Primary Teacher UK

TeachMeet Midlands 2009

Friday 15th May 2009 6-9pm - National College for School Leadership, Nottingham

Share your stories, ask your questions and learn from each other at TeachMeet Midlands, a wonderful opportunity to take part in this innovative and FREE professional development event about technology in the classroom. View this Flickr search to see images of NCSL's Learning & Conference Centre or visit the Learning & Conference Centre website.

What is TeachMeet? Learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about teaching and technology. Anyone can share great ideas they've trialled in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations.

What can you do? You can come along to chat, meet new people, or give a seven minute talk, a two minute nano presentation or lead a conversation.

Link: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/TeachMeet+Midlands+2009

Learning Brain Europe Conference in Manchester

I've been contacted by Ali Houghton to let you know about the 2009 Learning Brain Europe Conference:

Organised by teachers passionate about learning, the Learning Brain Europe 2009 Conference is a unique opportunity to see a programme of world class strategists and thinkers in the field of learning. The aim is to expand teachers’ understanding of how the brain learns and develop their ability to create more effective classrooms.

Learn about teaching strategies based on the very latest brain research. All speakers are renowned for their knowledge and their ability to inspire and motivate. Our programme of topics has been carefully designed to suit both Primary and Secondary educational organisations.

The Learning Brain Conference aims to share a genuine passion for learning. Join us at this unique, forward-thinking event and take away practical strategies you can implement in your own class.

You can download the flyer here which has much more information.

Teachers TV Gifted and Talented Week

Teachers' TV this week has a series of programmes exploring how schools cater for their most able and talented pupils.

Gifted and Talented Pupil Voice: Lucy http://www.teachers.tv/video/31897
Lucy is part of a small group of pupils who make up the research group at Tipton St John Primary school in Exeter. They conducted a study into learning across the school and analysed responses to their questionnaires as part of the school’s pupil voice project to improve provision for gifted and talented pupils.

Lucy takes us through the findings of the group and talks about how the research work itself has been stretching for them. She shows us the way the school has taken on board the views of its gifted and talented pupils and some of the changes they have made, from more pair work in class to ‘Think Days’ across the school.

Gifted and Talented Pupil Voice: Jamie – Exeter Deaf Academy http://www.teachers.tv/video/31854
Jamie is a deaf pupil at Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education - and is also a gifted and talented student. He tells us in his own words, in British Sign Language, how his school has listened to pupils like himself and taken on board the particular needs that gifted and talented deaf students have.

From vertical learning groups to improving the experiences that deaf students have with partner hearing schools, Jamie and his peers have made a significant contribution to their school’s provision for gifted and talented deaf students.

The Battle of the Brains http://www.teachers.tv/video/32039
Youth and science come together in a competition of global proportions. Battle of the Brains is a four-part documentary series which tells the story of a unique group of brilliant teenage students working towards the International Science Olympiads held in Beijing.

The students are both vulnerable and inspiring as they let us in on their journey towards the Olympiad. The 24 young biologists work their way through the equivalent of a first year university biology course in 16 days. Only four will be selected from this group to travel to China to compete in the International Biology Olympiads.

Jonny Heeley’s Masterclass - Decimals Forever http://www.teachers.tv/video/31953
Teaching Award winner, Jonny Heeley inspires a group of gifted and talented KS2 pupils with an active lesson about Decimals.  Jonny uses a variety of games and challenges which excite and entertain, providing Maths teachers with some concrete and accessible ways to teach students all about Decimals.

Jonny Heeley’s Masterclass - Polygons http://www.teachers.tv/video/31957
Jonny Heeley inspires a group of gifted and talented KS2 pupils with an active lesson about Polygons. Jonny uses a variety of games and challenges which excite and entertain, providing Maths teachers with some concrete and accessible ways to teach students all about Polygons.

Academic Success Begins at Home: How Children Can Succeed in School

The role of parents in the schooling process is of growing significance. Not just in the educational games and toys used at home but also in the make-up of the family. There are similarities between the UK and USA where a detailed  research project has just been completed. The following extract is published in cooperation with keen2learn and the the author Christine Kim (photographed right) of the Heritage Foundation.   September 22nd 2008.

Christine is a Policy Analyst, with the Heritage Foundation in the USA. Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom.

American taxpayers invest heavily in education. Last year, spending on public K–12 education totalled $553 billion, about 4 percent of gross domestic prod­uct (GDP) in 2006. For each child enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school, expenditures averaged $9,266 that year—an increase of 128 per­cent, adjusted for inflation, since 1970.

Despite this increase in public spending, student achievement and educational attainment over the last four decades has remained relatively flat. In 2007, a significant portion of students, disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds, scored “below basic” in reading and maths on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Sadly, in many of the nation’s largest cities, fewer than half of high school students graduate.

While academic research has consistently shown that increased spending does not correlate with educational gains,  the research does show a strong relationship between parental influences and children’s educational outcomes, from school readiness to college completion. Two compelling parental factors emerge:

1. Family structure, i.e., the number of parents living in the student’s home and their relationships to the child, and

2. Parents’ involvement in their children’s schoolwork.

Consequently, the solution to improving educational outcomes begins at home, by strengthening marriage and promoting stable family formation and parental involvement.

The Erosion of Family Stability in America

“Perhaps the most profound change in the American family over the past four decades,” writes sociologist Paul Amato, “has been the decline in the share of children growing up in households with biological parents.”  In 1960, 88 percent of all children lived with two parents, compared to 68 percent in 2007. In 1960, 5 percent of all children were born to unmarried mothers. That figure rose to 38.5 per­cent in 2006. Demographers have estimated that, overall, one child in two will spend some portion of his or her childhood in a single-parent family.

Studies show that children raised in intact families, i.e., with two continuously married parents, tend to fare better on a number of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural outcomes than children living in other family forms.  Not surprisingly, the changes in family structure over the last 40 years have affected child and adolescent well-being. In 2002, nearly 7 million children between the ages of 12 and 18 repeated a grade. Based on this figure, Professor Amato estimates that if the share of two-parent families had remained unchanged between 1980 and 2002, some 300,000 fewer teens would have repeated a grade. Some 750,000 fewer students in 2002 would have repeated a grade if the share of two-parent families remained at the level it was in 1960.

Social science research over the past decades suggests that family structure affects children’s school outcomes, from preschool to college.  Some of the variations in school performance could be explained, in part or in whole, by the differences in family resources such as time and money, family dynamics and parental characteristics that are asso­ciated with the various family forms. These are mediating factors, or mechanisms through which family structure affects schooling outcomes. Family structure may also exert a direct influence, inde­pendent of mediating factors. Thus, depending on the outcome, family structure’s total effect may con­sist of one or more mediating influences or a com­bination of both direct and mediating influences.

Though various methodological research issues— e.g., data quality, inconsistent definitions of family structure, the selection effect (e.g., are individuals who possess better parenting qualities more likely to choose marriage and stay married, or does marriage per se bolster children’s well-being?)—limit the findings, the evidence, nonetheless, is strong: Family structure matters.

School Readiness. A number of early-childhood outcomes contribute to children’s eventual school readiness. The evidence suggests that potentially important early-childhood outcomes vary by family structure. One study, analyzing 1,370 mothers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study who were continuously married or in cohabiting relationships from the child’s birth to age three, found that three-year-olds born to cohabiting mothers tended to exhibit more aggressive, withdrawn, and anxious or depressive behaviour than children born to married mothers.  For aggressive and with­drawn behaviours’, the association was explained by income differences. For anxiety and depressive symptoms, even controlling for income, the cohab­itation effect remained.
Parental Involvement

Parental involvement emerges as another robust influence on educational outcomes. It is multi-dimensional. Examples include monitoring children’s activities outside home and school; setting rules; having conversations about and helping children with school work and school-related issues; holding high educational expectations; discussing future planning with children and helping them with important decision making; participating in school-related activities such as meeting with teachers and volunteering in the classroom; and reading to children or engaging in other enrichment or leisure activities together.

A meta-analysis of 77 studies, consisting of 300,000 elementary and secondary students, found that parental educational expectations are a particularly important aspect of parental involvement. Parenting style, reading to children, and, to a lesser extent, participation in school-related activities appeared to be influential as well. Furthermore, parental involvement is associated with multiple measures of student achievement, for the entire student population as well as for minority and low-income student populations. Overall, “the academic advantage for those parents who were highly involved in their education averaged about 0.5–0.6 of a standard deviation for overall educational out­comes, grades and academic achievement.”

Parental Involvement and Family Structure.

The level of parental involvement varies by family structure, and the relationship between parental involvement and educational outcomes depends on the family context as well.  One study, for example, found that compared to high school students from intact families, those from single or step­parent families reported less parental involvement in their school work, supervision, and parental educational expectations, which, in turn, affected school outcomes.

Studies show that reading to young children aids their literacy development. Toddlers and preschool-age children in married-parent families are read to more often than peers in non-intact families.  One study of 11,500 kindergartners living with two parents or parent figures reported that, accounting for parental education and income, children living with married parents averaged higher reading achievement test scores than peers living in cohabiting or step-parent families.

To read the full report see http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/bg2185.cfm

Have Handwriting Skills Been Superseded By Technology?

Teaching four-year-old children to write is nonsense says literacy consultant Sue Palmer. “As useful as teaching a dog to walk on its hind legs.” So why has the National Curriculum in the UK adopted new assessments to measure handwriting skills in the first year at school?

Concerned opinion asks why the government introduced a scheme which is immediately openly criticised by a leading expert. How does this happen?  Surely Palmer is the one of the key people to assist or review the development of a new school policy in literacy before it is launched.

Setting targets that are too easy seems pointless; too hard and those not in contention become demoralised. Sue Palmer believes the long-term effect of the new policy would do more harm than good. The scheme, part of a four billion pound investment into early learning scheduled over the next two years, is therefore questionable.

It is an unfortunate start. The scheme has the right motivation but perhaps lacks the accountability which may have ensured it was thoroughly tested before launch. If government departments could be measured on results the efficacy of many schemes would be more closely reviewed.  The problem starts at the top. Ministerial appointments are inevitably transitory. The tenure of the secretary for education historically has lasted around 18 months. But the measure of the effectiveness of educational policy takes a generation of children to measure its impact. Historically it was always a predecessors’ idea - unless it worked.  But is Sue Palmer right this time?

In an age of computerised communication; e-mails, texts, technology with built in spell check and predictive text, the need to write anything may seem to be superfluous. Cheques are virtually obsolete, even the signature on credit card slips has been replaced by a pin number. Mind you we do get to sign the back of the credit card every two years, and a passport application every ten years. But do you find you have to practice your signature before signing the secure strip that makes it unreadable anyway. Hardly a burdensome task, so do we need to write anything?

Shopping lists could shortly be replaced with bar code scans, or even the fridge could order online for you. Purchases are made more and more on line requiring typing skills and the deft control of the mouse. Even the mouse could be replaced by a touch screen.

Obviously handwriting skills intermesh with spelling. This leads us to another quandary. Teaching children to spell and write words as they sound involves the definition of “phonic.” Where the P and H of phonic of course being pronounced as an  “f.”  But no worry, as the device the kids will ultimately use to communicate will be a cell phone, with camera, spell check and predictive text - assuming that text abbreviations don’t completely take over.

If a more complex message is required then one of the new mini laptops, or knee tops is ideal. These incredible devices incorporate all the functions of the PC in a case weighing 1kg and a screen of 7inches. Highly portable they could tuck into a small backpack - or even a hood. Not as daft as it sounds. I once met a Berber in Morocco who wore the long traditional cloak and used the hood as a vast pocket.

If handwriting and spelling skills are an essential form of communication they are under attack, but they have one great defence. They work when the powers gone, the battery’s flat, the pc has crashed and credit is exhausted. Yes, in this rapidly developing technical world we still need to learn how to read, write and spell!

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Bedtime Stories Are Being Abandoned

Dads are abandoning the essential task of reading to their children. Recognised as a key ingredient in a child’s reading development this enjoyable task has fallen by the wayside with 57 percent of Dads. Seven steps to help dads overcome their fear in a simple guide to encourage them to read bedtime stories to their children. How to turn story reading into an educational game.

Point a video camera at anybody and ask them to say something and they inevitably clam up. It’s a natural reaction; most of us don’t want to take centre stage. And it is the same with bedtime stories. To help a child understand the story we should try to use different voices for each character, apply inflection in the narration and worst of all we have to read aloud!

It’s the end of the day, we’re tired, stressed, and certainly don’t feel the ideal person to read a story. Whereas mums at home tend to take the lead in early learning with their natural affinity with language development the bedtime educational story is still a vital support role that dad’s should play. Stories develop a child’s imagination, encourages literacy, self expression and an interest in reading – the backbone of all education.  

Step 1. Catch your breath, relax and take your time. No point in rushing as you will achieve little apart from disappointing your child and getting frustrated yourself. 

Step 2.Reading aloud may be awkward initially, with many of us inhibited by the thought of it. But it becomes a lot easier with practice. Speaking to a video camera involves ad libing or remembering some lines. Reading a story is easier as the script is right there before you. 

Step 3. Try and develop a different voice for each character. It helps add drama and your child’s understanding of the story. It makes reading easier for you and listening more fun for the children. 

Step 4. Add inflection to your voice to emphasise the action. Make it sound scary if the villain speaks or you are setting a key scene in the story. 

Step 5. Try listening to an online story. Many can be found on the web. Narrated by actors they tell the story with animated script and  give you a great idea of how to read a story out loud. 

Step 6. Show your feelings as you read the story, and ask questions to get your child to join in “What do you feel about that?” 

Step 7. Read some support books such as “Dad did it” by Chris Wakefield, and “How to enjoy reading aloud to young children” by Alison Shakespeare. 

You have probably presented a report or opinion at work, school or university. You may have loved or loathed the experience. Some people have a natural talent to present; others need a bit of encouragement. Do remember at bedtime you have an intimate audience of one or two delighted children who also enjoy their time with you. It induces some quality time with the kids, gives mum a break and acts as a great transition between work and home. With of practice you will really get to enjoy it. 

The literacy trust in the UK have shown that story telling has a huge influence in a child’s interest in reading. Their literacy skills gain a leap ahead, and their story telling ability, something that is essential in the learning process gets a real boost. And it could all be down to you and a little light fun reading. 

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Learning Brain Europe Conference 2008

The next Learning Brain Europe conference takes place on 2 May 2008. This day-long, interactive workshop will explore innovative strategies for efective learning. The keynote session this year is Behaviour rules OK: classroom skills with Rob Long.

There are four key rules which help school staff to manage troublesome behaviour and support troubled young people. Together they:

*provide ways of redirecting and defusing interfering behaviours in a non-confrontational way

*offer ways of analysing classroom behaviour and learner behaviour

*show how problems can be changed into solutions so that all involved work co-operatively to improve matters

*The key message is that in an educational environment behavioural mistakes should be learning opportunities.

Other workshop sessions will include:

Rob Long – Behaviour rules OK
Teacher2Teacher – Engaged Learning
Case Study – Behaviour skills for learning (year 7), Bernard Hurst, Fallibroome High School
The workshop will be held at Fallibroome High School, Priory Lane, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 4AF

The cost of this exciting day long workshop is £180 + VAT, to include lunch, refreshments and membership of the new Learning Brain Europe online community.

For further details, please visit http://www.learningbraineurope.org

Outdoor Learning

There are 3 programs on Teachers' TV linked to outdoors learning coming up. They are exploring the possibilities and benefits of lessons based outside the classroom. One, with Comedy Dave from the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show, which should be good viewing.

Inspirations – Inner City Forest - Tuesday 25 March at 4.00pm (F) and 8.00pm

Highters Heath Primary in Birmingham, an inner city school, becomes a ‘Forest School’ by working with the City's Park Ranger Service to utilise a patch of woodland that has escaped the grasp of developers. Once a week, a park ranger leads small groups of children to the woods and shows them how to explore the world around them through play and problem-solving. The rangers believe that all schools in urban areas are never far from a natural setting, whether it is a local park or an abandoned allotment.

The Teaching Challenge – Comedy Dave Wednesday 26 March at 4.30pm (F) and 8.30pm

‘Comedy’ Dave Vitty is the award-winning chief writer and contributor to the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1. Dave's challenge is to work as a teaching assistant with staff taking eighty pupils from a Hoxton primary school to the New Forest in Hampshire for a residential adventure holiday. The pupils include groups with autism and other special educational needs, and many pupils who have never been outside their inner-city neighbourhood before.

Resource Review – Primary and Secondary Outdoor Environment - Thursday 27 March from 4.30pm (F) and 8.30pm

These two Resource Review programmes - Primary Outdoor Environment and Secondary Outdoor Environment - consider resources that may help open up the world for teachers hoping to take their pupils outdoors. Experts John Rhymer, Worcestershire Children’s Services Adviser for Sustainability and Head of Bishops Wood Centre, and Jon Clarke, Deputy Headteacher at Walsall Academy, give their recommendations, while a roving reporter observes some of the resources in use. A panel of experts discuss the resources in detail.

Thinking Skills Contracts

This is a great site that my wife found while developing the thinking skills in her school.  The site, Think It! Contract Activities, contains a number of theme-based contract activities that incorporate a number of different thinking skills, strategies and approaches. You will find activities that use a variety of Tony Ryan’s Thinker’s Keys, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (SMARTS) and Edward deBono’s Six Thinking Hats, as well as other higher-order thinking skills. Graphic Organisers are used throughout these activities in different ways and for different purposes.  Most activities fit within the upper levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.  You can read the Contract Activities Rationale for the principles behind the use of contracts within the classroom.

The contract activities are ready to download or print directly from your computer and come with a cover page for each student and a number of activities (15- 21) that promote divergent and creative thinking.  Activities can be printed out and made into activity books for each child or displayed in hanging pockets with children selecting the activities they wish to work on. Children work at their own pace and at their own ability level to complete thinking tasks.

Fantastic site - bookmark it now: http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Contracts/contracts.htm

Using the Apprentice Planning

Even though I wasn't able to finish the Apprentice planning like I wanted Paul still managed to make some use out of it.  He's emailed what he did and I'd thought I'd share it with you so you can see the success he had:

The week before the children were told that they were to be given £5 and told that they would have to plan an enterprise that would try and make them the most profit possible (The incentive that any profit they would make would be spend on them really engaged them!). They then had a week to plan, purchase whatever they wanted to run a 'stall' etc on our apprentice day. Over the next few days chidlren planned their idea, sorted out advertising around the school etc

On the day itself the children had just under an hour to set up all of their 'stalls' We then set them a 30 minute time window where they could sell their products/run their stalls.  I invited the Y6 parents along as well as well as children from the other classes along.

It was organised chaos! The children excelled themselves with what they had organised, the other children from the other classes and the parents really enjoyed the experience.

Some of the ideas the children put together were:

Chocolate fountain (Always a firm favourite!)
White elephant stall
Guess number of sweets in jar
Teddy bear raffle
Lots of computer games set up on the whiteboards where the children paid to have a go using consoles such as Wii's, Playstations, dance mats etc eauty salon (nails being painted/facials etc)
Guess the weight of the cake
Wacky dohnuts (children had to try and bite the dohnuts off a suspended wire with their hands behind their head!)

The children had loads of other ideas planned such as throwing sponges at them in the stocks, radio controlled car races etc but due to the bad weather we had to run everything indoors! Which was a shame as I had already picked which hildren would go into the stocks! :-)

It was great just 'sitting back' so to speak and watching my class run the morning themselves.

They made £230 in the 30 mins we ran the event for! An amazing achievement considering we are only a 1 form entry school and that we ran it on a monday morning with lots of children forgetting to bring in money!

Once we took off all the £5's I gave them at the beginning for the 8 groups they made an overall profit of £190 between them!

I'm going to use the money to take them all to the cinema to see Harry Potter  and the Order of the Phoenix on the afternoon after their leavers assembly. (Which we are also basing on the Apprentice Theme!) We should even have enough money to stretch to buying some popcorn too!

It was a great experience both for myself and for the children. Its just a pity that its my last year in Y6 (moving to Y4 in sept) as it would probably have become a regular feature at the end of the year.

Well done Paul!