Think you know me? I've only recently got to know myself!

tweeted Nov 11 @Rangathetrainer

Several days ago, possibly after following #SWE19 and the fun, games, innovations and emotions being shared by those taking part, I felt compelled to share the tweet on the right here.

I'm not normally one to share, I'm quite a closed book and have long upheld the typically british stiff upper lip approach to life: no matter how bad things are, turn up and soldier on with a smile. How often has that smile been painted on? I daren't even imagine!

It felt like a great relief to open up about my anxiety and I was touched by some very honest and appreciated conversations both in person and online with people I respect highly. 

I am that guy that get anxious about new situations. 
I take a while to warm up in new company.
I hover around nervously looking for a way in.
I am the guy that is constantly looking for reassurance. I want to feel like I belong.






It was this tweet from Miss C (@Tech_missc) that finally prompted me to open up: I need this space

As I wrote in my tweet, those closest to me probably don't see this side of me because with them, I am more at ease and usually sarcastic, quick-witted and sharp. But this is only because I feel I belong.

Throughout my professional life I have always strived to help others. I've never felt like I am brilliant or amazing, I just do what I think needs doing to the best of my ability. I find taking compliments very uncomfortable and tend to crack a joke to laugh it off or diminish my involvement to deflect the attention. 

It has only been in the last 2 years that I have begun to understand this. I made a bold decision 3 years ago and made a big career change. It was something I'd always felt I wanted to do. I was SO wrong! I quickly learnt that it wasn't what I wanted at all and I found my way back to a more suitable role as quickly as I could, as much for the benefit of others and for my own sanity and health. I was in the wrong position for me. It wasn't right or fair on me or others.

Walking away felt like a failure and it still haunts me from time to time, even though I try to remind myself that it was an equally bold decision to do so. I took a risk, it didn't work so I made changes and as a result, I've learnt a lot.

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Part of my 'recovery' from this failure was down to a guy who I owe a huge amount. His name? Dean Stokes. (@deanstokes). 

I've known Dean for 20 years now, ever since he was a pupil in my very first Year 7 class in my NQT year. By his own admission, Dean was a shy young man in those days and somehow, he ended up growing in confidence and starring in school productions. He later returned to the school as a member of staff, a bit of a gamble of his own, and was instrumental in introducing G Suite to our school.

I had the honour of sharing an office with Dean for some time and learnt a huge amount about not just G Suite, but also, how to diversify and put yourself out there. When Dean moved on from school to full-time work, first with Appsevents, guess who took up the G Suite mantle.

I didn't feel ready. I didn't feel I had the knowledge base that Dean had. I felt I was dabbling and would quickly be found out. The one thing I was sure of though, I couldn't break it!

So fast forward to September 2018 and I got a call from Dean asking me to deliver a G Suite Support Staff Bootcamp for Appsevents in Aberdeen. I was hugely flattered but at the same time wondering, how desperate are you, Dean? You're asking me! 

I felt out of my depth and worried/anxious that I wouldn't be up to it. Getting a plane to Scotland was my first ever internal flight. I didn't even know what I needed but knowing Dean would be there to meet me at the airport got me through. At the hotel we met up with Ben Rouse (@Mr_BRouse) and talked about the plans for the next day. Then it was early to bed ahead of a busy day. I didn't really sleep. I kept tweaking my slides and pacing. Restless legs kept me awake.

The next morning we found our way to the venue and I had a great time with the staff there, who were welcoming and very receptive. I really enjoyed it but I still had doubts: Was it ok? Did they get what they needed from it? Did I miss anything? All these questions flying around my head.

Not long after Ben asked me to lead a similar bootcamp in Vienna. That was huge for me. And, as you might predict, I got to the school early, too early, no-one was there so I walked around Vienna for over an hour making sure I didn't stray too far and would be there on the dot to meet my contact. This was another great day and finished off with one of the delegates Jeremy, taking me to the Christmas Markets for some Gluhwein. A lovely way to end the day.

But all through this and still to this day, I don't feel like an expert, even though colleagues try to tell me I am. I just don't see what I do as anything special, because it's just what I've learnt to do.

So how does this all link?

Last night our school held our annual Key Stage 4 Awards Evening and I had invited Dean to be our guest speaker. We had several long chats beforehand and I was amazed to find he often feels like I do.
We talked about the message he could share and how that would be relevant to the students. He couldn't see it. That got us talking about Imposter Syndrome (which ended up a key part of Dean's message on the night). 

Needless to say, Dean smashed his speech. Everyone loved it. My technical side went well and the evening was a great success. A superb final school memory for our students and a great message for the future.

• You’re more likely to regret the things you didn’t do rather than the things you did.
• Take risks, make mistakes and learn from everything you do.

and remember

• If you're feeling like a fraud, that's probably because you are really challenging yourself.

So to everyone reading this, thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for reaching out, thank you for sharing - not just with me but with fellow professionals, friends and family.

And above all, thanks to you Dean. I would not be doing what I do now if it weren't for that quiet, shy guy who sat in French and allowed me to call him "Wally". 

The best kind of friendship is one where both of you grow as a result of the other.

G Gems 35: Extend yourself!

1. Voice typing in Google Sheets IS POSSIBLE with the Voice in Voice Typing extension from the Marketplace.  Just install the extension and double click in any cell to record the entry.

It's very accurate! Here's a demo video >>>

2. Have you tried Grammarly's tone detector yet? I've been using this for about 3 weeks now and it's proving quite entertaining as it tries to guide me to write appropriately worded content whilst correcting spelling and grammar.

I've enjoyed challenging it to see how accurate it is, and obviously, as a beta, it's still learning but it's been quite helpful beyond the novelty value on more than one occasion already. 

Grammarly guides you on the wording and tone of an email
as well as checking your spelling and grandma 😉

3. Check my links is a useful extension. It shows you which links are working properly and which ones are no longer valid for any pages or documents that you visit. Super handy for documents containing links to 3rd party sites, other documents or resources.

Activate the extension and it highlights links using the scale above.

Add Check my links here

You only get one shot (Sorry!)

I recently tweeted about my driving test...

It's something that I strongly believe in and always bothers me that the education system doesn't share the same approach.

If we are truly to motivate people to want to learn, they must see that a perceived failure at the first step is not in fact a failure at all. We've all said it to our classes and even our own children.. "We learn from our mistakes", "Every failure is one step closer to the solution", you know the drill. Yet the education system and its qualifications doesn't reflect this at all. Is it any wonder our young people get mixed messages and their self-esteem is adversely affected?

Returning to my first point, I failed my first driving test so chose to retake at a different location. One that in fact I was less familiar with, the intention being I might be more inclined to make my own decision based on the road situation than doing what perhaps I'd seen others do at that familiar junction where it went wrong the first time. The result was favourable and who knows whether that was down to my decision or just more driving experience by the time the second test came around.

Regardless, 26 years later I regard myself as a competent driver. I even helped my father pass his ADI course when he retrained to become an instructor by developing with him a step by step approach to parallel parking that he could then pass on to his students. Dad was a very successful driving instructor for many years, specialising in teaching those with disabilities. He was never concerned with a first time test pass, he was always concerned with the final test pass. I know his students appreciated this.

So how is it that in our current education system, resits/retakes are frowned upon and in some cases, have been withdrawn? How is it healthy for our young people to be told "you've got one shot at this, don't waste it".  

I'd replace second with another, but you get the sentiment

Young people are on their own in that exam room. No-one to offer them reassurance, no-one to bounce ideas off of, no-one to share the burden of what might be a make or break 60 - 120 minutes that will shape their lives forever. Is it any wonder that they are feeling the strain?

In the real world, I suspect very few of us would turn up for a big presentation with the boss without having tweaked it multiple times and run it past others, colleagues, friends and family, for their input or feedback. Imagine if your entire teaching career was based on the outcomes of a 15 minute 'drop-in' to your lesson last thing on Friday in the height of summer when it's 28 degrees out, everyone is ratty and you can't open the windows. Imagine the pressure you'd feel (I know, many probably don't need to imagine as you've been there).

In this day and age of innovation, collaboration and 10X thinking, we must embrace failure as an important step to success. So what if you don't get immediate success. 

What if we treated a student's learning journey like an application? (we keep telling the to apply their learning). What if students had Alpha and Beta opportunities to test their knowledge for flaws before a full release?  

What if these Alpha and Betas actually held credit?  Students would have nothing to lose and everything to gain and wouldn't this be a fairer reflection of the world they are heading in to?

I'm sure this would help students and us to better manage their mental health. Much like the new Ofsted EIF doesn't increase workload *coughs* , our current system of the first result counting for schools only serves to heap more pressure on students, directly or indirectly.

We have to ask ourselves what we want from our young people and what we want for their future. What will be important to and for them in their futures? (Not what was important to us)

I'm just rambling really, as a parent of a Year 11 I'm seeing a very different side now and it bothers me as you can tell.

We need to encourage innovation, encourage risk taking and encourage and celebrate the failures just as much as the successes as they are all part of the same journey.

G Gems 34: user accountability & tracking in G Suite

Google for Education's G Suite offers a wealth of tools for tracking purposes.

Whether that be tracking user access and trends, collaborators' input, document updates or as an audit trail for email conversations.

Here's a summary of some of the tools I and my colleagues use regularly both in the classroom and in the office.

Activity Dashboard
The activity dashboard for Google documents, available by clicking the sparkling icon (top right) 

gives document owners full access to see who has viewed the document, who has been shared the document as well as a trend timeline of when it was accessed.

This proves very useful when sharing documents with a number of users to contribute and update as you can easily see who has been working on the document and who hasn't at a glance.

Version history
This feature is often overlooked by new users to G Suite. You can access via the file menu or by clicking the hyperlink at the top centre of the toolbar that usually reads something like "all changes saved to drive" or "last edit made X minutes ago by ......"

The side bar will open up giving you the various autosaved versions of the document from its very beginning, including which users have made changes (using a handy colour code).

All versions can be renamed (I often rename version 1 "original") and also copied at any time.

Any previous version can also be restored with a single click if changes are rejected.

Cell history
This great new feature works like version history but for each specific cell within Google Sheets.
Using this feature you can exactly which user has updated a cell and the timestamp. Where a cell has been edited multiple times a full history is visible by edit, user and timestamp.

Comment history
Within Google docs, once a comment has been resolved, it flies away. However, click on the comment icon (top right) and the full comment history can be brought back at any time.

Perfect for demonstrating an ongoing dialogue on the progress or changes within any document.

Gmail delegated access - allows access to send on behalf of a service account/team account within your domain (but shows who you're dealing with)

To set up delegated access for another user, from the main account go to settings > accounts and invite specific users.

Those users will then get an alert asking them to verify their account. It can take about 30 minutes for the change to take effect but soon they'll be able to select the delegated account in the drop down.

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If delegated access to Gmail accounts isn't for you or your organisation you could consider setting up a Google Group as a collaborative inbox.

Collaborative inboxes allow members of the google group to send and share across the group with all messages arriving via Gmail ( I use the forum option in my Gmail settings).

Reward and Retention in Education - a view

As someone who has been in education now for over 20 years, I've had my fair share of performance reviews or appraisals both as an employee and as a manager. In the early years it's fair to say lip service was paid to this process and targets were at best 'wooly'. It was often a box ticking exercise that was really not valued at all by those on the ground.

In more recent years, I've seen the process tighten to specific target areas, a much higher demand for physical evidence and impact and even suggested or designated targets for individuals in some cases. 

Whilst I agree that individual performance targets should benefit the organisation as a whole and be linked in some part to the strategic vision of the organisation, I believe there also has to be an element of personal indulgence for this to be truly valued and for there to be staff buy-in.

For those of us in the classroom, we can always look to improve our practice but how are we rewarded for this? In many cases I suspect the 'reward' is still having a job and not being subject to a support/improvement plan. Is fear really a reward? Does this promote a positive approach to personal development? Does it encourage risk taking? I think not.

For new teachers, there's the incentive to move up the pay scale but before long there is little room to improve unless the Leadership spine is for you. I've been there, climbing the ladder rapidly at an early stage. It felt good, it felt like I was a valuable member of the team and making a difference. However, as accountability become more and more about outcomes and less about real people, the workload expected grew and grew. 

Having worked my way up through middle leadership to senior leadership, all the way to Head of School, I quickly realised that it's a very lonely place and not one I wanted to inhabit. It wasn't right for me for many reasons, both professionally and personally but walking away was the right option for me. 

I was fortunate to be able to secure a position with a TLR very quickly, focusing on areas that interest me. It was a welcome relief and although the drop in wages was notable, it was worth it for my own peace of mind, my family and my mental health. 

School Leadership - I'm glad I did it, I don't regret it but would I do it again?  No thank you. I'm not on the Leadership spine anymore and have no desire to be. I'm 43.

Through various experiences in recent years, both first and second hand, I have found my attitudes have changed. I still want my students and my school to produce the best outcomes possible, but due to my close working relationship with my support staff colleagues, I now see and appreciate a very different side and I hope it's made me a better colleague to work with. 

This brings me on to my support staff colleagues, for whom I have the highest regard.

These are our colleagues, who work tirelessly day to day to keep schools running smoothly. They answer the phone to angry parents, they deal with last minute or incomplete requests from teachers and in some cases there is very much an 'us and them' culture. It's a sad truth that some teachers don't value their support staff colleagues.  They take them for granted or play the "that's an admin job" card all too often. What many fail to appreciate is just how hard these people work and for how little reward.

When budgets are cut, support staff are often the first to go. When staff leave, either through redundancies or natural wastage, in truth the work doesn't go away, it just gets passed on to already stretched colleagues in the offices. Rarely is a fuss made because support staff, just like teachers, want the best for the school and the students however, for those at or near the top of their pay band, where is the incentive to improve, take on more work or take on more CPD?  The reward is certainly not financial. Not in a million years will educational budgets extend to annual or christmas bonuses for those who do a fantastic job.

What if it were different? 

Ok, so we can accept there is never going to be money for pay bonuses for staff in schools, but that doesn't mean people can't be rewarded.

We talk a lot in schools about rewards for students but how do we reward staff? Do we say thank you enough and is it sincere?  Do we take the time to really say how grateful we are to colleagues for going the extra mile, or do we just squeeze it into our busy schedules in such a way that it carries no real gravitas? Do we present rewards to our staff in the same way we do our students? Do we ask staff what rewards they would like?

These are all things we would do if addressing a student body/council as part of a review of a student reward system so why don't we do it for staff? 

Picture the scene: 

Gary, a senior leader,  line manages Jenny, an office manager. Gary receives a message (face to face or via email) from a member of staff to say that Jenny has been a great help to them and gone far beyond what is expected of her just to make something happen effectively and efficiently by a deadline.  The member of staff has bought Jenny some chocolates as a thank you but wants her manager to be aware too.

Gary goes to see Jenny and invites her to the canteen where he gets them both a coffee and they sit down for a chat. Gary mentions during the chat that he has heard what a great job jenny did for her colleagues and thanks her personally, asking questions about what she actually did and why she did it.  Gary learns that Jenny has a keen interest in a coaching staff in terms of task prioritisation that she had not been able to explore before because she's always so busy. Gary thanks Jenny again and they both get a lot out of the short chat over coffee.

Gary speaks to his leadership colleagues about this later and Jenny is offered to opportunity to lead some staff training on prioritisation. In return for this additional work, that will undoubtedly benefit individual staff and the school overall, Jenny is given an additional day of in lieu for Christmas shopping on a day of her choice in December.  All she has to do is ensure the office is not left unmanned that day so she organises her team.

Jenny feels valued both professionally and personally. What was the cost to Gary? 1 cup of coffee, 15 minutes of time and 1 day of office time versus bespoke CPD sessions for those in need, improved efficiency and a positive relationship and ethos. Jenny benefits, her colleagues benefit, the school benefits and her family benefits. Other follow Gary's example and Jenny does the same with her team. It become infectious.

This may sound, to some, like an impossible dream or an oversimplification but it really shouldn't be. Budgets are tight, but add up the costs involved with staff absence due to illness against the cost of some coffees and days off in lieu and I bet there's a clear winner. 

We need to talk to each other about what we value and what drives us, because it certainly isn't the pursuit of that big Christmas bonus in the payslip. 

Good will goes a long way when budgets are tight. I'm a firm believer that people work for people, not organisations and if we treat people well, value them, listen to them and thank them sincerely we all benefit.

If you've read these ramblings, please, if you do nothing else, take time out to thank a colleague tomorrow for something they've done for you. A little goes a long way so find out what motivates them, what drives them and how they would like to be rewarded.

Whether it's a cake, a biscuit, a small bunch of flowers, a coffee or some time out to kick a ball about or just to sit in the sun for 5 minutes of calm - make it happen.

Taking time out of your day for a genuine gesture of thanks may just make them feel more valued, refreshed and it could be the difference between them having a great weekend or dreading coming back on Monday. You can guarantee it certainly won't be their performance targets motivating them. 

G Gems 33: Away from the day job - how G Suite helped transform a community project

Away from the day job: A story about how G Suite helped transform a community project.

Aside from being a teacher for 20 years, some of you may be aware that I'm a keen sportsman too. I've played football and cricket for many years and took up field hockey around 6 years ago, having never played before.  It's a great game and I was quick to immerse myself in the clubhouse culture just as much as on the pitch. With myself, my wife and my daughter all playing - it's like a home away from home at times and we've made great friends.

It was at the end of my first season at Witham Hockey Club that I was told about our annual Witham Beer Festival. As people explained about the event and how it was started to help raise money to maintain our clubhouse building I was impressed and excited.   I love a good ale and I was really looking forward to coming along.

That was year 3 of the festival and our volunteer organisers from the hockey club and Witham Cricket Club had done a great job of sourcing tents and marquees, a range of around 30 beers and a few wines local to East Anglia.  While some volunteers served the beer. others ran the BBQ and more played in cricket matches to entertain the visitors.  

It was really good fun, we have around 500 visitors and raised some much needed funds so I decided to get more involved in Year 4.

Year 4 I went along to my first beer festival committee meeting and it was packed.  There was a terrific range of experience and ideas but it was hard to keep everyone informed of what we were trying to achieve and where everyone was at. It was after this meeting that I spoke to our chairman and mentioned Google Drive. We'd been using it a school for around a year really effectively, thanks largely to the drive of our then Learning Technologies Manager, Dean Stokes (you might have heard of him). 

The chairman Lee and I spoke and I showed him G Suite's capabilities and a plan was formed to "Go Google".  With an 'experienced' committee we knew there would be some resistance/ scepticism but we also knew it would take the beer festival forward.

We designed a created a 'matrix' of job roles and tasks on google sheets to project manage the whole things, set up a messaging protocol so that we didn't need to rely on long-winded meetings every month and gave everyone the trust and time to get on with their jobs.

We began using google slides and drawings to create advertising posts for social media, we used sites to redevelop the website and docs to create our programme. We kept all our documentation in Drive, with access to those who needed it and did away with reams of paper. We also used forms for volunteer sign up and feedback on the festival.

Overall, the first year was challenging but the committee embraced the new methods (with a bit of training and support from yours truly) and we are now heading towards our 9th festival from 22-22 August 2019.

Things grew rapidly, even the marquee! (2013 -2017)

The festival has grown massively in popularity and size since those days and it would not have been possible without using G Suite and the support of our partners, especially Paul from Harwich Town Brewing Company. We now welcome over 2000 visitors to the event, have a range over over 100 beers, ciders and wines, have live cricket and music as well as professional caterers. This year, using Glide and google sheets, we'll also have our own App 

It has become one of the most popular community events in town, supported greatly by sponsorship of barrels by local businesses and people.

If you're in Essex over August Bank Holiday, why not pop in for a pint?

www.withambeerfestival.co.uk

G Gems 32: If you're Appy and you know it...

If like so many people,  you'd love to be able to set up your own app but don't have a clue where to start Glide might be right up your street.

Glide works with google sheets to help you create FREE apps within minutes.

This could be used for all manner of purposes including:

• PE Club Timetables
• Revision Session Timetables
• Holiday/Weekend Session Timetables
• Subject Apps with links to key resources
• Directories
• List of students and staff for trips
• many more uses

Here's a very basic screenshot of the sheet I used to test this out.  

I've included the type of social media platform and the link to them in separate columns. This is the result.

Pretty simple to do.



Here is how it appears in the app - I chose the dark mode setting but light is also available.


Click here to go to the live app




In your dashboard it's really easy to control and you can update your google sheet via the dashboard or in sheets itself.

Why not give it a try? You can be up and running in minutes!

G Gems 31: Just a quickie

It's been quite a while since I've had time to sit down and write a blog. There's been a lot going on in my real world of work and family so it's been hard to take the time to do anything lengthier than a quick twitter or Facebook post.

GMAIL updated

Overall I'm liking the new update to gmail app but the very white interface has certainly divided opinions. One thing I really like now is the right click option on an email that allows you to use the "find emails from" and "find emails with this subject" feature.




This has already proved very useful and has sped up my workflow.


Embed videos into Google Drawings

If you want to embed videos into Google Drawings, here's how to do that in this much under utilised tool by using google slides first.
(link: https://youtu.be/LhIruVqFZ1g)

Google Sheets for Education Support Staff

As I work very closely with a team of educational support staff, I'm always on the lookout for ways to make their lives easier in G Suite.  I've put together a Youtube playlist of google sheet videos and gifs that my team have found useful which you can view here: Google Sheets Playlist

The list includes topics like using sparklines, combining data from 2 cells into 1, conditional formatting based on contents of other cells and more...

(link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixx0avkvY7I&list=PL6keua9v6pp3mZtPQxS_z9uPbm6nG3VHY)

If you or your school is interested in some bootcamp style training specific for Educational Support Staff, why not contact @Appsevents1 and see what can be arranged? 

If you are a member of Educational Support Staff, join my Facebook group too or follow the hashtag #googleESS for updates, tips and tricks. 

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more.

(link: https://youtu.be/LhIruVqFZ1g)