March 2014 Issue 3

Discussion

Exploring and

learning in the

great outdoors

Skills

Getting the best

out of your

whiteboard

Pedagogy

Designing

lessons with

game

mechanics

Guide

Embedded 3D

printing into the

curriculum

Subscribe for free

Cover Photo Credit: Created and supplied by Matthew

Harding at GoPrint3. See http://www.goprint3d.co.uk

Contributors

Danny Nicholson @Dannynic

Beth Summers @ntrlconnections

David Moody @teacherbubble

Natasha E. Feghali @NEFeghali

Jennifer Ludgate @MissJLud

Tina Watson @tinawatsonteach

Emma Watford @MissWatford

Rachel Preece-Dawson @rpd1972

Andy Knill @aknill

Martin Saunders @martingsaunders

William Portman

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 3: February 2014

Discussion & Guides

8 Let’s get Growing Schools

Exploring and learning in the great

outdoors by Beth Summers

Regular Features

13 StickMen without Arms

Great teaching ideas from StickMen

without arms by David Moody

14 Designing a Better Learning

Experience

An exploration of 3D printing in

education by Martin Burrett

22 Pedagogy in Pictures

Sharing classroom tips & pics from

Jennifer Ludgate, Tina Watson &

Emma Watford

31 Leading the Way on Digital Tech

Andy Knill explains the value of

‘employing’ student Digital Leaders

in schools.

28 Maths Through Stories

Read about how Rachel Preece-

Dawson has adapted a time-honoured

writing approach to deliver maths

Pedagogy & Skills

4 IWBs - Ideas to Keep it Simple

Getting the best out of your

whiteboard by Danny Nicholson

18 Teaching French to a Diverse

Classroom

Ideas about bringing a creative

element into your classroom by

Natasha E. Feghali

32 Level-Up Lessons with Game

Mechanics

A guide to perfect pixelated pedagogy

and game based learning by Dr Martin

Saunders

37 Educational Events

39 Bookshelf Unhomework review

40 ICTmagic Edtech Resources

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From the Editor Welcome to the March issue of

UKED Magazine from UKedchat. This

edition is packed with practical tips

and tricks to use in your classroom.

Danny Nicholson gives us a master

class in getting the best from your

interactive whiteboard.

Beth Summers from Natural

Connections explores ideas for

improving learning opportunities in

the great outdoors.

I discuss the potential pedagogical

advantages of using 3D printing in

schools to tailor objects to a pupils

learning requirements.

Natasha E. Feghali showcases how

she brings creative and fun elements

to her MFL lessons.

Our UKedchat feature article guides

you through the educational

interview process to help you get

your dream job and further your

career with practical advice and tips.

Rachel Preece-Dawson discusses

how she uses stories to explore,

illustrate and learn maths concepts

with her class.

Andy Knill tells us about Digital

Leaders and the many advantages

having them brings to a school and

the boost it gives to the Digital

Leaders themselves.

Finally, Dr Martin Saunders looks

at how using game mechanics and

ideas can enrich the curriculum,

both online and off.

Martin Burrett Editor

@ICTmagic @UKedmag

editor@ukedchat.com

I am very much aware that for a new user,

the average piece of IWB software can be a

little overwhelming. Invariably, it has a lot of

buttons and tools that can be quite confusing.

In addition, while the majority of schools are

using either SMART Notebook or Promethean

Activ software there is a lot of other software

out there that teachers are using in schools. It

can be frustrating to see activities that are

reliant on a very specific tool in one piece of

software, only to find that you can’t do that in

the software you have in school.

Whiteboard software often contains

additional tools such as tables, handwriting

recognition, interactive resources, maths

tools, timers and suchlike. All are fun, but not

always essential.

Too many tools can overwhelm the beginner,

and if you are just getting started it is better

to slim things down and focus on the

important features. With this in mind, in this

article I am going to concentrate on the 5

most basic tools that any piece of interactive

whiteboard software should have, and how

you can create a lot of really useful activities

for your lessons.

Those 5 tools are:

• Freehand Pen

• Text

• Shapes

• Eraser

• Inserting images

4

Interactive Whiteboards Ideas to Keep it Simple

By Danny Nicholson With just these tools, there are so many

things you can do. It is also good to know how

to group shapes together and to lock some

objects on the page so they can’t be moved

by accident.

1. Rub and Reveal

This is a very simple technique that relies on

the fact that the eraser tool rubs out anything

drawn with the pen tool, but does not rub out

typed text. If you change the pen tool to have

a thick line, and change the colour so that it

matches the background of the page, then

you can quickly make text disappear by simply

drawing over it. This is a very quick way to

make cloze activities (fill in the gaps) or to

hide labels to a diagram such as in the

example below.

To make the text appear, switch to the

eraser tool and then rub out the pen. The

words will appear as if by magic. It’s a simple

technique, but very effective.

2. Anagram Keyword Games

At its most simple level, all this activity

is made from are two blocks of text –

one is an anagram of a keyword, and one

is the correct answer. I have then drawn

two rectangles and filled them in. These

are then used to cover the two words.

In this example I have added text to the

two boxes so I can remember which is

the anagram and which is the answer.

3. Drag and Drop 1 – matching

A very simple activity to use at different times in a

lesson to check on understanding, these are simply text

boxes which then need to be matched.

To speed things up, I created one blue box and one

yellow box using the shapes tool and then added text. I

then cloned these boxes several times (or copy/paste) to

get many identical boxes. Then change the text in each

one.

The boxes could contain words and their definitions,

beginnings and ends of sentences, dates and events,

words in one language and their corresponding word in

English.

The boxes can be dragged together to match up. Or

lines can be drawn to pair them up.

As an extension – have a whole load of different words in

boxes for sentence rearranging or fridge magnet poetry.

4. Drag and Drop 2 – Sequencing

This is the same as the example above, only that

the boxes are larger and contain a sentence or

phrase. The activity could be to put these

sentences into the correct order either based on

a story or a set of events. These could also be

statements that the pupils need to rank into

order of importance, or strongly agree and

strongly disagree where there may not

be correct answer as such, but acts as a stimulus

for discussion.

5

5. Drag and Drop 3- sorting

This activity relies on the screen being split

into two (or three) columns with text boxes

placed at the bottom. The words can be

dragged into the correct columns. The

example in the image is more complicated

that it needs to be as I have made a table out

of several boxes. But you could just put a line

down the middle of the screen. The obvious

alternative is to use circles to create a Venn

diagram.

6. Drag and Drop 4 – matching words and

pictures

If you can get pictures onto your IWB page

then you could adapt the earlier matching

example to include images. In the example

below images were copied and pasted from

the internet, or found in the clipart gallery,

and then text boxes were made with words in.

7. Drag and Drop 5 – Plenary Circles

A simple idea for summarising what pupils

have learnt at the end of a lesson. It consists

simply of a large circle, with text arranged

around the outside. All pupils get thinking

time to come up with several sentences

that start “I know that….” and then use two

of the words to finish the sentence. So “I

know that Metal is a Conductor” for

example.

Some pupils can then come to the board to

pull the two words in and make their

sentence to share with the rest of the class.

See a video about plenary circles here.

Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27291024@N02/4095013733/ by Josh Allen used under Commercial Creative Commons License

All other images were provided by Danny Nicholson

Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

6

8. Fishing Rods / Balloons

I’ll combine these two ideas as they’re basically the same.

Attach questions, words or phrases to other objects so that

you can reveal them at random by pulling them out from

behind an object or pulling them from off-screen.

The fishing rod is just made from several lines using the line

tool, and then grouped together. The “sea” is just a big blue

rectangle that’s been put in front to hide the objects on the

end of the rod.

The balloons are simply made from a few shapes and a line

grouped together. The sky and ground art simply made from

two rectangles that have been filled with a gradient fill, sent

to the back and then locked in place.

Pupils would come to the board, grab a string and pull down

the balloon. They then have to answer the sum that’s been

grouped to the balloon.

The balloons and fishing rods are making things more

complicated than they need to be, but they look fun. At the

most basic level I have done this by typing a word or phrase,

drawing a squiggly line and grouping the two together. The

word can then be pushed off the screen leaving the line

visible so it can be pulled back on when needed. The balloons

look nicer, but again it’s just extra fluff.

All of the ideas given above make use of the

most basic tools that any interactive

whiteboard software worth owning should

have. As long as you can write with the pen,

type text, make simple shapes and insert

images then you can make these. As an added

plus, being able to group boxes and text, or

add text quickly to a box will also help.

With all these activities, remember that you

don’t need to use all the whistles and bells of

your IWB software to make engaging

activities. It doesn’t need a degree in

computer science to move away from using

your IWB as just a screen to show videos or

PowerPoint.

Remember that most interactive whiteboard

firms will let you install their software at

home so that you can create resources away

from the board to then bring into the class on

a USB stick etc. It’s actually much easier to

pre-prepare a lot of this stuff away from the

board with a mouse/keyboard.

Danny Nicholson is an independent trainer

and consultant. He is a former science

teacher and now delivers Computing and

Science training to teachers all over the UK

as well as overseas.

He is a PGCE Science lecturer for Billericay

Educational Consortium on their Primary

SCITT teacher training course, and also

delivers science and ICT sessions on several

other PGCE and B.Ed. courses. He is one of

the authors of Switched on Science for

Rising Stars.

He regularly blogs about educational

technology at whiteboardblog.co.uk and

can be found on Twitter as @dannynic

7

Image Credit:

https://openclipart.org/detail/165374/albero-by-

emilie.rollandin-165374 by Emilie Rollandin used under

Commercial Creative Commons License

https://openclipart.org/detail/166208/tree-with-flowers-

by-baditaflorin by baditaflorin used under Commercial

Creative Commons License

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenera/252449343/ by

Serena used under Commercial Creative Commons License

All other images have been provided by Beth Summers and

Martin Burrett

Natural Connections

Growing Schools is supported by the

Natural Connections Demonstration

Project, the largest outdoor learning

programme in England. The project

is working with more than 200

schools in the most deprived areas of

the South West, to significantly

increase the number of school-aged children experiencing the

full range of benefits that come from learning in natural

environments. To find out more about the project and keep up to

date with our news you can sign up for our newsletter by

emailing naturalconnections@plymouth.ac.uk or

follow us on twitter @ntrlconnections.

Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 10

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

12

StickMen without Arms Art & ideas by David Moody

See more

@teacherbubble

13

Designing a Better

Learning Experience By Martin Burrett

For too long something has been amiss in

schools across the UK. A yearning to be

emancipated from tyranny. The struggle

against the unrivalled power of a small group

of individuals has caused misery and envy for

educators for many years. No threat, bribe or

persuasion can waiver their resolve. I speak,

of course, of the holder of the stock cupboard

key.

But their supremacy may soon be coming to

an end. For there is a transformative

technology just beginning to appear which is

set to change education and even society

itself. Rapid prototyping, or 3D printing as it

has become know, is still in its infancy, but the

impact of producing objects that can be

customised, or even fully designed by

educators or students in the blink of an eye, is

breathtaking. In years to

come we will be able to

create anything - pens,

footballs, PE

kits, and even school

dinners - at the press of a

button.

We may not yet be at a

stage where we can ask

for, “Tea… Earl Grey…

Hot,” and see it whirl into

being, but the technology

has already made inroads

into the classroom and 3D printing technology

is developing very quickly.

Most 3D printers use spools of thin plastic

strands, which are feed into the unit, heated,

melted and pushed through a nozzle across a

surface that builds up layer-by-layer, where it

then cools and hardens. Some experimental

3D printers have used more exotic materials,

including food, wax, and even bone for

medical use. You can buy a 3D scanner is

quickly copy existing objects and render them

onto your computer to simply replicate or to

use as a starting point for your design.

I first saw a 3D printer at the 2011 BETT

Show in London. Over the past three years I

have notice visible improvements to the

quality and speed of the products printed. On

the GoPrint3D stand at this year’s event, I was

captivated by the elegance of the printer’s

movements as it danced across the

uppermost layer of near molten plastic. After

just a short time, a plastic miniature hand was

build, complete with exquisitely detailed

fingerprints and finger nails. Consumer 3D

printers are surprisingly inexpensive, at

around £1000. Easily in budget of most

primary and secondary schools.

◄ Printing breakfast? — An egg cup may seem a

simple object, but the geometry is complex.

14

This is all very impressive, but

what are the practical uses in the

classroom? Design and Technology

is a logical place to start and there

are limitless applications.

Designing detailed, unique objects

using a computer can take a lot of

skill and a great deal of trial and

error. Most design skills that

individuals already possess are

transferable to designing a virtual

object. Designing components is

just the start and fitting the

objects together into working,

functioning machines can be still a practical,

hands-on activity.

So what is the advantage? Refining ideas is

much easier when designing and manufacturing

using a 3D printer and standardising a product

is as easy as pressing the ‘Go’ button twice.

Artists are already experimenting with 3D

printing and the web is awash with images of

beautifully designed structures that would be

difficult to produce any other way. Traditional

sculpture relies on the artist removing material

from their medium. Rapid prototyping is the

opposite and the machine adds material to an

empty space. You can make objects inside a

solid outer structure and print fully assembled

mechanisms and complex, jointed pieced.

There are lots of practical applications in

subjects such as maths. Aside from the

mathematical skills needed to design intricate

objects, the pedagogical value of seeing

mathematical concepts made solid can bring

new insights for pupils. Teachers and students

could design and print objects which utilise

non-Euclidean geometry or fashion

architectural wonders that stretch the

imagination.

◄ That’s handy—With a 3D printer

and scanner you can produce

detailed copies of real things and

adapt them to your needs.

► This vessel was made using a 3Doodler, a pen

with produces a thin layer of plastic with hardens

instantly, meaning that you can write in the air.

Scientific concepts can be difficult to

understand, especially for younger pupils, and

visualising ideas is important. 3D printing offers

you the opportunity to explain ideas clearly with

objects that the children can hold in their hands.

Better yet, children can use this technology to

demonstrate their understanding by designing

models based on their ideas. Imagine exploring

aerodynamics by refining a miniature aircraft

design, learning about the cardiovascular system

by examining a blood capillary that is printed to

100 times it’s real size, or creating a working

volcano that can simulate eruptions under

different conditions.

At first glance, 3D modelling has little to offer

the humanities. But language is a reflection on

the world and an object as a stimulus can be

very useful. As the technology develops, the

ability to have almost any object you wish in

your classroom will open up many new

possibilities. The feel the texture of the ancient

elvish working engaged on ‘the One Ring’ or the

visualising the imagine horrific scene of Wilfred

Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, the 3D quality and

the ability to handle and touch can bring a new

understanding to learners and a new way for

students to interpret literature.

There is huge advantages to using 3D printing

in the special education, where bespoke

produced for unique needs is common place.

Such customised items, such as easy access

computer keyboards, communication screens

and sensory items, can be costly from traditional

manufacturers, but teachers could design,

share, tweak and then print all of these objects.

From creating 3D relief maps of your study site

in geography, designing unique instruments in

music or creating a hoard of treasures from

antiquity, 3D printing is bring a new dimension

to classrooms around the world and enriching

the education of our young people with a new

way of looking at things and a new way to

express themselves and show their

understanding.

We may still be a long way from producing the

everyday equipment in schools on 3D printers

and the stock cupboard key holders will not be

vanquished in the near future. We will continue

to make the like books, pencils, tables,

projectors and school dinners in the traditional

way for a while yet. But I have little doubt that,

in time, all of these things will be easy to

produce with just a few strokes on a tablet’s

screen. Once the technology matures and 3D

printers can use a multitude of materials,

colours and consistencies, it will change the

world far beyond education.

These are exciting times. There are still so

many unknowns about how we will use 3D

printing in the future and how it will be used in

everyday life. But one thing is for certain -

schools will insist on storing their 3D printer

spools in a stock cupboard.

Many people are very excited about the

possibilities that customised, tailored, rapidly

and locally produced objects brings to

industry, electronics, medical care and

research, and retail. Educators are only just

realising the advantages and educational

potential of the technology. Design a better

learning experience for your students.

▲ What a relief?—This 3D relief map give a better

impression of where mountainous areas of the

British Isles are located.

▲ A 3D scanner will let a teacher copy objects in a

similar way to a 2D scanner. The pattern could

then be tweaked or share over the web.

► Red hot educational potential—This 3D ‘diagram’

was created with a 3Doodler and la lot of patience.

Image Credit:

All images were either kindly donated by GoPrint3D or supplied by

Martin Burrett

▲ A live demonstration at this year’s BETT

Show. Selecting the file was easy and this

bowl was produced surprisingly quickly

Teaching French to a

Diverse Classroom By Natasha E. Feghali

Imagine the excitement with which students

greet the opportunity to take part in a French

language school treasure hunt for objects that

stimulate the five senses. How about the fun

of reading the daily announcements in French

two to three times a week to the whole

school or creating a multicultural marketplace

where students and community members

participate in oral comprehension? These are

some of the ways in which I have engaged

once reluctant learners of French as a second

language (FSL).

I’ve been teaching French second language

classes at Eastwood Public School in Windsor,

Ontario for two years, incorporating different

aspects of French language and culture into

my classroom. At Eastwood, we have a

multicultural community of students from

Canadian-born and newcomer families. Many

at times loathed learning a second language.

For my English language learner (ELL) students

especially, vocabulary and reading acquisition

can be extra hard work as they are learning

English at the same time.

Creating a safe space where everyone is

working at their own pace doing concrete

activities has helped circumvent some of the

barriers that ELL students might otherwise

face in a core French class. Providing

opportunities for students to bring their home

culture into the classroom, reinforcing

curriculum in from other subjects with French

language activities, celebrating everyone’s

creativity have all led to increased

engagement and comprehension among my

students and increased success for ELL

students in particular.

▼ Putting the ‘yee ha’ into language learning —

Making the extraordinary happen everyday

On a recent Monday, my grade four FSL

students spent their French class preparing

for our Marché Français, which took place

over a two week period. Students decorated

the classroom like a market and made kiosks

out of boxes. I encouraged students not only

to think about what they might find in a

traditional French market, but to also think

about foods or other items that represented

their own cultures. In this way, we integrated

a host of different foods, artefacts and

experiences into our learning of vocabulary

and represented students’ experiences here

in Canada and in their countries of origin. A

Macedonian student brought in woodwork

traditional to his village. A Korean student

brought in a jade stone while a Jamaican

student filled her stall with fruits and

vegetables you would traditionally find in

Jamaican cuisine.

Continued on page 12

18

▼ Standing up for themselves—Students

enthusiastically exchange there language skills.

▲ Using your head—Students show off

their French work about themselves by

including themselves in it

Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3392222230 by Quinn Dombrowski used under Commercial Creative Commons License

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45818813@N05/4785640636/ by Gagneet Parmar used under Commercial Creative Commons License

All other images were provided by Natasha E. Feghali

Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 19

A student who recently arrived from Iraq in

the Middle East, brought parsley, tomato and

eggplant for his stall and was excited to talk

about how you could incorporate those

ingredients into cooking. This created an

environment where students not only

learned the French words associated with the

foods and artefacts that they brought into

the class, but they were able to share

something about themselves and their

cultures with other students. We talked

about creating a market unlike any of the

markets that we have in Windsor, reflecting

the diversity of our school community. Each

student then prepared a presentation in

French about what they had brought into the

market.

In the second week, we invited parents to

the Marché and a potluck. Students

introduced themselves, their school,

and what they had brought to the

Marché to the people who had

joined us. For those parents who

were also learning English,

students translated the

presentations into their native

languages. The potluck ended

the exercise as we shared some

of the wonderful food students

and teachers had brought in.

Making creative connections to the

curriculum is one of the ways I try to ensure

that students don’t experience FSL fatigue. In

the market that we created, students

learned that French can exciting and

engaging. The students engaged in oral

communication, visual and kinaesthetic

learning while touching on all 3 curriculum

strands of writing, reading and oral

communication in FSL. Not only was the

market authentic, the student had the

opportunity to showcase their learning

artefacts independently which promotes

the gradual release of responsibility. The

students were motivated yet they had a

sense of pride as they owned their

learning from thought to creation.

We also use technology, such as a

Pintèrréssant board on-line, we have the

occasional Foire Français where my

intermediate students invite the primary

classes' in to play games in French, or

even learn about artists by having my

students recreate a famous artwork and

writing texts or performing short skits in

French about what they learned. We

sometimes video these skits on a tablet

and then watch them together to

complete follow up activities that meet

listening, writing and media curriculum

expectations. Another activity we have

done as a class is to have the students

each personify a famous French-

speaking person, research that person

and create a short monologue about

them. We then, as a

▲ Modelling language by making models—

students use practical skills to help them learn

A drop of imaginatio

makes all the

select students to sit in another area and

Skype in as their characters. Again, follow-up

activities connect to the curriculum through

small-group discussions, creating and telling

a story in logical sequence, creating short

media works, and so on. On a sunny day,

my students and I go outside and plant

some flowers or learn about nature and

the gardens of Versailles. I help them

discover the language by finding ways to

make French applicable to their daily

lives.

All of these hands-on, student-driven

and inquiry based activities facilitate

differentiated learning for the diversity

of students in my classroom. Recently

my grade five FSL students learned

about the five senses in French. This

lesson is generally attached to a

science class so reinforcing it and

translating the senses into French

provide some nice parallels. I began by

having the students learn vocabulary

and write descriptive sentences, while

I outlined the learning goal and success

criteria. I then had the students begin

the hands-on portion by bringing in

different objects such as fruit for scent,

textiles for touch and so forth to

visualize what the 5 senses are and

what they may look like; especially on

products when written in French (more

vocabulary for them). We then went on

a "scientific adventure" up and around

the school grounds to find as

many things

as we could classify into the five senses. The

students were asked to bring in oversized

button down shirts as lab coats, and I

prepared anchor charts with important

vocabulary. Not only did the students enjoy

being out and about, the fact that they could

explore on their own, be responsible to

translate and find the information needed in

French either on-line, through the use of

dictionaries or conferencing with a peer and

myself meant that they were able to learn

through discovery.

Learning a second language through hands-

on activity has yielded encouraging results for

my students and has been especially

stimulating for my ELL students. These lessons

allow them to learn in a healthy, happy and

whole environment that embraces the French-

speaking world as well as strengthens cross-

curricular learning. My goal is help students

pursue their interests in French and work to

enhance what they are already learning in

their other classes and embrace what

they have learned at home. By

giving our FSL students the

opportunity to be creative, we

allow them to take the lead in

their thinking, create an

individualized space for

language acquisition as well

as promote the discovery of

language through art and or

any other subject that is of

interest to them.

Natasha E. Feghali is an artistic French

Second Language/French Immersion

educator, DELF/DALF instructor and an

AIM educator for the Greater Essex

County District School Board (GECDSB)

in Windsor, Ontario. Melle Feghali has

been teaching for 6 years, including one

year at the Ministère de l'Education

National de France. She has created

workshops entitled "The French

Connection" and "Classroom FSL". Find

her on Twitter at @NEFeghali.

A drop of imagination and creativity

the difference 21

Pedagogy in Pictures Pedagogy in Pictures

► Students used blackout poetry as a fun way in

to a new topic on poetry. It aims to get students

to immediately consider poetry at word level and

is based on the work of the artist Austen Kleon.

Blackout poetry started out as a simple idea but

you can extend to ensure real engagement with

the language. Students should watch the Austen

Kleon video to understand the process of

selecting words and then drawing around them.

Students can simply colour in the white space

remaining (blacking it out) or use the pens to

create patterns which hide the other words. They

created a poem or two that they would have

never been inclined to do normally and began to

realise that it didn't matter what article they were

drawing on because words are adaptable and

flexible. They turned articles about football players into poems on loss. One turned a film review into

a poem about grief. See more on my blog at littlemisslud.wordpress.com @MissJLud

◄ Collaborative EdTech writing in practise! Range of pupils age 6 to

13 working on a Twitter Fiction story via their iPads for World Book

Day. I frequently use Twitter with my tutees individually for quick

punctuation and grammar tasks and wanted to explore how to get

them working collaboratively for World Book Day. I had previously

set up an alphabet based game for them called The Parson's Cat in

which they had to individually Tweet a name and adjective to

describe The Parson's Cat. This culminated with 26 cats and so I

came up with the idea to get them all together to write a story that

featured all of their 26 cats!. They met up and used their iPads to

create a Twitter Fiction Story. I also then typed the full version up

and shared it via GoogleDocs. If Philip Pullman can write a Twitter

Fiction story about a house fly then we can write one about

cats! Follow their story via #twtstory. See more ideas on my blog

at tinawatsonteach.blogspot.co.uk @tinawatsonteach

► I use Play-doh a lot in lessons for modelling

in Science across all key stages. It’s great for

states of matter, atomic structure and is really

helpful when teaching pupils to balance

equations. It makes seeing the atoms on each

side of the equation very visible and easy to

spot gaps. The icing on the cake is then letting

the pupils annotate by drawing on the table, be

it labelling sub-atomic particles or writing

symbol equations. Their reaction to this

freedom is priceless! @MissWatford

22

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Some Subject Specials have been supported by the

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

The thought of moving school as a child can

be traumatic! This is also true as a teacher,

wishing to pursue career aspirations at a new

setting - it can be a daunting thought. Time

can move pretty fast, and before you know

you realise you’ve been in your current school

for longer than you wish to remember. Are

you really going to be in the same school all

your teaching career? For some people, this is

their choice, and they are happy with it.

Others would like to move school, but it may

have been years since you applied for a job

and a fearful of upsetting the apple-cart by

showing some desire to move schools –

indeed, some leaders may see this as an insult

to their style, but their insecurities should not

prevent anyone wanting to further their

career. Through the UKEdChat communities,

we have compiled these tips in helping you

pursue a job in a different school…

UKED Magazine / UKEDchat Exclusive Feature

Following the path to your

Dream Job Following the path to your

Dream Job 1. Do your homework…

Don’t rely on traditional forms of job

advertising. Many schools/colleges/

universities are now advertising positions

online, completely missing out on the

expensive national newspaper options, so

explore online postings; social media; and

websites.

2. Visit the school…

Most schools will invite people to ‘look

around’, which can be a challenge for

practising teachers. Schools will be flexible, so

ask to visit after-school or, if you have the

luxury, go during your PPA time, so you can

see the school in action. These visits are

crucial, and you can get various clues about

the position you are considering, such as:

could you work with the leaders of the school;

the feel you get about the school (listen to

your gut feeling…it’s important and mostly

reliable); is it a genuine position? One teacher

told UKEdChat, “I was fed up applying for jobs

which were clearly intended for internal

applicants, but the school went through the

process for ‘equal opportunity’ reasons.

Visiting schools helped me, as you would

usually pick up a clue whether there was an

internal applicant likely to apply, and how the

head-teacher spoke about them”.

Find out basic information about the school

you are visiting, so you can discuss various

aspects of the school during the tour. For

example, “I noticed on your website you

mentioned that you have a vibrant after-

school activity list…what do you currently

offer?” and so on. ▲ Swapping lanes — Getting your dream jobs will

mean changing your direction

24

Although not part of the formal application

process, considerations are being made even

at this stage, so be your normal charming

self so you will stick in the mind when all the

applications drop onto the desks of the

selection committee.

3. The Application

GROAN! It’s not the most exciting prospect,

but the application will mainly compile of

two elements: the application form; and the

letter of application. Be very careful with

your spelling and get a close friend / family

member to closely read through your final

version, checking for grammatical or daft

errors. It’s no good applying for a primary

teacher, or English Teaching job if you get

these basics wrong. The Letter of Application

supports your form, and is your chance to

demonstrate why they should interview you.

These need personalising for each position

you go for, so it is best to start off with a

blank sheet of paper, rather than copy/

pasting from previous applications.

▲ Paper work — The best way to write an amazing

Curriculum vitae is to do lots of amazing things

▲ Recycled — You will get rejections along the way,

but it’s important not to feel like rubbish.

25

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by/2.0

Read, re-read, and re-visit the job

specifications, and tailor your letter of

application to what the school is looking

for. You could write the letter of

application in the same order of the

requirements they are looking for,

therefore making it easier for the reader to

confirm that you meet the requirements in

the order listed. Make your story

interesting, sharing real-life examples of

your amazing teaching; how you have

supported pupils learning and

development; the innovations evident in

your teaching; how well you are a team

player; personalising education for all the

students under your care; and so on.

Glenn Malcolm suggests starting

sentences with adverbs or adverbial

phrases - gets your meaning moving!

▲ Making an impression—Do your homework, plan

and prepare well.

4. The Interview

Well done for getting this far. No matter what,

use this as an experience to behold. You may

suddenly find out there are internal applicants

for the position, but don’t let this put you off.

You need to shine and get your message

across about how you can make the school

even better than it currently is. Consider these

questions before you attend: Who will you be

meeting? Will it be a small group interview, or

are all the governors going to attend?

Knowing this will help you prepare and

consider how you will deal with the audience;

Is there anything you should know about the

format of the interview? (Will you be asked to

demonstrate your teaching? Will there be an

in-box tray exercise?); How long will it last? Do

you need to take a day off work (you may

need to let your boss know by now!); Do you

need to take anything? (Some people like to

take a portfolio of evidence, but keep it small

and concise); Clothes (Suit up…nothing else

will be acceptable, not even those amazing

flip flops you love!).

26

Let the UKedchat Community help you Advertise your School Vacancies

& Search for Teaching Jobs

For Free* with

@ukedjobs ukedchat.com/jobs

*Schools can currently add vacancies for free. This promotion will be reviewed at the end of March 2014

Teacher of Business Studies

Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School

Havering, East London

Closing date: 4th April 2014

Full details

Primary Teachers

Edwalton Primary School

Edwalton, Nottingham

Closing date: 31st March 2014

Full details

Teacher & PE leader

Holy Trinity Rosehill CE Primary School

Fairfield, Stockton on Tees

Closing date: 3rd April 2014

Full details

Year 3/4 Team Leader

Wooden Hill School

Bracknell, Berkshire

Closing date: 2nd April 2014

Full details

Primary Phase Leader

Ivy Chimneys Primary School

Epping, Essex

Closing date: 31st March 2014

Full details

Assistant Head of Maths

Chew Valley School

Bristol

Closing date: 24th March 2014

Full details

Teacher of Mathematics

Westfield School

Sothall, Sheffield

Closing date: 3rd April 2014

Full details

Browse many more vacancies at

ukedchat.com/jobs

It seems

obvious to plan

primary English

work around

stories and texts.

Whether we use

short stories,

picture books, animated films,

novels, oral tales or any other form

of story to engage children and give

them a focus for their writing, the

results speak for themselves. We can

use the Talk for Writing model of

imitate; innovate; invent and children

are guided through the writing

process, supported by the wonderful

world of stories.

Why then, do we not think in the

same way for maths? We know that

stories engage and capture children’s

imaginations, but it seems a less

obvious “hook” into learning to use a

picture book, story or animation when

planning maths.

There are some great examples of

books written specifically for maths

teaching. For example, Spaghetti and

Meatballs for all by Marilyn Burns is an

amusing, engaging tale of a family party.

The logistics of seating all the guests

around a certain number of tables leads

to plenty of rich maths talk and problem

solving, and of course lends itself to role

play. Actually moving tables around the

classroom and working out how one table

can be used to seat different

numbers of people makes the maths

accessible to different abilities and

gives the teacher plenty of

opportunity to question and assess

understanding.

Even the most reluctant of

mathematicians cannot fail to be

hooked into discussions about place

value, multiplying and dividing by

How Many Jellybeans? (Yancey

Labat). Children are fascinated by

very large numbers and, in this “Giant

book of Giant numbers” they can

actually unfold the pages and see

what one million jelly beans look like!

However, there are also the less

obvious books: books not written to

address mathematical concepts but

which engage children and start them

off on mathematical adventures.

Who wouldn’t enjoy following a

recipe for George’s Marvellous

Medicine using a variety of foul-

coloured gloopy liquids? If children

learn about capacity, converting

By Rachel Preece-Dawson

28

between standard units of measure

and adding two or three digit numbers

as they go, all the better.

Similarly, The True Story of the Three

Little Pigs (Jon Scieszka) can be used to

begin an exploration of mass. Just how

much sugar will a cup hold? And how

much would the wolf need to make his

dear old granny a birthday cake?

Nothing by Mick Inkpen is a heart-

warming story of an abandoned little

cloth tabby cat. Although the story is

written for young children, it can

successfully be used with older primary

pupils to explore the concept of zero.

Why is zero so important? What would

happen if zero was abandoned in the

attic and forgotten about? What would

happen to our numbers and

calculations?

Learning about time and distance can

also be explored through stories. The

World Came to My Place Today by Jo

Readman and Ley Honor Roberts is a

well-known story often used in

geography and PSHE. George explores

how small the world is by thinking about

where his orange juice comes from,

where the tomatoes for his

soup grew and where the rope

for his swing was made,

amongst many other ideas.

Upper Key Stage 2 children

could use the story as an

introduction to calculating food

miles and time differences, using

the ruler function on Google

Earth to map long distances.

There are also opportunities for

using positional and directional

language, currency conversion,

population… the possibilities are

endless.

As part of a recent focus on

measuring length in my mixed

Y2/3 class, I used Jim and the

Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs to

give the children a fun way to

practise measuring accurately. Jim

is asked by the giant to visit the

oculist and order a giant-sized pair

of spectacles. We started off by

thinking about how much bigger

than an average adult would a

human be. This involved measuring

me, and recording the result in

metres and centimetres, in

centimetres and, for my more able

Year 3s, in metres. Knowledge of the

children told me that many of them

also needed practice rounding and

doubling. The Y2 task was set: could

they work in small groups and use art

straws to make spectacles double

real-sized spectacles? I provided a

couple of old pairs of glasses for them

to measure and off they set. The first

29

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

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step was to think about how to use a ruler to

measure accurately. We discussed the “spare

bit” at the end of many rulers before 0;

choosing the “centimetre” side of the ruler and

rounding to the nearest whole cm. Once initial

measurements were taken, we discussed how

we could double these measurements. Every

child was engaged and every child could access

the activity. Differentiation for my Y2s came

through careful questioning, and support was

provided by a TA and mixed-ability pairs.

My Y3s need a bit of a push, mathematically,

at the moment. They were set the task of

making a pair of glasses 10x the size of

ordinary glasses, whilst only being allowed to

record measurements in metres. We had a few

minutes of very focused teaching on decimal

notation, and converting cm to m. They were

also asked to measure accurately to the

nearest mm rather than round to the nearest

whole cm. The room buzzed with mathematical

talk and the Y3 team worked as a well-

organised unit to produce the biggest pair of

glasses we had ever seen!

Finally, we compared our glasses to the real-sized

version and discussed what maths skills the

children had used. We drew straws to determine

who would take each group’s pair of glasses home

at the end of the day, and the children ran out

clutching their glasses and excitedly talking to

parents about the maths they had done that day.

There was a rueful raised eyebrow from the

grandparent of the lucky 10x glasses winner, but

the child’s excited account of the skills they had

use to make them, and whether or not they would

fit into the car could be heard all across the

playground.

I’ve started looking at the children’s books I love so

much in a new light. As well as seeing opportunities

for different genres of writing, role play and art, I’m

also beginning to see them as springboards into

exciting mathematical problem-solving and

journeys into a whole range of mathematical

concepts. The possibilities really are endless.

Rachel Preece-Dawson is a Y2/3

teacher, English and ICT co-ordinator at

a small, rural school. See her blog at

rpd1972@wordpress.com or find her

on Twitter @rpd1972

If you search Google for Digital Leader Network

there are two UK examples that are given- a

government initiative for adults or

digitalleadernetwork.co.uk which is aimed at

pupils in all schools.

This article is an introduction to the second

which is relevant to readers of UKEdMag. Does

your school have student /pupil leaders? Do the

pupils adapt better to changes in technology than

the teaching Staff?

Pre-2012 SSAT offered opportunities for schools

to link up and develop the role of the pupil digital

leader, for some schools the cost of joining the

network was an issue. In. 2012 a primary teacher

from Norfolk, Sheli Blackburn alongside Mark

Anderson who was at Clevedon School at the

time, Avon looked at a network for schools that

had no cost basis. Schools or teachers linked

through Twitter and a group started to form, the

collaborative blog linked above was established

and a regular slot was established at 9pm GMT on

a Thursday evening for #DLchat where ideas could

be shared.

The idea was spread through contacts and

presentations at Teachmeets and other

educational meetings. In February 2013 the BETT

Show at Excel featured a number of presentations

from primary and secondary digital leaders

accompanied by teachers or teachers presenting

as part of the Teachmeet-Takeover talks.

The blogs influence has grown and shares great

examples of activities undertaken. At BETT14

there was more evidence of pupils presenting and

groups visiting the show.

Leading the Way on Digital Tech

My own experience stemmed from a keen Year 8

top set geography group with several members who

liked to present homework in a diverse range of

methods from GoAnimate cartoons to YouTube

films. They were keen to help others and to use our

school Fronter MLE. We set up our own recruitment

programme where a digital application could be

made, some of these were very tenuous but

certainly entertaining and demonstrated their

breadth of skills.

Tasks included designing a badge and they became

the first student leaders in the school to have ID,

apart from the Student Leadership team. They

learnt IWB skills to assist teachers in class. They

surveyed pupil perception of IT use by teachers.

Suggestions were logged on how the school could

develop its digital programme in future years. A

second phase brought new members to the. team,

as the first group became involved heavily in fast

track drama which dominated their extra curriculum

time. The current team filmed a new product for

Promethean who I work with as a Teacher

Advocate. They are now split into project teams run

by pupils and I have an overall advisory /

coordinator role.

Many other network colleagues have taken the

concept much further – visit

digitalleadernetwork.co.uk to read about their

adventures and / or say hi during. #DLchat on

Thursdays on Twitter.

By Andy Knill

Leading the Way on Digital Tech

Andy Knill is a Secondary Geography

teacher in Essex. You can find him on

Twitter @aknill. He blogs at

mishmashlearning.wordpress.com

With the advent of the new national

curriculum and its new emphasis on

computing there has never been so much

focus on technology in the classroom. In

particular there has been a huge surge in tools

to teach coding. These include a variety of

visual programming products, of which

Scratch from MIT is the granddaddy. A

number of other providers have developed

tools that are more focussed on learning the

broader curriculum and these generally use

game mechanics of some form to accomplish

this.

The first thing that I think is really interesting

about many of the computer based teaching

and learning tools out there is that they

consistently improve pupil progress. A

number of studies have been carried out with

varying degrees of rigour but the impact is

seen across age, gender, pupil-premium

status and for all subjects and ages. A lot of

this can be ascribed to the various facets of

the products, and certainly there are

differences between the various tools, but to

some extent just playing a digital game has an

impact on a learner’s engagement, attention

and ultimately the amount of learning

achieved. Across all sorts of games, digital or

not, there are a number of features that stand

out. These game mechanics can be harnessed

in the classroom either using these kinds of

digital products or in the way regular lesson

activities are planned.

32

Not to easy, not too hard

For a game to be engaging is has to present

the correct degree of challenge. Casual games

including various avian flight plans have this

perfected. Good casual games are very simple

to start to play but devilishly difficult to

master. People don’t like to fail so in order to

get someone to even try something you have

to remove the fear of failure they may have.

Once they have started though they will very

quickly get bored if a game is too easy or if it

gets too difficult too quickly so pace is

important. Equally, as a game player gains

more experience they will start to learn how

to beat the game so incremental challenge is

important for player retention.

This translates to a generally simple process

that is either open ended or steadily increases

in difficulty over time or progress. In a lesson

activity it is important to set the level and

gradient of challenge effectively or you will

lose less confident individuals at the start and

more able individuals as they “beat the

game”.

A great classroom example I saw recently

was a KS2 lesson on complex sentences where

a simple sentence was progressively improved

by rolling a die to select a change to be made

such as adding an adverb or improving an

adjective. The simple mechanic was easily

accessible by all pupils but the more-able

could really stretch themselves and ended up

with some fantastic results.

A sense of achievement

An almost ubiquitous feature of games is a

reward system where overcoming the

challenges of the game results in a tangible

bonus, badge, level or similar. As we go about

our everyday business a sense of purpose is

important to motivate us. In a game situation

this is absolutely distilled and getting one more

level or aiming for the highest score yet can be

very compelling.

Rewards are used very thoroughly in

classrooms and many behaviour management

systems for example use this concept to great

effect. At my school we use a levelled wall chart

where pupils start on green each day and go up

or down depending on behaviour. Getting to

gold gains a physical reward, getting to red gets

a reprimand or whatever is appropriate. This

simple process is amazingly effective and you

can almost feel the pride radiating from the

children when they give a good answer or show

good behaviour and are asked to move their

star / rocket / rock-star up. Taking the

behaviour management a step further there are

a couple of digital reward systems which do

exactly this but in a more central and

coordinated fashion.

33

The will to win

Another mechanic that is seen in virtually all

games is the ability to win somehow. Winning

implies some form of adversary and this is

sometimes the case literally but often it is the

game that will be beaten. There is nothing like

the scent of victory to motivate someone and

the satisfaction that comes with overcoming

an obstacle or difficulty is lasting and

meaningful.

One of my favourite examples of an activity

where pupils try to beat the game is the Jam

Sandwich Robot activity I learned of from a

teacher names Phil Bagge. This activity

teaches the idea that computers simply follow

instructions, AKA algorithms, as given and

challenges pupils to write instructions for a

jam sandwich-making robot to follow.

Inevitably pupils miss vital steps and jam-

covered hilarity ensues. Over a few iterations

though it is the desire to beat the robot and

actually end up with a jam sandwich that

brings focus to the detail needed by a dumb

machine.

To see direct competition in action in a

classroom all you need to do is utter the

immortal words, “Boys vs Girls”, or maybe

“This Side vs That Side”, and see the scramble

to compete and the desire to win.

Unfortunately when there is direct

competition between people someone

winning means someone loses so this

obviously has to be handled carefully so as to

not demotivate the non-winners (lets not call

them losers). One way to do this is to makes

sure that everyone “wins” often enough to

feel a sense of achievement enough that the

losses are forgotten.

Closing loops

As human beings we like there to be a certain

sense of order to the world. This is maybe the

thing that gets taken too far by individuals

suffering from OCD but in all of us there is a

desire to control our environment and remove

unfinished business or “open loops”. In game

speak this is completing the game and in

modern console games you will often have a

primary story with a much larger open-ended

game that can take hundreds of hours to

collect all the stars, characters, areas,

challenges or whatever and complete the

game.

A non-game example of this is the percentage

completion shown on LinkedIn profiles and

now everywhere else. Every time you look at a

page it tells you that you have 80% completed

your profile. That is REALLY annoying so you

add your city and ask someone for a

recommendation just to get to 100%. Admit it,

you did that too didn’t you?

A simple school example of this is a word

search where the desire to find the whole list

of words focuses a pupil on the words at hand.

Alternatively, in a classroom a pupil might

have to complete all of a set of activities on a

certain topic in order to complete a challenge.

You make it, you own it

Minecraft. That’s all I really need to say here

really but this relatively simple game has an

addictiveness of around a million out of ten.

One of the many things that contributes to this

addictiveness is the ownership players feel

when they have crafted a structure in a

Minecraft world. Add to this that you can

share this with others and even 3D print your

Minecraft constructions and the sense of

ownership swells further. Minecraft itself can

be used in a number of classroom situations

such as model making for topics or more

directly in computing lessons via scripting.

34

Another common

game feature is a player

customisable avatar and this gives the player a

real sense of ownership over their identity

within a game. This sense of ownership brings a

player back again and again and gives a degree

of purpose beyond simply playing a game. The

created digital persona also allows the

individual to express themselves freely, which

again encourages them to return to the game.

This mechanic is evident anywhere a pupil

makes anything. I remember covering my

exercise books in wrapping paper when I was

at school and even this simple act raised the

importance of my books and motivated me to

take good care of them. Anything crafty where

things are made will give pupils a sense of

possession over their own learning.

Get personal

Often games will cast the player in a certain

role. This has the effect of giving a specific

perspective and helps players to identify with

the given situation. The player will strive for

the character as if it were themselves but the

fact that it is only a game gives the player the

ability to try things that would not be possible,

or that would be too risky in the real world,

without the fear of failure. This enables

repeated rehearsing of situations and a far

greater willingness to participate than a literal

situation would.

In a lesson a simple device might be to create

a theoretical situation where invented

characters have to solve a problem. Because it

is the characters’ problem rather than the

pupils’ directly the risk of failure is diminished

and pupils will feel much more free to try and

solve the problem.

The element of surprise

If you always knew exactly what

was going to happen, life would be

very boring. It is the sense of

anticipation and the occasional

surprise that makes life interesting

and it is the same with games. Most

successful games will continually

twist and turn to keep you guessing

and retain your attention. It is the

same with a good novel; you would

be very disappointed if the secrets

were all revealed on the first page

and nothing new occurred through

the rest of the book.

It is very easy to introduce a level

of unpredictability into lessons and

most already have them. Lolly-pop

sticks, love them or hate them, are a

great example of this as are surprise

changes in rules that introduce a

new concept or make pupils think in

a new way.

A computing example is the

Stompy Zombie Robot game or

variants thereof. In this game pupils

must direct one pupil as the team

robot in turns to either take steps,

turn or fire a tissue and try to hit the

opposing robot. This is another

activity looking at algorithms but it

is when pupils are invited to create

their own additional rule that the

ideas are really cemented. There is

35

If you are an educator and would like

to share what works in your school or

classroom, we would like to hear from you.

Would you like to write for

the magazine?

Email editor@ukedchat.com

an element of synthesis and ownership

here also but this simple tweak to an

already effective game makes a

powerful difference.

A word of warning

In saying all this I hope I have given

some ideas that help to enrich lessons

either through the multitude of

technology products available or by

applying some game mechanics to

more traditional lessons. If used

correctly game mechanics can enhance

engagement, focus, attention,

motivation and context. It is very easy

however to add a game that simply

does not connect a pupil with the

learning. To ensure that learning is

improved it is vital that the focus of the

game is on the subject matter rather

than simply providing a distraction,

albeit a fun one.

With that word of warning given –

have fun!

Image Credit:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable by Matt D used under

Commercial Creative Commons License

All other images were created by Martin Burrett

Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Martin Saunders is founder and CEO of

Zammer (see zammer.co and

@zammerapp), a competitive learning and

revision game for schools and individuals.

Martin is also a director of a mobile app

agency and holds a doctorate in NMR. Martin

undertook a PGCE in secondary science

before moving into industry and is a

governor of Bewdley Primary School. Find

him on Twitter at @martingsaunders

36

TeachMeet Denton 18th March at 5:30pm

Russell Scott Primary

Manchester

TeachMeet Never Stop Learning 20th March at 5:00pm

Bristol Brunel Academy

Bristol

TeachMeet Bradford 26th March at 4:30pm

Bradford University's re:centre

Bradford, West Yorkshire

TeachMeet Halesowen 3rd April at 5:30pm

Halesowen College

Halesowen, Worcestershire

TeachMeet Dorset 19th June at 6:00pm

The Badger Brewery

Blandford St. Mary, Dorset

TeachMeet Leicester 18th March at 6:00pm

Crown Hill Community College

Leicester, Leicestershire

TeachMeet Stoke-on-Trent 24th March at 4:30pm

The Co-Operative Academy

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

TM Monday See, Monkey Do 2nd April at 5:00pm

Monkseaton Middle School

Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear

TeachMeet UCL Academy 3rd April at 5:30pm

UCL Academy

London

Red House TeachMeet 15th May at 5:00pm

Red House School

Norton, Teesside

The One to Watch The One to Watch

TeachMeet Education Show

Friday 21st March at 5.30pm

Click here to get more information

Click here to sign up to attend or

offer to present.

Twitter hashtag: #TMEdShow

Note that you must have free tickets

to The Education Show to attend the

Teachmeet

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@UKedmag or email editor@ukedchat.com

for more details. Events Events

Image Credit: Logo created by @HelenCaldwel

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A TeachTweet is a special

session where educators submit

short video presentations to

watch and discuss.

Author: Mark Creasy Review by: William Portman

Homework, homework, homework. As a teacher it can

sometimes feel that you’re damned if you do, or

damned if you don’t set enough.

Some parents complain that you are setting far too

much – others complain that their child needs more!

Setting a ‘creative’ project for homework will get many

parents scrambling for cereal boxes as they make a

model in the same vein as Blue Peter’s Tracy Island

model back in the 1990’s – usually the night before the

project is due; whereas other parents leave their

children to it – you can generally tell the disparity.

We have discussed the purpose of homework previous on UKEdChat when we explored the question,

“Is homework a vital learning tool or an outdated educational throwback?” concluding that if children

are asked to work at home, the activity should be useful and relevant to their school work, allowing

pupils to follow their interests and passions to instil a love of learning and it should indulge their

curiosity using their creativity to push their learning forward. Fire up your class with stimulating

collaborative projects which will be enjoyed by both child and parent. Let ‘will this light them up?’ be our

mantra.

There usually are two schools of thought regarding homework: On one hand, let children be children.

They spend enough hours sat down motionless in school. Let them play and explore the world; On the

other hand, homework should extend the learning children do at school, reinforcing concepts explored.

Schools will have homework policies, which vary wildly in the amount of homework teachers are

expected to assign, however there will be very few schools that have an ‘UnHomework’ policy – the

philosophy advocated by teacher Mark Creasy, which ensures that the work students complete outside

the classroom is relevant, purposeful and engaging for them, no matter the age of the pupils. The main

assumption with the ‘unhomework’ philosophy is that children are inspired to complete without being

told to do so. It is always pleasurable when pupils come into school sharing a project that they have

done, as they are inspired by their learning / topic – with no homework task set.

The philosophy works at all stages of school education, with Creasy stating that he has taught children

from aged 8-18 with his approach being no different, although does concede that secondary pupils

need more support and encouragement as it is a different approach to what they are used to.

The book supports teachers in developing this philosophy- which many primary colleagues already

pursue – introducing the DAD Model, which is essentially a more discussion or collaborative based

formula for home tasks, including: tips on getting parents on-board with the philosophy; convincing

colleagues; developing the concept as a whole-school project; plus a collection of ideas and tips to

create ideas and put them into action.

This book is a great supporter for how homework should be – a pleasurable experience for pupils,

parents and teachers. It should not be a chore, but an activity that consolidates, extends or enthuses

pupils further in the learning experience.

Unhomework by Mark Creasy is published by Independent Thinking Press – RRP £12.99, available from

Amazon (Kindle version £7.79)*.

Browse many more book reviews at http://ukedchat.com/category/book/

*Prices correct at time of article publication.

UnHomework Bookshelf Bookshelf

39

qrwild.com

This site lets you create QR Code

scavenger hunts quickly and easily. The

basic account is free and all you need is a

smart phone, any QR code reader and a

login for the site. Make clues with

pictures or link to other websites.

sumdog.com

A great site for learning maths with

competitive flash games against the

computer, the class or the world. Signing

up is quick, ease and free. I've just signed

up over 200 children in 15 minutes! A

must have for Primary Schools.

keezy.net

This is a child-friendly sound sampler for

Apple devices. Users can record sounds

and play them back to make interesting

music and games. Record voices and mix it

up with ambient sounds to make some

unique effects. Supply your own earplugs!

The best sites from

babadum.com

This is a fab HTML5 language learning site

which tests your language skills through a

series of games with 1500 words. The site

collects stats on your performance.

Languages include English, Spanish,

German, French, Japan, Italian, Russian

and Polish.

google.com/maps/views

Create your own 'Street Map' like tour by

uploading photo spheres to the web,

where users can navigate between your

captured locations. Making 3D school

tours and virtual field trips just got a lot

easier!

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

oneocean.cbc.ca/biosphere/game

An amazing set of resources to explore

the world's oceans in a 3D virtual

environment. Swim with killer whales or

drift along and watch sea turtles cruise

by. You can even complete missions,

including exploring the deepest place in

the oceans.

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