Lark Rise

Upgrading the blog

Just completed the blog upgrade to WordPress v2.5.1. I am mightily relieved because there were so many files and many possibilities for going wrong! However it is quite a big upgrade (from 2.1)- I had been wondering why there was not a tags facility. I blame all this on the Comment Challenge because I needed to tag the posts with Comment08 and just couldn’t see how. Now I have a lovely little box made for the purpose. So whole new vistas are opening up for me…but the priority has to be to find a theme I am happy with. Something plain and simple will do nicely.

A busy day

OK, so I said I would take part in the 31 day comment challenge.

So I need to do something about this blog. I have thought it was a sort of information point for my work with schools, but I think that this blog could carry the information but be a whole lot more interesting in terms of the home page content. I read that in writing interesting posts one needs to write then post only the best of a selection of attempts. However, I don’t think I can work like that because I am busy and the writing is not my main activity.

So, my main focus is work with Primary schools and I am currently working a lot (and unpaid!) with my local school because I have spare time. I have been promoting a multiuser WordPress blog there (shepeaustow.net) and each class have one plus 7 of the more able 8-11 year olds. Although they have been selected for flair with their writing in the past they are not doing great with their blogs- this has caused me to reflect a lot on what children want to write about…it’s a big subject! I think there is a big difference between the 13 yr old and the 9 yr old in terms of what they want to write about, their audience etc…and I am still grappling with this.

The other thing that I am really wanting to do is revamp this whole site which has had nil attention since it was set up.

So, if anyone does find their way here to comment, what do you think about all this?!

The 31 day comment challenge

So, just read about this challenge…so should I do it? This blog has been sitting around for ages not doing much and I feel seriously embarrassed by the lack of attention …so it might encourage me to get it together. Then I am really wanting to promote the children with their own blogs at shepeaustow.net …but maybe it would rub off on my work with them. Oh dear…will see how I feel later!

Supporting writing

I had some interesting discussions today with a group of teachers thinking about Gifted and Talented provision in the context of childrens’ writing. Blogging provides a perfect tool for promoting writing- if you give a child a blog they have control over the environment, control over their writing and can work to develop an audience for what they have to say. There seems to be no disadvantages- except maybe that schools must be careful that they have appropriate safeguards in place- but then that is not really a disdvantage it is just what we do. I have some personal experience of developing this at http://shepeaustow.net. The cost for a suitable package was £300- for this they got their own hosted domain and the initial setup of a Wordpress multiuser blog. The school also had some support in initial training to use the system. Have a look at the current state of play.

Support, not courses!

One thing to have come out of talking to school leaders: the traditional course is becoming less popular. I have previously described my offerings as courses but am changing this to ’support’. While a course can be useful for inspiring people or delivering a lot of information to a lot of people, more useful perhaps is something much more aligned to what is going on in particular schools and classrooms (learning spaces?!).

So while my work has always been custom and school based I am now thinking ’support’ not ‘course’! Naturally, common themes emerge about what is needed in school so the ideas listed under the support tab (at the top) reflect some of the more common options at the moment.

A consultation and some new courses

This week I have been writing to some of the head teachers of schools that I have worked with in the past to make sure that my work is closely matched to school needs. It is a difficult balance to steer between courses that are directly targeting school improvement priorities (as in the Lincolnshire CoTS agreements) and those that come in with something a bit different. Hopefully my plans will satisfy a bit of both! Have a look at the courses listed so far (tab at the top).

A fledgeling site!

Here are my first attempts to organise a blog. Not much to look at yet, but everyone has to start somewhere!