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.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Thursday, 13 January 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Revision thoughts
Firstly, I'd like to thank Barbara for her comment left after my last Post. It's good to know someone is reading this blog.
I've spent a little time thinking about my students' inability to revise adequately by themselves. My last class didn't seem to understand how to revise, as well as not understanding the need to spend sufficient time doing so. I may not be able to convince them to spend as much time revising as I would like them to, but I should be able to help them to prepare for revision.
With this in mind, I have decided to begin preparing for revision throughout the year. My September starters have completed the first topic, General Physics. I designed a revision sheet for the students to complete, covering the most important points, but only using one side of A4 paper. I gave one copy to each student and told them to complete it for homework. They were allowed to add anything of their own choosing to the sheet, so long as they only used one side of A4 paper. I want the students to learn how to make their revision notes compact and easy to use. Most importantly, I want to discourage them from trying to re-read the whole of their textbook.
In order to provide an incentive for the students to complete the task well, I told them they could use the sheet in their end of topic test.
Some revision sheets were completed well, usually by the more able students, but some were still done poorly or not at all. There were mistakes on many, indicating some misunderstandings, so that made the task worthwhile by itself.
After their test, I handed out a revision sheet I had completed correctly. I would have preferred to review the sheet in class and have the students work out where to make corrections, but I just couldn't take the time to do so. Nevertheless, the reason for the task was appreciated and commented upon by some students and I will repeat it for each topic. Maybe, now they have seen the effect that having the sheet in their test, those students who did not make much effort the first time around will be encouraged to do so next time................. At the very least, they have seen an example of how to precis a topic into one side of A4 paper.
Once they have a complete set of revision notes, I will try to encourage the students to use them to answer past exam questions. It is not going to solve the whole problem of revision, of course, but it is hopefully a start.
The Moodle lesson, based around James Bond, was a success. Students commented that having a story to read as well as questions to answer made the task much more enjoyable. Some said they didn't feel as though they were working at all! They all liked the idea that the young James Bond was studying for his IGCSE Physics exam at Bellerbys! The personal touches, especially the humour involved, were appreciated by the students.
I intend to write another story along similar lines, but possibly based around Harry Potter!
I've spent a little time thinking about my students' inability to revise adequately by themselves. My last class didn't seem to understand how to revise, as well as not understanding the need to spend sufficient time doing so. I may not be able to convince them to spend as much time revising as I would like them to, but I should be able to help them to prepare for revision.
With this in mind, I have decided to begin preparing for revision throughout the year. My September starters have completed the first topic, General Physics. I designed a revision sheet for the students to complete, covering the most important points, but only using one side of A4 paper. I gave one copy to each student and told them to complete it for homework. They were allowed to add anything of their own choosing to the sheet, so long as they only used one side of A4 paper. I want the students to learn how to make their revision notes compact and easy to use. Most importantly, I want to discourage them from trying to re-read the whole of their textbook.
In order to provide an incentive for the students to complete the task well, I told them they could use the sheet in their end of topic test.
Some revision sheets were completed well, usually by the more able students, but some were still done poorly or not at all. There were mistakes on many, indicating some misunderstandings, so that made the task worthwhile by itself.
After their test, I handed out a revision sheet I had completed correctly. I would have preferred to review the sheet in class and have the students work out where to make corrections, but I just couldn't take the time to do so. Nevertheless, the reason for the task was appreciated and commented upon by some students and I will repeat it for each topic. Maybe, now they have seen the effect that having the sheet in their test, those students who did not make much effort the first time around will be encouraged to do so next time................. At the very least, they have seen an example of how to precis a topic into one side of A4 paper.
Once they have a complete set of revision notes, I will try to encourage the students to use them to answer past exam questions. It is not going to solve the whole problem of revision, of course, but it is hopefully a start.
The Moodle lesson, based around James Bond, was a success. Students commented that having a story to read as well as questions to answer made the task much more enjoyable. Some said they didn't feel as though they were working at all! They all liked the idea that the young James Bond was studying for his IGCSE Physics exam at Bellerbys! The personal touches, especially the humour involved, were appreciated by the students.
I intend to write another story along similar lines, but possibly based around Harry Potter!
Monday, 15 November 2010
End of course reflections
My January starters have finished their exams now so it seems a good time to reflect on our time together.
This was the first class to have all of their lessons properly prepared beforehand on an IWB and I introduced many new ideas from the books on CLIL that I've read this year. Some ideas have worked better than others, but I've devoted more time to this class, by way of preparation and reflection than to any other I've taught, certainly for several years.
Ok, the good:
This was the first class to have all of their lessons properly prepared beforehand on an IWB and I introduced many new ideas from the books on CLIL that I've read this year. Some ideas have worked better than others, but I've devoted more time to this class, by way of preparation and reflection than to any other I've taught, certainly for several years.
Ok, the good:
- CLIL has made me re-evaluate everything I do.
- I'm much better at supporting my students' language leaning now.
- Asking questions instead of presenting students with facts, has ensured that more of the class is engaged at any time.
- Students are not afraid of asking their own questions - I've noticed a huge increase in questions asked and many questions are far more involved and interesting than I've ever been asked before. I've realised just how good students are at interpreting Physics, taking information and owning it, using it to think at much higher levels than I'd previously been aware of.
- Confidence levels among some students has increased.
- Students seem to enjoy my lessons more than previously.
- I enjoy teaching much more than previously.
- My own confidence in my teaching has improved no end.
- I expect more from my students now.
The bad:
- My students were still not independent enough to revise on their own. If anything, they expected more from the revision lessons and were disappointed that they were expected to get their heads down and work on past exam papers.
- Therefore, I need to think more about revision and devise new ways to engage the students in revision, so that they do not realise they are working hard. At least, not all of the time. They do need to realise and accept that passing exams necessitates hard work. How can I convince them that just reading their textbook is not the best way to revise? Despite all my efforts, they kept on falling back on this as their preferred (often only) method of revision outside the classroom.
- I can't change the world by myself. I'd like to include some cross-curricular work in future but I'm not sure how well, if at all, that would go with other teachers. Do I have the energy and persistence to be able to convince others to try a few joint projects?
Did all of my efforts this year make a difference to the students' outcomes? Will it have helped them to pass their exams? I'm not sure I can answer those questions with one small class. I do know that I would not wish to return to a more traditional way of teaching. I hope and do believe I am a better teacher now and hope that I will continue to improve in the future.
I'll keep you posted!
Monday, 25 October 2010
Ups and downs of the week.
I've had a few successes and a few failures recently. Successes include setting students tasks to read a paragraph in their textbook, then use the information to explain how to answer a problem to the rest of the class. This task was given to a new class of September starters. Some of the student presentations were better than others, but they all participated and seemed to gain confidence from the task. A few were surprisingly good and the task helped me to evaluate the level of English of each student.
The revision class, who take their exams in the next few weeks have not been so successful. I don't seem to have been able to motivate that class to revise thoroughly. Despite repeated nagging from me, they have either ignored all revision tasks or have just resorted to reading the textbook. Students do not know how to revise. I've given advice over and over, set tasks using past exam papers, but unless we go through these in class, they are just not using past papers at all. Then they complain about not being able to understand the questions in the papers!
Today, I gave them a task to precis some already short revision notes I made a few years ago. 14 sides of A4 were to be reduced to just 1 or 2 sides of A4 notes on the "waves" topic. After much agonising, they all started the task and seemed to cope quite well. I think it was easier for them to precis an already shorter version of the topic than to start from scratch using the textbook. I went through the original notes before they began the precis to make sure they understood the content. At the end, I reminded them of the difference between "active" and "passive" revision. I hope I have time before their exams to review whether they found it useful or not.
The revision class, who take their exams in the next few weeks have not been so successful. I don't seem to have been able to motivate that class to revise thoroughly. Despite repeated nagging from me, they have either ignored all revision tasks or have just resorted to reading the textbook. Students do not know how to revise. I've given advice over and over, set tasks using past exam papers, but unless we go through these in class, they are just not using past papers at all. Then they complain about not being able to understand the questions in the papers!
Today, I gave them a task to precis some already short revision notes I made a few years ago. 14 sides of A4 were to be reduced to just 1 or 2 sides of A4 notes on the "waves" topic. After much agonising, they all started the task and seemed to cope quite well. I think it was easier for them to precis an already shorter version of the topic than to start from scratch using the textbook. I went through the original notes before they began the precis to make sure they understood the content. At the end, I reminded them of the difference between "active" and "passive" revision. I hope I have time before their exams to review whether they found it useful or not.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Student research
I've had an interesting couple of lessons with my January starters class, this week. We are still at the start of the radioactivity topic, thinking about isotopes and leading to the 3 kinds of radioactivity, alpha, beta and gamma.
I decided to try a different approach and after a discussion about what made isotopes different from each other, asked the students to imagine we were the ones making discoveries of new atoms and radioactivity. Going back in time and taking the place of Marie Curie, so to speak.
So I asked what properties we should investigate if we had a jar containing a new and unkown element in front of us. To be honest, I thought it might be asking too much of the students, but they coped surprisingly well. M, typically leapt in immediately, suggesting we should find the mass of the atom. This wasn't too surprising as we had been looking at the masses of atoms in the periodic table, but he then said that if the mass was small, we could assume that the number of protons and neutrons (constituent parts of an atom) would be equal as he had spotted that was the case with the smaller atoms.
Wow! That showed a depth to his thinking that I had not been aware of. The rest of the class joined in then and although M was by far the biggest contributor, with the best ideas, I was able to elicit a fair amount of conversation from the others as well. They all worked hard to consider the ideas and were engaged in the task throughout. We managed to revise earlier work on electrical charges as a bonus, during the discussion.
After this success, I tried to push my luck further by setting them individual tasks today. I asked each to do their own research, giving each a different type of radioactivity to find out about and report back to the group. As there are 4 students now and only 3 types of radioactivity to investigate, I gave the 4th student the task of investigating background radiation.
Time is short now and exams are looming, so we only had one lesson for this. The students were given just 20 minutes for their research so they chose to read their textbooks, instead of going to the computer suites or library. I'd given hints on the back of their instruction cards and directed them to find some specific properties, but not too many, I hope.
The tasks were done fairly well, with a few misunderstandings as expected. It did show me that they are still finding it hard to access a textbook written for English-speaking students and that I need to continue to support their vocabulary to a large extent. I asked them to write, on the IWB, the most important points (in their opinion), which we can compare with the information I want them to learn and remember in the next lesson!
I hope that these lessons will have helped them to take ownership of the topic and will make the 3 kinds of radioactivity more easily understood and remembered. Anything else is a bonus really, but I've certainly enjoyed this approach much more that the traditional delivery of facts by teacher to student.
I decided to try a different approach and after a discussion about what made isotopes different from each other, asked the students to imagine we were the ones making discoveries of new atoms and radioactivity. Going back in time and taking the place of Marie Curie, so to speak.
So I asked what properties we should investigate if we had a jar containing a new and unkown element in front of us. To be honest, I thought it might be asking too much of the students, but they coped surprisingly well. M, typically leapt in immediately, suggesting we should find the mass of the atom. This wasn't too surprising as we had been looking at the masses of atoms in the periodic table, but he then said that if the mass was small, we could assume that the number of protons and neutrons (constituent parts of an atom) would be equal as he had spotted that was the case with the smaller atoms.
Wow! That showed a depth to his thinking that I had not been aware of. The rest of the class joined in then and although M was by far the biggest contributor, with the best ideas, I was able to elicit a fair amount of conversation from the others as well. They all worked hard to consider the ideas and were engaged in the task throughout. We managed to revise earlier work on electrical charges as a bonus, during the discussion.
After this success, I tried to push my luck further by setting them individual tasks today. I asked each to do their own research, giving each a different type of radioactivity to find out about and report back to the group. As there are 4 students now and only 3 types of radioactivity to investigate, I gave the 4th student the task of investigating background radiation.
Time is short now and exams are looming, so we only had one lesson for this. The students were given just 20 minutes for their research so they chose to read their textbooks, instead of going to the computer suites or library. I'd given hints on the back of their instruction cards and directed them to find some specific properties, but not too many, I hope.
The tasks were done fairly well, with a few misunderstandings as expected. It did show me that they are still finding it hard to access a textbook written for English-speaking students and that I need to continue to support their vocabulary to a large extent. I asked them to write, on the IWB, the most important points (in their opinion), which we can compare with the information I want them to learn and remember in the next lesson!
I hope that these lessons will have helped them to take ownership of the topic and will make the 3 kinds of radioactivity more easily understood and remembered. Anything else is a bonus really, but I've certainly enjoyed this approach much more that the traditional delivery of facts by teacher to student.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Winners and losers
Term started this week, with 2 new classes and one returning class, who take their exams in November.
The returning class consist of 3 students - M, D and P. I had a fun lesson with them yesterday as we started the final topic about radioactivity. We were discussing atoms and I was trying to find out how much they remembered after the holidays or from previous work. At one point I asked what they thought we call atoms that have gained or lost one or more electrons (ions). M suggested "losers", to which D replied "what would you call those that have gained electrons then - winners?".
Apart from the obvious humour there, it was brilliant to hear the students bantering with each other so comfortably in English and having such confidence that they didn't hesitate to speak out. I'm not sure I can take too much credit for this, but the CLIL methods for teaching and my asking many more questions in class to lead students to answers instead of lecturing, certainly foster an environment where students feel able to take risks with the language. I would not have been able to hear this kind of discussion before, even if the students were capable of producing it.
The returning class consist of 3 students - M, D and P. I had a fun lesson with them yesterday as we started the final topic about radioactivity. We were discussing atoms and I was trying to find out how much they remembered after the holidays or from previous work. At one point I asked what they thought we call atoms that have gained or lost one or more electrons (ions). M suggested "losers", to which D replied "what would you call those that have gained electrons then - winners?".
Apart from the obvious humour there, it was brilliant to hear the students bantering with each other so comfortably in English and having such confidence that they didn't hesitate to speak out. I'm not sure I can take too much credit for this, but the CLIL methods for teaching and my asking many more questions in class to lead students to answers instead of lecturing, certainly foster an environment where students feel able to take risks with the language. I would not have been able to hear this kind of discussion before, even if the students were capable of producing it.
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