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And twitter for talking to other teachers
Monday, 1 October 2012
Year 6 parents evening
I really think it is important to build positive relationships with parents as well as students. The best schools I have worked at have had support and engagement from parents. Although sometimes it isn't the fault of the school that parents won't engage and sometimes it isn't the fault of the parent they can't find a way to be involved.
Tonight I took my first steps in getting to know parents by attending the year 6 parents evening at the near-by prep school. I really hope that by meeting some of he parents of the children I teach that I can foster useful relationships that will help make connections the students I teach can benefit from.
I have always thought having a group of useful parents, whom can be candid to you, is useful for a head of department. I was asked at an internal interview what I would do to build relationships with parents and I was taken back, offended almost. I had always previously done what I could to communicate with parents about what was going on in the science department and they often engaged with me when they needed support too. (At that point I gave up on getting that role as it was obvious that they ha no idea of the work I had done previously).
Parents are an under used resource in the schools I have worked at before now and I want to make sure that I don't under-use them here.
Tonight I took my first steps in getting to know parents by attending the year 6 parents evening at the near-by prep school. I really hope that by meeting some of he parents of the children I teach that I can foster useful relationships that will help make connections the students I teach can benefit from.
I have always thought having a group of useful parents, whom can be candid to you, is useful for a head of department. I was asked at an internal interview what I would do to build relationships with parents and I was taken back, offended almost. I had always previously done what I could to communicate with parents about what was going on in the science department and they often engaged with me when they needed support too. (At that point I gave up on getting that role as it was obvious that they ha no idea of the work I had done previously).
Parents are an under used resource in the schools I have worked at before now and I want to make sure that I don't under-use them here.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Do teachers ever switch off?
I am at the cycle show at the NEC. We've just seen a beautiful bike made from copper. What do I think? "I wonder if I could use that as a starter in a lesson!"
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Birmingham,United Kingdom
Saturday, 29 September 2012
RRS reader
I can't recommend enough using an RSS reader to read blogs. So simple to use, add blogs and save favourite posts for future reference.
I use google reader and an app on the iPhone and iPad that picks up the feed.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Modelling Electricity
Is it easier to understand electrical circuits by "playing" with batteries, bulbs, leads and ammeters or by modeling it by walking around the room?
If I am honest I think that I wouldn't teach one without the other. I believe that it is important for students to "see" the science for themselves, even if there is an easier way to explain it.
Last week we investigated circuits and revised the concepts students should have come across in year 7. This didn't go as well as I would like: new plan needed!
Today I decided to introduce models to the students instead.
I felt that the students grasped the ideas better. But they did have the "real" experiences from the previous lesson to back up the ideas I was giving them.
At the end of the lesson I asked the group to look at other models. I was impressed with how they managed the task, however their written explanations require work. That's next!
If I am honest I think that I wouldn't teach one without the other. I believe that it is important for students to "see" the science for themselves, even if there is an easier way to explain it.
Last week we investigated circuits and revised the concepts students should have come across in year 7. This didn't go as well as I would like: new plan needed!
Today I decided to introduce models to the students instead.
I felt that the students grasped the ideas better. But they did have the "real" experiences from the previous lesson to back up the ideas I was giving them.
At the end of the lesson I asked the group to look at other models. I was impressed with how they managed the task, however their written explanations require work. That's next!
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
ASE Conference January 2013
I intend to go to the ASE conference 2013. It is being held in Reading, which is convenient for both my and my science teacher partner, Richard.
As we are both members and will get the 20% early bird discount it isn't too expensive to stay for all four days, three nights.
I want to go to the international day as I teach a lot of international students and communicating with international teachers will help me to understand the prior experiences of the students and therefore teach them more appropriately.
I know that I want to go to some frontier lectures. I enjoyed hearing about cutting edge science. Sometimes I get so involved in education I forget about "science". I want to take as many opportunities as I can to remind myself.
I will also be careful not to arrange any booked courses on Friday afternoon, as I really hope the ASE can get a key note speaker for that time. Although I would like to go to a literacy workshop at that time.
This year I am interested to hear the presidential address and I want to go to some sessions that relate to the changes happening to the curriculum and the way that GCSE/EBC science will be assessed.
The added bonus of the conference will be meeting a lot of the people I know from twitter. Putting a face to the twitter handle will be great.
As we are both members and will get the 20% early bird discount it isn't too expensive to stay for all four days, three nights.
I want to go to the international day as I teach a lot of international students and communicating with international teachers will help me to understand the prior experiences of the students and therefore teach them more appropriately.
I know that I want to go to some frontier lectures. I enjoyed hearing about cutting edge science. Sometimes I get so involved in education I forget about "science". I want to take as many opportunities as I can to remind myself.
I will also be careful not to arrange any booked courses on Friday afternoon, as I really hope the ASE can get a key note speaker for that time. Although I would like to go to a literacy workshop at that time.
This year I am interested to hear the presidential address and I want to go to some sessions that relate to the changes happening to the curriculum and the way that GCSE/EBC science will be assessed.
The added bonus of the conference will be meeting a lot of the people I know from twitter. Putting a face to the twitter handle will be great.
Organising Resources
I noticed on a few blogs I've read teachers leaving pages for websites they've found. I use delicious to store links to websites, but I don't often retrieve them, I collect and hoard.
In my department staff use folders with paper and plastic wallets to store schemes of work. Mine are stored electronically these days, but how organised are they really? How useful on a day-to-day basis is the the information stored between the school shared drive, my mobile phone, my iPad, iCloud, Dropbox and my computer?
I am increasingly aware that moving away from paper is not going to be a practical solution. I give out worksheets to the students and if there is spare I don't want to throw them out.
I have decided that I'll use pinterest to organise links, (mainly videos and distinct resources) by the topic I'm teaching. I'll continue to use delicious for all links, but I do want to review the tags I'm using.
I have 100GB on dropbox. I am going to reorganise these files and reconsider the folders I am currently sharing. Leaving the majority. I will move my folders away from being only on my hard drive. I need to sort these folders too. They are organised by year, not only by topic. But should I be using iCloud?
There is so many wonderful resources out there, I do wonder if I'll ever have the perfect way to organise and store them! I suppose the way to do it has evolved over the past 10 years and will continue to.
All this is before considering the various applications available to organise calendars, notes, reminders etc.
In my department staff use folders with paper and plastic wallets to store schemes of work. Mine are stored electronically these days, but how organised are they really? How useful on a day-to-day basis is the the information stored between the school shared drive, my mobile phone, my iPad, iCloud, Dropbox and my computer?
I am increasingly aware that moving away from paper is not going to be a practical solution. I give out worksheets to the students and if there is spare I don't want to throw them out.
I have decided that I'll use pinterest to organise links, (mainly videos and distinct resources) by the topic I'm teaching. I'll continue to use delicious for all links, but I do want to review the tags I'm using.
I have 100GB on dropbox. I am going to reorganise these files and reconsider the folders I am currently sharing. Leaving the majority. I will move my folders away from being only on my hard drive. I need to sort these folders too. They are organised by year, not only by topic. But should I be using iCloud?
There is so many wonderful resources out there, I do wonder if I'll ever have the perfect way to organise and store them! I suppose the way to do it has evolved over the past 10 years and will continue to.
All this is before considering the various applications available to organise calendars, notes, reminders etc.
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