admin – Page 7 – Timothy West

Kids teaching themselves

By adminBeliefs, TeachingNo Comments

I just watched an inspiring video on how kids can teach themselves. Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves by giving them technology and computers. These kids had no previous experience with computers or even the english language but as he showed over 3 months the kids from rural villages where able to teach them selves over 200 words of english albeit slightly wrong but non the less they did know how to use the computer. It was amazing to think that kids can just teach themselves in groups and by trial and error. Kids are able to problem solve on their own given the chance. “What we do allot of in IT teaching is instruction but that is quite flat and this doest always engage the higher level of learning. Think of yourself as a facilitator of learning not an instructor.” Andy Hutt.

So group work and self learning will be something that i will try in my next teaching practice.

The other aspect that i really think was amazing is how amazing Gods creation is and how he has created us a human beings to be able to work and figure out things like technology. It just shows how remarkable the human brain really is. God has created us in an amazing way and its so refreshing to see his handiwork on children across the world.

15/02/2011

Teachers statutory framework and professional duties

By adminPGCENo Comments

It is clear from the teachers pay and conditions documents 2010 found here http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/careers/payandpensions/teacherspayandconditionsdocument/a0064179/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions-document-2010

that there are a series of bandings that teachers can be paid with the basic NQT starting at £21558 per annum. When you start working at a school it is a good idea to get a document such as http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/doc/a/ae-ao/annual%20statement%20of%20a%20main%20pay%20scale%20teacher%20%20%20september%202010.doc to have this pray scale secured. Also have a look at this article which explains teachers pay quite well. Independent school can sometimes pay above this rate they can also pay below this and offer housing to some staff.

As well as this teaching commitment teachers are have certain duties that they are required to do one of which is tutoring pupils and making sure they register on time. Teachers also have to do duties such as seeing of pupils on the bus after school there are also break time and lunch time duties that teachers can opt into but these are not demanded of them as they need their lunch break.

11/02/2011

Web 2.0 and Teaching

By adminPGCE, SD - ICT, SeminarsNo Comments

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-527579

Web 2.0
This is the ability to share information and participate with other people through the Internet. It is a great way to collaborate with other people online. There are a variety of ways that people can get involved with the web 2.0 phenomena. These are through a variety web platforms that people can now access so quickly and easily.
The term “Web 2.0” (2004-present) is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. (Wikipedia 2011)
The term was first discussed in a conference between Tim O’Reily and Media Live international this was in 2004 after there was an increasing amount of new exciting web applications and social websites.
Some people would say that it is a simple natural progression of web development and there has just been a natural progression into this area term. Others would say that since 2004 there has been a boom of web 2.0 websites.
From my findings I have found that the main difference is that prior to this web 2.0 phenomena there was no sharing and uploading and collaboration on the Internet. Web 2.0 has changed traditional media, which is passive and self-absorbing.

Areas of the web that involve Web 2.0 theories are things like blogging, podcasting, using social websites like facebook and twitter, tagging and commenting on websites.

Some example of social web 2.0 Websites
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Bebo
• Myspace
• Wordrpress, Blogger, Posterous
•

Benefits of Web 2.0
• Ability to share information and files and folders easily
• You can collaborate and get to know other people in your profession or area of expertise.
• Real-time sharing
• Access from across the world with cloud technologies.
• Interactive vs Passivity
Pitfalls of web 2.0
• Controlling copyright is harder as content is so easily shared.
• Information has not being created by experts only amateurs so credibility is les reputable – so bias and accuracy
• No moderation in some cases you rely on other users to moderate
• Problems of e-safety
How does this effect teaching ICT
As it is such a huge part of what is going on in society today. Everywhere you look you will find social networking links and sites such a facebook and twitter and the ability to interactively collaborate on the web. This highlights the need to embrace, teach and educate pupils in the area of Web 2.0 technologies. It is not only the technological understanding that they need but also the social skills and aspects of e-safety that come into play when dealing with these new web technologies.
• Pupils should be taught how to best utilize social media to gather information.
• They should also be taught basic coding skills to enable participatory aspects of their website.
• They should be made aware of different strategies to share the work that they create by posting it on various websites or through blogs.

Exploration of using Web 2.0
I personally have found the use of twitter a great tool for broadcasting my own thoughts to the public sphere. It has also been a great way to read up on teaching tips from other teachers and even pgce students across the country.
Another great teaching forum is the TES teaching and resources forum which has loads of resources and articles that are specifically based on ICT teaching as well as advice for trainee teachers in the form of guest speakers collaborating on dedicated forum posts.
I have made a few podcasts to posterous using two techniques. One was by recording and editing an interview on audacity and then uploading the mp3 to posterous to create a simple blog post, which then in turn created the pod cast through the posterous system. I have also used my iphone as a method of recording a voice memo and then emailing this to the my posterous account which in turn then creates a blog post and adds to podcast blog role.

I have also been able to use a web animation site called dvolver.com that has a pre setup set of stages and scenarios that allow for a few selections of scene changes and also a selection of characters. Then dvolver simply uses speech bubbles to visually show the speech that is being made. In my case I just used a simple series phrases that allowed them to talk about what web 2.0 is. I then used this animation and embedded it into my blog at this address.

I found dvolver simple and easy to use and pupils at year 7 even younger could use this with some instruction. I have used xtranormal,com to do the same process here of reinforcing theory that has been taught and I feel that xtranormal is a better and more interactive tool but more suited to the older pupil possibly year 10 +

07/02/2011

Questioning – Derek O’Rourke

By adminPGCE, SD - ICT, Seminars123 Comments

Today we have had the privilege of having Derek O’Rourke speak to us as a guest lecturer in our ICT seminar.

He is the AST for wiltshire and was mainly giving us a lecture on questioning in the classroom

Below are the notes that I made
We were shown this video as an intro to the session.

How do you bring young people with you “herd them in the classroom”

The use of “Active Expression” by promethean for questioning. It helps everyone participate.

Questioning is about developing your own style in it

If you start antagonizing pupils with personal questions about themselves they will clam up and not want to engage.

Be prepared to have experts in the room who know what is going on and promote their excellence so that they can help other people.

What do your do when you have a pupil who does not engage and does not respond to questions.

Don’t dismiss pupils who get it wrong!

Why ask questions?

Be positive when you ask them questions.

AFL

Building good relationships with the pupils building the repore

Controlling the classroom

The use of big track a really cool control truck for learning control and allows pupils the chance to have a go at talking and problem solving

Use sound for questioning. Maybe record some other teachers doing the questions on a Dictaphone edit it on audacity.

Use a random person picker or random name selector. Like class tools fruit machine.

Don’t over use things like the fruit slot machine random name generator as it can get distracting. Don’t over cook it.

Say its not a television program we need to engage with each other both

It can help you learn pupils names. If you use a random name generator.

BBC archives for clips about ict from the 1960s you can then bleep out key words.

Top Tips

Be clear about why questions are being asked

Plan challenge into the questions (Blooms)

Provide time for answers

Consider using multiple choice

Direct questions by name or randomly

PLAN YOUR QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE – Look at the topic what questions do we need to ask for this topic to help them learn more. Think of something’s simple then build it up

Blooms taxonomy

Use blooms to plan your questions and when planning look at it so that your know what level of thinking the pupils are being challenged.

How can I help the pupils to respond?

Consider using a writing frame.

Use a voice recorder.

Reading list

Assesment for learning – putting it into practice Black, Harrison, Lee Marshall, Wiliam –

Open university Press

Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and learning in secondary schools

Unit 7 Question Ref Dfes 0430-2004 G Pdf

Derk O’Rourke – Wiltshire AST for ICT

dorourke@devizes.wilts.sch.uk

www.wiltshire-ast.co.uk

25/01/2011

Year 8 Website Assessments

By adminPGCE, POT 1, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

For my year 8 Website unit i used a range of assessment strategies

The first step was to use the QCDA national curriculum assessment criteria and amend the criteria so that the Kids know what level they where at.

We then took two revisions of this

Revison 1 = http://bit.ly/h9eb9V

Revision 2 = http://bit.ly/dFMTcN this was so that the kids could understand it better and there where all condensed into one sentence

I worked collaboratively with the ICTAC ICT across the curriculum teacher to amend these for all year 8 teachers.

Prior to my last lesson I arranged for them to do a series of peer assessments to make sure that their websites met the different requirements for them to achieve the highest level possible. Lesson plan here http://bit.ly/hEfz8X

Then for my last assement lesson, lesson plan here http://bit.ly/hbYC3P

Full Reflection on Lesson below

Year 8 Website Assessments

It has come to the end of the module and it is time to mark and assess the year 8 websites they have been makings.

The idea was to get them to prepare a short 2 minute presentation about their website to cover the assessment levels.

How we have done this

They have zipped up their whole folder containing their website and then they submitted this folder to the Joint assessment system so that I could access this through the teacher login.

This submission allowed me to access it for their presentations and viewing later.

Once it was submitted I then asked them to come up to the front with their chairs and gave them some tips on how to present well. These were things like to face the front, speak up, keep it simple, and introduce their website.

I also laid down the ground rules of no talking when someone is talking and no distracting the presenter.

I mentioned that I will be asking them some questions.

? What sort of design theme and colour scheme have your chosen and why?

? How have you made sure that your website is suitable to a range of audiences?

? If you did it again what improvements would you make?

How we did it.

I had to open up the zipped up work through the JAS and then show the website on the screen and at this point the pupil went through the website.

The as they go through it the point was to asses their work straight into the JAS this could be done easily with 2 people but I think would be hard with one person.

So the presentation really gave a good opportunity for the pupil to talk through their work and for you to see their thoughts on how they made it.

Problems

Behaviour wise it’s quite hard to manage them with your back turned to them!

The can sometimes go over board with clapping. A good suggestion from my mentor was to say that if you carry on clapping then you will be held back a minute for every clap that you do. So its almost letting them police it as they not all will want to stay behind. Then if I catch the culprits then I can keep them in.

The lower sets sometimes don’t elaborate enough at the beginning and don’t have a good introduction and jump straight into their classroom.

The good thing about assesimg the pupils through the JAS System is that you can then set objectices to cover the points that have not been covered as well as you would hav liked. The JAS systme allows you to quickly observe handed in work and then offer feedback and say what needs to be improved.

15/12/2010

Downloading and Gathering Information – OCR Nationals

By adminPGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

To continue finding and gathering information to store for your flyers.

To complete the 8 slides showing the screen shots of the information you have gathered.

To complete the copyright slide saying how copyright needs to be considered in a business context.

What went well?

This was a good lesson to catch up on work that was needed to be done. I thought my explanation of how to get the relevant screen shots was clear and concise and so that they knew exactly what to do. One of the boys had given up and I was able to try and motivate him to keep on going it take a deep breath and carry on.

I was really happy with being able to help pupils one to one.

I was also happy with being able to go through assessing pupils work by going around individually looking through their work.

What could have been done better and what will I do about it?

It was hard to manage each pupil across the class as they were a lower set ability. As I gave them a big chunk to do it was probably quite overwhelming for them to complete all 8 slides.

Now I tried to use the timer to give them 3 minutes for each of the slides and this was not that effective as many of them did not pay attention to this.

In the future I really could try and chunk this up even more and almost guide them through each one. The only problem is that they all had different band members.

One other area that could have gone better was my extension tasks. Now I had planned for this but I did not actually say what they should move onto verbally or on the screen.

So in the future I will verbally and visually put on the board the extension task for those that complete early so that I can allow for good differentiation.

Feelings

I felt that it was a good to ok lesson and on the whole they were on task working well.

It was tough to hold my ground to behaviour management as i had to issue a timeout warning and its hard as the kids become extremely distant when your issue some sort of sanctions.

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >> http://bit.ly/fHnSoT

Learning objectives and homework Powerpoint >>> http://bit.ly/fxbOVJ

07/12/2010

Forest of Dean Tutor Trip

By adminPGCE, ReflectionNo Comments

Over the lent term I was able to go on a school trip with my year 8 tutees this was a great trip to get to know the pupils well and build those vital relationships. I was able to lead several activities to help promote indipendant survival skils just to manage and co ordinate several expeditions.

We had to deal with children that had not been away from parents before and had full responsibility of their diet and wellbeing.

We also had evening reviews with my colleagues to asses what had been achieved in the day and to plan for the next day.

It gave me chances to take kids on walks and for them to learn in out of school contexts.

PLEASE SEE THIS DOCUMENT FOR EVIDENCE http://bit.ly/mG30Wc

03/12/2010

After School Animation Club

By adminPGCE, ReflectionNo Comments

I have been helping out over the last 5 weeks in an after school animation club.

Here at the school i am placed in you can choose from a series of after school clubs there are several that range from Art club to hockey right across the board to the one i am helping in Animation club. These extra curricular clubs are brilliant as the give the kids the opportunity to do something that they really enjoy outside of the normal school day. The benefit of this is that it’s a more relaxed time that is not like being in a lesson and it also gives them more opportunity to explore and get into the club they have chosen.

In our animation club we are using two main programs. One is Macromedia Flash MX and the other is Scratch from MIT.

Most of the kids that come are either year 7 or 8 and so scratch is extremely popular as it is really easy to use and get to grips with but still requires the ability to logically program the sequence of events in their game or animation that they are making. It has the “High ceiling yet low complexity” benefit as everything is done using simple to understand bolt together modules.

At the moment we been really just allowing the kids to get to grips with scratch and then encouraging them to think of and plan a game or animation that could work. We have had to give them ideas and prompt them to stick to one project as they are quite easily distracted by all the other games that people have made.

I have been mainly going round answering and helping them one to one with their own projects and working particularly with a select few who’s projects I have been able to get to grips with.

It has been so rewarding to go through their ideas and watch them turn that into a real life game. One chap is making a simple game that has a main character that shoots the baddies that parachute down the screen and then walk to attack him. There is even a boss at the end who is harder to kill. We have been looking at how we can use the variables to create good game play and also how we can create realistic animation in the physical sense.

One of the thing I have learned is that you need to prompt the kids but not do it all for them so its important to give them the mouse and get them to figure it out with your guidance. This way they remember it more and more and are then able to go away and do this on their own.

The other brilliant thing is that it has given me the opportunity to broaden my own subject knowledge as I have to really think on the spot when helping the kids and at times we are both learning the program together. Thankfully I have been able to pick up the program quicker than they have and am then able to really help them develop their skills.

Our numbers are running low at the moment so we are about to introduce a 3d animation program called Mission Maker which looks amazing. It allows them to make fully 3D games without having to create everything from scratch as all the GUI is created and the coding is done through a form field rather than through a coding language. Again it has great (High ceiling) results but is not that complicated to use or control.

We are expecting the number to increase with the introduction of this new program Mission Maker and I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with it.

All in all it’s really great to get involved with extra curricular activities out of the classroom and to use that as a chance to broaden my subject knowledge and invest in the kids that want to go deeper with this ever growing area of animation.

30/11/2010

Academic Review Day

By adminPGCE, ReflectionNo Comments

Academic Review day Reflection

Today was Academic review day and it was brilliant. The whole purpose of the day was to have 15 minutes personal contact time with the tutees so that we could; review and look at their mid term progress report and set some targets for them to achieve higher both academically and in the wider context of school. The main focus is for the pupils and how they are doing and parents where their to support them with this it was not really meant for a chat with the parents directly but to incorporate the parents and have them their to support the targets set.

We started of with asking the pupils to right down the areas that they have good or bad feedback from their teachers and to express how they are getting on in each subject this was done in a simple fill out a form fashion. They had to then come up with some of their own targets on how they feel they can improve.

So with the background set we then on the next week handed out their progress report for them to view and take home to their parents. We then went through each of the reports highlighting the excellent reports in green and the needs improving in pink. The main layout was four columns with Behaviour, Effort, Homework and Equipment. We focused on the first three. If any pupil had 3 or more excellent then they received a mention and gold star for their great work. The third attainment level was good.

Then once we had scheduled in each 15 minute appointment we had the day itself.

To start with I observed how this was done and the various points that I needed to include.

First was to ask them how they feel they have done with the progress report.
Then to show them the highlighted areas and maybe compare to last years report. Praise where needed and visa versa.
Then to go through the areas of concern and come up with some targets that they could do to rectify the needs improving sections.

This worked really well and particularly if you started and finished on a positive note and really took the time to praise and glorify hard work.

After I had made a few inputs to the sessions and started some off asked to take some pupils on their own and run their the whole review on my own.

This was the fun bit as I was really able to be myself and to put across my own thoughts and have the freedom to speak directly into each target.

I found that it was important to meet and greet the parents and pupils early and to start it of well with plenty of positive notes. It was interesting how some parents took more of an forceful role and others that were quite happy to just sit and listen. It was really great when the pupil and parents both came up with some targets that would be realistic to fulfil and carry out.

Some of the targets were

Setting aside at least one hour of homework time after school. This was if homework was needing improvement
Reading for at least 20 minutes each evening. If things were good but English was needing improving
Asking at least one question each lesson to show the teacher that they were making the effort if effort needed improvement.

There were others such as behaviour reports for those that needed to be kept on tabs with this. This is a form that they take each lesson with a target like uniform and talking and if they achieve it the teacher at the end of the lesson marks it on the form. The purpose of this is to have some accountability on their behaviour. My tutor took and interesting twist on it rather than it being a punishment but actually something to stop them getting in trouble. In all of these targets they were there to be positive and do something constructive rather than just bashing them over the head saying you must not for example.

In some cases the issues were due to home environments and issues that needed to be address by the parent for example staying up to late playing x-box was a classic example of one of the cases I came across. These issues I had to escalate and pass onto my lead tutor and the head of house via a slip that could be reviewed later on. It was really interesting how the home issues were obviously affecting their school life. One needs to be careful on how they approach this as we are not really in a place to pass advice on parenting but as I learned in our child protection training its just our duty to pass on information that could be affecting the health and wellbeing of children to ensure that they are being correctly safeguarded.

So all in all it was great to invest some time in the pupils one to one and to have the chance to meet their parents and to interact with both on a higher level.

Please email amabey@nortonhillschool.com for more reference if needed.

26/11/2010

Copyright – Year 9MQB4 – OCR Nationals

By adminObservations, PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Formal Lesson observation

This was my first formal lesson observation from my university tutor. I was quite nervous about it as I really wanted to impress. I found myself planning all evening and tried my best to make sure that all my resources and activities were just right.

The actual lesson went well with no major issues. I was happy with what I delivered and though they could have achieved a bit more written work I think they would have enjoyed it and I could tell they had learned something. It was an ambitious lesson to try and I feel that I managed it well.

I tried to use some post it notes to get the kids thinking about how all they have to do is write something down to copyright it and so i aske them to do this. I then had some great advice which was to extend this by saying how would you feel if i went and sold each one of these to pay for my next holiday to Kenya. This would have been a great way to get the higher level of blooms taxonomy.

I found that my feed back from my tutor was far but quite hypercritical which was hard to swallow at first as I really did try my best. I think I am still having to come to terms with the fact that I am not going to perfect yet and actually teaching is always about seeing how you can do things better next time. So the advice was great and I can see why they push us and try and find areas of weakness.

I need to concentrate on listening more to the responses from the pupils during questioning time and then if they
are good expanding on this and asking other pupils to engage with it.
Identifying the areas of strength and spikes in learning and praising that highly.
I need to really make sure that they get on task quicker and give them options if they are not starting the work
and making clear the expectation on them to work or get a sanction.
Continued work on low level disruption.

All in all I think that it’s necessary to be humble and then strive to be the best.

Please take a look at the following to get an idea of how the lesson worked and what resources i used followed by my observation report.

Lesson observation report = http://bit.ly/gZBzno

Copyright PowerPoint = http://bit.ly/e9SdK4

Lesson Plan and Evaluation of lesson = http://bit.ly/i04wPg

25/11/2010