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#Success / Challenge / ICT / Inspire — No Comments
2
Feb 12

ipadio: Textwall.co.uk

So there is certainly more to learn about using Textwall.co.uk in the classroom. It is clear from Holly impromptu interview (I spoke to her in her after school art workshop) that the textwall experiment was well received in our Yr11 PSRE lesson however there are still a few teaching and learning creases to iron out.

Testwall was useful for confirming prior learning, for example “define prejudice.” With students either ammending or copying or improving their definitions as a result of reading the 15 submitted to textwall. Where textwall was most effective was in answering moderate size, open exam questions. For example,

With all the student responses submitted to textwall, students were then able to write or construct a valuable answer. What is more, students submitted answers I had not considered and we able to discuss answers ’unlikely’ to be award a mark.

Where textwall was less effiicient was with fastest finger responses, or quick fire though still useful.

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#Success / IF — No Comments
1
Feb 12

Favoured Tweets

@gideonwilliams:

A good day today with year 7s enjoying interactive fiction TTGBITN and jamie’s letter from school.

http://twitter.com/gideonwilliams/status/164806729329160192

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#Success / Behaviour / Challenge / Teaching — No Comments
31
Jan 12

ipadio: Hexagonal Learning

I am not going to write a SOLO taxonomy thinking post, I do not know it well enough, I haven’t I explored it far enough nor taught with it in mind. But I will. However the hexagonal tessalating idea, now I am up for that. I may even combine it to shoeless teaching. There’s lots of other excellent uses for hexagonal learning. Tait Coles, Chris Harte and David Didau are already ahead of the game. These guys have put together a useful Prezi, share Teachmeet videos and shared class footage. The practitioners have already provide some very compelling evidence so perhaps I can help in a different way?

Here is a hexagonal learning template and four reflections from today’s lesson and a few more images.

  1. Group’s of 2 were productive, 3 seemed to be engage and discussing the hexagons, 4 seemed a little strained.
  2. The students wanted to ‘finish’ the task and they wanted to know if they had got it right. In the second lesson, I really emphasised that first they needed to decided on the hexagon associations. That there was no ‘right’ answer and that they would need to be able defend their solutions.
  3. The students did not see discussion and justifying the hexagon placement as learning.
  4. The best thinking came about when I challenged their hexagon placements.

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You heard the student feedback, here is their work. I did keep the cut-out hexagons for next time. I think I will soon have a draw full of hex learning activities. Bring on the novels!

 

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#Fail / #Success / Teaching — No Comments
27
Jan 12

Shoeless Learning

Stephen Heppell @stephenheppell threw out a comment yesterday during his keynote advocating ‘Shoeless Learning.’ On his website Stephen highlights that

many Scandinavia children learn with their shoes off. In many schools worldwide shoeless learning has taken off, despite a lot of scepticism.

I do not think the why has been formerly explored and invested, but why wait. What harm would it do if I tried it with my classes? Exactly. Yet I could not help but question whether my low ability Yr11 class go with me on this slightly odd request? So here is today’s findings and questions.

Findings

Not all students wore socks, in this class it was only girls, so those girls that were not wearing socks were less inclined to participate.

If you are going to take part, and you should, your sock choice will be interrogated. Pink toed / heeled socks were much a do about nothing.

Period 2 – Yr11a3

My Year 11 low ability class were intrigued by the request and as a result it took a little more time to settle, joking about the request and my socks. I also I took a closed jar of toffees with me – I didn’t elude to the toffees, just placed them on the desk. The suggestion was, compliance may be rewarded.

What are those toffees for Sir?

All will become clear at the end.

Period 4 – Yr7a3

Again, the initial suggestion was met with questions although the students were happy to accept the request. There seemed minimal impact on group tasks however, I do not recall much between group movement. Calmer? I can not firmly support this assertion. One student did get his shoes as he felt awkward.

Questions

Does it matter what activities you are teaching. Does shoelessness benefit some activities more than others.

Can shoelessness impede learning?

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#Success / English — No Comments
10
Nov 11

ipadio: Facebook Status updates

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