Using Simulations in the Classroom

Due to the AFL strategies and observation foci I am well aware of how I should be using questioning in the classroom; aware of how I should be making learning outcomes clear and comment marking; I am also aware that I should have a variety of activities to engage the Learners. I am also in the process of considering the effectiveness of practicals in lessons as there is some degree of thought that a well designed demonstration is more helpful to learning than a practical.

However, I have never considered the effect and advantages of using simulations. Until now.

I have been involved in a project run by the science learning centres and Sheffield Hallam University, as part of which I have decide to use simulations more and see the impact.

Sheffield Hallam University kindly gave me access to sunflower learning for my students and myself. I used it with year 11 to look at split ring commutators and slip rings on the ac generators. The students accessed the software in a variety of ways. Some using the activities that you can set for the students, others just playing with the software without direction. Those that understood best were ones that I questioned and lead through the activities by my questioning. You can make your own resources for the students to use, and I expect that this would be my next step. It would help me and the students focus more closely on the learning objectives that I feel are best approached using the simulations instead of other teaching methods.

I have also used PHeT with year 12. This was to demonstrate the photoelectric effect. It took longer to log onto the computer than for the students to realise there is a threshold frequency. I wait to see if the students remember this experience more because they found out through a simulation.

Although the project has finished I want to continue to see the impact on my teaching and the learning of others of using simulations. My main issue is that at my current school we have access to laptops making it quick and easy to use a simulation as an activity in a lesson. At my new school I will have access to a computer lab, but using computers for 20 minutes of a lesson is going to be as practical.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rudgleigh Ave,Bristol,United Kingdom

Coursework vs Controlled assessment and "cheating"

The pressure to get high results is overwhelming. There is a level of competition between staff to see who is "outstanding" by getting the best value added for their class. On top of which the school adds pressure for every child to get 5 grades despite their predictions, ability and inclinations.

When I worked in the West Midlands we had a student who arrived on deadline day with a brilliant piece of coursework. We were suspicious, but what are you going to do? Shoot yourself and your results in the foot? So I do agree that cheating had to be reduced, it isn't fair that students can download an A-grade piece of work with no effort.

However, it also isn't fair that I have to spend every night after school supervising coursework. Doing it over and over with students because the grades aren't high enough. Walking on the edge of what is allowed in terms of support.

The ALT published the results of a survey today saying that I am not the only member of the teaching profession feeling the pressure. Infant teachers who inflate grades, and respondents that claim their professionalism is being squeezed by the pressure on results.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17564311

I don't envy the awarding bodies getting the balance right under commercial pressure and political pressure. The shifting sands of Gove's educational policies and vision affect all of us in education.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cabot Close,Bristol,United Kingdom

Professional Development Targets - what's yours?

We have been recently been asked to fill in a questionnaire about what are professional development priorities are.

I have put that I want to gain Chartered Science Teacher Status, and I also want to work more with STEM related organisations to support students in seeing science in their every day lives.

Other colleagues: HoD, HoF, HoY, SLT etc. only one person I know has answered "to be the best teacher possible".

Is being a teacher about teaching or reaching the top?

I am not sure where my answer puts me!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing Practice

I am fairly sure there is a page on our internal departmental SEF template that asks how we share practice. It is an excellent question. I am always made to feel a bit guilty when I write my answer as I know the truth is "not as well as we could be".

The first school I worked in had a small science staff room next to the prep room where we would sit at lunch and break. We would share our issues and ideas in a very candid way. The kids were hard work and any support was well received. The push in the school was for better teaching as the management believed that better teaching would mean better engagement, behaviour and results. This is true, but as staff we resented the insinuation that our poor teaching was the cause of all the problems within the school. However, the result was we discussed teaching and learning a lot and ideas and advice were shared freely.

Moreover, in the first school I worked in we had schemes of work and we shared all our resources, we were a team with only a few people on the outside keeping their ideas and resources apart from the rest of us.

In my second school we didn't have an area where we could meet at break and lunch. We stayed in our classrooms. The head didn't like the idea of staff congregating out of his knowledge (at least that was our opinion). We did have an AST though who would arrange training days to ensure we talked about assessment or group work. She ensured that the schemes of work were of excellent quality, with lots of different types of activity and levelled outcomes. This helped to share practice.

In this school, according to our SEF, I use the schemes of work to share practice and we have informal discussions. None of which is that true or particularly consistent when it does it happen. Too many barriers and not enough expectations. The only thing I regularly do is send emails out with ideas and links, or photocopy journal articles and give them to people I think might be interested. Not sure the recipients care, or take in what I send. No one send things back to me.

When I move to my forth I will be responsible for ensuring the faculty share ideas and act on what they learn. I will be the front. I need to get back in the habit of discussing learning and I need to make sure that the department act as a team following my vision and pulling together to help each other improve.

I intend to start with the scheme of work, make sure we include various ideas we have had in them. A "live" document. I also need to look at how we use departmental meetings, are we talking about where we store the clamp stands or something more useful? I know that my new school has policies on assessment, so using policies that support good pedagogy should also help share good practice.

I must use my time in the final term to find out about what goes on in my faculty and build trusting relationships with the staff I work with so that I can have discussions about what is happening in the classrooms without them feeling they are being judged.

I have been able to share in the successes of other teachers via twitter and I hope this will make me more open to giving and receiving ideas on the best practice of science teaching.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rudgleigh Ave,,United Kingdom

2nd in Faculty Interview

Before I go any further in this blog post, I should say that I have never been successful in a second in faculty interview. I have had many though, and of those I have come close.

I think that the second in faculty is a difficult position. You are trying to forge your own path with respect to the area you are responsible for, yet you have to stick closely to the vision set by the head of faculty and stay loyal for the sake of the cohesion of the faculty.

That begs the question "what would you do if you disagreed with the head of faculty?" I have had this experience twice now. Once I had a major and very public strop (I got into trouble but I got my own way, and it was for the best of the students). The second time I supported what was decided and just had to be there to pick up the pieces when it did fall apart. I think I made the wrong choice, I should have fought more. Any other decisions I have either gone along with and things have been fine or gone along with and what was decided has been forgotten about anyway. So my answer: You have to pick your battles. Knowing what I know now, I would always fight for what I believe is right and I promise to never let something happen again that will have a detrimental affect on the students and school. But this approach in interview is honest, yet would it get me employed?

I believe that the role of the second in faculty is to be supportive of the other members of the faculty. Mentoring people and supporting those who are struggling with certain students or topics. "How would you support a colleague that is struggling?" In most of the schools I have been to interview in this question is about showing you have empathy and can be sensitive. The most important thing is that colleagues want to go to you for support. How do you build up that kind of relationship? Not be being a know-it-all, not by making out you are superior to others.

The job of the second in faculty is often to bring enthusiasm to the faculty. Bring in and lead on innovative and new ideas, organise trip and clubs. Do the things that the head of department struggles to do as they are bogged down in paper work and the demands of senior management. So a question may involve enrichment activities.

Every department I have worked in has had issues with a member of staff. Someone seems to be the "worst". What do you do if it is you that the parents/students/LSAs/other staff complain to? In these situations I don't like to work alone, but seek support. You need to see a the any issue from all angles and an alternative voice helps that. But how do you phrase that in an interview without looking weak and indecisive?

Other questions I have been asked involve my role as a form tutor; why I want to be a teacher; describe yourself in 3 words; describe your strengths and weaknesses; give an example of something you have lead on; how do you use afl in your teaching; how does ICT impact on your work as a teacher; how can you best utilise a VLE; how do you get over your passion for science to your students; should science be compulsory at key stage 4?

A classic question is describe an outstanding lesson you have taught. But a less familiar question is describe a less that didn't go well and what you would do about it.

The big question though is why do you want to work at this school? Can you engage with the staff and students enough to show you would fit in?

Remember that being a second in faculty is about fitting in, and it is probably for the best if you get the job if you wouldn't fit in.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Differentiation, how practical and possible?

I have been talking to my partner during the course of this year about the "struggles" he is having with his classes. He is an AST (and his teaching skills and understanding are advanced beyond anyone else I have met, but I am biased), and part of those "struggles" is that he has very high standards for himself and his students.

His opinions and concerns are very interesting to me as he tries to mould an unruly bunch of students disinterested in science into a group of students who will engage and think for themselves. In order to to this he has had to use differentiation.

I suppose these days what he does is called personalised learning.

My partner knows all the students in his class very well. He makes it his business to engage with them and find out their interests. He has a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things so is easy to talk about subjects that the students have an interest in and link the science he is teaching to the things that the students can relate to.

Using this knowledge and his experience he is able to tailor the activities that the students in his class carry out to their specific needs. He can do this in such a way that the students don't look to another group and ask "why can't I do the same as him".

How does he do it?

Firstly he doesn't teach GCSE, he teaches key stage 3 and BTEC. Personally I find that these courses allow for a lot more flexibility than GCSE and are therefore more open for personalisation.

At key stage 3 he uses the APP grid to get students to set personalised targets for themselves. They can chose the level they want to work at and the outcomes of the activity are ones that they have set for themselves. He does this through questioning and using the conversations he has to empower his students.

He has also built in projects to his lessons. During the rocks topic he asked the students to produce a presentation about "why are rocks so special?" They could talk about or share on the web, but they couldn't use PowerPoint. The students' work ranged from an essay by one student to posters, to online mindmaps.

He has been using the reporting system within his school to support this. Asking students to demonstrate during his lessons that they are resilient, resourceful, reciprocal and reflective. It is difficult for the student to do that if the lessons are structured to the nth degree.

Within science it is always difficult to take a more personalised approach when the learning involves practical work. However, it is possible when you have a good knowledge of the curriculum, assessment levels and your own students by setting personal targets and better still get students to set their own targets based on something tangible.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rudgleigh Ave,,United Kingdom

Appointing a Head Teacher

How much do you really learn about a candidate during an interview? As I write notes for this blog post I am listening to the candidates for our headship in the whole staff interview.

I am wondering what I am to take from the session. Is it about personality or what they say? Will the questions give the opportunity to differentiate between candidates? What can I find out about someone when they are "on their best behaviour" like this?

The first question is: Would you rather have no hearing or no sight? Interesting, but what does it allow us to find out? One candidate has gone with sight and the others with hearing.

Second question: How would you ensure that individuals within the staff reach their potential? Interesting to hear heads talk about leadership potential but not teaching and learning potential. I actually think this is a major concern because we can't all be leaders, and in my opiniion our school would benefit from more concentration onto being proud of what is happening in the classroom and not about who can get promoted the quickest. One candidate talks about using the teaching school, but we would be part of the teaching school, so my question would be how do you use it to develop your teachers when your teachers are the ones that should be leading it?

Workload is a big issue at out school as we teach 2.5 hours longer per week and 5 days longer per year than maintained schools. It was enviable that someone wold ask: Give an example of how you have looked at workload. Answers involved: Duty, meetings, valuing the contribution of staff, teaching happiness, reducing cover and decreasing absences. Only the candidate that talked about reducing cover seemed to have a coherent idea, but I wasn't convinced they could bring that to or school.

A question that I would have loved to answer is: Which Olympic event best describes you as a leader? Marathon - long time to prepare you for a leadership - looking at drive and determination, resilience and barriers. Decathlon - variety, and looking at everything to make sure it takes you across the line. Gymnastics - balanced, agile in mind. I was very disappointed with all the responses, I would have liked to have seen one candidate at least light up at the thought of the olympics, but the answers lacked passion and imagination.

An interesting question was: How have you used local and international firms to support learning of students and staff? Only three of the candidates could answer that question. One of them seemed to have great ideas of how to make links and use industry to help prepare students for the outside world. Other candidates talked about links with other schools, and using universities to support their work.

The big question. The question that if you watch the apprentice you know you have to be able to answer. The question that I have been asked (in a slightly different way) in every job I have applied for: Why do you want to be the head of this school? So why were all the answers vague and lacklustre? The candidates wanted to make a difference to people's lives, by improving and making things better, but not really touching on how. They are keen on federations and the teaching school, one said because working within a federation means we can pool resources. Why would you put yourself though all the hoops you do for a headship if you are not convinced about the positive reasons for working at that particular school?

How would you like the school to develop in the next five years? And where would you see yourself? Most of the candidates talked about making the school world-class. None defined what that would be except one who said he wanted to see a school that exceeded its targets for all the students. One candidate did mention retaining staff, and another showed his cards as being very ambitious, he wants to be a national leader in education. I just thought: you don't need to be a head to do that. The most impressive answer of the night was in the section when one of the candidates mentioned that they wanted the staff trained to the highest level possible with respect to teaching and learning.

Last question of the evening was How emotionally intelligent are you? There is only one answer to this: Highly. That is what they all said in various different ways.

To be honest I will be very interested to see how things turn out tomorrow and which one the governors appoint, if any. I hope that at least one of the candidates can show more personality and imagination tomorrow though.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad