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Test yourself - are you smarter than a Year 10?

ISSUE 1 2013 JULY

Learning to be twitterate!

What the thunk?! PedEx WBGS

IM AG I N E , IM PR OV E, I N SP I RE

Editors—Tu, Cx

Contributors—Cj, Sl, Ub, Wt, Mg, Gf, Tu, Cx

Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to the first

issue. If you would like to contribute in the future please get in

contact with Tu or Cx.

What’s it all about? Welcome to the first issue of PedEx WBGS, your magazine devoted to teaching and learning. PedEx stands for Pedagogy Exchange. Our vision is to capture the exciting lessons and activities taking place in our school, get them down on paper and share them with colleagues. We hope you enjoy reading it and taking some of these new ideas into the classroom. However, for this to be most effective we also want

to hear from you: your thoughts on the magazine; teaching ideas; ideas for future issues. So, sit back, relax and enjoy... ..and tell us what you think!!!

CONTENTS

Page 1

Intro to PedEx Page 2

Using Twitter in school

Useful websites for teaching

Embedding a YouTube video into a PowerPoint

Page 3

Loop card games

Tarsia—a different kind of puzzle

Bingo! Page 4

WBGS Teaching and Learning Group

Think, Pair, Share activities

Question dice Page 5

Thunks—what are they and how can you use them

Gifted and talented—how to push your students further

Page 6

Coffee break fun—games, puzzles and more

PedEx WBGS is published twice a term by

WBGS Teaching and Learning Group.

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Getting set up: Firstly, get yourself a Twitter account. You can see mine:

@goldenboyjc. Get tweeting!

Use the hashtag (#) system to find stories – the first thing I did

was look for stories about China – so, #china. See what appears –

there will be lots of posts.

Then follow people you think produce interesting, useful stories.

What next: Now, get your students to follow you – I limit this to L6 and U6.

Important: I rarely if ever tweet anything other than something relevant to the subject. Every time you tweet

something, they will receive it. There is basic functionality to save tweets, favourite tweets etc. They themselves

should be encouraged to follow people who produce useful content – and to disseminate this info to the group.

Going further: Teach a lesson using Twitter: students log on and answer/discuss aspects of the course (brilliant, as all

comments are saved).

Set exam questions via Twitter. Send out mark schemes, lesson resources etc. via Twitter.

Crucially, Twitter allows you to follow events/happenings in real time, whilst accessing the event at a variety

of different levels, perspectives, scales etc. When the Haiti earthquake happened, I built an emotional timeline

with the Lower Sixth in real time, tracking the tweets, comments, responses and actions to the event.

Equally, Twitter is a real life archive – search via # and see what you can find.

And Twitter allows you to link with other practitioners worldwide, sharing resources and best practice. There are

a lot of very Twitterate geography teachers!

Resources can be

found at….

USEFULWEBSITES

Any recommendations? Email us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChq5drjQl4

For instructions follow the link below:

Teaching in 140 characters or less

@WatfordBoys

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Loop Card Games as Competitions (Read around for a description)

Alternatively the loop card game can have 30 cards and the game can be

completed by the whole class both at the start of the topic and again at

the end. The time for each loop can be recorded and compared.

Effective uses include:

Revising keywords/concepts

To find out existing knowledge about a topic

Could be a starter, main of plenary

Competition with house points or prizes

Preparation – you will need:

A bank of keywords Clues that go with each keyword A blank grid for each pupil

To play:

Give each pupil a grid and a list of keywords.

Students fill in their grid with keywords

Read out clues

Students cross off words as they come up

BINGO—when one’s person’s grid is compete

BINGO! TARSIA—IT’S ALL A BIT PUZZLING

Tarsia is a piece of

freely available

software which

allows you to

create a wide

range of question

and answer

jigsaws, dominoes

and follow-me

activities easily.

Once you have selected the type of activity you want you can

use the Input screen to insert the questions and answers. Tarsia

will then jumble the puzzle up so that you do not have to cut the

puzzle up (the pupils can do it). Although used a lot in Maths, it

has already been adapted to RS, Geography and Science at

WBGS. For more information visit www.tinyurl.com/tarsiaWBGS

IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES…

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Think – Pair – Share

A Think-Pair-Share activity involves students collaborating with others and can fit

most tasks. The tasks are differentiated and allocated according to group composition. Here pairs/groups are pre-assigned with a mixture of high and low

achievers to facilitate the formulation of ideas and scaffold the learning of the

group as they collaborate to complete the activity. The ‘pairs’ can be 3’s to fit in

with class size and desired group composition.

1) Students are given two minutes to read the question and think how they would

answer it in terms of content and also answer structure; providing ‘think time’

increases the quality of student responses.

2) They are then given a further five minutes to discuss their ideas with their

partners and refer to the help sheet as and when required. The objective is that at

the end of the discussion, the pairing should have formulated an answer ‘in their heads’ to be written down on an A3 sheet ready for sharing. One partner acts as a

scribe and writes the answer on the paper within ten minutes, the other partner/s

peer-assess how the answer is being constructed as well as confirming the content

and application to the question.

3) The A3 sheets are stuck onto the wall with one partner designated to justify their

answers with the others free to move around and assess the work of the other

groups. The roles of ‘assessor’ and ‘justifier’ are alternated to ensure each student

has the opportunity to critique and give feedback to other groups and be able to

articulate their thoughts and exam technique about their own answer.

Over to you: 1) Think of a teaching idea 2) Pair talk about it with a colleague 3)

Share it at the next T&L Group meeting!

Get writing… If you’ve got something you want to write about, we want to hear from you. It could be anything from 3 bullet points on how to do an activity to an essay on the theory of

learning! Email Sarah Turner or Josh Coren with any suggestions.

Question dice

A versatile activity which can be

used for revision or as a quick

plenary. It can be adapted for most

subjects and topics.

Get students into pairs.

One member of the pair

rolls two dice.

Create a question from the

dice using the following

key.

Number on the first dice:

1 = who, 2 = what, 3 = how,

4 = which, 5 = when, 6 =

why.

Number on the second dice:

1 = do/does, 2 = can/could, 3

= should, 4 = is, 5 = will, 6 =

would.

Ask partner and check

answer.

It’s as easy as ...

WBGS T&L Group - what’s it all about?

Picture the scene. It’s a grey Wednesday afternoon, you’ve

been teaching all day, you’re drowning in exercise books that

need marking, and you’re gasping for a cup of tea. Going to an

after school meeting is probably the last thing you want to be

doing. But you’d be wrong…

Welcome to Teaching and Learning Group meetings! We aim

to meet once every half term to share ideas, inspire each other

and recapture our passion for teaching. Yes, it’s an hour after

school, but during that time you’ll get some great teaching

ideas and resources, stimulating discussion, and free tea and

biscuits!

If you’re interested in finding out more, email Geoff Curwen to

join the T&L Group mailing list.

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It’s very easy when your G+T pupils finish their work early to simply set them extra questions or a piece of extended writing. But, feedback from my G+T pupils time and again is that they often don’t enjoy extra questions and some even drag their heels if they think they are going to finish early so as not to be set extra work. So what kind of tasks would extend their learning but be enjoyable at the same time. Above are a few ideas you could try out.

To whet your appetite:

● Can you ever really forgive

and forget?

● Is black a colour?

● Would you have your sense of

humour removed for £1m?

● When you comb your hair is it

art?

What the thunk?!

AIM

A simple looking question about everyday things that gets you

thinking in a new way. Originated as part of the American

programme ‘Philosophy for Children’, founded by Matthew

Lipman who realised that students could tell you what Socrates

or Plato thought but couldn’t think for themselves.

WHY

These questions generate thinking, discussion and debate amongst students. They also help

with listening, evaluating, analysing, presenting and persuading, and more!

HOW

Write a question on the board and give students some time to think about it. Make it clear

that everybody has to say something in response to the question. Then ‘sweep’ the class (go

round each person in turn) and ask for a comment/response to the question. If a student

wants to be skipped and returned to later that is fine. After everyone has had their say

people can have a second comment or respond to others.

N.B. Teachers should refrain from correcting/saying they are right or wrong/giving a

definitive answer/diving in if the question is initially met by silence etc.

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SIDE

Brain Teasers

A salesman at a

butcher shop stands

five feet ten inches

tall and wears size

13 shoes. What does

he weigh?

Johnny’s mother

had three children.

The first child was

named April. The

second child was

named May. What

was the third child’s

name?

Jokes

Teacher: ‘Craig,

you know you can't

sleep in my class.'

Craig: 'I know. But

maybe if you were

just a little quieter, I

could.'

Pupil: I don't think

I deserved zero on

this test!

Teacher: I agree,

but that's the lowest

mark I could give

you!

Qwizdom…

...Doughnutting…

...and much more.

COMING SOON MATHS CROSSWORD ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A YEAR 10?

Coffee Break