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Showing posts from September, 2009

21st Century Learning Alliance Fellowship - Initial Meeting

Tomorrow we will be presenting out project outline to the 21st Century Learning Alliance. We have embedded the Google Doc presentation here in order to demonstrate how Google Apps can be used to facilitate collaboration as we will be given an e-mentor. I'm hoping that the concept won't be new. The aims of the project can be found by expanding the speaker notes. The intention is for this document to be revisited throughout the process. It will change and form the basis of the final presentation at the end of the project. We have considered starting a seperate blog for the prtoject. However, this has been discounted because it would be one more area to update and more workload! If you are interested in contributing, commenting or just wish to follow please contact me via Twitter . Right, cover work to right and a million other things!

Teacher Learning Communities, session 1

Today's session was all about possibilities. Hopefully, I covered a range of ideas that can be used in the classroom. These simple and effective ideas all have one thing in common: they enhance and support learning. If you want students to copy your slide out - just print a copy! Here are the slides used today: Power Point Or PowerPointless View more presentations from geogrocks . And the Wallwisher task can be found here . Add your requests so that we can plan the next sessions.

Session outline

First e-learning session - appropriate use of technology and presentations Aim to take novice users of technology and make them aware of the possibilities Session outline start with appropriate use of ICT - e.g. amazing places use props, pupils imagine the place. ICT has to enhance learning by showing the video and photos. Some PPT tricks Reinventing the wheel - searching for existing work More appropriate media / activity e.g. throughout the following Photos, flickr to find, also show slideshow settings, Google Earth for locations Movies Music Timed slides Sharing beyond the C/R - slideshare, google docs Doug Belshaw - Ollie -

How to get the most out of your GCSE class

I love the recent emergence of collaborative presentations. Examples include, Neo-Geography in the classroom: how to use mobiles: and 101 Creatively simple ways to teach Geography in the classroom. There are other great presentations by Tom Barrett. I've been trying to gather my thoughts about how to get the most out of GCSE classes. This is an area of teaching where I have to work very hard and I don;t consider myself to be that good. Yes, I am happy with teh content and ideas, but what should teachers be doing to get the most out of pupils? I've created a Google Docs presentation to gather some of my ideas and it would be great to have some of yours also. If you feel you can contribute an idea please get in touch via drogers@priory.portsmouth.sch.uk or on Twitter.

Teachers TV

I have just been watching the excellent ICT resources on the Teachers TV website. The series is entitled 'Better learning with ICT' and will be an excellent resource for CPD. While watching this one , I noticed that ,my school has been included as a case-study of how to use online communities. To find the video, start the main enhanced clip and then select 'Online Communities: KS 3 Examples'. My class would be interested to know what you think! Many thanks to Tony Cassidy for the pirates idea, and to some of my Twitter contacts.

Wall Wisher

After seeing this post by Kenny on SLN I was reminded about a resource I haven't used. This excellent example of using the wall got me thinking. I created this wall for a low ability Year 9 group. There are only 7 of them, so an ideal class to use e-learning with. I asked them to say what they'd like to learn about volcanoes. Many thanks Kenny for flagging this excllent resource! I've also used your excellent rainforest facts idea with Year 8!

Play dough

Will be trying out a game this term baed upon the great party game Rapidough . Many readers will be familiar with using play-dough to create landforms in class. In this version, pupils work in teams to create a landform while another team guesses. Get the guess wrong or run out of time and the team loses some dough.

Start your engines!

Well, where did that summer go? My little boy is now 6 weeks old, and I have to say that the holidays have flown by! A new academic year starts tomorrow, and I'm going to try to be more focused and take on a little less. Having a young family has concentrated my mind, and it's time to put other people first! Projects for this year so far include: 21st Century Learning Alliance project Deciding whether to apply for CGeog status Implementing the new OCR B GCSE, including Controlled Assessment SAGT workshop The GA SPC Getting a job that is closer to where I live (I currently commute 80 miles per day) RSA role On the lighter side of life, I also plan to complete the Sarn Helen mountain bike route and compete in the Original Mountain Marathon . Now that term has begun, I hope to be more active and post more often. Tally ho!