Wednesday, 28 November 2012
What is the lesson about?
My current favourite starter activity is "What is the lesson about?". Best demonstrated by some examples in the images below:
Pinterest as a teaching tool
I saw an infographic, tweeted by @PookyH, about Pinterest. The link is here: http://www.pookyshares.com/2012/03/the-power-of-pinterest-infographic/
I like pinterest a lot. I use Delicious for social bookmarking, but I think that Pinterest has more potential. I like the idea of being able to group the images into categories. The organisation in folders means that it is much easier to find the resource.
I plan to use this resource with students so they can find links to help them if they miss lessons or need to recap aspects of topics.
However, to really make the most of pinterest I need to make my own infographics and videos to upload to ensure that all the areas are covered.
I plan to use this resource with students so they can find links to help them if they miss lessons or need to recap aspects of topics.
However, to really make the most of pinterest I need to make my own infographics and videos to upload to ensure that all the areas are covered.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Improving your work in science
I haven't had a good experience with key stage 3 schemes of work in the past 5 years. (Until I came across Segue and Wikid from Upd8). I was happy to learn that at my new school, we use the QCA units in my department.
However, now that I am now teaching from the QCA schemes again I am not particularly happy about them. I am won over by the themes and how the UpD8 schemes allow progression of skills and thinking and do not cause the teacher (or me at least) to focus on knowlegde. I think that this helps the student develop into a scientific thinker during key stage 3.
We are not supposed to use levels at school. Dylan William has been listened to and levels are not to be given out. I rely on them see: "are-levels-my-crutch" I need the APP grid to help me give advice to help the students improve. I don't just want to teach content. Science changes, an analytical mind will be capable of working things out, if it is able to develop at school.
So how do I help my students go from "I want to remember lots of things" to "How can I explain this in a more detailed way"?
I have tried. The presentation below contains examples of level ladders that I asked the students to use. But they found it very difficult, and I am not entirely sure why.
I know that now I need to use my questioning and dare I say "academic mentoring" to move the students on towards more independence in their thinking.
I can't get away from using levels. Even those that use SOLO are assigning a level, it just isn't a number, to their students and/or their work. The levels are labels to help us as teachers, and it helps lad mark the progression.
My previous post shows the type of activity I am doing at the moment. http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/trying-to-develop-thinking-in-classroom.html I hope that by using APP explicitly I can help the students to realise that only be thinking and adding detail to their answers can they improve in science.
It worked before, can I get it to work again?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Easton-in-Gordano,United Kingdom
However, now that I am now teaching from the QCA schemes again I am not particularly happy about them. I am won over by the themes and how the UpD8 schemes allow progression of skills and thinking and do not cause the teacher (or me at least) to focus on knowlegde. I think that this helps the student develop into a scientific thinker during key stage 3.
We are not supposed to use levels at school. Dylan William has been listened to and levels are not to be given out. I rely on them see: "are-levels-my-crutch" I need the APP grid to help me give advice to help the students improve. I don't just want to teach content. Science changes, an analytical mind will be capable of working things out, if it is able to develop at school.
So how do I help my students go from "I want to remember lots of things" to "How can I explain this in a more detailed way"?
I have tried. The presentation below contains examples of level ladders that I asked the students to use. But they found it very difficult, and I am not entirely sure why.
I know that now I need to use my questioning and dare I say "academic mentoring" to move the students on towards more independence in their thinking.
I can't get away from using levels. Even those that use SOLO are assigning a level, it just isn't a number, to their students and/or their work. The levels are labels to help us as teachers, and it helps lad mark the progression.
My previous post shows the type of activity I am doing at the moment. http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/trying-to-develop-thinking-in-classroom.html I hope that by using APP explicitly I can help the students to realise that only be thinking and adding detail to their answers can they improve in science.
It worked before, can I get it to work again?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Easton-in-Gordano,United Kingdom
Trying to develop thinking in the classroom
This is an activity I did with 9.1 on Monday and will try again with 9.1 tomorrow.
The idea is that they can write the answer to varying degrees of depth and I can use questioning to help them realise the thinking involved. This should have the desired effect of bringing on their metacognition and hopefully improve their approach to both learning and answering exam questions.
On Monday the class were very clingy and unwilling to give it a go without me checking their work every moment and reassuring them they were correct. I also had a handful that use the opportunity to not get on with the work whilst I was helping others. I think that their confidence levels need to be improved, but hopefully by doing these sorts of activities it will do just that.
The idea is that they can write the answer to varying degrees of depth and I can use questioning to help them realise the thinking involved. This should have the desired effect of bringing on their metacognition and hopefully improve their approach to both learning and answering exam questions.
On Monday the class were very clingy and unwilling to give it a go without me checking their work every moment and reassuring them they were correct. I also had a handful that use the opportunity to not get on with the work whilst I was helping others. I think that their confidence levels need to be improved, but hopefully by doing these sorts of activities it will do just that.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
ASE West of England Conference 2012
On Saturday we ran our annual regional ASE conference.
The main discovery was the Eventbrite website. It is a fantastic resource, allowing delegates to automatically sign up and I would recommend it to anyone running an event where they want automatic replies and automatic collection of information to help with sign-in.
The day started with the lecture by Aude Alapini- Odunlade, Exeter University. We invited her because Allison and I from the committee had seen her talk before and were REALLY impressed, the description is here: http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/iop-stimulating-physics-south-west.html Aude left a small selection of resources, all of them were snapped up quickly.
Then the delegates went into the first set of workshops. I stayed on the desk, ready to help anyone who arrived late.
As I walked around the workshops there was a great atmosphere as the people who had given up their time and money to get some CPD engaged fully with the workshops.
At break there were opportunities for networking and I witnessed a delegate make useful connections to the IoP and get some ideas of where to go for support for A-level physics. This made the morning for me as I believe that connecting people should be a main aim of the ASE.
The delegates went into their second set of workshops and back to learning.
Of the 100 people who signed up 31 didn't show up, which was dissapointing. I think that I will try to find out if the IoP have the same sorts of issues with their South West Physics conference, and again with the Chem Labs conference. I know that people get ill, but 30% seems quite high, especially when the conference was fully booked. I didn't want to risk adding more people as if they had all turned up then we would have had too many for the space to watch the key note.
Whether charging would make a difference is another question. I personally don't want to charge members, when we are able to cover the cost of the conference from the money we get from non-members. (Costs are tea and coffee and the travel expenses of the key note speaker).
Lastly we went to the planetarium for a very quick ABM, at which I was elected to chair-elect! Sarah has done it for 6 years so far, I don't see why she doesn't want to do it for a 7th. Then we watched the planetarium show aimed at key stage 3/key stage 4. I did learn something, as I didn't realise that black dwarf stars were purely theoretical and that the universe wasn't actually old enough to have produced any yet. I just read my Physics for You text book and accepted what it said.
We haven't yet had time to analyse the opinions of the delegates. I really hope that they liked it as it is quite an effort to put on.
We did have a few people decide to join the ASE that day, and I hope that is because the committee put on a good show for the association. The issue now is to provide those new members with the same support and community that was available on Saturday throughout their membership of the ASE.
Roll on 2013.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The main discovery was the Eventbrite website. It is a fantastic resource, allowing delegates to automatically sign up and I would recommend it to anyone running an event where they want automatic replies and automatic collection of information to help with sign-in.
The day started with the lecture by Aude Alapini- Odunlade, Exeter University. We invited her because Allison and I from the committee had seen her talk before and were REALLY impressed, the description is here: http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/iop-stimulating-physics-south-west.html Aude left a small selection of resources, all of them were snapped up quickly.
Then the delegates went into the first set of workshops. I stayed on the desk, ready to help anyone who arrived late.
As I walked around the workshops there was a great atmosphere as the people who had given up their time and money to get some CPD engaged fully with the workshops.
At break there were opportunities for networking and I witnessed a delegate make useful connections to the IoP and get some ideas of where to go for support for A-level physics. This made the morning for me as I believe that connecting people should be a main aim of the ASE.
The delegates went into their second set of workshops and back to learning.
Of the 100 people who signed up 31 didn't show up, which was dissapointing. I think that I will try to find out if the IoP have the same sorts of issues with their South West Physics conference, and again with the Chem Labs conference. I know that people get ill, but 30% seems quite high, especially when the conference was fully booked. I didn't want to risk adding more people as if they had all turned up then we would have had too many for the space to watch the key note.
Whether charging would make a difference is another question. I personally don't want to charge members, when we are able to cover the cost of the conference from the money we get from non-members. (Costs are tea and coffee and the travel expenses of the key note speaker).
Lastly we went to the planetarium for a very quick ABM, at which I was elected to chair-elect! Sarah has done it for 6 years so far, I don't see why she doesn't want to do it for a 7th. Then we watched the planetarium show aimed at key stage 3/key stage 4. I did learn something, as I didn't realise that black dwarf stars were purely theoretical and that the universe wasn't actually old enough to have produced any yet. I just read my Physics for You text book and accepted what it said.
We haven't yet had time to analyse the opinions of the delegates. I really hope that they liked it as it is quite an effort to put on.
We did have a few people decide to join the ASE that day, and I hope that is because the committee put on a good show for the association. The issue now is to provide those new members with the same support and community that was available on Saturday throughout their membership of the ASE.
Roll on 2013.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:At-Bristol
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
What having a "supportive" SLT means
I had the "dreaded" exam analysis interview with our head of curriculum. It turned out to be a fantastic meeting with a lovely manager that I feel I can really learn from.
I asked if I can be candid and she said yes. I explained I am more of a glass half full sort of person, and that it meant that I wasn't happy with my teaching - I am doing OK, but I am a better teacher and once I know the students better I will prepare and teach better lessons.
In terms of managing the department I know that I need to look at certain areas and I am monitoring, but I am not making massive changes to move things forward. Yet.
Her questions were probing, she was very well versed in the issues in the science department, yet she was gentle. Most importantly she didn't use my lack in confidence or negativity against me. (Which I am used to). Instead she gave me somewhere to start and offered her time if I need it, then she told me that as far as the management were concerned they knew it would be difficult and would take time to move the department forward. I truly believe that my management want to development me and support the improvement in the department.
I know what it feels like to have a supportive SMT. Now I need to get used to it.
I asked if I can be candid and she said yes. I explained I am more of a glass half full sort of person, and that it meant that I wasn't happy with my teaching - I am doing OK, but I am a better teacher and once I know the students better I will prepare and teach better lessons.
In terms of managing the department I know that I need to look at certain areas and I am monitoring, but I am not making massive changes to move things forward. Yet.
Her questions were probing, she was very well versed in the issues in the science department, yet she was gentle. Most importantly she didn't use my lack in confidence or negativity against me. (Which I am used to). Instead she gave me somewhere to start and offered her time if I need it, then she told me that as far as the management were concerned they knew it would be difficult and would take time to move the department forward. I truly believe that my management want to development me and support the improvement in the department.
I know what it feels like to have a supportive SMT. Now I need to get used to it.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Direction for the ASE?
http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Running+a+successful+department/Good+to+outstanding+teaching.htm
I am an assembly member for the ASE and have been thinking a lot lately about how best the ASE can support its members.
There are a lot of voices saying the ASE can't do this or that because others already are. But we have to do something to survive.
"Outstanding teaching and learning" is where ASE have to come in. Creating a community where members can support members and share practice. CSciTeach and RSci being a badge of quality and committed teachers and the start of a network - the register allows us to know where they are and who they are.
As teachers we have had the support network of advisors and consultants removed and there are a lot of new initiatives being put in place by the government. ASE members have to be there to collaborate and support with each other to see us through this difficult time.
It is sink or swim for the ASE, but we can only swim if we bring other science teachers along with us. Altogether we are strong and the association and science teachers can both benefit.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I am an assembly member for the ASE and have been thinking a lot lately about how best the ASE can support its members.
There are a lot of voices saying the ASE can't do this or that because others already are. But we have to do something to survive.
"Outstanding teaching and learning" is where ASE have to come in. Creating a community where members can support members and share practice. CSciTeach and RSci being a badge of quality and committed teachers and the start of a network - the register allows us to know where they are and who they are.
As teachers we have had the support network of advisors and consultants removed and there are a lot of new initiatives being put in place by the government. ASE members have to be there to collaborate and support with each other to see us through this difficult time.
It is sink or swim for the ASE, but we can only swim if we bring other science teachers along with us. Altogether we are strong and the association and science teachers can both benefit.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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