Feels like we're running out of time
Every day it seems much harder tellin' right from wrong
You got to read between the lines
Don't get discouraged, don't be afraid, we can
Make it through another day
Make it worth the price we pay
Triumph - Fight the good fight
Awesome tune, but also so very true at this time of year.
It is darker in the mornings and the evenings. Energy is getting sapped, enthusiasm is waning and the workload seems to be increasing.
However we are 1 week and a day from half-term and it has been a long old term so far.
So keep going, keep planning and marking and differentiating and being creative and having a laugh with colleagues.
Soon it will be half term. Then it will be Christmas and everyone knows it is Easter and quickly Summer then. Easy days!
So remember now, when it feels hardest of all;
Fight the good fight every moment
Every minute every day
Fight the good fight every moment
It's your only way......
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Some Old Experiments
I know, I know, almost a week and no blog post.
Shocking isn't it how time can fly when you are not paying attention. That said though this weekend has actually felt like two days. Normally it feels like an afternoon!
Trawling through some old photo's on my phone I found some old experimental set ups from my previous science club, as well as some photos and developments with the current experimental garden (still need to think of a cool name for that before 'gardening club' sticks). Being the sharing kind I thought I would write about them in this post. So here goes...
First experiment was following an article here a summary of which is that you might be able to get some electricity from plants. As you can see we managed to get some readings from our flower beds;
Shocking isn't it how time can fly when you are not paying attention. That said though this weekend has actually felt like two days. Normally it feels like an afternoon!
Trawling through some old photo's on my phone I found some old experimental set ups from my previous science club, as well as some photos and developments with the current experimental garden (still need to think of a cool name for that before 'gardening club' sticks). Being the sharing kind I thought I would write about them in this post. So here goes...
First experiment was following an article here a summary of which is that you might be able to get some electricity from plants. As you can see we managed to get some readings from our flower beds;
Essentially the set up is simple enough. Find some graphite rods or conductors and jam them in the ground around a plants roots. You will get some charged particles kicked out by the roots and you can pick those up on a multimeter set to millimps.
Experiment number two involves putting a shaped piece of sponge in some sand! Around the sponge you should apply a liberal amount of bath salts. It also helps if when you bury the sponge you pour water with dissolved bath salts around it. Then leave it for about 3 weeks (coarse sponges work best). After about 3 weeks dig out your sponge and hey presto a (almost) fossil!
What will happen is the bath salts enter into the sponge and crystalise. The process isn't perfect and any major messing about with the sponge will damage the 'fossil' but it's still a fun practical.
So is making DNA! No I don't mean the extraction of DNA from kiwi's or strawberries...
This one uses sweets to create a model of the structure of DNA!
Always goes down well! Especially if you have some spare sweets at the end.
Another one, keeping with the DNA theme is the making of protein models using strips of coloured paper. In this one I make each person in the group an organelle or molecule in the protein synthesis process. This helps consolidate the roles of tRNA, Ribosomes etc in the students minds. The small models behind the paper ones were earlier demonstrations to show the folding of proteins and how they have a specific shape based upon the sequence of amino acids.
I have already blogged on my phototropism experiment with cress, I have set up two new experiments currently. One is testing the growth of cress in water compared to 'tea' water and the other is a dug transect of land to see any succession that might occur. Although I have a feeling grass will be the only thing growing there.
I will blog more on the tea experiment when I have results from it. Other than that my experimental garden is now starting to take shape with more plants in the greenhouse and propergators set up.
I'm gonna need a bigger greenhouse I think! Once the pond is finally finished I want to build an amphibian shelter and an insect house like these.
Though completing the pond is the first priority! Having said all of this although extra curricular activities and experiments are amazing. They still don't protect from answers like this;
DOH!
To finish here are some pictures from being out and about today to lift the mood.
Enjoy your extra curricular, whatever it is!
Monday, 1 October 2012
Testing Phototropism
Another long day and so to relax I will blog.
Or try to! Keep getting distracted by March of the Penguins. Right game face on, last week I set up an experiment to show my year 9's the effect of phototropism. I will probably show them the photos in tomorrows lesson.
So hello 9Y1!
OK in order to do this experiment you need some seeds- in this example cress that I had grown in an experiment to show hydroponics to my year 10 class.
Hello 10C!
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Or try to! Keep getting distracted by March of the Penguins. Right game face on, last week I set up an experiment to show my year 9's the effect of phototropism. I will probably show them the photos in tomorrows lesson.
So hello 9Y1!
OK in order to do this experiment you need some seeds- in this example cress that I had grown in an experiment to show hydroponics to my year 10 class.
Hello 10C!
Here is the propagator.
And a close up of the cress in the propagator;
The next job was to take the cress out of one of the wells and place it in a small pot.
A modified plant pot with a hole in the side and the top sealed off. This allows light into the pot by one entrance only. Remember what should happen is that the auxin in the stem causes the shoots to move towards the direction which light is coming from. A time lapse video I took of this movement in some other seedlings can be found here.
The final experimental set up.
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And the set up in situ in our greenhouse.
The experiment next to some pepper seedlings we are growing.
After 4 days the cress has clearly started to move towards the light.
And a close up of the cress showing positive phototropism. You can also just make out some slightly yellow leaves on the smaller shoots that haven't been able to get sufficient light during the experiment.
And a slightly different angle showing inside the pot and the yellower leaves more clearly.
And there you have it, a simple experiment to show phototropism. If you set this up on a Friday you should be able to see the effect on the Monday following. I will try and set up an experiment to show the effect of auxin on the stems if the shoot tip is covered etc - like you see in textbooks.
So wish me look with that one!
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Spiral Galaxies in Coffee Cups
Ok I am overtired and slightly ill so while my bath cools down so I can get in it let me share with you something I spotted a while ago but was reminded of today while my hungover brain watched my tea brew in the cup.
So prepare for a silly blog post...
It will link this;
Ok so the first thing we have to do is put some coffee in a cup.
Now what we are going to do is add hot water and give it a stir.
It is already looking slightly galaxy ish... (well I think)
If we add some milk gently to the drink.
We have a more visable spiral pattern. Although if we add some more milk this pattern will go, however we will also get areas of differing darkness depending upon how much milk is present.
Let us compare a slightly better photo with our galaxy.
Wow... Yes I know its not exactly the same but I do like it as an idea. Imagine for a second that we are in fact nothing more than living in a spiral arm of some milk in a hot cup while it cools. Eventually as the drink cools down to be all the same temperature (entropy in action) then the drink would get drunk ending the universe. Kettle gets reboiled and the universe all starts again. Reminds me of this from the end of Men in Black;
I know, told you it was silly, but at the end of the day its is always fun to think of things from a different angle.
Also I now have a drink!
Happy days.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Perspective in Reflective Practice
I had an abysmal last lesson.
It's true there was not much in it that went well.
Items were thrown, very little work seemed to get done, some students felt like a law unto themselves and I felt like an inadequate teacher.
Two years ago it would have made me cry and question what I was doing in teaching.
Last year it would have made me question what I was doing in teaching.
This year it made me take a deep breath. Work out why it failed - lack of energy from me due to being at open evening last night, presence of a student who is not there very often and acts like a catalyst to poor behaviour in others, other 'high level' students, and a task being too open ended and requiring independent work from 'weak' students (so probably not suitably differentiated).
Then after the briefest period of moping I clicked into gear and went to speak to people. I spoke to a member of my department who had the same year group last lesson - her group were hard core for her too. I went to speak to my second in department about moving that group out of a lab for a few lessons in order to give them a more confined area to work in while they focused on some theory. I spoke to the year head about the 'catalyst' student. He pointed out that student had been similar in other subjects - I logged his behaviour on SIMS and put a science report in place (which the key stage coordinator has agreed to mediate on).
I flicked through some of the work that did get done, and thought about the positive behaviour of the students who attempted the tasks I set. I will admit this didn't really lift my spirits too high.
Two years ago I would have left school as soon as I could, a year ago I would have thrown myself on the floor then left. This year I saw some of my tutor group - who were being rewarded for 100% attendance/good behaviour last year with a 'pizza and movie night' and ended up eating lots of pizza and watching Kung Fu Panda with them in the lecture theatre.
It reminded me that my year 9's and 8's who I had also taught today were pretty awesome for me (as normal). That my tutor group are awesome. That my other classes are also very enjoyable to teach, and normally my year 10 group who I had just had are - although hard work - fairly enjoyable to teach.
All of that reminded me that I am not an inadequate teacher, I just had a bad lesson, something that when I started teaching never seemed to be an option when evaluating my performance.
So is there a moral to this? Is there anything to learn? Well yes and yes. One bad lesson doesn't a bad teacher make (also true the other way with 'outstandings' and some AST's I have known) and that with experience this is more believable than when you are an NQT. It also shows that while it is good to be a reflective practitioner often the reflective side is on the things that didn't work. Or the things you could have done instead. When actually it should have equal weighting with the things you do well, the moments of good learning you have seen and the times when it has felt good to be doing your job. So take a deep breath and put some perspective on a bad lesson, there is probably a reason for it that doesn't boil down to 'I'm a s**t teacher!'
After all there are enough politicians, parents and ignorant people out there trying to drag us down. Make sure that you are not one of them as well!
It's true there was not much in it that went well.
Items were thrown, very little work seemed to get done, some students felt like a law unto themselves and I felt like an inadequate teacher.
Two years ago it would have made me cry and question what I was doing in teaching.
Last year it would have made me question what I was doing in teaching.
This year it made me take a deep breath. Work out why it failed - lack of energy from me due to being at open evening last night, presence of a student who is not there very often and acts like a catalyst to poor behaviour in others, other 'high level' students, and a task being too open ended and requiring independent work from 'weak' students (so probably not suitably differentiated).
Then after the briefest period of moping I clicked into gear and went to speak to people. I spoke to a member of my department who had the same year group last lesson - her group were hard core for her too. I went to speak to my second in department about moving that group out of a lab for a few lessons in order to give them a more confined area to work in while they focused on some theory. I spoke to the year head about the 'catalyst' student. He pointed out that student had been similar in other subjects - I logged his behaviour on SIMS and put a science report in place (which the key stage coordinator has agreed to mediate on).
I flicked through some of the work that did get done, and thought about the positive behaviour of the students who attempted the tasks I set. I will admit this didn't really lift my spirits too high.
Two years ago I would have left school as soon as I could, a year ago I would have thrown myself on the floor then left. This year I saw some of my tutor group - who were being rewarded for 100% attendance/good behaviour last year with a 'pizza and movie night' and ended up eating lots of pizza and watching Kung Fu Panda with them in the lecture theatre.
It reminded me that my year 9's and 8's who I had also taught today were pretty awesome for me (as normal). That my tutor group are awesome. That my other classes are also very enjoyable to teach, and normally my year 10 group who I had just had are - although hard work - fairly enjoyable to teach.
All of that reminded me that I am not an inadequate teacher, I just had a bad lesson, something that when I started teaching never seemed to be an option when evaluating my performance.
So is there a moral to this? Is there anything to learn? Well yes and yes. One bad lesson doesn't a bad teacher make (also true the other way with 'outstandings' and some AST's I have known) and that with experience this is more believable than when you are an NQT. It also shows that while it is good to be a reflective practitioner often the reflective side is on the things that didn't work. Or the things you could have done instead. When actually it should have equal weighting with the things you do well, the moments of good learning you have seen and the times when it has felt good to be doing your job. So take a deep breath and put some perspective on a bad lesson, there is probably a reason for it that doesn't boil down to 'I'm a s**t teacher!'
After all there are enough politicians, parents and ignorant people out there trying to drag us down. Make sure that you are not one of them as well!
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Sundays; The Diminished Weekend and Working Longer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19683920
Amazing, whether misquoted or taken out of context this is still a fantastically farcical story to kick the blog off with.
While I understand the basic sentiment - that teachers who are doing the bare minimum and getting by should not be promoted - the way in which he went about his statement is just shocking. After all this is not the first time Sir Michael has said something controversial.
This is also in the first term since OFSTEDs new stricter guidelines have come into force meaning that there is no longer a satisfactory finding for inspections. Now I agree that there are many teachers still in the job who are not suitable or inadiquate I can't see how what seems to be amounting to 'bully boy' tactics is going to motivate a work force already out on their feet and annoyed over pay freezes and pension meddlings.
But ignoring whether we are good teachers, outstanding or inadiquate. The job takes time. No teacher I know starts the moment the bell rings and leaves when the learners day ends.
At my school the 'school day' runs from 8.30 a.m. - 3.00 p.m. I do not work as much as some of my colleagues but my working day begins at 7.45 a.m. and I leave school at 5 p.m. (on average).
But that is not the end of my working day.
There is enough time to come home have some food exchange stories with the other half and then at least 2 hours more work with an agreed cut off time of 9 p.m. (although 9.30 at a push!).
I get about 40 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for break during the day - often partially worked through- and have spent the last two Sundays working almost all day.
And I am behind, and my to do list is growing.
The reason we need the holidays we get is because during the terms we work flat out. Often in stressful and demanding circumstances.
And you know what? Almost all of us are fine with that. It is the job!
Just don't try to pick on us if we attempt to have a life outside of the job.
Don't mock us for the holidays we earn.
Don't accuse us of being glorified babysitters.
Just allow teachers to teach so that students can learn and the cycle can keep going.
Constant moving the goalposts for political points scoring is only going to screw over the next generation of voters.
After all political trends are like any fashion they all go in cycles!
As a P.S. I would like teachers to record their working hours this week and complete this if you could. I did it when the story first came out and it is a bit of an eye opener and explains why stories like the one right at the top of the blog grind my gears so much.
Amazing, whether misquoted or taken out of context this is still a fantastically farcical story to kick the blog off with.
While I understand the basic sentiment - that teachers who are doing the bare minimum and getting by should not be promoted - the way in which he went about his statement is just shocking. After all this is not the first time Sir Michael has said something controversial.
This is also in the first term since OFSTEDs new stricter guidelines have come into force meaning that there is no longer a satisfactory finding for inspections. Now I agree that there are many teachers still in the job who are not suitable or inadiquate I can't see how what seems to be amounting to 'bully boy' tactics is going to motivate a work force already out on their feet and annoyed over pay freezes and pension meddlings.
But ignoring whether we are good teachers, outstanding or inadiquate. The job takes time. No teacher I know starts the moment the bell rings and leaves when the learners day ends.
At my school the 'school day' runs from 8.30 a.m. - 3.00 p.m. I do not work as much as some of my colleagues but my working day begins at 7.45 a.m. and I leave school at 5 p.m. (on average).
But that is not the end of my working day.
There is enough time to come home have some food exchange stories with the other half and then at least 2 hours more work with an agreed cut off time of 9 p.m. (although 9.30 at a push!).
I get about 40 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for break during the day - often partially worked through- and have spent the last two Sundays working almost all day.
And I am behind, and my to do list is growing.
The reason we need the holidays we get is because during the terms we work flat out. Often in stressful and demanding circumstances.
And you know what? Almost all of us are fine with that. It is the job!
Just don't try to pick on us if we attempt to have a life outside of the job.
Don't mock us for the holidays we earn.
Don't accuse us of being glorified babysitters.
Just allow teachers to teach so that students can learn and the cycle can keep going.
Constant moving the goalposts for political points scoring is only going to screw over the next generation of voters.
After all political trends are like any fashion they all go in cycles!
As a P.S. I would like teachers to record their working hours this week and complete this if you could. I did it when the story first came out and it is a bit of an eye opener and explains why stories like the one right at the top of the blog grind my gears so much.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Pace and expectations
I am having a pretty great day - very good lesson observation with some great feedback, fixed the door on my greenhouse - finally, collected some pots and cacti via freecycle, found a tenner in my wallet and I have had smoked fish for dinner.
So feeling very smug and content.
Now a few things came up during the course of the day and I think this post is going to reflect that (no wine tonight though).
I will split the blog into two parts - the first part will concern assessment of work and the second part will concern PVC (which I shall explain later).
Now before I go much further I will just clear one thing up. I am not writing another teaching based blog post because I think I am a great teacher or have the answers or anything overly big headed like that. It is simply that they seem to get more hits than my more science based blog posts and these were things I have had on my mind today.
Yup I am that simple!
Right first up is assessment.
A conversation between two members of the department this morning went like this;
'I want to run a CDP on assessment'
'I am not sure we need it as assessment is pretty obvious'
'Oh thought it might help our NQTs'
'Chris what do you think?'
I am paraphrasing but that is the gist of it. Right here is the basics of what I remember being told when I was an NQT;
Level 4 - List
Level 5 - Describe
Level 6 - Explain
Level 7 - Link
Level 8 - Synthesise
The rest of levelling was based on APP tasks which had levelled outcomes (my current school uses end of unit tests predominantly).
And I found it hard. Really hard. And I got scared. Really scared. The reason? So much pressure is on getting levels right what if, in my inexperience, I graded students wrong, what if their parents complained.
Now I am not saying I have it cracked. I am not saying my marking is amazing - it really is not - but I do find it easier now. I think that is partially down to experience but it is also down to confidence in my ability (something which I felt took a kicking on my NQT). Would I have benefited from formal training/CPD? Absolutely! So what advice do I have? Well the level guides I listed above are a pretty good starting point. If a student is clearly linking different ideas in science together in order to make a coherent argument/point to fully explain an answer the chances are they are a higher level than someone who just offers and description and nothing deeper.
However there are also lots of other factors age/topic/question that can affect the level you give a student. So here are three things that I have felt really helped my marking since the dark days of agony;
You may disagree or you may agree but they are things I have found helped my marking no end.
Which moves me on to PVC.
Or Pace, Variety, Challenge.
This was one of the best pieces of advice I was given on my NQT year - along with find something they can do as a starter to get them involved and try to do one really outstanding lesson a week with each group to keep them on side - and one that I work on a lot. Following on from my obs today these were three areas I got praised on so I thought it worth mentioning it here.
Pace does not have to mean leaving students behind or rushing about. What it means is making sure you are setting timings for activities, having confidence in yourself to move forward after a suitable amount of time and having enough work to remove 'slack time' from lessons. It is also a great way of dealing with low level disruption because if there are plenty of tasks students won't have time for talking or disrupting each other. Time lines and countdown timers help with this, it can also give your lessons a good structure so that you fit your plenaries etc in. It is also something OFSTED are very focused on apparently!
Variety for me means mixing research, writing, drawing, talking, practicals and allowing for the production of work in different forms. I get bored if I am doing the same task again and again so I don't expect my students to be able to deal with monotony.
Challenge can help show high expectations. The work needs to stretch the students without being impossible. At first this can be difficult to achieve but it links in to what I said above about marking and assessment. Very quickly (and it gets quicker each time you do it) you get an idea what students can do and what they struggle with. By having a variety of activities, by offering different route through and by having levelled tasks you can ensure students will be able to find an appropriate challenge in each task. This also allows you to push students who may be surprised with what they can achieve.
Again this a personal thing but I find when planning or teaching remembering PVC really helps my teaching.
As I said before this post has come from things that have been mentioned today and have been on my mind. It is not a be all end all but just some things that I have found helped my teaching develop and I hope someone can find something useful in what I have written. If you agree/disagree or have your own advice on these topics I would love to hear from you in the comments box.
Seriously though don't disagree with me!
Now where is my red pen?
So feeling very smug and content.
Now a few things came up during the course of the day and I think this post is going to reflect that (no wine tonight though).
I will split the blog into two parts - the first part will concern assessment of work and the second part will concern PVC (which I shall explain later).
Now before I go much further I will just clear one thing up. I am not writing another teaching based blog post because I think I am a great teacher or have the answers or anything overly big headed like that. It is simply that they seem to get more hits than my more science based blog posts and these were things I have had on my mind today.
Yup I am that simple!
Right first up is assessment.
A conversation between two members of the department this morning went like this;
'I want to run a CDP on assessment'
'I am not sure we need it as assessment is pretty obvious'
'Oh thought it might help our NQTs'
'Chris what do you think?'
I am paraphrasing but that is the gist of it. Right here is the basics of what I remember being told when I was an NQT;
Level 4 - List
Level 5 - Describe
Level 6 - Explain
Level 7 - Link
Level 8 - Synthesise
The rest of levelling was based on APP tasks which had levelled outcomes (my current school uses end of unit tests predominantly).
And I found it hard. Really hard. And I got scared. Really scared. The reason? So much pressure is on getting levels right what if, in my inexperience, I graded students wrong, what if their parents complained.
Now I am not saying I have it cracked. I am not saying my marking is amazing - it really is not - but I do find it easier now. I think that is partially down to experience but it is also down to confidence in my ability (something which I felt took a kicking on my NQT). Would I have benefited from formal training/CPD? Absolutely! So what advice do I have? Well the level guides I listed above are a pretty good starting point. If a student is clearly linking different ideas in science together in order to make a coherent argument/point to fully explain an answer the chances are they are a higher level than someone who just offers and description and nothing deeper.
However there are also lots of other factors age/topic/question that can affect the level you give a student. So here are three things that I have felt really helped my marking since the dark days of agony;
- Talk to other teachers and show them work. Most people will be more than happy to agree/disagree with what you might think is worthy of a level. The more you IV your marking then the more comfortable you will be with the marks you are awarding.
- Use levelled success criteria/WILFs that allow you to link the activity done to the level expected. Again ask but if you start with the level ideas above e.g. 'Level 5 - Accurately describe the structure of the heart' and have an activity where students draw and label a heart diagram. Then you can link the two together to give you an idea where the student might be - this also helps when you do peer and self assessment of work!
- Mark regularly. I do not mean go mental with marking but if you pick a lesson and fully mark it and do this regularly (once a fortnight for example) you will gain a good idea of where that student is working. Especially if you regularly just 'once over' other class work - something I am still poor at doing if I am honest. This will also help feed into future planning so that you can focus on specific things different groups of students need in order to progress - e.g. how to link ideas together. In other words when your marking improves it can also help improve the standard of teaching and learning (or something like that!).
You may disagree or you may agree but they are things I have found helped my marking no end.
Which moves me on to PVC.
Or Pace, Variety, Challenge.
This was one of the best pieces of advice I was given on my NQT year - along with find something they can do as a starter to get them involved and try to do one really outstanding lesson a week with each group to keep them on side - and one that I work on a lot. Following on from my obs today these were three areas I got praised on so I thought it worth mentioning it here.
Pace does not have to mean leaving students behind or rushing about. What it means is making sure you are setting timings for activities, having confidence in yourself to move forward after a suitable amount of time and having enough work to remove 'slack time' from lessons. It is also a great way of dealing with low level disruption because if there are plenty of tasks students won't have time for talking or disrupting each other. Time lines and countdown timers help with this, it can also give your lessons a good structure so that you fit your plenaries etc in. It is also something OFSTED are very focused on apparently!
Variety for me means mixing research, writing, drawing, talking, practicals and allowing for the production of work in different forms. I get bored if I am doing the same task again and again so I don't expect my students to be able to deal with monotony.
Challenge can help show high expectations. The work needs to stretch the students without being impossible. At first this can be difficult to achieve but it links in to what I said above about marking and assessment. Very quickly (and it gets quicker each time you do it) you get an idea what students can do and what they struggle with. By having a variety of activities, by offering different route through and by having levelled tasks you can ensure students will be able to find an appropriate challenge in each task. This also allows you to push students who may be surprised with what they can achieve.
Again this a personal thing but I find when planning or teaching remembering PVC really helps my teaching.
As I said before this post has come from things that have been mentioned today and have been on my mind. It is not a be all end all but just some things that I have found helped my teaching develop and I hope someone can find something useful in what I have written. If you agree/disagree or have your own advice on these topics I would love to hear from you in the comments box.
Seriously though don't disagree with me!
Now where is my red pen?
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