issue 12 uked magazine dec 2014
TRANSCRIPT
ukedchat.com December 2014 Issue 12Supporting the Educational Community
25 Pedagogical Ideas From Twitter
p20 How to Teach the Nativity a
little differently
Wrapping Up For Christmas p10
A TimeTo Share
A TimeTo Reflect
p6 Christmas Coding
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ChangingMindset
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Issue 12: December 2014Subscribe by email for free at bit.ly/ukedmagsub
Subscribe to the print edition at ukedchat.com/magazine4 Changing our MindsetDebbie Light and Mel Aberson discuss four books that have changed their teaching to include a growth mindset culture.
17 Book Shelf Science, and Behaviour
Contributors
Debbie Light and Mel Aberson @TeacherTweaksJames Abela @ESLwebStephen Tierney @LeadingLearnerKat Howard @SaysmissNancy Walbank @nan282Andy Knill @aknill @globalsolo @gasigictEylan Ezekiel @eylanezekielAndy Lewis @iTeachREScott Allsop @MrAllsopHistoryStephen Mills @_MrMillsMandi Miles @mandmilesKate McCabe @evenbetterifMike Watson @WatsEd
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From the EditorThe atmosphere of a school changes each December
- priorities are different and learning activities take on a distinctly festive theme. For myself as a primary school teacher, it is my favourite time of the year.
Yet far from winding down to the Christmas break, a whole new set of pressures and tasks make their annual appearance. Angel wings need to be fixed; cards need to be glittered; and crying nativity sheep need to be comforted after saying ‘baaa’ at a biblically inappropriate moment.
In this edition of UKED Magazine we share a host of festive activities and pedagogical ideas to try with your class and get you ready for 2015.
I hope you have a restful festive break.
Martin Burrett - Editor
@ICTmagic @UKEdMag [email protected]
6 Coding Christmas FunJames Abela shares a great festive computer coding project for young programmers to try and build on using Scratch.
8 Political Manifestos & PantomimesWhat are your educational wishes for the future? Stephen Tierney shares his priorities and hopes for the years to come.
10 Wrapping UpRather than winding down for Christmas, Kat Howard explores ideas and activities to end the term on a high.
11 What if Christmas...Sparky Teaching explore a range of creative Christmas activities.
12 RSPB’s Big Schools’ BirdwatchRead about how you and your school can take part in the annual bird watching event from the RSBP. Make a bird feeder and see who comes to visit.
13 Fast Festive Role PlayDr Nancy Walbank shares her ideas for enhancing learning during the festive season with a range of role-play activities and ideas.
14 Rewarding Schools SuccessUKEdChat attended the Educate Awards in Merseyside and spoke to the winning teachers and schools.
16 Developing a Revived Department. . .Andy Knill returns to explore of his new role in school and provides an update of developments on how the department is moving forward.
18 Twenty-Five Pedagogical Ideas from TwitterA glossary of teaching strategies and pedagogical favourites from the Twitter teaching community.
20 The Greatest Story Ever ToldAndy Lewis takes a look at how the Nativity story is taught in schools and asks whether there is a better way.
23 Teaching the TruceScott Allsop discusses ideas, resources and techniques for introducing the World War One Christmas Truce of 1914 to your class.
24 Fifteen Educational ToysWe’ve made Christmas shopping a little easier by listing some of the best educational toys in one place.
27 Teaching ValuesKate McCabe explores whether we can teach grit, rigour and resilience and how she has developed this in her school.
04 UKED Magazine
Four Books ThatChanged Our Mindset
By Debbie Light and Mel Aberson
Reading research-based books is a big step forward for two teachers who had read little more than the odd DfE(S) update since finishing our PGCEs. If you’re in a similar position and don’t have time to read lots of books, we hope our summary of the key findings from this selection, as presented at Teaching and Learning Takeover in Southampton last month, will give you something to think about and discuss with colleagues. You may be inspired to go out and read them all, especially when you see that the longest is less than 350 pages. In which case we hope you find them as thought-provoking and interesting as we did.
We have spent a lot of time, both consciously and unconsciously, digesting and reflecting on the findings of these books. In some cases we have completely changed how we think/plan/teach/explain, but in many cases it’s just a ‘tweak’ to how we go about our teaching and how we conduct conversations with learners.
Mindset by Carol Dweck
The key points from this book are as follows:
• Ability is not fixed and students will achieve more if they have a growth mindset, making the connection between effort and outcome.
• If you believe you can improve through sustained effort, you will be more open to engaging in deliberate practice and will place great value on feedback.
• Students should be taught to embrace challenging work and persist when they find it tough, because only doing work that they find easy means they will not become better learners.
Mindset has become a hot topic in education, so predictably it has also gained critics. It is always a danger that this sort of concept becomes a gimmick whereby people decide to ‘do a bit of Mindset’, but in the words of John Tomsett (see bit.ly/uked14dec01) ‘You can’t just do
View on Amazon at
bit.ly/mindpotential
Mindset, it’s a culture.’ As well as trying to tweak the mindset in our students, we have found ourselves applying this approach to teachers as learners – ourselves included. When we shared this mindset-inspired meme (above) on Twitter as ‘Something for the classroom’ the overwhelming response seemed to be ‘I’m putting this up in the staffroom!’
An Ethic of Excellence by Ron Berger
Key messages from Berger:
• Producing a piece of excellent work changes the way students feel about what they can do.
• Having a detailed understanding of what constitutes an excellent piece of work helps students to do it themselves.
• Creating a culture of critique where students actively seek out kind, specific and helpful feedback from their peers increases students’ chances of producing excellent work.
• Raising expectations of what students are able to achieve enables students to develop an internal model of quality that they carry with them around school.
Another very inspirational read that has inspired whole schools to change their culture (for some examples, see bit.ly/uked14dec02 and bit.ly/uked14dec03). Another culture shift, not just in raising expectations but also very importantly to develop a desire in learners to seek out feedback.View on Amazon at
bit.ly/ethicexcellence
Debbie Light and Mel Aberson worked together as ASTs in a West London secondary school. They set up the shared @TeacherTweaks Twitter account so they could continue working together to share their passion for teaching and learning when Debbie moved for promotion to Assistant Head in a new school.
Image credit: freepik.com/free-vector/creative-brain-illustration_713654.htm (modified) by freepik used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.https://www.flickr.com/photos/arwilkinson/10830400356 (cropped) by Andy Wilkinson used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.All other images provided by Debbie Light and Mel Aberson
UKED Magazine 05
The Hidden lives of Learners by Graham Nuthall
The key points from this book are as follows:• The underlying process of learning is essentially the same for all students, meaning low ability students can learn in the same way as high ability students; the differences creep in because of students’ prior knowledge, motivation and individual experiences.
• Learning is multilayered; a student experiences new learning through the public world where tasks are managed by the teacher, the semi-private interactions between peers and the private world of the individual student. How they make sense of these three worlds impacts on how much they learn. Low ability students are just as capable of learning new ideas/concepts.
• Students need to experience at least three different sets of complete information about a new idea/concept before it becomes embedded in their memory so we need to give them opportunities to revisit these ideas/concepts.
• Students remember how they learnt something just as much as the content of what they learnt so task design is crucial and should encourage students to think about what helps them learn.
This, just like the other three books is by no means a weighty tome, but some of the findings of Nuthall’s research are so mind-blowing that they may well need a second read. Perhaps the most interesting point for us is the idea that lower and higher ability students don’t learn in a different way; it is just the fact that lower attaining students have less prior knowledge to form connections with their new learning and this limits how much they can make sense of the new things they are learning.
Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger and Mark McDanielKey points from the book:
• Learning that is difficult and requires more effort will last longer than learning that is easy and quick to grasp because our memories are having to work harder in the former.
• Repeated retrieval practice (through quizzes and testing) is a better strategy than rereading or cramming because it strengthens students’ ability to retrieve what is in our stored memory.
• Trying to solve a problem before being taught properly how to do it leads to better learning, even when mistakes are made in the attempt (as long as they are corrected).
• The more a student can explain in detail what they have learnt and how this connects to what they already know, the better chance they have of remembering it much later on.
The book stresses the importance of repeated retrieval practice: the process of trying to recall information strengthens the learning of that information. It is not important for a student to get the answer correct, rather to put in the effort to retrieve it and subsequently for the teacher to identify any incorrect or missing answers and correct them.
The other key finding in ‘Make it stick’ that we have applied to our teaching is that of ‘generation’. This relates very well to Nuthall’s findings and is what a plenary should be about: engaging the mind in trying to make sense of new learning by making the effort to explain in
your own words and relating it to what you already know. Our plenary or reflection activities didn’t always achieve this, so now tasks such as ‘Summary tweets’ and ‘reflection pyramids’ are designed with this in mind.
More information on how these books have influenced our teaching in our #TLT14 presentation at slideshare.net/debbieandmel
View on Amazon at
bit.ly/liveslearner
View on Amazon at
bit.ly/makestick
Scratch is a great platform for primary pupils for learning to code, but also for secondary children in honing their skills before moving to text based languages.
There are lots of great games on Scratch, but in this festive season it is nice to make a game with a little code that everybody can enjoy, remix and share. The full game and code can be found at bit.ly/uked14dec04
To make your own game you will need two Sprites, an elf and a snowball. It is also nice to choose a festive background. You will also need to make three variables: aim, lives and speed. See the ‘Data’ column to make variables for all sprites.
Coding Christmas Fun!
1. This code sets up the game and then handles the jump code. Point out to students that ‘forever’ is repetition.
The Elf’s Code
By James Abela
06 UKED Magazine
The elf sprite needs three blocks of code.
2. The second block of code enables the Sprite to duck. You will need two costumes for this. ‘elf2’ is the standing costume and ‘elf3’ is when he is ducked.
3. You need code to handle the lives. It is important to ensure that the backdrop is setup at the beginning of the game and in many Scratch games you need a delay to ensure that lives are not taken off right at the beginning of the game. When lives reach 0 the game displays a Game Over backdrop.
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Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/singhmv/5302422042 (modified) by Singh used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.Scratch Sceenshots used in line with the terms of use - scratch.mit.edu/terms_of_usehttp://pixabay.com/p-313360 (cropped) used under Commercial Creative Commons License.All other images provided by James Abela
The Snowball’s Code
4. This code sets the start speed, decides randomly to aim high or low and then sends the snowball at the elf.
5. This code makes the snowballs go faster and faster for an easier game you can make it wait longer for before getting faster.
The nice thing about these games is that you can easily extend the code to include sound effects, change backdrops after a certain time, time how long you can survive and give you points for every duck or jump you make! Every student can make something that they will enjoy playing!
Have a wonderful Christmas!
James Abela @ESLweb has been working in IT since 1998, firstly in the industry and is now head of department in an all-through school in Thailand. He is passionate about getting children to learn to code, because it improves their understanding of the digital world and helps them to think both logically and creatively. Read his blog at jamesabela.co.uk
After the next election I may be taking an oath or having a quick MoT. Suddenly, politicians no longer want to kick me to death. In fact, they’re taking a rather unhealthy interest in my workload. I’m now being accused of working too hard as opposed to being a wastrel, card carrying member of the Education Blob.
As we move into the pantomime season it’s easy to confuse what we see happening on the Parliamentary stage and the theatre stage. However, if Aladdin met Parliament met Education and you were given three manifesto wishes, what would you wish for? I’ve gone for some specifics to underline where I think we need to go next.
It would be great to see a total rethinking of the accountability system. Rather than looking at symptoms, such as workload, the political parties need to dig down to the root cause. The current pernicious effects of our over inflated accountability system are creating a fright, flight or fight approach in too many schools. Recruiting and retaining high quality people in some of the most disadvantaged areas, with high numbers of “hard pressed families”, is becoming a problem. There is a need to rethink our approach and move towards a peer accountability model, which in the first stage of its development is quality assured by the best HMIs. This would be my first wish. It’s what the countries with great education systems have moved to.
My second wish would be to rethink our approach to the recruitment, training and pay of teachers in the early years. We need to make teaching such an unbelievably attractive career option that we can select the most able, emotionally literate and capable graduates. We want the best people to be teachers. I’m a fan of a blended and balanced Higher Education and work based route into teaching - understand the deep theory and learn how to apply it is a coherent twin track approach. The theory must be rich and relevant and the coaching in the classroom of the highest order. If this means
needing two years to acquire QTS then that might be no bad thing. I would also have everyone on the two year QTS route being paid a salary. These are wishes after all. No education system can outperform the quality of the teachers within it. The supply of teachers is already highly variable around the country. We need to act now if we are to avoid a shortage crisis.
A work life balance for teachers and the great support staff who work in our schools. I don’t mind working hard, education is my passion. However, my family need a part of me and my time. Not the part left over when I’m shattered and in need of recovery. I worry some staff return from Christmas more exhausted than when they left in December, if that is possible. Workload and balance will move up our collective agendas. I wish the politicians good luck with the consultation.
For a number of people reading this, already in senior leadership and considering headship, you will be entering some of the prime years of your headship by 2020. The 2020s must be the decade we commit to moving beyond good, as an education system, and becoming great. Above are some of the leadership challenges we are facing over the coming years. You will need to address them individually within you school and connect beyond the school to work with others in the Education System. The challenges are too big for any one person, but together we can move mountains. I’m not going to tell you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it will be worth it.
Stephen is on Twitter as @LeadingLearner and his blog can be found at leadinglearner.me. Formerly Headteacher of St. Mary’s in Blackpool for fourteen years, he is currently Executive Director of the MAT consisting of two primary and a secondary academy - Christ the King, St. Cuthbert’s & St. Mary’s Catholic Academies. He chairs the SSAT Vision 2040 Group.
Political Manifestos & Pantomimes
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Winding Down or revved up for 2015? Here is how to go out with a (learning) bang...
As we drag our heels through the snow towards Christmas Day, it is interesting to hear how different staff approach the festive season with their students. It is a perfect time to present classes with a way in to reflect upon their own performance and achievements, and make manageable goals for the year ahead. How can we ensure that students start 2015 with a (learning) bang?
Student awardsI like to hand over to students to manage an award
ceremony for specific achievements within the class. These should ideally be aimed at long term achievements, but not necessarily directed at high achieving students. All my classes accumulate a weekly score for their spelling tests. Words provided before the test so they revise these and spelling strategies with online game resources to assist. We have a ‘super speller’ reward, for the highest percentage score which they have worked towards since the start of term. Other titles may be subject specific in the same way, but we have ‘most improved,’ ‘dark horse’ that celebrates previously unknown talents, and ‘remember that time’ award when someone blew us away within a particular lesson.
Wrapping Up
Dear Myself...I like to set aside a specific point in our final lessons before
Christmas for students to write a letter to either me or themselves, celebrating their achievements and what they have benefited from within the classroom that term. It is preferable to draw on real life context here, and consider the bigger picture of their learning - what could they now do with what they have learned? It is a nice exercise to complete yourself as they write, so they can see the process in action.
New Years ResolutionsTaking my inspiration from RJ Palacio’s Mr Browne’s Precepts
(bit.ly/uked14dec05), I like the idea of creating reflective statements for the year ahead. Rather than setting subject specific targets, students create a motto for themselves to adhere to for the forthcoming year. I intend to follow this up with a homework activity at a later point that will help them reflect and respond to this goal that they have set for themselves.
Mirror ImageOnce you have been bombarded with gifts and start to
tuck into what appears to be the best chocolate box from your pile, it is always good to close the year with a little self reflection. You are not required to sit crossed legged on your classroom floor with a solitary tear cascading over your cheek. @Dandesignthink has produced a fantastic weekly reflection sheet that allowed me to celebrate my successes during my NQT year, and focus specifically on what I wanted to achieve moving forward. Whilst it is always enjoyable to sprint manically for the door on that final day of term, a few moments to congratulate yourself and realign your aims is a healthy way to close the door on 2014 and concentrate on out-fattening the turkey.
By Kat HowardWrapping Up
Looking for even more educators to follow? Browse our international map of educators and even add yourself.
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Kat Howard @SaysMiss is an English teacher, freelance writer for BBC Bitesize and coordinator for Teach Meet Leicester in South Leicestershire. Read her blog at saysmiss.wordpress.com
UKED Magazine 11
The festive season is the perfect time to try creative teaching ideas and below are some seasonal links and activities that you may find useful.
1) What if blackout poetry was remixed for Christmas?If you’re not familiar with blackout poetry, it’s the art of
taking a piece of text, often a newspaper article, and using a marker pen to block out all the words apart from a select few. It’s a useful way to encourage careful word choice as the remaining words form a poem. We’re not sure where the idea originated, but Austin Kleon (bit.ly/uked14dec06) is a great exponent if you want to see examples. To give this a wintry twist you could try thick white paint. You could also use Christmas texts as the backdrop - a passage from A Christmas Carol perhaps (or would that be sacrilege?)
2) What if snowflakes were sci-fi?They can be with the freely available as templates from
designer Anthony Herrera (bit.ly/uked14dec07). His Star Wars snowflakes are very detailed and may need a craft knife and a sensible class of older students. It’s a wonderful twist on this traditional festive activity.
3) What if your students came over all Dylanesque?By which I mean ‘poetically inspired by the great Welsh
bard’. For us, Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales’ is one of the most evocative pieces of Christmas prose.
“One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner...”
Read the poem and ask your class to come up with a piece of writing that evokes Christmas. It’s the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth and also Cerys Matthews has a CD out where she puts “A Child’s Christmas...” to music (Spotify bit.ly/uked14dec08 & Amazon bit.ly/uked14dec09).
4) What if every Christmas was the same as 1914?One hundred years after the start of the First World War,
it seems appropriate to spend some time thinking about the Christmas truce between the two warring forces. Why did Christmas bring a ceasefire? Why is it that that could never happen now? How could the soldiers go back to
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killing each other the next day? It’s a thought-provoking story. Two interesting takes on it are the video, ‘No Man’ at bit.ly/uked14dec10 and Jurgen Vantomme’s fascinating photographs comparing of football grounds now at sites of the trenches all those years ago, at bit.ly/uked14dec11. These could spark many discussions about what makes Christmas truly special.
5) What if your true love gave you every gift in ‘The 12 Days Of Christmas’?
If you’ve never done a maths investigation on ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’, you’re in for a treat. This Christmas regular has a fascinating history and allows you to investigate number patterns, Pascal’s triangles and much more. Get started at bit.ly/uked14dec12
6) What if there’s more to Christmas than all of the above?
We hope that something above has sparked your imagination and help you in the chaotic run-up to Christmas. But above all we hope that you have a well-deserved and restful break.
What if Christmas...
Browse many more learning ideas in
365 Things To Make You Go Hmmm...
Read our review atbit.ly/ukedhmmm
and view on Amazon atbit.ly/365-things
Share your creative Christmas ideas - we would be fascinated to hear what you are doing in your class.
#UKEdChat
Big Schools' Birdwatch5 January - 13 February
From 5 January – 13 February 2015, schools across the UK will be making bird feeders and binoculars, turning classrooms into bird hides and getting excited children into position with their noses pressed against the window. Why? To take part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch.
Big Schools’ Birdwatch is a simple activity that gets children and their teachers closer to the birds visiting their school grounds.
It is a simple survey that takes just one hour and can be carried out in school or by visiting a local outdoor space. It works across a wide age and ability range. There’s plenty of flexibility for schools to run it as simply as they would like, or as the centrepiece of cross-curricular studies, project work or as part of work to improve their school grounds.
Big Schools’ Birdwatch aims to encourage children, and their teachers, to identify and take an interest in the birds visiting their school grounds. It is also suitable for youth groups, e.g. brownies and cubs.
Nearly 2500 classes, involving 75,000 children and teachers took part in the wildlife survey last year.
Since its launch in 2002, more than 70 different species have been recorded in school grounds, ranging from starlings and house sparrows, to kestrels and even pheasants.
Taking part in the activity could not be easier. Everything a teacher would need to plan a fantastic birdwatch and develop their children’s knowledge and interest in the birds they see every day is available to download from our website, including guidance notes, recipes, make and dos and counting charts.
We also have specially designed resources for different age groups: Under 5s, 5-7s, 7-11s and 11-14 years old.
By participating in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch and preparing your grounds for some feathered visitors you’ll be helping to give nature a home at your school.
The birdwatch is a simple survey that takes just one hour and can be carried out in school or by visiting a local outdoor space. All schools need to do to take part is watch and count the birds in their school grounds for one hour, then send the RSPB one set of results detailing what they saw. It doesn’t matter how many or how few birds – all sightings are useful! They don’t need to be an expert birdwatcher – the main thing is to have fun watching!
Sending in your survey results is a vital part of the activity. Once the survey results are in, we collect them all together and do some adding up. This helps us to see how birds are doing across the UK, but it also means that we can feed back the results to schools that took part.
12 UKED Magazine
The RSPB website has a specially designed online results form. It can be used as a fun data-handling class activity, via an interactive whiteboard. Teachers and children can build their choice of graphs and charts using their results data.
Big Schools’ Birdwatch is part of the world’s biggest birdwatching event, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. It
takes place over the weekend of 24/25 January 2015.
Further information can be found on the RSPB website rspb.org.uk/birdwatch
Visit: www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch for everything you need!
Image Credit: All images by Martin Burrett
Fast Festive Role Play
Advent is supposed to be a season of expectant waiting and preparation. In primary schools it is often a hectic season of making cards, calendars and decorations whilst learning the words to ‘Away in a manger’ and keeping everything crossed that the angel Gabriel doesn’t come down with a bout of norovirus. The good intentions to transform the classroom into a festive wonderland can just become the last straw. Here are my ideas for some easy role play solutions that take minimum time, but inject some festive fun into that corner of the classroom.
Using Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s “Jolly Christmas Postman” (bit.ly/uked14dec13) as an inspiration, set up a writing table where children can pretend to be characters from fairy tales writing to each other. If you have costumes for the Bad Wolf or Red Riding Hood, you can get them out as extra inspiration. If not, write the names of characters on post it notes, the children must pick one and then make a Christmas card from that character, this can be extended by asking children to write a letter to Father Christmas in role, what would Baby Bear want for Christmas.
A variation for older children is to get them to imagine they are a famous writer, historical figure, sporting hero, or even just someone from the past. What are their hopes and dreams at Christmas and the new year. Put on a top hat and they become Charles Dickens or a beret with a brooch and they are Henry VIII. The anniversary of World War I provides an opportunity for thinking about what would have been in Christmas letters from soldiers, parents or sweethearts.
Find a selection of Nativity stories and make a stable in the classroom. A doll wrapped in ‘swaddling’ and some sticky name labels is all you really need, though you can use costumes from the school play, if they are not too precious! A literacy focus is maintained if you have a badge saying ‘narrator’ and one child reading the story whilst the others act it out.
Flatten out some cardboard boxes - cereal boxes are perfect. Wearing Santa hats the children become elves and their job is to remake the boxes plain side out and make their own special design on the box. Link this to literacy by introducing story characters, maybe design a parcel for the Gruffalo? A variation on this is to design some wrapping paper and write a label for their intended recipient. This can be done with stampers or potato prints, though I think it is quite good to observe what they produce imaginatively.
Again, using Santa hats to make the children into elves, put out some construction kit and an instruction, such as “Santa needs five cars, a tall tower and an aeroplane”. They can tick off each item as they make it and then stick a label saying what they have made. Older children can write how they made their toys on white boards and leave them as instructions for the next group.
This is just a whistle stop tour through some festive fun. Happy Christmas!
Dr. Nancy Walbank is an educational consultant. She has worked across primary, secondary and tertiary educa-tion. She has held leadership roles in the primary sector. Her PhD focused on inclusion in faith schools. She is the author of “Six Top Tips for a Trainee Teachers.” Follow her on Twitter @nan282.
By Nancy Walbank
Image Credit: http://pixabay.com/en/star-christmas-red-white-snow-474864 (adapted) by geralt used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
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UKED Magazine 13
14 UKED Magazine
Rewarding Schools SuccessUKEdChat attended Educate Awards and spoke with the winning schools
Celebrating the positive aspects of school life is always a pleasure to behold, but with so much negative treatment focused within the media, the encouraging side of what is happening in schools is easily overlooked. The Educate Awards, in Merseyside, explore such positive activities within schools encompassing five local education areas within the county, considering various categories that value all parts of a school community. At a gala-filled evening at Liverpool Cathedral, we caught up with some of the winners, as they explained how they had achieved so much, celebrating the pupils, teachers and community that the school serves:
Communication Award - Whitefield Primary @WhitefieldPS
Winners of the Communication Award for its school radio station and successful embrace of social media was Whitefield Primary. They continue to innovate and grow their communication methods which makes them worthy winners of this award. Speaking to UKED Magazine after receiving the award, head-teacher Nadine Carroll said, “We’re absolutely delighted. It
means so much to our school community and really lifts our area of Everton where the school is. We can’t wait to take the award back to our children to show in Monday morning’s assembly”.Innovative and Creative Literacy Award - Alsop High School @AlsopHighSchool
Alsop High School won the Innovative and Creative Literacy Award for its broad and innovative approach to literacy. They instil in their pupils creative literacy skills, but also a love and passion of the written word. Teacher Claire Madeloso told us, “One of the things for us, in the area where we work, pupils do have a very varied background, many of whom come with a low reading age. Improving their literacy skills is key to us and helping them to be successful in the future. It’s great to be recognised for what we’re doing”.
Spirit of Enterprise - Evelyn CP SchoolFrom Knowsley, Evelyn CP School was awarded the Spirit of
Enterprise award for its ‘entrepreneurial continuum’. From nursery to year 6, the school puts enterprise firmly in the children’s sights and truly encompasses the innovative spirit of enterprise. Headteacher Carol Arnold spoke after receiving the award, “We’re just absolutely delighted, and it’s been a whole team effort. We feel we have done something really unique.”
Outstanding Arts in Primary School - Netherton Moss Primary School
Netherton Moss Primary School was awarded the Outstanding Arts in a Primary School Award for its production of ‘The Timekey Travellers’. The fully inclusive production involved all year groups, of all talents and abilities. It’s a fine example of involving every pupil in to a performance. The staff were delighted at winning the award for the third year running.
The headteacher, Fiona Wood enthused, “The teachers and the staff and pupils all worked so hard together to do it, and it’s just wonderful. It really is a whole school involvement. The children write the script and are already writing this years’ epic.” Teacher David Hird continued, “The children are also busy making all the stage props, the set, and designing the tickets and programmes – everybody from Reception right the way to Year 6 are involved. The participation, I think, is key – the children own it.”Outstanding Arts in a Secondary School Award - Gateacre School @GateacreSchool
For its production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gateacre School won the Outstanding Arts in a Secondary School award. The production embraced all year groups and even had the kitchen staff involved by making some delicious Willy Wonker style creations. Subject Leader for drama, Helen Williams told how the school had encompassed the production, “It all span out of control a little bit – in a positive way – in a sense of how it started to embed in lot of other curriculum, with design and technology, plus arts. Our aims are to make drama broader to the whole school and I’d like to think that we managed that in the production”.
UKED Magazine 15
Image Credit:Background image by UKEdChat staff.All other images have been provided by the Educate Magazine.
SEN Provision Award - Summerhill Primary@SummerhillL31
Summerhill Primary was awarded the SEN Provision Award; the judges noting that they are a fine example of a school embracing children across the spectrum of ability and disability. SENCo, Yvonne Gleig expressed, “We’re very proud to receive this and the children certainly are at the heart of our school.”
Science Project of the Year - Liverpool Life Sciences UTCLiverpool Life Sciences UTC had a successful evening,
winning two awards on the night. Winners in the Science Project of the Year category, Liverpool Life Sciences UTC has developed a simple, school friendly and inexpensive model for understanding fundamental principles in the life sciences. A great example of providing genuine opportunities for students to conduct real scientific research. Speaking about the two awards they picked up during the evening, Lyndsay MacAulay (Director of Enterprise) told us, “At the end of our first year of opening to be here and to have won two prestigious awards, particularly in areas that we are so passionate about”.
Wow Recognition Award - Calderstones School@CaldiesSchool
The final award of the evening, the Wow Recognition Award was presented to Calderstones School for its Tower2Tower bicycle challenge. This project was a fitting way to remember a popular teacher while crucially raising awareness of mental health issues. Cycling from Liverpool to Paris, the success of the challenge was incredible, it pulled a community together by hosting fundraisers, engaging local primary schools with the team’s branding design and included everyone possible to pay tribute to one of its great teachers. Assistant head-teacher Alan Preston expanded on the story, “We lost one of our teachers, who took his own life this week last year. Unfortunately, the mental health provision nationally is simply not good enough. We came together as a community and decided we needed to raise a significant amount of money for that cause. We raised just short of £20,000. What everyone got out of it was phenomenal. There were 16 riders and 4 support staff involved”.
The young Radio presenters at Whitefield Primary School
Developing a Revived Department. . .By Andy Knill
Back in September 2014, I wrote an article titled ‘Moving on...’ about starting at a new school and in a new role. I have been in post for just under a term and this is my progress so thus of ‘reviving a department’. Why have I chosen this phrase? I am new and much of my geography department are new.
Here are some of the ideas that we have developed so far with a long way still to go.
Staffing - Recent headlines have mentioned recruiting staff concerns. Our department is an international mix of English, Irish and Australian and we have gelled fantastically well. I am an extremely lucky Head of Department as we have a team spirit, which is evident through the amount of staff interaction and collaboration everyday. I am blessed with the chance to work with a mix of experience, travel experience and a team with fresh ideas.
Curriculum - I hoped to take 6 months to review and revise our Key Stage 3 course as I was uncertain of what I found on arrival. The outcome has been a new scheme of work that has responded to National Curriculum changes, discovering weaknesses in geographical skills and/or knowledge within the year groups and a desire to develop young geographers who can succeed to their full potential.
We have forged ahead with new units and next term we will work as a team to develop the shape of geography at the school. In the summer term we will be in a position to delegate and play to individual strengths.
We have lessons that utilise our textbooks, we have used web and app resources and, best of all, a relevance to recent news events. We have dispelled some of the media based misunderstandings linked to Ebola, and on a local level, we have looked at the changes at the Dartford crossings over the River Thames in the week before Dart charge is introduced. Improvements needed? Yes, we need more resourcing across the ability range to differentiate more, but it is an open conversation without barriers and a great start in only our first term.
GCSE - In my previous post, personal health problems had seen me pull back from GCSE teaching in geography. However, now I have five groups across Year 10 and 11. Attending a WJEC exam course gave me the boost in confidence that all was on the right track. I have challenged my pupils in a more active learning style. There was a little resistant initially, but I am now seeing a confidence developing that we will take through to June – and yes, to improve on previous outcomes.
Display - These have not always been my strength, but something that has started well, from the signs about New management which used the ‘Moving On’ article image. We have developed a range of display materials and activities for Open Evening that included some models from the
previous department, but mostly it was already about what we are doing and it was well received.
Pedagogy - We are using Solo Taxonomy across a department, including in staff briefing and sharing ideas further. We are also developing ‘critique’ based on the work of Ron Berger (see page 4) linked to homework projects and sharing Austin’s Butterfly with a new audience, staff and pupils. We have had assemblies on rainforests for all houses which encompassed move towards a growth mindset culture in the school.
We have also been pro-active in having interactive whiteboard and technology training for new staff; hosting the third Teachmeet Havering to the school in the first few weeks with great enthusiasm to take part, including the Head Teacher who was keen to present. This has culminated in a great first Parents’ Evening with Year 11 which that a queue that went out of the door.
I am happy. I moved at the right time for me. I am in a place where I intend to keep making a difference.
In B
rief
Project Based Learning in PrimaryTrapped in discrete subject teaching, and effort
that rarely extends beyond a 50min session, kids and teachers yearn for purposeful learning, beyond imposed ‘requirements’.
Project Based Learning is about making the learning matter.
It is rigorous, sharing what success will look like, with kids and parents, and everyone being held accountable.
Start with a real question (around a theme of your choice), and give the children a time-frame to solve it, ending with a public exhibition, inviting parents and the school community. Of course you teach skills, facts and practice those. But, crucially, the kids will care.
It should be whole school, but I recommend starting with your own class, and being brave enough to set an end goal for the end of term that allows the kids to work towards a display of their response to a shared challenge. I’ve done it, been judged to be effective and successful in a normal school: and teachers all over the world are making a success of it. What have you got to lose?@eylanezekiel - Teacher/Consultant, Oxford
Andy Knill is Head of Geography at The Albany School, Hornchurch, Havering. Find him online at mishmashlearning.wordpress.com and globalsolo.wordpress.com and on Twitter @aknill & @globalsolo.
Image credit: http://freestock.ca/flags_maps_g80-world_map__abstract_acrylic_p2970.html (modified) by Nicolas Raymond used under Commercial Creative Commons 3.0 License.
Book ShelfBook Shelf
UKED Magazine 17
For many more book reviews, go to
http://ukedchat.com/category/book
Science certainly is not a static subject. New discoveries are being unearthed on a daily basis and the opportunities to get pupils enthused in the world around them are boundless.
As teachers, we can get stuck in a rut, concentrating on the same strategies and pedagogical ideas that were the foundation of our training. With so many strands of the curriculum to cover, how is it possible to keep updated with the latest scientific thinking and experiments, and how is it possible to keep updated with all the latest ideas?
In his new book The Perfect Science Lesson, John Beasley takes a look at what is and isn’t working in science teaching and then offers effective strategies for improving enjoyment and achievement.
The Perfect Science Lesson includes:
View on Amazon at
www.bit.ly/perfectsci
Strategies that can be used immediately for primary and secondary science classrooms and labs; Links to 2014 inspection criteria; Advice on engaging starters and developing pupils as outstanding learners through metacognition, mood control, growth mindset and good learning habits; How to plan for and retain engagement during the lesson with a variety of suggested activities; The crucial role of feedback for all and especially of imperative feedback for pupils; The latest research on what works to improve motivation and outcomes for learners; And much more!
This book is suitable for trainee and newly qualified teachers and for re-invigorating outstanding teaching practice for all, including experienced science teachers.
View The Perfect (Ofsted) Science Lesson by John Beasley on Amazon at bit.ly/perfectsci priced at £9.99.*
The Perfect (Ofsted) Science Lesson by John Beasley
Getting the Buggers to Behave by @Sue_CowleyManaging behaviour looks different in each and every classroom
as personal dynamics and situations vary from day to day. Some things don’t seem to change though, and some pupils like to see how far they can push the boundaries, disrupting the flow of learning and taking you off script in a negative way. Behaviour management is relevant at all stages of education, with variances between different primary and secondary school, and different again Further or Higher Education.
In the updated fifth edition of Sue Cowley’s “Getting the Buggers to Behave”, advice ranges from the basics of behaviour management to ‘how to deal with the class from hell’ and is applicable to teachers in the early years, primary, secondary and further education with level specific examples in each chapter. Sue is famed for the
View on Amazon at
www.bit.ly/buggersbehavepractical, honest and realistic nature of her advice and all her ideas include case studies and anecdotes based on her years of experience working as a teacher and listening to the experiences of teachers of all levels.
It is worth considering that some behaviour issues are down to external factors, such as special needs or disruptive home lives, and due consideration is given to such circumstances, but the book is also crammed with tips and advice for everyday disruptions making this book the behaviour management bible for all teachers in all schools.
View Getting the Buggers to Behave by @Sue_Cowley on Amazon at bit.ly/buggersbehave priced at £17.09 in paperback and £16.24 on Kindle.*
*Prices correct at time of publishing
In our survey, we asked teachers to tell us about resources that they found on twitter which they then implemented in the classroom. Here are 25 of the most commonly shared ideas:
FiSH FeedbackEducators love acronyms, and here
is the first in our list. This feedback method, encourages teachers and pupils to ensure their critique is Friendly, Specific, Helpful. The 'I'?
Genius HourInspired from Google's 20% project, genius hour (bit.ly/uked14dec14) allows pupils to follow a passion of theirs without any marking, assessment or grading. Just encourage your students to learn or explore something they love. See the ukedchat session which discussed the concept at bit.ly/uked14dec15.
Blooms TaxonomyRefers to a classification of the
different learning objectives that educators set for pupils.
MindsetsA concept introduced by Carol Dweck
(bit.ly/uked14dec16) who explains why it's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success - but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. Some colleagues may benefit from reading the ideas behind the theory.
5-Minute Lesson PlanShowcased by Ross Morrison McGill
@TeacherToolkit, this resource (ukedchat.com/wsr00001) helps cut down the time taken planning, ensuring most aspects of lesson planning are covered.
Slow WritingA fantastic idea that can re-invigour
the writing process, developed by David Didau @LearningSpy in his "The Secret of Literacy Book" (bit.ly/uked14dec17), and also his blog at learningspy.co.uk, the concept challenges pupils to follow explicit instructions on how to write a text sentence by sentence.
Takeaway HomeworkA homework menu which encourages
children to become independent learners and take responsibility for choosing their own homework from a selection of dishes on a menu.
Flipped LearningCan be interpreted as flipping the
classroom open – providing links to prior learning so development takes priority. Technology can play a role, in providing links or videos so students
UKED Magazine 19
can get to grips with learning concepts before the formal teaching - perhaps! Read the archived ukedchat session at bit.ly/uked14dec18 which explored the idea.
TeachMeetsAn opportunity for teachers to get together an informally
share ideas and pedagogy that works in their classroom. No tech required. Presentations are 2 or 7 minutes long, and beware of the camel. See teachmeet.pbworks.com for a list of upcoming events globally.
Educational Policy and Curriculum DevelopmentsWith curriculum changes seemingly happening every year,
in every country - Twitter is a great place to see how teaching colleagues are coping with these changes, helping keep on top of the changes as they are implemented.
Extension Task CardsOne of the most popular resources on UKEdResources (via
@misstait_85), these cards / extension ideas are ideal for those pupils who finish their work early, allowing for learning to continue and extending ideas.
Go to ukedchat.com/wsr00010 to view / download the freely available resource.
Shared Planning IdeasPlanning a new topic, or sequence of lessons from scratch?
The chances are, there will be another teacher somewhere else doing exactly the same. Our survey revealed that teachers found collaborative sharing of planning ideas to be inspirational, creative and take the teaching & learning sequence beyond the initial expectations - positively.
Assessment StrategiesWithin England, teachers were faced with the withdrawal
of assessment levels, with greater 'freedoms' given for assessing. This caused general panic as schools were still accountable by inspection regimes. Our survey revealed that teachers took comfort and inspiration from other teachers who were faced with the same situation, sharing strategies and options being explored.
Books, Books, BooksThe education community is a buzz with many fantastic
books to help teachers develop their practice - and books regularly pop up on twitter which have helped in some aspect. We regularly review new publications - view over 40 inspiring books at ukedchat.com/category/book.
DIRT FeedbackA popular and regular search term on the ukedchat site
bit.ly/uked14dec19, DIRT Feedback stands for ‘Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time‘, mainly aimed at secondary aged pupils (11+), although some aspects are already embedded within primary practice. Explore further by clicking here. For more inform go to bit.ly/uked14dec20.
Specific Science DemonstrationsGaining ideas and inspiration to demonstrate tricky
scientific concepts is a lot easier by following many great science teachers on Twitter, who share their demonstrations and concepts with colleagues which can help reinvigorate the teaching and learning process. The volcano is now dead.
Exit TicketsA fast and easy vehicle to get feedback from students. Can
be open ended, sharing thoughts on what pupils thought was easy within the lesson, too hard, or how much they feel they learned. Technologically astute settings could manage this initiative using free software and sites like Socrative.com.
Virtual Global ExchangesTwitter allows teachers to link globally, allowing for
virtual exchanges via SKYPE Classroom or other online communication tools. It is easy to explore other classrooms without leaving yours, and many teachers collaborate with classrooms on the other side of the globe easily. Why? Why not! It is easy to broaden cultural understandings, languages and explore the lives of contemporaries in other continents.NaNoWriMo
Stands for, "National Novel Writing Month" and is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world, which has keenly been picked up by educators globally. See nanowrimo.org for more details.
Questioning TechniquesOne of the most powerful tools in the teachers kit,
questioning pupils and their thinking can really help develop learning, but needs to be done with careful consideration and planning. Whether questions are philosophical, or help understanding, making sure that the teachers techniques are honed takes time. See ideas / resources at bit.ly/uked14dec21, "Questions are the only useful things in planning! Planning how you take learning forward using questioning is SO important".
Display IdeasFaced with a HUGE blank classroom display board that really
doesn't inspire you or your pupils. Take your display to the next level by exploring ideas from your PLN on Twitter. View ukedchat.com/tag/display for UKEdChat sessions that look at classroom displays. Share yours. You can easily inspire.
Behaviour Management TechniquesGirls and boys can equally challenge the most patient
teachers, but it is easy to feel isolated when trying to deal with behaviour issues in the classroom. This happens from Early Years all the way through to university classrooms. Our survey revealed that teachers turn to their PLN for support and advice, with many ideas or strategies shared on our site at ukedchat.com/tag/behaviour.
SOLO TaxonomyProposed in the early 1980's, the SOLO Taxonomy consists
of 5 levels of understanding: Pre-structural; Uni-structural; Multi-structural; Relational, and; Extended abstract. This model describes levels of increasing complexity in student's understanding of subjects. View ukedchat.com/tag/solo for more information.
RAG 123 PlenariesDeveloped by @ListerKev, the concept was to make
marking a lot less time consuming, yet being of value to the pupil who could develop their work. Read the blog posting at bit.ly/uked14dec22 which goes into greater detail.
Apps & WebsitesTwitter is saturated with useful links and apps worthy of
exploration, and sometimes you will come across a gem which you can use with your class to help develop a learning concept. There are so many ideas, links and apps but your Twitter network will help you sort out the useful from the rubbish!
Share your favourite ideas, strategies and resources on Twitter using #UKEdChat and share with the community.
20 UKED Magazine
● WhichGospelstellthestoryofthenativity?● HowmanyMagiwerethere?● Whomentionstheshepherds?DespitetheNativitybeingoneofthemostfrequentlytold,
and certainly themost acted out, stories in the Bible, it isofteninaccuratelytoldanditscomplexitiesoverlooked.Fewrealisethatitonlyfeaturesintwoofthefourgospels,thattheMagiprobablyvisitedanythingfromsixmonthstoayearafterJesuswasborn(theyhadthreegifts,sowepresumetherewasthreeofthem),andthatonlyLukereferstotheshepherds.Even Pope Benedict XVI felt the need to address the
commonlyheldNativitybeliefsinhisbook,JesusofNazareth-TheInfancyNarratives(2012).HepointedoutthattherewasnomentionofanimalsintheplacewhereJesuswasbornandtheangelsspokeanddidn’tsingasmanycarolssuggest.ThewordNativityhasitsrootsintheLatinnativus‘arisenby
birth’, andgives thestartpointofChristianity; themoment“God became flesh through Virgin Birth”. ThismonumentaloccasiondeservestheattentionofallthoseteachingRE,yetattimes,lessonscaneasilybecometiredanddull,orincrediblysuperficial.
My Approach-IstudiedNewTestamentpapersatuniversityasaTheologyandReligiousStudiesundergraduateandso Istill cultivatea lovea scripture study.Anyonewho says theBibleisboringreallyhasn’tbotheredtoinvestanytimeintounderstanding it’s rich and varied cultural, historical andpoeticcontent.IalsoteachinaCatholicschoolwhereIhavefivelessonsperfortnightwithclasses,whichallowsamixtureoftherigorousandacademic,aswellasthecreative.AnexampleofitsintricaciesaretheNativityaccounts.One
couldlookatthetwoaccountsanddismisstheirdifferencesasclearevidencethattheyareinaccurate.Howevertolookalittlecloser,witheventhemostbasicbackgroundknowledge,itbecomesevidentthattheyarefareasiertoreconcilethanonfacevalue.Luke iswriting toaRomanofficial andMatthew iswriting
toChristianswhowereformerlyJews.Insimpleterms,Lukeis writing to the oppressor and Matthew is writing to theoppressed.This isvital toanyunderstandingof theNativityanditsperceivedinconsistency.Luke carefully omitted those things that would upset the
Romanofficial,Theophilus,oranyotherRomanofficial thatTheophilusmightshowLuke’sgospel.ThisincludedtheRomanatrocity of Slaughter of the Innocents and the highlightingofJesus’Messiahship,whichcouldbeconsideredapolitical
threattotheEmpire.Thementionedshepherdswerelowly,marginalvisitorsandsopermittedforinclusion.Matthew has similarly left out those things that would
upsetJewishChristians.HeonlybrieflydealswiththevirginalconceptionandbirthofJesusandthenrushesontotheMagi.Thisstory,withgiftsofexoticandexpensivegiftswouldhaveimpressedaJewishaudience.Lukedoesn’t include itastheRomansmayhavesuspectedthattheChristiansweremakingallianceswithpowerfulpeoplebeyondtheempire.ThisprudenceisnotsinfulasStPaulsays,“...trytofityour
answers to theneedsof eachone.” (Colossians4:6) andasJesusinstructs,“...becunningasserpentsandyetasharmlessasdoves.”(Matthew10:16).Onlyafterwehavegotourheadaround thisdowemove
on…Askyourstudentstodescribetheirschoolday.Whatdotheytelltheirfriend?Whatdotheytelltheirparent?Whatdotheytelltheirteacher?Justbecausethestoriesaredifferent,doesitmeantheyarenecessarilyfalse?
Activities for KS3-Oftenwecreateanoverviewwiththreecolumns; Luke, Matthew and Both. We may discuss thepossibleexistenceof‘Q’withmoreableorinterestedclasses.Oncethebasicshavebeenmappedout,wetrytoworkoutwhyMatthewincludedwhathedid,andlikewisewithLuke.Acreativetaskfromthismaythenbea‘LukeChristmasCard’withapieceofexclusivescriptureonthefront.Orobviouslya ‘Matthew Christmas Card’. The opposite is also possible,collecting a selection of religious Christmas cards andcategorisingtheminto:Luke,Matthew,BothorNeither!The‘Neither’pileincludesthosethathavetheshepherdsANDtheMagi,orfeatureadonkey...It is important to remind students, that despite this, a
consistent story can be constructed if we recognise thedifferentaudiencesthatthewritersweretryingtowinover.Theywerewritingthetruthastheyknewit,butatnopointproclaimed that their accounts were legal testimonies, northewholetruth.IalsoliketolookatJewishexpectationsofMessiahshipwithin
theNativity,as it isareallyhardthingformanystudentstograsp.AChurchinNewZealandhavecometomyhelphere!“TheUnexpectedNativity”(bit.ly/uked14dec23)isoneofthemostlovedofmyChristmasvideosandIurgeyoutowatchitandfindawaytoincludeitsomehow!A modern retelling can be another interesting approach
and Mary and Joseph’s time in Egypt can lead to carefulconsideration of asylum seekers and immigrants in theUK.MyY9studentshavejustdonesomedetaileddiaryaccountsofthispartoftheNativity:newlanguage,newculture,nojob,noplacetocallhome,youngbaby…HoweverIamnotentirelycomfortablewiththe‘ChavNativity’imageasarespectfulandusefulstartpoint.Therearesomegreatvideostimulusforwriting,particularly
toputintoamoderncontext,seethe‘MaryandJoe’videos(bit.ly/uked14dec24). After reading the Gospel accounts, itcanbeinterestingtotryandmatchscenesinthevideoandmake connections to life 2000 years ago inPalestine to lifetodayintheUK.Forthosewholiketousesocialnetworkstoretellnarratives,
therewas a few videos produced that share the story this
TheGreatestStoryEverToldHowcanIteachtheNativityalittlebitdifferently?By Andy Lewis
UKED Magazine 21
Image Credithttps://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffweese/4161935408byJeff WeeseusedunderCommercialCreativeCommons2.0License.http://pixabay.com/en/poinsettia-holy-three-kings-camels-528006 bygeraltusedunderCommercialCreativeCommons2.0License.
way(althoughtheyhavedatedslightlynow).Theycanhelpstudents realise that the story still brings hope and joy tomillionsofChristiansgloballyandthatitisstillsomethingofrelevance(bit.ly/uked14dec25).AlsoitcanprovokequestionsabouthowthestoryofJesusspreadpre-socialmedia.
Other Ideas - Using my PLN of Twitter (via #REchatUKand#REteacher) and via Facebook, I’ve brought together afewotherideasforteachingtheNativity.SomeofthesearevariationsontheideasthatIhaveused,whilesomeofthemIwouldbewaryofusinginschoolswithlimitedREtimeastheopportunitycostisgreat,withlittletheologicaloutcome:● You could look at the different birth narratives and ask
pupils towriteanativity storyas if itwashappening todayandcreateamoderndayversion(Jesuscomingforthepoor,marginalised,foreigners,asylumseekersetc).Youcoulddoitas aTwitter feedmaybe?Asaplenary I oftengetpupils tocreate a Google doodle based on the story, workswell forlowerability.ForGCSEclasses,IdoaChristmasjukeboxtaskwith lots of hymns and contemporary songs to analyse themeaningofChristmas/theNativity.-HelenElizabeth●Wedoaguidedmeditation.Wealso lookedat the true
meaningofChristmasandhavestudentsdecidewhichAdventJesuswouldapproveof.-SarahDoughty● IoftenuseabigselectionofChristmascardsandpupils
workinteamstosortintocategories:‘Inthenarrative’(e.g.inn, star, wise men), ‘Non-religious’ (eg robins, snowmen),‘Unsure’(egdonkey-notmentionedingospel,buttraditional).I thenchallengestudentstoretellthestoryusingtheirownversion cards which they design (like a storyboard). ThejuxtapositionofChristmasandEasterintheGrahamKendricksong‘ThornsintheStraw’isalsoofuse(bit.ly/uked14dec26)asisTheBethlehemRhapsody(bit.ly/uked14dec27).AlsoseeTSElliot’s“TheJourneyoftheMagi”.-GerryCohen●IhaveusedtheNativitytodiscussmigrantsandrefugees
withKS3-HannahKoller●MaryandJoevideos[seepage20].Iworkinaschoolthat
servesacommunitywhichhashadsocio-economicproblemsand I always try to cover themeaning of Christmas as notbeingabouthowmuchmoneyisspent.-KimberleyHeavey●TheLegoNativity isgoodfor lowabilityKS3/Primary. I
alsohavemasksforeachofthecharactersandgettheclasstoactitouthavingpreparedascript.-MargedWilliams● A ‘Has Christmas lost its religious meaning?’ lesson.
Children have to keep a tally when sorting a selection ofChristmascardsandthenmakeagraphwiththedata.Moreable classeswill collect data from thewhole room andweanalyseit.TheythenwriteanextendedansweronwhethertheythinkChristmashaslostreligiousmeaningbasedontheresults.-HannahDowns●IusethePicturingJesusresource[REToday]forthisone-
awesome!-AljoGibbsJones●Howaboutgivingthepupilsrolesandretellingfromthat
perspective?E.g.shepherds,innkeeper,Maryetc.Thenhaveaninterviewer‘TVstyle’togivetheirviewontheeventwhichcouldberecordedandedited.-SueNurse●ForKS3, I used toget them toget them tomakea crib
sceneoutofclaymodelling.Also,theywriting‘Mary’sDiary’and‘Joseph’sDiary’.TheNativityStoryfilmwasprettygood
for the traditional story. At KS4 it’s nice to start looking atsome of the theology; family trees, comparing genealogiesevengetinsomeexegesisofJohn1.AtKS5,I’mgoingtohitthemwithsomeKarlBarth’s“TheMiracleofChristmas”.Todosomemorecreativeactivities,trywritingpoemsandsongs.-TristanJohnS●HalftheclasscreateaChristmascardbasedontheaccount
in Matthew and the other half Luke. They then compareimages;awayintodiscussthetwodifferentaccountswithnostables!-LorraineAbbott●Wehavemade labyrinths inKS3withdifferent stations,
whichhave focussedon thenativity. Also,with KS3we gotstudents to analyse Christmas carols and songs, and thenpickedoutthebest linesandputthemtogether inordertotelltheirownmostaccuratetellingoftheNativity.Wemixedsound clipsof the linesandput them together tomakeuptheirownsong-wethenplayeditinassembly.-SarahCobbold●Using the good book company’s Christmas book,we’ve
gonethroughthestoryandtalkedabouthowdifferentpeoplewithin thestorymighthavebeen feeling.We’vesequencedthe story and linked itwith the children’sNativity play andthentheyhavemadetheirownNativitystoryzigzagbookswith detailed pictures and key events. Also, looking atsymbolism,we’vetalkedthroughthestoryandlookedatkeyeventswithinthelifeofJesus.Iaskedthechildrentoconsiderthegiftsthatwisemenbroughtthethestableandwe’vehada class discussion about why those gifts were symbolicallylinkedtohislaterlife.Afterreadingthestorywe’vediscussedkeyevents and sequenced themusingpicture cards (linkedwith some of Lat Blaylock’s work), then wemade woodenNativityscenesusingcutlollypopsticks.Sometimeswehavetoldthechildrenthestoryandthenusedoilpastelstodrawascenefromthestory,withchildrenallgivendifferentscenes.Hotseatingactivitiesalsowork;childrentakeonaroleofoneof the people from the nativity and then talked about keyeventsandfeelings.-KatieFreeman
ConclusionsFindtimetorevisittheNativity.Itdoesn’thavetobeboring
and‘sameold’;findanewangleforyourstudentsandyoumayfindyourselfenjoyingittoo!Whateverlevelyouteach,thereissomethingnewtobediscovered.PerhapsstartbytryingtofindoutwhyJesus’birthwasalmostcertainlySeptemberorOctober?MerryChristmas!
AndyLewis isAssistantSubjectLeader inRE,HeadofY10atSacredHeartofMaryGirls’School,Upminsterand is a lead for TheLondonREHub.com. Find himonlineatmrlewisre.comandonTwitter@iTeachRE.
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UKED Magazine 23
The Christmas Truce of 1914 is one of the most fascinating stories of the First World War. The tale of German and British troops singing Silent Night, meeting each other in No Man’s Land, and then playing a game of football is a powerful counterpoint to the death and destruction of the Great War. As history teachers, however, we face the problem that a number of stories of the truce are uncorroborated and thus potentially inaccurate. How can we engage students with a discussion of the Christmas Truce, whilst ensuring that we don’t fuel the mythology?
Sainsbury’s supermarket have chosen to use the story of the Christmas Truce to drive their 2014 seasonal advertising campaign. The advert has spread a long way thanks to YouTube and within two days of its first broadcast in the UK my students in Romania were discussing it on their way to my history lesson. I’ve always held the view that lessons and schemes of work should somehow tap into students’ interests, so I chose to seize this ‘teachable moment’ to deliver an impromptu lesson. I asked the students to analyse the advert as an historical source in order to answer the question, “How much can we learn from the Sainsbury’s advert about the First World War?”
To answer this question successfully, the students would need to analyse the advert in the same way as they would any other historical source. In order to direct their discussions, they were asked to focus on four key questions:
• Who made the advert?
• Why was it made?
• What does it tell us about the First World War?
• What does it not tell us about the First World War?
This guidance was given to keep students focused on an analysis of the advert as an historical source, rather than allow the lesson to slip into a discussion of the moral and ethical issues surrounding it. They immediately commented that it tells us that soldiers played football on Christmas Day, but also mentioned other details such as it telling us about what soldiers wore and how the trenches were constructed. On the flip side, a student highlighted that the advert only shows the Truce for one group of soldiers. This point was developed by another who commented that the explosion that sends the two sides back to their trenches proves that the fighting continued. This last point was really important as it led us to a discussion of the dangers of using one event to draw conclusions about the past in general.
Further background information about the advert was then presented to the students,
to help them understand how the advert had been created. They watched the ‘making of’ video, and read a series of
extracts from the Twitter feed of Taff Gillingham, the historical consultant who worked on the
advert (bit.ly/uked14dec28). A copy of the joint press release by the British
Legion and Sainsbury’s also helped the students add detail to their responses (bit.ly/uked14dec29).
These materials helped students to recognise that the advert was an interpretation of the Truce, and that it was therefore a compromise of the different aims of those involved in its production. They quickly spotted that the press release refers to the advert as “a creative interpretation”, but pointed out that the
creators “sought to make the portrayal of the truce as accurate as possible”. They recognised that this was
proved by the involvement of Mr Gillingham, whose Twitter posts go into significant detail about the sources he used to ensure the historical accuracy of the advert. Students did, however, identify that Mr Gillingham tells of how he and the director didn’t want the recorded football match to dominate the advert, but that “the client” (i.e. Sainsbury’s) wanted to “push the football hard”.
As a final activity, students from different groups were then asked to pair off to share their findings with each other, and to reach a conclusion of the overall lesson question about how much the advert can teach us about the First World War. Their opinions were written on Post-It notes, which they arranged into a continuum on the board for a plenary discussion.
Teaching history through current events is a rare privilege, and so I am glad that I seized the opportunity to use the Sainsbury’s advert in class. Although there are many things I would like to improve about the way I taught this lesson, I was very happy with the outcome. My Year 9 students proved that they were able to analyse a source by considering its origin and purpose, and they gained a more balanced understanding of the Christmas Truce in the process.
Scott Allsop teaches History at the British School of Bucharest, having previously taught in Egypt and the UK. He runs an award-winning educational website at mrallsophistory.com and you can find him on Twitter at @MrAllsopHistory.
Teaching The Truce
Image Credithttps://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanh1/15129456264 (modified) by Duncan Harris used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
By Scott Allsop
Card People to Colour and Playbit.ly/uked14dec44
Washable Dry Erase Markersbit.ly/uked14dec45
Gruffalo Finger Puppetsbit.ly/uked14dec46
Minecraft Paper Craft Setbit.ly/uked14dec47
Programmable Logo Robotbit.ly/uked14dec48
Toy Post Officebit.ly/uked14dec49
Charades For Kidsbit.ly/uked14dec50
Dinosaur Torch and Projectorbit.ly/uked14dec51
Easy to Design Circuitsbit.ly/uked14dec52
Image credit: http://pixabay.com/en/wrapping-paper-santa-clauses-funny-235939 by Hans under Commercial Creative Commons 3.0 License.
MineCraft Toy Set with Horsebit.ly/uked14dec53
Word Game with a Banana Bagbit.ly/uked14dec55
Boardgame To Build Coding Skillsbit.ly/uked14dec54
Verbal Description Gamebit.ly/uked14dec56
Verbal Skills Gamebit.ly/uked14dec58
Multi-Function Robot with Mobile Appbit.ly/uked14dec57
15 Educational ToysSelected by educators from the UKEdChat community
In B
rief
UKED Magazine 25
ictmagic.wikispaces.comThe best websites from
bit.ly/uked14dec40 A superb Christmas themed strategy game where players help Santa by making a track for him to sleigh down to collect presents.
Golden SegmentMany trainee teachers are advised to plan
one “Golden Lesson” a week. As an NQT I attempted this for the first half term. This I felt resulted in the other lessons not measuring up to my high standards. Roll-on the second half term and a new strategy, “Golden Segment”. In every lesson planned there is a section that is planned with a high level of consideration for AFL and differentiation. The benefits have been immense, an improvement in assessments as the consideration of all students in all lessons means that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills associated with the course. @_MrMills - Business Studies Teacher (NQT), Altrincham
Favourite ColoursHow well do you know your students? I don’t mean how well
they did on in their last assessment, their predicted grades, what their support plan says or their areas of need. I mean how well do you know your students?
What are their favourite colours, singers or authors? Has their sister recovered from her appendicitis? Did they make it to their cousin’s party? What are their fears, hopes and dreams but, as importantly, what do their day-to-day lives consist of?
If you want your students to care about what they are doing they need to know they matter. Take in all the information they let slip and ask them about these things in later classes, on other days or even five weeks later. If you care; they care.@mandmiles - GCSE Lecturer, Hampshire
bit.ly/uked14dec41 This is the Christmas edition of an old favourite. Guide the sugar into the cups to complete the levels in this fun and additive logic game.
yuleplay.com Listen to a large collection of festive music, including traditional carols, Christmas classics, and the latest Christmas releases.
bit.ly/uked14dec42 An amazing set of Christmas games and activities from Google with a new activity released everyday in December. Click on the buildings or on the calendar to choose a game.
bit.ly/uked14dec43 Listen to Charles Dickens’ classic tale of Christmas memories and redemption with this BBC podcast.
christmasfurious.com Avoid the obstacles and help Santa to fly to collect as many presents as possible in this fun game.
There can be very few teachers & leaders who are not familiar with mindset, grit, rigour and resilience. Current thinking has decisively moved onto ‘How do we teach and is it even possible to teach these qualities?’ This is also in light of a number of other key recent events such as Michael Gove & Nicky Morgan calling for the teaching of British values and Tristram Hunt decreeing earlier this year that children needed character building in school.
Freed up from IT lessons, I was asked to create a programme for Year 7&8 with the broad instruction being that it should not be an off-the-peg PSHE or Citizenship course. Terrified and delighted, I knew I wanted to incorporate every useful thing I had learnt from Twitter over the past few years and, most importantly, pass onto students what we had all found out from research. All of Year 7&8 students now have one hour per week on the Core Programme, which is essentially problem solving, research, ethics & enrichment. The course also addresses e-safety and IT skills.
There is significant emphasis on articulating questions, opinions and supporting points of view, inspired by the Oracy work of School 21. From the very first lesson, students are encouraged to question why they are even at school, moving far from an attitude of passive acceptance ‘because I have to’. Other lessons in Term One, where the theme is ‘Being a Learner’, emphasise the importance of checking as a life skill, to embed DIRT, and a class takeover, where students teach everyone, including their teachers. The best thing for me is having the freedom to come up with lesson names such as ‘How to make 963 friends and influence People’ and ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T: find out what it means to me’.
Teaching ValuesBy Kate McCabe
So far, responses to the course have been very positive. The 16 teachers rolling out the course come from departments across the school and include Heads of Houses and the Vice Principal. There is an excitement and a buzz about what the children can independently and creatively contribute when teachers are not trying to get that one very specific and exact answer from them. We have children talking!
As we move into broader areas next term, ‘Qualities and Interaction with Others’, I have reflected at length how to ‘teach’ resilience, grit, moral courage, aspirations etc. In answer to whether we should, it is a resounding yes. Knowledge is power and we have a responsibility to make sure students are fully aware of the consequences of their actions. They need to know what conditions optimise success, how seeking instant gratification can lead to poor decision making and why optimism about their future life is a must. Not discussions of concrete absolutes, but an environment of enquiry that demands students look at facts and make informed judgements.
Will the course enable students to make ‘progress’ in this area? Will the course lead to changes in behaviour? I don’t know. Maybe we can only show students what resilience or problem solving is, but they need to ‘feel it’ to understand it themselves and this is more likely to occur through other subjects. My gut feeling is that although qualities and values need to be experienced rather than taught, by making explicit what we value as a school, there is a possibility we may sow some seeds for life beyond school. As one teacher said, “The students have been given an opportunity to participate in a way that is impossible in many other areas of school”.
Kate McCabe @evenbetterif is Head of Core Programme and Media Studies at St Gregory the Great Catholic School in Oxford.
In B
rief
Are you a Pit-Pony or a Show-Pony?A colleague visited a school graded ‘Outstanding’ by OfSted. The HT greeted her guests telling them her staff were
not ‘Show Ponies’ but ‘Pit Ponies’, hard working staff delivering everyday for the children. This was considered a great mindset. I can see why, but let’s consider this analogy:
The Pit Pony: • Works hard in unpleasant conditions • Mistreated • Undervalued • Churns out performance/quality is less important • Failure = Punishment • Made to do more work than is healthy • Given just enough nourishment to survive • Little support/training • Faces a cruel death in the workplace • Little rest/regard to wellbeing
Based on this is it best to be a Pit Pony? The model of excellence? A pit pony’s workload was hard, but it was never sustainable. A show pony has a long, successful career and when it ends they are used to create more show ponies. News that 90% of teachers have considered leaving in the last 2 years due to excessive workload surely suggests against this.
I want to work hard, but every week I am spending less time NOT working. I find myself working longer hours and having more meetings giving me less time to do the job! Is all the work I am doing getting the best out of me? They say, “Work hard, work smart”. That’s Show Pony mentality. A Pit Pony works hard with no end in sight. I have PPA/Leadership time (2 x 1/2 days a week). I’m grateful and lucky to have it, but it’s full, there’s more to do and it’s not sustainable in the budget. I think I’d thrive given the chance to be a Show Pony. What about you?@WatsEd - Assistant Headteacher, Lincolnshire
The Show Pony: • Protected • Supported • Given the best • Pressured to perform/expected to be the best • Held as an example of the best of its kind • Failure = Care, Attention and Training • Trained to highest standards • Coached, groomed and developed professionally • Given rest/the best of care
UKED Magazine 27
Don
’t ta
ke it
pe
rson
ally
It do
es n
ot m
ake
you
a ba
d te
ache
r!
The
long
term
pi
ctur
e-al
way
s re
mem
ber:
you
w
ill su
ccee
d!
Keep
bei
ng
cons
iste
nt.
Follo
w u
p th
e be
havi
our
Look
at t
he c
lass
layo
ut:
-Did
you
use
a S
eatin
g pl
an?
Tim
e to
Re-
arra
nge
it?-R
e-ar
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shap
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upils
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who
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roup
?
Wha
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the
star
t of t
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sson
like
?-D
id y
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?-D
id y
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and
set u
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as th
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m to
do
stra
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aw
ay so
th
at y
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issin
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whi
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ocus
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, pro
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tone
and
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Str
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Rem
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id sa
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to g
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”.
Wha
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Did
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mak
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e co
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here
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put
you
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ds, d
id y
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ace
or
stay
in o
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lace
? Di
d yo
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-Did
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–Pa
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ffect
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Wha
t was
you
r voi
ce sa
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?-B
eggi
ng th
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beh
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Ple
ase?
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d co
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?-S
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ing?
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ld p
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? “N
ame.
Pau
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hav
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f erm
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um
mse
tcPl
an h
ow y
ou d
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ith p
oor b
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:-P
raise
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ls m
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g ex
pect
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ocus
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on
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sson
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and
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Wha
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upils
wha
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doin
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avo
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-“X
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ld b
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n 2”
Was
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hy?
Ask
advi
ce fr
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staf
f th
at te
ach
them
: The
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ome
Reas
ons?
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it re
late
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a si
tuat
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in a
noth
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sson
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out
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of sc
hool
-get
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dy d
ay?
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the
chal
leng
e at
the
right
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l? W
hy a
re th
ey
tryi
ng to
avo
id w
ork?
Fea
r of f
ailu
re?
Fres
h st
arts
are
ne
eded
-aft
er
sanc
tions
. It’s
de
alt w
ith n
ow
star
t aga
in.
REFL
ECTI
NG
ON
TH
OSE
LES
SON
S W
HEN
BE
HAV
IOU
R M
AKES
YO
U W
ANT
TO C
RY!
WH
AT W
ILL
YOU
DO
NEX
T LE
SSO
N?
FOCU
S O
N T
HE
BEH
AVIO
UR
NO
T TH
E CH
ILD.
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