Idea for a cover lesson.

Earlier in the week I was coming up with something for Pete to do in Emmas lesson because she was off (I didn't need it in the end, cause she'd left work). I started off with a couple of wordsearches, but started worrying that this was really just filler. Why couldn't we use that time to give the pupils a space to experiement. What follows is my idea for a cover lesson. Feel free to use it or adapt it. I'll use it next time I'm away and let you know how it works!

Pupils need to design the smart classroom of the future. It can be set out however they want, although it should be labeled to show what features are included, and how they'd be used. Hi tec and cutting edge stuff can be included, but no sci-fi (so the teleporter in the corner is out).

That's it! It can be drawn in plan, or in frames. The explanation can be written or in note form, consisting of labels, bullet points or cartoons showing how it would be used.

Let me know if you use it, and what they come up with!

Thoughts on the first term.

So. How was it for you?

I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on my teaching of the first term of smart. I'd be interested to know what others thought.

What went well

* Good relationship with the class - partly by virtue of seeing them 8 times a fornight, but I think we're starting to figure out how we work, 7DH and me!
* Research skills - This, for me, was a highlight. Even though we sucked in the final challenge (!), I loved that fact that we got kids in the library and finding stuff out. The comments from staff and pupils for this unit has been excellent. And the work the pupils produced for their projects was probably the best work I've seen from any class. ever.
* Letting go. Looking back, I think the best lessons were those where I wasn't too worried about getting stuff finished and moving on, and let the task and the pupils reaction to it determine the shape of what happened. The music smart lesson where they wrote their songs about the news stories took three times longer that I had orginally planned, but was brilliant. The lessons where they made their own animals possibly saw them more committed than to anything else. Which brings me on to...

Even better if

*I gave the pupils more ownership Despite everyone saying about there not being a sylabus to cover, and other people clearly spending a long time on things, I think that too often I resorted to 'teacher' mode and tried to get them through that lessons topic. As a result I'm one of the furthest on of the team, but feel that some of the experiences we've had have abeen a bit hollow. So from here on in I'm going to look for longer term, more project based things, rather than two or three activities to get through in each lesson. Depth rather than width will be my motto from here on in ;0)

I wasn't racing though I think that the last few weeks would have been better if I hadn't moved straight on to the thinking methods stuff (which is itself probably the weakest stuff we've got in terms of resources), but instead did some of the work that Kev has been doing on Kensuke's Kingdom. The evidence from their research work is that they produce their best work when they (rather than I) have a sense of ownership of what they're doing and I give them time to do it properly.

Happy New Year by the way!!!

The Future of the Passport?

Wordpress, who release the blogging software that the olchfa smart website is running on (and yes, I know I need to do some work on it!) have released a stable version of a multiuser blogging platform. Or in English, we can install a program just like we have for the smart website and every pupil can have their own blog.

I'm going to try using this with a couple of classes in the new year, once I've got installed on my server, but a friend of mine is already using it with his year 10 History class, as you can see here.

He talks about his rationale for doing it here, and reflects on some early (and unexpected) sucess here.

Why would this be a good thing? Well, becuase pupils could refect more on what they'd done, and in a more meaningful way, in a place that was their own (they can customise the skin for example) and, possibly more importantly, they can comment on each others reflections. It also allows more meaningful long term reflection on what they've done and makes it easier for pupils to spot their own improvements. Certainly at the moment niether myself or the pupils are completely sure what star was awarded for what (although I accept that some of you are a lot more organised on that front that I am!)

So I'm flagging it up now for discussion further down the road. I'll post again on the subject when I've got some personal experience of it.