Our first learning lunch!

After the fabulous MiniTeachMeet twilight, we embarked on our first learning lunch of the year!!!  The Best Practice team cannot take credit for the Learning Lunch, this was an idea nicked from Beaumont School in St. Albans, who have a fabulous teaching and learning team I have stolen a great many ideas from. 

Sian Hampshire was super excited to be running her side of the Best Practice programme of #sharingiscaring - like the uber-stationary geek she is, she was prepared with all her best pens/post-its/sugar paper to kick the session off!

We started the session with everyone's best ideas for using tech in the classroom, split into 5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute and a bit longer! ideas.  The image below shows how many ideas were gathered in the learning lunch session:

Loads of fantastic ideas were shared and talked about in small groups, before the Best Practice Team took the lead in sharing to the whole group our ideas.  Sian began this with her experience of using apps in the classroom like Stick Pick, which she uses like a virtual pot of lolly-pop sticks to pick pupils to answer questions or for presentations.  Sian also shared the types of apps she's used on her phone to allow pupils to assess how long they will live, Test of Life. 

I followed up with how I use Ted Ed for flipping my classroom - http://ed.ted.com/lessons and in general how I like to use http://www.ted.com for inspirational/informative video clips to bring an expert into the classroom. 

 

Graeme shared how he uses Classroom Tools random name generator and  how he is beginning to use Symbaloo.  Quick links to his ideas can be found here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wgiiyxejxx3bs1u/8n6-vQstay/Learning%20Lunch%201%20-%20Thu%2013%20February%202014%20-%20Technology%20in%20the%20Classroom

 

Again so much sharing led to time flying by and before we knew it lunch was over and period 4 beckoned!

 

Thanks to all who joined us and took the time to share their great ideas.

 

TTFN!

 

Our first mini-teach meet!

On Tuesday, February 11th the Best Practice team ran our first mini-teachmeet and it was an awesome success.  We had a fantastic range of presenters who shared what they're doing in the classroom and at Fulston Manor School to drive forward outstanding practice.

The afternoon twilight session kicked off with an interactive presentation from Claire Forster, who explained how she is working in her classes to 'feed forward' with focused assessment criteria, teaching pupils how to effectively provide written and oral feedback and taking the time to allow pupils to respond/reflect/re-engage with the feedback they've been given.

Next up was Graeme Bowden, who shared all the amazing activities he has magpied from Twitter in his classroom/department - see link for his #sharingiscaring ideas: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8npn5cwcjkvregh/YbAK_yXYZr/TeachMeet%20-%20Tues%2011%20February%202014/GBO%20TeachMeet%20Presentation%20-%20February%202014.pptx

Sian Hampshire followed up with her out of the box thinking in terms of using the classroom environment, including using different coloured electrical tape to turn her classroom floor into an interactive world map - see link for her presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8npn5cwcjkvregh/67YGtwqVL1/TeachMeet%20-%20Tues%2011%20February%202014/SIH%20-%20Using%20your%20classroom%20to%20promote%20progress%20-%20TeachMeet.pptx

Claire Williams then shared her engaging lesson ideas, including one the Best Practice team keenly nicked from our first TeachMeet experience (TMKent and Medway November 2013) - the TV plenary! Her brilliant ideas on engagement can be seen here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8npn5cwcjkvregh/SWACx5vB_U/TeachMeet%20-%20Tues%2011%20February%202014/CLW%20-%20ENGAGing%20ideas.pptx

The last of our first set of presenters was Honor Robbins who shared what the Skills SIG team have been developing - the WIGWAM: What is going well at the moment - an opportunity for pupils to self-assess at a mid-point in a piece of work, which has the opportunity for application in PSHE as well in terms of self-reflection.

When all our first presenters finished we had a quick Q&A session, where the presenters were asked what from their shared ideas they felt had greatest impact so far on their own practice.  Following this we had our audience break-out into working groups to see what they could come up with using #PoundlandPedagogy resources.  The purpose was to allow the smaller groups to use the resources available to plan ideas they could take away to their own classrooms.  There were some fantastic ideas in the making, however because of our tight twilight schedule we weren't able to share at the end what all the groups had come up with.

The second half of the twilight session was kicked off by yours truly!  I decided to share all the techy treats that keep me sane, with a focus on using Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint and reinforcing the #sharingiscaring mantra already begun by Graeme's presentation.  My quick ideas can be found here - http://prezi.com/gnmk-puisoyh/some-techy-treats/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

After my manic presentation we heard from the Coaching SIG, Gemma Davis and Louise Hay, about what they're doing to help teacher's at FMS help themselves through mentor-coaching. 

This was followed by Jasmine Mulligan's exciting ideas from a 'flailing NQT' (her words, not mine...I think she's completely rational and level headed :-) on motivation in the classroom.  Her wonderful ideas can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8npn5cwcjkvregh/QHSiVTiEFN/TeachMeet%20-%20Tues%2011%20February%202014/JMU%20-%20Best%20Practice%20Stuff.pptx

Danielle Baker and Liz Heatley then shared what the AFL SIG has been working on in terms of Assessment for Learning - to be updated with link to their Prezi.

The afternoon was drawn to a close with a great presentation from Martin Waterman about his use of SAM Learning to engage and motivate GCSE pupils in terms of homework and to cut down on marking time. 

Overall the twilight miniteachmeet was a great success and the Best Practice group are looking forward to our full scale project with the consortium next month.  Thanks to all those who presented and all those who attended.  Any feedback on the twilight please to Graeme Bowden, Sian Hampshire, Claire Williams or me (Vicky Mitchell).

TTFN!