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QTS Q25c

Creative Computer Control Year 7 Lesson

By PGCE, 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

Year 8 Apprentice Lesson 4

By PGCE, 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 8s After effects lesson 4

By PGCE, 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 POT 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

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

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

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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