Saturday 10 November 2012

SMART steps to Outstanding!

I am going to concentrate the next few posts on a few areas I am going to develop to hopefully go towards achieving my goal of 'Outstanding' and an improved teaching practice.

I am going to focus on the following:

1) Assessment for Learning
2) Planning
3) Differentiation

So, What is Outstanding?

Up until recently I was pretty unsure of what and 'Outstanding' lesson was made up of, how much planning was required?
How many differentiating activities did you have to include? How snazzy did the presentations have to be? And so on...

It was only when I recently observed my mentors session did I realise that although an 'Outstanding' lesson may include some of these things but in my opinion it is all about feeling.

Whilst observing the session I really felt a sense of a 'buzz' within the room, I felt that I was learning and was having a great time doing it.





Thursday 8 November 2012

Post- Observation Post!

After an observation on Monday, I am going to use this post as a reflection.

Group: Level 3 Extended Diploma Fisheries Management.

Unit: Undertake and Review Work Experience.

A mixed age and ability group, with some strong characters within. Some students have minor behaviour issues so often have to be managed.

Aims and objectives:

To identify good and bad interview techniques.

To produce a 3-5 minute video demonstrating a good/bad interviewer/ interviewee.

I launched the aims and objectives verbally, however could have noted them down on the board so visible at all times.

The plan!

I planned to split the group into 4 groups, mixing ability and confidence as well as splitting up friendship groups and students that are easily distracted by one another.

The groups were given the task of producing a good/bad interview techniques mind map. After a few moments, group 1 and 2 got straight into writing some ideas down and group 3 and 4 were struggling little. So I gave some ideas/encouragement to both groups and set group 3 a target of 10 ideas for each and group 4 15 for each. I differentiated between the two as group 3 had slightly weaker members than group 4, who I believe were simply struggling to put ideas down on paper.

After about 10 minutes I had each group feedback answers to the rest of the group and recorded ideas on the whiteboard. I tried to develop their ideas and ask for examples to relate to where appropriate.

I then introduced the video task, and each group were given the task of planning and making a 3-5 minute video. Each team had to assign each person a role: interviewer, interviewee or camera man.

During the planning stage they were instructed to identify which good/bad techniques they were to use, write a rough time plan of topics/actions and write some questions and answers to be used.

Half way through the planning, to give some encouragement and ideas, a short clip was shown from YouTube. This seemed quite effective in idea generation.

Once each group completed, they were assigned a room and video camera and had 30 minutes to film. Each group had I return by 12 to show the final copy of their video.

The videos were then shown on the interactive board to the rest of the Group and discussed after each video.

At the end of the session, I asked some directed questions about good/bad interview techniques.

Review:

Behaviour:
Student behaviour was good on the whole, 3 students had to be reminded several times to put mobile phones away.

During discussions, some students had to brought back on topic as the conversation was close to becoming inappropriate.

Engagement:
During the mind mapping, I had to encourage some students to be involved and suggest ideas. I then made sure that I questioned these during the feedback to ensure they were contributing.

In the video task I felt that everyone was engaged in the task, as they all had an important role to undertake.

Embedding:
Literacy and numeracy were embedded by each group completing a planning task and writing interview Q+A.

E+D was touched on during the feedback session, where one student raised the point about possibly not wanting to be interviewed by someone because of sex or race.

Assessment:
I used formative assessment of Q+A, mind maps, video planning.

Summative assessment was of the completed video.

I am Awaiting my feedback and will update once received.

Tom

Thursday 18 October 2012

Reflecting on: Past.... Analysing: Present.

So I have been teaching for a few years now and the approach I have always tried to take with education consists of three main points:

Make it fun and enjoyable wherever possible.
Have an student centrered approach.
Keep the techniques varied.
 
 
Reflecting on my own experieince, I certainly knew what I didnt want to become! I also always knew that my overall aim was to be an 'Outstanding' teacher, so all I had to discover now was the part inbetween!
 
In my previous role as a Learning Support Co-Ordinator, I observed and supported many teaching sessions accross a variety of courses and levels. This formed a great base from me to build my teaching style and technique.
 
During this time I saw a lot of 'good' sessions, from which I gained a lot of ideas and techniques to use in my own teaching. I also observed a lot of things that didnt work quite as well and would always try to think of improvements which I could have made.
 
 
 
 
 



Friday 12 October 2012

So here goes...

I have decided to set up this blog to allow me to discuss my thoughts and reflect upon my own teaching practice, without talking to myself and seeming completley mad! I plan to evaluate post-lesson and discuss new strategies and techniques that I am trying.

Start with what you already know...

So, I shall begin with visiting my own past experiences of learning. When I think back to my days at school, I can remember my favourite teacher at school was 'Mr Backhouse'.  Mr B' taught English, I never really enjoyed English during school untill I had Mr B' in Year 10. I had a great deal of respect for him, as did I feel respected by him. He clearly had a great passion for the subject and had a lot of energy during our lessons. I remember that during our English literature class, whilst reading the 'Of Mice and Men' Novel, he turned something that was for me a potencially boring task of reading this book, into something exciting, gripping and during the rest of the week I would be looking forward to continuing with the novel.

My least favouite was Maths during Year 8. This session was the same everyweek. Powerpoint - Teacher Talk Through Powerpoint - Students complete pages from textbook. Talking was discouraged and watching paint dry seemed a far more fulfilling experience.




So from this I have always tried to identify 1) What makes the 'Good Teachers' Good? and 2) How can I learn from what made some of the teachers 'Not so Good'?

In my next post I will reflect on my own teaching practices to date.

Tom