Diptic and Instagram

It isn't directly related to teaching science, but I am pretty excited by these two services.

Diptic allows me to put several photographs together in one place.

First I chose a layout:



Then I select two photographs. This can be from the iPhone, from Flickr or from Facebook. I don't use flickr, I use Picasa instead as this blog links to it, but I do use Facebook.



Then it is possible to move the borders, adjust brightness, contrast etc and also add filters for various effects.


I can then export to the social media application of choice:



I am using Instagram to save my beautiful pictures.



Once uploaded to Instagram I have more filter options should I choose them.



And I share my image with the world. Or at least those people who follow me.

I am not a great photographer, but between these two services I can make my photographs beautiful.









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Using photos to give a lesson a context

@TESscience is collecting photos for his pinterest board. Details Here.

I think this will be a great resource for helping to put some contexts into science lessons and I can't wait to start collecting photos to add.

Things like:


Phototropism




Fossils



Endangered species

I will be keeping my camera close!

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Do we do AfL correctly?

In this article in TES: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6261847 Dylan William says that he believed AfL is not done correctly in England's schools. This because in 2008 the government confused AfL with trying to give grades.

From the article

"How it should be

Dylan Wiliam's key Assessment for Learning strategies:

Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions.

Eliciting evidence of pupil learning, through the use of tests and quizzes, for example.

Providing feedback that moves learning forward.

Using pupils as learning resources for one another, through methods such as peer assessment and peer tutoring.

Encouraging pupils to be owners of their own learning, through self-assessment and other methods."



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Location:UK

Evidence Based Practice

In his book Geoff Petty describes evidence based practice as needing the following:

1. You need all the evidence to make a sound decision
2. It is not enough to know what works, you need to understand why
3. You need to find the critical success factors that are failing in your teaching context and fix these
4. You need to review your teaching constantly in the light of the evidence from the points above

Evidence based teaching, does not show you what you should do; it shows you how best to achieve your own values priorities and goals. Evidence based professional development should give teachers control over initiatives to improve learning.




I find these points very useful to hear.

I have been searching in books for most of my career for a magic pill to make all my students behave beautifully and learn vast quantities every lesson. Moreover, from the beginning of my teaching career senior management have been pushing one way of doing things across the school. Geoff Petty seems to be advocating that one size fits all pedagogy is not necessarily the best thing and that it isn't important to take on all different approaches, but rather the approaches and techniques that work best for me.

It is interesting to me that in recent years the schools I am aware of take a more personalised approach to CPD, asking teachers to work on their own project for improving practice in someway. However, none of the schools I know of use the idea of evidence based teaching to justify this.

In my current role I will have more input into my own practice and look forward to developing my own teaching in an evidence-based way.



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Location:Rudgleigh Ave,,United Kingdom

Underground - a theme for year 6 science term 1

I am teaching science to year 6 for the first time ever. I have observed year 6 twice, once before my PGCE in Sepember 2002, and once during my work experience in November 1995.

The pressure is high because we want to make a good impression on these students.





Here are my initial thoughts. I want to start with questions so that I can incorporate the "scientific method" and help the students take an investigative approach to learning in their science lessons. It should also help me be more creative and not worry that the students should cover "habitats" etc.

I would prefer the science blends nicely to the theme rather than feel forced. Can I achieve this?



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Location:Tetbury, UK.

A teacher's library - how much is excessive?

Am I alone in having a massive library of teaching books? I doubt it.

This is the shelf that has most of my pedagogy based ones, and some of the journals I have.




But I also have a lot of textbooks. Most of them bought with my own money.




I haven't photographed my folders of schemes of work. They fill shelves at school and crates at home.

Is there a better way?


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Location:Rudgleigh Ave,Easton-in-Gordano,United Kingdom

Bristol Dinosaur Project

Today I went to a training day organised by the south west STEM ambassador organiser Katy Glazer. It was about the Bristol Dinosaur Project.

http://www.thebristoldinosaurproject.org.uk/

We met at Aust, under the Severn Suspension Bridge to look for fossils. There are no ammonites, but you can clearly see shells in the limestone and can also find fossils of teeth and bones if you look carefully enough.



I have never been very good at spotting fossils, but it was really easy to find them. I can see why youngsters would love coming down here.










Apart from the fossils the cliff is interesting. At the base you can see the white gypsum, the mudstone and at the top the limestone.









In the photo above you can see the slip that has caused the discontinuation in the layers.

I can't wait to go back and take my family! The Bristol Dinosaur Project will organise for groups of students to go to Aust and have some money to support with transport, although can't manage a whole year group at a time.

After lunch we looked round the new labs of the Earth Science Department. Very swish! All paid for by the Bristol Dinosaur Project. Link: http://www.thebristoldinosaurproject.org.uk/?q=node/50

Pedro, showed us the equipment. In one room we saw buckets containing acid that was helping to remove the rocks from the fossils. This is a picture of the equipment that contains a tiny pneumatic drill that can be used to remove rock from fossils. They have come a long way from a chisel and hammer as this damages the fossils.



The passion for fossils was evident. Pedro has used old maps to find quarries so he can collect more rocks that contain fossils.

He maximises the chance that the rocks have fossils by choosing those that were formed in caves. This is because a flood will kill and wash a large selection of the plants and animals that were alive at that time into the cave. This then gives and idea of the whole ecosystem at the time, so palaeobiologists can find out a lot more about the time.






It is possible to spot the caves in the rock because the rocks formed are not as ordered as those around it.




At the end of the day Ed Drewitt talked to us about the ways that schools can engage with the project: http://www.thebristoldinosaurproject.org.uk/?q=node/3



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Location:Aust, UK