Ramblings of a year 7/8 teacher

Well, what a week!!! The lead up to Monday nights session was full on. This first assignment really had us struggling. We are so used to going to University and having the lecturer tell you what they want from you, where as this program is more open to interpretation and you really need to problem solve, so it is a big shift in our thinking and how we approach assignments. I'm certainly glad that it is finished and that we were able to submit it with no fuss. So yay, one down!!! I don't think it is going to get any easier, but I am slightly more confident going forward. So...what do you do when you are feeling relieved??? Play around with snapchat filters.

Well another week down, and things are starting to make sense. 🙌🙌🙌🙌 Our first assignment is due next week and as usual, I was over thinking it and getting too ahead of myself. I had started to implement the new teaching approach in my class programme already, only to find out that, that is in the second assignment. Oh well, it was good to see that it will be successful when implemented on a regular basis. I carried out a student voice survey using a Google Doc. The students were told that it was completely anonymous, so they could be honest and tell me how they really felt. It was a great activity to do, so that I can start to get a clearer picture on why they don't always engage with certain activities. The findings showed that they like to work with students who motivate them to keep going, students who like to learn and work to a high standard. They like to have hands on tasks as well as online opportunities, the reasoning for that is that they find it easier and faste...

Week 3 of MindLab!  This journey is going very fast and is still very overwhelming!!! The session this week though, actually started to make sense and I can see how some of the ideas could actually improve my practice. The TPACK model and the SMAR model are great tools to use in my planning, as they get you to really think about what digital tool will help get the learning across to the student. So often we put in IT tools just so we can say we are using and teaching technology, but it doesn't really serve a purpose or the purpose you need it to.  I am going to use these styles of planning in my first assignment to help trial digital tools that will help with the problem in my practice that I have identified.  EXCITED 😃 Another thing that came up was flipped classrooms. This is something that I want to look further into as I can see great potential in it. Anything that allows the students to take ownership of their learning and allows the teacher more time...