now you are talking cutting edge. At its simplest, using a mobile device, AR superimposes photos, videos and animation onto the real world. How powerful is it to see a piece of literature come alive or hear music from a music sheet? It allows embedding experiential learning in the most rote of lessons and surely that is not a bad thing. Like any other technological tool, it is the creation and curation of these learning experiences which is key. Teaching a whole lesson using AR probably is not the right way, yet. Short snappy experiences which make a well-planned lesson come alive to connect the student to the learning will be the way forward. Data Protection and Cyber Security As schools move down the road of ed-tech software solutions, student data is becoming more and more lucrative. There will be a dearth of companies looking to monetise this data and as such schools will start looking at policies and solutions related to data protection and cybersecurity. With the new IT act inbound and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations prevalent abroad, dealing with organisations like Cambridge International Examinations and International Baccurelate based in Europe will require compliance and schools will need to start formulating plans on how they deal with the security of student, staff and parent personal data. Even accreditation organisations like the Council of International Schools and others will require this as part of their accreditation processes. It can be tricky to walk the tightrope between an individual's rights to privacy and the lawful processing of personal data and schools will need to upskill their leadership to understand how this impacts all aspects of school life from vendors to in house data sharing. To highlight some of the key requirements under GDPR:
Virtual learning Now, this one is not new however if you are paying attention to the 2019-nCoV situation in China, you can see how schools still aren’t prepared to deal with virtual learning. With school closures going into March there and even with virtual learning environments being a staple of most schools for over a decade, it is still becoming cumbersome for schools to teach students online. Distant learning is easily achievable by structured courses on platforms like Udemy and edx, but not in a school. Videoconferencing is extensively used in business however not in schools. Expect a renewed focus on this in the international school market with some ed-tech companies thriving as they build solutions to cater for this need. Teacher training is another area that virtual learning will focus upon as the costs of sending staff to face to face training sessions soars. In addition to the above, gamification of learning will continue its march along with other technologies which perhaps are on the periphery. Blockchain, Internet Of Things, e-sports are going to slowly inch their way into schools especially as they migrate towards becoming Smart Campuses. Use of app-based learning and bespoke software solutions are a bit of a hit and miss however solutions focussed on creativity will definitely be leading the pack. Whatever K12 tech trend a school follows in 2020, the common mantra will be the personalisation of the learning experience and that surely is a good thing. ![]() So you binged watched the first week and had your fill of gaming and still have a few months left before university or the new academic year. Below are some ideas on what you could do. Level 1 1) Learn an essential skill: Cooking or Baking 2) Learn to play an instrument or a game like Chess 3) Start a quarantine diary or write a book/article 4) Tidy up your phone/Organise you pictures/rooms 5) Plan a virtual event with your friends Level 2 1) Make an app (Targetted for my CS group - Learn to code would apply to others) 2) Investigate your chosen university/college course and pre-prep 3) Innovate solutions to the humanitarian crisis unfolding around you 4) Keep yourself fit - establish a daily routine Free online course / sources of inspiration MOOC short courses from top global universities Future learn short courses from top universities and training organisations Open University courses Learn to play the guitar Meditation Yoga Fitness – serious workouts with Chris Hemsworth Computer Science and Coding Intro to Computer Science with Harvard University Learn about Artificial Intelligence Cooking classes with Michelin star chef Learn a Language with hellotalk Learn a Language with Duolingo MENSA – take the challenge! How high is your IQ? Listen to books and poetry Wildlife – watch webcams and videos Art and Art History – Virtual Museum and Gallery tours Art and Art History – more Museum virtual tours Art - Getty Museum Architecture English Year 12 English Year 13 Fashion Film, TV, VFX, Games Industries Film, Theatre, Technical Industries History Ideas, Information, Podcasts Law Maths Year 12 Maths Year 13 Music Theory – free online learning Philosophy Critical Reasoning for Beginners – Oxford University Psychology – inspiring podcasts Space – NASA summer school Science Statistics and Data Do something different Enter competitions or get articles published. Environment/Wildlife/Planet, earthshotprize.org, Deadline 24th April Poetry, foyleyoungpoets.org Deadline 31st July Politics Writing competition- The Financial Times www.ft.com/content Deadline 31st May Science, Young Scientist Journal – get your articles published here ysjournal.com Science, She Talks Science blog – Cambridge University. Contribute your articles here www.murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk/news/ Science, Unsung Heroes of Science – Oxford University. Submit your video here www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/unsungscience The Oxford Scientist – Writing Competition oxsci.org/schools/, Deadline 1st May Teaching in a lockdown isn't just about just maintaing relationships and engagement/well-being but also about tracking student development and progression within a curriculum framework.
Simplifying it into two strands allows us to review the tools we have at our disposal to support students much more effectively. Of course, we could break down this type of activity into multiple strands and create comprehensive lists, however, that is not the purpose of this post. Keep it simple so to speak. If you want a decent one - Start here. Engagement, relationships and well-being Video conferencing tools like the ones below are quite common and utilised to maintain a face to face connection with your students
Communication tools allow more immediate messaging to students and have a low footprint on that all essential bandwidth. Ancilliary tools allow teachers to plan teaching and learning experiences akin to what they would have in the normal classroom.
These allow teachers to connect with students and support them with synchronous learnimg as well. Pace is set by the teacher and you can also emulate the normal classroom experience to a certain extent. It does take a lot of work to set these up and ancillary tools are often required. Teachers end up managing a lot of the planning, assessment and feedback. Progression with the school curriculum These are packages that schools buy and cover the curriculum offered in greater depth. More importantly they track student progression and in some cases offer bespoke pathways for students. These often support the asynchronous model of learning and allow progression at the students pace. A lot of the heavy lifting is taken care of by them, freeing the teacher to make use of the data they generate and in my view allows them to focus more on supporting students in this time of crisis. Looking at your context (student and your access to devices/Internet/training) you might want to employ a combination of both approaches. The key is to not reinvent the wheel but look at what the immediate needs of your students are and address those. As always, start small, keep it simple and then build upon your tech offering, layer by layer. Online learning is a new experience for parents. Schools need to issue guidance that speaks to them. Below are some tips to help them support children at home.
Feel free to adapt and use as you see fit. If you are looking for some simple rules to support virtual learning, hopefully these will help.
A corona extends from the Sun, millions of kilometres from the source, to spread light. Kind of similar to a teacher teaching virtually, to students all over the world, as the case might be. Three months down the road from when the novel coronavirus first emerged in China, one of the biggest impact on society, apart from public health, has been on education. The kickstarting of digital pedagogy on such a scale has never been possible before. All the tech gurus and specialists put together could not possibly had such an impact in a mere 8 weeks after schools started closing across the world. Let's start by giving credit where credit is due.
The Chinese Government’s decision to offer virtual classes on a national scale was the single most important decision that set the ball rolling. Previously, schools were often shut and terms extended or holidays reduced to make up the difference. By almost dictating that the school day run as normal, virtually, they single-handedly pushed a lot of schools into the digital age. By enforcing self isolation, they removed the option of choice and travel which meant most ended participating in virtual learning. The second is school leadership. This crisis truly highlights the massive power which resides within our school leaders. When they are truly behind an initiative the results are always spectacular. Which also makes me wonder why some school leaders were hesitant in using virtual learning before the crisis. I can never understand why certain schools spend such huge amounts on tech infrastructure, training and still not have much to show for it. I chalk this one, in those schools, to personal disinterest in tech-based pedagogy. If you lead by example, others follow. The third is the ed-tech world at large, coming together to offer free solutions and training has helped a lot of colleagues take their first step into true virtual learning. From Microsoft Teams to Google Hangouts to Century to Mangahigh to Byju, everyone is on board to support the learning. Of course, there is always an underlying business strategy but this makes me wonder, what if post this crisis, they continue to offer their services for free? How will that help the continuation of the progress made? Fourth, the teachers, they have been on the frontline and a lot of them struggled, often silently. Of course, we forgot to add the virtual staff room or the proverbial water cooler. They upped their game and learnt some solid skills. On Twitter, the bizz has been super positive. They identified where tech worked for them and where it didn’t. They curated learning experiences which worked for their students and these will shape the conversation on the development of education technology for years to come. Finally, the parents, the unsung heroes, who had to look after kids at home or make arrangements. They became students themselves at times. Ensuring a child is occupied full time is a job in its own right, ensuring their education and managing your day to day, is a challenge indeed. Getting to set up a positive learning environment at home can be a challenge especially if you have dogs, cats, siblings, the odd inappropriate picture/statue in the background which can easily disrupt a virtual lesson. Not easy being a virtual teacher's assistant. Kudos to you all. So thanks to the above teaching and learning has progressed into the virtual world but what have we learnt so far over the last three months? Well, where it worked really well, clear structures were formed using some of the following:
Where it didn’t work:
Key problems encountered
With any digital learning experience there are always aspects of e-safety to consider so make sure that you are:
Tips for parents
Research studies have shown that positive parent engagement contributes to a successful online learning experience for children so identify how you can support the online learning process. Hopefully, some of the above will give you an insight into some of the initial learning from the global online learning experience so far and you might be able to plan effective digital experiences both as a teacher and as a parent. Are you intelligently disobedient?
I have been thinking about the term more and more as I visit Nepali schools and also after reading a lot of tweets and blogs from my global PLN. In schools, admins or leaders define the vision and policies of the school. This leads to conflict in the ranks. Obviously human nature is subversive to a degree and not everyone can be kept happy. There is a lot of backbiting and gossip however the majority of us end up towing the line. We keep our doubts to ourselves and don't try to challenge the status quo. Some do but they argue with passion, anger, heart and often due to ego. A rare few challenge with facts. They observe, they collate evidence, they research, measure impact and then they challenge. They intelligently disobey and they often end up being the catalyst of greatness in their schools. The term originated from the animal world - where animals like guide dogs can disobey the command of their owner in order to keep them safe. When translated into the human world it means challenging the status quo at times and often voicing opinions which might prove unpopular. Intelligently disobedient people can take risks, and can come up with creative solutions, all while keeping the needs of the learners in mind. So if you have a no mobile policy at school or feel strongly about the negative impact of that new assessment policy on your students, be intelligently disobedient. Better yet teach your students how to do that. Oh and there is a thin line between intelligently disobedient and intelligently obedient. If you do find that what you were against actually can work really well for learners, don't let ego get in the way. Support the change by sharing your evidence & convince others. |
AuthorI am Sunny Thakral. If you are here on the site then you know a bit about me. If not then I am a teacher and these are my musings. Archives
May 2020
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