Posts about education, teaching, learning etc.
Probably worth reading my last post about the disapplication of the previous ICT Program of Study and our plans to take it’s place at KS3 before proceeding with this one. So what have we done in the 4 months since my last post? Our fabulous ICT Department have thrashed out what we believe to be…
The title sounds like a nasty affliction – but I actually want to describe a great lesson! I was looking for a nice challenge for my Year 9 Computing class to continue developing their understanding of variables, if statements and loops – ideally moving on to nested statements and loops. As ever Twitter came to…
I have the pleasure of teaching two great Year 9 classes this year. One is a fabulous Maths group that I have taught for the past two years, another is an ICT taster class (we have brought taster options into Year 9 this year, allowing students to get a taster of KS4 courses – this…
These are my notes from a fascinating day at the Essa Academy, courtesy of Apple. We were treated to a tour and talks by a number of staff including the Principal – Showk Badat, Abdul Chohan & Jeff Ellis. I was fascinated by not just the integration of mobile technologies (they are famous for giving every…
Google Docs School Newspaper – what a great idea. Laura Chesebro via Jeff Utecht.
Another what’s the best way forward? blog post where I try and dissect my own thinking on what IT provision should look like in a Secondary School in 2011. Continue the current mix of laptop trolleys and IT suites or move towards a 1 to 1 environment of tablets or laptops? Financial Planning This year so far…
I was delighted to be contacted last week by one of our Humanities staff with the following email: I presented Project 8’s new learning platform for next year, ‘The Village’ in the Humanities teachers toolbox on Tuesday. Our idea is for us to set up an imaginary world where students can create a community, developing…
The silence that has descended on this blog has partly been down to another little change in direction for me as I have taken over leadership of our ICT & Business Studies department. As a Mathematician by nature this has been an interesting few weeks! Out top priority is to try and deliver an ICT curriculum that…
Edexcel admirably give you access to detailed question by question data from their Maths exams with the use of Results+. However I have always found that it does not come in a format that is particularly useful for teachers or individual pupils. I have created a spreadsheet that analyses the data at a class and individual…
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Another presenter who is challenged by presenting ‘in the round’! Seeing a massive change in the quality and quantity of informal learning. Talk about the dream of free knowledge for everyone. Free access to the sum of all human knowledge. What is free access? Free as in speech, not as in…