Blog – Page 8 – Timothy West

Attending Year 9 and 10 Parents Evening

By adminPGCE, POT 2, ReflectionNo Comments

During my POT 2 Placement I was able to attend 2 Parents Evenings.

For the Year 9 one I was there for the whole evening from 4:30 PM until 7:30 PM We had between 5 and 10 minutes the main purpose of this parents evening was as follows.

To review their progress from Year 8 to year 9
To Review their progress across the topical tests they had and highlight and strengths and areas for improvement
To say what targets they could achieve in the next collaborative group project to improve their areas of weakness for certain programs
To promote the ICT GCSE Course for the next year as they where choosing their modules.

As we went through each pupil was able to ask questions on areas that they found hard and we where able to praise the pupils that had done well and then target the pupils that needed improvement. It was hard as many of the bright pupils that achieved high scores did not want to carry on with the GCSE as they saw other subjects as more valuable and beneficial. We had to re iterate how valuable ICT is in the modern era but not force them. I liked how my mentor just encouraged them to do what they enjoy.

It was good for mee to see this as I was able to look at the tracked scores that they achieved throughout the year and focus on what pupils found hard so that i could tackle these in my Learning Objectives. This term I will have free rein over them as so it will be a good opportunity to focus on their specific learning neeeds and sett targets to meet them.

For the Year 10s this was mainly to

Review their current progress with their GCSE Coursework as many where quite behind. They where given exactly what they needed to prepare for each of these pieces of coursework.

A few year 10s needed to be prompted to get a move on and this had to be done in a firm yet diplomatic way with parents present

For both of these evenings I was able to contribute with a few points and thoughts on what i will be teaching their pupils.

The main difference I say between my Home School and Complimentary school was that parents where on the whole more supportive of their children and work and took a definite interest in what subjects they where doing but mainly the area of achievement as parents where paying at my complimentary they wanted to see the results.

Signed Trevor Medhurst

Please email tgm@kesbath.com for confirmation

15/03/2011

Photoshop lesson 2 – Year 7

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Lesson Reflection Document

Class Year 7

What we did?

We were creating an Elvis at the Abbey project with a pop theme to it.

Lesson 2 was all about working and making tweaks to the sky using a gradient tool on Photoshop.

Please look at attached lesson plan

What went well?

It was great to see that the pupils where using their inner creativity to create some really good-looking items of work.

They where able to grasp the points that I needed to re-enforce through questioning

I made sure the chairs where set out as they came in as it really helped the pupils focus and be really quiet for the introduction. I have noticed how when I don’t do this it is slightly more chaotic and hard to get through the introduction well

I was able to introduce AB tutor well to the classes at first I found that they where really excited about the whole concept but if I just did it and asked them to put their hands of their laps it stopped that initial excitement. The AB tutor really helped with the finer details that I had to explain with for example the new layer creation and add to selection tool box.

The time at the end of the lesson was a good time to show of the pupils work and give constructive criticism.

I found I was able to be more confident with the lesson the more I had taught it showing that experience is so valuable to self-development.

I set some good extension tasks of finding and adding in another “Friend of Elvis” to be put in from the Internet.

I used some good classroom discipline to keep them under control when the noise level became too loud.

What could have been done better?

In my earlier lessons I found that my explanation was quite rushed and not as thorough as It could have been this had a repocusion later on as there where so many questions almost too many for me to handle at once. I found in the last lesson that I did when my delivery was clear and concise they where able to really get on with the work with out too much guidance.

I need to keep an eye on pupils that are running behind due the extremely hi ability sometimes the less able can get missed.

I have to make sure I keep the plenary time for assessment of learning and ict skills not just an artistic critique on their work.

Conclusion

All in all I feel it was a good set of lessons that where executed with good pace and clear guidance.

11/03/2011

Year 11 GCSE Coursework Lessons

By adminObservations, PGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Working with year 11 Course work

I have been team teaching year 11 coursework lessons that are a completely different approach to normal guided teaching. The first thing is that they are all working away on their own documents and so they are all at different levels this means that you have to initially be familiar with the actual coursework requirements and structure. I have been spending the time reading through the Candidate booklet and familiarizing myself with what exactly the pupils have to do.

The pupils here are KES are doing the AQA syllabus and have to create two tasks

1) Set up a website for the driving school.

2) Set up a system to manage driving lessons and provide a link to it on the website.

So currently as they are on the old spec they are allowed to have a pre made template with headings and guidelines. They then have to do the following to create the project and then write it up in this format.

There is an analysis section that applies to both (10 marks)

Then they have to do a write up on each of these areas below

Design (20 Marks)

Implementation (40 Marks)

Testing (10 Marks)

Self Evaluation (8 Marks)

Report (6 Marks)

Evaluation of others use of ICT (6)

Total (100)

Currently the pupils I have joined are at a stage where they should have completed a preliminary stage of each of these areas some of them are at varying levels and have created a comprehensive report and others are quite far behind for example one pupil has almost finished with a 250 page report and another has still not completed making his website.

They key to helping out in a course work lesson is to be able answer questions that arise swiftly in a ‘get in get out fashion’. The way to be able to offer this assistance is to have a solid understanding of the exam board and the mark scheme so that you know exactly what is required.

I have already been looking through some of their work that they have been handing in at intervals and I have made corrections to the work. This is another way of getting to grips with the mark scheme and what they have to do to achieve the higher grades. This interval hand is a big demand on the teacher but is vital to offer

Here at KES there is a high demand to do well with most pupils aiming at the A-A* grade which means that you have to be really stringent when it comes to the actual mark scheme. This is obviously way above the national average that most state schools would achieve but is a good standard to reach and push to if I was to work in a State School.

11/03/2011

Year 9 – Colaborative Group Project *1

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Lesson Reflection Document

Class Year 9s Colaborative Group Project

What we did?

We have started a group project that allows the pupils to come up with an advertising campaign to promote a corn maze or maze maze event. The whole point is that they choose what avenues of advertising they want to use and the programs that can best create these adverts.

So we broke up in to teams of 3-5 and i asked them to find a company name imagining they where the design and advertising team of this event or company.

They then created a document that I had prepared to answer questions such as what types of adverts they were going to use and who in the group was going make this section. I also asked them to think about their audience.

What went well?

I was able to get them split into groups fairly seamlessly this showed good management

I was able to emphasize how each team member needs to have a role to play and be a part of the team working on something constantly. I created the illusion that this was a professional group project but it also encouraged them to stay on task and not be sitting there with nothing to do.

I was able to go around and make sure that each group had an idea of what they were going to do and get some casual formative assessment by talking to the groups.

I was able to get them to email me their advertising campaign plan in order to some feedback to them via email.

I felt by giving them the freedom to do what they want within reason they took more ownership over their work.

The pupils even started making logos and design work on dreamweaver.

I felt i had good pace and kept them on task by setting mini lesson deadlines. I find that 1 hour is slightly longer to teach and the time can be chunked quite nicely

What could have been done better?

Pupils opted to use some of the less professional packages such as Published instead of Photoshop or indesign which meant i had to explain why it was better to use the other programs.

Some of the boys where slightly un motivated to start with so I will have to find things constantly for them to do and watch them but not let the others suffer.

I could have used questioning a little bit more to tease out the different areas of software that more or less effective rather than just telling them.

07/03/2011

Adobe After Effects Lesson 1 – Year 8

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Class

Year 8

What we did?

We have been starting an advertising scheme of work using the Adobe After Effects package. We mainly started by looking at a YouTube clip which was the Honda Cog Advert. I then asked them questions on what makes a good advert and what they enjoyed in the advert. I found that if i did the questioning before about what makes a good advert it was a good pre-curser into the actual video followed by the video and then questions on what they enjoyed in that advert that made it a good advert. We then went on and looked at adobe after effects and the mini bath advert project. I had to show them basic features of the After Effects package such as the composition area where I explained how 16:9 was a good native resolution for modern screens. I also talked to them about the Presets tab on the left where you have all the content and media imported. Timeline, transform and text editing was what I showed them next.

What went well?

The YouTube video was certainly a hit and I shall be using more and more of these as YouTube is not filtered and the pupils really enjoy it and it is a great way to tease out questions based on live and real examples from current media and advertising.
I found that chunking the sections of the deliver most effective as many of the pupils found it hard to remember the complex steps of adobe after effects. I found that when i did do too much I didn’t have enough time to really get them on task quick enough.
The managing of questions in this was interesting and I had to make queue system by giving them numbers.
I used AB tutor to subtly keep an eye to see if they were on task.
I also used AB tutor to display their finished work I also got them to gather around a PC and view their work.
I made sure that I gave them clear guidelines as to what to do and what I expected of them before the end of the lesson.
I could have got them to save and submit their work to a folder for assessment and comments so I am going to create folders on the shared drive that they can cope and past their finished work to.
I need to give more time for a plenary so as to give time for assessment of learning by questioning.
I found that demonstrating up the front was a little bit tough to show them the finer more intricate tools effects that where hard to see.
Adobe after effects is a hugely complex program that requires great concentration. I found the explanation of key frames quite challenging i think the only way to rectify this specific step would be do a written set of instruction that are very basic.
I feel my behavioural management was good in the lesson and i controled the pupils well

What could have been done better?

Overall these where good lessons that I thought where effective and produced good work. I believe they learnt a fair bit on how to use adobe after effects but joining the theoretical side of advertising to the technical side was rather tenuous as they could not create something as good as what they saw on the youtube clip.

04/03/2011

Photoshop lesson 1 – Year 7

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Over this last week I have had the pleasure of teaching 4 year 7 lessons. This was my first experience with year 7’s on the PGCE course however I had already done terms worth of teaching at Monkton Prep. I really enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them quite quickly. They have a very innocent and polite nature to them that is to be quite honest a delight to teach. I personally really enjoyed teaching this age as you have great opportunities for creativity and flexibility.

What we did?

The main aim for this lesson was to introduce the to adobe Photoshop and then introduce them to the scheme of work that has been prepared. The idea for the lesson was to create a “Madagascar in Bath” image with some of the characters cut out and super imposed onto the streets of bath. I introduced them to a series of basic photo editing techniques such as the levels, hue and saturation and color balance tools under the image adjustments section. I then took them through how to use the magic wand tool to select areas of white that they needed and then inverse the selection and then copy this onto the bath image. We also looked at the lasso tool and the magnetic version on this and the quick mask mode to ad and take away from the selection

What went well?

I found that my welcome and start of by asking for hands up names was particularly effective.
I set high expectations with my rules set out clearly.
I thought my intro video with YouTube was really engaging and the kids really enjoyed this.
I used questioning well to really tease out the important areas of Photoshop and who and why it would be used.
I thought my subject knowledge was good and as I knew the program really well I found it really easy to explain everything.
I thought I chunked the lesson well but this was maybe a weakness, as I will come on that below.
I encouraged them and praised them well at the end of the lesson by saying good lesson as I thought it was a good one.
They all created a good finished product that was creative and looked interesting
I found that if I encouraged them to experiment with extension tasks such as the rubber tool.

What could have been done better?

I didn’t at first realize the high ability of these kids and so I think that I could have done more with the demonstration time and shown them more.
I started of not managing all the questions that well but as soon as I grasped how to give them an order of whom was next it worked well.
I had one session where they were already in the classroom, which made the start of the lesson slightly less structured.
I would have like to use the magnetic tool more and shown them more closely how to use the quick mask tool better as I feel my demo was week in this.
I need to work on being more definite with my delivery still and only show one skill not a series of skills.

Lesson Plan >> http://bit.ly/j1qKCf

Observation >> click on thumbnail

03/03/2011

Starters in ICT lessons

By adminPGCE, SD - ICT, SeminarsNo Comments

SD Seminar

A started activity

Buy a bag of sweets like quality street.

Hand out sweets and ask them to use the sweet to describe a certain topic

This helps focus creative thinking reflection reward simple

Book on pimping your ride

10 starters on Microsoft packages

Anagrams –

Interactive hangman

Memory games

Interactive word search

Dingbats –

Word search

Tool bar quiz of the different tools on programs match the icons with the function identifies aras of

Audience and purpose. – PowerPoint think who is

Data capture

Looping games q and a on sheets but answer and question is different on sheet. So the kids call out question and thn pupils have to respond with answer

Logo quiz – brand identity

ICT in society starters

Will it blend YouTube Videos?

Brick in washing machine

Image close-up

Research questions eg.words 1^st bug

Draw ICT equip in homes

Name ……. as many as you can think of (List)

Programming starters

Spot Key Procedures in scratch

Word search and quiz

Sequencing – arramge in correct sequence

Masking game layers guess the celeb

Shock spook scratch game

Spot the difference

Animation vs animator

Colour scheme designer http://colorschemedesigner.com/

15/02/2011

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