PGCE – Page 2 – Timothy West

Marking pupils work GCSE OCR Nationals

By adminPGCE, POT 312 Comments

I have been marking some OCR nationals GCSE coursework over the last 2 days, which has been a great chance to learn more about the course and the way that it is delivered.

The school use a really great method for monitoring the work and recoding it through access program call JAS. The Head of IT has developed a series of queries that put the work into a database that can be viewed in excel.

The process for the pupils is to submit their work to the Joint Assessment System

Then me as a teacher can print out all the levels and then goes into each pupil and clicks on the work that needs to be assessed. Once I have given it the correct grade that I feel it deserves I then put a grade and a comment for any improvements that could be made to actually increase their grade before it is submitted.

The process is made simple once you get into a rhythm and once you master the nuances of the program. It takes a total of about 5 minutes per piece of work. The hardest part is when you have to make a judgment call on quality of the PowerPoint slides.

Once pupils then receive their work back then they can make the edits to it and view what each module needs to working on.

Above and below is an example of som work that I have marked with reference to the powerpoint that they where creating.

Below is an example of the tracking and monitoring that this program achieves and helps with.

Bellow is an example of the class that have been teaching and the results that they have achieved.

20/05/2011

Year 8 Fireworks Apprentice lesson 4

By adminPGCE, POT 3, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

To learn how to use the program Macromedia fireworks to create a Logo for your product.
To learn how to use text and typography in your logo design
To learn how to use shapes and colors in you logo design
To learn how to use special effects to enhance your logo design

What went well?

This was a fantastic lesson and the quality of the pupils work was brilliant at the end of the lesson.

I was really able to nail the behaviour of the pupils by issuing them a clear set of objectives at the beginning of the lesson. In my PowerPoint I was also able to use a good merits and sanctions technique with smiley faces and sad faces indicating if I am happy or sad with them. They responded well to this and I was able to follow through on this well.

The pupils responded well to peer assessment and

Students Learning

The pupils learnt the program well and where drawing on prior knowledge that they had developed in previous practice. It was great to see the quality of the work go well and they where all on task working really hard which was such a bonus and pleasure to see. Students had clearly learnt from the process and the demonstration that was followed well.

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

This is hard as most of it went really well. I can only look at the fact that I could look at given pupils that did step out of line harsher sanctions particularly at the break time lessons.

Students Learning

This could have been helped if I was able to fully show a few more points during my demonstration.

Feelings

I thought this was a great lesson and I was really happy with the behaviour and the quality of the work that the pupils produced.

I also had a secure knowledge of teh program and requirement of what i was teaching which really helped. This was demonstrated by the quality of the pupils work.

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

Full observation >> http://bit.ly/iJN9T2

Resources >> http://bit.ly/k42Qhk

20/05/2011

Year 9 OCR Nationals Database Lesson 2

By adminPGCE, POT 3, TeachingNo Comments

What went well?

I was able to adapt well to the fact that some of the pupils had not completed the work that they should have in the previous lesson. I was able to be assertive and raise standards and expectations when i did not feel that they where working as best as they could. I was not afraid to be stern.

I had to modify my planning and teaching to adapt to the fact that they where all at different stages of development.

The iportant part of this lesson is to make sure that their anotations and descriptions are of a decent standard. For the lower ability children they where not quite able to come up with good arguments that really explained why they did this. This meant i had to intervene and give guidence to the pupils in how to describe to process that they where doing. This was a good chance for pupils to use literacy in their lessons.

What could have been done better?

Work was meant to be covered over homework but this was an oversight and i should have not assumed that they would definitely complete it during their own study time. I need to raise the standards for this and expect it more and set sanctions in place if they have not completed the work on time.

My demonstration of the work was possibly not as clear and i did not pre empt the issues that arrose.

I need to keep working on tackling low level behaviour.

Lesson Plan >> http://bit.ly/mO9F8f

Observation of me http://bit.ly/iyo6n0

19/05/2011

Year 8 Apprentice Lesson 4

By adminPGCE, POT 3, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

To learn how to critique and reflect on design choices such as Logos.

To learn how to create a rough product design in fireworks.

What went well?

This was a good lesson and I feel the main areas that where good where as follows.

I was able to get the pupils through a fair amount of work and to keep most of them on task it was good to have the pupils onside with the activities and they really enjoyed making their logos and product ideas.

I was able to offer good positive praise for each of the pupils that where doing good work and this was effective as it built their self esteem and showed that I showed interest in the,

I was able to set a good home work.

I was also able to scan around the room to see what pupils were doing and to try and keep them on task I felt that I dealt well with pupils that where lagging behind and encouraged them to get up to speed.

Students Learning

This was mainly the use of adobe fireworks and how to come up a good product. It also gave them a chance to plan and prepare for what a product would look like. I was really happy with how they on the whole they progressed well with the concepts of how t use shapes and colours to design their idea.

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

I need to work more on the low level disruption during my demonstrations.

I must not generalise when it comes to getting pupils to be quiet I need to pin point them and write their name on the board.

Students Learning

I feel I could have taught them more with fireworks and I was not able to get the product logo installed correctly which the pupils picked up on and commented.

It was good to see the pupils reflecting well on each of their pieces of work.

I need to keep practicing the program that I want to demonstrate like fireworks.

Feelings

This lesson was much better than my previous lesson and is reflected in observation of my lesson.

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >> http://bit.ly/mf8Jjj

Lesson observation >> http://bit.ly/mf8Jjj

19/05/2011

Year 9 OCR Nationals Database Lesson

By adminPGCE, POT 3, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

We where having a look at databases and how to create a simple query that filters for a YES in the criteria. The table was for people attending a music festival. We also where creating a report for the bands that where playing and the order of their events they created.

What went well?

I had created a good lesson plan for this lesson and it was very thorough and I was able to really get to grips with Microsoft access before using it.

I found I was able to assert my authority and lay down so ground rule although these where not respected as well as I would have liked. I was able to

Students Learning

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

I accidentally started creating a query in the wizard view rather than design view which threw me but I was able to reel it back in.

Behaviour wise I found there was little mutual respect dispite the clear guidelines being issued which meants that next lesson the first person that steps out of line will be in Time out the sanction area. I was able to issue two time out warning to pupils demonstating my high expectations and standards.

Students Learning

Pupils where actively not egaging with the content and not listening. This is because of the nature of the OCR nationals and it is quite a mundane topic.

Feelings

Not the greatest lesson which I will need to work hard on next lesson to pull them back in. I will need to just be short and sweet as far as sanctions and warnings and not be afraid to use the time outs. I will also need to look at how to make it more interesting.

After the lesson i asked my subject mentor for some advice on how to best impliment the policies and practices for behaviour in the classroom . On Speaking with him we identified that the reason why it was initially due to the fact that the demonstration did not go well and from then on I had lost them. He also said that if i would like to i could on the whiteboard write down who is causing truouble in the lesson and give them a warning or a merit for doing wel. This way they know if they are needing to be quiet or to offer more.

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >>

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4oZSUqSpyCrlbE0wo8OEo1zwIqoEvZkaP3wLxL0P74/edit?hl=en

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7AadLDLtxQLNzJiNzgzNWUtZTBmOS00NDY3LWJiNWMtODNjY2Q1ODlkNmRi&hl=en

11/05/2011

Consolidation lesson of publinshing to the web year 8

By adminPGCE, Reflection, Teaching123 Comments

What went well?

I thought my questioning at the beginning was good and the introduction to the lesson was good I managed to get them all quiet and really focussed on the work that they needed to be doing?

I was happy with the fact that I managed to get through all of the objectives on the board and every pupil managed to submit their work.

I though the peer assessment went well and on the whole they were able to get some valid view points back from each of their peers. They all managed to swap and do this once I gave to command.

I was able to set the homework clearly and give them time to do this!

What could have been done better?

I though the general behaviour management of the class started well but soon crumbled. As though I had them on task the tasks they were doing were quite tricky.

I think that I had too much to do with them so need to not do as much with them next time.

It was really hard as the nature of the lesson had lots of pressured aspects of it and as they were all at different levels they were struggling to get the websites completed.

I did not use the sheets that I gave out as best as I could have and should have asked them to write their names on these and hand it in.

I could have also elaborated on why it is important for them to do the peer marking in the plenary. And by not having a plenary it was impossible to do this.

I was not really able to monitor the progress of every single pupil which meant that some may have been going off task. Or at least not fully engaging with what they were meant to be doing!

Overall I was happy with the fact that they all managed to get all the objectives completed. However I feel that toward the end of the lesson I lost control a bit and it was tough to really get them reeled back in.

Lesson specific tips from observation…

Get them to put contact books out straight away so that there is no fuss in doing that..

Be firmer with those that are not on task and working…

Chunk things better when actually going through the complicated process of submitting to JAS.

Try not say “can you” so much.

Be clear with what you want them to do so if its write points on each others website then do that first. Then take them through the other paper assessment of levels.

When doing assessment questions try and make sure they are simple for the kids to almost go through each level one by one.

Don’t enforce silent working as it can be a loosing battle.

11/05/2011

Medium term lesson planning

By adminPGCE, POT 3, ReflectionNo Comments

Recently I have been asked to team teach some ICT gcse lessons and so I have sorted out with my fellow teacher a series of lesson and a medium term plan for the next 6 lesson on what we will be teaching. We decided to look at the specification for the exam and then made a few key points on what we want them to learn again. It was important for us to identify what areas of weekness they usually stuggle with in relation to the mock papers they recently sat.

It is great to share the teaching as it takes the pressure of one teacher and it gives pupils a change of style that can help them stay focussed and on the ball.

11K2 – Lesson Plan

Reference iumoren [iumoren@NortonHillSchool.com]

06/05/2011

iGCSE ICT choice and sharing ideas.

By adminPGCE, POT 3, ReflectionNo Comments

I have recently been looking at the various options that pupils studying gcse have and what is best for them and their akill level and applications. I have been conversing with the various heads of departments in the two schools that I have been in. I have seen how GCSE ICT is such a demand on the coursework front which has put allot of pressure on one member of staff. I have been recommended to look at the iGCSE option that the exam board Cambridge run. http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/subject?assdef_id=969

The benefits of this course are that it has no coursework and is completely assed via one exam and two practical exams. So from a teaching perspective it does not require much course work assessment but more input from the teacher.The ammount of assesment is then reduced allowing the teaching to focus more on their actual teaching.

The down side is that it is highly academic and quite demanding so you need to make sure that the pupils that subscribe to the course are high achieving pupils.

I have recommended this to the head of ICT with the school that I will be working in next year as I feel it would be suited to the style of pupils that go to the school. The pupils on the whole are high achieving and would be able to achieve at a high level.

So I have been able to work well in the team that I will be going into and drawing well on experience with the current teaching team that I am in.

06/05/2011

Year 11 Revision lesson Introductory Communications.

By adminPGCE, POT 3, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

We filled in a PowerPoint with a series of key terms. I asked them to put a picture with the description of the key term

To understand these points below.

(a) Modems and digital telephone lines

(b) Analogue to digital conversion and digital to analogue conversion

(c) Advantages and disadvantages of using computer networks

(d) User ids and passwords

(e) Communication media

What went well?

The key terms where good to get them thinking about what they may get asked in the exams. The students where able to research and do more independent learning in the lesson.

In was able to use my TA well by asking her to go around and checking what they where doing with the slides. I had already prepped her with what had to happen in the lesson before hand. She was really useful and we where able to bounce ideas of each other and she was able to prompt pupils that where not working so hard.

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

Students Learning

I was not able to answer some of the questions in the PowerPoint as the key terms I have put where quite complex of the spec in the future I shall give a few examples and have a backup answer for each of the terms. I also needed to have a few better research locations set so that pupils could see where to find the key terms.

The verbal communication of the key terms and objectives was possible not beneficial as they just read off what work they produced.

Feelings

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >> https://trcwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Introductory-Communications-lesson-plan.doc

06/05/2011

Year 12 computing theory – web design

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Year 12 Computing Theory Lesson

In my lesson today I was covering website design and the theory behind this process. Please see my attached lesson plan in the resources folder to reference this.

What went well?

We were able to cover a large section of the computing theory section as i had made some notes for the pupil to follow through with me. These notes where more concise and rather than just reading out of the book.

We used Dreamweaver to make notes on the various key terms which was really useful to put the coding practice. This was a great tool to practically work on the theory. I started with basic html editing then followed on with colours fonts and images finishing with ul tags.

I was able to set and take in homework which was questions on the previous chapters. I have been finding that also setting reading of the work that we will cover in the next lesson is a great way to solidify and start the next lesson as you use questions to tease out current knowledge levels. I ahve found that marking this on the spot and giving feedback to homework is a good method as it is fresh in the pupils mind and they can then reinforce what they have tried to learn so far.

The pupil learning was excellent as the final piece of source code was substantial and reflected what we had learn. Questions also reinforced this.

I found it was good to go into extra detail that I learnt at degree level and share this with the pupil. It is amazing when you have a solid subject knowledge

What could have been done better?

The lesson plan did not have enough content in it and so I was required to add more content on whilst I was teaching this was just adding in images and changing colours

I found that whilst the pupil was doing the independent work I was not able to really engage and do much apart from look into further things we could explore on the go.

05/04/2011