Lessons Learnt from recording

2020 - The year of live-streaming or videos. For me these have been on various platforms. In the professional sense with Google Meets, Loom and Skype. With social events on Zoom or Houseparty and I have to admit I have even fallen into the black holes of video's on Insta and TikTok... there has been some desperate times but now I feel is the time to reflect on the lessons learnt from all of these platforms.

During lock down we held virtual lessons for our 6th form in a 'tutorial style' on Google meets. The premise of these was to review some of the work we had asked them to do independently, i.e. Flipped learning. I found Loom a super useful tool in structuring these tutorials (alongside my Husband’s surface pro... Accountant vs Teacher budget right there...) as I was able to model live worked examples. If you haven't used Loom give it a try as it is very easy but the surface pro definitely helped the functionality.

There are endless lessons to reflect on from lockdown teaching which I hope we don't need to use again but just in case we do I am looking forward to reading the new book from Doug Lemov on this when it is released 27th October.

Now we’ve returned to the classroom I felt it was time to flip the filming experience on to the students too. I asked the students to create a video of themselves explaining a topic (for Chemists reading this - they had to explain an organic mechanism). There are many reasons for doing this activity:

1. It is a great way to informally assess the students true understanding of the topic. Are they able to use the correct terminology? Are they able to structure their work in a logically order? Are they able to explain their workings?

2. The video's produced make excellent models to use for many years to come

3. With universities planning online interviews it is a good way to build 'camera' confidence

4. When reviewing the video's with the class it provided an excellent opportunity for live questioning and challenging the student's understanding further

5. It's 2020 and filming is the way of the world!

6. We used playdough - because it seems I can't get through a day without my toddler's favourite 'aydough!

Two take away thoughts:

- If lockdown remotes teaching returns - try using Loom

- Is there anything you can 'flip' onto the students and get them to video themselves explaining?

Comments

Lessons learnt from a cyber-attack

No one quite knew what to expect for our first week back in the classroom, but we certainly did not plan for a cyber attack! All use of technology was blocked and it has left us with very little resources... but as with everything there are lessons to be learnt! Thankfully I was organised for the first few weeks with seating plans and all resources printed ready to go. Staff rallied round and shared what resources we had and at the end of the week many staff felt quite invigorated by teaching without technology. Many admitted they had become reliant on the same old resources and it forced them to re-plan around student led activities. Some teachers felt devastated that years of resources have been lost (we are still waiting confirmation on this and are hoping some can be recovered from the cloud somewhere - I am hopeful the Care Bears are looking after them...) and when a teacher was in tears 'but I can't teach without my resources' another teacher said 'of course you c...

Lessons Learnt from Year 10

The honeymoon period is over and the learning gap between the students is emerging. This week I want to reflect on a lessons learnt from my Year 10 class. Despite having been teaching for 10 years now, every year I struggle with a Year 10 class and my Year 10 class this year is no different! They are a mixed ability class and when I say mixed ability my gut tells me their likely GCSE outcomes will range from grade 7 - 3. I say 'gut' because our systems are still being re-built from our cyber attack and I have very little information about their prior attainment. They are also very mixed in their behaviour and levels of engagement so I have to pull every trick out of the box for meaningful learning to take place. Which brings me to my lesson learnt this week and building on my last post about the use of modelling it is also the use of scaffolding that has given me some success with this class. One of Roshenshine's Principles explains how rather than setting lower ...

The return to teaching

So here I am, after only returning to teaching from maternity leave for a few weeks before schools closed for COVID, I have found myself mindlessly scrolling on my phone for more hours than I am willing to accept in the last few months. With the reality of returning to the classroom approaching I began to think I could be using this time more productively! During (my now toddler's) nap times and evenings, I’ve been reading our School's ‘touchstone texts’; Teach like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov and Teaching Walkthru’s by Tom Sherrington & Oliver Caviglioli; or completing CPD webinars with The National College but I wanted to make my ‘mindless scrolling’ a useful learning time too! As a Lead Practitioner in Teaching in Learning I want/need to make sure I’m ready for the return to the classroom (Twitter: @teachingreturn ) so I thought a blog might be a useful way for me to reflect on my practise and hope I can help others along the way. So here’s to making that mindless sc...

Lessons Learnt

Search This Blog