Reflections on a strange year

Certainly no-one will forget 2020… here’s how it worked out for me:

1. The joy of Zoom. My heart sank even further at the beginning of lockdown when I received my first videoconference invite – was this the end of high-quality dialogue?! Well, like all tools, Zoom can be used well or used badly, so I’ve enjoyed learning with others how to enable productive talk online (sharing tips and resources along the way). Some participants in my High-Quality Talk for Teaching Assistants course fed back that they actually preferred the online format for training.

2. I witnessed over and over how much thinking and effort school leaders, teachers and teaching assistants put in to keep children safe in the very difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Humbling.

3. Dialogue Works launched the free weekly HomeTalk resource for families. This is a great addition to the world of talk/oracy education and I encourage you to spread the word.

4. Visitors to my website this year were looking for P4C Games and Thinking Questions (www.topsypage.com/questions) with a total of 3000 hits on these two topics. Website stats also evidenced the global and cross-cultural reach of P4C – for example, 23 visitors from Indonesia and 33 from Iran!

5. Similarly, SAPERE Level 1 online P4C courses suddenly included trainees from all over the world. So far I’ve welcomed colleagues from Poland, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

6. I was pleased to see continued interest in my Parent Talk Moves and Pupil Talk Prompts resources, plus my P4C and talk videos including High-Quality Talk in Nursery. My new P4C in Literacy course with Jane Yates received great feedback including “I liked the practical suggestions especially the ones that will support our vocabulary focus“.

7. Classrooms arranged in rows facing forward can work well in some situations. However, I advocate varying the layout of your classroom depending on learning objectives and context. Therefore I hope flexibility returns to the layout of classrooms as soon as safely possible.

Wishing you good health and positive dialogue in 2021.