Hello again

 Goodness it has been a LONG time since the last post - and several jobs have been and gone. 

I may, or may not write about those at some point.

In the meantime, along with my teaching I love to read and with a daily commute of 90 minutes have embraced audio books. So , this blog space will now be used to review some of the books that I have read. 

I'd love to write one of my own one day ( well I have one  in my google drive that I'm really not happy with so I will rephrase that as I would love to write a decent book of my own one day). 

The esteemed author, Stephen King, in his autobiographical book 'On Writing' repeatedly referred to his love of reading, and the copious amount that he has and still does as one of his biggest influences that I dream that my love of reading may perhaps help me to become a better writer.

In the meantime thus begins my reviews. Thanks for reading!

Holiday Science Fun

Am planning to try this out with my niece and nephews. ( 5,7,9)

I bought these tiny rainbow beads online - (you can also use the silica beads that come with trainers ) a couple of pounds for thousands of them.

All you need to do is pop them into a container of water

These have been in for a couple of hours.

Simple activities can include counting , how many different colours, holding the container up to the light.

Pop a hand in:

How many am I holding? Two?

Fabulous! The clear beads are so difficult to see when in the water. Lots of fun to try to guess how many there are and then take out one by one.

Further activities can include timing how long they take to grow, if different colours take more or less time. Can also see how long they take to return to normal size.

How about trying a salt solution? Or pop some food colouring in.

Lots of potential for measuring , weighing and if you have a torch handy see how the light is refracted by the spheres. See what happens if you hold one above some writing.

If you've tried this, let me know how it goes.

**Important** don't throw these down the drain when finished with..they can be dried and reused over and over . If they must be thrown away they'll need to go in the general household waste.

Have fun!

Things can only get better

Having recently been to a meeting of the Teacher Reference group at the DfE, I was heartened by the clear intent to actually listen to the profession.

Assessment in KS2 has been widely criticised since the hasty implementation of the 2014 curriculum. Last year's results were, let's say, mixed.

Being in Year 6 I have been right in the middle of the changes- raising standards- good. Having high expectations- obviously good.

BUT the present system was rushed in and is clearly not fit for purpose.

The consultation (due to close 22 June) is gatheing opinion right now- fill it in if you haven't already.

Quite what will happen remains to be seen, but I came away from the meeting with a lightness in my step as it really does seem that those involved in assessment at the DfE have recognised the flaws and are committed to working WITH the profession to have a system which will be fit for purpose.

Let's hope they carry through and that the present crisis in retention and recruitment will turn the corner.

KINDNESS

Having read various blogs on the subject, I thought it was pertinent to share this link to a FREE Platinum subscription to @twinklresources Twinkl

 http://bit.ly/2j4OgKh 

I run a class blog and we all sign up to our blog rules each September- they are

Keep safe – don’t reveal any personal information.

Write in good English – including grammar and punctuation.

Be polite – Don’t post anything that could hurt anyone.

Always show respect – be positive if you are going to comment.

Remember that a blog is public- anybody can read it- so be sure to make sure you always do your very best .

All posts and comments are checked before they are published.

I often talk to my class about the importance of being kind to each other- as Year 6s they are super confident being the oldest in the school, but before long they will be the little ones again in the secondary school where the friendships made at primary school are so important for those first few days in particular.

There are so many things we have to teach to our children, but in my opinion kindness is one of the most important. What a wonderful world we would live in if everyone was kind :)

Happy New Year. 2017. To blog or not to blog? To Tweet or not to Tweet?

As I scroll through my timeline I see a wealth of teachers pledging to blog more regularly, weekly or otherwise. I feel slightly in awe of them and wonder how they manage to find the time to write so regularly and look over at my own blog and berate myself for my lack of posts.

It’s easy to feel disheartened when there are so many great blogs out there (see  http://blog.feedspot.com/teacher_blogs/ for a list of top education blogs around the world) and  http://www.teachertoolkit.me/2016/04/03/101educators/ ( Teacher Toolkit’s list- the most followed education blog in the UK)

BUT , and this is the important thing, IT DOESN’T MATTER if you blog weekly, monthly, randomly (or not at all!) What matters is that you do what works for you. I have a blog to reflect upon things that I have done and it is so interesting reading past posts and looking at how I have made changes or improvements to my teaching.  Unless I have something to say that hasn’’t already been said, I don’t tend to blog. So I don’t make lists of educators to follow or influential blogs but like to think that some of what I write will strike a chord with others and perhaps give them food for thought.

When I take part in forums on twitter (my favourites are #PrimaryRocks on Mondays 8-9pm, #ASEchat Mondays 8-9 pm #uikedchat on Thursdays 8-9pm and #SLTchat on Sundays 8-8.30pm ) It’s easy to think that this is where it is all happening- and a lot does happen in them for certain. I have met some amazing people as a result of twitter and had opportunities that I may not have come across otherwise.  And lots of those people aren’t on any lists but have so much to share and I am delighted to have the privilege to have met many of them as well as to interact online with them.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that the vast majority of teachers aren’t even on twitter; and that many of those who are don’t use it regularly. I have run several workshops about the benefits of using twitter which have resulted in teachers joining, but most of the teachers I work with don’t use it at all.

Here’s my list of why you should use twitter- I’d love to know yours.

1)      Fabulous networking tool (especially if you teach in a small school)

2)      Great way to share ideas and resources

3)      A sounding board where you know people will give their opinions

4)      Fast way to hear about policy changes (saves trawling through the almost-impossible-to-navigate gov.uk website)

5)      Ability to communicate with educators across the country and beyond

6)       Quick access to some excellent blogs about education

7)      Great way to keep positive through the changes

Why do I think teachers don’t use twitter?

1)      privacy issues- accounts can be made private, but this is an understandable issue for many

2)      spam spam spam- I don’t find this too much of a problem- I just block and report

3)      time- always an issue. Twitter is so different to facebook insofar as you can’t possibly ‘catch up’ on what has happened since you last logged on- hashtags are a fab tool to search for interests and it’s a case of going with what is happening at the time.

4)      Negativity/arguments  It can be all to easy to limit one’s followers and following to those who always agree with you/have the same outlooks . it can also be easy to get drawn into some , shall we say, scratchy discussions. For me, I follow a range of tweeters and don’t generally get involved in scratchy discussions- but it is always interesting to see a range of ideas and points of view. If someone doesn’t want to follow me, or I don’t want to follow someone then so be it- I don’t waste time worrying about it. I stick to positive tweets and sharing good practice which has worked well for me so far .

HAPPY NEW YEAR .  I’m planning to keep trying to persuade colleagues to give twitter a try- that’s my first NY resolution. Bring a friend to twitter.

Who else it up for this?

Gopher science labs

Gopher : small , burrowing rodent .
Gopher

So, what's that got to do with science?  Well, the Royal society of Biology  offers small grants to support transition between secondary and primary.

Further details Here

Now, generally secondary teachers apply for this, but I wasn't letting that stop me. I drummed up support from my local schools and applied.

Hey presto, grant received. Thank you again Royal Society.

After lots of emails we managed to fix a date and our local secondary school trained up some year 9 students to deliver a series of fun activities to year six pupils from the feeder primaries.

See some pictures Here

I will shortly be leading a staff meeting to share the experience and hopefully encourage others to apply for this wonderful opportunity.

Students teaching students.
Cross phase links.
Transition opportunity.
Fun science.

I'm still not sure what it all has to do with gophers, but it was certainly a great experience.

Why don't you go for it this year?  😉

Applications close end of this month.

Great way to start the year

I felt compelled to write this as soon as I came home; I have spent one of the most enjoyable days with my class today thanks to the BRILLIANT resources from  the ASE.
' Why you'll never catch smallpox'

My Year six class were captivated from the moment we started.
It certainly helped that the village our school is in is where Benjamin Jesty lived (see http://www.dorsetcountymuseum.org/benjamin-jesty) . Another session or two could follow up as to why he isn't as famous as Jenner.

There are enough activities to fill a week or a half term, but I had chosen just the 'Speckled monster' resources . At the summer PSTT conference ( see www.pstt.org ) the resources had been introduced and the suggestion made that this would work well as a stand alone exercise.

We began with a chat about microbes and watched a cartoon about how germs from a sneeze travel ( 'That's so gross, I'm always going to keep my hands clean!' exclaimed one of my class)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yToii3-p-NI

We then watched the excellent film, James. Quite hard to watch at times, but sparked loads of discussion .

We used the concept cartoon to channel ideas and then embarked on the role play. I have fewer than 30 in my class so they had brought various toys in to make up numbers. Much hilarity as these were allocated as grandmothers, sons, butlers and others.

The children threw themselves into their characters and we're trying to guess who would 'get the pox'

We have recently introduced various signals across the school for behaviour management and these were indispensable as I could leave them to immerse themselves and quickly get their attention for the next part of the scenario.

Small pieces of wool were tied around little fingers of sufferers ( again much hilarity when this was a toy!)  The 'graveyard' was used to map the village and observe proceedings. Children were discussing where they thought the next victim would be, who would survive and so on. They were sceptical about the wood lice charm and agreed that they were pleased that such superstitions don't still exist. ( (Although , later in the day some of the children told me about various superstitions they had heard)

When we came to the end of the scenario there were cheers for the survivors ( funnily one of the tiniest toys that had been brought in!) and lots of talk about why that could have been.

The teacher PowerPoint was brilliant at keeping discussions on track.

We spent the whole morning on this , drew line graphs , looked at genuine case studies from Jenner's diaries and discussed how the language was different. We will spend a little time tomorrow to finish machine up the case studies.

The resources are all here : http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/whyyoullnevercatchsmallpox

A fabulous way to start the year off and great for team building. The resources are so accessible and totally age appropriate for my year  six class.  Curriculum constraints are such that time won't allow for a lot more , but the activities could easily be stretched out for longer . We have no internet in school at the moment , else I would have gone straight onto biography work. However, I shall return to this later in the term.  I would definitely use this to start the year off again .  Personally I like the fact this can be used as a stand alone and feel inclined to use it in the same way as it made such an impact . I can then revisit aspects as appropriate.

Check out the resources and see a different way of linking science, history, maths, English, drama, pshe.