Persicum's Teaching Reflections

Begun in Florence in the house of Piero de Braccio Martelli on March 22nd, 1508.
And this is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later according to their proper place under the subjects of which they will treat. And I believe that before I shall be through with this, I shall have to repeat one and the same thing several times. Hence, reader, do not curse me, for the subjects are many and memory cannot hold them and say “I do not want to write this, since I wrote it before.” And if I did not want to fall into this error it would be necessary for me always to reread all that had gone before before I copied anything, to avoid repetition, particularly since the intervals are long between one time of writing and the next.
Leonardo da Vinci

Each notebook I keep has this written or printed at the front, since I first read the quote in Michael Gelb’s book Think Like Da Vinci: 7 Easy Steps to Boosting Your Everyday Genius (View the book on Amazon) and it seemed an appropriate quote to start my new weblog.

I was inspired to write this blog after reading another book – Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar by James Bach (View the book on Amazon). This book, subtitled How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success, might be considered a strange read for a teacher – especially given Bach’s stance on schooling and the education system. Yet, contained within it are many nuggests of wisdom that the “Buccaneer Teacher” can use to improve their teaching, their mental well-being and maybe even the learning of their classes.

I should start by introducing myself. My name, if you haven’t already read it at the top of the page, is Robert Bradley. I have a very wide range of teaching experience – I usually say from 4 to 94 – with a wide mix of groups. I currently teach some great young people, who are usually spoken of as “disengaged” and often come with a history of learning difficulties, exclusions, mental health issues, drug or alcohol problems, criminal histories and sometimes all of the above!

I am passionate about good teaching – not only because of its importance in learning but also because good teaching is a great experience for everyone involved, learner(s) and teacher.

Reflection is, as you well know, the buzzword of the moment in education and especially teacher training. What follows are my reflections upon teaching.

Be warned: One of the Seven Steps to Genius Gelb wrote about was “Connessione” – described on his website as Systems Thinking, but better explained in his book as believing in and looking for the inter-connectedness of everything. This also featured heavily in Bach’s book. I find connections to teaching everywhere and the content of this blog will, eventually reflect that too. Don’t be surprised when I describe how a business management book has sparked an idea for a classroom activity or watching a TV programme has lead me to a new model of teaching.

And finally, some advice I found at the start of John Adair’s book 100 Greatest Ideas for Personal Success (View the book on Amazon);

Listen to all, pluck a feather from every passing goose, but follow no-one absolutely.
Chinese Proverb

As Adair puts it – You are very much in charge.

Take what you will from my reflections, ignore or better still challenge those reflections you disagree with, let me know what works for you … Teaching is a collaboration between teacher and learner (sometimes smooth and productive, sometimes rocky and argumentative) and so this weblog is a collaboration between me, the writer, and you, the reader. Now it’s time for you to do your part!