Posted on

RVHS Teach Meet Presentations and Resources

Please find below all the presentations and resources from our Teach Meet

Please trial one idea in your classroom and for more information or help then please ask the presenter, I am sure that they will be happy to help.

Camscanner app by Marius Vermaak


Class Charts presented by Shahidur Rahman  an excellent tool for preparing seating plans


Judith Bentley and Tara Preston present on the excellent Mind Mapping Skills promoted by Positively Mad.

Can be an extremely useful technique to help students revise for any subject.


Sharon Jenner presents on Why Blog ?blog

What is the purpose and how relevant is blogging to teaching and learning…..

Click on image below to view

Why Blog?

Matt Cocker on the story so far with Edmodo


Nicholla Chambers presented on effective feedback methods in MFL


Emilie Darabasz presents Tweachers!


Melanie Wright demonstrated how to create a literacy friendly learning environment


Karima Lasfer showed us how to inject zest into the classroom using Task Magic


Jackson Home and Tamie Kyriakou show us how to use Tarsia across the curriculum


Jon Quirk presented on using Google Play for education


Chris Bently demonstrated how to use the fantastic screencast-o-matic to provide feedback
Click on image below to view

Screencast-o-matic

Kumers Naidoo showed us five online web tools in 5 minutes

Click on image below to view

KNA - five web tools

Dee Sexton shared some differentiation strategies


Emilie Darabasz presents on…

Tweachers– Why teachers should be using twitter?twitter

What’s the point of Twitter? Why should educators get involved? What difference does using Twitter make? Well here are some ideas I wanted to share.

Twitter is like a virtual staffroom, we are at times too busy in school to sit down and share ideas and resources. Twitter helps you to do so. In the search tool bar Hash tag #  follow by what you would like to search for (#AFL) and in seconds you can access a stream of links, ideas, opinion and resources from global professionals.

Twitter is no string attached– you can step into it when suits you: on the train or waiting for the kettle to boil you do not need to be logged on all the time for Twitter to be beneficial to you.

Twitter helps teachers to reflect on their own practice in order to improve and develop ideas. Teachers on Twitter share reflections and both support and challenge each other. This is a free and very efficient CPD!

With Twitter you get instant feedback – Posting an idea or a resource on Twitter means you can gather a range of opinions and constructive criticism within minutes: which is a great help when planning a learning experience or writing a policy.

Twitter helps me to  stay up to date on news and current affairs, as well as on the latest developments in my areas of interest. By following leading individuals and organisations, Twitter users can stay at the bleeding edge of innovation and creativity. (Think about your own CPD )

So where do you start? Open an account for your personal CPD only. Think about the leading individuals in your subject area for instance Sue Cowley for behaviour – seach for their name and read their ‘Bio’ (The way they introduce themselves on the profile page). If you are interested follow them. Have a look at who they are following as well (as most of the time they will follow professionals in the same area if interest) and follow them too.

Do not forget chats and forum like @ukedchat: every Thursday night at 8pm on education ideas and issues, @BehaviourTeach: Monday night at 8pm chat on behaviour strategies in classroom or @STLchat on Sunday night at 8.30 pm (you do not need to be STL to follow this very interesting forum)

Posted on

Acid Tankers Levelled Differentiated Task Example

Acid Tankers Levelled task

This is a differentiated task Vic and Nim designed in science.

How to ensure progress for all (challenge/flow/independent learning)
Ensure progress for all by checking their understanding on their individual tasks and either increasing teacher input or directing them to resources (page numbers present on their task sheet) in order to move them on.
Flow will be managed by regular questioning of progress and questioning as to how much longer they will spend on each task.
Independent learning will be achieved through the students working on the tasks set on their “Acid Tankers” levelled task sheet to help them achieve progression

How to ensure progress of LA (challenge/flow/independent learning)
The lower ability students in the class will achieve at least level 3/4 through the manner in which tasks are broken down for them (main task success criteria ladder). LA students will work with HA students to improve their answers. HA will model good answers. I will also help them to model good answers.

How to ensure progress of HA (challenge/flow/independent learning)
I believe that there are some higher ability students within the class (past class work). I have therefore set higher order questions on the main task (success criteria) to help enable these students to make progress. These students will also take reasonability in co-coordinating their groups and present findings near the end of the lesson (presentations)

Vick and Nim


Click here to download the document above.

Posted on

Teach to Learn: Issue 2 – Literacy at Roding Valley High School

Teach to Learn: Issue 2 – Literacy at Roding Valley High School

If the content below is not visible, please click here to view it on our publisher’s site.
Please click on the image below to view full screen.

[gigya src=”http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” flashvars=”mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=2A5083&showFlipBtn=true&documentId=130211104026-666f96faab2747fc9320d84081163742&docName=teach_to_learn_-_issue_2_-_literacy_at_rvhs&username=rvhstl&loadingInfoText=Teach%20To%20Learn%20-%20Issue%202%20-%20Literacy%20at%20RVHS&et=1363202098546&er=16″ width=”620″ height=”491″]

Posted on

Feedback on Edmodo to DAZ Group

Student feedback through Virtual Learning Environments

Having taken the challenge to revise my use of virtual learning environments over the last half term I thought it was about time for an update. Having used Edmodo as a space where students can be set homework or interactive classwork, it was surprising how quickly the students were able to adapt to using the new technology.
One of the main issues with the old VLE was that information really only went in one direction, from the teacher to the student, and was limited to chunks of text or links to websites. Edmodo allows the students far more opportunity to comment on the work they are set and for teachers to give feedback on completed assignments. Below is an example of students explaining what they thought the assessment was like and my comments and feedback to them: All helpfully shown on a single page.

MCO Edmodo Feedback DAZ

Edmodo has one other trick up its sleeve when it comes to student
feedback. The website allows teachers to simply annotate students work without
the need for printing the work off and handing it back. As can be seen the
students work can be annotated with tools which are at the top of the screen.

Although, some students are still finding their feet with this way of working it has provoked discussion and allowed students access to a range of resources that they would not otherwise have found. I am still a long way from using Edmodo with all my classes or even every week with classes. However, if we expect students to feel confident in a world where many jobs require social media skills it is necessary to challenge both ourselves and students to engage with their school work online, at home and at school.

Update on Edmodo to DAZ group

Matt Cocker