Toolbox Update!

Peer Observation

After completing several observations of a mentor I am going to summarise some of the key points I have taken from his lessons and reflect on what impact they are going to have on my Teaching. 

Key observations: 

Planning:

• Evident planning of session using Blend-space, to pull together resources including videos, assessments, Power-point slides, pictures/diagrams. This allows the content to be added onto the VLE in a neat form, all linked together which makes this a valuable resource for the students. 
• Students arranged into study buddy's, determined by learning styles and mixing learning order. This seems to be well accepted by the students as a strategy to support them to achieve, not enforcing any behaviour issues, but perhaps good behaviour is a by-product of this? 

Teaching/Assessment:

• Use of BlendSpace allows for better flexibility of lesson progress/journey and also invites student engagement, in contrast to a 'death by PowerPoint' lesson. Allows learners to take control of the session.
• Use of purpose games as an individual 'mock exam', creating learning environment with 'chill' music, quiet environment. (A subtle hint towards the environments they could be creating at home.)
• Scores of the tests tracked on a spreadsheet, shown to all, students targets to beat their last score. Lloyd got the students to make an animal noise as loud as they could if they managed to beat their previous score. This really got the students engaged in this process! This tracking process adds value to assessment, an opportunity to monitor and also stretch. 
• Students seem to have a desire to learn, which I believe is instilled into them through the passion in that Lloyd delivers the session, the high paced structure of the session, the constant stretching and challenging fro Lloyd.
• Quality note-taking is positively encouraged and seems to be a basic expectation, opportunities for note taking are clearly identified by Lloyd. Students are sometimes asked to summarise complex topics in their own words and these are shared within the group. 
• Links to social media with a twitter feed set up for the students to use as a question/answer forum. Pintrest used to capture visual ideas, shared with students. 
• Kinaesthetic activity set to identify the structure of a muscle using paper, drinking straws etc. Allowed for H.O stretch by asking to add labels and descriptions. 
• Idea of students supplementing their learning by using the resources on blackboard to cover content, reinforce learning and self-assess. Students seem to buy into the idea and this idea is reinforced through the scoring system associated with the PurposeGames tests. 

Key Points for My Development:

Toolbox Update: 

This includes some of the techniques that I have observed in Lloyd's sessions plus a few others that I have been developing. 

(Click the links to see my examples)

• Blend-Space: I have already started using BlendSpace and am finding it useful to pull together resources and naturally find myself planning more 'blended learning' sessions. 
• Purpose Games: I have been using purpose games for a while, but I am going to experiment with the more formal 'tests' alongside the score tracking, as seen in Lloyd's session. 
• Jimdo: This is a free website creator that I have trialled this year for an assessment with a Level 2 group. Last year the group made a poster and this year they are to make a multi-page website. The websites can be more interactive, with links to games/videos/screen-casts, to help students explain the criteria of the assessment. 
• Screencasting: I have been using screencasting to offer assignment support. I am also planning to use this as an assessment tool, getting the students to create their own videos. 
• Padlet: I have used Padlet several times and am finding it an effective tool that can be used in many formats. I have sued this as a class interactive tool, asking the students to add photos/descriptions/key words onto the wall and also as a presentation task, setting the students the task of filling the wall with information to then present back to the group. This avoided the students simply reading from power point's. 

New Academic Year, New Students, New Challenges!

First, a quick relection on last year. My three main areas of development last year were:
●Assessment for Learning
● Planning
● Differentiaton

AFL

My main aim was to ensure that throughout each lesson I was continually formatively assessing the students understanding. I began with 'beefing' up the initial recap from previous lesson. The importance soon became apparent of linking one session to another, in ways other than the un-stimulating questions such as "So, what did we do last session?!" Then simply waiting for blank looks and awkward silences.

No! These new ideas were based around engaging, paced activites which required the students to actively use the knowledge and skills developed in the previous session. Examples of these activites include:Purpose Games, Articulate & Snowball.

Many of the above mentioned activites were used throughout sessions, to reinforce understanding or as a recap activity to check knowledge. I began creating a tool kit for engaging activities, which range from activites requiring interactive boards, smart phones etc to those that simply require a piece of scrap paper.

Planning

I developed my use of lesson plans, from something which briefly outlined a session, to a document that clearly highlighted the session aims, key information about the group of learners, learning strategies, LSA roles within sessions, formative & summative assessment methods and detailed timings.

The key things I discovered were:

● Learners can often discover or reach conclusions independantly, for instance, I previously planned sessions in the format of; Intro, Explanation of ideas/concepts, activity to reinforce ideas, method of assessment to check understanding and end with a recap. However, with the help of my mentor,  I changed my plans to make the sessions more learner-led. So the new format would be; Intro, activity to discover concepts/form an idea of key concepts, explanation/reinforcement of students idea with facts/concept, assessment and students complete recap.

● We are constantly assessing students throughout sessions in some format, be it direct questioning,  observing group tasks, learning games and actual assessments. I planned for these throughout my sessions.

Differentiation

I previously felt differentiation was a tricky subject and would always rely on "high and low order questioning". I soon found that differentiation was much more and many ways to achieve it.

One of my most used techniques are the traffic light cards, to check for understanding and then using this to stretch the H.O learners ('green cards) by getting them to peer teach the L.O learners ('red cards')

Alongside this I use the 'show me boards' to get a clear idea of learners progress through ranging questions, for example, L.O - Give me 3 parts of a typical plant and H.O Give me 3 parts of a typical, explain their function and their role within photosynthesis.

Looking Ahead

My goals this academic year are to:

● Develop further my use of engaging activities, including at the start endof lessons
● Improve the use of technology within the classroom including the use of Ipads,  Digital Visualiser and BYOD.
● Develop learning outside the classroom using the VLE as an interactive learning resource, linked with social media.

Overall Aim, to develop the tool kit and confidence to deliver Grade 1 Outstanding Lessons.

3...2....1...GO!