5 Minute Marking Plan by @TeacherToolkit and @LeadingLearner Marking is an occupational hazard for all teachers. Whilst the “5 Minute Marking Plan” can’t do your marking for you (sadly) it will help you focus on the job in hand and help ensure you maximise your students’ learning and your own. This planner adds to a growing number of 5 Minute Plans produced by @TeacherToolkit including the “5 Minute Lesson Plan” and the “5 Minute Assembly Plan” which are available on @TeacherToolkit’s website. The thinking that underpins the plan seeks to highlight those elements of marking that have greatest impact on learning, namely: Sharing the key marking points (you may refer to these as success criteria).
Free online photo editor with printing and slideshows flauntR flauntR is a free online suite of digital photoediting tools that provides a range of features that are typically only been available in expensive photoediting software. RIA Application build on Adobe Flex The FlauntR RIA (Rich Internet Application) application has been widely cited as an example of intuitive user interface design and use of cutting edge technology. The FlauntR interface engineered using Adobe Flex, Flash and J2EE technologies has been featured on Flex.org and the Yahoo Gallery among others. Social Network Integration and Facebook Application flauntR features extensive and indepth integrations with over 16 social networks and Web2.0 applications including Facebook, Bebo, Flickr, Picasa, Open Social among others.flauntR is available as an application on Facebook, Bebo and will also be integrating with a range of other sites.
TeachMeet East Lancs As It Happened Last night saw the first #TMELancs at St Mary’s CHS in Astley. It was a hot one, but we still had a turn out of over 50 people who shared some amazing classroom practice. Firstly, thanks to everyone involved. One word of advice, don’t apply for internal vacancies and organise a teachmeet at the same time! By 3.30 pm I’d been put through the interview process and was feeling more than a little frazzled, however, it was time to get set up.
#GoodinTen – Requires Improvement CPD programme, by @TeacherToolkit #SLTchat Classroom teachers; aspiring leaders; educational experts and senior teachers come together online – most Sunday evenings – to discuss the following school leadership topics as part of #SLTchat (Sundays 8pm). You can find links to SLTchat (and this discussion) here. What I am about to share, was formulated out of discussions that took place during 2nd June 2013: Improving teaching and learning for teachers with low motivation?How do you improve ‘Requires Improvement’ teachers? #SLTchat 2nd June 2013: So what is #Stickability? by @TeacherToolkit and @Head_StMarys Stickability is a term used within the notable 5 Minute Lesson Plan. I have decided to write a short post, based on the demand for clarification. Definition: What is ‘stickability’? So, that’s the definition (above quote). Staying power!
Why Teach Meets ROCK! “Teaching without Twitter is like walking around with your eyes closed” (unknown) “It’s time to realise that teachers who leverage social media for learning are at a greater advantage than those who don’t” (@gcouros) “Teaching without Twitter is like playing tennis with a golf club” (@joe_kirby) “I had no one to speak to about this stuff before Twitter. It’s a revelation to find out I’m not alone. For me Twitter has been life changing.” 22 Easy Formative Assessment Techniques for Measuring Student Learning I came across Terry Heick’s blog – 10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds – at TeachThought from earlier this year and really enjoyed the formative assessment strategies that he outlined. Using formative assessment techniques in class – or “simple assessments” as Terry calls them – are easy to administer and provide the instant feedback teachers need to identify which students need more help, and then adjust their instruction and lesson plans to help them. Visit Terry’s blog above to get more detail on the following ten formative assessment techniques: 1. New Clothes 2.
Thwart the Grim-Reaper: #Ofsted reworks (Sep ’13) Here are some key Ofsted (September 2013) updates relevant to teaching and learning in the classroom. I have provided a summary of what will change for the teacher alone; ignoring all other updates. Any text in red, is crucial to ‘Thwart the Grim-Reaper’ from entering your classroom this academic year. N.b. 20 Powerful Infographic Design Kits Infograpics have become so popular these days and as a result more and more high quality infographic design kits are made available to help designers. Infographics can be used very effectively to present complex data in a nice visual and powerful way. It is done using hand-picked design elements that relate to the data they represent e.g. demographic data can be effectively illustrated using small carefully colored human icons as overlay on a simplified map. Online marketers love infographics for their ability to go viral on social networks and often they are offered as easy to embed code making it fast and simple for e.g. bloggers to share them in posts… very useful value oriented way to build links and online presence. Infograpics designs are also used commercially in information products.
46 Tools To Make Infographics In The Classroom Infographics are interesting–a mash of (hopefully) easily-consumed visuals (so, symbols, shapes, and images) and added relevant character-based data (so, numbers, words, and brief sentences). The learning application for them is clear, with many academic standards–including the Common Core standards–requiring teachers to use a variety of media forms, charts, and other data for both information reading as well as general fluency. It’s curious they haven’t really “caught on” in schools considering how well they bridge both the old-form textbook habit of cramming tons of information into a small space, while also neatly overlapping with the dynamic and digital world. So if you want to try to make infographics–or better yet have students make them–where do you start? The 46 tools below, curated by Faisal Khan, are a good place to start.
Teaching sequence for developing independence Stage 1: Explain “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.”EB White There are some definite pit falls to avoid in explaining things to kids. The biggest criticism of teachers talking is that it’s boring. And, generally speaking, boring kids is not a good way to get them to learn stuff. Teaching for A*s Beyond the very general notion that we should teach as well as we possibly can, are there approaches we can use that help to secure the highest grades at GCSE? I don’t want to suggest that there are any simple tricks or quick wins or that it is possible or wise for us to expect ever more A* grades. However, getting A*s is something we often discuss at KEGS. Perhaps it is better to think of it differently, working on the assumption that only a certain proportion of students will be awarded A*s across a national exam cohort.
50 Resources For The Parents And Teachers Of Gifted And Talented Students Every parent hopes for their child to be smart and to excel in school, but sometimes parents just don’t know what to do with a child who is especially exceptional. Keeping him or her challenged, interested, and engaged can be tough, as can dealing with an educational system that doesn’t always focus on helping out bright students. Parents of gifted and talented children should know that they’re not alone and that there are hundreds of resources on the Web that can help every step of the way. Here are some we think stand out from the crowd, offering advice, information, support, and educational resources to help you support and encourage your child’s special abilities. Organizations These organizations help gifted students and their parents get the education, emotional support, and guidance they need to grow up happy and well-adjusted.
Challenging ‘aspiring’ and ‘perspiring’ more able, gifted and talented readers in the context of challenges for all readers Guest blogger, Ann Bridgland, is an Education Trainer, Consultant and Coach As Professor Deborah Eyre once recommended in her 2007 publication, “What Really Works for G&T”, is still very resonant today: “… gifted and talented education is about making exceptional performance a reality for those children and young people who have the ability to excel. This ‘really works’ when schools realise that encouraging and expecting exceptional performance is an on-going concern that pervades the whole school, its structures and its culture.”