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Copyright – Year 9MQB4 – OCR Nationals

By Observations, 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

Lesson 3 OCR Nationals AO2 – Year 9MQB4

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

We had a catch up session to get them up to speed with the current AO2 Slides such as some were falling behind on the slides.

We then moved onto looking at how to…

?        Learn how to copy and paste text and graphics from the internet in compliance with copyright.

?        Learn how to download graphic and text files in compliance with copyright

What went well?

I was really happy with my behaviour management this lesson and Even though it was wet outside I managed to get them coming in and logging on quietly and swiftly. Once I wanted them to start I was able to get their attention quickly and  get them looking at me.

I am finding that if I give a simple count down in seconds it works for me and by 0 they are usually quiet.

I felt that the pace of this lesson was great and we were able to cover allot. I feel this was clear as I made it clear what my expectation were early on and stated what I wanted them to get done by the end of the lesson. This pace even almost picked up towards the end of the lesson which was great.

Students Learning 

They responded well to questioning and I was impressed as they had retained allot of information from the last lesson. They were completing the slides well and were able come up with a valid explanation of the process they were doing.

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

It was not my fault as RM Tutor was not installed on the teacher’s machine which meant that I could not do my demonstrations by taking over the screen. I was able to adapt and ask the students to come up to the front so that I can show them the areas that I needed to demonstrate.

Students Learning 

A few students were being lazy and at times I was getting frustrated that they had not listened and need to keep my calm and figure ways for them to stay focussed.

Feelings

I was really pleased with this lesson and felt confident with the pupils and started to feel relaxed whilst teaching them which enabled me to go round checking that they had completed their slides.

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

 

17/11/2010

Networking ICT GCSE Theory

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

 

This was a theory based lesson that was teaching the year 11s all about networks and looking at how they can be applied in the real world with advantages and disadvantages.

Understand what a network is the purpose of them.

Understand the advantages and disadvantages of networks.

What went well?

We had a time of silent study to answer an exam based question worth 8 marks. This worked really well and after what was quite a rowdy lesson they were all silent and worked really hard on this and so I praised them for it. It was good to see them doing some independent learning.

I enjoyed being given the freedom to take the class on my own as this allowed me to be my self and to really try and be free. I found this also brought challenges.

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

I over planned for the course that I was doing so had to remove some extra information that they did not need to know about. I was curious why I was not told about this but I should have read the exam spec again as it said that this was the ICT short course.

I thought that there were elements of boredom which lead to the low level disruption of talking. Thankfully I was able to keep it under control and issue a warning to back up that I meant business.

I feel that I could have tried to think up some more creative ways to express the topic and could have teased out more during the questioning time to get them thinking about it. I felt that I was reading to much of my PowerPoint and not really explaining the points and making sure that they understood what I was saying. As many of them where beavering away with their notes but not really taking it in.

I feel that I need to really try to keep the behaviour tight and keep insisting on no talking when I was talking. I also feel that need to think up some more engaging activities to get them thinking about the theory more the trouble is that they are not really getting on task when I ask them to do group discussion and feed back as they don’t answer my plenary questions and I really need to push them to answer it.

All in all I feel that I will need to keep planning interesting content and maybe observe my mentor teach a lesson on theory for example he suggested to look at analogue and digital data.

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan  >> http://bit.ly/ay9fTR 

 And resources like powerpoints >> http://bit.ly/99WSEY

 

15/11/2010

Reasearching and adding content to websites Year 8MQb4

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

1)      To find out some key points about your topic using effective search techniques  – what it is – history of how long its been an issue – a few key facts and figures eg. How much GM food is produced in the uk. Also include one news article

2)      To gather some relevant images and pictures from Google image search and from a stock photo website like Corbis images and sxc.hu

 

What went well?

My planning was pretty spot on and really helped the delivery of the lesson. I was able to use my PowerPoint effectively and use my subject knowledge well.

They were on task with the website preparation of pages and were really beginning to form and fill their websites with information.

I thought I used RM tutor well and especially blank screens for those who were not listening.

Students Learning 

I was really able to questions the pupils well target my questioning to pupils that were obviously not responding. I tried not to do keep asking the same pupil again and again.

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

The main downfall of this lesson was the behaviour management of the low level disruption.

The pupils were quite chatty and talkative which made it hard to start teaching as they were talking.

I found that I did have to reprimand them and ask them to be quiet and I gave them all a chance and said that I will issue warnings for people who talk when I was talking and they were then quiet but then I found myself getting so swept up in the teaching that I missed the other pupils talking again and did not follow through on my warnings.

So the main things I need to work on is to NOT start teaching until all the class are quiet even if this takes longer.

I also need to be hotter on giving warnings if I use it as a threat and what I should find is that once I do issue one ill be saying that I have given you a warning contact book out and or name on the board. I expect this will kick them into action.

Students Learning 

 

 Feelings

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

Observation by my mentor of me >> http://bit.ly/99JtGO

15/11/2010

Parrents contributions.

By PGCE, ReflectionNo Comments

We have just had a sesion on the importance of having parrents contributions in school and how we can improve this at my home schoo.

The main areas we looked at is how can we create a good link between the school and the parent and why it is important.

We identified that some parrents adopt the attitude that once their pupils get to secondary school they just expect the teachers to sort out their educations and they take a back seat role. This makes it very difficult to re in-force work that is needing to be doneby pupils that don’t put the effort in that they are supposed to be. It would be a  lie to say that parrents don’t show much interest as many do but just choose not to as the lines of communications are not so clear.

At my home school they have a good system for allowing pupils homework to be check by parrents this is simply done by asking parents to sign the homework book each week then the tutor countersigns this. These contact books are used by teachers to put warnings and merrits alike. This is so that parrents can also see this and it is a good way of pupils being able to show what they are achieving in school. Parrents should be actively using the contact book each week and teachers are not using it as much as they could be.

The possiblity is to use an electronic system of comunication with parents with a parrents portal. Independant schools are on the whole better at this as parrents are paying for the education and sometimes expect results.

If parrents can back teachers for the work they set then it shows pupils that they are required to do this and they are then usually inclinded to see the importance of this.

12/11/2010

Lesson 2 OCR Nationals – Year 9MQB4

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

These are the learning objectives for the lesson…

To search for all the 8 different band websites.

To learn how to judge if their band website is valid or trustworthy.

How to save or bookmark favourite pages that you find online.

Learn how to organise these pages into folders and categories.

What went well?

I thought that my plenary went well. I asked them to stand behind their places and answer a question and if they answered it correctly they could leave. This meant they were leaving the classroom on task still.

There were constantly on task and filling in each part of their PowerPoint slides which meant that they were achieving allot. The total result was allot of work done in the lesson.

I tried to walk around and asses how each pupil was doing and if they had completed each part I had asked.  

I was happy with my delivery to them up the front and I felt that they were all paying attention to my delivery.

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

I changed my lesson plan last minute which meat that I was a bit disorganised when I came into the lesson. I had to quickly finish my slides and resources. This was because I realised that I needed to take a different course of action as the logical order required me to talk about validity of websites before I asked them to source them.

I need to be more specific of what I require of them when explaining technical aspects as when I showed them how to book mark and create folders and sub folders I did not take the time to do this to the full. This meant that it was not quite clear what expected of them. I re demonstrated the book marking process but needed to give more time to this.

I was hoping to get a practical exercise to demonstrate putting sites into folder and the importance of organising and structuring but sadly did not get onto this.

My Feelings

Well I enjoyed this lesson and the pressure that it put on me to adapt and be versatile with short notice. I feel that if I knew this earlier it would have taken the stress of the whole lesson as I was worried I wasn’t going to get it all in.

Thankfully I achieved all of my lesson objectives so al in all I feel this was a good lesson

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

09/11/2010

Researching Online – photos and text – Year 8MQB1

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

In this lesson we had a look at good ways to research content online with a focus on text and pictures. The purpose was to give them some structure and guidelines on how start to populate their websites with good looking content.

  1. To find out some key points about your topic like using effective search techniques – what it is – history of how long it’s been an issue – a few key facts and figures e.g. how much GM food is produced in the UK. Also include one news article
  2. To gather some relevant images and pictures from Google image search and from a stock photo website like corbis images

What went well?

I laid down the ground rules to start with and set high expectations which went well and I was able to control the class without to much trouble.

I was really happy how I was able to start with a recap and get them on task quickly. I was able to use this time to make sure that each pupil was up to scratch.

The pupils were on task and achieved a good amount of work in the lesson. They are really beginning to create a website that looks good and could be actually used on the web.

Some of the questions were answered well

The where able to use their english and skills to write the work  they had researched to create the work in their own words. I had to make sure that pupils where comming up with sentices and paragraphs that where realated to the work and to make sure that it was relevant. It was interesting as some pupils literacy  levels where much higher than i expected which makes sense as this is a top set.

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

I asked them to find content for their website and did not show them how to import it straight into their website. I should have said compile it in word and then paste it into frontpage. I think in the future I would make sure I have each instruction completely clear that allows them to completely get on with the task.

I was meant to show them a few more options to find stock photos so will need to make sure I plan for demonstration time a bit better.

Its was hard to just talk about some of these websites on the PowerPoint with out demonstrating them again I think its best to have a live example of the website rather than just image.. screen shots could be taken to achieve this come to think of it.

 Feelings

It was a busy and fairly tiring lesson but this was because it was the last lesson of the day and everyone was tired. How ever they did get a decent amount of work done.

I was really enjoying it and feel that it went well.

It was interesting as I enjoyed the time also when my mentor left the class room as this gave me complete freedom. This is not at all to say that I don’t like him there. It is just at times you want to please and glance over at your mentor for approval which shouldn’t be the case we are teaching the kids not our mentor.

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >> http://bit.ly/bWh9yP

05/11/2010

Introducing A02 OCR Nationals – Year 9MQB4

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

What we did & Learning objectives!

We started the new AO2 module and worked through how search engines are used including advanced search features on google.

These were my learning objectives

  • Understand the importance of search engines on the web mainly Google

 

  • How to use key terms effectively on a search engine

 

  • How to use advanced search features on a search engine

 

What went well?

I really felt my use of fun facts and figures about google helped get the kids on side things like “in this lesson google would have made enough money to buy your house that’s £180 000”

I felt that they all listened well and responded to each task that I asked them to do.

They all managed to complete first two slides of the PowerPoint with the screen shot evidence and highlighted and annotated.

Behaviour was good and no real disruptions  I think this was a set high expectation of the lesson and maintained them throughout the lesson as for example a kid had his head down on the desk and I had to reprimand him to pay attention and it obviously worked as he snapped out of it and no it was not because he was bored.

I completed all my lesson objectives and managed to incorporate

To have a chalenge at the end of the lesson about finding a specific site was really good and kids walked about talking about it. This will get a merrit for those who answer it well.

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

I could have explained the use of quotation marks better in the advanced google search as some of their description were a bit woolly and not correct. I had to re iterate the fact it was to search for a group of words that make up a whole phrase and those words in order. In the future just be really clear about description and almost dictate to them the correct explanation initially but make sure they don’t just copy you.

I almost ran of time toward the end so plan to do plenary slightly earlier.

I need to make sure I have my lesson objectives typed up on power point before the lesson starts as well as the home work rather than doing in the lesson before the start.

 Feelings

I really came away from this lesson buzzing and on such a high note as i really enjoyed it and i feel that the kids enjoed it tpo

Please use this link to view my full lesson plan >> http://bit.ly/9lZukn

03/11/2010

Website Design – Lesson 1 – 8MQB4

By PGCE, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

This was my first lesson that I had full responsability over and all in al it was realyl good. I really enjoyed it and found it really rewarding. i have completed a full lesson plan an evaluation doccument for you to read. I dont want to waste any more time on talkin about the lesson as it is all in the google doc.

I will be doing full lesson plans and evaluations for one lesson a week.

Googe Docs Lesson Plan and Evaluation Doccument http://bit.ly/9UOrCH

I was also formally assesed by my mentor and the link is here. http://bit.ly/9deKwR

I will also being doing shorter reflections in this format.

What went well?

I brought the kids in well

The use of ICT was an obvious standards that was ticked of well her and will be throughout my teaching. I have seen that pupils base level of ict capability is fairly good and this is something that i will be able to build on.

What could have been done better!

I will need to keep incorporating how to use english and maths well in my ict teaching.

I need to set my learning objects up on a PowerPoint that I can use clearly at the beginning of the lesson to say what we are going to achieve this lesson. So just list theses on a slide show with a nice format that is nice to look at..

I then need to use the objectives to aid my plenary and to check over that they all understand how to do the relevant areas.

I need to predict the areas that might be technically challenging  and have a good explanation of these and trouble shoot response

 I need to have further extension task for the pupils that finish early.

03/11/2010
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