Tag Archives: learning

Online Roundup #almosteaster

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First Attempt In Learning by girlinbracesEach week, I collect together a range of articles, apps, reviews and tips that I have curated, collected and culled from the Internet (mainly Twitter), and send this out to the staff at my school. Here they are for this week:

 

Use in class

The Learning Event Generator gives you hundreds of ideas for activities to embed learning. If you ever have trouble trying to work out how to get a concept firmly across and into your children’s minds (and for me this can be daily), this is randomised inspiration. (via @LearningSpy).

Kinetic Typography is a fancy way of saying ‘moving words’ and if you type that into YouTube, prepare to be blown away. I’m a big fan, so was delighted to find this site on Google. Type in words, and the site generates moving words automagically. I had a play by putting in a poem, and Lovely Louis read the poem over my shoulder in the same moving style – how fun would the children find this?!

I had great success using these Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strips to help teach speech marks within fiction writing this week. Worth looking at for the strips alone! I’m not sure I would be able to use the ‘Garfield Minus Garfield‘ strips, but they are incredibly funny!

Buy

There are two things I have bought on the fabulous eBay recently which I thought I would share here. The first is a motivational sticker set you can get online which would be perfect for school, have a look here. Yes, it’s cheesy, but my own children (as in offspring, not class) love and we regularly talk about them. Thanks @MissJLud for prompting me to mention these.

The other things are personalised stickers, also from eBay. This page is one I’ve used, and the company are very quick. I’ve been using stickers as incentives with my Year 6 Maths set to really good effect. The last set I ordered, I let the class decide the colour, logo, words etc. £2.20 for 96 stickers – bargain! Thanks to @rlj1981 for prompting me with this one!

 

Science

Squishy Circuits is something I had read about last year – but a chance opportunity to teach Science reminded me of the site. It allows you to make a simple play-dough like recipe which can then be used to build circuits with – no crocodile clip hassles etc. Looks great, and may well be something I do during the holidays with my monsters children, but thought it might appeal to others too!

 

Research

I’m a big fan of Hattie, who has carried out some metaresearch into Education to find out what really works under the bonnet. His books aren’t too tricky to grasp, but for a ten minute taster, have a look at this Infographic. Warning – you may be surprised with what his research has found! (via @Pekabelo &@HuntingEnglish)

 

This article from The Guardian is probably more suited to Secondary teachers, but is from a sixteen-year-old complaining that schools are missing an opportunity by not using Facebook and Twitter as VLEs. I don’t necessarily agree with her, but it caused some lively debate online!

 

CPD Saturday

Last Saturday I again abandoned Gemma and the children, and instead headed to Berkhamstead for a Teaching Learning & Assessment Conference. Arriving at 7.45am, I didn’t leave until 4.40pm, and although very tired, was excited and inspired by everything I heard about! You can read my notes about the day here, or ask me and I will forward you what I have. I am definitely going to persuade you to come along next year – it was brilliant, and I hope that the influence it has given me will permeate through the school.

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I came across all of these on Twitter, which is superb for getting and sharing ideas about teaching and learning. More info on joining can be found here. Have a good weekend!

 

Stephen

My Review of the brilliant #TLAB13

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First off – the longest, most intense, most intellectual, most practical and most challenging Day Conference I think I have ever been to, which to me makes it also the best I have ever been to.

I have read several attendees’ blogs, and indeed sat next to some of them, but I’m not able to function particularly well like that – tweeting is as much as I can cope with! To that end, this post is simply a summary of my tweets for the day – I hope no-one minds! I’ve added and annotated where appropriate! I also find that I tend to remember only what I have recorded if I do so. These then are my permanent reminders:

 

Alistair Smith – 50,000 chunks (link to keynote slides, and also, quite brilliantly, his initial slidenotes)

Nutshell: Beware the OFSTED Whisperers, when is an OFSTED 1 a Real 1, what good leaders do, what good schools do.

Learning behaviours for infants

(Photo of Slide – I Tweeted this and it got a lot of RTs and Favourites – it clearly hit a nerve!)

Most lesson plans I see are elaborate to do lists.

I agree with this, but only because, isn’t that what they are? Isn’t a recipe a to do list? His point however was more than that – I took it that we can’t just tick things off and think they are done – we need to keep going back to them again and again.

There is a perception that expertise is a function of time.

This was at the beginning but really resonated. Many years service does not make you a better teacher than the NQT teacher next door. In fact, they’re probably better, according to Dylan Wiliam. I have been driving for 14 years – I don’t think I am improved immeasurably as a driver despite this. The point was this – Deliberative Practice – my mantra. He also had a great perception of hexagons – the knowledge is on the shapes, but the skill is seeing how they join together.

(A longer blogpost by @dailydenouement can be found here.)

 

David Didau – Ofsted Whisperer – The Anatomy of an Outstanding Lesson

Nutshell: Use music, Marking is planning, don’t overplan activities, don’t accept not finished, vary the depth of your questions

‘Sapere aude!’ – dare to know!

A very good session from a Secondary English teacher and writer on what he does to make his lessons sing. He is clearly thoughtful in his approach, and there was lots to get from this as a Primary Specialist. His blog is very good too. Found on Twitter as @LearningSpy.

It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.

David’s session showed how he measured the optimum level of deliberative practice he gets his students into, as well as revealing a brilliant questioning chart to get deeper understanding from his students. He has high expectations, which the children are aware of, and strive to achieve. He also plugged a brilliant tool the Learning Event Generator, to skip the hassle of making an activity. Find the free online version here.

 

Bill Lord – Change as a Head

Caveat – Bill and I are friends. He has been very supportive of me, and I in turn have leeched from him the various experiences he has had as a Head since he started. I one day hope to reciprocate the friendship.

Nutshell: Try everything, take risks, ground everything in work, make your philosophy relevant, be honest and true to yourself

What the eleven year olds do the four year olds do.

Everything is fair in Bill’s school. I love the idea of a flat curriculum!

School motto ‘Reveal your inner star’ (child-created)

This is part of a motto, and are actually on all the staff identity Lanyards. Created by children themselves, as Bill says ‘If we don’t live it, they don’t love it.’ I’m very taken with the Smile Inside concept, and I think Bill’s work here is great. Or rather, his pupils’ work.

2 ‘classes trialling 2 terms without any displays as action research’

Bill confessed that although he read up on things, his staff were taken with him, rather than reading independently. To that end he is involving them in Action Research, and his staff will be all the richer for it too! I hope I am this brave and ambitious when/if a Head.

Kill the cult.

 

 

Bill Lucas – What is Intelligence?

Nutshell: Change your perceptions, research more, join us, intelligence is flexible, mindset is key, what type of learner are you

Split-Screen teaching – objectives are both knowledge and ‘learning habits of mind’ straddled (paraphrased)

This was the middle Keynote, and despite being the most grounded in terms of reference and research architecture, there was a strong amount of ‘noise’ on Twitter regarding some of the things that Bill Lucas said. I for one enjoyed the Keynote, I liked the focus (one of personal interest), and I think that a growth in Research papers from teachers is a natural offshoot of the more organic nature of Pedagoo and Teachmeets.

I *think* that he has some books out, and perhaps next time, he might want to mention this in his presentations…

 

David Rogers – Guerilla Geography

Nutshell: Geography designed by The Beastie Boys. Anarchic yet brimming with ideas, possibilities and concepts. If I’d been taught by this team, I’d be teaching Geography now.

Two phrases of #genius in Geography lessons – ‘prove it’ and ‘so what’

I loved this session. David has a team of three and takes them on an Away Day to get them excited and inspired for the coming year! I think this is BRILLIANT. He also is challenging and subversive, but in the best way. Learning is active and exciting to him, and so should be for the children. This was the most untheoretical of the sessions today; lots of fun and very practical!

 

Bill Rankin – Light and Heat

‘the non measurable stuff is the more important and more valuable stuff’ – (paraphrased, my interpretation)

Nutshell: What is best for where we are now, classes are largely passive, schools have become monocultures, make your learning alive, use the world as your classroom, I make beautiful slides

You know one of those situations when you are glad you made the right choice? I was sorely tempted to go home and miss this last Keynote – I’d had a busy week, and my brain was feeling veeeeeery tired at this point, but I felt compelled to not miss out on what had already been a great day. I am so glad I did. Bill was a fascinating speaker on a great range of topics. He spoke with interest and confidence, yet was very humble in his authority. I really felt warmed by his call to arms. I think (hope) that I live his dream, but found it encouraging anyway!

 

All credit to Nick Dennis and his team for putting together something so interesting, professional and yet very relaxed and fun. It was a celebration of what is good in Education, as 300 people sitting in a lecture hall at 4pm would be testament to. Thank you Nick, Rebecca and Berkhamstead for letting us ‘Pedageeks’ invade!

Online Roundup – #firstdayofspring

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From the @tesresources twitter page, no attribution given

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired by @betsysalt, I am resolving to give the staff at my school a potted collection of links curated from Twitter each week. Here they are for this week!

Below are a few links, images and ideas that I have collected recently and thought that some of you might like to see!

Interesting
Here is a brilliant blogpost about teaching times tables more efficiently (via @mrReddyMaths)
An interesting approach to teaching pupils to tell the time… pic.twitter.com/Y0KnOtxb8l (via @TESresources)
Nerdy
Know that saying ‘You only remember 10% of what you hear, 20% of what you see…“? It’s based on mythical research! (via @surreallyno)
This blogpost looks at extending progress in class, by ensuring what we teach stays in!  (via @msfindlater)
Deeply Nerdy

www.Droptask.com is an organiser for those who prefer a visual organisation system! (via @showmyhomework)
Funny for Friday
They had one job to do….hadonejob.com

Sources
I came across all of these on Twitter, which is superb for getting and sharing ideas about teaching and learning. More info on joining can be found here.
Have a good weekend!

#oldschool: My Markbook is my Bible

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I have never been the most enthusiastic tracker of information, and especially in a busy school day, it can be quickly overwhelming to keep track of everything the children can produce in a day.

This year however that is exactly what I have done. In a bid to ensure that I am really getting the most out of each pupil in terms of their capability to produce work of their highest ability, I am macro-managing their work. Every single piece is noted and recorded in my mark book, which is quickly filling up in an unusually-satisfying way, and I can see at a glance changes, adjustments, dips and little levels of progress on these rows of ticks, numbers and notes.

What is strange is that i am using #oldschool methods – that is, pen and paper. There are of course lots of Apps for my iPad or iPhone that would do this for me, probably more efficiently, faster and almost definitely more neatly, and yet there is a refreshing rawness about the page which I am responding to in a really positive way. In fact, I feel more on top of my pupils’ work than I have ever done, so it is worth the slog of this macro-management. It has of course changed my teaching for the better too, since I am able to respond much more quickly to gaps I discover, rather than letting them fall through the sieve of time.

It would seem that the more technology is an attraction to me, it also highlights the myriad benefits of #oldschool techniques. Just as we wouldn’t use Excel to teach every Maths lesson, sometimes, someone needs to stand up for good old pen and paper. I think this explains the reason why so many Diary Apps have the option of ‘writing’ on various types of ‘paper’ – we still have this desire to physically connect, even digitally.

Titles versus objectives

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I was in a school hall recently, where the learning intentions of a lesson were still up on the whiteboard – all three lines of them too. I have certain views about having learning intentions or objectives on the board, and thought I would share these.

They remove any Vegas moments from some lessons

If your intention is on the board, this can be read by the students. While this is obvious, it doesn’t allow for that excitement of revealing the intention through an opening activity. As a case in point, a taught a recent geography lesson, where children (armed with maps) called out a European country, and I gave them a number that country had. The challenge was to work out what the number related to. If I had put “LI: To understand about landlocked countries” this activity would have been pointless, and its tangential learning benefits (debate, discussion, theorising) would have been harder to come by.

They waste time

If a student can’t tell you the intention by the middle or end of a lesson, can you really say that the intention was fully embedded in the teaching or learning. I would suggest that you should be able to walk into any part of a lesson and identify the intention within five minutes. It is the name in a stick of rock – pervading the whole experience.

They drain a start

I think that work should be as a result of a learning intention, not the basis for one. To that end, I strongly feel that a simple title should encapsulate the learning intention as effectively, if that. It should be easy to see what the intention is from the work; if not, are they well matched?

They can provide a barrier to understanding

for some pupils, they can not make the connection between the written intention and the activity they are carrying out. In this case, the written intention becomes a hindrance. For other pupils, who always seem to have lost their pencil/pen/chair, any delay to work is a bonus, so what better than to write the intention; it is copying, not thinking. in a 35 minute lesson, spending 5 minutes copying can waste over two hours a week, or two weeks in every school year overall. This is dead time.

Do you write objectives or intentions on the board? Do you disagree? Please let me know!