QTS Q31 – 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 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 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

Positive and negative behaviour reporting

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Teaching128 Comments

Here at KES the school use their SIMS database to track and manage behaviour throughout the school. The two standard routes are RED and GREEN Referrals. Red being for misbehaviour and Green being for positive merits and behaviour around school.

In a lesson I recently taught there were some boys that where causing allot of distraction and after several warnings i had to ask them to stay behind at the end of the lesson. The behaviour was not terrible but due to the distraction to other pupils that was causing them to go off task i issued them with a red referral for disruption to the class. More recently a pupil was playing a game on his iphone 4 during one of the activities (I did think if what i was doing was not engaging enough but it was a creative Photoshop lesson on filters and effects). I confiscated the iPhone until break and asked him to come back to collect it then I issued him with a verbal warning and said that it was not acceptable during lessons. I then issued the red referral on the sims systems and marked that the action was taken and that no follow up was required. Pupils at KES are brilliantly behaved and this is not saying that there are many cases like this. But it is still good to have high expectations and not tollerate anything like this.

On the positive side I had a about 4 pupils that created some outstanding work in Adobe After Effects which i was able to give green referrals for. It was a good way of officially marking their achievement.

It was interesting to lookin through my class lists and note the ration of green to red referrals and the quantity of both and then match this to the attitude and performance in class. It was interesting that the pupils I referred reflected the style of behaviour that was being tracked on the sims system.

These referrals then get issued and followed up by the tutors. Which is a great way of following up on incidents or positive work.

25/03/2011

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

Photoshop lesson 2 – Year 7

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Lesson Reflection Document

Class Year 7

What we did?

We were creating an Elvis at the Abbey project with a pop theme to it.

Lesson 2 was all about working and making tweaks to the sky using a gradient tool on Photoshop.

Please look at attached lesson plan

What went well?

It was great to see that the pupils where using their inner creativity to create some really good-looking items of work.

They where able to grasp the points that I needed to re-enforce through questioning

I made sure the chairs where set out as they came in as it really helped the pupils focus and be really quiet for the introduction. I have noticed how when I don’t do this it is slightly more chaotic and hard to get through the introduction well

I was able to introduce AB tutor well to the classes at first I found that they where really excited about the whole concept but if I just did it and asked them to put their hands of their laps it stopped that initial excitement. The AB tutor really helped with the finer details that I had to explain with for example the new layer creation and add to selection tool box.

The time at the end of the lesson was a good time to show of the pupils work and give constructive criticism.

I found I was able to be more confident with the lesson the more I had taught it showing that experience is so valuable to self-development.

I set some good extension tasks of finding and adding in another “Friend of Elvis” to be put in from the Internet.

I used some good classroom discipline to keep them under control when the noise level became too loud.

What could have been done better?

In my earlier lessons I found that my explanation was quite rushed and not as thorough as It could have been this had a repocusion later on as there where so many questions almost too many for me to handle at once. I found in the last lesson that I did when my delivery was clear and concise they where able to really get on with the work with out too much guidance.

I need to keep an eye on pupils that are running behind due the extremely hi ability sometimes the less able can get missed.

I have to make sure I keep the plenary time for assessment of learning and ict skills not just an artistic critique on their work.

Conclusion

All in all I feel it was a good set of lessons that where executed with good pace and clear guidance.

11/03/2011

Year 9 – Colaborative Group Project *1

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Lesson Reflection Document

Class Year 9s Colaborative Group Project

What we did?

We have started a group project that allows the pupils to come up with an advertising campaign to promote a corn maze or maze maze event. The whole point is that they choose what avenues of advertising they want to use and the programs that can best create these adverts.

So we broke up in to teams of 3-5 and i asked them to find a company name imagining they where the design and advertising team of this event or company.

They then created a document that I had prepared to answer questions such as what types of adverts they were going to use and who in the group was going make this section. I also asked them to think about their audience.

What went well?

I was able to get them split into groups fairly seamlessly this showed good management

I was able to emphasize how each team member needs to have a role to play and be a part of the team working on something constantly. I created the illusion that this was a professional group project but it also encouraged them to stay on task and not be sitting there with nothing to do.

I was able to go around and make sure that each group had an idea of what they were going to do and get some casual formative assessment by talking to the groups.

I was able to get them to email me their advertising campaign plan in order to some feedback to them via email.

I felt by giving them the freedom to do what they want within reason they took more ownership over their work.

The pupils even started making logos and design work on dreamweaver.

I felt i had good pace and kept them on task by setting mini lesson deadlines. I find that 1 hour is slightly longer to teach and the time can be chunked quite nicely

What could have been done better?

Pupils opted to use some of the less professional packages such as Published instead of Photoshop or indesign which meant i had to explain why it was better to use the other programs.

Some of the boys where slightly un motivated to start with so I will have to find things constantly for them to do and watch them but not let the others suffer.

I could have used questioning a little bit more to tease out the different areas of software that more or less effective rather than just telling them.

07/03/2011

Adobe After Effects Lesson 1 – Year 8

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Class

Year 8

What we did?

We have been starting an advertising scheme of work using the Adobe After Effects package. We mainly started by looking at a YouTube clip which was the Honda Cog Advert. I then asked them questions on what makes a good advert and what they enjoyed in the advert. I found that if i did the questioning before about what makes a good advert it was a good pre-curser into the actual video followed by the video and then questions on what they enjoyed in that advert that made it a good advert. We then went on and looked at adobe after effects and the mini bath advert project. I had to show them basic features of the After Effects package such as the composition area where I explained how 16:9 was a good native resolution for modern screens. I also talked to them about the Presets tab on the left where you have all the content and media imported. Timeline, transform and text editing was what I showed them next.

What went well?

The YouTube video was certainly a hit and I shall be using more and more of these as YouTube is not filtered and the pupils really enjoy it and it is a great way to tease out questions based on live and real examples from current media and advertising.
I found that chunking the sections of the deliver most effective as many of the pupils found it hard to remember the complex steps of adobe after effects. I found that when i did do too much I didn’t have enough time to really get them on task quick enough.
The managing of questions in this was interesting and I had to make queue system by giving them numbers.
I used AB tutor to subtly keep an eye to see if they were on task.
I also used AB tutor to display their finished work I also got them to gather around a PC and view their work.
I made sure that I gave them clear guidelines as to what to do and what I expected of them before the end of the lesson.
I could have got them to save and submit their work to a folder for assessment and comments so I am going to create folders on the shared drive that they can cope and past their finished work to.
I need to give more time for a plenary so as to give time for assessment of learning by questioning.
I found that demonstrating up the front was a little bit tough to show them the finer more intricate tools effects that where hard to see.
Adobe after effects is a hugely complex program that requires great concentration. I found the explanation of key frames quite challenging i think the only way to rectify this specific step would be do a written set of instruction that are very basic.
I feel my behavioural management was good in the lesson and i controled the pupils well

What could have been done better?

Overall these where good lessons that I thought where effective and produced good work. I believe they learnt a fair bit on how to use adobe after effects but joining the theoretical side of advertising to the technical side was rather tenuous as they could not create something as good as what they saw on the youtube clip.

04/03/2011

Photoshop lesson 1 – Year 7

By adminPGCE, POT 2, Reflection, TeachingNo Comments

Over this last week I have had the pleasure of teaching 4 year 7 lessons. This was my first experience with year 7’s on the PGCE course however I had already done terms worth of teaching at Monkton Prep. I really enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them quite quickly. They have a very innocent and polite nature to them that is to be quite honest a delight to teach. I personally really enjoyed teaching this age as you have great opportunities for creativity and flexibility.

What we did?

The main aim for this lesson was to introduce the to adobe Photoshop and then introduce them to the scheme of work that has been prepared. The idea for the lesson was to create a “Madagascar in Bath” image with some of the characters cut out and super imposed onto the streets of bath. I introduced them to a series of basic photo editing techniques such as the levels, hue and saturation and color balance tools under the image adjustments section. I then took them through how to use the magic wand tool to select areas of white that they needed and then inverse the selection and then copy this onto the bath image. We also looked at the lasso tool and the magnetic version on this and the quick mask mode to ad and take away from the selection

What went well?

I found that my welcome and start of by asking for hands up names was particularly effective.
I set high expectations with my rules set out clearly.
I thought my intro video with YouTube was really engaging and the kids really enjoyed this.
I used questioning well to really tease out the important areas of Photoshop and who and why it would be used.
I thought my subject knowledge was good and as I knew the program really well I found it really easy to explain everything.
I thought I chunked the lesson well but this was maybe a weakness, as I will come on that below.
I encouraged them and praised them well at the end of the lesson by saying good lesson as I thought it was a good one.
They all created a good finished product that was creative and looked interesting
I found that if I encouraged them to experiment with extension tasks such as the rubber tool.

What could have been done better?

I didn’t at first realize the high ability of these kids and so I think that I could have done more with the demonstration time and shown them more.
I started of not managing all the questions that well but as soon as I grasped how to give them an order of whom was next it worked well.
I had one session where they were already in the classroom, which made the start of the lesson slightly less structured.
I would have like to use the magnetic tool more and shown them more closely how to use the quick mask tool better as I feel my demo was week in this.
I need to work on being more definite with my delivery still and only show one skill not a series of skills.

Lesson Plan >> http://bit.ly/j1qKCf

Observation >> click on thumbnail

03/03/2011

Copyright – Year 9MQB4 – OCR Nationals

By adminObservations, 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