Using Photo Stream to share good practice

All teachers know how hectic a school day can be and how easy it is to get distracted and never get around to ticking off the to-do list. Furthermore, it’s always tricky to remember those lesson insights / ideas / breakthroughs that occur during a lesson. For example, our Year 11 sit an examination tomorrow that consists of an applied essay. During the lesson, I came across a few barriers; overcame them and then shared with my colleagues.

The thing is, what if you forget?

Also, what happens if you spot a great lesson idea or take a photograph that you want others to see easily?

This is a work is progress as relies upon the fact that all of Priory Geography have iPhone 4S devices. There are similar systems that rely upon other operating systems, and of course we use Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Docs and Evernote.

Last week, I started using Photo Stream to share ideas quickly. As the team can choose to have push notifications, they can be prompted to ask me about the idea when they can or, add a comment to the photograph. The advantages are that Photo Streams can be shared with selected individuals and, most importantly, it’s proven to be very quick and simple to use. The major limiting factor is that you can only add images into a Photo Stream that you ‘own'.’ It doesn’t seem possible to add them to Streams that you are invited into. This could create multiple streams that are difficult to manage or keep track of.

The Priory Geography Streams, shared by myself.

Lesson ideas shared as quick snapshots with the team.

A Photo Stream image shared with me by a colleague. It’s possible to ‘like’ the image and ask questions / develop ideas simply. Push notification alert the teacher to changes and additions.

Comments

High Impact, Low effort

This month is the start of the #29daysofwriting challenge. I enjoyed this last year and will be using my Staffrm account to post. I'll also be reporting here, both to give a little more detail and to keep a log of what I have written. The challenge developed a great sense of community last year, which is why I'm choosing to write on Staffrm. What I would say to those who are new to writing or don't want to run out of ideas is: Write for yourself. Clarify an idea, write something out loud. The process of distilling thoughts into writing is immensely beneficial to your practice. If other read, comment and respond, that's a bonus. Ignore the muppets who know nothing of your context, style or students. Mix it up - I like to read about real stuff from real classrooms and schools and also about other stuff. If we always write about school, how does that work for workload? If you've nothing nice to say, don't say it. So, the following has been ...

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey. As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others. Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up. I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions. From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment. From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die. How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach? Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment i...

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words...

David Rogers

Search This Blog