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Issue 48
Supporting the Educational Community
LIBRARIANS
REVOLUTION
SPECIAL NEEDS
BEYOND THE LEARNING FACTORY
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From the Editor
Relationships between schools and their communities are changing. Back in the sepia days when I began teaching, local kids would go to, more or less, local schools. However, market economics are now at play in our education system. With reports that 8 out of 10 academy trusts in England are forecasted to be in deficit this year, many feel they need to attract more pupils to balance the books. Schools are increasingly turning to public relation agencies to hone their message and project the school in a positive light. As editor of this magazine, I get many press releases from PR agencies representing schools each day in my inbox each day.
If you have any doubt that education is becoming increasingly commercialised, look no further than school promotional videos. One particularly polished looking video, featuring a young boy peeping around corners at all the wonderful things his teachers and peers where doing around the school, was being tweeted in the direction of @UKEdChat just last week which must have costed thousands of pounds to produce. Putting aside the voyeuristic undertones of the video, such generic, packaged messages leave me knowing as little about the school as when I started.
Perhaps schools need to fall down on the messages from their greatest ambassadors, the kids. If the school is a great place to learn, the learners, and their parents will tell you. Not in a press release or a glossy video, but everyday to all they meet. And if they don't, perhaps the school needs to look at why that is, perhaps by starting with getting their financial house in order and making education the priory, not shareholders.
Martin Burrett @ICTmagic
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12 ARTICLES 06 EdTech Discoveries
09 CONTRIBUTORS Carla Whelan @carlawhelan Ian Mullock @Ianmullock Matt Pearson @mattpearson1991 Sarah Helton @backpocketteach Nam Thanh @mrnamvas @vicks_marshall @hatbatthefatcat James Troughton @JRTroughton Donal Hale @HaleDonal
09 You have THE POWER...
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12 Can we truly promote a play-based curriculum within our education system?
14 Sometimes ‘good enough’ is exactly that 16 Top 5 Tips For SEND Teachers 19 What does the 4th Industrial Revolution mean for schools?
22 Learning Zones vs Traditional Classrooms
REGULAR FEATURES 04 Research Highlights 10 Classified Messages 11 ICTmagic EdTech Resources 18 UKEd Podcast 20 In Brief 24 UKEd Resource
The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.
Eddie Conlon @eddiemconlon
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James Grocott @deputygrocott Katrina Rigelhof @katrina259 Sarah Pavey @Sarahinthelib Sarah Wordlaw @smwordlaw
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Research Highlights
Analytical Research Questions Effectiveness of Mindset as an Educational Intervention
Some Teachers Don’t Talk to Anyone About Violent Incidents
A major research publication recently released in the journal “Psychological Science” has called into question the notion of mindsets in academic achievement outcomes.
One in five teachers in the USA, who were the victims of physical or verbal violence at their schools, didn’t report the incidents to school administrators, according to a nationwide study.
The theory holds that individuals with growth mindsets (beliefs that attributes are malleable with effort) enjoy many positive outcomes— including higher academic achievement—while their peers who have fixed mindsets experience negative outcomes.
The results showed that significant minorities of teachers who experienced violence also didn’t tell their colleagues (14 percent) or family (24 percent). Only 12 percent went to a counsellor.
The researchers explored interventions that have been designed to increase students’ growth mindsets in schools around the world, examining the effectiveness of mindset interventions on academic achievement and potential moderating factors. Overall effects were weak for both meta-analyses. Main results found that a correlation of growth mindset with achievement was (r = .1 – (zero point one)), and also that the effect of growth mindset interventions on achievement was also negligible d = .08.
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Read more at https://ukedchat.com/?p=42585
“You would think that the first thing a teacher would do after a violent encounter or threat would be to tell the school’s administrators, but 20 percent aren’t even doing that. That’s disturbing,” said Eric Anderman, lead author of the study and professor of educational psychology at The Ohio State University. “Too many teachers aren’t talking to anyone about what happened.” The study was published online this week in the journal Social Psychology of Education. Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=42126
Children See Words And Faces Differently From Adults
Are The Dice Rolled Before Ten Years Of Age?
Young children literally see words and faces differently from adults. Where adults can most easily comprehend a word when they look at it straight on, children need to look a bit up and to the left. For faces, they need to look a bit up and to the right.
Although socioeconomic status is known to influence health, strong evidence of the association between economic vulnerability in childhood and the health of older adults was still missing. As part of the “National Centre of Competence in Research – NCCR LIVES” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) examined data from more than 24,000 people aged 50 to 96 living in 14 European countries. Socio-economically disadvantaged individuals in childhood were found to be at greater risk of low muscle strength at an older age – a good indicator of their overall health status.
What’s more, those differences are accompanied by previously undetected changes in the brain circuits responsible for processing words and faces, researchers report Feb. 23 in Nature Communications. “Kids’ window onto the world is different from adults,” said Jesse Gomez, a graduate student in the Stanford Neurosciences PhD Program and the lead author of the new study. Studying that window could help researchers better understand how children learn to read and recognise faces – and perhaps better understand dyslexia and autism as well. Intuitively, if you want to get a good look at something – a word, a face, or pretty much anything else – you ought to look straight at it, and indeed that’s basically what adults do. After all, our eyes’ resolution is highest in the centre of vision, called the fovea, so we get the clearest images by looking at something or someone straight on. Read more at https://ukedchat.com/?p=41963
Moreover, this risk is not offset by an improvement in their socioeconomic status as adults, which proves that the first years of life are indeed critical. This would mean that inequalities in childhood are biologically embodied to literally “get into the skin”. Why? The scientists suggest that a physiological deregulation caused by chronic stress in childhood might change the body’s ability to maintain good health along time. These findings can be read in Age and Ageing. Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=41945
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Girls at Single-Sex Schools More Likely to Take Advanced Stem Subjects
Teachers and other school-based professionals can treat children’s mental health problems
New research from Monash University has found that girls in single-sex schools are more likely to study chemistry, intermediate mathematics, advanced mathematics and physics in their senior years when compared to their co-ed counterparts.
School-based services delivered by teachers and other school-based professionals can help reduce mental health problems in elementaryaged children, reports a study published in the March 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
• Advanced mathematics (Specialist Mathematics) (8.9% vs 4.8%) • Physics (7.5% vs 5.1%) Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=42063
Countries With Greater Gender Equality Have A Lower Percentage Of Female Stem Graduates Countries with greater gender equality see a smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a new study has found. Policymakers could use the findings to reconsider initiatives to increase women’s participation in STEM, say the researchers. Dubbed the ‘gender equality paradox’, the research found that countries such as Albania and Algeria have a greater percentage of women amongst their STEM graduates than countries lauded for their high levels of gender equality, such as Finland, Norway or Sweden. The researchers, from Leeds Beckett University in the UK and the University of Missouri in the USA, believe this might be because countries with less gender equality often have little welfare support, making the choice of a relatively highly-paid STEM career more attractive. The study, published in Psychological Science, also looked at what might motivate girls and boys to choose to study STEM subjects, including overall ability, interest or enjoyment in the subject and whether science subjects were a personal academic strength. Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=41874
Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=42058
Back-And-Forth Exchanges Boost Children’s Brain Response To Language A landmark 1995 study found that children from higher-income families hear about 30 million more words during their first three years of life than children from lower-income families. This “30-million-word gap” correlates with significant differences in tests of vocabulary, language development, and reading comprehension. MIT cognitive scientists have now found that conversation between an adult and a child appears to change the child’s brain, and that this backand-forth conversation is actually more critical to language development than the word gap. In a study of children between the ages of 4 and 6, they found that differences in the number of “conversational turns” accounted for a large portion of the differences in brain physiology and language skills that they found among the children. This finding applied to children regardless of parental income or education. The findings suggest that parents can have considerable influence over their children’s language and brain development by simply engaging them in conversation, the researchers say. Read more at ukedchat.com/?p=41871
UKEdChat Magazine
• Intermediate mathematics (Mathematical Methods) (36.3% vs 21.6%)
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• Chemistry (27.6% of girls in single-sex schools vs 15.4% of girls in co-ed schools)
“Given the limited accessibility of traditional mental health services for children–particularly for children from minority and economically disadvantaged backgrounds–school-based mental health services are a tremendous vehicle for overcoming barriers to mental health care and meaningfully expanding the reach of supports and services for so many children in need. Treating children in schools can powerfully overcome issues of cost, transportation, and stigma that typically restrict broad utilization of mental health services” said lead author Amanda Sanchez, MS, of the Center for Children and Families at Florida International University.
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The research, conducted by Professor Helen Forgasz and Adjunct Professor Gilah Leder of Monash University and commissioned by The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, revealed that in 2015 girls in singlesex schools in Victoria were more likely to study the following STEM subjects than girls in co-ed schools:
EdTech Discoveries Didn't catch our live social media coverage of BETT and the Education show? We have chosen our favourite discoveries from both exhibitions. Show My Homework from Team Satchel has been a favourite of ours for many years, but this was the first time the UKEdChat team had tried the impressive Kudos praise and award behaviour management system. So much more than homework! teamsatchel.com
Discover more at iridize.com
i3-Technologies caught our eye for the unique range of audio/visual, including boards, projectors and software. Collectively this offers a complete solution for bringing multimedia digital experiences to the classroom.
Empatico is a free tool to connect classrooms across cities and countries. Use digital tools to work and collaborate together. A great place for schools looking to reach out to other schools across the world.
Discover more at i3-technologies.com
Discover more at empatico.org
We first came across this wonder free app in the autumn. It has just been re-branded (formally VocalRecall) and improved. It is a groundbreaking audio app that allows you to record messages directly to pre-printed codes. These can be used for verbal marking, interactive worksheets, languages and much more! Discover more at classqr.com
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SAM Lab is a favourite of ours, as their innovative STEM kits are a superb addition to the classroom. We had not seen the Team Kits before and we were impressed by what it contained. Discover more at samlabs.com
Barefoot is a FREE computational thinking programme for primary school teachers from BT and CAS. The perfect resource to help your pupils get into coding. Discover more at barefootcas.org.uk
UKEdChat was located next to Smart at BETT, so we had plenty of opportunity to experience the great design of their boards and range of unique accessories. Discover more at smarttech.com/education
We were really impressed by the screens offered by Clevertouch. There were some superb features to the software which make them a joy to use. Discover more at clevertouch.com
5-a-day Fitness is a superb fun fitness resource for primary schools. Increase daily physical activity in your classroom nd learn cross curriculuar skills, like language learning at the same time.
Discover more at benq.co.uk
Discover more at prodigygame.com
Create a teacher account to guide and assess pupils from a single dashboard. A must try platform
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Prodigy is an amazing maths resource. It's a free, selfpaced adventure game or primary aged pupils.
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We were treated to a demonstration of Google Jamboard and a range of BenQ interactive flat panel and we were blown away by the collaborative possibilities. So much to explore.
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Discover more at 5-a-day.tv
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School Belief You have THE POWER... Taking hold of teaching and learning By Carla Whelan In education today, many voices out there hold powerful words, motivational statements and belief for the future of primary education. There are many respected key speakers saying what needs to be said, however how does it then filter back to mean something for children and headteachers in schools around the country? It is a huge question for us all. What do today's children need? Is it endless amounts of assessment reports saying if they have made ‘xyz’ progress, over the year? Are they on track? Are they making expected progress? I recently watched a recording from the World Economic Forum on the importance of ‘soft skills’ and teaching children team work, values, respect, communication and perseverance and asked myself the question ‘Will computers be able to be empathetic, compassionate and social in 2025, or will we rely on the next generation to continue with these unique skills that make us human?
It is a huge debate at present for me for what is valued as worthwhile learning in today’s classrooms. Yet, indeed, they still require progress in reading, writing and numeracy. We do have a huge obligation to ensure a child can function in today's society, read, write and add etc. I also argue if taught correctly the national curriculum achieves these. So progress is important, but charting it in league tables and ranking schools is not. It is possible to teach a child, get progress, give them an education that is based on life skills and still come out on top in the 'results' war. It all depends on what we value and rank in our education today. What is not right is building a school culture that focuses on a scaled score. We do so much more than that. Therefore, as I head into the depths of 2018 my resolutions were: 1. Reminding myself that basic skills are important and that these full heartedly includes life skills, talking, teamwork, emotional resilience, honesty and integrity. Know this, live this and
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breathe this for our school, so that all my teachers can feel they are creatively enhancing the wider skills of our children and giving so much more than scores. 2. Making sure that we remember in our school, we have no unequals... every person matters. Each play their part in the success, and all contribute fully (now... this wasn't always the way, but it surely is now!) and when we celebrate, we do so together. If we fail we learn together. Therefore, we are risk takers, adventurous in our approach while respectful of the basics we need to teach. 3. The sole purpose of us being there is for our children to flourish, grow and be their best. Not academic robots, but individuals who sing, dance, debate, read, write, play, and all the things that make life so valuable. This year be brave, say your piece, do not accept what is given unless you believe in it and if you do not believe, find a place where you can, because belief is everything. Carla Whelan @carlawhelan is headteacher at Oakmeadow CE Primary. She is also a School Improvement Partner and leadership coach.
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Discover an easier way to onboard users and adopt products. iridize.com
A simple, innovative and effective way of learning times tables and the inverse. A whole school approach that not only engages children but produces results! tacklingtables.co.uk
ICTmagic EdTech
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Makers Empire 3D
An interesting 3D design platform with challenges to aid learning and a variety of options. Free version has limited shapes library. ukedchat.com/?p=42788
Georeference Maps
Superb history and geographic tool which overlays old maps over the modern British landscape. Choice from a range of maps and time periods. ukedchat.com/?p=41806
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SolveMe Puzzles
A great set of algebra puzzles, including visual, word and draggable puzzles. ukedchat.com/?p=41827
Grid Multiplication
A good flash primary maths activity which help students learn how to use the grid method of multiplication. ukedchat.com/?p=18428
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MathsBot
An amazing selection of maths resources, including printables, interactives and tools on a full range of topics. ukedchat.com/?p=41813
Earth
A fascinating 3D globe which shows air currents and lots of other data. View in real time or review past data. A must use site for geographers. ukedchat.com/?p=14361
Early Years Can we truly promote a play-based curriculum within our education system? By Ian Mullock
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While our early years curriculum promotes a sense of play-based learning, can we justly embrace this when faced with an educational culture that places such high emphasis upon testing our children’s abilities? Even when presented with a playbased curriculum, are we truly eliminating testing from our early years? I’m sure that many educators who work within this area find themselves being torn between the need to gather vital information that informs concise academia versus opportunities that allow children to learn uniquely. Many educators would argue that assessments are embedded within our children’s formative years as practitioners have a duty to highlight areas where learning needs additional support and implement strategies that tackle these and preparing children for formal education. Unlike Scandinavian countries, our education system seems to place a high emphasis on assessing children’s abilities at an early age, which now seems to be targeting children even younger. The two-year-old progress check, which is statutory in England, will identify categories and enforce the need to set identifiable targets. Many practitioners would argue the need to assess this against the development matters, otherwise they would have no basis for identifying whether children are emerging, developing or secure within their learning. While many critics continue to highlight how the early years foundation stage (EYFS) should not be used in this way, there seems to be an underlying pressure to engage children in this early process of testing their abilities; enveloping them in an imposed curriculum. With more and more statutory process now in place, such as letter and sound screening, perhaps there is a responsibility to direct children’s learning towards these processes, and prepare them for this. While it could be
argued that these are the expectations of teaching staff (not necessarily nurseries) if children as young as reception are to have their expected levels of development assessed against the early learning goals (ELG) then they need to be prepared for this, as testing has to take place, identified targets need to have been agreed, development matters have to inform through its finding. While some fully support this type of documentation, it could be argued that this should be done though knowledgeable practitioners who are able to discuss a child’s progress without any form of written evidence. Although, in theory, this makes for good practice, the real concern would come during transition to formal schooling. Teachers may not have time to visit EYFS settings, yet we have a duty to provide them with evidence-based reasoning documenting children’s development. Hence the need for strategies to be documented that stipulate how learning has progressed. While this in itself has an opportunity to dilute our play-based curriculum, contradictions seem embedded. Our syllabus is set and delivered by the state. Therefore, critics may question whether the syllabus authors understand how a play-based curriculum should be implemented. Whereas others believe the ultimate goal is to intervene early within a child’s education, meet their needs, have them achieve academically, and progress into the working framework. Therefore, giving back to the state rather than being supported by it. Ian is level 7 practitioner and has an interests in how the whole UK education system is structured and is keen to share his positive aspirations and challenging situations which show how strategies do not always meet with expectations. Follow him on Twitter at @Ianmullock.
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New Teachers Sometimes ‘good enough’ is exactly that By Matt Pearson
Ask a group of teachers why they entered the profession and I guarantee you’ll get responses like “I had a teacher who was inspirational to me” and “to make a difference to young people”. Certainly I went into the profession with a desire to help and support others and that hasn’t changed. In my experience, this is pretty typical of most people who work in education- their motivation is usually based around a selfless and giving attitude and sense of purpose. But there is a tendency in teaching to let this selflessness get the better of people. In a profession that is notorious for its large workload and often working long over contracted hours, it is important to remember to have a life outside the classroom, too. Teachers frequently go above and beyond what is contractually expected of them for the good of their pupils, without the desire for recognition or pay. I believe the best thing about the education system in this country is the altruistic and compassionate nature of the people who deliver at the chalkface every day, but it can be a double-edged sword. Particularly as an NQT, teaching is a profession that requires a huge
personal input and dedication. Finding your feet is no easy task whilst trying to balance a multitude of time intensive responsibilities, and can at times feel like trying to juggle five flaming tigers whilst tightrope walking. Naturally this leads to a lot of late-night working and getting your head around a large volume of new duties. Sometimes even having to accept that not everything can be done to the best of your ability, all of the time. But don’t despair. Remember to keep perspective. Someone once gave me a fantastic analogy: it’s like trying to be one of those people who spin plates on sticks. The objective is to keep all of the plates spinning simultaneously and when one starts to topple you go and make sure that it stays up. It would be unreasonable to expect to keep all of them spinning perfectly, but so long as none of them fall, your objective is achieved. Think of teaching as like this too. Focus on keeping all of the plates spinning and understand that sometimes ‘good enough’ is exactly that. Trust that the rest will follow with time, stay positive and talk with other teachers. Laugh a lot and be realistic with yourself. Would you expect a pupil to grasp a new idea and be perfect
from the word go? Or would you allow them to make mistakes and learn from them? Extend that courtesy to yourself, and don’t sweat the small stuff. I personally remember relating the most to teachers who I saw as human. Who made mistakes from time to time and had the good grace to admit this. I think it is a powerful thing to be able to communicate to my pupils that it’s ok to make mistakes, so long as you admit it and are prepared to make amends where necessary. Also recognise that you will be at your best for the pupils in front of you if you are happy, well rested and enjoying yourself. Ask yourself, is it vital that you mark that last set of books tonight, or would you be better off having an extra hour in bed? Granted, some tasks are essential, but it’s still a question worth asking. Equally, when you are more experienced and you see others in the position you are in now remember how it feels. Sometimes a cheerful face and a short chat can a make a world of difference. Matt Pearson @mattpearson1991 is a Physics teacher in the UK. Recently working as Head of Physics at a secondary school in Buckinghamshire, he is currently starting work in ITT.
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Special Needs By Sarah Helton
Here are five very simple things to help make the life of a SEND teacher (or primary teacher) a little bit easier 1. Always have a small box of great, but simple resources that can be made into an exciting activity. Things that I always have to hand: • great books to read • a hat - to play ‘Pass the hat around the circle’ • an interesting bag to play ‘What’s in the bag?’ • a space blanket - to play ‘Someone’s hiding’ • a large piece of material - to play ‘Someone’s hiding’ or for all of the class to hold onto and bounce a ball or teddy on it - how many times can we count the bounces before teddy falls off? Can we bounce the ball/ teddy to someone who’s name begins with J etc. • balloons - to practise blowing and breath awareness work (to support speech development), or to work together keeping the balloon up in the air
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• bubbles - to practice blowing and breath awareness work (to support speech development) and to encourage the children to make requests (asking for more bubbles etc.) 2. Have a bank of song tunes that you can easily convert into a song for any occasion or topic e.g. have the tune for ‘Row, row, row your boat’ and substitute the lyrics. Here’s a song I’ve just made up to go with a Healthy Eating topic using the tune of ‘Row, row, row your boat’. I’ve written these new lyrics in less that 5 minutes! Fruit Song (to the tune of Row, row, row the boat) Apples, oranges, pears and grapes Fruits they are so good Eat them up and feel so strong We all love our food
Other tunes that are easy to remember and good to change the lyrics are: ‘If you’re happy and you know it’, ‘Five currant buns in a bakers shop’, ‘Two little dickie birds sitting on the wall,’ ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’. Use whatever songs you know well and are confident to sing. 3. Remember that teaching is very similar to acting - when you enter your classroom you have to step into the role of teacher, put on your game face and put everything else on hold. We all have personal lives and some days this is easier to do than other days. As the teacher of a classroom of children and leader of a team of staff a high level of energy and commitment is needed to keep everyone else motivated and on track. If you have this your school day will go much more smoothly. 4. Have a list of ways to fill those odd 5/10 minutes when one activity has ended and you aren’t quite ready to move onto the next (e.g. there’s 10 minutes before assembly or 5 minutes before going out to play etc). Ideas for this list: singing a song, reading a story, playing a game. Point 1 above also helps with ideas for filling these odd times in the day. 5. Remember that one of the joys of teaching is that no two days are the same. The flip side of this is that you will probably never have a day when everything goes to plan. I have always told my teaching assistants that if we have a day when we do everything that is on the daily plan and have no problems/interruptions etc. then this will be a ‘champagne day’. A day when I buy champagne for us all. As yet I’ve never had to buy champagne for the whole class team! We’ve had some wonderful ‘prosecco days’ though! Pass the hat around the circle Pass the hat around the circle Pass the hat around Pass the hat around the circle See where it stops
This activity encourages motor skills (passing and putting on the hat) and eye contact (following the hat around the circle and looking at who it stops with). What’s in the bag? What’s in the bag? What's in the bag? (Name of child) can you tell me What's in the bag? Have lots of interesting objects in the bag for the children to feel and reach for. This activity and song can easily be changed to use a box, a tin, a hat ..... the options are endless. Change the 'container' to challenge the children's manipulation and dexterity skills, also so that it fits in with your given topic and lesson. Someone’s hiding Someone’s hiding Someone’s hiding Who is it? Who is it? Pull, pull Pull, pull It’s (name of child) Make sure that the child is happy to hide underneath a large piece of material/space blanket. If necessary another child or a member of staff could be under the blanket with them to ensure the feel happy and safe. This activity encourages timing and anticipation skills, physical skills (pulling the material off) and vocalisations - shouting ‘it’s me’ or the child’s name when they appear. Sarah Helton @backpocketteach is a SEND Author, Trainer & Consultant, specialising in bereavement, grief and loss. Find out more at backpocketteacher.co.uk
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Top 5 Tips For SEND Teachers
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Educational Revolution
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What does the 4th Industrial Revolution mean for schools? By Nam Thanh The 4th Industrial Revolution has created tremendous change, affecting many areas of life and socio-economy, and this is the challenge of the education sector in the training of human resources for new demands of society. The current industrial revolution of 4.0 is the connection between the real world and the virtual world through advanced technology, through the creativity and innovation of human beings. Now machines have "memorization power" through a large database and the ability to "think logically" to handle most of the problems in the field that the machine does. The fourth revolution is creating many opportunities and challenges for all schools around the world. How does industrial revolution 4.0 affect the activities of schools? Fundamentally, the activities of schools still ensure the core values are the quality of training to meet the needs of the society. But with the 4th Industrial Revolution, societies are increasingly demanding and demanding different and more rigorous, so schools must be creative and flexible in every activity. In the 4th Industrial Revolution, no one talks about qualifications, people will be judged on the value they bring to society, regardless of qualifications,
regardless of origin. Future teachers will have to teach students how to selfstudy, self-thinking, self-improvement. Employees will become global citizens and emulate anytime, anywhere. In this revolution, each of us must move, change. Especially no one can stand outside this revolution, if not follow it will be left behind. Facing the rapid changes in science and technology, teaching methods must change, every cadre, teachers, students must determine that learning is a lifelong goal, learning anytime, anywhere. Geographic distance, space and time have been blurred. The teaching is no longer in the traditional way with chalk, board, pen and paper that can be made on electronic devices. In addition, a backward education program will not create the right people for the future. Instead, this people can only be created by a liberal education. This revolution also places great demands on transforming teacher roles - the transmission of knowledge in a traditional way to the catalytic and coordinating role. Teachers must be technology oriented and responsible not only for teaching but also for learning. They have to take into account the needs of each
student in a heterogeneous classroom, creating a student-centered learning environment that enhances creativity, curiosity, and learning motivation. Teacher roles have been changing from teacher to mentor, mentoring, coaching, and creating learning environments. The value of the teacher is not lecture but a guide, catalyst to help students to orient themselves in learning. The role of teachers shifted to a new, broader and broader definition to meet the needs of the learning community. As a productive teacher in the digital age, teachers must improve teaching methods and not only cultivate the professionalism of new inventions in order to meet the requirements of teaching in digital age. Mr. Nam Thanh @mrnamvas is a primary school teacher in Vinschool in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He has been nationally and internationally recognised for the implementation of creativity and the integration of technology into his teaching. Nam is the founder of the global project Five Safe Finger. He is the winner of Educator of the Year Asia 2017 and Top 50 Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2018.
In Brief...
Fidget 'toys' vs 'tools' I think since the fidget spinner craze, we have all become more aware of these fidget ‘toys’ and the negative impact that they can have for some students. The reason that I am referring to things like fidget spinners as ‘toys’ is because from my point of view that is what they are – they are toys not tools. This is what makes a successful fidget tool: • Something unobtrusive • Something which is not visually stimulating • Something silent • Something tactile The reasons I feel that fidget spinners are not helpful is because they are visually stimulating and they also don’t require a lot of ‘fidgeting’. Simply flicking a finger to move a fidget spinner is not going to be enough to keep a student’s hands ‘busy’ and their minds focused. I recommend using simple handwriting pencil grips. Advantages of using pencil grips as a fidget tool: • Inexpensive • Silent • Small • Not visually interesting or stimulating • Inconspicuous in the classroom and does not draw attention to the student • Not easy to get on and off pencils so require a lot of effort from students’ hands @vicks_marshall SENCo - Frome
We're All Authors Together
20
ISSUE 48
UKEdChat Magazine
In teaching writing, particularly when looking to stretch and inspire those stronger individuals in KS2, it’s most powerful to model genuine authorial behaviours. Not only do I get them to magpie ideas from my models and other model texts, I tell them *I'm* magpie-ing *their* ideas too - I add them to my own jotter and refer back to them during writing sessions. This, combined with daily conversations about books, language, and writing, is how to develop children with a thirst for books, for writing, and an understanding of what it’s all actually for.
How French should French lessons be? Ask almost any MFL teacher about using the target language (TL), and they will say the same: You should be aiming for at least 75% in lessons. Ask that same teacher how much they use, and they will likely grumble: Not enough. The never-ending battle for most French teachers is to speak as much French in the classroom as possible, whilst maintaining understanding throughout the class. Using the TL as a tool for improving students’ listening skills can unintentionally become divisive, separating students that don’t understand from those that do, discouraging the former from any interest in the subject. Methods exist to using the TL positively rather than detrimentally, but, like all differentiation, these involve skilled planning to execute. Constant repetition can however lead to complacency, relying on an English translation or visual aids they know will follow. We must, as MFL teachers, constantly change things. Balance in the MFL classroom to teach, inspire, and improve language skills is demanding; however, when accurately struck, it enhances learning like no other technique can. @hatbatthefatcat Trainee MFL teacher - Jersey
Weighing the pig... My favourite edu-analogy has always been (and will be for the foreseeable future, it seems): weighing the pig, won't make it any fatter. As Head of English, I am party to data analyses on a fortnightly basis, at least. Sometimes it haunts my dreams... and I do wonder whether data should be the core function or my role? The visceral, gut reaction: no. Here's why: 1. Like any other human being on this planet, I do not possess the ability to predict the future - so why is so much stock given to so-called predicted grades? 2. My time could be better spent developing an engaging, challenging curriculum that enables students to both enjoy and succeed in English.
Reading together in the classroom is already common practice; teachers regularly discuss books with children (I hope!) and can relate to the children as readers. By modelling and sharing how writers magpie, borrow, steal and manipulate, we all become authors together as well.
3. Do I need APD, ALPS, FFT (and other such acronyms) to know the fundamental fact that quality first teaching coupled with effective feedback processes is the sure-fire way to enable better outcomes? Something needs to change. The data monster is tearing up the city.
@JRTroughton SLT & English Lead - Essex
@HaleDonal Head of English - York
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SEN strategies or just good practice for any classroom?
The iPad Generation
Some people might think these are SEN strategies, but I think they are just good practice for most students. Why label students with a diagnosis or learning strategy, when it can make them uncomfortable by treating them differently. By building a toolkit of strategies that many of students respond to, without the labels, I meet their needs as individuals and as a group. Here are 10 - Establish clear rules and expectations as a group. Joint ownership of rules, means students are more likely to live by them. - Be consistent - Use SMART tasks and SMART learning outcomes - Shorten tasks if students regularly lose interest during lessons - Recap chunks of lessons regularly with what has been achieved, not what hasn’t - Include more active learning and less academic activities and assessments - Encourage movement, e.g. rearrange seats and classroom set up during the lesson. Do students need to be seated in a row? - Replace text in handouts with visuals, or use both to accommodate more students - Recognise that not all incidents need intervention. Focus more on positive behaviour and effort - Recognise that interventions do not need to be done in front of the class
The iPad generation. That’s what I call the children of today. Now that’s neither a postitive or a negative nickname, just a nickname, however, whatever view you have on it, the impact on our teaching is huge. Children are brought up with bright colours, avatars, HD and 4K screens, virtual worlds full of weird and wonderful characters and then there’s school. I believe that it is vital that we, as educators, sit up and take note of this and rather than fight against it, embrace it. Make your teaching as fun and as interactive as you can. Bring lessons to life with hands on experiences, opportunities to enquire and lessons where the children can investigate the world around them. I read and hear a lot of criticism of the new (not so new) curriculum and how it is bland and dry but I think that it is what you make of it. Outstanding teachers can make even the most mundane of objectives fun. Always ensure that the learning outcome is clear to the children but spend time ensuring that the lessons are as fun and enjoyable as possible. Where learning is fun, more learning is likely to be happening but never lose sight of what the learning actually is. So, whether you like it or not, the iPad generation is here to stay so immerse your learners in a rich and creative curriculum that no app can compete with!
@eddiemconlon Numeracy and ICT Lecturer - Belfast
Using Twitter for Resources and Collaboration We all hear about social media and how we should keep our profiles as private as possible but with the amount of resources on Twitter, I think that it is an incredible platform for teachers to collaborate and share ideas. I have been on Twitter since it started and I would tweet to my favourite celebrities in the hopes that they replied and the day Lady Gaga followed me was a proud day. But, then I stopped using it, only really tweeting when my favourite author was doing a Q and A. But, a few months ago I attended an English teacher collaboration meeting and they brought up a resource they had found on Twitter. I didn’t even know Twitter could be used for that. Having qualified in Canada, I am still learning about the British curriculum. Therefore, using and adapting resources I find on Twitter is an excellent resource. Sure, here are many websites, but communicating with the teachers themselves to discuss their resources or just to talk about strategies is an incredibly amazing outlet. Never had I heard about structure strips until that meeting and now I use them in my lessons and the kids love them! @katrina259 Teacher of English - Slough, Berkshire
@deputygrocott Primary Deputy Headteacher - Suffolk
Don't ditch your librarian We are all concerned about the rise of Fake News – yes? If not, we should be, because otherwise future research becomes based on the shoulders of some very wobbly giants. If we extrapolate this idea further, we may find such attitudes bring about the demise of the human race. Last week there was a vacancy for a school librarian, no qualifications necessary, for 20 hours a week. The employers were asking for a volunteer! In 2008 most UK school librarians were post graduate qualified information professionals. What has gone wrong and why are we depriving school children of specialists in cross curricular information skills needed for 21st century life? How will students understand the value of libraries and librarians when they join the workplace or HE if their only experience is with someone who looks after books at a very basic level. Budget cuts, curriculum changes, pressure on physical space are all contributing to this unfortunate demise, but sense needs to prevail. We need to follow the examples set by our colleagues overseas, particularly in IB schools, where the school librarian is an essential and often statutory player in education. Recent research from the USA underpins this argument. @Sarahinthelib School consultant & trainer - Epsom, Surrey
Learning Environment
Learning Zones vs Traditional Classrooms By Sarah Wordlaw
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ISSUE 48
UKEdChat Magazine
Ask yourself honestly, when was the last time you stapled something new on your “working walls? I know myself, until recently, a “working wall” was really a planned display, which stayed up until the next time I willed a couple of hours of marking procrastination, to staple something else from Twinkl up. This changed when I moved school, ripped down my staple boards and replaced them with magnetic whiteboards. Children use them to clarify ideas during teaching and they are wiped and changed in every lesson, by children. There is a lot of talk of independent learning at the moment within the education community; the teacher becoming the facilitator and children seeking to find, collect and make decisions about their learning. A stimulating and helpful learning environment can have such an impact
upon the success of independent learning. Well-organised environments have a direct impact on the quality of teaching and learning, and therefore support raising standards. It enables pupils to develop independence as learners, and also builds on good Foundation Stage practice. Ask yourself, do children need to have a designated seat? Does your classroom need to have tables and chairs for all children? Why can’t children sit on the floor to learn? Why can’t children use the walls to clarify ideas and map out learning before recording it in a different way? Learning Zones are learning spaces where there are no designated seats, there are different ways for children to choose how to practise their learning, and resources (both physical and human) for children to go to when needed. There does not have to be enough tables for all children, in fact, there does not need to be any tables at all! Spaces must be provided for children to explore learning, for example whiteboard walls or using lap trays for children to lean on, and breakout spaces outside the classroom or even outside the building, are also valuable in developing your learning zone. Giving children their own waistbags, where they store their writing materials, allows them to take personal responsibility for resources, as well as enabling free movement around the classroom. At @Forestacademy there is a climbing frame inside one learning zone, where children can work at the top of the frame, in another
learning zone there are a selection of small learning hubs (see photo) where children can break away and independently practise skills. This allows for teaching with: less directing, more choice, more collaboration and more responsibility. A Help Desk needs to be accessible for all, providing resources both specific to the subject but also general resources for learning (iPads, QR codes which link to ‘how to’ videos, paper, card etc). Assigning ‘learning experts’ in the classroom, for children to go to with any questions about learning is a powerful tool whilst also building self-esteem of children in the class. Assigning each child an ‘expert’ opportunity, from core subjects to art, computing and music, allows children to practise the 3B4Me strategy whilst building confidence, questioning and spoken language. Learning zones are amazing spaces for children to learn, experiment and being creative. Versus a traditional classroom, learning zones reflect the future workspaces they may be working in. A creative, purposeful learning space lends itself to more productive learning, and children who are skilled and self-motivated, and leave school prepared for an ever-changing world. Sarah Wordlaw @smwordlaw is a Primary Assistant Headteacher and Year 6 teacher. Leader of Teaching and Learning with a particular penchant for Computing, Project-Based Learning and Music and Performing Arts.
Images: @forestacademy
Classroom environments enrich and support the learning of children. It has been found by researchers that classroom environments can boost learning performance by up to 16%, which is staggering. How do we move away from the seating plan and display-wallpaper classroom design to something more innovative? Take inspiration from the best! Office spaces such as Google and Apple value the impact the physical environment has on wellbeing and productivity. I know what you’re thinking - if schools had the budgets that Google have, then we could do amazing things! But developing a learning-zone as oppose to a classroom doesn't have to break the budget.
Book Reviews
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Seeing It Through - The Story of a Teacher & Trade Unionist by Andy Ballard Clink Street Publishing
by Dr Sam
by Danielle Bartram Crown House Publishing
Crown House Publishing
Ballard describes the interplay between his private and professional lives, and bares his soul when the pressures of a lifetime of commitment brings his story to an unexpected conclusion.
Dr Sam’s aim is to help adults working with girls to develop a toolbox of pro-active, pro-social strategies and understanding.
Click to view on Amazon
Click to view on Amazon
Mastering Primary Physical Education
Overcoming Barriers to Learning by Sheila Mulvenney Worth Publishing
by Kristy Howells, Alison Carney, Neil Castle & Rich Little Bloomsbury Academic Education Mastering Primary Physical Education introduces the primary physical education curriculum and helps trainees and teachers learn how to plan and teach inspiring lessons that make physical education irresistible.
Click to view on Amazon
Forty Pence Each Or Two For A Pound
Girl Bullying: Do I Look Bothered?
Danielle Bartram shares a wealth of practical resources and ideas to help teachers develop a whole-school commitment to, and enthusiasm for, improving numeracy.
Click to view on Amazon
Leadership For Tomorrow - Beyond The School Improvement Horizon by Malcolm Groves, Andrew Hobbs & John West-Burnham
This book addresses how language used in school can be modified to challenge the 'scripts' our pupils carry with them in more constructive direction. In short, a blue print to overcome barriers to learning.
In Leadership for Tomorrow: Beyond the School Improvement Horizon Malcolm Groves, Andrew Hobbs, and John West-Burnham present a visionled analysis of what needs to change if schools are really to equip children and young people to thrive in our everchanging world.
Click to view on Amazon
Click to view on Amazon
Have a book for us to review? Get in touch.
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A 'Guess Who' game template. Cut 3 sides to create flaps. By @ICTmagic ukedchat.com/?p=40719