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By robert, May 10, 2010 9:01 pm

It’s easy to lose track of personal and social skills when faced with Fisher Family Trust targets, IEP targets, predicted grades and the other hurdles that we have to try and get students to jump.

I work in a special school.  All of our students have very different needs, some can’t read or write, some are autistic, some have other disorders but most have problems with personal and social skills.  As teachers we have a duty to improve the social skills of our students, as well as working on the academic skills.  This poses a problem for teachers in all settings, though smaller group sizes and higher staffing ratios mean that special schools are able to devote more time to developing these skills.

Last week I took my tutor group to Matlock Bath for the day.  It was pleasing to see them getting along as a group (although they don’t always!).  Not only are they better at cooperating with each other now than 30 months ago but they look out for each other around the school (well sometimes!).  It wasn’t an easy journey, nor are they where I would like them to be.  To get here I’ve followed my students around school being sworn at, spent hours on the phone to parents, and listened in detail to the complaints of other staff & students about my boys.

What tips would I give to others in the same position?

• Be consistent
• Don’t threaten without being prepared to follow through
• Model good behaviour and spell out what you expect to see
• Praise and reward good behaviour and cooperation
• Plan opportunities for students to work together into your lessons (and be prepared for the times they don’t cooperate!)
• Plan lessons in detail and include a range of activities
• Give students chance to take on responsibility
• Keep the lines of communication with parents open and work together
• Don’t expect too much – remember progress will be in small steps
• Don’t get stressed – and don’t take bad behaviour personally.  It will be a learned response and chances are other teachers will be having the same problem
• communicate with other teachers and find out what works and what doesn’t for your students
• stay calm. Save shouting for special occasions. Don’t get drawn into arguments.
• take ownership of any sanctions you impose and similarly any rewards.
• use teaching assistants and other adults effectively (you need to do this to get a good Ofsted lesson observation grade!)
• above all treat your students with respect.  Take an interest in them – a relationship built on mutual respect and understanding is one of the most powerful tools you can have.

I hope this list is useful to some of my readers.  Feel free to add comments with suggestions of your own, or to ask any questions.

Image “Foot Action” © Puck90 on Flickr

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By robert, April 5, 2010 8:14 pm

Some time ago I set up a science blog to use with my students.  We decided just to post up examples of good work and photographs from experiments (as a school wary of the internet we wouldn’t be including any media with students faces).

With only one blog (with access controlled by the teacher), articles were written as a group effort, or simply in the last few minutes of the lesson as the plenary drew to a close.  More often than not this ended up being a photograph with a couple of lines of explanation.

The novelty of seeing their own work on the internet soon wore off and the blog stopped having a motivating effect on students.  As students lost interest in the blog, postings dried up and it became little more than a list of links sharing a space with stale content.

With less than 2 hits per day the effort of maintaining the blog didn’t seem worth the effort.  Content was transferred to my science blog several weeks ago (which seems like a more natural place to host the type of content we were generating) and search engines barred from indexing the site.  My school science blog has now been deleted and traffic redirected to point to this blog (at least until the domain name expires later this year).

So what did I learn from this foray into the world of student blogging?

• Students have to have ownership of the material to keep them motivated – this means students generating content.
• Think about purpose of the blog. Is it another writing medium? to showcase student work? to act as a newsletter or information to parents?
• There has to be an audience or purpose to the blogging – commenting on each others blogs, and feedback from the teacher meets this purpose.
• Embed using the blog into routines.  Completing a blog entry could be a homework or a regular plenary slot in lessons.
• Think about access to the blog.  Having one single blog limits interactivity and makes needs a teacher to manage the password.
• If you only want to host links then a Wiki is more appropriate (a wiki can also be a better tool for distilling and developing ideas as a group)
• A managed blog (or multiple blogs built on a single hosting installation) will save admin time in keeping the software up to date.

Have you tried blogging with students? I’d be interested to hear if you have any advice to add to mine for teachers wanting to try blogging in the classroom.

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By robert, March 21, 2010 5:09 pm

More and more teachers are hearing about Filmclub now they have been distributing promotional material in the TES and Teachers magazine.  I found out about it by chance and can thoroughly recommend it to others.

As part of the sign-up process you are asked to attend a short induction session.  Whilst the content of this session could easily be distributed on a DVD, I came away from the session feeling enthused and motivated to introduce Filmclub in my own school and make it work.  As well as discussing the technical details of the club (ordering films, registering on the website etc.) we discussed our favourite films and the effects they have had on our lives.  Whilst I didn’t appreciate the importance of this session straight away, it soon became apparent when Filmclub was up and running in my school and students were being asked to review movies they had seen.

So what does being a member of Filmclub involve?

• Filmclub cover the cost of licensing movies to show in your school, and also provide you with a selection of films that you can order into school (distributed through Lovefilm).
• You are expected to show a film a week out of school hours (evenings work best, lunchtimes aren’t long enough)
• Students are asked to reflect on the film and write a short review (with a star rating) which appears on their website (see below)
• Filmclub provide an excellent and pupil/school friendly website which both leaders and students can use.  Leaders order films through the sites, can see movie requests and reviews from their students, and can put up announcements about upcoming films.  Students can read about upcoming screenings at the school, they can leave reviews (either just a star rating or a full review) and can request movies they would like to see (although the requests tend to be movies that they have seen before rather than something different).

• Filmclub provide promotional materials (wipe-clean advertising posters, lanyards and ID tags) to use in your own school.
• The possibility of receiving funding to support your film club, and possible speakers/visitors into your school.

My experience to date.

I initially launched film club through a school assembly and instantly grabbed the attention of both staff and students, all of whom were eager to share their favourite movies together with a reason.  The Filmclub-supplied “Power of Film” montage was enjoyed by all, and many students were eager to participate.

Students were keen to be part of the Filmclub and the website helps keep the interest between sessions (login reminders are written on member’s ID cards and clipped onto their lanyards).  Students have watched two films after school so far and interest keeps growing as word gets around.  After each film we have a discussion about the film, what we liked about it and why.  We also meet one lunchtime a week where we can watch the ends of films (when we ran out of time) and also review films shown (and upload some of these onto the website).

Less able students enjoy filming video reviews (using flip video cameras or similar), recording audio reviews (using TTS Easi-speak recorders) or simply photographing each other holding up comment cards.  These are shown on our school-wide TV system.

I’ve tried to choose movies that students wouldn’t have seen before, and have let myself be guided by the “Filmclub recommends” section on the website.  It is also possible to search for films by theme (e.g. bullying), by age range or by other criteria.

Students have been very positive about our film club and I get asked questions about upcoming films several times a week.  There are films suitable for all ages (even some with a 15 certificate) and I would imagine students from primary, secondary and special education being equally enthused by this scheme.

What next?

As well as showing movies to students, we have a few ideas of what else we can do with our film club.

• Joint parent/student screenings – to get parents into school and talking to staff
• Induction of new students – getting year 6 students in from our feeder school for a shared screening, helping familiarise them with some of students and premises.
• Oscars event – complete with red carpet and paparazzi outside, as part of an awards or celebration event.
• Linking films to special events at school – e.g. book day, poetry day, anti-bullying week

Do you run a film club at your school?  Do you have any ideas of how we can expand film club to a wider audience or involve parents?

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By robert, March 2, 2010 9:16 pm

I read the volume of anti-APP threads on the TES forums, I listen to the comments of my secondary colleagues and I speak to friends who teach in the primary phase.  On top of this I’ve checked out the growing software industry making APP tracking products and I’ve spoken to colleagues who are responsible for moving APP forward.

Yes APP arose from the need for consistent assessment data between schools and more importantly to fix the discrepancy between primary and secondary NC levels (I’ve yet to find a secondary teacher who uses primary science levels as a reliable baseline!).   Yes APP came from the National Strategies team but the bank of APP statements represent a very useful resource for AfL – after all what is the point in having accurate and reliable assessment data and doing nothing with it?

As a leader of APP practice within the authority I’ve given a lot of thought to the subject.  The points below summarise my thinking about APP

What APP is:

• An assessment system that allows for consistency between teachers, between schools and between key stages
• An opportunity for AfL linked to meaningful (sort of) criteria
• Customisable to suit the needs of you, your school and your learners.
• An opportunity to gather reliable formative assessment data for every learner

What APP isn’t:

• Statutory – no one can tell you what you MUST do
• Hours of trawling through students’ work and books
• Something that need increase our workload
• A tick-list of what a student has or hasn’t achieved (software companies take note)
• Just another type of summative assessment
• Perfect!

I teach in a special school where teacher assessment has been for norm for years.  APP is nothing new to us – we’ve been following a very similar process for years, finding new ways to make assessment work.  I know APP isn’t perfect, but it occurs to me that a lot of teachers seem to be getting into a flap about nothing – APP will be what you make it!

Click on the APP tag to read my other posts about APP

My opinions are based on my experiences of using the Science APP framework.  Whilst I’ve looked at APP materials for other subjects I haven’t used them with students.