The Importance of Inter-School Communication and Resource Sharing

Teachers nowadays are constantly trying to develop new ways to teach, or they are constantly having new technology thrown at them to bring into their teaching methods. Thing is, if one teacher comes up with a revolutionary way of teaching a lesson, one that brings both joy and knowledge to the pupils, they wont tell a soul. Why?

Truth is, everyone is too concerned over inspection results and reaching farther up the teaching ladder. It's not about that.

I was told that having something unique on the inspection report would get you extra points when it comes to your schools grading and having a unique teaching method would get you more likely considered for a higher position.

However, what if you shared this "revolutionary" teaching method, and it was being used all over the country - wouldn't you get much higher acclaim for that?

And during inspections, if the inspectors had been all over the country to see this method and then you told them you were the developer, the creator of this revolutionary teaching method then wouldn't you get even more points for that, with inter-school communication and your unique way of teaching to consider. Actually, come to think of it inter-school communication probably ranks highly on their scale of points, after all, it's essential in some areas.

What we really need is to use the VLE to talk to other schools of the "consortium" or even all other schools, to share resources and teaching methods with other teachers.

Think about this, 1,000 Geography teachers all transcribing the same lesson - tedious? How about 1,000 Geography teachers using a full combined effort to transcribe the lesson. Less work per teacher, and better ideas with the result of more innovative teaching methods.

The VLE is a great help with communications, if it was used in the manner that it was intended life would be so much easier, and all the pupils all over the country would benefit from this.