April 2014 Issue 4

Subscribe for free

Pedagogy

Why do we

teach and who

is it for?

Guide

The top 100 UK

educational blog

as voted for by

you

Discussion

Designing

Classrooms for

the introverted

Pedagogy

Making learning

Grammar fun

for SPaG

Cover Photo Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/

File:Ready_for_final_exam_at_Norwegian_University_of_Science_an

d_Technology.jpg by Milford used under Commercial Creative

Commons License

Contributors

Andy Knill @aknill

Andy Lewis @iTeachRE

Martin Burrett @ICTmagic

David Moody @teacherbubble

Rachel Jones @rlj1981

Jo DeBens @geodebs

Tina Watson @tinawatsonteach

Amjad Ali @astsupportaali

Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist

The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any

advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is

made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for

errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

Issue 4: April 2014

Discussion & Guides

4 Why Do You Teach?

A discussion article from Andy Knill

about why we teach and who is it for

Regular Features

17 StickMen without Arms

Great teaching ideas from StickMen

without arms by David Moody

10 100 Top UK Educational Blogs

Our list of the best blogs as voted for

by the UKedchat community.

30 Pedagogy in Pictures

Ideas from Tina Watson & Amjad Ali

26 Overview Of The Oppi Festival

An introduction the this amazing

Finnish educational festival

18 Evaluative Essay Writing Prompts

An infographic lighting alternative

ways to prompt and assess an essay by

Rachel Jones

Pedagogy & Skills

6 Cut The Chat-Have Some Fun

Ideas from Andy Lewis about how to

make Level classes more fun.

13 Making SPaG Fun

A look at games and activities to make

grammar lessons more interesting.

20 Can Teachers Be Creative

Jo Debens asked do teacher have the

chance to be creative and explores

ways to be creative in your own class

38 Educational Events

36 Bookshelf Learning Through a Lens

Many images have been source under a Commercial Creative

Commons License. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

28 Speaking Up for Introverts

Discussion about education for

introverts

32 Analogue & Digital Differentiation

Mark Anderson explores ways to

enhance the differentiation of your

class to better cater for your students

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From the Editor This can be a tricky time of year in

schools. The exam season is just

around the corner, and while the

Easter holidays offer some respite for

both teachers and pupils, you can help

be think ‘I hope they are revising.’

In this issue we offer lots of ideas to

keep revision and ‘learning for

assessment’ as fun as possible.

Andy Knill shares is own prospective

about why he continues to teach,

despite some of the negative things

that come with the job in the modern

climate.

Andy Lewis offers a range of ideas

and activities to help A-Level students

learn and revise.

On page 10 we announce the top UK

educational blogs, as nominated and

voted for by the UKedchat community.

We were overwhelmed by the

response, with over two thousand

votes in all. There is enough

pedagogical gold held in these 100

blogs to last a life time.

I explore a host of language games

to help keep children enthused when

learning grammar and SPaG.

Jo Debens shares her insights into

how teachers can continue to be

creative, despite the outside

pressures.

We showcase the highlight of the

amazing Oppi festival and discuss

how to adapt your teaching for

introverted pupils.

Finally, Mark Anderson discusses

different forms of differentiation to

help you students success and

flurish

Martin Burrett Editor

@ICTmagic @UKedmag

editor@ukedchat.com

This thought has gone through my head on

numerous occasions during my career. This

year is my 26th year full time, so something

must motivate me, but is it what I read so

much about online and in the news media?

In recent months documentation, email

correspondence, Twitter feeds, edchats, and

blog posts have a common theme...Ofsted.

Preparing for, Mocksteds or your

inspectorate of choice, Advisors, templates,

progress, do this, do that, don’t do this ... It

seems as if my job is led by this organisation

that I do not belong to or subscribe to. Is this

what teaching has become? A homage to a

visit that may be two days or less of a

teaching career. In discussing this with a

colleague I worked out that in my career I

have been affected for about one half term.

At Easter I will have taught 77 terms or 154

half terms. So 1/154 as a percentage of my

teaching time means that no, I am not in

teaching for the Ofsted experience. It will

happen to schools I work in but it is but a

tiny fraction of a time I spend working with

young people.

So if I am not teaching to please Ofsted,

what am I doing it for?

I teach because I like working with young

people. I like their new ideas, their

willingness to learn. I enjoy sharing my

enthusiasm for lifelong learning with them,

be it my geography lessons or discussing the

latest technology releases. I push myself to

Why do you teach?

Isn’t it obvious? By Andy Knill

4

guide them to use and master new skills,

look about them, to notice their world

and be involved in it.

Surely a school that works for its pupils,

helps them to progress in their learning

and helps them to grow as people is doing

what we all aspire to for our own children,

as well as our charges. A school that is

actively involved in its community, and

meets the needs for its young people is a

“good” school.

Data, paperwork, gradings ...all have

their purposes, but they are not our 99%,

they are extras. Naive maybe, but I just

want to teach. Am I wrong to do that?

This is my opinion, it’s not research based,

just a teacher sharing their ideas –

What do you think?

Share your ideas with UKEdMag, write a

piece, we all have something to say and

someone else will enjoy it – find your

audience.

Image Credit:

http://pixabay.com/en/apple-education-school-knowledge-

256261/ by Pixabay used under Commercial Creative

Commons License

Andy Knill is a Secondary Geography

teacher in Essex. You can find him on

Twitter @aknill and @globalsolo. He blogs

at mishmashlearning.wordpress.com

Let the UKedchat Community help you

Advertise your School Vacancies &

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Primary Class Teacher

Hadrian Academy Primary

Dunstable, Bedfordshire

Closing date: 6th May 2014

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Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

Closing date: 24th April 2014

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Edenbridge, Kent

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Browse many more vacancies at

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6

and have some fun

Cut the Chat… Cut the Chat… and have some fun By Andy Lewis

There is a great tendency to look at the sheer

volume of content at A-Level and decide that

the following 18 months is going to be an

information slog. You inputting a vast amount

of, often difficult and complex, material and

your students taking it in.

I am now in my third year of A-Level teaching

(eight years of teaching in total) and I finally

feel that I am beginning to let go a little bit and

engage in some fun, but worthwhile, activities

which are helping my students to both learn

and enjoy the lessons. In this article, I intend to

share a few ideas that could work in any

lesson, at any age, but that I have found

particularly helpful in engaging 6th formers. I

can’t claim any ownership over them and have

picked up many of the ideas from TeachMeets

or via Twitter. I’ve written them in the ‘this is

what I did’ style.

Speed Dating

As the class arrived I gave students an EdExcel

Developments AO2 question and told them to

get planning... as expected, groans and

complaints:

‘The religious experience argument merely

indicates the probability of God and this is of

little value to a religious believer.’ Discuss.

They had 5 minutes to plan an outline to this

question while I set up the room. Admittedly

this is a reasonably hard question and I could

see a number of students who had just set up a

basic 'strengths/weaknesses' table which

wouldn't allow them to rise to the demands of

the question. Most ran out of ideas around the

4 minute mark.

I then arranged them into two groups with a

timer; they sat in two rows, facing one

another. One student instantly said, "This is

like speed dating!".

I then gave them a series of questions to talk

about, carefully helping to develop

understanding of this question and then reach

some kind of conclusion:

• What is religious experience? (1min)

• What types of religious experience are there?

(1min)

• What conditions may lead to a religious

experience taking place? (1min)

• What does "probability of God" mean? (1min)

• Is religious experience of value? (1min

30secs)

• Is religious experience of little value? (1min

15secs)

• What are your conclusions? (1min 15secs)

As you can see I altered timings and had each

question appear on the board as it was covered.

The timer and one side of 'the dates' moved

after each go.

At the end I sent them back to their desks and

told them to get writing... You could hear a pin

drop as they furiously wrote away for the next

ten minutes! I had to stop them writing as it

was end of the lesson but they had plenty more

than before the activity, yet essentially I had

not imparted any new information to them.

▲ The whole world as a stage — It’s easy to fall

into a monologue as a teacher. Encourage a

dialogue within your class.

Each team nominated their first scribe and

we took it in turns as they got the hang of it.

After a few goes each, they were allowed to

both be writing at the same time. After about

8 minutes, we upped it to two people from

each team. For the last 2 minutes we had a

free for all to get the last bits of information

down. Throughout, there was absolute silence

The arguments started off all coming from

the middle, in a random kind of way. However

as they got more into it, the flow developed

with people 'silently arguing' and bursting to

get back to the table to write. All students

were fully engaged, even the weaker students

found themselves able to add to comments or

scholars to other students posts.

The students really enjoyed it. On an

Edmodo poll giving the choice of role playing,

speed dating or this, they all (bar one!) choose

this. The students keep asking, "when are we

doing it again?"

7

Silent Debates

This time the question I posed to the class

was:

"Are religious experiences of any use in

discussing God's existence?" (12mins)

I then gave the teams the rules:

1. Once the debate starts, there is no talking

or conferring.

2. You are either arguing YES they are of use

or NO they are not of use.

3. Everyone must write at least twice.

4. Only one person may write at a time.

5. Think carefully before you write.

6. Try to keep it logical!

I split the class into two 'teams', each given a

separate side of the argument. They had 10

minutes to prepare. One team had the red

and pink pens, the other green and blue.

We then all gathered around the table, with

9 sheets of A3 stuck together; the question

was in the middle.

▲ Piecing it together—Notes from the silent

debates. Really something to shout about.

8

Image Credit:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/visual_dichotomy/3623619145/

by visual_dichotomy used under Commercial Creative Commons

License

Role Play

The topic of “Atheism and Critiques of

Religion” has 5 strong scholars: Dawkins,

Marx, Durkheim, Freud and Jung.

Using Google Image search, a colour printer

and laminator I made some impressive masks.

We sat around in a circle and the masks were

distributed. Students were told they were

now in role and were not allowed to step out

of character.

Various sentence starters were given and

students gave their arguments. In the pairs,

some were instructed to step out of

character. For example, one pupil was told to

be Dawkins and the other a Christian scientist.

The students passionately argued their

theories - one pair nearly came to blows!

This came after a unit that had been self

taught and students said that this exercise

was fun, helped them grow in confidence and

made them realise they did know it!

Essay on a Postcard

Essay planning can rarely be labelled as a fun

activity. However, simple changes like doing it

on a postcard can make it far more fun. The

students find a gimmick fun, and trying to

condense an essay to the really vital points is

a useful exercise.

Online Quiz

If you want to do a short knowledge test, putting

the questions on Socrative.com and letting them

answer on their mobile phones is a sure-fire way

of livening up a test!

Conclusions

With all these activities, it is only possible once

students already 'know their stuff' on the topic.

Now a pre-warning of “Next lesson is a silent

debate” prompts students into revision. I have

found these to be an excellent way to build

confidence, share understanding, develop

evaluation skills and ensure full engagement in the

lesson. They encourage the ‘flipped learning’

model, give responsibility to the students to

ensure secure understanding and help them enjoy

their A-Level lessons. Someone once said, “If it

works for Y7, it’ll no doubt work for Y13”, they

weren’t wrong.

▲ Alter-egos—Andy talks about using masks to

help students get into character at Teachmeet

LondonBus in March

Andy Lewis is currently Assistant Subject

Leader in RE at a Catholic secondary school

in Essex. Find him on Twitter @iTeachRE

and his blog MrLewisRE.co.uk

All other images were provided by Andy Lewis and

Martin Burrett

9

CPD from your Sofa! A TeachTweet is a free online gathering of educators on Twitter who watch and

discuss CPD videos which have been made by the other teachers from the

community. Visit ukedchat.com/teachtweet for more information.

The next TeachTweet

is on Thursday 22nd

May 2014.

Click here to sign up

to submit a video

Click on the image to watch a recent TeachTweet videos.

Critique & Perfection

@iTeachRE

Fab sites for your class

@ICTmagic

QR codes for Paired Reading

@jobadge

Paired Reading with Puppet Pals

@Collaborat_Ed

Join the

community every

Thursday at 8pm

Top 100 UK Educational Blogs

10

http://4a2013.lowerplace.net

by @4aLowerplace

http://9picsaday.blogspot.co.uk

by @Jobaker9

http://acaseforbooks.com

by @acaseforbooks

http://alexbellars.wordpress.com

by @bellaale

http://benwaldram.wordpress.com

by @MrWaldram

http://bettermaths.org.uk

by @bettermaths

http://bex-trex2teaching.blogspot.co.uk

by @BexNobes

http://blog.geoffbarton.co.uk

by @RealGeoffBarton

http://blog.mrthomasmaths.com

by @dmthomas90

http://calamityteacher.blogspot.co.uk

by @calamityteacher

http://carryonlearning.blogspot.co.uk

by @shelibb

http://catalystforlearning.wordpress.com

by @TaffTykeC

http://cavmaths.wordpress.com

by @srcav

http://cheneyagilitytoolkit.blogspot.com

by @astsupportaali

http://cherrylkd.wordpress.com

by @cherrylkd

http://chocotzar.wordpress.com

by @chocotzar

http://classroomtm.co.uk

by @mrlockyer

http://clerktogovernors.co.uk

As nominated and voted for by the UKedchat community. One hundred places the find wonderful

ideas, including old favourites and newly discovered gems from every kind of educator.

The list is in alphabetical order

http://createinnovateexplore.com

by @rlj1981

http://creativestarlearning.co.uk/blog

by @CreativeSTAR

http://davidrogers.org.uk

by @daviderogers

http://debrakidd.wordpress.com

by @debrakidd

http://debsgf.wordpress.com

by @Debsgf

http://digitalclassrooms.co.uk

by @bekblayton

http://digitalleadernetwork.co.uk

by @DigitalLeaderUK

http://dontwasteyourtime.co.uk

by @hopkinsdavid

http://educationechochamber.wordpress.com

by @TheEchoChamber2

http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk

by @murphiegirl

http://engagedlearning.co.uk/?page_id=10

by @davidpriceobe

http://excitededucator.com

by @missedutton

http://ezekiels.co.uk/eylan

by @eylanezekiel

http://frogphilp.com/blog

by @frogphilp

http://fromgoodtooutstanding.com/blog

by @fg2o

http://geogdebens.wordpress.com

by @PriorySouthsea

http://governingmatters.wordpress.com

by @5N_Afzal

http://headguruteacher.com

by @headguruteacher

http://heartoftheschool.edublogs.org

by @HeartOTSchool

http://huntingenglish.com

by @huntingenglish

http://ianaddison.net

by @ianaddison

http://ictevangelist.com

by @ictevangelist

http://ishouldbemarking.wordpress.com

by @mwclarkson

http://jodebens.com

by @geodebs

http://johndavidblake.org

by @johndavidblake

http://johntomsett.com

by @johntomsett

http://justmaths.co.uk/blog

by @just_Maths

http://jwpblog.wordpress.com/author/jwpblog

by @mrpeel

http://lab13network.wordpress.com

by @Lab_13Irchester

http://lauramcinerney.com

by @miss_mcinerney

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk

by @Xris32

http://learningspy.co.uk

by @LearningSpy

http://lifelongloveofliteracy.wordpress.com

by @carbev

http://lisibo.com

by @lisibo

http://literacyshed.com

by @redgierob

http://livinggeography.blogspot.co.uk

by @GeoBlogs

http://magicalmaths.org

by @magicalmaths

http://magpiethat.com

by @magpie_that

http://mathematicalmagpie.blogspot.co.uk

by @chk_ing

http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk

by @michaelrosenyes

http://michaelt1979.wordpress.com

by @michaelt1979

http://michaeltmerrick.blogspot.co.uk

by @Michael_Merrick

http://milesberry.net

By @mberry

http://mishmashlearning.wordpress.com

by @aknill

http://mjbromleyblog.wordpress.com

by @mj_bromley

http://morethanmaths.com/teacher

by @MoreThanMaths

http://mrbunkeredu.wordpress.com

by @Mr_Bunker_edu

http://mrmcenaney.wordpress.com

by @MrMcEnaney

http://mrsgowersclasses.wordpress.com

by @monkswalkmusic

http://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/

richardrosebangalore by Richard Rose Bangalore

http://oliverquinlan.com/blog

by @oliverquinlan

http://onbeingagovernor.wordpress.com

by @clare_collins

http://outstandingcareers.co.uk/careers-

defender-blog by @CareersDefender

http://pedagoo.org

by @pedagoo

http://peteyeomans.me

by @ethinking

http://primary-ideas.blogspot.co.uk

by @primaryideas

http://primarylearningandteaching.wordpress.com

by @AdeleLBamber

http://reflectivemaths.wordpress.com

by @reflectivemaths

11

http://releasing-the-magic.blogspot.co.uk

by @chrisedwardsesq

http://richardspencer1979.blogspot.co.uk

by @richspencer1979

http://sandagogy.co.uk/learning/index.php?q=blog

by @Sandagogy

http://schooldirecttraineeblog.wordpress.com

by @SchoolTrainee

http://showmyhomeworkblog.com

by @showmyhomework

http://simonhaughton.co.uk

by @simonhaughton

http://speechbloguk.com

by @Speechbloguk

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk

by @stevewheeler

http://stjosephstbede.wordpress.com

by @StJosephStBede

http://tabletsforschools.org.uk/category/blog

by @T4STweets

http://takenoheedofher.blogspot.co.uk

by @Gwenelope

http://talkingdonkeyre.blogspot.co.uk

by @iteachre

http://teachertoolkit.me

by @TeacherToolkit

http://teachingofscience.wordpress.com

by @teachingofsci

http://teenlibrarian.co.uk

by @mattlibrarian

http://theheadsoffice.co.uk

by @theheadsoffice

http://themodernmiss.wordpress.com

by @TheModernMiss1

http://theprimaryhead.com

by @theprimaryhead

http://thereeddiaries.blogspot.co.uk

by @reedyreedles

http://theteachingnut.blogspot.co.uk

by @diankenny

http://thisismyclassroom.wordpress.com

by @MrNickHart

http://totallyrewired.wordpress.com

by @Chri5rowell

http://whiteboardblog.co.uk

by @dannynic

http://wilsonwaffling.co.uk

by @iwilsonysj

The UKedchat website is the place to find educational discussion,

debate, articles and pedagogical strategies and tip.

Join the Thursday night discussion on Twitter at 8pm (UK) using

#ukedchat.

ukedchat.com

English Tests

En

Key Stage

2 Levels

3-5 Making the SPaG Test a Little More Fun

Name Martin Burrett

Like many 30-somethings who passed

through primary school in the 1980s,

lessons on grammar were noticeable

missing from my early education. Tense

was something you felt before tucking

in to the school dinner meat loaf and

the only clause I knew about was the

one that visited at Christmas. My first

real introduction to grammar was

through secondary MFL lessons.

Things have changed a great deal in the

intervening years, and now grammar,

along with spelling and punctuation, is

taking centre stage in the form of the

Key Stage Two SPaG test.

I think that giving these three areas

need 'some' prominence along with

treasuring the creative, imaginative

magic that flows through children's

writing, but this new obsession with

grammar and the creation of the SPaG

test for primary children is something

altogether different. To bring some fun

and, dare I say it, enjoyment into the

grammar learning process I have drawn

upon the EAL skills and games I used

while teaching English to non-native

speakers and some of my techie

enthusiasm. This is for my own sanity as

much as the children’s. While spelling

and punctuation are also important, I

will be focusing on making grammar

more engaging.

Smuggler

As most primary school teachers will

tell you, children learn better when

participating in games. The first activity I

would like to introduce I like to call

‘smuggler’. This can be played as a

whole class, but there are better levels

of pupil participation if it is played in

small groups. The children are given

some grammatically incorrect phrases.

One child must talk on a topic and

smuggle as many mistakes past the

other members of the group to gain

points, while the ‘listeners’ must spot

them. Any false-positives give an

additional point to the smuggler. I have

also tried this with short passages of

prepared text where I try to smuggle

mistakes past the class, but it is much

more fun when the children are

involved.

Toss the Hoop

... or your soft object of choice. Set up

4 coloured cones or areas to throw into

and assign a word class to each cone/

area. For each ‘hit’ the children are

given a word from a pile of, verbs,

nouns, adjectives or adverbs, depending

on the colour. The team then must build

a sentence with those words and they

can add other words on a limited

number of whiteboards. The trick is to

keep the words fresh so the children are

constantly making new patterns. A twist

14

on this is to write words on Jenga pieces

(covered first in idea paint if you can) and see

how tall your children can make a single width

sentence tower before it falls over.

Online Quizzes

There are lots of sites you could use and

many different ways you could administer

t hes e. I ’v e use d so cr at i ve. com ,

infuselearning.com and getkahoot.com to

make self marking grammatical quizzes online.

But the site that has really stood out for me

has been Zondle. This site allows you to write

a set of questions, but the children are able to

answer those questions through more than

fifty games. Each child has their own login in.

It a wonderful resource for making multiple

choice assessment test. Because it is online,

the children can use Zondle on any device

with a web connection, whether at home or at

school. I’ve used it to create cloze text

sentences, ‘spot the odd one out’ questions,

and questions to identify word classes. See

one bank of questions I have made at

http://zondle.com/cdl.aspx?qp=65980

Word Folds

This is a twist on the ‘draw a head, body,

legs’ game. Write around eight to twelve

different world classes, such as noun or verb,

down the right side on the page, one for each

fold. Setting up the sheet can take a little

practice if you want to make a reasonably

workable sentence and it is a good idea to

have a sentence in your head when you are

choosing the order. Then the children write a

word from a particular word class without

peeping. You may wish to add you own lexical

words, such as pronouns. This should

generate a (hopefully funny) sentence. But

they are often not grammatically correct and

the children must then correct them.

Scribbling sentences

I saw an arty meme where people were

scribbling words out in books to make scribble

poetry (see March issue) and you can do the

same for making sentences for grammar

practice. Simply scribble out the words that

you don’t want to leave the words you do. To

do this successfully takes a keen eye and

careful reading of the text. Not only will the

children practice for the SPaG test, but you

will also have some great art work to display.

Bobbing/fishing for Words

Another way to randomise the words for a

sentence is to bob for words, like you might

bob for apples. I have found that this works

well with small cake cases, as they float and

▲ Learning grammar has a reputation for being

boring and needed to studied from old, dusty, slightly

moldy books, but it doesn’t have to be that way

▲ Follow the rules—except there are exceptions.

Grammar is a reflection of a living, evolving language.

Is grammar there to tame it or simply explain it?

Image credit:

http://www.artfile.ru/i.php?i=530376 used under Commercial

Creative Commons License

http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2013/07/12/

punctuation-mistakes-to-make-you-laugh-or-cringe/ used under

Commercial Creative Commons License

you can write on them. Have towels on

standby. Alternatively, if you want your

pupils’ chins to remain dry, you can use a

hole-punch to make a hole and make a

fishing rod from string and a paper clip.

Once they have collected a selection of

words, the children make their sentence.

One word sentences

This game has been stolen from Radio 4’s

‘I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue’. Students must

keep a sentence going by adding one word

each. This can be played in pairs or groups

and can be played orally or written. You will

by writing/saying the last word and

stumping your opponent.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the

games that could be played to make learning

grammar a little more fun. But my biggest

piece of advice is to raid the toolbox of you

friendly neighbourhood MFL teacher as our

language colleagues would have been

making this sort of thing fun for years.

▲ Linguistic mistakes often make us chuckle and there

are whole sections of the web dedicated to showing

the best ones, but can be hugely embarrassing and

even damaging to those who make them.

http://crowdmics.com

An amazing crowd microphone app for

Apple/Android. Connect your audience to

the stage mics so everyone can be heard

where ever they are. Free for up to 20

users.

http://www.isleoftune.com

A unique way of making music! Build an

island town like in Sim City. Each object

creates a sound as a car goes by. Great fun.

http://bbc.co.uk/iwonder

This is a superb site from the BBC with

interesting questions to inspire awe and

wonder. There are videos and other media

which attempt to answer questions on

history, science and much more.

The best sites from

http://www.classdojo.com

A superb online class management

system. Award points for good behaviour

and working hard. Take points away for

late homework and being unkind. You can

set your own headings to customise for

your class. You can even update it using

your Android/Apple apps or mobile

device's web browser. It's one of the best

sites that I have shared.

http://www.talentbuddy.co

A wonderful 'gymnasium' for budding

programmers. Work through

programming challenges to earn points

and increase your level. There are over 10

programming languages to choose from,

including Python, Javascript and Ruby.

Check out the UKedchat Educational Apps

directory for the best apps for teaching and

learning.

Go to

ukedchat.com/eduapps

View thousand more at ictmagic.wikispaces.com

http://gifmaker.me

This site offers a simple way to make

animated GIF images. Just upload your

images, choose the speed and size and

then download. Easy!

StickMen without Arms Art & ideas by David Moody

See more

@teacherbubble

17

18

19

Can Teachers be Creative? By Jo Debens

20

Can teachers be creative, particularly at

GCSE level, without losing integrity? This is

the question that often faces teachers. That

dilemma between being innovative, engaging,

active and enjoyable, balanced against

standards, academic rigour, making progress

and ensuring excellent student outcomes. I

write from the point of view of a secondary

teacher and Head of Geography, in a school of

a challenging context and where

accountability, the 'O' word, and teaching

quality are phrases banded around every day.

Our students come from a wide variety of

backgrounds, and with hugely varied needs.

Many find learning difficult, many lack social

and life skills, many find themselves

unmotivated and lacking ambition to engage

with either their education or their future,

whilst others are pushing themselves and

their ability in a relentless drive for success.

Catering for all this is the challenge and also

the fun part of the job!

I sometimes think that teaching GCSE

becomes too focused on core knowledge and

rote memory, at the expense of deep learning

and experience. Whether this is due to a lack

of curriculum time, the demands of the exam

syllabus, the government or school

management, there can sometimes be a

tendency to 'teach them what they need to

know to pass the exam'. But I would rather

children had deeper learning, that they

figured things out for themselves, and that we

created a culture of lifelong curiosity and love

of learning. It is our role to take 'required

information' for exams and to empower

students to make connections that are useful.

So I like to think that my teaching, and my

department, has a healthy mix of creative and

innovative teaching balanced with more

traditional styles. Keep it varied, like a diet.

I'm not saying we always do something 'all

singing all dancing', and there is a time and

place for every kind of teaching and learning.

So I'd like to share some of my favourite

activities. This is mostly from the point of view

of GCSE Geography, but can easily be used at

other key stages and adapted for other

subjects.

Messy learning:

Messy Rivers - The idea is based on enquiry.

Many of my students found it hard to visualise

the stages of a river moving from upper to

lower course, and how the relief, river profile

and sediment changed along the way.

So I collected a variety of sediment of different

sizes to simulate this. Students worked in

groups and were presented with an A2 piece

of paper and felt pens, some laminated

keywords (e.g. processes such as attrition,

landforms such as waterfalls, etc.), and a bag

of sediment (including sand, silt, shingle, larger

pebbles, sticks, and a laminated picture of

some boulders and larger material - I wasn't

going to give this!). Then I simply asked them

to use their knowledge and produce a

sketched and annotated river profile with

keywords and sediment lined up in the correct

places. It worked very well and the students

really gained a good grasp of how the river

system changes. It became clearer and more

logical that, of course, the smaller material

would travel further since it was lighter. Click!

Lightbulb moment. Providing real world (or

classroom-based pseudo-real) examples often

makes otherwise abstract ideas much easier to

explain and understand.

Let them eat cake - This is an idea lots of

Geographers will know from Tony Cassidy. The

classic model is for a teacher to use walnut or

angel cake or some other layered cake. You

break it apart in stages to demonstrate the

formation of a wave cut platform. What I do in

my activity is a little bit of background work on

processes, then give the students a kit to work

with: Poster paper, mini whiteboards and

some pens, miniature layer cakes, a variety of

sweets such as skittles and jelly tots, anything

really. In groups the students have to produce

a step by step explanation model or video of

the formation of a wave cut platform. Some

kids went as far as to collect cups of water and

simulate throwing water and jelly tots at the

cake base and they found this made it really

clear about how corrosion could weaken the

base of headlands, just like water makes a

cake soggy. It does become messy, and

naturally I give them fresh, clean sweets to eat

as a treat after. Building models, whether

edible or not, is a great way to gasp difficult

ideas. Then they write a timed exam question

along the lines of 'with the aid of a diagram

explain....'. All my activities usually end in

some kind or formal exam skill. Rigour and

academic progress still lies at the heart of

what we are doing.

Balloon Q&A - There are a myriad of

different uses for balloons. One idea I have

used is to blow up the balloon and ask the

students to write a question on it with felt

pens and then throw it to someone else in

the room who then has to write the answer.

This person then has to write another

question and throw to someone else. The

challenge is to keep going and keep the

balloon off the floor the whole time. The

competitive element is very motivating.

You can also use balloons to demonstrate

many features and ideas about the Earth. I

have used it to show the curvature of the

Earth by asking students to try to draw a

world map around the balloon and

discussing how this distorts from what they

would normally draw. I have also used them

for making complex interlinked mind maps

on a topic or for revision - students have to

make links that go right the way round the

balloon. And you can use them for

prompting role play or empathy by drawing

different faces (happy, sad, etc) on the

balloons during a discussion or debate. Then

when a student is given the balloon they

have to take on that role, or empathise - like

playing devil's advocate and trying to

challenge other’s viewpoints.

“It is our role to take 'required

information' for exams and to

empower students to make

connections that are useful.”

21

Paper planes - Now I'm sure we've all seen

a child make a paper plane in class at some

point? So why not use this skill? I've done

this in two ways. Firstly, a student writes a

question or statement or fact on a piece of

paper and then folds into a plane. Throw to

another child who has to unfold and add

their answer or a follow-on statement

(could be like consequences as well). Keep

going as long as possible. Alternatively, I

have found it worked nicely with case

study practise. Each student writes a case

study answer for any topic you wish. They

fold this into a paper plane. The students

have three coloured pens and the paper

plane is thrown to a student who has a red

pen. The student has to highlight all of the

uses of fact and place specific evidence in

the answer. Then re-fold it and throw to

the next student, who highlights in green

any time that a point is developed (point

and explain). They re-fold once more and

throw again to another who highlights in

yellow all of the use of key geographical

terminology. Finally, the plane is thrown to

one last student who reads it, reviews all

of the highlighted sections, and then

scores and grades the case study and gives

a final comment and target for

improvement. So it is a multi-layered

assessment for learning activity. Plus it's

fun! You could also link to de Bono's hats

or Bloom's taxonomy should you wish.

Revision Games:

Revision doesn't have to be boring! Get

active.

Revision Bunting - I thought this might only

appeal to the more creative and artistic

students, or to girls perhaps more than boys

- but I've found all students have enjoyed

this. I place a series of topics into a hat on

pieces of paper. Students pull them out at

random and that is now their topic to

produce a piece of revision bunting about it,

e.g. meanders, earthquakes, Hurricane

Katrina, etc. They can then produce any style

or shape of bunting they wish, but I

emphasise the fact that what they produce is

for others to foster a sense of corporate

responsibility. The bunting is then strung

across the room and displayed as a revision

aid, plus I take photos and upload to the

GCSE blog (geogdebens.wordpress.com) or

Facebook account so students can access at

home.

Jigsaws - You can get blank jigsaws online

very cheaply and then students can produce

their own. I've had them produce two

different styles. Firstly, a traditional jigsaw

where the pattern is perhaps the structure of

the earth and convection cells, or a case

study mindmap on the Iceland eruption. The

second is like Jigsaw Jeopardy. Students

produce a jigsaw where each jig has an

answer on it and on the underneath there is

the question. Players of the game have to

guess the question based on the answer (e.g.

2010) they have seen (e.g. In what year did

Eyjafjallajokull erupt?) and then complete

the jigsaw as normal. The idea behind both

jigsaw activities is that students can learn by

producing the jigsaw in the first place and

secondly by then swapping and playing the

game with someone else and assessing each

other.

◄ Connecting the pieces—Students design their

own jigsaw puzzles with questions and answers

22

Jenga - Non-branded versions also allowed.

You can use wooden or plastic Jenga in all

sorts of ways. For example, you could place

stickers at the end of the Jenga pieces with

keywords on them and play a definitions

game. You should repeat the words on a few

pieces so that it is fair, otherwise the game

can end very quickly. Play in teams with

multiple sets on the go at once and

challenge groups to build the tallest tower.

Either the teacher, or one member of each

group, can act as quiz master. You read out a

definition or question and the player in each

team has to find the Jenga piece with the

right answer, pull it out and place on top of

the stack as usual. Students take turns to be

the one taking the piece and defining.

Alternatively, if you have coloured Jenga or

coloured stickers at the end of each bit, then

these colours can represent different skills

or questions in order to revise cases studies

or a topic. Categories may include factual

information, give a place name, describe a

process, or key words. Every time a student

pulls a piece out they must give a statement

or answer that corresponds to the category

that their colour represents. Again, this

could link to Bloom's or de Bono should you

wish.

You can save yourself a lot of hard work and

help your students think deeper about their

topic by getting them to produce the Jenga

quizzes for themselves.

Twister - Play the game as usual, but have a

quizmaster with a list of questions and

answers. Spin the spinner which

corresponds to a type of question and then

every time a player lands on a new spot they

must answer that question. If they get it

wrong, the spinner is spun again and they

must move to another spot until correct or

they fall over. Team challenge. Alternatively,

each spot can correlate to a different points

value. You can then have differentiated

questions with different points values, for

example, linking to C - B - A grades.

Musical Chairs - This game is great for active

revision quizzing. I've tried it in two ways. In

the first method students each have to write

down a fact / key term / draw an image

about a particular topic on scraps of paper

or mini whiteboards. You then set up the

musical chairs circle and these scraps of

paper or whiteboards are placed on each

chair. As you play the music students move

around and should be checking the

information on each chair as they go. You

then remove a chair with its associated

information and when the music stops, the

person left standing has to give the answer /

definition for the piece of information or

question you read out. Then repeat. Those

students who have lost their seat then get to

play quiz master to the others or can act as a

buddy to help others out if they get stuck on

their question. If they get the question right

they get a reward.

In the second method I would stick an exam

question on the back of each chair so

students can't see it. Each student has a mini

whiteboard or paper. As the music plays

they shuffle round to a new destination and

when the music stops they must answer the

question on that chair. No chairs are

removed in this version, they just

accumulate points for getting correct

answers.

▲ A new twist on a classic game—students

answer questions to earn their spot

Image credit:

All images were either provided by Jo Debens or by the UKED

Magazine team

23

Love literacy:

Poetry, songs & 'Dear Diary' letters - I'm

sure we've all tried creative writing in some

form or other to get extended writing into

play, or to make a topic more accessible. So

you have probably tried all of these, but I

mention these because they work! Giving

students the choice of how to make notes in

a creative writing format really seems to

engage a different part of the brain and help

them to make connections. For example,

after my students completed the Messy

Rivers activity I asked them to write a Dear

Diary entry about the journey of a pebble

down river. The stories they came up with

were incredible. For example, starting from

the genesis of this pebble from a huge

boulder that had suffered hydraulic action

and how terrible it was that this pebble had

been separated from its family... down the

river being buffeted by currents, hit by debris

to get its edges knocked off by attrition, so

that it had battle scars and wounds after

being dragged along river beds and thrown

against banks. Eventually this was deposited,

like an unwanted cast off, miles away from

its family and friends in some unknown land.

Dramatic and emotional stuff! But they had

to include key terms and had to describe the

changes as it went. It worked superbly and

re e nfo rc e d t he i r unde rs t a nd i ng .

Anthropomorphising the pebble enabled the

students to empathise

with a piece of rock. I've also had students

turning processes into poetry and song, for

example, turning Matt Cardle's 'When we

collide' song into 'When plates collide they

come together, diverging plates will always

pull apart...'. All good.

The master case study 3-step flow chart

model - My students often struggle with the

idea of extended writing for case study and

decision making essays, so I've been getting

them into the habit of creating a three stop

flow chart model to outline their thoughts.

The idea being that in the exam they will look

at the question, plan out their flow chart, and

then use this to write the essay. You can see

the flow chart example in the picture, but it

essentially follows the Point, Evidence, Explain

route of three flows, which then leads into a

final link box. This is then repeated three

times because a full mark case study should

be three well developed points. I just ask

them to do this at the start of every practice

case study or essay question we do now so it

becomes more routine.

Learning grids & VCOP - Learning grids are

great tools for prompting extended writing in

a more random way. Simply create a grid

(could be any size, I usually do 4x4 or 6x6) and

populate with keywords or fact or pointers

that students should include in a piece of

extended writing on that topic. For example,

for the sustainable decision making exam I

populated it with terms such as 'sustainable,

stakeholder, refer to data, give a contrasting

view, positive comment, negative comment,

use connectives, conclude, economic' and the

list could go on. Give students the grid and

two dice, so they can get two numbers for a

coordinate, e.g. 3,4. They then find the

correct box on the grid at 3,4 which may have

the phrase 'refer to data'. They would mark

this and treat it as a command that they must

do in their writing. I usually get them to

repeat this 4 times to get 4 different criteria

they must meet. Then they write the essay.

You can also use it in reverse as a AfL activity

where students mark on the grid what criteria

they think they have met, and then when you

mark it you can check how accurate they

were. Then this leads to you being able to

have a discussion about what 'data' really

means if they seem unclear about the

criteria.

VCOP is a support scaffold often used in

primary schools to support students with

vocabulary and prompts. You can create this

in any format. The idea is to have boxes to

represent vocabulary, connectives, openers

(sentence starters) and punctuation

reminders. You can have generic or subject

specific vocabulary and openers as needed.

Then just give them out as needed.

SOLO structure for AfL - I've only recently

started playing around with SOLO (See More

on SOLO in the January 2013 issue of UKED

Magazine) and have never been a big fan of

any one particular taxonomy as a one stop

solution, but I do like parts of this. The idea is

that it guides students through from more

basic knowledge and understanding to more

complex ideas and concepts. I have adapted

the phrases to suit my needs. For example,

prestructural to me becomes 'unsure',

unistructural becomes 'one idea',

multistructural becomes 'many ideas',

relational becomes 'linked ideas' and

extended abstract becomes 'interlinked

ideas'. I've used this for AfL or to revise a

topic. For example, give the students a grid

following the structure and ask them to fill in

what they can for a particular topic. You can

then identify weaknesses and remind

students that this links to a certain grade

criteria.

SOLO hexagons are very nice for planning

essays or for practising making interlinks

between factors. You could ask your students

to write down the causes and effects of, say,

the Brisbane flood on as many hexagons as

possible, colour code and you can link into

causes and effects based on hard evidence.

Then ask them to shuffle these up, and then

to try to make links between them in

order that every hexagon is touching the sides

of multiple other hexagons. The beauty of the

hexagon is it has six sides and can be tessellated

to create as many links as required. Student

aiming for higher grades should be able to make

these complex interlinkages. Once you've

created the hexagon pattern you can then use

this as a template structure for planning an

essay on a case study, or a piece of extended

writing. Just remind them to use connectives!

Story Cubes - These are great for adding variety

into writing. You can either make paper story

cubes yourself or you can print them off online.

Alternatively, you can get big foam filled plastic

dice with plastic pockets so you can slot

whatever piece of paper into that you want. For

example, I wanted year 7 to write about Iceland,

so I placed pictures, some facts about

sustainability, some Icelandic poetry lyrics, etc

into the different sides of the cube and then

students had to roll it three times and whatever

side was face up each time it landed they had to

include in their writing.

You can also get story dice apps on mobile

devices if you wish.

Jo Debens is a secondary geography

teacher in Portsmouth. You can see

more activities and more information

on her blog, jodebens.com. You can

find Jo on Twitter @geodebs.

25

Helsinki 2014

Oppi is a old Finnish word which means knowledge, experience and

wisdom. There was plenty of this present at the Oppi festival over the

two days of 11-12th April 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. But there was

much more besides. The Oppi festival has drawn front line educators,

decision makers and experts from all over the world to descent on

this beautiful Scandinavian city. Big international educational event

are not uncommon. What was perhaps a little unorthodox was the

ambition to make this very large festival feel like a home grown

event, with a friendly, informal atmosphere where ideas could be

shared and discussed. Oppi had a organic touch to it. A melting pot

where entrepreneurs, innovators, politicians and teachers talk,

discuss and even argue on the various educational policies and

possibilities we see around the world and over the horizon.

But why choose Finland, a country famed for its success at providing

educational opportunities for its young people? As Simon Breakspear

said, “When things are going well, that the time to disrupt the

system.”

Simon was hosting the event and urged the

attendees to take education to the next level

through discussion over the next two days. He

went on to say that relationships is the ‘killer

app’ in education. “Innovative and creative

learners equipped with modern technological

tools means that the age of average is over,” he

concluded.

Krista Kiuru, the Finnish Minister of Education

and science spoke about some of the successes,

but also the failures and possible problems with

this world renowned education system. She

spoke frankly about the disengagement divide

Simon Breakspear inspiring everyone

as he takes to the stage at Oppi Dr Pak Tee Ng in conversation with Oliver Quinlan

All eyes are on Finland for educational answers, but Finland continues to look forward to the future.

Pasi Sahlberg talking passionately individualised learning at Oppi

Gavin Dykes in conversation with students, Laura and Elsa

Krista Kiuru, Finnish Minister of Education, sharing her

thoughts on educational successes and where to go next

which troubles many parts of the world,

including Finland. She concluded by saying,

“The best thing we can leave behind for the

next generation is a good education system.”

The inspiring Pasi Sahlberg, visiting

professor at the Harvard Graduate School of

Education, spoke at length about the need to

give kids a tailored, individualised education

formed largely by self discovery and curiosity.

But he went on to warn that technology is

not a silver bullet, pointing out that Finland

uses far less educational technology then

comparatively advanced nations.

One of the highlights was a session presented by Dr

Pak Tee Ng, Associate Professor at the National

Institute of Education in Singapore. He explained the

background to this tiny nation’s education system

and spoke passionately about why each country must

find its own answers to the education question,

routed in that countries culture and allowing children

to lead the way in their own learning.

See full coverage of the Oppi Festival by clicking here

and click here to view our photo stream.

Would you like to invite UKedchat to your

conference or event? Get in touch.

“Sshh. Quiet please. Just for a minute. Some of

us need time and space to think. Some of us

hate the thought of having to speak to groups of

people. Brainstorming? No…just NO!”

Welcome to the world of the introvert - a

personality strength which many people stifle,

hide, or are too embarrassed to admit to. It can

be seen as a sign of weakness, but many of the

traits of extroverts have become celebrated in

many Western societies (mainly shout about

and advocated by extroverts), with the

behaviours and ideas witnessed in business

dripping down into the educational

stratosphere.

A lot of attention has been given to the subject

of introverts, mainly thanks to the American

writer Susan Cain, whose book “Quiet – The

Power of Introverts in a World that can’t Stop

Talking” highlighted the vast divergence

between the two personality attributes.

UKED Magazine / UKEDchat Exclusive Feature

Why western societies celebrate the

mannerisms of extroverts is not fully

understood, especially when you look at

successful and famous personalities who display

introverted characteristics, such as: JK Rowling;

Bill Gates; Christina Aguilera; Albert Einstein;

Steve Wozniak; Emma Watson; Keanu Reeves,

to name just a few.

Celebrating the qualities of introverts in

education can be a challenge. Can a teacher be

an introvert? When do the traits of introverts

start to appear with children? What are the

signs that educators should look out for to

identify the extroverts/introverts in their

classroom? Is it really possible to group/label

students under such categories? Let’s take a

closer look at these issues.

Looking at the table, as a teacher you need

many of these attributes, but most colleagues

go into ‘show’ mode when they are teaching,

▲ Swapping lanes — Getting your dream jobs will

mean changing your direction

Speaking Up for the

Introverted

Speaking Up for the

Introverted

Recognising the personality traits

Introverts tend to be more quiet, reserved and introspective, having to expend energy in

social settings. On the other hand, extroverts gain energy from social interaction. Other main

contrasts include being:

29

being a false representation of who they

actually are. This is not a bad attribute, but a

skill needed to engage, enthuse and energise

pupils. There will be many of the attributes in

the table, on both sides, which resonate with

you. There are few people who are 100%

extrovert or introvert, but you may identify

some of the features in your own personality.

Some teachers enjoy the peace and quiet of

their own classroom at lunch time, rather

than the noise and buzz of the staffroom –

this is not a bad point, just recognition of a

reflective, thoughtful colleague. Despite many

beliefs, the traits of introverts are not, and

should not be viewed as negative.

So, what about pupils? These personality

traits are evident from a young age, but in the

comfort and familiarity of a primary/

elementary setting (with the same friends;

same teacher; same classroom each day), it is

not too easy to define children easily. Once

children enter the secondary setting, the

characteristics start to reveal themselves more

noticeably. Moving from classroom to

classroom; working with different sets of

peers; different strategies of working; different

teachers; new subjects.

One of the (many) challenges for teachers is

to recognise the signs of introverts and

extroverts, and adjust your teaching to suit

both. Many teachers complain of pupils who

appear to be non-responsive in their class –

always the last to raise their hands – the quiet

ones. This is more likely a sign of teacher

affirmation than a sign of disengagement.

Some pupils absorb your lesson, processing the

information in their own private, reflective way

– which may not always be on display within

the confines of the lesson. There are different

ways to check for understanding, and allowing

pupils to do this in a way that is comfortable

for them is significant. Some of the brightest,

intelligent pupils are introverts… but they are

very unlikely to tell you. Celebrate this in a

quiet way – they are unlikely to enjoy being

the centre of attention – remember; they are

extremely self-aware.

Schools appear to be geared towards

extroverts, while introverts are often

undervalued or misunderstood. Speaking up in

class, group work and "show and tells" is

emphasised mainly in response to Assessment

for Learning strategies, but Susan Cain cites

studies which suggest that the majority of

teachers think the ideal student is an

extrovert, and more extroverts are groomed

for leadership positions in the workplace – we

refer you back to the list at the start of this

article.

It is easy to criticise pupils for being ‘quiet’ –

how often were you warned to watch out for

the quiet ones? This mistrust is because it is

difficult to know what they are thinking – but

Pedagogy in Pictures Pedagogy in Pictures ► I am a big fan of picture books and often use

them with my tutees to stimulate ideas and

encourage discussion. Anthony Brown's books are

a particular favourite of mine and I use his

excellent 'Willy's Pictures' with primary pupils

(across the year groups as this activity can be easily

differentiated). I use the book in conjunction with

the iPad. It is a simple EdTech activity that really

exploits the tactile aspects of the iPad; namely the

ability to zoom in closely to examine small details in

images. Pupils are always eager to touch and explore and this

activity makes the most of that natural instinct.

You can adapt this activity, using it for art as a starter before

moving on to drawing or painting, for literacy as a stimulus for

writing about the pictures or simply for speaking and listening.

@tinawatsonteach tinawatsonteach.blogspot.co.uk

Introvert / extrovert characteristics (table) information from:

http://psychology.about.com/od/trait-theories-personality/f/introversion.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/trait-theories-personality/f/extraversion.htm

Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7477245@N05/7965228774/ by Luiz Fernando Reis used under Commercial Creative Commons License.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/72098626@N00/3800867082 by Ed Yourdon used under Commercial Creative Commons License

https://flickr.com/photos/seatbelt67/502255276 by Brian Hillegas used under Commercial Creative Commons License

https://flickr.com/photos/calliope8muse/4148111399 by Calliope G used under Commercial Creative Commons License

the reality is that no-one really knows what

anyone is truly thinking, but the

contemplative, reflective nature of such

introverted characteristics should be

celebrated and recognised in all educational

establishments. We want students to think,

evaluate, reflect and absorb their knowledge

and learning – just like they promote in

university education. Don’t try to change

introverted characteristics – celebrate them,

and allow space for the quiet, thoughtful

processes which the noise of schools rarely

allow.

► GCSE students write facts on post it notes. Then spell out

their topic. You could also differentiate the task by asking the

students to draw scenes or diagrams.

@astsupportaali cheneyagilitytoolkit.blogspot.co.uk

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Twitter Map. Add yourself to the map by clicking here.

Some Subject Specials have been supported by the

AQA. Visit http://aqa.org.uk for more information.

Analogue & Digital Differentiation By Mark Anderson

Differentiation can take place in lots of

different ways. The old classics are

differentiation by outcome and differentiation

by task, but these, like many methods, can

rely heavily on the teacher’s input. I

remember working for hour upon hours to

create and adapt work for individual students.

But there are many more ways to

differentiate learning. Nowadays, I use a

variety of more finely tuned methods and I

make a use of technology to aid the process.

Top and Tail

Many teachers aim for the middle ground of

a class. However, why not ‘top and tail’ each

activity with activities and strategies to

support, scaffold and extend students,

depending on their abilities.

To extend students who finish a task more

quickly, why not get them to complete a more

difficult extended digital version of the

activity. Not only does this stretch them, but it

can also provide useful materials to share and

even use as part of a starter for the next

lesson. For example, in a Geography class you

may be researching something and extension

activity could be a report to the UN about

climate change or whatever the topic is. This

would give the children the opportunity to

develop literacy and use of technology, which

will have wider positive impact for the

student.

Another favourite of mine is to use Socrative,

an online real-time quiz platform. I ask

students to log in as a teacher and create

their own quiz questions based upon the topic

being studied to reinforce their learning from

the lesson. I ask them to share the SOC code

with me and if time, I use the quiz as part of

the lesson plenary. Don’t worry too much if

they get the answers to their own questions

wrong - That’s part of the learning process and

can easily be correctly by the students or by

you if necessary.

To scaffold the lesson for those students who

might need it, why not have a QR code which

links to a page with all of the key words and

their definitions or even add the key words to a

worksheet page. This will support students with

a variety of literacy and language needs.

Creating wall displays with the key words,

such as the one below, is a simple thing to do

with technology.

Try the free App - Moldiv for iOS, which

allows you to arrange images and write on

them. This example took only five minutes to

create.

Other things you could do might include:

• Allow students to make notes on

whiteboarding apps to refer to later in the

lesson. For example ExplainEverything, or

ShowMe would be effective here.

• Create a screencast or recording of the main

part of your input for less able students to

play back and refer to during the course of

the lesson. You could use Camatasia, which

is excellent, or Screencast-omatic to do this

for free.

• Allow students to make a visual

representation of their learning in a video or

something which better suits their abilities. If

done before learning has taken place, then

mind mapping tools or visual representation

aids, such as Grafio or Freemind would be

very useful. After learning has taken place

you could make videos. Why not try the

nano social network app Vine to do this. You

could import these videos into

ExplainEverything so that students can

annotate their work. Be creative and try

different work flows with apps. Try to always

give students the choice of more than one

task or way of expressing their learning.

Timing

Being mindful of timing in your lessons and

how you utilise it can have a big impact on the

success of your learners. Getting your timing

right can really help to differentiate the

learning. For example, you could differentiate

the amount of time a student has to complete

a task based upon their ability. Alternatively,

you could give students a task a day in advance

of when they are going to complete it in class

to give them an opportunity to get thinking

about it in advance. Flipping your lesson

content could help here too by giving students

the learning input of the lesson to run through

in advance. This can help to get them thinking

about the learning before the lesson starts.

When it comes to time, you can also think

about using deadlines more wisely. As we’re

focusing on differentiation, we can talk too

about giving students of different abilities

different deadlines for their homework. Setting

‘take away homework’ is a great way of

differentiating homework ideas for students. A

simple web search of the term will give you a

plethora of ideas on how you can do this. Some

people use templates, while some people do it

via a wall display with the homework topics put

in to folders for students to take a paper copy. I

write a clear takeaway homework selection and

add it in to Showbie where students can then

access the homework. I set the homework over

an extended period of time. I tell students that

they must do a minimum of 3 homeworks in the

6 week term with no maximum. Each

homework is pitched at a different difficulty

rating. Students must complete at least one

‘hard’ homework in the homework period. I try

to assess their homework when I receive it,

although this is not always possible. It must all

be completed before we move on to the next

homework cycle.

Using time as an incentive in the class can pay

dividends too. In my experience, students react

well to tight, specific deadlines. For a start, it

means that the time they do spend is focused

on the learning activity. It helps to avoid

procrastination and it saves students wasting

time trying to aim for perfection or adding too

many features to their work which are

unnecessary. You can plan your whole lesson in

to short, tightly focused tasks which

cumulatively take the complexity of the subject

further for their learning. With the tasks being

broken down into shorter chunks, you could

even add a competition into the timings to get

students to focus even more.

Sometimes, being a little ‘crazy’ with the

timings can force students to do their very best

work in the ridiculously short period of time

you’ve given them. For example, I have asked

students to show me all of the features they

were comfortable using Photoshop in 3

minutes. It produced exactly the results I

wanted - I wasn’t after some amazing graphic

design. I simply wanted to know what

students ‘could’ use in Photoshop, not the

best piece of design. It worked very well!

Engaging your learners is (nearly) always a

good thing too - why not ask them how long

they think they should have to complete the

task. Go with that and make them stick to it.

As teacher, you can intervene if they ask for

too long/short and guide them, but in my

experience it is a good way of getting them to

engage further with their learning.

Finally, to make timing really explicit I often

use the theme music to countdown playing in

the background in the lesson (here’s a ten

minute loop of the familiar music:

youtube.com/watch?v=eTlrzLl1UAI) and then

when there’s 30 seconds left I play this:

youtube.com/watch?v=6eTLAg0giN0#t=13s

to act as a final countdown.

Self Differentiation

One way of empowering learners through

differentiation is to defy the data on their

potential capabilities. We all have data about

what students minimum target grades should

be to guide us as to how much progress they

need to make to attain in the exam. By this

definition, some students are more capable

and fit into what used to be called the Gifted

and Talented category. Why not try setting

challenging extension activities that are open

to all learners, and not just set as extension

work for the more able. One a week, once a

term, set a really challenging piece of work

that students can opt into. Make it clear this is

to stretch their understanding and abilities.

You will be surprised how many students

choose to self-differentiate and complete the

harder work. You could obviously try setting a

digital task to do this, perhaps one that gives

the students a wider audience for their work.

How about setting a small extension task of

extra reading or watching a YouTube video,

but keeping a class reward chart of who

chooses to complete the work, or award

points on Class Dojo. This rewards the

students for choosing to try the harder tasks,

and encourages a classroom culture of high

expectations. You could also reward students

with digital badges and I have found credly.com

and their App really useful as you can design

your own badge and award it when the work is

completed.

Collaborative Differentiation

Group work, or team work can be one of the

most rewarding things for students in terms of

the potential gains they can make, not only in

their learning, but in developing the skills they

will need for later life. However, poorly planned

collaborative work can make the task fruitless

and frustrating, as some learners are pushed

aside, while some do not pull their weight and

others display some bossy characteristics. It is

key to differentiate by what role each student

will have in the team. Tailor these roles to play

to the strengths of each student, but also try to

develop a weakness. It is no good casting a

student with stage fright in the lead of your

play to help develop their confidence.

However, giving them a small part might well

help. This may be fairly teacher intensive, but

this gives the student a bespoke learning

experience in which they stand a chance of

actually making some very substantial progress.

In terms of using technology, it is useful to

▲ Mark is the author of The Perfect ICT lesson -

Click here to view the book on Amazon.

allocate roles where students are working with

some tools they are very confident with, but

some that they are not so that they continue

the learn new skills within the collaborative

environment. Use technology to allow the skills

that they have, be it in Photoshop or coding, to

shine through and not only develop them as

individuals, but inspire and share with other

members of their team.

Finally, if you’re looking to assign roles

randomly, should you want to, the apps Decide

Now and Tap Roulette are a great way of

choosing students, as is the name picker within

Class Dojo and on the brilliant classtools.net.

Differentiation by Resource

The very best teachers do not give the

students the same resources to complete a

task. In fact, really it is a pretty blasé attitude

to assume that all learners will make the best

possible progress using the same resources. So,

the same needs to be true when using digital

tools in the classroom. You should have a

variety of tools available to students to match

their needs. For example, some learners may

work well with the demands of a text heavy

website, whereas for others would benefit

from the streamlined information provided by

http://instagrok.com and find it a much more

useful way for them to access new materials.

Some learners may thrive on making mind

maps, and so Popplet is appropriate, but for

others a different kind of visual representation

may be more appropriate. This all comes down

to good pedagogical practice, where you know

the student and tailor the learning to the

individual. What is most important in

implementing excellent differentiation is to

know your learners? Not only the data about

them, but understanding them as individuals, as

people, and giving them the opportunity to

shine in whatever format that may be.

Differentiation may seem time consuming for

teachers, but as you integrate it into your

teaching practice and by using technology, it

will become a habit and part of your classroom

practice. It takes time to get used to and be

able to manage a classroom full of learners all

doing different things. However, if well planned

and facilitated by the right tools, it can be a

massive step in relinquishing control of the

lesson to your students, who after all, are at the

heart of everything we do.

▲Check out Mark’s blog for useful and insight

into teaching pedagogy and digital teaching

technology.

▲ Read Mark’s new ebook on the Apple

Bookstore. Click the image above.

Mark Anderson is Assistant Head

Teacher and directory of E-Learning at

Sir Bernard Lovell School near Bristol

and the author of Perfect ICT Every

Lesson.

Image Credit:

All images were provided by Mark Anderson

Author: Jane Hewitt

The world of photography has become more accessible in

recent times, with most of us walking around with a camera in

our pockets most of the time. Concerts, museums, disasters,

weather phenomenon, etc. will all be covered by someone who

has a smart phone camera handy. Many of these cameras have

advanced so far that the point-and-click photography culture is

now threatening advanced photographic skills, whose results

are just as rewarding as any art masterpiece viewable in any

gallery.

In her new book, ‘Learning through a lens – It’s all about photography’, teacher Jane Hewitt gives

pupils the skills to understand how they can they can best take photographs, whether using

smartphones, iPads or cameras, being used as creative tools that can be used every day.

“Most children will have a camera on their phone, and I think banning them in schools is counter

productive. We should be teaching them how to use them for their work. I’m not sure we should teach

photography as a separate subject, but we should use it.” Speaking to UKEdChat, the Yorkshire based

teacher celebrates this recent surge of photography, making it available to everyone. “Smartphones

are making photography accessible to everybody, and if you want to take it further you can. There are

stock agencies that are now using Smartphone images.”

But the skills behind photography are essential,

with many people not understanding the full

features of their cameras. Helpfully, the book offers

advice for the beginner to get to grips with such

features as: shutter speed, aperture; ISO, white-

balance; metering; and an explanation of the

different modes on most cameras – all helping to get

a good understanding of the capabilities. “You can

have all the gear, yet no idea on how to use it. You

see people who have huge lenses and properly

kitted out, having spent thousands of pounds, and

leave their camera on automatic not knowing what

the other buttons and features do, openly admitting

that they don’t know how to use their camera beyond the basics. Just because you have an expensive

camera doesn’t make you a photographer. You can have the cheapest camera going and produce the

most amazing shot. It’s about being creative.”

“To me, photography can sit across the curriculum – I have used photography to teach literacy, and

have done for years with transition work using images and photography skills. I’ve used Preiser figures

to build them into characters and build their homes, then taking photographs to turn them into a story.

Pupils then need the photography skills, the literacy skills, the IT skills. To me, this is fun and a tool.”

Photography can be a great substitute for those who have an eye, but are not confident at drawing.

Indeed, Hewitt confessed, “I can’t paint; I can’t draw, which is one of the reasons why I got into

photography, because I got frustrated. I maintain that anybody can take a photograph – it might not be

a very good one, but you can do it and you can see the results immediately. You develop an eye, and it

is like art in that way.

Learning Through a Lens Bookshelf Bookshelf

36

▲ Click the image above to view this

book on Amazon.

“I love dead flowers, street

art, and texture, but my

favourite photographs are

from my trip to Uganda, as it

was the first time I really

realised the power of

photography. If you look at the

central image on the front

cover of my book, the two

children had turned a water

carrier into a toy, but my

favourite image was a little girl

standing at a fence watching a

school, which she couldn’t

afford to go to.”

Gaining inspiration from other people’s work is essential, and any budding photographer should

explore images that resonate with them. Jane told us, “I love Steve McCurry’s portrait work – just

the close-up of faces and love the expressions that he captures. But there are so many. You can see

something and think that it’s amazing, such as the Slinkachu (Little People) images. Even that can be

adapted, with young people using Lego figures – and there are so many different characters – this

can be linked to outdoor learning, creating all sorts of things. Like I said, you can use photography as

a tool. I’ve used it with Year 7’s in English when we’ve been writing about school – their school – and

they are given the chance to take five pictures to sum up their school. They are evaluating; analysing;

coming back with five images and it makes it so much easier than asking them to just write a passage

about their school.”

It’s clear that Jane Hewitt loves photography, and has inspired many educators with her work –

setting up 365 day challenges; sharing her work with colleagues; supporting colleagues to develop

their skills – and this passion shines through in her book. She told us, “The book has taken two years,

with a lot of support from the people at Crown House Publishers. They were very sympathetic with

my choice of images to include”. But, essentially, the book shows how the power of photographs and

photography can be used within the curriculum to inspire, engage and enthuse pupils about the

world around them. The use of smartphone cameras, and the editing apps which are easily

obtainable, is making photography accessible for all. Give it a go.

Learning through a lens – It’s all about photography, written by Jane Hewitt is published by

Independent Thinking Press, which is a part of Crown Publishing, priced at £20.00 – Available at

Amazon priced £18.39. *Prices correct at time of article publication.

Browse many more book reviews at

http://ukedchat.com/category/book/

37

Getting Started With Project-

Based Learning 25 April 2014

Hartsholme Academy

Lincoln

TeachMeet Cotham 8 May at 5pm

Cotham School

Bristol

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Cliffe House

Shepley (near Huddersfield)

TeachMeet Dorset 19th June at 6:00pm

The Badger Brewery

Blandford St. Mary, Dorset

iPad Integration for Advanced

Users 15th May 2014

St Mary’s RC High School

Astley, Manchester

Red House TeachMeet 15th May at 5:00pm

Red House School

Norton, Teesside

TeachMeet Exeter 28 June 2014 at 11am

St. Luke’s Science and Sport College

Exeter

TeachMeet Stoke-on-Trent 22 September 2014

Ormiston Horizon Academy

Stoke-on-Trent

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