Category: Support - Teaching Tricks

To cover or not to cover...

8/8/2014

Exercise books and marking.... Do I hear a collective groan???

Stopping my students drawing on the books and making them take pride in their books... How?

I'm wondering - is the answer a throwback to the 80's and getting my students to cover their exercise books, so that they take ownership of them?

Which marking pile would you prefer? Which do you think would motivate the students to taking ownership of their books and their work?.... Time for a poll I think...

Marking pile A

Marking pile B

Twitter support networks - #FF

8/5/2014

#FF what a great hashtag, FollowFriday - sharing those Tweeters you know about with others so they can follow them too...

But what happens when you are new to Twitter? Who gives you a shout out and introduces you to people who teach the same subject, the same age range?....

I have already got a long list of AST/SLEs on my website - I started that one a long time ago, so tweeters couls have an idea of who to tweet at for help/support.

So why a new list? Simple - to make available a list of Tweeters for different subject areas. Are you prepared to put your name on the list if so click here for the spreadsheet. This list is simply what is says on the tin - a list of teachers that are on twitter and the subject they teach.

Working together

8/5/2014

I am always amazed at the generosity, imagination and skill of the people in my Twitter network. Some of the resources that they produce are publishable quality and then some - yet they share them freely...

So I want to celebrate these people show what they can do and let others know about the amazing stuff that is out there.

I am beginning a list of downloadable resources with links to the websites that they come from so you have an idea about what you might find there before you click. The pages will be broken down by subject as well so if you need say, Physics resources, you don't have to go all around the other subjects to find them.

Please share this page with anyone that you know has a great website that supports Teaching and Learning, that has amazing resources that they freely share and I will share them on my website if they contact me with a few details about their website/blog/resources.

Another year on... another year wiser?

7/23/2014

My year as a musical montage of lyrics and the accompanying songs.

This is the end.....Hold your breath and count to ten...

A number of very close friends are moving on this year, I dreaded the end of the year... It has now come and gone and they have left - our friendship will always be there x

It's not right, but it's okay
I'm gonna make it anyway.

There have been some unusual and difficult decisions made, ones I don't always agree with - but I will still do what I can to make them work and support them

You've gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try

It has not been an easy year, there have been many ups and downs. I have lost people close to me - but throughout it all I have done my best x

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress

Maybe an odd choice from a science teacher - but this is what my students seemed to be doing at the beginning of the year, not thinking things through and working things out - just guessing!

I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing

THANK YOU - to everyone who has helped or supported me this year.... Who has listened to me on my "educational soapbox!"

I feel very lucky and proud to have such an amazing support network ;o)

Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,
Well, give me all you got, and don't hold it back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I'll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don't waste your time

At the end of it all, it has been a good year - I have forever friends, I have overcome difficulties and I have some very interesting plans in place for the future xxx

Random acts of kindness to improve Teaching & Learning

4/13/2014

I just did some easy maths and had one of those moments where you realise that you really can make a difference, that what you are doing in a small way can have a BIG impact.

What was the maths.... well

I have 4330 followers (13/4/14 @10pm)
If each of my followers did just 1 RT a week of something I have tweeted or RT'd that would impact on their teaching, and I of their followers picked it up as well...
Then that is 4330x2 teachers I have had an impact on, making 8660 teachers.

Now if each of those 8660 teachers implements that 1 thing once a week for say 25 weeks of the year, then that is 216.5K mini impacts my original tweets have had.

Ok so we each teach 150 students a day, so say that change has a positive impact on 20 of them a day - so 100 student contacts out of 750 possible student contacts a week.
That is... 21650K student mini impacts the original tweets have had!

It really makes you realise what a difference a tweet and a RT can have...

In training to teach? Recently trained to teach?

4/13/2014

Calling all trainees and newly qualified teachers - do you want to help me making the training process better?
If so please share this blog post and fill in the very brief survey below to let me know some basic answers and that you are happy to be involved.
Thanks
Teaching Tricks

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

2/3's of the year is over.....

4/10/2014

The clocks have gone forwards....

You are going to work in the light and coming home in the light (hopefully...)
Your first ever exam classes are almost there and soon to take those all important exams... Scary isn't it?

You are nearly there, you are almost 70% of the way through your NQT year, 2 of your assessment points are over and done with. You have one set of targets to work on and a final assessment point to come.

You (may) have had your own room for 6 months, you will certainly have made at least one display wall and had numerous parents meetings...

All in all you are feeling like a real teacher, like you have been doing the job forever!

Things probably didn't go the way you planned on a number of occasions.

You may have had to change what you were doing in the middle of a lesson and take another tack, as the students just weren't getting it. It might have been the textbooks were being used by someone else, your IT didn't work... There are a load of reasons this might have happened.

The big news here - YOU DID IT.... something you would have totally freaked out about during your training and you handled it like a pro!

You have spent time with your mentor, observing other teacher's lessons, listening to the talk in the department and staffroom, putting into practice all that you have learnt this year. You are starting to fly :-)

You have probably worked out who your role models in the school are, if not people, then certain characteristics that you want to foster in yourself.

But - remember you are also that role model for your students - what do you want them to take away from their interactions with you?

As part of my commitment to make NQT / ITT mentoring a better process for all my trainees, and for my NQTs I would love some feedback on other education professionals experience of mentoring.

If you are happy to provide some anonymous feedback please can you fill in the form on the right.

I will not use your name or contact you unless you give your permission for this to occur.

Thank you for your honest feedback. T.T.

#teachingresolution2014

1/4/2014

So - what is your teaching resolution for the next year?

In my last post I talked of my happy moments of 2013 and my wishes for 2014, what I felt I didn't address was a teaching resolution for the year 2014 - so I decided upon a #teachingresolution2014.

As ever when I think about my teaching, my students are at the forefront of what I am doing. I have noticed that they are not really able to write good revision notes, and despite much support and intervention, they still struggle with extended writing ... so I decided to tackle these two at once...

And so the "Learning Journal" was born

The theory...

The students have a list of the learning outcomes/syllabus detail before we start a topic and so can pre-read.
Students are able to keep track of their own progress through the topic by ticking off what has been covered in class, also if they are off, they can see what they have missed.
At the end of each lesson the students will fill in the rectangular box with the main points they have learnt in the lesson and possibly link to an exam question - building revision notes and exam practice along the way.]

Will it work.... who knows, but I am going to give it a try!

So, what is your #teachingresolution2014

Please can you add it to the google doc below and during the year we will have a few reviews of the progress we are making.

If you are willing to write a guest blog post on your #teachingresolution2014 can you let me know - thanks. TT

Google doc on #teachingresolution2014 click HERE

Robust tracking and intervention...

4/17/2013

Well my SMT role this year was to ensure robust tracking, assessment and intervention! What have I learnt so far?

OK - Here goes...

Robust assessment -this involves looking at the syllabus and going back to the weightings and assessment objectives - become familiar with these.
Use these weightings and assessment objectives, where possible, to write your assessments to fit in with the same weightings/objectives.
If this is not entirely possible use scale factors to allow for this.If you have a coursework element - build in practice of this and assess these skills as soon as possible.

Tracking - excel is your best tool here.Design spreadsheets that track these assessments - provide grades (working at grades) and can be allowed to forecast forward to predicted grades.
These spreadsheets can then be used to identify the students that are not making the required progress - more in depth analysis can also be done here, you can see if it is a particular topic, skill, subject, teacher.
(You can buy into software SISRA for example that will also work out the residuals for you...what is a students performance in your subject like in relation to their other subjects.)
From this data tracking you can then plan targeted intervention.

Intervention - Target specific students, make it measurable and time focused.
For example I have targeted the students who are currently forecast 1 grade down on expected progress for GCSE - they are having 6x 20 min revision lessons (in tutor time) in the 6 weeks to their exams, with 6x 20min assertive mentoring sessions with SMT.
During these sessions they are looking at the hardest topics, but using the medium of the 6 mark extended writing questions - yes, a lot of logistical work - worth it... I think so.
(I also have 15yr 10's on a lighter touch intervention, 3x 20 min revision sessions, 3x 20 min drop in sessions but no assertive mentoring and a BTEC group on a similar timetable to the other yr11's but they are targeting incomplete assignments.)

Subject critical students - Know who these are - the data guru in the school should be able to help you here or head of year?
Have lead teachers of groups keep a subject critical list of students to track the in class intervention they are doing - this is much more effective in class and can often get things on track before the "big guns" like the one above are needed.
These should be regularly updated and would allow you to have the overview without having to bombard people with e-mails or track down tired teachers.You could consider a student action plan (to be written with the teachers and students as a proactive intervention partnership document) for these students identified on this list.

OK... so in a nutshell....
1 - Robust assessment that links directly with the syllabus assessment objectives and weightings (For KS3 I would use SAT's and the KS4 weightings/objectives as this is what you are building towards anyway.)
2 - Clear data tracking - allowing to see performance in skills, subjects and with specific teachers.
3 - Timely focused targeted intervention, which is based on 1 and 2 being in place.
4 - In class intervention, with subject/class critical lists being updated after each reporting sequence.
5 - Reporting to parents as per schools policy, but always be prepared to ask in parents for those students who are "off track" to have a 1:1 meeting if a personal intervention plan has not succeeded.

These are just my thoughts on what I have learnt so far this year - I would be really interested in feedback/comments.

Comments:
From: ‏ @GeekPeter @TeachingTricks already read! Don't forget about SIMS for tracking, I find it invaluable for my work.

Independent learning

4/12/2013

‘Independent study is a process, a method and a philosophy of education:
in which a student acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation;

What a hard task to achieve...

Independent learning is something that as an AST I am constantly asked to support colleagues with or demonstrate in galleried lessons. 2 of the more valuable, yet easy to use, resources can be seen below and a full article can be found on my website here

One other thing to note - if the students are working in groups it is advisable to assign them roles, again you can find a resource for it here.