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Avatar of Richard McDonald

by Richard McDonald

#PedagooSunshine & Free CPD

May 22, 2013 in Pedagoo, PedagooSunshine by Richard McDonald

So yesterday I went to Pedagoo Sunshine and I promised to write a post.  It was the first TeachMeet-type event I’d attended, having started my PGCE to teach English last September.  I found the day infinitely valuable, and it has more than whetted my appetite for CPD through pedagoo, other teachmeets and the rapidly expanding network of tweachers.

I’ve been using twitter to follow other teachers since early on in my PGCE.  This has allowed me to dip into some of the blogs that they’ve written and draw on some amazing ideas to try in my placement schools (where I’ve been lucky enough to experiment with a number of strategies that other trainees might not have the fortune to experience).  Yesterday’s event took me to the next level.  I got some excellent ideas for activities and poundland pedagogy from @catalinelechat and @JOHNSAYERS, PEEL advice from @DKMead and then some great ideas for keeping my classes engaged from @BunnyScience .  It’s great to see how the attitude that has been cultivated in our PGCE course (of sharing success and ideas) translates so easily into the real world.

Of course the challenge now is to keep this momentum going throughout the remainder of my course (which includes no more teaching placements) and through the Summer to my first post, where I’m hoping I will be able to manage my time effectively enough to get the most out of my NQT year.  Pedagoo is going to be my starting point, as I hope to keep reading the posts and twitter feeds as well as starting to use TeachMeet TV and attending more events before the Summer.

Let me know if you have more advice!

R

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Avatar of Richard Donnelly

by Richard Donnelly

Campaigning to Save the Planet

May 21, 2013 in Pedagoo by Richard Donnelly

On Tuesday afternoon the whole of year 7 showed what they have been working on in their ‘explore’ lessons to year 8 and staff at the school.  This involved splitting the year group into 2 and having a ‘campaign afternoon’ and allowing year 8 classes and their teachers to come and visit the campaign stands the year 7′s had set up in the school hall.  Campaigns were as varied as HIV/Aids, Landmines to the role of women.

This was a culmination of about 6-7 hours teaching time plus homework.  It began by launching the project and allowing students to research different issues that might interest them by looking at various images.  Students then used their questioning habit to distil further questions to help them focus their research when using the internet.

Students were asked to plan their campaign using De Bono’s thinking hats which gave them a structure to consider the different aspects of the campaign from facts (white hat) they thought should be included to creative ideas to get their point across (green hat).

The students were also asked to have academic rigour in their campaigns by producing both a letter the the Prime Minister and a leaflet (using maths skills e.g. graphs and to make it artistic).  These were then redrafted using the critique culture that the students are used to using regularly, students give warm and cool feedback to eachother and come up with their own criteria and rubrics regularly.

The photographs show some of the outcomes the students have produced.  The year 8s and other staff providing an ‘authentic form of assessment’ by giving feedback both verbally and in written form on a pro-forma that is then placed into a ballot box.  Behind the cakes, Ipads, landmines and fancy T shirts was some deep thinking and knowledge of the issue the students were addressing.  I and my team are very proud. Now it is important that students reflect on their individual role in their project and by using Guy Claxtons BLP learning muscles they are able to reflect on their learning throughout the project.

Feel free to contact me via twitter for more details about the explore curriculum.

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Avatar of Fiona Duncan

by Fiona Duncan

Comfort Zone? It’ll be like walking on hot coals… #pedagoosunshine

May 20, 2013 in Pedagoo, PedagooSunshine by Fiona Duncan

First things first.

In writing this I am TOTALLY out of my comfort zone (hope that’s a big tick for me from the pedagoo team). Secondly, what is it I’m actually uncomfortable about?
Judgments? They happen frequently.
Derision? Not here.
Reflecting honestly on my own practice? …hmmm…

I was one of the many at pedagoosunshine this weekend, and like many, I left feeling inspired, curious and positive about the ideas I’d heard, the ideas I’d shared and the potential to build new friendships with colleagues I wouldn’t have normally come into contact with.

I left feeling awed at the level of learning my new found colleagues are able to inspire in their students, and it got me thinking; am I capable of doing this with the students whose minds I’m responsible for?

I’m not sure I know the answer to that question, but I will promise to try – at least once – every single one of the ideas from this weekend.

We should take the risk. We should feel uncomfortable. We should be able to look at each of our students and see that spark ignite because we’ve taken the risk that’s caught the imagination of that hard to reach student.

My promise is simple:

I promise that every week I will allow a class to do something which takes them – and me – out of our comfort zones.

I promise that we will take the steps towards a new, braver classroom where all of our minds are opened to new ideas and possibilities.

I’ll be sharing it with the students, and colleagues in the hope that they, like you, will take up that baton and try something new.

Will it be scary? Probably.
Is it guaranteed to work? Not really.
But it is possible to walk across hot coals with the right attitude…

Promise?

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Avatar of Dan Williams

by Dan Williams

To text poll or not to text poll, that is the question?

May 19, 2013 in Ideas, Implementation, Pedagoo, Resource, Technologies by Dan Williams

Although I have come across online text polls in the past, I hadn’t used them myself until last week in one of my lessons and came to the conclusion that they are more time and effort than they are worth – let me explain why…

The group of learners I used this with were Entry Level 3 and in a nutshell the objective of the session was to identify and demonstrate skills, qualities and values required when assisting at a sport and active leisure event.

So after providing learners with their personalised targets for the session I asked them to place their mobile phones on their desks. Out of the 12 learners in attendance, only 10 had a phone…already the task was not going to plan!..so, I paired the learners without phones with somebody with one.

I then provided the text number and opening question…”what skills are needed when helping to lead a sports event?”… Learners were allowed open ended answers and the premise was that the answers that were text to the number would appear on the smart board…what I didn’t realise until the time was that learners who didn’t have phone credit, could not participate…another two learners out of the task and requiring a partner. Those that did have credit began to text their answers and they started to appear on the board – great!

However, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t clear who was texting what answers (thus making it difficult to target questions to the learner concerned and also ensuring that all learners answered). Moreover the answers that came through were not just skills, but also qualities and values… Not such a bad thing, but in order to differentiate between the three areas I had to write everything on the white board (almost defeating the purpose of this e learning tool) and ask learners to dissect the information into the relevant categories.

So after almost 20 minutes and the disengagement of those without a phone/credit, I came to the conclusion that I could have provided the learners with a much more effective learning environment had I used ‘post-its’ or any other traditional strategy which allows all to be involved, whilst allowing me to see who answers.

Despite believing that there is room for e-learning in the classroom, I do feel that we need to ensure that whatever is chosen as a strategy is effective and not just used because the school/college has an e-learning agenda.

On the other hand, perhaps I approached text polls in the wrong fashion, so if you have used them with success, please share your comments.

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Avatar of Carol Stobbs

by Carol Stobbs

A selection of #pedagoofriday 17/5/13

May 17, 2013 in Pedagoo, PedagooFriday by Carol Stobbs

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Avatar of Mr W

by Mr W

pedagoo.mag

May 14, 2013 in Book, mag, Pedagoo by Mr W

Welcome to Issue 1 of pedagoo.mag. This is our first issue, and we are already thinking about the next one, but most importantly, we need your suggestions. What would you like to see, learn about, find of value in the next edition.

Please leave your suggestions in the comments, or drop us an email at the usual address dedicated new email: mag@pedagoo.org

You are free to download this issue and share it as widely as you wish.

There are a number of ways you can access the mag:

PDF (Low resolution) -> Pedagoo Issue 01-1

Screengrab of the PDF of PedagooMag

Click to download the PDF of the Mag

On Scribd (Full resolution download available): http://www.scribd.com/doc/141499996/Pedagoo-mag-Issue-01

On Issuu (Full resolution download available): http://issuu.com/pedagoo/docs/pedagoo-mag-01

And there is now an iPad enhanced version on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pedagoo.mag/id648136407?ls=1

Enjoy, and please leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or drop us an email to: mag@pedagoo.org

[UPDATED: I think the original post with the embed was slowing down the whole Pedagoo site, so I've streamlined it and also added the Issuu link after some requests. Finally, the iPad/iTunes version is now live, complete with added videos and picture galleries - it looks fabulous... though I am biased! Apologies for the changes to the post. We'll know better next time!]

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Avatar of Dan Williams

by Dan Williams

Analogies and metaphors to aid understanding…

May 11, 2013 in Creativity, Curriculum, Ideas, Involving Pupils, PE, Pedagoo by Dan Williams

Having been introduced to Hattie’s work on ‘effect sizes’ in the learning environment last year (http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/what_works.htm), I took it upon myself to investigate advanced organisers in my own practice. This is said to have an average effect size of 0.37, which in comparison to other methods is reasonably small. However, I opted to focus on the use of analogies and metaphors within my teaching practice, as personally I believe comprehension to be greater if a new subject is related to a familiar subject. Of course, many of us will naturally do this without a second thought, but I intended to consciously approach sessions with the intention of overtly using this method.

One example of this practice quite recently was when teaching the flow of blood around the cardiovascular system to a group of level 2 BTEC learners. I introduced the topic by asking the group to share their thoughts on the process of going to the gym – this involved eating food to give you fuel (collecting oxygen from lungs), travelling to the gym and going through the changing rooms (left side of the heart), working out and ‘burning’ the fuel (feeding the muscles with oxygen), travel back through the changing rooms (right side of heart) before travelling home (the lungs) to start the process again. Obviously when doing this, I did illustrate on the white board. I then made reference to the fact that the gym process is similar to the flow of blood…Following this, I gave the learners the opportunity to create their own analogies of the process. Working in groups they created some amazing ideas such as the process of topping up and using a mobile phone, travelling through the petrol station to name a few.

For the learners, this particular process taught alone can be very challenging, yet now they have their own analogies for the process, they are able to demonstrate a far greater understanding.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

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Avatar of Helene O'Shea

by Helene O'Shea

#PedagooFriday selection – 3.5.13

May 3, 2013 in Pedagoo by Helene O'Shea

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Avatar of Richard Donnelly

by Richard Donnelly

Citizen Journalists An Update!

April 30, 2013 in Creativity, Ideas, Involving Pupils, Literacy, Pedagoo by Richard Donnelly

100% Student produced

This is one example of year 8 students ‘Freedom Newspaper’.  See my previous post about how I used project based learning and the 6A’s to plan the project for year 8 Humanities.  Students have also developed in their application of critique by giving each other warm and cool feedback (being Kind, Specific and Helpful) for their individual articles and their final newspapers.  This has enabled the students to revise and redraft their newspaper.  Each student had to contribute an article and the newspaper had to be 100% their original work.  SOLE’s and other questioning techniques were used in the planning stage and a student editor was appointed to oversee the project overall and make final editorial decisions.  Overall, the outcome has been successful, with many other good quality newspapers being produced across the faculty in comparison to the previous year.  Students will now be asked to reflect as learners, how the newspaper challenge has worked for them and a group using Claxtons 4R’s. The newspapers will now be displayed in the local community in cafes etc to give the work further authenticity.

Follow me on twitter or read my blog for future projects for example a ‘food campaign’ which is beginning shortly including hopefully students becoming Guerilla Gardeners.

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Avatar of kennypieper

by kennypieper

The Pick of #pedagoofriday 26-4-13

April 26, 2013 in Pedagoo, PedagooFriday by kennypieper

I thought last Friday was one of the best days we’ve ever had, but this week is on a par. Doesn’t it just show how many great things are happening in our classrooms each week, all over the place? Makes my heart soar…
Anyway, here is just a pick of the things people have been tweeting today.

To start with, I think John’s tweet sums up exactly how I feel about every contribution to #pedagoofriday.







See you back here, same time next week….

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