Adventures in Teaching and Learning

Just found another new site …

Beliefs and Values

I have made a set of flashcards on Quizlet. There are a number of games and ways to revise and test the terms. I’m going to add it to our new Fronter site and see how my year 10s get on.

I am busily trying to produce resources that I can upload to Fronter. Here is a Wordle for Matthew 5:17 – 7:5.

title="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/701562/Matthew_5%3A17_-_7%3A5_NIV"
alt="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

As well as producing visual images such as these, I have been using CompFight (bizarre name, great tool) to find Flickr images that are Creative Commons, then I have used SimplyBox to quickly store them so I can access them whenever I want. I have also made some of my own images, which I have saved in my own Flickr resource set. Later, I shall save some of these presentations (which I am making using Keynote) to Slideshare.

Emmm … not long left of January! It’s not that nothing has happened this month, more that I have been too busy to blog! However, it’s good to be back!

My main exciting event this year so far was the birth of my nephew, Leo, on 14 January. I have been back up once to Scotland to visit him – thanks Megabus for providing a cheap and cheerful way to travel north suddenly! – and I look forward the next visit. His mum (my sister) is also a teacher, but I’ve not managed to get her blogging yet. Shame; that could be an interesting comparison. Life as a music teacher in Tayside as opposed to an RE teacher in London. Anyway. She has other things on her mind now, and I’m guessing not too much time on her hands!

I have just come across an interesting post using Wordle, to add to my previous explorations in that area. Miles Berry and Terry Freedman recently completed some research into how children use technology at home, and the Wordles make very interesting viewing. A really nice way to summarise research findings as well. Wish I’d known about them when I was writing up my Masters! (Now, there’s an interesting challenge … what would my literature review or findings look like as a Wordle? A task for another day, perhaps!) I found these posts through a link from htjoshua (Jocelyn Chappell) on Twitter …

Other than that, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to RE Today which has given me some great ideas for lessons recently. First of all, the last edition of the magazine came with a free CD ROM on the Jewish Way of Life, which has proved invaluable in teaching my Year 7s about Shabbat and being a young Jewish person as part of our reading of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in our Integrated Curriculum course. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to all RE teachers! There is so much information on the CD ROM and the pupils found it engaging; they also enjoyed some of the interactive tasks, and it provided an excellent stimulus for questions. I learnt loads too, and will definitely be using it lots in the future!

Secondly, there was a very interesting article about a lesson on Transubstantiation and the Eucharist, which suggested videos to watch and a song to teach the students, set to the tune of My Girl by the Temptations. I therefore had a couple of fun lessons with my Year 10s this week, who enjoyed watching the Prince of Egypt and (I think!) watching me singing about transubstantiation, -ation, -ation while dancing in an embarrassing way. At least one pupil said “Thanks for the lesson, Miss!”, which was nice as well!

Lovely to have used new technologies in such straightforward and helpful ways this week.

Today I am sharing with you my podbean account. I have recorded a few episodes that my GCSE auditory learners can download and listen to, rather than reading the Revision Guide. I’ve linked the podbean site to my GCSE blog, so the episodes do not use up lots of room on my blog.

It will be interesting to see how many of my students decide to take advantage of these audible revision aids. I might include one as a voki on my site to encourage them to see what’s available as well … If anyone else is teaching Edexcel Catholic Christianity, feel free to use them too.

NOTE: I’ve since discovered Amy’s GeographyRocks podbean account, which has some great student interviews about migration! An excellent example of how podcasting can be used with students to share ideas.

We had the first of four Feast Days at school today, and it was my form’s. I was therefore very priveleged to be able to hear Mark Prince talk about the killing of his son, Kiyan. I was only there for the second part of the talk, when Mark was answering questions, but the answers were very moving. The students were also obviously moved and challenged by his talk about how he lost his son when he was stabbed outside school. I hope that all the pupils, and many others throughout London, will be able to hear first hand how knives can affect families.

Wow! I had my Mediator training last night, and to be honest, I didn’t sign up for it the first time, but I’m glad I did, because it’s great! I was up until after midnight last night trying to produce some nifty pictures that when you hover over them other images and text appear. Was looking forward to showing my class this morning as the starter and plenary.

Unfortunately, the disk I made last night did not automatically run when I put it in the DVD drive! What did I do wrong? Judy, any pointers? And should it also work on a Mac? Because it didn’t work on my husband’s last night …

Looking forward to getting these glitches ironed out, because I can see lots of potential for Mediator!

For my GCSE classes. Keynotes presentation, exported to quicktime, using pictures drawn on DigiMemo and coloured using PhotShop Elements.Parable presentation (parable_sheep_goats.mov)

The main use I have been making of my MacBook recently is in writing my Literature Review (2000 words down, 4000 to go). However, I have been trying out Bluetooth, bluetoothing files between computers, which is fun – nice and easy, no need for the memory sticks, taking things out of the USB ports and putting them elsewhere.

I have also made an iMovie of the Easter Saturday Vigil at church. I recorded the beginning, where the priest blesses the fire outside and lights the Paschal Candle. I’ve added some subtitles to break up the “monotony” of the long talking bit, and I’ve added some pictures at the end. Perhaps I should try to add some music to finish off the production? Gregorian chants, anyone? I have some photos at the end, but I’m having difficulty getting smooth and seamless transitions … is there a knack to it? When I click on the Transitions section it doesn’t seem to add the movement (ripple effect or whatever) that I want. Anyway, I’m going to copy it onto disk for my priest, and hopefully show it to my GCSE class when I go back as a reminder of the Easter service that they need to be able to describe for the exams. The priest also says that someone made a recording of the main service that he’ll try and get for me … then I can try and add bits more! How exciting! A useful resource for the pupils!

Just out of interest, is anyone else using Fronter? How can we share documents there? I’ve added some documents, but I don’t know if anyone else can see them.

I’ve particularly enjoyed using Comic Life and Photo Booth this evening … but am concerned that I can’t get any sound on crazy talk. All my plans for a talking Jeremy Bentham are going astray!

It’s been fun getting the Mac and getting to fiddle around with a variety of applications. I suppose soon I’ll need to sit down and work out exactly what I want to do as my research. I have three groups in particular that I’m thinking of. For my AS class, I think I will try to create some iMovies for revision purposes. Could be embarrassing though! Ethics is not my strongest area of subject knowledge. Secondly, my Year 7 class has major issues with behaviour … anything that might help to grab their attention away from each other and onto the subject would be great. Finally, my Year 10s … I want to support their exam technique, perhaps using the Digiboards. (Is that what they’re called?)

My other issue is that I can’t connnect to the internet at the moment! I hope I can fix that sooner rather than later … very frustrating to have to swap between two computers all the time eg when using Flickr. Hope I’m not frustrated for too long.