Lesson Observations and "grades"

I have recently read a blog post by a twitter colleague teachgr, http://teachgr.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/second-year-teaching/ about how he misses the observations that were frequent during his PGCE and NQT years.

It makes me reflect that I used to enjoy observations, doing them and having them done to me. It really was an opportunity to reflect and discuss my practice with another teacher or expert.

When working in inner city Bristol the LA consultant, the behaviour support team (not a criticism, just a fact that behaviour is tough in Bristol schools), the head of department, ASTs and senior management would come and observe regularly. It wasn't a bad thing it was great to get so much feedback on what I was doing well and ideas and suggestions to improve. I was able to bring up how I struggled with levels and the LA consultant helped me, a member of senior management supported me in dealing with students who constantly wanted to go to the loo, and an AST boosted my confidence by complimenting my questioning technique.

Even in my second school there were no judgements given after lesson observations. They weren't supportive though, more an exercise in allowing those in a senior position an opportunity to bully you, but observations were not a competition and those of us at the bottom of the pile all felt the same about them. The school had an observation room and we were encouraged to watch other teachers who were timetabled in that room. But those timetabled were the management favourites, (and we all knew it) and getting the key to sit in the office where you could watch was a Herculean effort. We didn't make use of the opportunity.

In my current academy the observation is about collecting data. Feedback is a form that gets placed in your pigeon hole and it consists of a few sentences. A grade is given and for me it causes resentment and competition amongst staff. I hate and dread observations.

I really hope that in my next school, (one week until I move) I can return to the times of an open classroom with supportive, constructive observations. Moreover, as a leader within the faculty I hope that I can gain as much from observing as I have done in the past from being observed.






I can also recommend the lesson observation pocket book for some good ideas and techniques for observations.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Are Levels my Crutch?

I read in this month's copy of "Education in Science" that levels are unlikely to feature in the new re-write of the national curriculum.

There are so many issues with levels and grades. Firstly that students think that they are a failure if they don't get a certain level or grade. Parents too get hung up on grades. Secondly there are teachers who don't know what it means for a student to be at a certain level and what that level looks like. This knowledge gets even less confident at GCSE.

I have already written a blog post about using APP to help students to engage in their learning. Moreover, levels have helped me to understand the progression of students, the subtleties of what I am teaching and how I am teaching it.

I can't imagine teaching without levels; it will be a big shift, but not necessarily for the worse.

Using personal mobile devices in the classroom

I work in a school where there are no rules other than "respect each other, respect yourself and respect the environment". Covers most things, but nothing is clear cut, "respect" basically means that each teacher can interpret things in their own way and the consistency isn't great. However, we have fantastic students who want to learn and most of them thrive in an environment where independence is allowed to flourish.

I don't encourage my students to use their mobile devices in lessons for their learning. However, I know staff who do in my school and in other schools. I think the phrase is "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

My partner used mobile devices to help personalise lessons and engage students. He helps them to show their independent learning skills by using their mobiles or choosing to use a textbook to find something out.

Alessio Bernardelli has shown me socrative, an online quiz room where you set the questions and the students can use their own devices to answer the questions and ultimately get a picture of how the group is doing. This type of interaction is the power of mobile technology to me.

I visited my new school in the Easter holidays and was nicely surprised by their positive attitude to ICT. Starting in September post-16 students will have the opportunity to use the school computers virtually on their smart phones, net books, tablets or computers. I am massively impressed by this. I am aware the technology has been around for a while, but I haven't heard of it being implemented in a school before.

Whether this will mean that students are able to use mobile devices in their lessons, I am not sure. At the moment the school rules are such that students are not allowed mobiles during the school day. However, I have seen them out in a class where students were videoing their dissection. So I hope there is a level of discretion.

I think that "bring your own device" is how education will move. Bringing a personal device will becomes as common as bringing a pen to lessons. It will mean teachers and schools will have to become more imaginative on how we use the devices as making a PowerPoint won't become as easy, it will also be necessary to have networks that can cope with the hundreds of devices.

In terms of teaching and learning, teachers will have to develop their ability to support students' research skills. And they will have to consider carefully whe technology can support instead of hinder learning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bristol

Maths and Science 2012

I have just received my Science Activity Books from Maths and Science 2012. I am massively impressed with the books and the way they link curriculum based science to the Olympics.

I think that it is vital we support our young people in seeing the relevance of science and maths in their everyday lives. This book helps to do this a lot. the website is also excellent with resources and videos linking maths and science to the Olympics.

If you haven't seen there is an e-book version along side other activities on the maths and science 2012 website: http://www.mathsandscience2012.co.uk/


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rudgleigh Ave,,United Kingdom

Review of the academic year 2011-12 part 1

The first part of my year was put into shadow by the death of my father and also included the start of the new head of science at my school.

Our 2011 GCSE exam results had a few disappointments, the chemistry results were lower than expected due to the scaling of the top coursework marks. Unfortunately the moderator asked for two examples that were marked by the same person, and over marked. In physics there were more D grades than expected, due to poor coursework performance by one class. In biology there were less As and A*s than desirable, but nothing significant procedurally to explain this. The main disappointment with biology is usually the number of U and E grades at As.

This all causes me to reflect. How do you ensure good standardisation and therefore consistent marking of controlled assessments? And how can you support staff who resist it when carrying out controlled assessments?

It was very disappointing that the new head of science was neither aware of nor supportive of these issues. He didn't spot them and he didn't ask me about identifying them. The issue with the chemistry standardisation was clear to see, but this has not been addressed in a formal way by him in 2011-12 in order that the faculty avoid the same issue.

At the start of 2011-12 academic year the science faculty, yet again, was promised a refurbishment. This has been on the cards for the last four years as I remember it. We have had three rooms knocked into one as the first stage of this. Poorly planned and badly executed. All the refurbishment we have had is a wall put up to divide these classrooms. Rushed and badly constructed. It makes one of the rooms too small to do certain activities safely and had an impact on the ICT, which was eventually rectified.

The refurbishment of labs isn't happening in 2012 and probably won't happen in 2013. All the faculty can hope for is that the head technician will be able to gain the support of the new head teacher and put this ongoing promise back on the agenda.

My father died on 28th September 2011. I took two weeks off work as he was dying and to help prepare for the funeral and help with other arrangements such as my mother's pensions and benefits.

At the end of October 2011 I applied for as was appointed the Head of Science at a small independent school in Gloucestershire. I was delighted, and as I approach the time when I will start the new job my excitement increases every day.

During the autumn term I was having less and less input to the running of the science department. The department I have made my life for four years previously. Do I fight with the emerging leadership? I think my decision to leave shows my lack of sentimentality.

I was unsure before the start of this academic year if I was ready for faculty leadership. I asked myself the questions regularly if I had the ability to be proactive in order to anticipate issues and smooth transitions to the new GCSEs and eventually the new national curriculum. However, I am happy now that the answer to that question is that I am at least above average. This knowledge must have come across well at interview, giving me the appearance of someone who the school can have confidence in to take the science faculty forward.

The Christmas term ended with unpleasantness from my regarding the amount of time off I had had. Not unexpected, but confirmed that my decision to leave was right and I was no longer welcome in that school.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rudgleigh Ave,Bristol,United Kingdom

Prof Alice says "how science works"

A friend tweeted to me that Professor Alice Roberts was giving a public lecture as the key note to the Bristol University "Children of the 90s" conference. So I signed myself and my partner up.

As those who have seen Professor Alice's TV programmes will know she gave a very engaging talk about the evolution of humans using evidence from fossil and ancient skeleton remains. The talk was entitled: ‘Nariokotome Boy: How can a one-and-a-half-million-year-old skeleton of a young boy shed light on what it means to be human?’

It was fascinating. I was particularly taken with the aspects showing how ideas have changed in my lifetime. Finding new pieces of evidence has forced scientists to consider even more deeply evolution. An interesting story was concerning scientific thinking about a skeleton named the Nariokotome boy. She said that his spine and ribs seemed to be very different from humans today, or at least scientists thought that until they found a plastic bag with further remains. Using these remains they ended up with a better picture of the boy and his anatomy.

During questioning prof Alice was asked about "aquatic ape theory". She commented that she didn't think much of it because scientists shouldn't come up with a theory and find evidence to support it, instead they should come up with a theory and find evidence to refute it, that is how science works, have a range of theories and as evidence is collected one will rise to the top.

I almost cheered when she said that. It really backs up what I am trying to do as a teacher of science.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:At-Bristol,United Kingdom

Long term absence - what is the solution?

Currently in our school two members of staff are on long term sick. Neither of them know exactly when they will be coming back, although both know that they are not coming back in the short term.

So why are we using cover supervisors and supply teachers to cover their lessons? Are there really no supply teachers available in my area that would work week to week and are capable of taking on a timetable including the planning time?

I personally think that this stance by our management team puts pressure on the sick member of staff and pressure onto the reaming staff members, causing resentment between members of a team.

On top of all of this at my current school absent staff are expected to set their own cover. Should a long term sick person be expected to do that? Should any member of staff who is sick be expected to do more than give an idea of the topic or objectives.

Interestingly another poorly (short term, it is flu) colleague is having an issue with setting cover work that is not being completed by the covering teachers. This high lights another issue with the sick and absent staff member trying to monitor their own groups via email from home.

Management teams need to be aware of how the decisions they make affect staff members and middle managers need to fight their corner to ensure their team are minimally effected and that learning is unaffected as much as possible by an absent staff member. Staff are important and how you treat them when they are at their lowest is a mark of how a school respects them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad