tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84254610347876609832024-03-19T20:59:21.842-07:00Tales from a secondary school science teacherAngelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-71878461495609591402016-01-28T04:19:00.001-08:002016-01-28T07:16:22.113-08:00The Hidden Ill<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are days when the blogs have to be written, where the ideas are mounding up!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm assuming, if you are reading this, you're a lovely person with the wellbeing of their staff at heart. You are the Head who sent the flowers, who knows when someone has had an accident and broken something, who is trying their best to reduce the demands so their staff can have a work-life balance. You put things in a caring, human, way rather than ticking lines off a policy. And this is great. The education world needs more of you. But I wonder, have you noticed the Hidden Ill? Those staff who aren't toting crutches and bandages but inhalers, testing needles, painkillers? The ones whose immune systems are attacking them from the inside out? The ones who go home every night and cry because they can no longer manage their job but see no noble way out? The ones who don't want to make a fuss and just want to get on with things? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How are you supposed to know they exist? What can you do to help? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First off, a disclaimer, (as the days of Usenet used to say) I am not a lawyer. I can write from personal experience (with a happy ending) in the hope that another teacher can use this information to make their lives a little easier. If you are a Head, you employ lawyers, if you are a (sensible) teacher, you are a member of a Union and they are great at advising.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The staff I am concerned about here are the ones that could fall under the Equality Act 2010, they are defined as "disabled" That word possibly brings to mind certain images, certainly not hidden illness. However, a whole pile of people fall into this category:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities." (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010" target="_blank">Useful gov.uk site</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Some illnesses are automatically covered (cancer to name a sadly common one) and some might be included depending on the severity (ME/CFS, asthma, arthritis, heart disease, mental health conditions) Many schools have an Occupational Health Service who might be able to advise, plus the member of staff's medical team will often write if the illness, in their opinion, would come under the Act.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">I think a school should know if a member of staff falls into this category. As you can see, most of these illnesses cannot be seen, so it relies on a great relationship between a named senior member of staff and the rest of the school. Remember, the majority of people just want to get on with their job. Someone might also choose to declare one of these illnesses when they move to a new job - this is great - there is a lump of money out there to help the new employer and employee.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">If </span></span><span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">someone is covered by the Act then the school has to make "reasonable adjustments" to help (I suspect the school should do this even if the staff member isn't covered?). This might be by providing a larger PC monitor, a crate to wheel books around (rather than carrying them and making a sore back worse), a special keyboard for someone with arthritis, rest breaks, somewhere quiet to sit... It needn't be expensive. And it's a win-win - the member of staff's wellbeing is good, they are in work, the pupils have their teacher, you have a member of staff on your side.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Adjustments might, however, be outside the tight school budget and this is where <a href="https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work/overview" target="_blank">Access to Work</a> can help. They provide money for equipment to help people get into work or stay in work. They can also pay for fares on public transport and in some cases pay for an extra person to help you do your job for a period of time.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">I've used the system and it was pretty easy. I rang the number on the website and gave them my NI number and a brief outline of my illness. I got a case number and within a week someone (Neil) had called me back to discuss what I might need. At that stage I didn't know so they arranged for someone, with the same illness as myself, to come to school and do a workplace assessment. She looked at all the places I worked, discussed the adjustments I already had and came up with some ideas that no-one had thought of before. She priced everything up and wrote a report. Once school had ordered the equipment, there was a short form to complete, invoices to attach, and the money was sent straight to school. If at any point I got stuck, I had the direct number for Neil and he was happy to clarify things, email documents and so on to help. I ended up with a great desk chair, identical to the ones the Met Office routinely have, that reduced my pain and fatigue (and so increased my wellbeing)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">One of the little known things is that you can go back and ask for more equipment if things change at a later date, e.g. eyesight worsens or another hand starts to suffer with arthritis. This makes it worth applying for as a sort of insurance.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">So, the Hidden Ill. As a Head, do you know who they are? Are you doing what you can? Did you even know you should be and that there was money to help you?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "nta" , "arial" , sans-serif;">A final thing, <a href="https://www.educationsupportpartnership.org.uk/" target="_blank">The Education Support Partnership</a>, once known as the Teacher Support Network. They've realised that a lot of great teachers are trying to leave teaching because of the workload and stress. As well as raising awareness they have a 24-7 helpline for school staff with counsellors who can talk you through things and links to financial advise and legal advise if you're not with a Union (Seriously, join a Union). If anything in this blog sounds familiar then give them a call and ask for some advice. </span><br />
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<li style="display: block; font-size: 20px;">CALL: </li>
<li style="display: block; font-size: 20px;"><br /><a href="tel:08000 562 561" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; color: #333333; float: right; outline: 0px; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">08000 562 561</a></li>
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Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-25010462915514601032016-01-28T03:37:00.003-08:002016-01-28T07:14:45.203-08:00Wellbeing - Comfortable, Healthy or Happy?<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Watching Twitter I see discussions about teaching drift by. One week it might be a headteacher asking parents not to wear their pyjamas to school, another it might be a celebration of a busted Ousted myth. One that seems to come along frequently is wellbeing - how are we, as teachers, looking after the wellbeing of our pupils? The internet tells me that wellbeing is:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a load of synonyms too - welfare, profit, security, safety, success, protection...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think we can all agree that these are things we want for our pupils, in fact they must be safe and protected at school. However, I recently saw one tweet that said without staff wellbeing there could be no pupil wellbeing and that got me to thinking:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How much does your school look after your wellbeing? Are you comfortable, healthy or happy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I asked around for anecdotes and here are a couple of possible situations:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A member of staff had to go into hospital very suddenly for an operation. They were in hospital for several days and many weeks recovering at home. On their third day home a huge bunch of flowers arrived from the school, sending love and best wishes. When the member of staff returned to work they thanked the Head's PA for the beautiful flowers. It turned out that the flowers had been chosen, ordered and paid for by the Head himself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Imagine how valued that member of staff felt? Their workplace was thinking of them, not in terms of a policy to get them back to work, but of their wellbeing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Head of Department notices that their staff are starting to droop, it's a tough term and the pressure is on. They bring expensive doughnuts to work one morning. The staff feel valued and pleased that someone has noticed they are struggling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm sure there are more examples but I worry that the latest box-ticking, no money culture in schools means that these possible situations might occur:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A member of staff was recently diagnosed with diabetes. The school were aware of some ill health but did not ask the staff member what had happened and if could they help. The member of staff used an office to test their blood sugars. The school decided to rearrange the teaching areas and the member of staff was left with no safe, private place to carry out the tests. Was it up to the member of staff to tell the school about their recent diagnosis at the time or is it likely they would think it has no bearing on them being able to do their job? Who should they tell anyway? The Head? Or does the school have a duty of care towards that member of staff? To form a trusting relationship? To check that they are ok, regularly, in passing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A school has an electronic card system to scan in and out of the building and a member of staff went to leave school late one evening. The school doors were locked, so they were stuck inside. The member of staff had scanned in, but no-one had checked the logs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which reminds me.... how many hours a week do you work? I've heard of 55-60 being common. How does that fit with wellbeing? How clean is your school? Does the winter cold linger like a cloud?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't have any easy answers, I'm merely observing and reporting. It doesn't take a genius to realise that overtired staff, with their own medical issues, who aren't taken care of, are in no fit state to look after the wellbeing of children.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-90974224259517984752015-03-19T07:40:00.000-07:002015-03-19T07:40:16.862-07:00What my days are like now<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After my physical collapse last year, and my subsequent ME diagnosis, things at work had to change. I've learnt a lot, and if even one person makes a tiny change to their day that helps them keep going, then it has been worth writing this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still arrive at work by 7.45am and I still grab a coffee and drop my stuff off. I'm fortunate that my partner works at the same school as me, so now I don't drive to work. It saves a bit of energy, surprisingly, and we've started listening to Radio 3 rather than shouting at the Today programme on Radio 4. It's a more relaxing journey for me - can you lift share with someone and give yourself a break early on in the day?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am less frenzied in the morning, perhaps because I am getting more things prepared in advance. I always used to, and then I'd forget which class those worksheets were for, or I'd put them down somewhere and forget where. I've reorganised how I store the class sets of books, and I put their worksheets on top of their books as soon as I collect them from copying. A really simple trick is to write the class name on the top corner of the worksheet before it's copied - that's helping me a lot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My form have been moved to my teaching lab and that makes a huge difference. I wander over there ten minutes before they are due to arrive and get set up for the first lesson, a little starter activity ready to go on the board, books out and on the right bench. Then I sit down. I stop. I close my eyes and take ten deep breaths. I relax my face, my hands, my shoulders. All that tension saps energy so it's important for me to check I'm relaxed before the first pupil meeting of the day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My little year 7 form are still crazy, but now I get them to come to me with their planners, rather than me going to them. I sit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first class of the day arrive. I've stuck my "start of lesson" routine to the outside of the door ready, it seems to help them arrive more calmly. I can open the door to them, smile and greet them all as they arrive. It's a slicker start, and I can have a gentle lean on the door whilst they arrive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At break I sit down in my room, close my eyes and have another tension check. I'll wander back to the office and chat to colleagues, but I won't check my emails or indulge in negativity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, at lunch I try and stop somewhere. If my lab is being used then I've found myself sat in the staff toilets to get some deep breaths! At lunch I don't work. I'll leave the office ten minutes or so before the final lesson of the day and get back into my teaching lab if I can, ready to set up for the lesson.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of the day, if there are no meetings, I stay where I am and check my classes books from that day. Often it's as quick as stamping "lesson objective met" whilst I can still remember what it was or putting a prompt on about how to improve - this gives me a ready made starter for the next lesson. I only mark in half hour bursts, setting a timer to make sure I stop. A quick 2 minute break and I can carry on. Sometimes I have to take marking home but I am working with a member of the SLT to plan a marking timetable so I don't get swamped.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once home I spend time with the <a href="http://stopbreathethink.org/" target="_blank">Stop, Breathe, Think app</a>. It gives me ten minutes or so of calm time where I can empty my head. I'm a scientist so I'm cynical of deep breathing and meditation as a cure all, however I wouldn't be without it now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not doing anything that the rest of the teaching world couldn't do, and yet I've managed to increase my resilience, get out of the latest ME dip and reduce my stress. My teaching has improved, my classes are happier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you do nothing else with your teaching, please look after yourself. Take 30 seconds to relax between lessons, it can't hurt.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-64631517685500077112015-03-19T04:31:00.001-07:002015-03-19T04:31:47.091-07:00What do you do all day?<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the last few months I've had to change the way I work because of my diagnosis, and it's been a challenge. I started thinking about how my teaching day used to be and wondered how many other teachers do the same thing.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used to arrive at work between 7.30am and 7.45am, and make a quick stop in the science office to grab a cup of coffee and offload my coat and bag. Then it was across the school to my main teaching lab to set up for the day, or logging into a computer in the office to do some last minute preparation/printing or read the emails that had arrived since the previous afternoon. On many days there was a meeting around 8am - a staff briefing, a departmental briefing or a year group meeting. My form would arrive at 8.15, to a room at the other side of the school from my teaching lab. I'd register them, deal with planners, missing pens, detentions, exam timetables before waving them off for the day and dashing over to my teaching lab, often being beaten to it by the first class of the day. I'd have to log in again to the computer, because someone else might have used the lab for their form, and try and get the lesson off to a start. It'd waste ten minutes and there was never a smooth start to the lesson, which could lead to some behaviour issues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd come up for air at 10.30, usually finding my coffee sat where I'd left it two and a half hours earlier (I recommend Tervex mugs!) Break was supposedly 15 minutes, it never was. I'd shove a banana in and probably teach another two lessons, making it to lunch at 12.50. Forty minutes for lunch.... usually spent trying to answer the urgent emails that had arrived during the morning, sort out planning for the next week, catch up with colleagues to talk about shared classes, then one more lesson before teaching ended at 2.30. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One afternoon a week there is a department meeting or school CPD session that usually ran until 4. Six times a year there are twilight ones that go on for an hour after that. As exam season approaches there are more and more pupils who want help after school - that can easily take up every spare evening. Plus detention duty once a half term.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course there were PPA hours scattered around my timetable. They were clumped together at the start of the week, making Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday the ultimate test of endurance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once home, there was always marking to do, based around a format that seemed to require triple marking a lot of the time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's no wonder I was exhausted. Worse, I see my colleagues still doing this. I read emails where the ICT support have delayed the evening back up until 11pm so that staff can still work up until that point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is this you? Can you get out of this pattern? You need to.</span></div>
Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-33223096780581307932015-01-08T04:18:00.002-08:002015-03-19T04:10:29.772-07:00CPD - Reflection on a course<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With time and money pressures it seems that fewer teachers manage to get out of the classroom these day and attend training courses. This means that the only professional development they receive is from their own school, and often this is based on the school's agenda and not that of the individual teacher. So, I was really pleased to hear about <a href="https://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/consortia/national/courses/behaviour-management-strategies-classroom/" target="_blank">the Science Learning Network's</a> free, online, behaviour management course. I immediately signed up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been teaching several years now, and I know that I have a lot more behaviour management skills than I had as an NQT, but I was also aware than my increasing fatigue meant I was more prone to losing perspective and over-reacting to poor behaviour, and that a refresher would sharpen up my skills regardless. The fact that I could do it in my own time also appealed - it fitted in perfectly with my reduced timetable, I could do ten minutes here and there, and there was no impact on, or contribution required from, school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The course ran over five weeks, with the expectation that it would take about three hours a week. I found that it didn't take this long, but only because I didn't often listen to the lengthy podcasts - I found it hard to sit and listen to my laptop! Each week focussed on a different idea, often with a task to carry out during that week, and an expectation that you posted a comment on the forum the following week reporting back on what you had done. If you completed this then you would be emailed a certificate (yay!) and get 10% off the "real life" course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first week looked at how children perceive things and their often reflexive emotional responses, and how we could focus on protecting the relationship. I loved how the course (in every week) had short video clips of the excellent Paul Dix telling a story of how he, or another teacher, had reacted in a situation. I often recognised myself or a colleague and felt less alone. Over the week I tried to be a role model for emotional control; I empathised, I kept difficult conversations private, I learnt to deal with distracting comments (...."but Miss, he started it!"), I awarded stamps/stickers/vivos and I stayed calm. The thing that made the biggest difference was committing to greet the pupils as they entered the room. It took a bit of extra organisation to make sure there was always something for them to do, but I stood at the door, smiled at each and every one and said something nice to them. The smile felt false for the first few lessons (which concerned me!) but it was often returned and meant we started out in a positive way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 2 was about rules and routines. I had fallen into the trap of many experienced teachers of just expecting the pupils to know what I wanted, and also of expecting the school routines to somehow diffuse into my classroom. The result of this, when I look back, ranged from chaos (with more challenging classes) to slow starts (with my well behaved classes). I continued to greet pupils at the door, making them feel valued with my smiled greetings. In my free time I made a series of simple posters (promptly asked for by some of my colleagues) that I displayed on the wall of my lab.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each one has an icon showing a cartoon figure doing the correct action, and they are all positive things (rather than "Do not...") - Stay on task, One voice at a time, Follow instructions, Be ready to learn, Hands and feet to yourself, Share, Speak politely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found immediately that I could tackle much low level poor behaviour by simply walking over, pointing to the rule and saying "Gerald, you are not following the..... rule. Please think about what you are doing." I think every pupil, amazingly, apologised to me and got back to what they should be doing. It's such a simple thing and it made a massive difference.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also made lists of rules for specific routines, e.g. the starts and ends of lessons, being late and practical work. I printed multiple copies of these out and displayed them around the lab. I also projected the start and end ones up on the board at the appropriate time. Again, I was amazed how well these worked. When my fidgety year 10 class were all sat down at the end of a lesson, the lab was tidy, peace reigned...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started to display the Late one on the outside of my lab door once the time had elapsed and slowly pupils became used to stopping and reading it when they were late, rather than charging in the room as if nothing was wrong. It also meant I didn't have to try and remember who was late that lesson because their planner was already with me as they came in, plus I didn't have to break off from teaching to deal with them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trick with the routines is to do them to death, over and over again, until the class beg for mercy. It became so ingrained in them, and in their expected experience in my lab. The security and consistency seemed to reassure them. In fact, some (unexpected pupils) took great pride in reminding others about the way they were expected to behave in different circumstances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Onwards to week 3 - rewards. This week Paul Dix proved himself to be a man after my own heart. I've never liked rewarding classes with sweets and at times have been fed up with colleagues who do to the extent that classes expect it from everyone (hence I'm the "meanie") It always felt like bribery, and more the job of a pleased parent than mine as a teacher. This week I dusted off the aged school praise postcards and made a point of sending three home every week. I selected the three pupils as the ones that had gone over and above what I expected of them in that week. There was a useful phrase I included on each card - "If you would like to follow up with a reward at home it would be well deserved", and I made sure in the following week I had a quiet word with the pupil to find out what had happened. The smile on the face of the year 7 boy who had been treated to a McDonalds was worth the 5 minutes it took me to write the card. I also made one phone call home every Friday afternoon - these became very popular. Again, I made one Mum's week by telling her how pleased I was with her daughter as she said all she had ever had before were calls of complaint! It was also helpful when I met these parents at parents evening, we had already started a friendly, positive relationship so the pupil immediately felt supported by both of us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By week 4 I was learning to be more assertive, using phrases like "I need you to...", "In 5 minutes you will be..." I <i>think</i> I already used phrases like this but it didn't hurt to be reminded of them, making sure I did use them consciously. By using light touch interventions (standing next to the pupil, using non-verbal cues) I slowed down mine, and the pupil's, rush to anger and argument. The course used video clips of staged classrooms really well here - showing a poorly managed one and asking you to think about what could be done, but then, and more usefully, showing you a well managed incident. This meant I could model what I did on something helpful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I ended up with a list of diversion and diffusion phrases designed to slow an escalation down. I found the diffusers more useful - "I would be cross if that happened to me" deals with "Miss he's got my pencil!" amazingly well. I developed a script that I used every time to deal with poor behaviour, this was great for someone as tired as I was, I didn't have to think up something every time and get frustrated with myself!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final week was about reparation and restorative practice. This was the trickiest one for me as my school doesn't really deal with this. We have a central detention system that tends to remove the offending pupil from the offended teacher. That said a year 7 form tutor did make the point of sending one of his tutees to me to apologise for her previous poor behaviour, and chasing that up with me to make sure it had happened. I've also used it to some extent if I have been able to talk to a disruptive pupil after a lesson, resetting boundaries and expectations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, overall, an incredibly useful course. And free. I loved the video clips of classrooms and anecdotes and the suggestions for rules and scripts. These meant I could implement them straight away. It was helpful to have one thing to focus on that week, it meant I actually did them rather than leaving after a two day course, clutching a massive binder, overwhelmed with what I needed to do. I would have liked to have notes available to print off but in the age of technology I just typed them into my iPad and always had it to hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you see the course advertised again, run don't walk, to your nearest internet connection and sign up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, yes, I got the certificate!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">UPDATES - 19 March 2015</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had my first lesson observation of the year last week, with a year 7 group. Their behaviour was rated as "Outstanding". I'm putting that down to the start of lesson routine and simple behaviour rules that make their lessons a calm, yet fun, place to be.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Plus, if you missed out last time, the National Science Learning network are running another <a href="https://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/news/new-online-cpd-national-science-learning-centre/" target="_blank">Behaviour Management Course</a> in June 2015.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-18652969795794300692014-12-31T09:50:00.002-08:002014-12-31T09:50:51.081-08:00#Nurture1415 That was the year that was.<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Five Highlights of 2014</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Discovering that "Everyone is tired, you'll be fine" wasn't something that applied to me. I'm fairly certain that by making this public I'll alienate lots of (narrow minded) employers, and that in itself is a shame. Following a period of immense stress (that to my credit I spoke up about at work, and kept speaking up about) my body physically shut down. This has now been officially diagnosed as ME/CFS. I have an answer, this means I can form A Plan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. The astonishing number of friends who supported me this year, both in person, and online. I don't want to be asked how I am every time someone sees me and treated like an invalid but I have appreciated the texts and phone calls out of the blue, and the twitter conversations that passed a sofa-bound afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. My exam classes that took on the independent learning skills I'd been drip feeding them all year. This worked for them when I left school in the middle of May - they continued to work hard, knew what to do and got excellent results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Cooking. Being at home on my own all day meant I had to make my lunch (rather than a sandwich, shoved down in 15 minutes). I discovered a range of salads via Pinterest, paced myself to make them, then enjoyed eating them over the following day or so. I started to eat more fresh food and I started to feel better as a result.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. The Science Learning Centre online behaviour course. The idea of a free online course is excellent, especially given my current limits (travelling, concentrating all day, release time from work, cost) This course was easy to complete - I could do it in little chunks when I felt capable and it changed the way I did things in my lab (I have routines that are public, the classes follow them, we all feel better!) I'm gushing - it was the best CPD I have done in years. There's another one coming up soon, I think about assessment, I can't wait.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Five Hopes for 2015</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Get back to work, successfully, full time. The occupational therapist says I can do it, the specialist says I can do it. My hope is that I am given more time to make it work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Smooth out the bumps. ME gives me a boom-bust pattern of energy, some days I can feel fine but 24 hours later I am unable to stand. The trick is not to go crazy when the energy is there which is tricky if you are someone who loves to get out there and live life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Exam marking. What can I say? I enjoy it (once the first 40 papers are out of the way) and I'm looking forward to getting back to it this summer (and taking on the challenge of a new exam board)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. A new perspective on my teaching. After years of taking on new ideas and trying lots of different things I think it's time to take it back to basics - good classroom management and treating the kids as people not data points. More smiles all round.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Me. If I'd spent more time in February-March thinking of myself, standing up for myself and asking for medical advice, I might just have avoided becoming ill. I'm now more conscious of how I'm feeling so this year I'm going to do more crochet/doodling/drawing/lego-building/cinema-visiting, all the things that give me energy so I can better cope with the things that drain it.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-42634662216976443452014-10-21T06:46:00.001-07:002014-10-21T06:46:33.382-07:00Where am I now?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently someone on twitter was compiling a list of teaching blogs that had been updated in the last six months - it reminded me that mine hadn't been. So, where am I now?</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My resolution at the start of the year working, up to a point. I happily zumba'd and WI'd and still managed to stay on top of my marking and planning. I had a couple of job interviews but they weren't a good fit for me. I also suspect that being publicly honest, all be it via this blog, about wanting a work-life balance was putting some schools off. I suspect that says more about them, and the state teaching is in, than about me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've had a set back with my health but I am determined to overcome it. After some time at home I was relieved to discover that I can still teach. Well. I just need to pace myself and make sure I don't go racing around the lab anymore than I need to. There's a lightness that comes with realising that teaching isn't everything I am - I'd love to work at a school where that is appreciated and celebrated. More balanced staff, more relaxed staff, surely means better teaching and more care for the children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do wander what I would do if I wasn't teaching. What's my plan B (other than winning the Euromillions)? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I enjoy the intellectual challenge and I love spending time with young people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As much as I can I am building up my examiner skills - I have marked the iGCSE Alternative to Practical paper for a few years, and I've now got some experience with iGCSE Further Science (that made my unused chemistry brain hurt a bit!). Doing this, and perhaps getting into question writing and paper checking, is an alternative to teaching full time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know I'd miss the contact with the kids, so I've recently been looking into volunteering with the Girl Guides. I went through the whole system as a kid, it's about time, as much as I can, for me to give something back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not really sure where I am right now, or where I'm going. If a great opportunity came along, that fitted with what I now know, then maybe I'd take it. Until then I'm living each day as it comes.</span></div>
Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-86061768792714449742014-01-05T09:24:00.000-08:002014-01-05T09:24:00.487-08:00How much is too much?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy New Year!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've read a lot of teaching blogs over the last couple of weeks where people have reviewed the last year in their teaching lives and planned fourteen new ideas for 2014. This isn't one of those blogs, but those people have inspired me to sit down and dust off my blog again.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now, the title of this post. I knew when I got into teaching that it wasn't an 8am to 3pm Monday to Friday job, and I was careful to set boundaries from the start - I don't work on Friday night nor on Saturday, I go to bed at 10pm during term time, so I stop work by 8pm. These were things designed to help me maintain the mysterious work-life balance. Recently it feels like this "me" time is being demanded more and more by my job and I'm starting to lose myself in what teaching has become.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know when it started, a couple of years ago. I finally felt confident enough in my classroom practice to start to put myself out there for promotion, more responsibility, leading by example. I hit problems pretty quickly. Whilst I'd been teaching continuously for several years schools were suspicious of someone in their late 30s who hadn't been promoted already. "Why the lack of ambition?" was their unspoken, and sometimes in interviews, spoken, question. I still haven't found the ideal answer. Being honest about health issues, (but nothing kills an interview like mentioning cancer or referring to ongoing endometriosis) or talking about wanting to be the best classroom teacher I could be first isn't getting me the job. I got advice from several sources and all suggested taking more on in my current job so I could point to that as something I'd done that had "impact" was the way forward. So I became the mentor for the PGCE science students, I tried to set up a coaching scheme for year 12 pupils doing science, I became a department coach, I learnt how to use ipads in lessons, I wrote schemes of work, I dealt with syllabus changes, multiple courses, changing classes, timetables that changed mid-term. I've put Blooms into my lessons, I've tried Solo, I've taken multiple new ideas from teachers on twitter, I've got my RSci. I did everything that was thrown at me. And through it all I attempted to produce at least good lessons, every lesson, for every class I saw. I dealt with a marking load that involved 13 different classes having their books marked every three weeks. I gave up my PPA time to mentor student teachers who had lost their way. I attended parents evenings, I wrote reports, I took my form through to the end of year 11, picked up a year 10 form and started again with them. I attended optional courses, I attended weekly meetings, I did my detention duties, I attended more meetings, more training. And through it all, like Blackpool Rock, was the dreaded Ofsted threat.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw the signs coming and I tried to do something. I joined my local WI and bravely met new people who were outside teaching. I planned lovely, amazing holidays and looked forward to them. I started going to zumba. All these activities were designed to keep my sanity. You can see what happened - a late running meeting and a pile of books that suddenly had to be marked for a work scrutiny means that I don't make it to zumba or the WI. My time started being eroded. I got more and more snowed under. The work piled up. The stuff I was trying to do to maintain Me vanished more frequently.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought I was managing. Then the drip-drip of criticism, real or implied, started. Don't get me wrong, my classes are still getting great results, I'm dealing with any poor behaviour, I'm trying new approaches, taking risks, evaluating and moving on. But the criticisms threw me, how much is enough?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not the first teacher to find myself here, and I very much doubt I'll be the last. My new line manager tells me that I'm a good teacher, that everyone is struggling. Others have told me that a leader would cope with the workload, would willingly give their waking lives for promotion.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not sure. I see the increased illnesses I've had this year, the lingering viral infections that just don't clear up. And I see them in other people too. I also see that we all come back to work before we are recovered, trying to do the best for the kids we come into contact with every day.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2014 resolutions then. I need a balance. A better balance. I might have to go part time to get that. I might have to move jobs. I might have to leave teaching. I love what is at the core of my job - spending time with teenagers, helping them reach their dreams, helping them dream in many cases, being that constant in their lives. I can't do that if I lose myself - I need to model what being an adult is, and that isn't making my life all about one thing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, how much is too much?</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-11842585992832599322013-04-25T04:47:00.002-07:002013-04-25T04:55:14.460-07:00Interviews - part 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The actual interview - the setting</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well done, you made it through all the hoops that the school threw at you and they finally want to interview you. I always take a book with me to interview days because this is the part where you could end up sat in a room, with only the other candidates to talk to, for hours. I don't mind talking to the other candidates and I've got some great ideas for teaching tricky topics, but not everyone is the same and you might be on your own for half an hour. It's just nice to have something to pass the time.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The interview panel usually consists of the Head and the Head of Department. I've also heard of a governor being there, someone from HR, another leader in the department (Lead practitioner, AST, head of chemistry and so on). In my last interview there were four people, I think my record is five.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The room can be set up in different ways. Often it is a large boardroom desk, with the panel sat round one end and you at the other, or them on one side and you on the other. There's also a more relaxed set up where you all sit on lower chairs around a coffee table. I perform better in the more relaxed set up but I think few schools like that informality.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The questions</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think back to your PGCE interview... you probably practiced a few questions and answers beforehand, and you can do the same here. The same rule applies though - beware of sounding too rehearsed. Most schools now have a stock list of interview questions they will chose from - ask your head of department or a friendly deputy head if you can have a copy. They might also be happy to do a mock interview with you. All the candidates should be asked the same questions and the panel will often write down key points of your answers to help them make their decision, so don't be worried if they seem to be writing like mad, or not writing at all (some people just remember). That said, I have a colleague who, when he interviews, tends to go "off script" in an attempt to get the most out of a candidate. I'm sure he gets glared at by the rest of the panel but this seems like a lovely thing to do rather than assume the candidate doesn't know.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The questions tend to fall into categories:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.Opening question.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Often "Tell us about your teaching career to date" or "Why have you applied for this job?" They are looking for you to recap the last few years of your career, or why you have decided to become a teacher. Make sure you refer to the school and try to highlight a few key skills that fit with the job specification.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Reviewing your performance on the day.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You will probably be asked to reflect on your lesson - "What grade do you think it was?", "What were the strengths and weaknesses?" I've started to do myself a quick written lesson evaluation in some of the dead time I've have during the day so that it's fresh in my mind. Make sure you are fair to yourself - say what went well ("I found the pupils progressed to level 6 work when I did..". "I'm glad I provided differentiated material for X as they quickly completed the activity and I was able to stretch them") but also say what didn't ("Those two pupils at the front struggled to use the key vocabulary so next time I'd make sure I had some words printed out that they could refer to"). Keep a balance too, one good for one bad. I've also found that praising the class goes down well ("I was very impressed with how well the class worked for me and took part in the activity. Please can you thank them for me").</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you did a lesson observation this can often be asked about during the interview. If you've not already had a conversation with someone about your feedback for that lesson, it might take place now. Alternatively they can use that lesson to ask "If that was the standard of teaching in your department, what would you do?". This is obviously for a leadership role and they are looking for a strategic plan where you can show impact and accountability. Try and give examples where you have done something similar, successfully, in the past, even if that is just with a PGCE student.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Example questions.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Can you give us an example of when you have...?" This can be anything from dealing with a difficult pupil, class or parent to implementing something new or your use of something like AfL in lessons. They are looking for you "saving" a situation - What was wrong? What did you do? Did you work with someone in a team? Was it successful? (of course it was or you wouldn't be telling them about it!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. "Why do we teach science?"</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one is often used for an NQT role. Remember that PGCE interview? It's the same question.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. "Describe a lesson or series of lessons that went well and tell us why they did."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take your pick here. Try and include examples of lots of different skills in your answer - questioning, interactive whiteboard, AfL, ipads, progress made by the pupils (quote data...)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Child protection.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is always a child protection question somewhere. Remember the procedure, don't promise confidentiality, take notes, refer it to the responsible person in the school.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Something topical.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"How do you feel about the plans for the new National Curriculum?", "Do you think terminal examinations at GCSE will help all pupils?" Make sure you are up to date with recent educational ideas and news. The Times Education Supplement is good for this, but I use twitter and ASEChat to keep an eye on changes and ideas about them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. "Is there anything you would like to ask us?"</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My personal most hated question as I can never think of anything! A friend once asked "If I saw your pupils or teachers outside school what would they tell me about the school?" You can also ask about training in a area you are interested in or have a weakness in, or what support there is for you as an NQT.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. "Are you still a firm candidate for the post?"</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one is usually at the start or end of the interview. Be honest. If you say yes the school expect you to accept the job if they offer it to you. A few years ago I heard about a place that interviewed for an NQT. The candidate said "Yes" to this question and when the Head of Department rang to offer her the job that afternoon she turned it down because her placement school had already offered her a place the day before. The Head of Department was fuming because his time had been wasted and the candidate had essentially lied. Teachers network and talk and that reputation will take a while to go. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I once withdrew from an interview when they asked this question at the start. I was getting a bad vibe from what I had seen and decided that I wasn't a good fit for the school. The panel pressured me to stay anyway to "discuss my concerns" but I knew there was nothing they could say and I stuck to my guns and didn't waste their time.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a PGCE student I knew of others (physics specialists) who attended three interviews in a week and were able, in answering this question, to keep all of them hanging on until they had gone to all the schools and decided. I'm wouldn't recommend it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One final thing - beware your language and the jargon. I talk about "pupils" but plenty of schools talk about "learners", try and pick up on the in-house jargon and use it. I've had panels use "APP" in a question meaning 'general assessment in all year groups, in multiple ways" rather than <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809091832/http://teachingandlearningresources.org.uk/secondary/science/app-materials-and-resources?tid[0][value]=2788&tid[0][exclude]=&tid[1][value]=399&tid[1][exclude]=" target="_blank">this</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and always talk about "impact".</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the interview is over you are usually free to go home and wait for the phone call....</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>References</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You will have to have put two people down on your application form to provide a reference for you. Please make sure you ask them in advance - I once didn't do one for a PGCE student because she had moved to her next placement, the school she applied to posted the form to me, I didn't check my post, the deadline passed. If she had sent me a text or email to ask then I would have known to keep a look out for the form. Besides which, it's just polite. It's also a good idea to send the job specification and your covering letter to your referee so that they can highlight the same great things that you do that make you the ideal employee.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Feedback</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether you get the job or not you are entitled to feedback. Some schools are brilliant at this, I once had a Head call me to tell me that I hadn't got the job and then spend half an hour telling me how great I'd been and how much she had enjoyed meeting me. She gave me a couple of tips to help and hoped I would apply again. I've had other schools who say they will email feedback to me, and then don't. I tend to chase them once. Sometimes feedback can be confusing - a school might say you need to emphasise data and pupil progress more in your answers (did they even ask about data?!), so you do so at another interview, and then they say they have no interest in data from another set of pupils.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good luck!</span></div>
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Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-24018051043673805162013-04-24T04:27:00.000-07:002013-04-24T04:27:09.171-07:00Job interviews - part 1<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's that time of year again - if you want to be in a new teaching job ready for September then you usually have to have given in your notice by the end of May. This means that a lot of teachers are currently attending a lot of interviews.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teaching interviews are odd. I've had interviews for non-teaching jobs where you go into a room, usually with a manager and someone from HR, they ask you a few questions, you answer, leave and they call you later in the day. It seems that teaching interviews have gone from the format of "teach a lesson, attend an interview, hang around" to a whole day with someone devising ever more random ways to see if you are the person for them. What I want to do in this blog is record some of the things I've experienced and heard about to try and help the unsuspecting candidate prepare.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Arriving</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll own up now to having "being late" anxiety. I always do a trip out to the school, usually over a weekend, to make sure I know exactly where it is and how to get into the car park (my satnav always just seems to abandon me at the school with no idea how to actually get in there). It's also good to have a look at the outside of the building, but bear in mind that appearances can be deceptive. I try to arrive about 15 minutes before the time the school asks for, even then I've been one of the last.... Most schools now ask you to bring a photo id with you, sometimes a current staff badge is fine but I carry my passport just to be on the safe side. No matter how nervous I am I always smile at the receptionist and the other candidates.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Meeting staff</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quite early on in the day you usually meet the Head and the Head of Department - go for a firm handshake and a smile. Heads often want to talk to the candidates for a period of time about their school. I've seen candidates ask questions, it's not something I've ever done and I don't know if it gives a favourable impression or not. A few schools now provide coffee and something to eat during this to try and make it more relaxed - this has ranged from a danish pastry to a fried egg sandwich (beware the egg dribble!) Personally I like this, it makes me feel valued, if they do this for candidates that they may never see again how do they treat their staff? Often you are given a timetable for the day at this point and a chance to meet science technicians to sort out anything you might need for a lesson.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The tour</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's pretty much a given that you will be given a tour of the school. This may be with a senior member of staff or a group of pupils but it is fair to assume that you are being assessed and judged either way. I always look at the amount of rubbish on the corridors and the wall displays and try to chat with whoever is giving the tour. Younger pupils are very good at telling you what things are really like, even though they have often been chosen to be a non-controversial tour guide. If you get taken into a lesson for any length of time it is always good to wander around the class and talk to the pupils about what they are doing. Once, on a tour of a school we were taken into a cover lesson. The pupils were sat on the benches, in their coats, whilst a poor teacher was trying to get them to do the set work. In the same school we were proudly shown an NQT teaching; she was crammed into a tiny lab, miles away from the rest of the department, struggling to do a practical with 30-odd manic year 8s. I withdrew from the process.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Teaching a lesson</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I went for my first teaching job, as an unsuspecting NQT, I wasn't asked to teach a lesson. Now that sounds alarm bells - what are they trying to hide about their pupils? Another school didn't want me to teach a lesson but gave me a proforma, 30 minutes, a topic and asked me to plan a lesson. I was lucky in that it was a biology topic that I had taught the week before, the physics specialists really struggled.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something that seems to happen more now, especially with leadership roles, is the "surprise lesson". Candidates are given 30 minutes in a lab with lots of equipment piled around the place and a scenario (often "You are the head of department and a colleague has rung in sick. Please plan and deliver a one hour lesson to 30 year 9 pupils using anything you can"). After the planning phase the class are shown in and you get to deliver a lesson. This is more easily got around if you have stashed in your bag a hard drive with lots of power point/interactive white board resources for different topics, although this always feels like cheating to me and I've no idea how it is seen by those observing the lesson.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The majority of interviews will, fortunately, give you a topic in advance so you have time to prepare it, check it with colleagues and maybe even dry run it with a class of you own. The most popular topic seems to be "How Science Works" - this seems to be being used by schools with pretty much every year group and gives you a lot of scope. I've gradually built up a few lessons that fit this brief, that I know work. For example, the work of Semmelweiss (pupils research the story in groups, record ideas onto a placemat and create a drama/cartoon/poster to retell the story) or anything from <a href="http://collinsnewgcsescience.co.uk/badscience#.UXe2K3DRfFI" target="_blank">"Bad Science"</a> fits the bill. Another popular one is a revision lesson on a topic for year 12 or 13. It's always good to do a quick practical or demonstration in these if you can.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've never worked out what the best approach is for obtaining data about the class you are going to teach. As a great teacher you want to pitch the lesson at the right level and provide differentiated materials but many schools will at best tell you "mixed ability year 9" or "year 8 targets 5/6". This makes it tricky to do many of the things you would routinely do (putting pupils into groups, using names right from the start...). Other schools will provide you with a class list if you ask in advance or on the day itself. The best one I ever had was for an internal post where I asked for the class data in advance and was then able to put together groups (by ability) and a seating plan for those groups - the lesson went much better as a result.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The length of the lesson is a particular bug bear of mine. Lessons are often an hour long and schools will try and put two candidates into that time, allocating you 30 minutes each. As we all know an hour long lesson is rarely an hour - by the time the pupils arrive (often after a room swap to get the best lab or class) you have lost 5 minutes. If you are the second candidate you are relying on the first candidate to not take longer than their 30 minutes, leaving you with 25. Except that you have to wait from them to clear up and then set up your own resources. At one interview I'd planned for 30 minutes and ended up with 15. Sometimes schools want a quick peek at your teaching and ask for 20 minutes, which at least gets round the issues I've ranted about there, but still feels a bit rushed. I have had the luxury of whole hour lessons which were great as I was able to introduce an idea, get the class to do something with it and then have them feed back at the end. It just feels less rushed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I've found with the observed lesson is that what one school loves, another school will hate and it can be difficult to work out what will suit for a particular setting. I always provide a simple to read lesson plan and I make sure I've checked the <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/generic-grade-descriptors-and-supplementary-subject-specific-guidance-for-inspectors-making-judgemen" target="_blank">latest Ofsted guidance</a> (as during the interview you are often asked to reflect and grade your lesson). Make sure, whatever you do, the pupils make progress and you can demonstrate that, and that you try and form a good working relationship with the class - smile, praise, get them involved. Over time I've realised that my interview lessons are a snapshot of me as a teacher, if that doesn't fit for that school then I'll only be miserable there in the long run.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The cut</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another new development. I went to an interview once and I was one of 20 candidates for 2 posts. We had the tour, taught our 20 minutes and were left sat in a room for 2 hours. Then they sent all but 5 people home. To add to the insult the people they kept were their own PGCE students and someone who had been doing cover for them. I felt like my time had been wasted, and they refused to provide feedback for people who had been cut before the interview.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Other activities</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>The pupil interview</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prepare a joke, be your teaching self.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Data analysis</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was once at an interview with 4 other candidates. We were taken into a boardroom and given the same set of data, it was something about a C/D year 11 group, and given 10 minutes to look at it. Then we were asked to discuss it as a group, what had we noticed and what intervention strategies would we put in place? This activity is often joined with the...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Group Exercise</u>. In my case one of the other candidates took over running the "meeting" by putting forward all her ideas, we had to wait for her to pause for breath to get anything in! She didn't get the job. Make sure you know what FFTD and all the other jargon means...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Marking</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You might be given some pupil material, a lesson outline, and asked to mark the work. I've seen this combined with "Plan the next lesson" too.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Carry out an observation</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously you wouldn't expect to have to do this for a normal teaching role. There are videos that some schools seem to have of someone teaching a lesson. You might be given a lesson plan and data about the class too. You will be expected to observe the lesson, possibly using an in-house form, and then hand this over to the school. You might also have to meet with a senior member of staff to discuss the lesson (and when this happened to me they didn't give me the form back!) Remember the Ofsted criteria you used earlier - you'll need those in your head. No progress = an unsatisfactory lesson, and make sure you talk about each aspect of the criteria, highlighting strengths as well as weaknesses.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Portfolio</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another new development which I've only seen used for promotion but I can see being used for NQTs too. You might be asked to bring with you evidence of things you have led the department on, resources you have made, marking you have done or courses you have attended. This might be given to the interview panel or you might discuss it with a senior member of staff. Putting together a portfolio can be tricky, for example, I developed the use of an app called iMotion in the department. Everything that has come from that is electronic so difficult to print out and put in a folder. I'm not sure what a good portfolio looks like - has anyone got an examples?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 2 - the interview.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-72720355711516371432012-11-20T12:10:00.001-08:002012-11-20T12:10:40.994-08:00Using an ipad in science lessons<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in June, I was loaned an ipad. Since then I've been trying to use it in lessons. I'm still waiting for a cable to connect it to the interactive whiteboard, have no wifi in my classroom and all the apps I've tried have been free - hopefully something here will be useful if you are starting out.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Pinterest</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a really useful app for collecting all those pictures and video clips you see on the internet and want to show your classes. You add contacts (many of mine have come from twitter) and you can see what they have "pinned", add it to your boards and by clicking on the picture, go through to the webpage. I know some teachers set up boards that their classes can access and add things too. I think you need an invite to join pinterest - shout if you want one and I'll try and find out how I can send it to you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Socrative</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, someone on twitter put me onto this. You set up a teacher account and it allocates you a room number (that doesn't change). Pupils in your class log in using that room number, using a PC or their own mobile phones. You can then orally ask true/false questions, short answers or multiple choice ones - the pupils respond on their devices and the app sends that information to you - it displays as a bar chart for the true/false and multiple choice ones, and shows you exactly what was typed for the short answers (which you can then ask the pupils to vote on). Using it in this way takes no preparation.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have a bit more time then you can write and save your own quizzes. TES also has a collection of them which you can easily search for by typing in "socrative". A great way to use these quizzes is in the built in Space Race - groups or individuals can be allocated colours and they race space ships across the teacher's screen - the more they get right, the further their rocket moves. This function will also email you an excel spreadsheet of who said what in response to each question, it even colour-codes it for correct and incorrect. I got one of my classes to write quizzes for me as part of their revision, which I could then use with other classes, and for them in a later lesson.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is also an exit ticket section - pupils put their names in and answer basic questions about what they understood in that lesson and what they might need more help with.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>iMotion HD</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Love this. I've enjoyed using it so much in lessons that it's now installed on the school itouches and lots of other science staff are using it too. It allows you to make stop motion animations - the possibilities are endless - I've used it to get classes to explain how enzymes work, what happens to atoms in a car engine, phagocytosis, explaining how natural selection takes place....</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyBSDZa6JUIM77UkFetqhQqUqT-PxJ8NJ985kLPIE_eMS6uZEdTUAnPAbI1uocRLB2Ovud3dSnDTgIUDNZuQw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>NASA</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lots of amazing apps available, I need a cable to really use these in class. Try Spacecraft 3D if you haven't already.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Camera</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I use this more than anything at the moment - I like to photograph the work that pupils do - recently year 7 made egg landers, so I took a picture of them before they dropped them, printed them out, and they are in their books as a record of what they've done.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2hT2eTQpga5CHMUNsEsadYfyVuoU7yvl29PfaonBYMOZDyq6lZTjsN49qNrlZTOY2jK1rX5q581V0JTSTSSrypZFHWVR2t1b2cu0BHUWr3G1C-1oWmE9D_DNiQhryEwiVApd_wl6LQI-/s1600/IMG_0179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2hT2eTQpga5CHMUNsEsadYfyVuoU7yvl29PfaonBYMOZDyq6lZTjsN49qNrlZTOY2jK1rX5q581V0JTSTSSrypZFHWVR2t1b2cu0BHUWr3G1C-1oWmE9D_DNiQhryEwiVApd_wl6LQI-/s320/IMG_0179.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The thing I'm going to be using it for the most over the next few month is to video my own teaching. Up until last week I'd never seen myself teach! It was a bit scary but I could look at it later and I could see things I needed to do to tighten up my teaching (like, how did I not spot that kid doing that thing they shouldn't have been doing?!) It was also good to share with another teacher (who teaches a different subject to me) so he could provide feedback without having to miss his own lesson.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm interested in hearing how other people use ipads in teaching and what their favourite apps are.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-11481740532554263832012-11-20T11:29:00.002-08:002012-11-20T11:29:28.673-08:00Questioning and other tips<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Way back, earlier in the year, I had some whole school training on questioning. School had paid for Mike Hughes to come in and run three sessions and it was great! I asked Mike at the end if it was ok to blog about the day, and he agreed, so long as I put a link to his website - <a href="http://www.mikehughes-ets.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a></span><div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He talked about a lot of things, and my notes are sketchy, but here are the main ideas...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>General things</u></span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try and get a balance of open and closed questions.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wait after you ask a question. Answers can take time.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Provide advanced warning - "In 2 minutes I am going to ask you about..."</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Get pupils to discuss answers in pairs and groups before feeding back to the class (like "Think, pair, share")</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take three answers and then get the class to vote on the best one.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't be scared to reword questions to make sure pupils fully understand.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Improving communication skills</u></span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Demo things to small groups of pupils who then go back to their group and describe or demonstrate it to their peers.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Get a pupil to commentate on your demonstration - what are you doing and why are you doing it?</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>What can you do in lessons to show understanding?</u></span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Collect information</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Share information</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enlarge on it</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Explain (make more challenging by removing keywords)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Change the form the information comes in (see also active learning)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arrange it into an order or sequence (try hexagons)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reduce the information (What is the most important part/word? (see Marketplace))</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Planning lessons</u></span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where are they now?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do you know?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where do you want them to be?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How will you/do you know?</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Writing questions</u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mike gave us a table to use. The first column contains starter words - what, where, when, who, why, how. Along the top is the next word in the question - is, did, can, would, will, might.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you go along the top, the questions become more open and demanding, eg what is this compared to what might this be used for?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This has really helped me think about what types of questions I ask, and I've also had some of my classes use it to write questions for each other at the end of a topic (to show understanding).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another great idea was to sketch a graph when observing a lesson, with time along the x-axis and the type of question on the y-axis (either higher and lower order, or the "is", "did" etc). You can also draw a line on the graph to show where that particular class should be working. During the lesson you plot what type of question is asked and when in the lesson it is asked. I've found it very useful for PGCE students, when we start to focus on questioning skills. If someone does it for you, hopefully you can start and end on a higher order question to really get your classes thinking.</span></div>
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Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-35744551806498520912012-07-17T11:21:00.003-07:002012-07-17T11:21:46.881-07:00Hexagons and respiration<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a while since I got the hexagons out, and yesterday's lesson with year 12 where they were revising respiration seemed the perfect time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6U7ycu_5BGrWfkFb2DGQeLCyTrB-8h3krvUvZRhAVh_tmldDLk1Dxg9wxC8GpdSiOF8_9AiyFsN2ebxk8vF3VtKADJxGhsttJm-XsaWuFjeIiQYFcR4D8GtqZwWn528vZhM1_7N-6Rt2X/s1600/Photo0106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6U7ycu_5BGrWfkFb2DGQeLCyTrB-8h3krvUvZRhAVh_tmldDLk1Dxg9wxC8GpdSiOF8_9AiyFsN2ebxk8vF3VtKADJxGhsttJm-XsaWuFjeIiQYFcR4D8GtqZwWn528vZhM1_7N-6Rt2X/s400/Photo0106.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They spent the first five minutes of the lesson brainstorming the twenty key words we'd been trying to use since we started this topic (we've done wordsearches, crosswords, bingo, taboo cards...) and used them as a basis for the hexagons. Once they got started they found it easy to make the links - respiration was a good topic as the process breaks down into step-by-steps anyway. It also helps that they've used these a few times now, some of them in their AS Chemistry lessons, and they've got the hang of how they work. They were able to discuss with each other why words went where they were put and in some cases argue for and against something being included or moved. I'd probably encourage groups to do more colour-coding in the future - perhaps getting the correct number of ATPs in one colour to highlight them, the same for the carbon dioxides.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final twenty minutes of the lesson were used getting the pupils to write 100 word summaries of respiration, again using as many of the key words as they could. This allowed them to identify the stages they were really confident in as well as the stages they still struggled with. It also forced them to be concise and to make sure they really wanted to use a word before committing to it. They swapped summaries with each other and did a spot of "Pimp my Answer", adding to someone else's work and praising each other when they saw good ideas.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-67866397918969818382012-04-20T11:58:00.000-07:002012-04-20T11:58:05.184-07:00Wizards, Dwarfs and Giants<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This has been my discovery of the week. I take no credit for it - I found it tucked in the back of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teachers-Toolkit-Classroom-Achievement-Strategies/dp/1899836764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334947751&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Teacher's Toolkit</a> as a tool to help develop teamwork in a class.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've used it for lower ability year 11 boys to get them working together, for twitchy year 9s who need to stop and do something else in the middle of the lesson and for year 10 who were about to go off to their science mock exams. They've all loved it. Give it a try.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You need to split your class into two teams, boys versus girls worked well.... Each group then has to decide which character they are going to be, a wizard, a giant or a dwarf - I found cartoon images of these and projected them up on the board, along with the rules. (From here on in it's a lot like "Rock, paper, scissors")</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wizards beat giants by casting spells</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Giants beat dwarfs by stamping on the ground</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dwarfs beat wizards by tickling their feet.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I mimed these for the class to demonstrate....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On your count ("1......2.......3.......") everyone in the team has to do the action that goes with the character their team has chosen - wizards put their hands out in front of them and wiggle their fingers, giants put their arms above their head and dwarfs crouch down.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The suggestion is that a team gets two points for a win and one for a draw, and the first to 10 points is the winner. I've been doing "best of three" as an end of lesson thing.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and you get to giggle along with every kid in your class as they pretend to be wizards....</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-30421240623978960572012-03-28T11:02:00.000-07:002012-03-28T11:02:12.494-07:00Interviewing potential PGCE students<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be on the interview panel for prospective PGCE science students at Leeds University. The University regularly asks for us to go along, they like to have a university tutor and a teacher doing the interviews, but some schools are reluctant to let staff out, with all the cover implications. I was lucky, I had a class that could be left to get on with some work and a year 12 class who were loaded down the day before with past examination questions, so cover was minimal. So off I went....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I met up with the university tutor about half an hour before the start time. Again, I was lucky, one of my ex-colleagues and lovely friend works in the school of education, and I was paired with her for the afternoon. We caught up on a lot of news in between things!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were four candidates, two for chemistry and two for biology. Obviously I can't say what each of them was like, or what the outcome was but I can say that their passion and commitment to science and teaching was amazing. Obviously they were a bit naive-sounding at times, but nearly all had spent at least two weeks in a secondary school and knew what they were expecting in terms of workload.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friend gave them a quick introduction to the course, and then they were sent off to do a written test, a reading test and prepare a two minute talk on some effective teaching they had seen. We interviewed two candidates and then got them back together for the presentation and group discussion part, and then did the remaining two interviews.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I learnt a lot. I was worried about whether I would know what to say or do - again, interviewing is another new thing for me this year - but I had a list of questions to follow and did a lot of encouraging, reassuring nodding and smiling. Above all I enjoyed it. I loved meeting these enthusiastic people and trying to find out if they had the personality and skills to train to teach. Apparently I was calm and confident, and I got an answer out of one candidate that might have sealed it for them!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some top tips then if you're thinking of applying:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Get into a school. Get into several different types of school. You're looking for at least a fortnight. Spend time with staff and pupils and make sure this is really what you want to do. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Go into it with your eyes open, yes teaching is rewarding but not all the time.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember, your experience as a kid in school is probably very different to what happens for most kids in most schools. Not everyone is going to want to, or be able to do A level sciences and save the world from global warming... what do these kids do?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See a range of subjects. You might really want to teach biology but what does your average pupil do in maths and english? How is science different?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you see good teaching try and work out why it was good. What was the teacher doing? What type of person was the teacher? What were the pupils doing?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously you will want to prepare for an interview but please get off your script. Rehearsed answers that you've learnt off by heart sound just like that and don't allow your personality to shine through. You won't be able to script all your lessons.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read up on things about teaching, for example in the news. You might want to look at some educational policies but be careful - chances are the interviewer knows more than you do and you don't want to get things really wrong. If you know it all now, why do you need a place on the course?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good luck. The PGCE is possibly the toughest year of your life, there will be highs and lows like you rarely experience anywhere else. You will always be tired and there will never be enough time to do everything you want to do (let alone need to do). You will survive and the staff in your placement schools have all been there too - we all want to help you.</span></li>
</ul>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-89042769695052696202012-03-28T10:30:00.003-07:002012-03-28T10:30:49.432-07:00My first go at leading training (and my second too!)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Head of Department asked me to organise some training a few weeks ago. I've never been asked to do anything like that before, so I was a little nervous. I know that I need to be more of a leader, even though I've no official responsibility or role, so it was good to start with something I'm enthusiastic about. The brief was basically something on teaching and learning, based on the Passport to Outstanding programme, to take place during our weekly departmental meeting, and I also had to get three more colleagues involved (who were ace!). There was a bit of emailing went on, and a couple of conversations grabbed at lunchtime, but we got there in the end.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One borrowed the school ipods and showed us how to generate QR codes as well as explaining what all the mysterious ones around the department were for (a great year 9 revision quiz). We practiced using the ipods to read the codes we were given, and then followed the instructions - a few were turned into paper aeroplanes, a few given to someone else in the department and so on. I liked <a href="http://www.qrhacker.com/" target="_blank">this</a> website for putting pictures in the middle of the codes.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another colleague talked us through how to run a <a href="http://www.talkscience.org.uk/techniques/4.aspx" target="_blank">Marketplace</a> activity, something that she does a lot, very successfully. I think they can be a bit worrying the first time you try them so having someone talk you through is really useful. We've also been trying to use this type of activity more as it's felt that it can increase literacy skills, something we're focusing on at key stage 4.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My other amazing colleague talked about how she has been learning to "let go" more during lessons, letting the kids get on with activities and not feeling that she has to control every aspect of the hour. It doesn't sound much, but it's very difficult to do, and I know I'm guilty sometimes of wanting it all my own way during a lesson.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My little bit of training took me hours to prepare! I finally got round to getting some hexagons laminated so I spent the evening before cutting them all up.... I gave them to my colleagues with the challenge to pick a topic (they used particle theory, the nervous system, electricity, space) and write out the key words onto the hexagons (using whiteboard markers). Then they organised them into the patterns to show the links. It was amazing to see adults go through the same out-loud thinking process as the kids do - "I'll put this one next to this one because..." Since then at least one colleague has been back to me several times to thank me for showing her this - she is using it with lots of classes and has started to turn it into a memory game, snap, and even making one massive class-sized pattern.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best thing was that I really enjoyed doing it, showing other people a new thing, and then having them come back to me once they'd tried it to tell me how useful it was to them.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turned into such a hit that the following week I tried to get the department onto twitter to show them all the great cpd they could access (asechat, ukedchat and so on). I think this might have been less successful, possibly because it requires people to use their own free time in the evenings, and some are already swamped in marking and planning.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All I need to do now is think of the next great thing to share...</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-68028718507788632012012-02-16T05:44:00.000-08:002012-02-16T05:44:47.627-08:00Hexagons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1Tq50IUOci4qACp-TubEWSMyXo67in6F6hznczIVjP0wy0jcSDXYPJ8CkE6FaJpSZ96lX6drBRFiebn8hUiJlA6D7IDpikq4XGCthcy6HpYM3XGpqyCdePOWuRapBiruPcgdwcM8j6VW/s1600/Photo0076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1Tq50IUOci4qACp-TubEWSMyXo67in6F6hznczIVjP0wy0jcSDXYPJ8CkE6FaJpSZ96lX6drBRFiebn8hUiJlA6D7IDpikq4XGCthcy6HpYM3XGpqyCdePOWuRapBiruPcgdwcM8j6VW/s320/Photo0076.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpKS7SZM_e0AtKuQfzPddxxyIgvHKLjkT8IxJ66CoBXrgm3L0CPS4vx5SdYBJ4gFDm0Cxh10X0NcL17LcURQZj0_b2C-9ARNJSX0ioHVroq4FKmhxpSmpjmkQkZtlCQCDP3ilM04JAY82r/s1600/Photo0079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpKS7SZM_e0AtKuQfzPddxxyIgvHKLjkT8IxJ66CoBXrgm3L0CPS4vx5SdYBJ4gFDm0Cxh10X0NcL17LcURQZj0_b2C-9ARNJSX0ioHVroq4FKmhxpSmpjmkQkZtlCQCDP3ilM04JAY82r/s320/Photo0079.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got this idea from @totallywired77 over on twitter. He has this thing called SOLO learning that I've not got to grips with yet, but I did see this activity with it, so I borrowed it to try out. This is part of what my top set year 7s did for revision on the topic of "Aliens" (basically space and forces). They had to come up with a list of key words about the topic, which I did by standing the whole class up, getting one pupil to name a word and then asking them to "bounce" it to another pupil. The last pupil standing got Vivo Miles (our reward scheme...) to offset the possible "left-out" feeling, and to make up for the fact that words were running out by then so it was harder.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The class then cut out their own hexagons from a template (I'm going to get loads made up and laminated next half term so I can reuse them and save some time), and working in ability pairs, selected the words they wanted to use. Then they arranged the hexagons so that if the words touched they could explain a link between them. This gave me lots of opportunities to ask open-ended questions and the quality of their explanations were excellent. The class also got to go and visit other groups' patterns and question each other about the links. What was surprising was how some pupils were putting words down to fill in the gaps, so they were having to come up with even more key words.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a fun lesson, and I enjoyed it so much that year 10 separate biology also did it for their revision on hormones and the menstrual cycle (it really helped them to sequence their ideas and then link it into the nervous system), and year 12 biology used it for key words about DNA and genetics.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recommended.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-4045271232487574712012-02-06T09:11:00.000-08:002012-02-06T09:11:03.084-08:00My classroom, or lab.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been very lucky for the last few years in that I've had my own lab/classroom. This means that as well as avoiding being a mobile teacher (with all the delayed starts to lessons and wondering where that piece of paper went that comes with that), I've been able to add things to the walls and ceilings to get pupils interested. I decided today to take a load of photos and share them. Sorry some are a bit blurry, I was using my mobile phone...</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is there anything I need to add?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPfRlu0fcGEhyu7IcYQwsOdX1CW4fhbS1Ug4IXxGIIkbyagDTJ1h9oJ9xTX18WNDS4NuH0PGTn6Z8CNOHYhqA3AyftqHAXy6E1Wtl8SvFT26YST6K3XxII7rwKGlZP_4leCCoIDiJVNlk7/s1600/Photo0081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPfRlu0fcGEhyu7IcYQwsOdX1CW4fhbS1Ug4IXxGIIkbyagDTJ1h9oJ9xTX18WNDS4NuH0PGTn6Z8CNOHYhqA3AyftqHAXy6E1Wtl8SvFT26YST6K3XxII7rwKGlZP_4leCCoIDiJVNlk7/s320/Photo0081.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's an ever changing selection of pupils' work on the wall, or hanging from the ceiling. Here you can see year 10's celebrity/cartoon offspring, year 11's guide to active transport, diffusion and osmosis, a carbon cycle mobile and some of the "science in the news" stories I've collected.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH_iGyJWbIWpXAxMdyloL1APVcqB6xeJaw7408AHFg6hJ2DfnhNlxijo2lYCYQ7UyARq6b-sxchQn29glfp28noaNVUzb_qnLrAdOGAOVpQCvMY2ShZmsvLDOdhJMV7276GpRMI4AaILA1/s1600/IMG_1095.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH_iGyJWbIWpXAxMdyloL1APVcqB6xeJaw7408AHFg6hJ2DfnhNlxijo2lYCYQ7UyARq6b-sxchQn29glfp28noaNVUzb_qnLrAdOGAOVpQCvMY2ShZmsvLDOdhJMV7276GpRMI4AaILA1/s320/IMG_1095.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Big cupboards at the back of the room. One has different textbooks in that<br />pupils are welcome to use to help during lessons. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdWghFV86Ke6wp8QvEZr0bIvCIPmbjJu6dlzKHXgsYjKEd_IMXy-qNQti2N2IAlFjXudzVsfrI_amcqFLYW-_V8xiO8D4xPYDvOq6vl5tRFwhssxTXrrLjRQedRnEC5o6KNrnCShPc_V4/s1600/Photo0080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdWghFV86Ke6wp8QvEZr0bIvCIPmbjJu6dlzKHXgsYjKEd_IMXy-qNQti2N2IAlFjXudzVsfrI_amcqFLYW-_V8xiO8D4xPYDvOq6vl5tRFwhssxTXrrLjRQedRnEC5o6KNrnCShPc_V4/s320/Photo0080.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Learning Wall. As donated by @teachingofscience. My year 12 and 13 are working on the Four Bs currently. Year 10 love the Carl Sagan quote.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6DX1TR5fkSJH7VZ4EYyJMKCo5yL9kdImO4nH2NpkQHdQV3o8hdqJlNsqOD-vI0LTxYc_nfNL8jjuyqdIcLPRWvbsjhckzSGPq6wPE07a9dzRyci-CratHYzGsk4p-RBrg1XTr80x-yqO_/s1600/Photo0084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6DX1TR5fkSJH7VZ4EYyJMKCo5yL9kdImO4nH2NpkQHdQV3o8hdqJlNsqOD-vI0LTxYc_nfNL8jjuyqdIcLPRWvbsjhckzSGPq6wPE07a9dzRyci-CratHYzGsk4p-RBrg1XTr80x-yqO_/s320/Photo0084.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Blob Tree. This is stuck to the back of my classroom door. Every so often I ask pupils on their way out of the lesson to reflect about how well they did in that hour. Their honesty is sometimes surprising and it allows me to get into a conversation with them about why they think they are where they are, and how they can improve. It also really helps with confidence boosting when I can tell a pupil that they are really higher up than they are. I have a Blob Classroom too - great for allowing pupils who struggle with behaviour to recognise problems that might have arisen.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Twitter Challenge. A great plenary to really get pupils thinking. I have pre-printed grids to help them keep count, and I've found that higher ability pupils like to try and get 140 characters exactly.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBHG_S5BumstibDoGMoIW8q7dfkEDgdPSRueaDbjL_KOo54I20JpMP3FVARrHv44jUHIamO3mLTUhroGYE7a_LwTJEBX6t2m6-GgnXqcS4Oj9GZIZ-qdk96yLikTfZRCThJPSqFyEphVa/s1600/Photo0085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBHG_S5BumstibDoGMoIW8q7dfkEDgdPSRueaDbjL_KOo54I20JpMP3FVARrHv44jUHIamO3mLTUhroGYE7a_LwTJEBX6t2m6-GgnXqcS4Oj9GZIZ-qdk96yLikTfZRCThJPSqFyEphVa/s320/Photo0085.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have A, B, C and D corners in my lab. These get used for AFL activities during the lesson. If you have Boardworks then they're great for those summary questions at the end, and I've also used them for multi-choice exam questions. They're very engaging as pupils have to move to the correct corner to give their answer - they don't follow each other as often as you think! It's also good for leading into questions such as "Why have you picked that answer?". The traffic light is one of three (there's an amber and a red too). I use them right at the end of a lesson (or midway through if they're a fidgety class) to see if they have achieved the lesson objective/outcome. Again, they're a bit more active than using coloured card or cups.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The "What I learnt today" area. This is an easy plenary, just hand out some post-it notes and let them loose! It's also a nice one for those pupils who just need to get up and move around. I tend to make the post it notes into little booklets towards the end of the topic, so they are there for classes to look at as revision.</span><br />
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</div>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-91585491528095566872012-02-02T11:44:00.000-08:002012-02-02T11:44:48.677-08:00Placemats<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been trying to add something new to my teaching every fortnight this academic year. It works well in this time frame as my school operates on a two week timetable, so I tend to see KS3 classes six times, KS4 five or six times and KS5 four or five times. The last couple of weeks I've been doing the Marketplace activity (see below) pretty successfully. Year 13 Human Biology taught themselves homeostasis, year 11 (target grades C-G, and all boys) did really well with radioactivity revision (they amazed themselves with how much they learnt in the space of an hour, and enjoyed how quickly the lesson went) and I combined revision and new material for top set year 9 about hormones and IVF (for an observed lesson, rated "good"!)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week I have been using placemats, aka a template for pupils to write their own notes into. They were recommended to me, and as I've spoken to colleagues who trained since me, it seems to be something they knew about all along.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The format I've been using is with a topical photo or picture in one corner, along with a title, then a series of boxes/shapes with levelled/graded questions in, usually based on the syllabus.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first attempt was with year 13 who used them as a bit of a quick test - could they fill in the boxes with things they remembered about homeostasis. It was a nice followup lesson to the Marketplace, allowing them to put notes on paper (this seems to reassure them, even though they have a textbook). Year 10 Biology liked the outline about smoking, again done along the lines of "Describe...", "Explain...", "Analyse data about..." to differentiate. They also used them to show progress by filling in what they could at the start of the lesson and then adding to it in a different colour at various mini plenaries during the lesson. I could also see them being used to share information with others as they move between groups. Again, my year 11 pupils really took to them when we did about the doppler effect and red shift today. They decided to draw diagrams to explain what the doppler effect is rather than write something - this is something they've learnt to do from the Marketplace activity.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll need to be careful using placemats I think. They take hardly any time to prepare, and mean that I can leave some classes to research material rather than me being more involved in questioning and showing them demos or doing practicals.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would be interested to know if anyone else uses anything like this. Do they count as active learning or lazy teaching?</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-2888970237177498752012-01-22T05:19:00.000-08:002012-01-22T05:24:06.734-08:00ASE Conference 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After being a member for a few years, this year I finally got the opportunity to go to the annual conference. Luckily I'm only a couple of hours away by train so I planned to go on the Friday just for the day. As others have said, this is great CPD - I wish I'd known exactly how it works before I went so I could've planned my time there better and maybe stayed for another day. I really want to go to next year's now, I know I could get a lot more out of it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent a fair bit of time in the Exhibition Area, yes collecting free pens, but also talking to people from the Science Museum, the Met Office, the RHS and various exam boards and publishers about the resources they have for teaching science. There were plenty of places to spend some serious money (new lab benches, fume cupboards and glassware...), and there was a lot of technology on display (it seemed that every stand had at least one iPad...)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was able to meet up with some of the great people from Twitter too. They've provided me with help, ideas and support for a year or more, so it was good to put faces to names and have a chat about how teaching is the same and difference in FE, and in other areas of the country. Thank you!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After lunch I went to a talk about Active Learning for post 16, mainly to get some reassurance that the things I have been doing with my classes have value and to get some new ideas too. I've always loved the idea of encouraging independence in 6th form pupils, after all if they plan to go onto higher education then they need to know how to study for themselves. Unfortunately, all too often, year 12 and 13 become all focused on exam results and just want the information they need to pass handed to them. Some top tips were:</span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't read practical instructions to pupils. Make the method available to them before the lesson (via homework or moodle for example), and then they arrive at the practical ready to start. This leads onto the next one...</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let the pupils fail. They learn from this, they'll read the instructions the next time</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Encourage pupils to buy science dictionaries, or make their own.</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Develop self and peer assessment</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brainstorming sessions - a pupil writes down what they know and this is passed to another pupil to correct and add to, before being passed on again, and so on.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a bit of discussion about entering year 12 pupils for exams in January. There's the idea that they don't know how to learn at that stage of the course, so underachieve versus the wake up call they can get from a poor result.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also liked the self-evaluation form - I scribbled down the main headings for this, so I'll get that up here as soon as I put it into a document.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other active learning ideas included:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Making models, eg of muscles and cells</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dominos with question and answers.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matching cards</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sequencing cards, eg the cardiac cycle</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finding a picture or diagram and getting pupils to write about it</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marketplace</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Phillip Allen book, "Friday Afternoon Biology" was recommended as it has many of these activities already prepared, as was "The Teacher's Toolkit".</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall then, I'd absolutely go again because I got so much out of it, even in a few hours. Thanks to the ASE for organising this great CPD.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other people have also blogged about the things they did:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">@teachingofscience - <a href="http://teachingofscience.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/from-good-to-outstanding-aseconf-13/" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">@Bio_Joe - <a href="http://geordiescience.blogspot.com/2012/01/ase-conference.html" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">@hrogerson - <a href="http://geordiescience.blogspot.com/2012/01/ase-conference.html" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-82341533674845057512012-01-21T06:49:00.000-08:002012-01-21T06:49:02.088-08:00What's in the box?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/classroom_and_homework_resources/resources/mystery_boxes.aspx" target="_blank">these</a> at the ASE Conference and whilst chatting to the lovely people I was with, and the person manning the stand, I could see how they could be used in a "How Science Works" lesson. I could also see that they could be home-made so I asked the science technicians at work what they could do. This is the result:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As with the set you can buy, I have no idea what is inside the boxes - only one of the technicians knows, and he isn't saying!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/videos/mystery_boxes_scientists.aspx" target="_blank">video</a> has given me some idea of how to use the boxes for more than a starter in a lesson. A colleague also suggested that the pupils could design further experiments to provide more evidence, for example, finding another one of the suggested object and weighing it to compare. I plan to at least give them to year 13 to have a play with at the start of a lesson, and they'll be great for that class where only half ever appear on time. I definitely want to have a go at a whole lesson, maybe with year 7, this week.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-84955163010835057872012-01-16T13:01:00.000-08:002012-01-16T13:03:19.638-08:00Year 8 homework - volcanoes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is some of the homework my year 8 class did. We're doing a topic called Catastrophe, lots of things about how volcanoes are formed, how scientists can predict lava flow and how rocks are made. These are some of the highlights (sorry the formatting is rubbish)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still to come this week - year 9 are going to write CVs for the hormones in the menstrual cycle!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-19348681350689545572012-01-16T12:47:00.000-08:002012-01-16T12:47:24.080-08:00Active Learning, post 16<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On my flying visit to the ASE Conference I went to one of the seminars/talks about active learning for post 16 students. This is something I've been interested in for a while - we have a course at KS3 (Upd8 Wikid/Segue) that uses a lot of class discussion, peer assessment and working in groups, and some of these skills have been carried forward to KS4. It seems that once the kids make it to KS5 they become so focused on passing exams that they demand their teachers stand and lecture them so they get the information they need to pass their exams.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately for the classes I teach, that isn't my way. I expect pupils to engage with the material and will set homework that requires them to make a presentation to explain something to the rest of the class. I've had a lot of success with class-made revision guides or "Everything you need to know about parasites" booklets...We all know that research shows that we learn better if you do something with the material rather than passively sit and have it spoon fed to you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ASE talk referred to an activity called "Marketplace", found in "The Teacher's Toolkit" (p122 if you have it handy!) Today I tried this for the first time, with my year 12 biology group.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took me about 15 minutes to prepare for - I wanted to get them started on Unit 2, the parts about DNA and meiosis, so I pulled the key facts out of that section of the (AQA) syllabus, and turned them into 12 questions. There were basic themes: structure of DNA; function of DNA; replication and meiosis - I colour-coded the questions, and pre-typed them onto an interactive whiteboard page. The questions were displayed for the first 10 minutes or so of the lesson (as the class arrived and got themselves organised...). I didn't refer to them until I was explaining what they were going to be doing. The second slide of the chart was a basic list of instructions about how the lesson would flow. I managed to differentiate by appointing a team captain for each group, basing this on how taxing that theme was. I let the team captain pick three other people for their group. In future I would control the groups more, two pupils struggled as they ended up in the more complicated topics.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The activity gives the group 15 minutes to make a poster about their topic, without having the questions to look at. They can only use 10 words and that frustrated and amused them in equal parts. They used their textbooks and some other A level books I had in my room to carry out research, and one enterprising pupil used his smart phone! I used groups of four and this worked well - one pupil seemed to do all the writing, one did the research and the other two swotted up on things they might be asked by the others in the group.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The part where they moved around went ok, some made decent notes and were able to teach this to the others in their groups when they returned. The stall holders could only answer questions and this mixed ability group struggled at times to know what to ask and understand the answers they were getting - they need more practice. The teaching was variable too, in future I'll send some off to see the other posters and swap them over with the stallholders, and then give them group discussion time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sneaky bit of the lesson is the return of the questions from the start of the lesson in the form of the quiz at the end - they all got more right at the end than they said they would've done at the start. There were a couple of good explanations of how DNA replicates and why this is important. I'm counting this as a result. I also had some past paper questions lined up as extension/homework/confidence builder and we had a quick look at how they would have to apply their knowledge to a question.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over all, worth doing. It was very active on their part, they had to use group work, research skills and explanations. I plan to do it again tomorrow to start year 13 human biology off on homeostasis and for year 11 (targets D-G) for radioactivity.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are their posters....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-3198525139763826102012-01-13T08:27:00.000-08:002012-01-13T08:30:22.750-08:00AFL<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're a teacher you're probably about to say something along the lines of "AFL? You've only just started this?" I said things had stagnated.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was getting on for two years ago that a colleague did a presentation at a departmental meeting about something called AFL. I recognised it as one of the fun things that was missing from my teaching and tried to work out how I could incorporate it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went though a list of about 70 different activities and wrote about 15 down in the back of my planner. I figured that these were ones I could easily do, without any preparation or resources. Then, when I did my weekly planning, I wrote down for every class an AFL activity. I used a different coloured pen (purple if you're interested!) so that it stood out and it made sure I always spotted it there. I started with easy things - Hangman, ABCD corners, thumbs up/down, red/orange/green cards (already in the pupils' planner which was handy), lining up and giving me a fact before they left, writing something they've learnt on a post-it note, digging out my mini-whiteboards from the back of a cupboard... I became more daring - I threw a ball at a pupil to get an answer, the kids then throw it to other people for their answers (note, I have a low lab ceiling and had a full size football....thirty 16 year olds... I downsized the ball).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My classes loved it. True, all I was really doing was a plenary, but to them it felt like playing. I was working out who understood what. I've since added some more to my usuals - the Blob Tree and the Blob Classroom work well for lower ability pupils, especially those who struggle with their behaviour, I use a C3B4ME to get higher ability, highly dependent pupils to work more independently, I have random name generators (check out TES for a powerpoint template to do this for you) and sometimes I award counters for good answers or questions. (Classroom Dojo is good for this too, if you can get it to work...).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's made life easier for me now that it seems I am supposed to demonstrate progress every 20 minutes. I just flip to the back of my planner for an instant idea. I've also borrowed the unused department copy of The Teachers Toolkit for some more ideas...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Still to come, Bloom, the ASE conference, demonstrating progress....)</span></div>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425461034787660983.post-77792147668929798592012-01-13T08:05:00.000-08:002012-01-13T08:05:39.956-08:00Here we go then<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been thinking about doing this for a while. I've had a blog over on LJ for years and years now, and I'll keep that up as much as I ever did, but what I've been missing is a reflective place to publicly put all the teaching gubbins that goes on. Obviously I've no idea how much of an audience this will find.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what this blog is for is for me to record all the different things I'm trying out in my teaching. After a few years of really not feeling like I was any use, various things have caused me to rethink this. It means I've started trying a new thing every week or two, and whilst I've been putting them in a paper file, this might also be useful for keeping a record.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bit about me then. I've been teaching for eight years, this is number nine, after spending my time after graduation doing medical microbiology research, a post graduate degree in law and ending up in charge of purchasing for a university department. I did my PGCE at York University - I'd recommend it because there were only 35 or so people on my course; this meant we all got to know each other and the lecturers, and getting in was a bit more taxing than it seems to be at other universities. I'd thought about teaching science for a while but never felt confident enough. In the end a friend took me to school with him for a day and I realised that if someone told me how to put a lesson together there was every chance I would be able to teach. I've stayed with teaching because I enjoy it - getting to know and spend time with teenagers is fun, passing on my enthusiasm for science and especially biology, the days are never ever the same. Trust me, I did a desk job, it was mind-numbing. I've been at the same school for seven years, some people would say this is too long for career advancement, but I've enjoyed building relationships with the pupils over this time, sometimes it's good to have a Reputation.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think, like a lot of people, my teaching stagnated before this last 18 months or so. I was taught to teach in a particular way, which I made into more "me" with experience. I've seen, and mentored, PGCE students and NQTs who do amazing things that are totally new to me yet somehow the up-to-date theories of teaching haven't reached me.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not sure what changed. Maybe it was someone from the LEA coming in and trying to shake us up. Perhaps it was a colleague who seemed to have discovered a magical thing called AFL, that I recognised was one of the missing pieces from my teaching. More likely it was laziness on my part, I was getting away with teaching like a lot of people, which was nowhere near what Ofsted seemed to want.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still, things changed. This blog is the story of how, and how things are still changing.</span>Angelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074474877132121205noreply@blogger.com0