Adventures in Teaching and Learning

I attended a fantastic course yesterday. Sitting in the room I was beginning to feel physically uncomfortable, so excited that I felt I was about to burst. I kept wanting to run out of the room and run to school and start putting what I was hearing into practice straightaway; but I knew I was going to learn more, so I was staying put.

Over lunch, I talked nineteen to the dozen with another teacher, both of us enthused, and trying to wolf our food down so we could get back to the seminar. We were bouncing ideas off each other, working out how we could use what we were learning back in our classrooms.

I was already planning my lesson for the following day, and had planned to use it once a week with a group that I have next year that has the potential to be tricky. I already had in mind a pilot group, a report, dissemination, training other teachers.

So what was this course?

Philosophy 4 Children. Obviously, the title gives that away, but I wanted to get across first how much this course had a physical and emotional effect on me. The trainer, Will Ord, from Thinking Education, was excellent. He had a good range of resources, but the best bit was the way he modelled the methods, and explained the pedagogy behind P4C very clearly. One piece of clear evidence that backs up how effective Will was: he asked us to make a “Take Ten” list – ten practical ideas that we could take away and use. I made a list of at least fourteen. And I used one as my starter today, another as a method of sharing ideas (put hand palm upwards as opposed to raising hand), and another as a means of voting (the omnivote – saves having to make sure no one votes twice, let them vote as often as they want!).

So, yes, I did put the ideas into practice straightaway. I teach my Year 7s last lesson on a Friday, and although they are a fantastic class, they can sometimes become a little bit hyper by that time, and not quite as focused. So what better time to try something new?!

As we entered the chapel (I’m lucky to have a quiet place where I don’t have to rearrange the desks), another class began to walk across the playground. I’d forgotten that another teacher was going to bring her class to do some quiet reading about Desmond Tutu in the chapel! So, I decided to make it a joint P4C class. Although this meant there was some shyness from some in my class, they worked together quite well. We started trying to sit down one at a time in silence, queue lots of laughter then some frantic gesturing from those that understood how it could be done more quickly than the others. I then shared as a stimulus an old photo of my grandmother, great grandmother and great great grandmother (most of my class had since this already, but it was new for the other class), then a few pupils shared their first thoughts. In threes, they then came up with some questions, which were then shared with the others in the class. Some of these questions were still about the stimulus (eg Who are they? What year is this?) but others included What is a family? Should we have babies? and Are all families close? Unfortunately, at this point we only managed three comments in response to the chosen question (Should we have babies?: some people want to extend their families, some people are poor, we might not want so many people), so I’ll need to keep a closer eye on time keeping next time, and bear in mind that it takes a while to go over some of the ground rules etc. However, overall, I was quite happy with it for a first go, and hope that I can do that again on Thursday, which will be the next, and last, time I see this group – and I am not due to have them next year, so it may be some time before I see them again.

Can anyone suggest a good stimulus for this last lesson? Maybe something that might encourage us to think about the past year, or something about summer holidays, or about change, or growing … Maybe one of their exercise books, or a photo from earlier in the year when they did a drama about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas? A pair of sunglasses, or a clock? Or maybe I should ask them to all hold hands and pass a squeeze around, or just ask them to think about the whole year? What would you do? (And what would someone who disagrees with you say?)

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.

It’s the end of the year, the time when people reflect on their past year and set resolutions for the new year. So here are the reflections. Resolutions may – or may not! – follow.

January – Made a snowman! Will that feat be repeated this Christmas? Saw Doris Lessing at the Southbank Centre.

February – Loved Sweeney Todd the Barber with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. Earthquake. Had an excellent FairTrade Fortnight Sixth Form RE Conference, which involved baking, football, FairTrade prizes and taste tests, as well educational input from different departments.

March – Enjoyed a lovely Holy Week and Easter Triduum. Discovered the National Gallery. Led some blogging inset at the Marist School – hope everyone is getting on with their blogging! Summarised some of the many excellent teacher and student blogs out there.

April – Collected my marked dissertation. Heard the sad news that Steve Sinnott had died. It snowed in London. Fiona, a friend from home, visited, and had fun being tourists in London, visiting the British Museum, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern and others. Samson and I watched the London Marathon. My friend Bridget got married. Appeared, with my Year 7 class, on Teachers’ TV.

May – The weather improved dramatically. Saw Chris Rock at the O2. Found the Awesome Highlighter website (which I haven’t really used, so I’m posting this here to remind me!). Spent ages surfing the net and writing about the applications I found there. Enjoyed meeting up with the TTP second cohort to talk about my experiences of Web 2.0. Started some classes on Web 2.0 for teachers at school. Took my Year 9s to the National Gallery as part of a Learning Outside the Classroom project.

June – Discovered Wordle! Presented a session on blogging at the Sixth Form Conference. Visited the Thames Barrier. Went to the Anthony Clark’s ordination as a deacon.

July – Samson’s book, The Jive Talker, was published! Read the reviews here, and buy a copy from Amazon here! The second cohort of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme had a lovely meal. I graduated with my Masters (MA in Education: Teaching and Learning) from Middlesex University. Weather was still very hot and humid. Enjoyed the Doctor Who Prom. Started making videos of clouds, taken using my camera and a tripod. Enjoyed lots of balmy evening walks during the summer holidays. Went paddling at the V&A pool. Bliss. Visited Westminster Cathedral to take photos for the department. Finished the month with the launch of the Jive Talker at Rivington Place.

August – The Jive Talker was published in North America (and can be bought on Amazon here). Discovered the Thames Cruiser. Went to a wedding reception. Enjoyed the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, and then fulltime coverage, all day, every day! Went to Brighton for the day. Went back home to Scotland for a holiday. Met my little Canadian cousin for the first time. One particularly good day was when we travelled through Fife, visiting the Deer Centre, and my old university town of St Andrews.

September – Celebrated my birthday. Back to school! Very busy, but in a good way. We attended the launch of the New Art Exchange, where Samson was taking part in the opening exhibition, Next We Change Earth.

October – The term did not get any quieter! I became Acting Head of Department, so even more work! Visited East Dulwich for the first time, with a family friend. Visited the Saatchi Gallery. Enjoyed teaching my Year 7 Integrated (Humanities) Curriculum about China. Saw Toni Morrison at the Southbank Centre.

November – Went to the Diocesan Heads of RE Conference. Found PhotoBox and Fotonauts. Went to Martin Creed’s flat/exhibition in Brick Lane. Enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Collected together a lot of different Advent resources. Very excited about the election of Barack Obama, as were all the pupils at school.

December – Have enjoyed meeting up with friends, and look forward to meeting up with more friends and family over the next few weeks. We had a lovely carol service today at school, and I am delighted to finally be on holiday! My camera has pretty much given up over the past few months, so I’m hoping to get a new one to record many of the exciting and interesting events that I expect to experience throughout 2009 – starting with the birth of my first niece or nephew!

Thank you for visiting my blog, whether for the first time today, or regularly over the past year, and I hope to be able to share some of my further adventures in teaching and learning, particularly involving Web 2.0, over the next 12 months. I wish you all a very peaceful and joyful Christmas and a happy New Year!

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It’s the beginning of Advent, so I have just spent the past couple of hours researching Advent wreaths, calendars and Jesse Trees to share with my classes at school. I am not going to type them all out again, instead, here are the links to the relevant posts on my RE hub blog:

Jesse Tree

Advent Calendars

Advent Wreaths

Please do let me know if you find any of these links useful, and if you know of any other good sites that I can add, that would be brilliant!

Have a very happy Advent!

I have found this link to an interactive Jesse Tree, which explains the symbols that are placed on the Jesse Tree each day during Advent. Since my Year 8s have been studying “Covenant”, I think this will be particularly helpful for them, but I also hope to show it to my Year 7s and my Year 9 form as well.

There is also an excellent St Nicholas Advent Calendar from the Culham Institute that I am delighted to be able to share with you all!

Have a happy and hopeful Advent!

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.

I bought a copy of the TES today, noticing that the magazine featured a special ICT feature. Have just realised that it is actually a copy of last week’s TES, but at least the articles are still relevant!

One feature was about using digital images and Flickr. I found this interesting, as our school routinely blocks Flickr, since students can access so many images, some of which may be inappropriate. I have, however, arranged to have it unblocked for a lesson on Monday, when I am going to get my Year 7s to use its search facility to find an appropiate image to illustrate baptism. Do other schools block Flickr? Are there other teachers out there who use Flickr in their teaching? I would love to know how it is used in other schools.

Another aspect of using ICT in the classroom that I have explored earlier on this blog is the use of podcasts (it’s great to hear about Janet’s new podcasting adventure with her French department – follow the link on her previous comment to listen to her podcasts!). Another article in the TES magazine was about turning revision notes into podcasts. Some schools in the Barnsley area have even given out MP3 players in order to encourage students to listen to the podcasts and therefore revise and learn at any time. Bacause a number of schools are involved, there are already a substantial number of podcasts covering a wide range of subjects to choose from. Interestingly, at our Year 9 Curriculum Evening last week, one of the tutor groups came up with the idea of students producing podcasts, presumably at home, to help them revise their notes, as one of the ways parents could help support Year 9 independent learning at home.

I discovered this evening, while listening to Radio 4, that it’s National Poetry Day today. So I am going to attempt to write a poem for my entry today.

Excitement. Enthusiasm. Expectation.
Lesson logged,
Rehearsal ready.

Bell rings …
I walk to the room, to the computer suite,
all glistening, chairs nice and neat;
Pupils arrive, smartly dressed, keen to learn …
We line up …
five, six, seven, eight …
We wait for the boys;
They have had a fun day today,
linking sport and literacy;
(Ideal on National Poetry Day!)
But I had expected them, still, to arrive,
to practice, to prepare, to prevent problems
later.

I decide to start the lesson, then find out where they are.

We get on the computers, check passwords,
log on …
here’s the web address …
wait for it, wait for it …
What do you mean it’s not opening? What do you mean it’s blocked?
A matchmaking site?!
Oh dear.
I fear we will not be able to complete our work today.
Let’s look elsewhere … something useful …
But still. Our preparation has been less than purposeful.

Newly nervous.
Quietly quaking.
Worrying. Watching. Waiting.

So my first lesson on blogging with my Year 7s didn’t go quite as planned! Still, it had been intended to throw up any issues, and one of them is making sure that the blog websites themselves are accessible to students on their log-ins. This should be sorted out first thing tomorrow morning. Shame that the boys couldn’t make it, although I’m sure they’ve had a great day and will have learnt loads. And the girls who were there saw the blog and seemed to be a bit interested in having their own blogs as well, perhaps as a group where they could help each other. We’ll see if we can get that off the ground. Some of the pupils knew a bit about blogs already, although it was new to some of the other ones. Hopefully they’ll be able to have a look at the blog at home over the weekend. I’ll keep an eye out for any new comments!

Well, I eventually had to come up with one, and I think this is it …

“An investigation into the effectiveness of using blended media, in particular blogging, in supporting AfL with a KS3 (probably Year 7) RE class.”

Any comments appreciated!

I am loving blogging, but most people on the course are not blogging that much, and most people I have spoken to over the past couple of days have been quite sceptical about the benefits of blogging. It’s difficult to find blogs that really seem to support Assessment for Learning, although I have been impressed by the Nodehill Middle School RE blog. I therefore plan on seeing if I can use it in an effective way that supports pupil learning, and in order to do that I will set up a Year 7 blog and try to get time in an ICT room once a week for two or three weeks at the start of term. Might be a bit hard to get it all done and written up before 1 October though!

Well, I’ve had my last lesson with the Year 7s in the ICT room today. They are due to show me their www.spresent.com presentations on Wednesday. I hope I will be able to copy down their urls / embed codes and share some with you next week. However, first of all they have to complete their presentations – and unfortunately there are some pupils who will still have open a new account and work out by themselves what to do.

However, I had a whole row of pupils who had logged on and were working out how to use spresent. A couple asked if they could use powerpoint instead, since they knew what to do with that, but I explained that they would be able to access this presentation anywhere. Some pupils were getting frustrated that they couldn’t copy and paste text, but I showed them ctrl c and ctrl v and that fixed that problem. One girl couldn’t copy her picture from the internet, but I showed her how to copy the url of the site with the picture, and then we inserted a web image, so that was sorted.

A couple of pupils thought it looked a bit boring … until I showed them how to change the background and the font, then they got more interested!

But the best bit was when one girl asked how to do something the boy sitting next to her had done, and he offered to teach her how to insert the text book if she showed him how to insert a picture from the web!

So I am hopeful that there might be at least three or four good presentations that I will be able to share with you …