The Longest Journey Starts With A Single Step

I am spending some time working my way through my rather neglected Google Reader feeds. Each and every one included has value in education and has been added by me because they have provided an insight or an idea that I have been grateful for.

Reading them is not a chore, fitting the time in has become a problem. But only because I spend too much of that trying to plan what to do with it!

So, first step to taking control of my time and information flow – Reader will be checked every morning. Instead of watching adverts and personal stories of variable quality on TV over breakfast I will open up Google and have a quick flick through what’s new.

Time found!

I’ve bust my shoulder falling on the ice so I’m home and attempting to amuse myself.  The tv’s on and my laptop is open.  Now that’s just any normal evening – the only reason I feel the need to justify it tonight is because it’s Friday and I feel that I ought to be out somewhere.  Who am I trying to kid?  I’ve got TMBett201o streaming live, courtesy of Twitcam and @eyebeams , Facebook is providing a constant stream of news concerning the weekend exploits of friends and family and Twitter is giving me live updates from the education world and beyond.  All of this from the comfort of my sofa with a cup of tea and a heat pack on my shoulder.  I’m as happy as I could be right now.

So what’s wrong?

Once again I am receiving more information than I can handle.  There are too many things to try and I want to do them all at once.  TeachMeet is adding  to this list, so as well as inspiring me with tales of excellent classroom practice and fabulous new learning and teaching tools, my mind is once again trying to find a space to store all of these ideas or more accurately – a way to fit them all in next week.  So to get started I went to the Glow login.  That’s when I realised that this post was necessary.

The trouble is I find it difficult to focus on one thing at a time.  My head is full of projects that I can’t start because I cannot choose which one to try.  I believe this is more about not wanting to put all the other ideas on hold rather than not being inspired enough by one.

This is really a reminder to myself that I need to set goals and targets at the beginning of each term.

Time to regroup and prioritise again.  I haven’t done this properly since I had to write personal profile statements for GTCS.  Tomorrow I am going to keep a log of all the ideas floating around, conceptions or projects already in progress.  Then on Sunday I will set my own targets for the rest of the term.  Hopefully if I can see in a straight line then my classes will benefit from a more consistent effort.

Will keep you posted.

I’m doing a presentation on Tuesday and one of the key phrases that I am going to say out loud is that assessment is not the million dollar solution to Curriculum for Excellence that we are waiting for.  Now, I’m going to wear my waterproofs to protect me from the rotten fruit and veg bound to head my way but nothing’s going to stop the glares and looks of absolute disbelief.

The great thing is though:

I finally believe it’s true.

For a long time I have wanted to believe that the abolishment of external, final exams is the right thing to do.  I have always felt that it is fundamentally wrong to test pupil’s knowledge and 12 years of learning with 1 hour summative assessment.  On the flip side I have been unable to conjure any idea of what assessment should look like.  To be honest I’m still struggling with that but I can now look forward to the challenge because I finally understand my own role.

School curricula for too long has focussed on the goal being to pass as many exams as possible, the elite head to uni, the middle to college or apprenticeships and the bottom plough through and hope for the best from their handful of foundation grades.  Great improvements have been made with the continued implementation of vocational and practical courses.  The emphasis, however, has remained on channelling as many as possible down an academic route and adding extras for other learners.  Curriculum for Excellence goes one step further and asks teachers to provide learning suitable to every learner.

How do we know what to teach if there is no final goal?  A war cry from those, and until recently me, who need assessment to be fixed so that they know “what” to teach.  This is my real revelation to date because I have realised that:

 I know what to teach regardless of the final assessment. 

Nobody has ever suggested that we should be changing the content of our courses.  Indeed it would be difficult to create a brand new maths syllabus, the nuts and bolts of number, algebra and geometry are not changing and are essential to future learning.  Each step leads logically to the next and the extent of learning is now limited only by the ability of the pupils.  I agree that a structure must be imposed to learning to ensure that pupils are gaining a breadth of learning and that records of achievement for each pupil are essential and I’m not sure how that will look either but I am now confident that I have the tools and resources to move forward.

In my toolbox I have textbooks, worksheets and schemes of work, all of which offer comprehensive structure to suit learning maths through relevant age and stage levels in an ordered manner which builds upon previous learning and provides essential numeracy and mathematical skills.  In addition I have a plethora of ICT and interactive tools including games, concrete apparatus and links to real life.  Add to all that co-operative learning and formative assessment strategies and chuck in a bit of investigation, outdoor learning and fun and I reckon I might just make it through.

If I use all the tools that I have and maintain the pace and challenge I now believe that I can ensure that the learners in my classroom will be ready for whatever the National Assessment Resource can throw at them.

My first foray into using the video camera to engage pupils in mathematics.

image from http://www.flipcamera.co.uk/

My department recently purchased a Flip video camera from Amazon at my request.  My head is full of ideas about self evaluation, presentations, pupil interviews, screencasting, etc – the trouble as always for me is where to start.

So here’s what I’m going to do first.
The main aim is to engage pupils in their learning by making them believe that maths is all around us and truly important to our everyday lives.  My target audience is S1-S3.

The plan is to video various scenes in and around Thurso and set the pupils discussion tasks to answer the title question.

I’m going to start with the obvious;

• Retail displays including offers, discounts and deals.
• In the supermarket I’m heading for the fruit and veg aisle for weights, budgets, conversions, ratio.
• Off to the estate agent window for rent and mortgage info which I will follow up with household bills.
• The bank will provide some negative numbers, personal finance and some complicated percentage calculations in the form of compound interest and APR.
• Off down the river for an introduction to vectors which I learned about teaching the cadets last month.
• A wander in the park to look at Fibonacci, the golden ratio and maths in nature courtesy of Marcus du Sautoy and Teacher’s TV.
• Finish with a closer look at some of the buildings and architecture in Caithness – this may well be worth a trip to Dounreay to get the dome close up.

The more I think about this, the more excited I get – again, it’s an idea that has been bubbling around for a while.
If all goes well, I’d like to then send the pupils on a mission to record their own videos – around the school to begin with and then further afield.

What have I missed?  Your ideas to enrich this project would be more than welcome.

Many thanks to Tom Barrett and his amazing Interesting Things series.

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I’ve put this presentation together as an introduction to using a SMART Board in the classroom.

It is my intention that users will be able to use this as a guide and work through the excellent material already available online.

I would appreciate any comments that you have.

Many Thanks in advance.

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The idea has been bubbling away nicely all summer and last week my thoughts finally pulled together into a feasible learning experience.

Based on discussions with the class, the restrictions of hardware and software, advice from my PLN and the curriculum restraints this is what I have chosen to trial this term.

There will be 2 leagues.

The first is a competitive league where 8 pupils at a time will race their tennis stars in a classroom battle.

How?  I have set aside 8 of the DS devices which I am hoping I will be allowed to retain in my classroom solely for the use of the project until at least Easter.  The pupils have chosen to name the consoles after tennis players (yes, Wimbledon was on at the time).  The league has been drawn up on a point basis.  The game will work out winners and points and the pupils will record these.  For now I will keep the info in a Google spreadsheet with a view to possibly getting the pupils to duplicate the worksheet in an ICT lab.

What learning outcomes am I addressing here?

• reading tables, graphs and charts
• draw conclusions and explain them from data
• take an organised approach to solving problems

We will have 2 races each session, hopefully 6 sessions this term.
2 each time to ensure the whole class has the opportunity to play.

This will leave us time in the last week to draw our conclusions.

The second tournament will be a time trial competition.

Within the game there are 8 characters who each have 2 cars and 4 cups which each have 4 tracks.
This leaves a lot of space for trial and improvement of the project.

So we’re going to attack the first track in each cup with each player’s 2 cars – that’s 64 races – that’s more than enough for 1 term.  This is an individual game so I’ll have to be careful about who’s getting to play.  The pupils will be able to choose which character, car and cup to race until all of the blanks in the posters are filled in.

Each time trial gives overall time and best lap data which will both be recorded.  The times are given in minutes, seconds and then decimal up to 1/1000 of a second.  This will set up learning outcomes about time beyond expectations of the course.  Extending easily into time calculations, we can also consider rounding, averages and further organisation skills.

So let the races begin!

Your feedback as always would be greatly appreciated.

We have known from school records across the country, for a long time now that pupils can falter as they enter S1 from primary school.  Of course the kids are all different; some thrive on the new challenges of a large comprehensive secondary school, some simply don’t manage to progress much in the first few months and some unfortunate souls find the transition so hard that they can fall behind in their classwork because every ounce of effort they can muster goes into survival.

As a school we have certainly not been sitting back and watching this happen.  We have, and many of you will be familiar with these strategies I’m sure, tried to ease the transition process in ways which I have blogged about before.

This year we are trialling a project which all of our P7 catchment pupils will start in primary and continue in secondary school.  To get us started we held meetings with primary and secondary school teachers to discuss a suitable topic which could be used.

Time and measure was chosen in relation to the pupils’ journeys to school.  We are situated in a large rural area covering approximately 100 square miles.  Up to 10 primary schools feed into Thurso High School.  These primaries range fr0m large town schools to very small country schools.  The majority of the pupils attend their most local school and experience very similar journeys as their peers.  On arrival at secondary the pupils are set into maths classes according to the 5-14 Level which they have achieved (or are working towards) with pupils from all primaries.

View Thurso High School Feeder Primaries in a larger map

We have chosen to maintain flexibility for teaching staff to approach the topic in a way which suits individual classes at this very busy time.  It is, therefore, inevitable that the pupils coming will all have different learning experiences in primary school and will have varied prior knowledge and skills. The only set criteria for each pupil’s portfolio is that it should contain the following information:

1. What their mode of transport will be.
2. The distance of the new journey.
3. The time the new journey will take.

At primary school today I enjoyed the first half of this project being put into action.  Pupils have all been given a cover sheet, designed at the secondary school and including all of the school logos, which will be attached to the work they are currently completing.  They will bring this with them to high school when they attend transition days next week.  During their visit to secondary the pupils will follow their new timetables with their new classmates for 2 days.

While the pupils are with us in the maths department we will look at the question:

How does my journey to school compare to my new classmates?

We have designed a single class chart to show all pupils’ modes of transport – every pupil will make a contribution to this and it will then be displayed on the classroom wall.  Once again, individual class teachers are left the option of what other information to help them answer the question above with their classes.  As all classes are set by ability it will allow us to choose appropriate topics within the CfE experiences and outcomes to suit the learning needs of our new pupils.  Some classes may focus on collecting and displaying data about  distance and time of journeys whilst others may progress to consider the relationship of speed, distance and time.  Any work completed will be kept for them to continue after the summer.

With this project we hope to create an immediate sense of belonging within each class, an ethos of contribution, team work and relevance.  We must remember that the transition process is the main focus and not the mathematical knowledge at this stage.  Our aim is to provide a continuous learning experience to minimise, or at least reduce, any anxiety about secondary school maths.

The pupils are visiting next week – watch this space and I’ll try to let you know how it goes.

PS – at the beginning of all this I wrote a Prezi to try to piece my thoughts together.  Please feel free to have a look if it doesn’t make you queasy!

http://prezi.com/69297/

I often feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of technology leads I receive and consider.  To begin with I found it difficult to evaluate resources without trying them out with a class.  It’s often hard to imagine how a class will react to different methods – I guess the daily surprises are why I enjoy teaching quite so much.  Now I’m finding it easier to place tools appropriately but finding it harder to keep track of the good ones.  So I’ve gone back to basics and had another look at what I use every day – the Interactive Whiteboard.

I have a SMARTboard in the classroom, running with Notebook 10 and the full gallery of resources download.  All the latest software is available from the website including a free student download which enables pupils to open and amend Notebook files and access most of the tools.  Use of the interactive features of these boards is highly encouraged to engage pupils – I’m not bad at this but there is a lot more I’m sure I could be doing.  I worry too little about sticky fingerprints on the actual board.  Next year I want to see more.

OK – where do I start?

Last week I dug out an old email from a colleague in the Physics department – it was a link to  José Picardo‘s video:

Top five tips for creating resources for the interactive whiteboard

I watched it again, understanding more than last time and tried out some more of the ideas including the magic pen for magnifying and highlighting small chunks of work and the word reveal tricks.

It occurred to me that even the board can offer so much potential that I have not yet realised, without me learning new ICT skills or finding new software.  All this was going to take was a little effort.

Next port of call is the Gallery – it really is about time I found time to rake through all of the resources instead of just searching for something which suits a lesson plan.  It’s rather convenient then that I had an unexpected 4 hour train journey yesterday.  The train to Thurso thankfully has first class seats and no first class tickets which means that anyone can make use of the free plugs as long as you embark quick enough!

I’m pleased to report that I came across a lot of tools that I have used before but here are the ones that I promise to use this year.

Clocks – An assortment of clock face resources which can be used for show me activities, a teacher led lesson or as an interactive tool with pupils creating the questions.

Unit circles – Radians, degrees or both – you decide – precise accurate and much more visually stimulating than anything I could draw.

Dice – 10 sided dice that the pupils can roll and race.  Or dice that speak in foreign languages for a little cross curricular work – there’s even one where you can choose what goes on each side – or rather  the pupils can!

Symmetry – 2 Flash activities that pupils can use alone if you’ve got the ICT access or as a class – ready made reflection and rotation resources.  You can achieve this using the flip tools but this looks more professional.

Algebraic Fractions – A brief lesson, more suitable as a consolidation lesson than an introduction because the quiz is a stormer.

Quadratics and Straight Lines and Trig graphs – There are plenty of online resources and maths packages which will create these graphs and allow you to change the variables showing the transformation of the graphs but why look elsewhere when the gallery holds them anyway.  These simulations are clear and easy to manipulate.

Nets – A quick movie showing different 3D shapes being opened out and closed up – supplements physical practice without getting covered in prit stick at the front of the class.

Indices – the first tool I found allowed you to enter an integer value and a power – can be used to show square, cube numbers to lower ages/abilities and patterns involved with higher orders further up the school.  Followed by a smashing game of snap where you have to think quick to simplify indices and surds and spot the correct equality from a choice of changing cards.  Great starter for a higher set.

Interactive Ruler – and finally….you can move this ruler around the page just like the standard one but in addition you can set the arrows to do the measuring for you.  Pupils can read the scale then check their answers interactively.

So my pledge is to use these tools and I would urge you to give them a try too.  iwb-ideas

I’ve just woken up on the couch.  It’s Sunday evening, my third year reports are due on Tuesday and I’ve been avoiding them all weekend.  This post is further procrastination but I’m sure that it will at least be useful in the long term.

Myself and some colleagues were in the school staffroom one lunchtime last week.  Our conversation wasn’t very big or clever, we were maturely discussing which fruit offered the best qualities by regarding how easy it was to select tasty fresh pieces in a supermarket and also it’s portability. For example – how do you choose a fresh pear and can you eat a kiwi without cutlery?

It’s a typically, trivial topic for our staffroom and although I have no evidence to support this, I suspect we’re not the only people who fall for the great cake/biscuit debate from time to time.

My tuppence worth was to suggest that tinned fruit was definitely the way to go – no surprises when you open the tin and it’s just as good for you as the real thing.  Our home economics teacher wasn’t so sure.  Surely all of the goodness is boiled away in pasteurisation?  Flash boiling kills the bugs that are alive before the canning process – can this also destroy the vitamins?  Vitamins are not alive, so can they be killed or eliminated in another way due to the process?  We, as a group of reasonably well educated people, concluded that we didn’t know whether tinned or fresh was actually better and left content.  (Although the home ec teacher did suggest that she wouldn’t rest until she actually knew.)

So why have I just woken up on the couch on a Sunday evening thinking about this?  It’s the potential Curriculum for Excellence learning opportunities that arise from this question that have just struck me like the proverbial bolt.

 Which is better – fresh fruit or canned?

Following Fearghal Kelly’s structure how could the initial discussion with a class work out?

How can we tell which is better?

·         Measure how much goodness is in fruit

Where can we find the information?

·         Online research

·         Science

How can we present our findings and extend our knowledge to different food?

·         Display work

·         Testing

Why do we can food anyway?

And we’re off…..

The pupils have chosen how they are going to answer the question, taking responsibility for their learning and the first steps to engaging in the task.

My bias is maths so here’s where I would go next.

With the raw data I now have several options for topics so I’m going down the road of a term long project to cover all of them. Unlike my last post where I suggested  only  vague ideas and the potential to learn a range of skills this time I’m thinking a little deeper and trying to fit them into learning outcomes.

The most obvious start point is statistics or information handling.  From a large list of data we can cover any of these outcomes to any different level from simple bar charts to standard deviation comparisons and beyond.

The next is percentages, what is the percentage difference between the fresh and canned information?   This can be extended to include fractions and probability, estimation and decimals, differentiated to the level of the class involved.

What about weight, measure and volume outcomes?   We will be dealing with everything from micrograms to kilograms, quantities that can be increased to suit the learning depending only on the information that we base the project on.  This too can be differentiated to incorporate basic number calculations or extended to include standard form notation and calculations.

Ratio and proportion, a notorious concept for pupils at a younger age can be introduced.

Problem solving.  Pupils throughout school age have difficulty explaining in words the meaning of their calculations.  A strong emphasis can be placed on evaluating and interpreting the numbers produced.

Will that keep us busy for a couple of months?  I do hope so. 

What about assessment – how do I know if the pupils have learned anything?  More importantly, how do the pupils know if they have learned?  It is hard to let go of complete control as a class teacher.  If I can’t have 3 standard block tests anymore I at least want to hold onto some justification and control.

Formative assessment would continue as normal in the classroom and I can easily test their skills with a summative assessment that can provide evidence of progress with a grade for the school, the parents, the pupils and me.  It may not be entirely in the spirit of Curriculum for Excellence but it will satisfy my need to know!

My own preference would be to provide the pupils with a smaller sample of information on another food and ask for a report.  I would differentiate the task by the degree of openness of the questions.

While we’re busy in the maths department what else can be done around the school?

History – the origins of canning food and other ways to preserve food – perhaps jam is as good as strawberries?

Science – hopefully some of the information can be discovered in the lab.  Are there experiments that can be completed to test the any vitamin levels?  How does pasteurisation work?  What does deteriorate the quality of vitamins and minerals?

Home economics – food nutrition and healthy living has a clear link.  Of course, there is the taste test too.

PE – the food nutrition link.

English/Literacy – report writing skills, factual text, making clear conclusions and

Art – creating display work or using fruit as a subject – perhaps a look at very under-ripe and over-ripe products?

Languages – I once saw a tin of tiny octopuses at a party in my student days and they eat a lot of tinned tongue on Ch4’s Shipwrecked.  Are these delicacies from particular countries – I wonder what else you could find on the local supermarket shelves in other countries and indeed what may not be available in other countries.

ICT – research, presentation.

How can the project be extended? 
It has been reported in the press recently that fruit is being picked far too early so that it can be packaged and dispatched around the world.  In doing this the fruit has no time to mature and develop the vitamins and merits for which it is known.

This could open an even bigger can of worms; modern studies – import/export, labour, fair trade; geography – environment, climate, carbon footprint; why not chuck in the global economy as a topical debate while we’re on the subject – or rather every subject.

I wish I could summon these ideas on demand, particularly in meetings where, as a department, we scratch our heads trying to find ways to incorporate the new ethos of Curriculum for Excellence without jeopardising the numeracy and mathematical skills of the next generation of pupils to trust us with their futures.  For now I’ll settle for the random moments of clarity and continue to write them down here.

My apologies for the ‘can of worms’ comment – although I’m sure if we looked hard enough……