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!

 

Display for Learning

Guest Post from @Mrs_Hampshire

DISPLAYS FOR LEARNING

Display play a vital role in the classroom, not just to promote a positive and inviting learning environment but also to develop individual’s learning.  Displays should be interactive and be incorporated into students’ day to day learning experience.

Interactive displays: Some examples

1)      Climbing the level ladder

This works by monitoring student progress throughout the academic year.

Students design their own counter (in this case I asked students to design their own flag).  This is then given a code (for teacher reference) and placed at the stage students are working at after the first data capture.  Throughout the year students take responsibility for moving their counters as they progress throughout the level.  This allows students to get a deeper satisfaction from their achievement and allows them to track where they are in relation to others in their year (each flag is backed to illustrate year group), adding an element of competition.

 

 

       2)      Have you hit your target grade?

This works in a similar way to the level ladder, although aimed at KS4 students.  If students are on or above their target grade they should be on the bullseye.  For every grade below their target students are moved a ring out.  This can take the same format as the level ladder (with students having counters) or names can be used.

3)      How successful were you in achieving your objective?

This works as part of a self-evaluation task at the end of lessons.  Students should evaluate their learning in the lesson by considering WWW and EBI.  They should then relate this to their objective and decide how successful they were in achieving their personal objective.  On the way out of the room they place their name on the target to illustrate their success (e.g. place on the bullseye if they feel their objective has been fully achieved)

 

4)      Short thoughts

This works by giving students a resource to provoke their thought on a topic related to the lesson (this could be an image, graph, question, key term etc) and students are to write their initial ideas onto a post-it note.  This post-it is placed on the short thought board (can be discussed as a class) and then returned to at the end of the lesson.  Students are, at the end of the lesson/activity, to reflect on whether their initial thoughts were correct and can use ‘purple pens of progress’ (previously discussed) to improve their work.  This is an excellent way to illustrate progress throughout the course of a lesson.

 

5)      Student of the month

This is designed to praise student achievement.  Names are clearly displayed in the classroom for the month with an explanation for choice.  This promotes a positive attitude to learning and increases student aspirations.

6)      Word wall

Try having a wall of subject specific key terms or connective words.  These can either be as a visual aid to refer to at different points in a lesson or can be a resource from which students can go and select words which are relevant to the task and their target level.  These words, sentence starters etc can then be taken back to their desks and be used to aid the development of written pieces.

Displays don’t have to be where work completed is evidenced.  Yes it is important to show exemplar work but it is equally important that it stands out (try making 3-D displays) and is a tool for student development.