Reflection – Timothy West

Year 13 Revision Lessons & Exam Prep

By adminPGCE, POT 3, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Over the last 5 weeks I have had the opportunity to get some experience with year 13 KS5 computing lessons.

This has been a steep learning curve for me and I have seen how complex a topic this is.

The main area that we have been working on is Internet security.

Please see this Lesson plan http://bit.ly/mQ4HgO and this PowerPoint http://bit.ly/iRSE1i to observe what I did in this lesson.

For these lessons I only had two pupils so I really tried to make sure that they it was setup like a tutoring session rather than a lecture. This I achieved by just sitting with the pupils either side of me. I was also able to show them a few not taking tools and barnstorming applications such as bubl.us.

We went the various aspects of networks and how they can be protected with firewalls I asked them to sod some research to see what firewalls where available. I also asked them how they thought antivirus programs worked and what the virus vault was. It was good to talk to them about their experiences with antivirus software and to compare this to macs.

I also then went onto teaching some revision lessons where we were looking at a past paper. These lessons where fairly simple as it was just to ask the pupils to get on with the paper. Please see my Lesson plans for what I did.

The main observation was that the pupils need to understand the concepts clearly and be concise with their answers in orders to achieve all the marks. It was really useful to use the mark scheme to get what was exactly needed it also showed the pupils what the examiners wanted.

It’s a hard task to get them to understand the concepts and not just teach to the test. At A-Level most of the questions do require pupils to understand what is actually going on so it does balance the scales I feel.

24/05/2011

Creative Computer Control Year 7 Lesson

By adminPGCE, POT 3, Reflection, Teaching125 Comments

Jam Sandwich Creative Lesson Year 7

Computer control is a fairly mundane topic for year 7s if it is not delivered in the correct way. In order to make it more creative and innovative I discovered and was informed about a way to explain how computers need to control things precisely and exactly and you have to issue commands in sequence.

This is where the Jam Sandwich Robot Demonstration comes into play. It is quite a simple task and is as follows.

You need bread, jam, a knife and a plate and possibly butter or margarine.
You then need to tell the pupils to instruct your every movement so that you can make and eat a jam sandwich
Emphasize that it is only one command at a time
Allow each pupil to have a go at giving you a command
Do what each pupil says exactly

At the start the pupils issue too many commands at the same time and they also don’t issue them exactly. For example pupils say put bread on the plate but don’t tell me how to open the bread packet and how many slices to put on the plate. If they tell you something to do that is sill you can just say computer does not compute.

The pupils then get into it and give you all the instructions that you need to create the actual sandwhich and they soon get the hang of it.

The only thing you need to get right is the safety of the experiment its is important that you have all chairs cleared and that you ask the pupils to stand back before you start making it just as they all start to crowd round and it is not fair on the other pupils. This helps keep the classroom purposeful and safe.

This is a great task to get them thinking logically and to understand the importance of precise and exact commands in computer control.

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

Power Point >> http://bit.ly/lYfda3

21/05/2011

Evaluation of the Apprentice Year 8 Unit

By adminPGCE, POT 3, Reflection, Teaching124 Comments

Evaluation of Year 8 Apprentice Unit

Over the last 5 weeks I have been teaching Year 8 a new module that I have created a medium term plan for. This unit has been called the Apprentice unit. The main concept for the project is to come up with a product that they can sell to pupils at their school. The product needs to be small and affordable with the average pocket money that pupils have per week.

To start with I asked the pupils to think about what sort of people they are targeting and what sort of products they might like. I gave them some clues to get them started with the product one of which was a usb lipstick product that could sell to females.

Above is an example of how I designed a simple poduct in firework and then asked them to create a similar sketch for their product. This particular idea really gave them the chance to be creative with their product. It was important that they undertook this task so that they could have an idea of what the product would consist of for the production phase. This lesson worked particularly well with some fantastic produces being produced.

They also had to think about how they would brand their product and come up with a logo. This was a good chance again to use the program fireworks to design it. It was important to give them a few examples of different logos and take them through the program in steps otherwise the pupils forgot it by the time they had a go.

Finally the pupils had to go through and sort out the finances of the product to figure out how much money they intend to make. This needed to be done with an element of competition.

At the end of this unit the pupils will be assessed via a presentation and they will have to present their PowerPoint that they have collated their research in and pitch it as if they where in a boardroom.

All in all this was a great project that is suited for an end of year project to consolidate a series of skills .

Please see this folder for all the resources files and folders. http://bit.ly/ivXjSw

21/05/2011

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 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

Year 8s After effects lesson 4

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, Teaching125 Comments

Class

Year 8

What we did?

Please see lesson plan for full details.

The main objectives and purpose of this lesson was to ask pupils to use Adobe After Effects to create a short video clip to advertise the activities week at school. It was to mainly focus on the use of special effects and building up the video in a manner that looked effective creative and appealing.

What went well?

I was able to explain the initial part of the lesson with ease with in my time frame in the plan.

Pupils responded well to selective questioning rather than hands up. The questions were a good process of reviewing previous lessons.

The general working atmosphere was purposeful safe as I used a quiet tone to keep the mood of the lesson quiet. It is interesting how if you are quiet in your delivery the lesson atmosphere is quiet.

The creativity and experimentation was fantastic as they were using the special effects. It was great to see them really explore their creativity and try out different effects and apply them to their videos

I found that when an issue came up again and again I was able to pause what they were doing and address this issue head on.

I found my monitoring and feedback to individual pupils was effective simply by just viewing what was happening on their screens and patrolling around the classroom.

I initially did not show enough detail when demonstrating the various parts of the screen but when i placed an example of it up on the screen it was easier to see what was going on.

What could have been done better?

I really need to work on my timings at the end of the lesson and will be making sure that I have the end of the lesson time noted down and memorized in my head as I thought I had 5 minutes before the end of the lesson but I didn’t.

I found that a few pupils needed to be watched and I was slow to react to them and meet their needs with the harder parts of after effects.

I could have possibly planned my intervention times better as they were a bit ad hoc.

I am still needing to learn names in a better manner.

24/03/2011

Year 7 Photoshop lesson 3

By adminPOT 2, Reflection, Teaching125 Comments

Class Year 7

What we did? please see lesson plan.

Our main focus this week was to use the clone stamp tool to clone away a ball from a sports image.

We used two techniques the clone stamp tool and just simple copying the surrounding texture and pasting it over the ball.

We also looked at how to insert text into an image.

What went well?

The delivery at the beginning varied slightly but I was able to show them various tools as a recap that helped re enforce their prior learning

They were on task getting on at a rapid pace. I had to make sure they had completed each section before they moved on

I managed the questioning well and tried to use a series of visual demonstration using my hands.

After a bit of feedback from my mentor I used an acetate and solid colour paper to explain how layers can allow you to edit across a multiple layers to preserve the file.

I was able to get the pupils up the front and play the spot the ball game to be actively involved with reviewing and assessing the pupils work.

The pupils enjoyed searching for their own images on the internet and it was a good motivator to get through the controlled given images.

What could have been done better?

I found that i needed to keep things going fast as i had the pupils up at the front for a bit to long and the demonstration can go in one ear and out the other ear.

I found that depending on the time of day the pupils are more or less responsive so I need to have reaslistic targets for the different classes i teacher at different times of the day.

I feel that sometimes in my behaviour management i try and justify everything i say and reason with the pupils but this does not have the greatest effect.

All in all another good series of lessons. I was pleased with the response with the work that was created.

16/03/2011

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