Assessment Time

Half term is drawing nearer, so it is time to assess. Not the kids though - me!

I'm trying to find a method of instant feedback for my lessons. I've looked at using the blog, but mysteriously teachers are outnumbering students at the moment. A questionnaire? Too long winded.

Then it hit me - stickers, lovely little round colourful stickers. Each student will get 1 (prevents random stickering of other students) and votes on a double scale on the way out. The scale? Hmm that is harder...

I was thinking bottom one being: not a clue to got it. The vertical one is proving problematic. Should I measure the fun-ness of a lesson?

Once a week with each class should prove nothing if not interesting... I'll se how it goes.

Yaaaarrrrr Pirates

I loved it. Kids loved it. Staff loved it. Look at the Pirates SOW and marvel at what Gemma did. It even fits on with English and the Pirate King Speech!

Random Rant

The past week was odd. Very odd.

Various issues to do with accountability and students - par for the course with a new role. Raging evil cold. Ubuntu breaking and losing files (my fault for not backing up). Odd progress in students. Very odd training day. Mysterious unbooked courses.

I think I have entered the twilight zone.

Building the Curriculum

I have really enjoyed teaching the Year 8 curriculum so far. Our focus has been history and we have looked at Victorian crime and Pirates. Coming up is coasts...

Richard Allaway has provided some excellent resources, but with one downfall - they are all ICT based and require unfettered ICT access. With this in mind I have done a rewrite (and offered Richard the revised unit back as we should share and share alike!).

Imagine delivering Richard's unit to a class of 28 as is. It is perfect. Alas I have problems resourcing it for 14. Hats off the Richard for the sheer scope of his unit, and resources permitting many activities are very doable. I just want access to 15 pcs to let my kids take advantage.

Download now or preview on posterous

coast sow.doc (128 KB)

Posted by email from James's posterous

Moving Pictures

My classes are nothing if not honest. I say that in a good way, as it can be quite revealing as to what goes on in other people's classrooms.

I am lucky (!) enough to teach in most subject areas and think I have learnt well from other subjects and improved my teaching at least a little. I love using little snippets of video in my lessons, usually funny and memorable, and always related to the objective (even if sometimes the pupils have to think carefully to make the link).

Twice last week, with different classes from different year groups I got "We never do this elsewhere". This got me thinking, why don't other people use video?

I soon found out why. I needed to get a video file to work one morning, so at 8am duly did my testing. Windows Media Player hated it. OK, try Quicktime. Hated it. VLC? Nope. OK redownload... blocked. Update Quicktime? sticks at 99% due to lockdown. Convert it on zamzar.com? Page loads but upload doesn't due to internet filter.

Unless you are a level 20 net ninja at home, using video is actually very hard. Next time I hear the comment from a pupil, I will use my anecdote to apologise and explain.

Why Learn a Language? Yr 7 activities

European Day of Languages time... Enjoy!

Download now or preview on posterous

Why Learn a Language Yr 7 activities.ppt (2098 KB)

Posted by email from James's posterous

From Evernote: Networked teacher

This is a test post to posterous. Will the image appear?

Networked teacher Wed 13 Aug 08 by jjpadvis

www.evernote.com | Remember everything. | Sign up for free

Posted by email from James's posterous

Grade me... grade me!

During a teacher strike, Lisa Simpson utters these words in such a pleading way. Dan Meyer has just sort of done the same in this post.

I have left a reply, but it may seem a little ambiguous. I, like Lisa love evaluation. Like my students I also love it to be clear and simple. Should teachers' progress based on their perceived performance? Should our annual uplift be performance related?

The answer is I don't know. I have worked in the private sector and love the pay for what you get attitude. I also hated it. Should teachers be paid according to results? Who would decide it?

Can of worms now opened. Please comment.

The end is nigh!

A very strange title for my first post of the academic year! What could it refer to? Is it all over?

Well no, firstly it refers to the end of the first week of the new academic year. I've met all the new (and old) students. Expectations are on the table, new systems in place. It has flown by. It has been tiring and very enjoyable, and the weekend will be gladly welcomed like a warm duvet!

Secondly it refers to a strange thing asked by one of my year 10 tutor group. "Is it true the world is going to end in a few days?". Hmmm how do you answer that one?

Terribly Delicious

I am an avid delicious user. I stalk people online, steal their best stuff and then forget it.

Hence my title. I am a terrible delicious user. I am close to 400 beautifully tagged bookmarks. Great, but I wouldn't have a clue what each one was unless I actually saw the page.

The big thing is the notes field. It would let me know exactly what I was looking at before I clicked - that great French listening about weather, the amazing presentation about right angles. The problem is it is a free text field, and I tend to wibble...

I really don't want to add yet more tags (they seem to grow 2-3 a week) so I need to think about how to fill in the notes field. Any ideas? Perhaps Year, Term, Topic? Input appreciated.

Construction Time Again

One week to go until the joys of a new school year. The holidays have been very kind to me, allowing me to relax and get things done in equal amounts.

Amazingly I have done lots of jobs normally reserved for the first week back! I have my class lists, timetable, calendar; I have moved stationary and resources with the help of my co-chief. The only job I have put off is the copying of some placement tests - I know I shouldn't do copying, but it will take me longer to explain what I want to someone else!

I have been thwarted in my plans for world domination by delicious being blocked at school. As a quick fix I'll have to export all my bookmarks out (luckily I can get them on my iphone as well).

Next week brings the joy of furniture arrangement and locating a room for one class (23 does not fit into a room designed for 12, although I did consider stacking!), photocopying, and making sure the glorious soldiers of the People's Republic of CORE (Olympic medals 0) have everything they need for the first couple of weeks back.

I have even started the paperwork for a trip in Week 3. Such efficiency can only mean one thing - it's the end of the holidays and I'm bored.

P.S. Congratulations to anyone spotting the early 80's cultural reference in the title.

Holidays!

Finally, 6 weeks stretch out in front of me with the prospect of no teaching. Notice I didn't say no work. I have a task list the size of a small shakespearian play to do:

1) Finish phase 1 moodle for French - vocab and vocab games
2) Make links with New Zealand ready for our "uplifting deep learning" day
3) Get to grips with a new KS3 Maths Scheme of work
4) Get to grips with a Maths intervention programme
5) Work out how to support Level 1 literacy (and below!)
6) Have 11 days in Crete!

And they say us teachers have too any holidays!

Here's to Creativity

I spent the whole of the day today taking photos, helping with animation, and listening to audio as the first 14 Year 7's underwent their creative day. Despite spending the weekend preparing cover work for my normal classes for the 2 days of the project, I feel suddenly energised!

Not one raised voice, normally hyperactive attention seeking learners painstakingly moving tiny bits of paper or discussing the merits of 1 second of audio. Some very mischievous photos of both staff and students.

Sometimes it is all worth it. Right, same again tomorrow!

Moodle for Year 7 French

VLE talk... Please stay awake!

MFL have decided on generic courses that can be copied to teachers for "embellishment". Sees most practical to me... any MFL specialists care to comment on year 7 plan?

Reasons to be cheerful...

I've just had a brilliant day with the MFL department planning for the new KS3 Curriculum. It was a perfect example of trust, collaboration and fantastic ideas!

Sad news is my course on 2nd July is cancelled, I may never discover how to teach KS3 Maths! The Maths faculty now have access to my delicious bookmarks and enjoyed a whistle stop 10 in tour of the web.

Kids back in tomorrow, and quite looking forward to it!

4.5 weeks to go...

Today it hit me. The wall grew large, the enthusiasm went. It's summer term with colleagues on stand-down, and me just a poor KS3 teacher with a full load. It might be the 4 (well 3 as I bailed on one) meetings this week due to rescheduling, or the 120 full reports and 50 snapshot reports I have to do this week.

But I must cling to the positives:

The year 8 integrated curriculum plan is coming along well - or in the words of one of my year 9's "that looks well sick innit".

My post GCSE year 9 French are loving Spanish after they read a complex passage of Spanish with perfect pronunciation despite not understanding much!

My year 8 Maths seem to love BO(I)DMAS and can do level 5 with ease.

I am using loads of video at the moment to try and wake up both the very tired kids and me. I am hoping to be re-invigorated after a teacher training day on Monday followed by a reward trip to Drayton Manor (Park and Zoo) on Friday.

Competition Maths

I found tutpup.com through Ewan McIntosh. I thought I'd give it a try, see how it went. I launched it Friday, and out of 40 students I already have 13 signed up and playing! I look forward to my students having better maths recall and may even set a test to see the effect!

Now to find who greyturtle23 is....

Foxford Meteo

I think I am on to a winner with Foxford Meteo.

Not only have I been included on a blog, but i get twitter updates from other teachers! My advice is set up another twitter ID to protect privacy, message me (jjpadvis) then add foxford_meteo.

The kids are loving it and replies would be great. Look at the updates and you'll see they are trying to out-do each other in terms of complexity. My bet is on next week someone will add an opinion and an activity (Il fait beau - j'adore jouer au foot etc). Any replies will go down a storm!

Pod/Vodcast Challenge

Tis summer, the birds are singing, year 11-13 gone (except for me!), life is sweet!

My challenge - get a pupil recorded pod/vodcast in any subject area by the end of Term. All you need to do is provide details of how (maybe a lesson plan to use an old fashioned OFSTED loved phrase) and pupil work. The more unusual the better, and getting outsiders involved a plus. Results to be voted on here, deadline my return from Cretan funny farm (In-laws) I go to each summer - so end of first week August?

You up for the challenge?

I love your websiite, it's funny

While I love that comment (it shows they are coming), how to I get them to interact?

Blue Skies v Reality

Throughout the blogosphere there seems to be those who do, versus those who advocate.

In the limited time of waiting from the chicken balti courtesy of my other half, a big blogs up to:

Joe Dale
José Picardo
Mrs Moodle

For making it real!

Tis then end of half term, and perhaps I am getting emotional, but I love the care, attention to detail, and the practical application in evidence in these blogs.

May they blog fruitfully!

Year 7 French Assessments

I hate end of year exams. I'll repeat that, I really hate them!

I thought I'd concentrate on Listening and Writing as the end of year skills this year with my 2 small groups, and provide a focussed activity to allow Level 4 and 5. I will do a sneaky reading activity as well but won't tell them until after the event...

I'd love to do a Voki activity for speaking, but alas resources and time are so limited!

| View | Upload your own

Getting Year 7 into Languages.

As part of our new KS3 curriculum review, we have decided to bombard year 7 with a weekly 10 minute activity on language learning as a general idea during the first 1/2 term. We need to stress the use of language learning skills, and provided a context for French. Charged with thinking, I put a plan together... What do you think?

Week 1
Images of France Activity
Influence of France on culture

Week 2
I'll never go to France
French speaking community

Week 3
5 Phrases to survive (mystery language!)
Higher order thinking

Week 4
Languages in School
Identify areas of school and related languages

Week 5
I'd really like to learn…
Justify a choice of language

Week 6
Poster - Learn a language
Persuade others to learn a language

My First Animoto!

I've seen and read a lot about animoto, so I thought I'd give it a try. I love the interface, adding images and choosing music was a breeze. It certainly beats boring death by 30 powerpoints for a writing task!

From a teaching point of view, it will be a case of getting commonly used images together in a folder (in my case: hotel, camp site, caravan, villa, holiday locations, friends, family, transport, places to visit, activities to do), teaching my learners how to export powerpoint slides as images, then letting them go and be creative!

The rendering queue does seem a little slow so a filler activity will be needed while they wait, and the need for an e-mail address to sign up begs privacy issues - there is no try out without signing up, and I'm sure most of my learners haven't a clue what their school e-mail address is! I am also wondering if our filtering system will need tweaking to allow it - if so I'd better get my request in now!

I should be doing this activity towards the end of the Summer term with Year 7, so I'll let you know how I get on.

This is my first attempt below, not bad for 5 minutes work I thought!

The Joy of the Walled Garden

Many teachers get very frustrated by school filtering systems. I have lost count of the times I have chosen web based stimuli only to find them suddenly blocked.

Check out José Picardo's excellent summary of the problem, along with the hilarious examples in the comment!

Why use Blogs?

If you are looking for reasons to blog, take a look at Adam Sutcliffe's recent presentation on the power of blogging for techers and learners. I am particularily impressed with the inclusion of blogs in the Excellent Literacy outcomes!



Click to play

Importance of Languages

I have to do a year 7 assembly on the importance of languages.
i thought I'd get them shouting and physically split... What do you think?

View Upload your own

Ajaxdaddy.com

Bonus points for the first to incorporate a widget from http://ajaxdaddy.com/ - how very web 2.0!

Thanks to http://lifehacker.com/ for the heads up!

Twitterfeed Post

Just a test for twitterfeed.com , please ignore me.

Year 9 to GCSE Bridging Project

I have various learners following various routes with various needs....

I though of a practical maths unit to link to GCSE but need input from anyone out there!

View Upload your own

Quick Spanish Course

Toying with a quick 6 week Spanish course from scratch to Level 6 on a very focussed area... How does this look? I'll only have 6 weeks at 2 lessons a week, so wondering if realistic!

View Upload your own

Your very own PA!

I feel very special as I have a personal assistant. She keeps track of things for me: reminders, bookmarks, contacts. She is but a twitter,
email or instant message away.

Best thing of all she is available 24 hours a day and completely free!
I've been using iwantsandy.com for 6 months now and love it! I can even subscribe to the calendar "she" creates for me by rss or iCal.

Reminders are set up in (semi) plain English - remind me in 3 days to update my blog. Sandy works her magic and figures it all out.

Have a look at www.iwantsandy.com

Sent from my iPhone

Tu aimes le foot? SoccerLingua French - Espace Jeux!

SoccerLingua French - Espace Jeux!

Enjoy some football realted games and improve your French at the same time!

Starting to Integrate Year 8

We started work integrating Year 8 today... Pics of planning so far!

My Setup

I thought I'd share the ICT stuff I have, and how I use it!

At home: iMac G5 - last of the old non isight G5's. Wonderful software but showing its age.
. Great software for podcast creation! 

Asus EEE PC - used as my main laptop, running windows XP
iPhone - reminds me of what I need to do. Going to buy AV cable for school to show youtube on projector - does that make me bad?

School: Acer laptop - runs windows XP and loads of RM stuff. It is both a godsend and infuriating! I often have to shove my EEE PC into my bag to do anything adventurous! It works fine as a register taker, does a great job of word and powerpoint, but really gets me annoyed for file sync (my desktop looks a mess even if I clear it up). RM Tutor software is the bees knees though with control over the web and chance to do surveys!

Finally I have lots of USB drives and DVDs of backups just in case!

iCal to Rss - ouch

I create my lesson plans in iCal. Well I say that, but Bento is the engine behind it on my mac.

I am desperate to find an easy iCal to RSS tool to share learning objectives with my learners. The best I have found is netvibes, but this is not embedded. Any ideas?

Flash is good... Flash is hell

I keep finding so many Adobe Flash based resources!

Flash is so pretty and easy. Problem is is depends on so many factors! Sometimes behind my firewall it works, other times I get a bit of the app, mostly I get evil filtered icon.

Flash is not open, adobe keep the source code very secret. There are better methods for creating content, but we all follow the flash route (yes I am guilty, just look at my class blog).

Does anyone know of decent open source alternatives that work?

My First Podcast

I bit the bullet and created my first podcast. Am I happy with the result? 50-50...

The actual process was simple - I booted up my old G5 iMac, loaded garageband and just recorded the bits of dialogue. The problem is the inbuilt iMac mic picks up all the background noise of the computer... time to invest in a microphone or perhaps use my iphone to record. Even better, I could save some pennies and by a brand new iMac:)

Uploading wasn't as obvious as a mac should be... I found it best to save the podcast to my itunes library as an mp3 then upload it.

I'll feed back if my learners find it useful.,

Larry Ferlazzo, Teacher

Larry Ferlazzo, Teacher

This looks interesting... full post later!

[update]
Inspiration doesn't come cheap, but Larry Ferlazzo does the kind of curriculum I dream of! He has the perfect attitide to ESL learners, and attempt to integrate ESL learners at all stages.

He is kind enough to share tons of resources and provides exemplars of projects he has done. If only all teachers were so kind to colleagues!

Blogging Toolkit

As I start to put my blog together, I thought it might be a good idea to keep a log of the tools I'm using.

A blog

I use Blogger, but other services are available. I chose Blogger as it is connected to my googlemail account I already use for work.

Somewhere to store pictures

Still undecided, picassa links to my google account but is a bit limited in terms of storage. I also use Wikimedia Commons to link to royalty free pics and save on blog storage space.

Somewhere to store video

Currently YouTube, but alas blocked in school. Looking for alternatives. [update] Going to try teachertube.net from behind the evil firewall from hell. If it doesn't work I will ask why!

Somewhere to store podcasts

Podomatic looks excellent and I look forward to playing with it over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Somewhere to store slideshows

Slideshare has nifty features, but I must remember to save my files in old-skool powerpoint format!

Sites to grab widgets, quizzes, and other pretty things from!

Widgetbox - loads of pretty widgets

Feedjit - so I know who is looking at my blog!

Mystudiyo - very pretty quiz generator

BBC - borrow the headlines, weather, tv schedule!

I'm sure this list will grow! Suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks to Joe Dale for his reviews of some of the above sites!

My Class Blogs

MisterP is up and running for my students. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works for them and me!

New resources for European Day of Languages 2008

I so want one of the pens!

Looks like time to get your orders in for EDL goodies.

Modern Languages Blog � New resources for European Day of Languages 2008

Tagging the Real World

http://semapedia.org/

This is a really interesting idea for linking the online and offline world. Basically create bar codes than can be read from digital photos that include a link to a wikipedia article. I have the software for my iphone and it works great, and apparently most new nokias have it built in.

However, it has taken me ages to find software for windows... and due to my scatty multicomputer setup I can't find the link (it is freeware though).

Here is the code for this site

How did I get here?

Welcome to the blog! I have been inspired by several online edu-bloggers but never thought I'd do my own. Then thanks to Joe Dale, and a random twitter moment, I was inspired to go for it!

Look forward to loads of KS3 stuff here for nearly every subject. I am subject leader of the integrated curriculum at Foxford School in Coventry. We currently teach some Year 7 Students an integrated curriculum of Maths, English, French and Humanities. This is moving into Year 8 and beyond... so keep coming back!