Next week, as one of my new PM targets, I am going to begin blogging with 2 classes which I teach - my Y12 A level group and a Y9 class who are doing OCR Nationals. Now, I have never done this before so am looking forward to it but also feeling a little nervous as to what will happen (the first job I have to do is to get the IT guys to unblock the blogging website!)
I am hoping that the students enjoy the experience, that they begin to develop their reflective skills - this to me is the key one, and that also they can create a blog which they can look back on to help them revise, remember and generally keep up with what they are doing in ICT.
If anyone has any useful links to blogs by students at the moment that I can share with my students I would be grateful - I think to show them some examples before they start could be a good thing. I will also post the links to some of their blogs so that they are shared amonst others as well - I think that leaving comments and recieving comments is a key part of blogging.
We'll see what happens, and i'll keep people updated on this blog as well.
Saturday 29 October 2011
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Assessment...
On Thursday, ukedchat (twitter discussion about education issues in the uk) focussed on Assessment. It was a very interesting discussion, with all views expressed from we are doing far to much assessment, to we need to do more. What came out more though was that the term assessment has a lot of negative connotations - what teachers do all hte time is assessment - we are always seeing what students have learnt, taken in etc. But the word assessment seems to have taken on the meaning 'test or Summative assessment'
This has had me thinking over the past few days about what we need to do. We all know that AfL / AsL are the big themes at the moment in education, but a lot of me thinks that a lot of it is re-inventing the wheel. One of my bug bears at the moment is the continuous marking of coursework / assessed work for BTEC qalifications. We do to much spoon feeding at the moment and do need to teach students how to assess themselves as well as the teacher doing the assessment for them.
Assessment should be what we do all the time. Ask any teacher about their students and we should be able to tell you what they have learnt, their strengths and their weaknesses. Assessment though should not be forced upon you - or at least the summative / test types of assessment. The real question I think is do students need to know what level they are at? Or what grade they are working at? Yes, students need to know how they can improve - but does it matter to the student that they are a 5c or a 4b? Or that in Y10 they are working at a grade B? It might be helpful to the teacher to track this but is it for the student? How many of us have had students not read any of the comments / targets we have suggested to them but had just looked at teh level they achieved?
Assessment needs to be about moving forward. Whenever I do tests / mock exams etc (mainly with KS5) I always explain that they are for me to see what students do not know first - so that I can see what still needs work on - basically assessing my teaching. Assessment needs to be done so that students know what they have achieved - not necessarily what level they are - and what they need to do to improve or move on. And that is what we should be doing every day. How we do this? There are many ways. I'm a bug fan of peer assessment if done well - students are often the hardest critics and can give some really good ideas / targets on improving.
I'll probably come back to this topic as it is one of the main topics of conversation in teaching at the moment. My musings probably make no sense at all, but it has made me think about what I see assessment is. It has made me realise how important it is that we get assessment right - both for the students but also for us teachers - workload is an important issue. I am planning on using different forms of assessment, from peer, self and teacher over the next few months, especially using new ideas (for me) such as blogs.
Tom
This has had me thinking over the past few days about what we need to do. We all know that AfL / AsL are the big themes at the moment in education, but a lot of me thinks that a lot of it is re-inventing the wheel. One of my bug bears at the moment is the continuous marking of coursework / assessed work for BTEC qalifications. We do to much spoon feeding at the moment and do need to teach students how to assess themselves as well as the teacher doing the assessment for them.
Assessment should be what we do all the time. Ask any teacher about their students and we should be able to tell you what they have learnt, their strengths and their weaknesses. Assessment though should not be forced upon you - or at least the summative / test types of assessment. The real question I think is do students need to know what level they are at? Or what grade they are working at? Yes, students need to know how they can improve - but does it matter to the student that they are a 5c or a 4b? Or that in Y10 they are working at a grade B? It might be helpful to the teacher to track this but is it for the student? How many of us have had students not read any of the comments / targets we have suggested to them but had just looked at teh level they achieved?
Assessment needs to be about moving forward. Whenever I do tests / mock exams etc (mainly with KS5) I always explain that they are for me to see what students do not know first - so that I can see what still needs work on - basically assessing my teaching. Assessment needs to be done so that students know what they have achieved - not necessarily what level they are - and what they need to do to improve or move on. And that is what we should be doing every day. How we do this? There are many ways. I'm a bug fan of peer assessment if done well - students are often the hardest critics and can give some really good ideas / targets on improving.
I'll probably come back to this topic as it is one of the main topics of conversation in teaching at the moment. My musings probably make no sense at all, but it has made me think about what I see assessment is. It has made me realise how important it is that we get assessment right - both for the students but also for us teachers - workload is an important issue. I am planning on using different forms of assessment, from peer, self and teacher over the next few months, especially using new ideas (for me) such as blogs.
Tom
Monday 17 October 2011
Autumn half term - starting the school year in June
It has been a busy half-term I always thought work was meant to get easier but the last few years seem to have got busier and busier and harder work by the month. Now this year we have gone to starting our academic year in June, which might be one of the reasons for the tiredness as we were straight into the nitty gritty, none of the usual 'handing out books etc' you normally get at the beginning of term.
Now overall I think this has been a good move - before the summer the students were a lot more focused for a lot longer, there was a lot less of the silliness etc you get at the end of term. It has also meant that as soon as they were back in September they were back on task, working towards exams etc and with a real focus from the word go. However, there were issues with planning time etc as we lost a lot of our Y11 time (which overall I think we earn throughout the year with all the extra sessions etc) which we have traditionally used as planning and reflecting time. This has meant that our reflection on the previous year has been probably less which worries me, as it might mean some of the same mistakes are made as although we identified them we did not have the time to change much around it. Hopefully though we will recognise this and change it / think about it when the time comes.
At the beginning of the change I was sceptical, I didn't think that it would work, and I really thought the students would respond negatively. Now though, I think it was a great idea. Yes, there are improvements that could be made to the actual process (as there always would be from a new venture) but in terms of academic progress and student engagement it has been excellent. Who's have thought it!
Tom.
Now overall I think this has been a good move - before the summer the students were a lot more focused for a lot longer, there was a lot less of the silliness etc you get at the end of term. It has also meant that as soon as they were back in September they were back on task, working towards exams etc and with a real focus from the word go. However, there were issues with planning time etc as we lost a lot of our Y11 time (which overall I think we earn throughout the year with all the extra sessions etc) which we have traditionally used as planning and reflecting time. This has meant that our reflection on the previous year has been probably less which worries me, as it might mean some of the same mistakes are made as although we identified them we did not have the time to change much around it. Hopefully though we will recognise this and change it / think about it when the time comes.
At the beginning of the change I was sceptical, I didn't think that it would work, and I really thought the students would respond negatively. Now though, I think it was a great idea. Yes, there are improvements that could be made to the actual process (as there always would be from a new venture) but in terms of academic progress and student engagement it has been excellent. Who's have thought it!
Tom.
Saturday 15 October 2011
Starting up...
Thought I'd begin to blog about my job as well as my allotment (see other blog I do)
Hopefully it will give me space to reflect on what I do, look at new ideas and generally improve my practice as a teacher and an ICT specialist. ALso will give me a chance to find out about new ideas in teaching etc.
Well, enjoy reading if you do read it - if not, then hey!
Tom Day - ICT teacher
Hopefully it will give me space to reflect on what I do, look at new ideas and generally improve my practice as a teacher and an ICT specialist. ALso will give me a chance to find out about new ideas in teaching etc.
Well, enjoy reading if you do read it - if not, then hey!
Tom Day - ICT teacher
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