Old and new challenges.

Wow, I hadn't realised it has been so long since my last entry. Where does the time go?

Ok, I've a lot to catch up on. The January class has just taken their Mock exams - results made grim reading. Only 2 students would have passed with grades A*-C if these were the real exams, out of 13 students in total. To be fair, a couple of others were "near misses" and will hopefully improve enough before the real event, but even so, I'm disappointed. I have much work to do and plenty of thinking is necessary to help the students through this.

In the meantime, I have still to complete the syllabus - we started "Radioactivity" today. This last topic should only take a week to complete and I tried asking the students to imagine we had discovered a new element, so what would they like to try to find out about it? This was something I have used before with great results. Students have surprised me with their inventiveness and creativity in the past. This time, the entire class sat with blank looks and couldn't come up with a single idea between them.

This seems to be so typical of the class. I've just not managed to enthuse them at all this year. They quickly gave up on the idea of making their own video to upload to YouTube, skipping lessons when they knew I was going to make them complete the task. They haven't enjoyed practical work, tolerate the IWB games and activities with bad grace, refuse to use Study Smart, our VLE which is full of video clips, animations and fun stuff for them to do (who wouldn't enjoy giving John Travolta an electric shock?) and generally show no interest in anything other than sleeping. I have just a few weeks left to turn this around, so I'll have to find something new and exciting pretty quickly.

Another new class I've been teaching since September is a Pre-GCSE class, which we've not offered before. This is an exciting challenge, not least because the students have arrived with a much lower level of English understanding than I was expecting. I'm having to learn how to teach this class as I go along, so it is demanding of my "spare" time. At least I had the forethought to borrow a copy of their English textbook so that I can see what they are studying each week in English. I'm trying to co-ordinate my Physics lessons to fit around the English learning every week.

This week, they were supposed to learn about natural disasters in English, so in Physics, we studied waves and how tsunamis form. I'm not sure how much the students really understood, but hopefully I will find out tomorrow - if they managed to do any of the homework I set. They seemed to enjoy the lesson anyway, which makes me optimistic. I've much more to say about this class, but it will have to wait until next time. Now, if only I could find out how to fit 30 hours of work into each 24 hour day...........

Challenging times

My September starters took their last exam on Friday, so I've had a little time to think about my other class, the January starters. This class has caused me problems during the current term. They haven't really gelled yet, there are at least 3 distinct groups within the class, their abilities in Physics as well as in English are very wide-ranging and some of the behaviour has been challenging for me.

Don't get me wrong, they are not a bad bunch of students, but quite a few of them find Physics boring and they don't mind letting me know it, by falling asleep in class. Even during practical work or when I've been at my most enthusiastic and manic, leaping around the classroom pretending to be a molecule! They sometimes come into class, put their heads down on the desks and fall asleep before the lesson begins, so maybe it isn't just that they find the Physics boring. Whatever is going on, they won't tell me. I've tried having a discussion about it, they just clam up.

So, I've been trying various tactics, mostly without success, but I'll keep on trying. Today, I suggested to them that they could make a video which we could maybe upload into You Tube or Teacher Tube or at least into our Moodle site. I showed a Teacher Tube video first, actually it consisted of 2 short videos, one showing dispersion (how to make a rainbow using a glass prism) and the other showing refraction (bending of light when it goes into glass).

I asked the students what they thought, which video they preferred and why, then suggested they could do better. I was surprised at their responses, I had thought they'd like the video with music, but they liked the one without as they thought the music was distracting. One student, M, said she thought the one without was more focussed on the Physics and therefore clearer.

I also thought they's balk at the idea of making their own version as they dislike making a class video blog, but they were quite keen instead. It was the students who are usually not interested in Physics who seemed the most enthusiastic, with B stating that it would be "cool" to do and immediately volunteering to be project leader for the task.

I've set homework for this week as planning for the task. B has to organise the class into specific jobs - scripting, acting, camera etc. Plus they have to decide what they are actually going to make the video about, it has to be something that we are studying within the waves topic now, so reflection, refraction, dispersion, diffraction or maybe lenses.

I've no idea if this will be successful or not, but I'm hopeful it will help them to enjoy their Physics lessons a bit more. They seemed to accept that this task may help them to learn and remember what I'm trying to teach them, by taking ownership of it. I'll keep blogging as it progresses (or doesn't) and see what else I can learn from the expereience.

Catching up.

Oops! I've not posted for some time - lots of reasons, which I'll not go into now, but I'd not noticed just how much time has slipped by.

Of course, much has been happening, some good, some bad and some.........interesting. My current group of students who are about to take exams are struggling. I'm not sure how best to help them through this crucial time before they take their real exams. I had hoped to be able to concentrate on theory, but their practical mock exam yesterday was grim as well, so they obviously need more practise there too. I must devote more time to planning their revision lessons if they are to stand a reasonable chance of passing.

I've spent a good deal of time over the past 2 weeks reading about Moodle 2.0 and how to use Moodle in Science teaching. As a result of that and the thinking time I've finally managed to spend, I've begun a complete overhaul of my "Study Smart" course.

I have decided to try to make that course more user-friendly. A student who was late arriving to my January class asked me how to catch up the work she had missed, commenting that she was confused about whether to use Study Smart or read her textbook. So, I've started adding text to the front page of Study Smart to let my students know what they should be doing and when. I've tried to direct them to read certain pages of the textbook at times and to try various activities in Study Smart at other times.

The intention is to end up with a blended course, incorporating the textbook, activities, resources, homework tasks, forums and all the rest, which will provide variety and interest whilst being educationally sound and easier to follow. I just hope I'm in time to help my September starters classes.

Something I want to try with the other class - the January starters - is to make a class video blog. We have a flip camera on the campus now, so I talked about the possibility of making a class blog, with the January group. Most of the students looked horrified at the prospect, terrified even! They started to come around to the idea as we talked it through and when they realised I was not going to force them to make individual presentations. Once we had established that they could have control over the blog, they could be videoed in pairs, chatting about their Physics lessons, they became more relaxed about it. Well, most of them - a few still seem terrified.

I'm hoping the exercise will help them to express their Physics ideas in English in a slightly less formal way, once they have become used to the camera. It should be interesting to see their progression throughout the year and to hear what they think of their Physics lessons. I hope it will be a positive experience for all of us, though I could be setting myself up for a huge disappointment!

mLearning: another new beginning for me?

Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a brilliant course on mobile learning. The course was run by Nicky Hockly of SEETA (South Eastern EuropeTeachers Associations) and was entitled mLearning: an introduction.

It was as well, the course was an introduction as I knew practically nothing about mLearning beforehand. If I'd had to guess, I would have said "learning by mobile phones". Thankfully, the course sorted out that misconception early. mLearning can involve any form of mobile devices. However, I had a couple of instances in my class where mobile phones were mentioned or used, in a constructive way. My previous post listed one, where a student asked if I could write an app to help them with revision. Before Nicky's course I would have laughed at the idea of writing my own app. Now I have the confidence to try to find out how I can learn to do so.

This wonderful and instructive course also came just in time to make me stop and think before acting in a way I might have done earlier.

One of my classes was doing a practical, investigating lenses. I spotted a couple of students using a mobile phone, so I wandered over to see how they were using it.. At first, they looked guilty as though I'd caught them doing something they shouldn't, but when I not only allowed them to continue, but also showed an interest in their novel use of the mobile phone, they were just so pleased, chatting freely and more animatedly than ever before.

In fact, they were simply using the phone screen as an object instead of the lamp I'd given them - hardly a ground-breaking idea, but hey, they thought of it first. It gave me an opportunity not just to listen to them talking about a subject they clearly knew more about than me, but I did also manage to squeeze a little Physics discussion in as well!

I think sometimes we need to remember the excitement of doing something different, something new, no matter how simple it may be. We also need to allow our students to be the "experts" at times, without fear of losing control. My students didn't respect me any less because I admitted knowing very little about their phones, in fact I gained respect by listening to their opinions and showing an interest in what excites them. We've enjoyed a much greater dialogue during the past week than ever before and the students seem to want to share their ideas more.

Allowing their technology into the classroom instead of banning it may bring unexpected rewards. I look forward to the challenge of exploring this further in the near future.

Technology rocks!

I had a breakthrough moment today - well, several, in fact. My September starters had reached the end of their "waves" topic, so it was time for revision and a topic test. Groans all round usually. So far this year, I've introduced the idea to them of preparing revision sheets as we go along. So, at the end of the General Physics and the thermal effects topics, I gave them each a single sheet of A4 paper, with a few headings, diagrams and partially completed sentences. They were told to complete this sheet and add anything they liked to it, so long as they only used one side of the A4 paper.

As an incentive, I allowed them to use the revision sheets in their topic tests. So far, I'd had mixed results, with some students completing the sheets well, others poorly or not at all. They couldn't really see the point of it. However, we are starting to talk about the exams now, so I guess they are slightly more focussed.

Anyway, I went through a couple of exercises I'd previously prepared on the IWB, from the wonderful Learning Activities Toolkit. This comes with the Smartboards and enables quizzes, games and other activitiesto be prepared in just a few minutes. I used a Keyword Matching activity as well as an interactive page which was already in the Gallery - there are so many pages pre-prepared in the Gallery, it's often surprising what can be found.

Afterwards, I gave my students a blank piece of A4 paper and said that I thought it was time they took a little more responsibility for their own revision, so I hadn't prepared a template for them. One or two did look shocked and a little worried, but I told them I would help them and give advice if they needed it and they settled into the task well. So well, I was stunned by the co-operation between students and the impressive quality of their work.

More than that, they started making suggestions of their own, about revision. One student, T, said that she thought the IWB activities were a really good way to revise and suggested they could write their own questions in future. Another student, who usually struggles with Physics, was the first to ask for the wireless mouse so that he could try to complete the activities to check his understanding. This technology really captivated them and having a wireless keyboard and mouse means they can stay seated, which speeds up the activities. A second and larger class, doing the same activities later in the day, simply passed the mouse from one student to the next without being asked to do so.

At times, I felt I wasn't really needed in class! The students just got on with the tasks, some alone, others working in pairs or groups, but every one of them engaged and busy.

Several students commented that the revision sheets were a great idea, they totally understood it now, with C declaring that reading the textbook and writing just the important points, or those she couldn't remember easily, made the revision more effective as she was interacting with the textbook! Wow, I felt as though I'd died and gone to Teacher Heaven.

I was able to give some directed praise during the task, especially to the groups working well together. What was also interesting was that some had chosen to use the same format as the previous template sheets, so clearly that had a bigger impact on them than I'd thought. I've also promised to publish their revision sheets in our VLE "Study Smart", which they are keen to see. One student remarked "ooh, we can be famous!"

Perhaps even more interesting was that they also asked me, without any prompting, if I could make an app for their mobile phones as flashcards or as a similar exercise to the Keyword Matching one. This generation really does look to their mobile technology in every part of their lives. They want us to keep up and are genuinely appreciative if we make the effort to do so.

Teachers' Conference

What a busy week! First the BETT exhibition and then on Friday and Saturday, our Teachers' Conference.

I love the Conference. Every year, I come away re-invigorated after meeting so many enthusiastic teachers. The energy everyone seems to have as well as the ideas and creativity shown by so many is just brilliant. It is contagious- I can't help but come home feeling exhausted but determined to try out something new that a colleague has been generous enough to share.

Generosity is probably the one word I would use to sum up the Conference. So many people give freely of their time to share their best ideas, pass on invaluable tips and discuss problems openly. Behind the scenes, the IT support team do a fantastic job, making sure everything runs smoothly and there are no hitches with equipment. The catering team made sure we were well fed and watered and the organisation of the whole Conference, though a nightmare at times, I've no doubt, was so efficient that the entire Conference seemed to pass off smoothly and like a well-oiled machine. My congratulations and thanks to everyone involved this year.

I was fortunate enough to give a couple of presentations this year - one on some of the tips I have learnt about using IWBs and the other on my James Bond lesson. Everyone who attended my sessions was so kind, warm, supportive and positive. That kind of audience gives back so much to presenters, I felt priviledged to stand in front of them. I don't think I walked down the stairs after the IWB presentation and into lunch - I floated!

I attended a fantastic "bring and share" session where we discussed ideas to try in the classroom to help support language learning. This was just what I need, loads of new ideas to try - interestingly, the session was run by an English teacher but all of the ideas discussed could be adapted for use with any subject. That is another reason for attending the conference - getting to meet and discuss ideas with teachers of other subjects is a rare opportunity and always shows me how much we have in common, rather than our differences. Being open-minded and prepared to think beyond the obvious brings huge rewards.

Once again, the Conference demonstrated the pace of change in the classroom and outside. Technology is advancing at a frightening pace it seems and our students will use gadgets and social networking that could leave us behind unless we work at it to keep up. More importantly, we were reminded that they will use social networking sites and gadgets whether we invite them to or not. Much better that we start using these as well to encourage and enhance their learning. I left the Conference determined to think even harder about using Twitter, Blogs (maybe a class Blog?), forums and the like in class as well as "flip" cameras and other gadgets.

I also need to go through my bag of goodies and leaflets from BETT to decide what to investigate further and what to place in the "round file" and then to get on with it all rather than leaving it until tomorrow. Figuratively speaking, that is!

I'm exhausted but excited by the prospect of it all.

BETT 2011

I had a brilliant and an awful day at the BETT exhibition at Olympia yesterday.

The brilliant part was the exhibition itself. Wow! Every year I'm just stunned by the size of this exibition. I went prepared - I had my personal plan of which stands I wanted to visit and had worked out a route. That plan went out of the window as soon as I started walking down the first aisle. At each stand there were people who started talking to me as I walked past. Just trying to read the names of the companies they represented was invitation enough - and I was too poilite, at least at the start of the day, to say "no thanks".

Besides, the promise of winning something is always way too tempting. I'm now waiting until Monday to find out that I must have won at least one "Smart table", 4 Kindles, 1 iPod, 3 iPads and about a million free one year subscriptions to various pieces of software. Lucky me, hmm?

Of course, once the inevitable phone calls start coming through from the company reps, reminding me that I said I was interested in their products, I shall remember why I told myself NOT to enter any competitions this year! At least I also came away with enough pens to last until next year and enough chocolates and sweets to expand my ever-increasing waistline by another 20 inches! Thank goodness for the Sunflower Learning stand which offered free fruit to visitors, the apple was most welcome!

Anyway, I spent most of the day (productive part, see later for the awful side) seeing something exciting on one stand and thinking "This is fantastic, it's new and exciting, a good price and my students would love it - we MUST buy this" and then walking to the next stand and repeating that process over and over again.

I was struck by how many apps there are this year for use with students' mobile technology - revision software, educational games, educational software in general. This is an area that had definitely expanded over the past 12 months and one I need to think seriously about. I must buy myself a smartphone too - I need to keep up - my excuse at least.

I love the idea of using games to enhance students' learning as anyone who has read my previos blogs may remember. Playstation are currently developing Physics games for use on their PS3s which could be mindblowing.

There really was far too much of interest for me to even begin to do justice to it here. I've come away exhausted but invigorated by some of the ideas and material out there now and in the development process.

Ok, so now I have to explain the awful part. Olympia is not the easiest of venues to reach. Getting to Earl's Court is fine, but there are just not enough trains from there to Olympia, or back again. Consequently, the thousands of visitors to BETT are crammed in so tightly, we almost had to take turns to breathe. Very uncomfortable and claustrophobic.

Once at Olympia, the organisation this year left much to be desired, in my opinion. The cloakroom facilities are inadequate for the number of people visiting. I queued for 30 minutes to leave my coat and about 90 minutes to retrieve it at the end of the day, by which time many of the tickets that had been pinned to coats etc, were on the floor and staff were unable to find some coats, including mine. I found my own, by searching through all of the coats myself, but this is hardly a good way to run a cloakroom.

In addition, eating is always difficult at BETT due to the number of visitors. After a wait of over 20 minutes to reach the food counter and a further 15 minutes trying to find an empty place at a table, I ended up sitting on the floor to eat. Not great when you are tired and really want a break for a few minutes. I think that I should at least have been able to sit on a chair after paying the high cost of exhibition food.

That said, I still think it was well worth going to BETT.