QTS Q10 – Timothy West

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 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

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

Lesson 3 OCR Nationals AO2 – Year 9MQB4

By adminPGCE, 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

Lesson 2 OCR Nationals – Year 9MQB4

By adminPGCE, 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 adminPGCE, 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.

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
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 adminPGCE, 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 adminPGCE, 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

Behaviour Management – SD Seminar Week 9

By adminPGCE, SD - ICT, SeminarsNo Comments

Few points on classroom presence

Today we are going to look at some aspects of behaviour management.

We need to protect our voice as this is out most powerful tool to control aspects of the classroom. Pitch it at the right level and dont strain it from the throat.

We need to develop a real presence in the classroom this is done by having strong body language and conveying a almost dominance in the classroom that is not scary but commands respect of the pupils. This way they will feel more confident that they can trust you and believe what you are saying.

Tips from older PGCE students before block 1

Keep objectives simple and to the point.
Do not try to speak over noise when address the class.
Being alert to the whole class, take moments to look up and even walk around.
Don’t asses your lessons on how you feel they went but on how man of the learning objectives were achieved. I DONT AGREE WITH THIS AS WHAT IF YOU HAVE DONE REALLY WEL ON ONE AND ITS JUST TAKING THE PUPILS LONGER TO GRASP. ( It is important to get them to learn something and not to just be busy

Group Work

Acknowledge the girl works in and then just say gena get yourself ready to learn and ill speak to you in 5 minutes. Don’t confront it to strongly. Cary on with the introductions. Then don’t invade space when talking to her..
Diplomatic approach to speaking the TA say how you feel and then use specific example of when you felt undermined. You need to stick to your guns and be assertive saying that my authority is ultimate and that i need you to support me not undermine me
Deal with the fight with your voice. Raise your voice in a strong way. know who you can call on and then if it is really escalating then you can get help.. separate the pupils immediately. calm the cheering and say its not goog to spur on.
Dont stoop to their level… reprimand it but dont make a big deal of it. Dont cringe up and laugh about it too much as this will
Give the pupil the opportunity to leave within a time frame and then give a clear ultimatum saying if you dot this is the punishment. Be clear and concise and black and white. Deal with the boys
Have a starter activity that gets them on task and quiet and having something to do while you wait for all the other pupils.
Give them an opportunity to own up and an amnesty to own up. maybe by email in with who it was and someone owning up. say its not acceptable and i will not tollerate this on my board.
reprimand the Joke and maybe turn it on them selves and say that is not on.. maybe go up one to one and say the it was offensive. have a moral code that you expect in your classroom that is in line with the school policy.
say maybe that well you will be an expert on it and you will be really good on it but state that this is what we will be doing in greater detail.

With-it-nes

Banter can cross the line really quickly and can become over familiar to quickly. Over a while you can develop it and build it up but you must have the respect of the class and the pupils.

Learn the lingo that you use and be aware that some words will have an effect on their imaginations.

Top tips

Don’t take it personally

Be consitent – follow it through

Dont be threatening or push kids int a corner. Threats – how effective?

Criticise the behaviour not the individual.

Is “control” possible? can you ever really control a class and change behaviour? You can influence but you cant control

Assertion NOT Agression

Nip the lower level in the bud.

Experience will give you a world of good and will build all of this.

Useful sites

www.behaviour4learning.ac.uk

Chalenges in an ICT classroom and

Playing on games e.g. flash games.
listening to music on sites such as we7
playing with keyboards and mice – fidgeting
Talking to other children and being distracted by their screens
walking around the classroom and checking up on each of them
leaning back on chairs
temperature of room
changing the keyboard keys around
saving work or not saving it correctly
forgetting to log off on another computer
always asking for help and being lazy to not listen

Responses to the chalenges

Chunk the lessons up to keep them on task each time.
Don’t talk for to long
Use a 5 minute timer to be in absolute silence

Better professional relationships will create a better learning environment and reduce the frequency of low level disruption.

Teach First Video

Get the pupils to take pride

Should be at least 5 praise points to one negative comment.

Patience, Persistence, Practice.

01/11/2010