Adventures in Teaching and Learning

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!

Remembrance Poems

Originally uploaded by vikellis.

Hope this works … wanted to draw everyone’s attention to the excellent Poppy Man that Victoria Ellis’ Citizenship pupils made last week – follow the link from the poems to see the Poppy Man, made up of many poetry poppies. A great piece of work, I’m sure you’ll agree!

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’m very tired, so this may be a bit hazy, but I wanted to blog today.

Took my Year 8 group into the computer room today (different group from the ones using spresent, and incidentally I’ve not seen any completed presentations yet …). Wanted to show them a couple of videos that they have produced, and which I made this morning into a Mediator presentation, but unfortunately what had worked earlier on a different computer did not work on the necessary computer in my particular room. Hmph. Anyway, I had set up four tasks for the pupils on the Year 8 Blog, and only one required them to actually watch the videos. So I asked them to log on and to try and complete the other tasks, in any order.

Unfortunately, because I was also trying to fix the video programme, I wasn’t able to explain as well as I would have liked. However, most pupils at one point or another visited the link to the internet safety website. Most pupils at one point were on the comments task as well.

However, at the end of the day, when I went to moderate all the comments, there were only six entered! (And one was empty …) So there’s still some work to be done there … most didn’t seem to have any prior knowledge of blogs, so I’ll need to bear that in mind when I’m planning my research project. I do think that there’s potential, though, so I’m going to stick with it. Next Friday is Sports’ Day, so the Friday after that, I hope to get them blogging again. Let’s hope they actually submit it this time though!

Janet was there to see what we were doing and to help out. It definitely helps having more than one person in the room, especially since the pupils ask for a lot of help to begin with. It’s great to have someone to bounce ideas off!

(I’m glad the blog is back up and running again!)

Last lesson of the last day before half term. How might you imagine that?

Well, yes, it was a bit hectic at times, and I’m sure anyone walking past would have wondered what was going on. However, at the end of the day I was able to sit down and show our Head of Year, and another form tutor, some quite moving and honest work, one piece the result of two boys whom you would not necessarily imagine working together. I’m hoping to get their permission to show you the resulting CrazyTalk animation.

The other group worked on another roleplay, which I look forward to editing later. I’d really like them to edit it, but it is hard trying to give everyone an opportunity to use the computer.

It was also good to have the TA again in the lesson. He was able to work with the group recording inside while I supervised the actors outside. It was also an advantage having another beautiful sunny day!

I’m trying to think of what I can do with that group after the holidays. I think we ought to have another project, but I’m not sure what. I wonder if there is a computer room free now that the Year 11s have left? Maybe I could trial my blogging research?!

I was delighted to join Janet with a small group of top set Year 8s yesterday to see how she is using ICT as part of her PGCE project. To begin with, the five students came up with some of the phrases, in Spanish, that they would want to use in a tour of the school. I was very impressed with their vocabulary, ideas, grammar and accents. They then had about ten minutes to write out a short script that they could refer to if stuck. Pupils asked great questions, such as “How do you say, ‘My favourite subject is …’?” After about 20 minutes in the room planning their short tour, they left in two groups, each armed with a Canon PowerShot camera (or whatever it’s called!) and went off to record. I accompanied the girls, who went to the front gate and welcomed visitors to the school. We recorded along the top corridor, and interviewed one of the assistant heads (a very ad hoc interview, but fun nonetheless!). Janet will make these videos and photos into a short film of the school, including Spanish subtitles, which will be able to be used in school to teach school vocabulary. It also has the potential of being used in the case of a link with a Spanish-speaking school.

I was very impressed with this practical and helpful use of ICT. It was not an add-on or an extra – it promoted the use of the target language, it inspired creativity, it made the language learning extremely practical because the audience was clear, and it was a fun way of extending G&T pupils that will support others. It was also clear that the pupils were highly engaged. I hope to see the final product, which I am sure will be very professional.

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the attitude and behaviour of my Year 8 class today. I had invited Janet, the MfL BT, to visit the class, and they had a TA in as well, and unfortunately some of them began acting in a defensive and out-of-character manner from the beginning. I had spent the previous lesson outlining the task, and briefly reminded them of the task at the beginning – they were then given about 10 mins to plan their message, and told that they could use a variety of methods to get that message across. The pupil who has been using the DigiMemo immediately got on with that, using PhotoShop again to try and complete his first character, and a pupil who was absent last week wrote a script that they will record next week. The larger group of boys who wanted to make another film went outside to practice their next drama production, but were not as focused as before. Another couple of groups took the camera to take some photos for a comic, but then the batteries ran out, and I had no spares! So, all in all, there was not much progress this week! Disappointing. I hope that next week – the last lesson before half term – they will be able to produce something quickly!

A couple of Year 8s came at lunch today to draw on the DigiMemo, and to see it being animated. Unfortunately I couldn’t manage to record on CrazyTalk, but I’ll figure that out when I’ve got a moment. They plan on colouring in the figure using PhotoShop Elements, then animating that cartoon figure. I look forward to seeing the end product … the important thing now is to transfer the “fun” part of playing around into a “serious” and educational end result. Wonder what will happen on Friday … I continue to invite other teachers to that class!

After last week’s fun (for me, anyway!) lesson, today I showed them the fruits of their labour. And they seemed suitably impressed! It was satisfying to see their faces as they watched the “stop the shooting” video. They seemed keen that I should show it to other classes, but not so keen that it goes on the internet! I outlined the way they can achieve a higher AT2 RE level, and shared with them some of the different ways they can present their message next week. One pupil was very excited about the idea of CrazyTalk, and asked if he could bring in a cartoon that he will draw next week. I showed him the DigiMemo, which he loved, so I think with him we’ll be animating a hand-drawn (and Photoshopped!) cartoon character … now all his group needs to work on is the message and the script, and argue about who will record the message! He says he’ll be back on Monday lunchtime, and Tuesday, and Wednesday … we’ll see, but it’s great to see the enthusiasm and excitement. I just hope I can pull it off now, and get them all on task next week with some clear results (and good levels) at the end of it!

I wish I could share the video I made on MovieMaker with you. I took the film and the photos from Friday’s Year 8 lesson on Modern Day Prophets, put them together using MovieMaker, added the P Diddy track “Missing You”, added credits, and came up with a not bad little 3 minute movie. I showed it to a couple of the pupils who are in the film, and they were suitably impressed … “That’s sick, Miss!” was their reaction to the slow-mo effect when one of the main characters died. I’m looking forward to sharing it with the class on Friday … and to challenge them to improve on it themselves!