TEDxKids@Sunderland pt 2 – thrilling to be so very wrong

All involved have been overjoyed and even a little overwhelmed by the fantastic response to TEDxKids@Sunderland (see here for the first post about this project).

Twitter has done the event proud, with pupils receiving good luck messages, from across the globe, then responses during and after the event to the real time tweets (@TEDxKidsSland) made about the talks. The pupils are on half-term holiday this week, so on Monday they’ll find out about much of this – and think about how they want to collate, map and display that feedback, in among their busy time setting up the website and editing the videos they took of the talks to ensure others can share the experience of the day.

Some tweets were read out during the event, with the audience being as amazed and delighted as the pupils, and we ‘project adults’ rather enjoyed our peek at #TEDxKidsSland once everyone had gone home:

So how did it reach this point?

We left the story at the project idea being well received by the school – prompting Ewan McIntosh to respond “thanks for agreeing to this – I’m thrilled to help plan and deliver something that I hope will have a sizeable impact on all concerned (including me!).” Creative Partnerships places great value on the practitioners they engage with being willing to take risks, to be able to explore and be challenged themselves, not just replicate comfortable off the shelf solutions. Ewan was clearly going to make my job very easy!

The two class teachers were, of course, central to the journey – Ewan left the first planning meeting saying “there’s a natural apprehension about trying something new” this was a stretch, it wasn’t something that everyone knew would go just fine. When reflecting post-event the Y3 teacher was brave enough to admit this initial response as being quite a strong one, although now feeling unlikely:

“It is hard to imagine that just a few months ago I was feeling that this was impossible. Too much for Year 3. How could all the complex abilities of all my class be served equally?

For once it is thrilling to be so very wrong. We as teachers always feel that it is us in the driving seat. That we are imparting all our hard earned knowledge. That we set the bar and the childrens job is to work hard enough to reach it. But yesterday, in fact this whole experience has proved the point. We need to let go of the reins. Because it has been the children that have challenged me to be a better teacher. They have raised the bar every day of this project and it has been my job to keep up.

I feel humbled by what my kids achieved and can’t wait till after the holidays when I can get back in the class and let them know how very proud I am of them. How proud I am to have been part of their growth as individuals. Proud to have shared this short, yet immense journey.”

Neither teacher was aware of the TED format before the project, and Ewan’s first task for them (and others in the team) was to choose some talks, from TED or elsewhere, that they felt could be used in class to help pupils to think about the makings of a great talk, and (as importantly!) to comment on some of each others videos and ideas. The format for sharing this was through the on-line Posterous ‘learning log’ set up to capture and easily share/respond to each others thoughts and planning. I have found this log such a valuable resource, as would be expected some were quicker to use it than others but it became a valuable way to keep the adults in the project connected – as not everyone was in school all of the time, and for those who were conversations are still not always possible.

One of the aspects of the Ewan’s approach that I really liked was their proposal phrase “NoTosh doesn’t work on a ‘day rate’ basis, but rather on a ‘fair use’ policy over the period identified.” What we have found is that working with them hasn’t just about the days there is face to face to contact, it has been a partnership approach throughout. It is the on-line sharing that has really given us a way to tap into that expertise (regardless of what country he happens to be in at the time!), but also to gain from everyone’s else skills too.

The next step was for Ewan to outline the project time around the ‘design-thinking’ process, explained in one of his blog post here. Creative Partnerships is about linking together creatives and educationalists in the belief that that combination working together has the potential to create something valuable in the classroom. Ewan describes design thinking as core to the practice of successful creative companies, and sees it as a great tool for schools.

So the next bit takes us into the classroom to meet the pupils (the exciting bit I know) and into the next blog post…

Do let me know if you are hearing what you need to about this journey, or if there is anything you want to make sure is covered.