Tuesday 29 April 2014

Outdoor ideas for springtime learning



The birds are singing, the buds are blooming, the sun is shining and the sky is blue... well, mostly, we are in Britain after all! 

The point is spring has sprung and come rain or shine (and admittedly, it is mostly rain), there are plenty of opportunities to get your class outside and enjoying the fresh air.

But what to do? Even just teaching your normal curriculum outdoors is a start, but if you're looking for some real outdoorsy activities and you're not afraid of a little bit of mud, then the Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives website is a great place to start.

It offers over a thousand nature-based activities available for families, children and teachers to download completely free. Each resource provides hours of fun that incorporates learning, nature and creativity, and can be adapted to suit children of all ages. 

Here are some great ideas from the site's Spring section:

Adventures with sticks – From twig towers to stick ships, magic wands to winter wreaths, there are tons of things you can do with sticks. This resource pack gives some ideas to get you started.

Welly wander – A set of activity sheets to accompany a walk in wellies! What do you paddle in, wade through, jump in, splash...? What do you see, smell, hear and feel on your welly wander? 

Weather diary  A brilliant template to record the changing weather. Helps you track sunshine, temperature, rainfall, wind speed and cloudiness.

Tree identification tools – Identify trees from their twigs, leaves, buds and blossom. Plus a whole load of fun games, puzzles and craft activities related to trees. 

Spring symphony  Listen to the sounds of spring, then make your own with natural materials.

Colour bingo  How many colours can you spot in nature?

What have you spotted? – Springtime scavenger hunt. Includes frog spawn, butterflies, catkins, blossom and more.

Hunt for animal tracks – Hunt for and identify animal tracks left in the mud or snow! Includes Badger, deer, dog, duck, fox, heron, otter and squirrel.

Bird Pack – 25 free printable activity sheets, plus videos and desktop wallpapers to get children excited about bird life. Includes a bird spotter sheet, bird bingo, a balancing swallow to colour in and perch somewhere interesting, and the nest building challenge – a hands on activity to help children learn how birds build their nests. 

Pirate Pack – Help your class make themselves a pirate hat, then set sail for the woods. They can build a stick ship, make a treasure chest, then start hunting for natural treasures. 

The Woodland Trust regularly updates the resources on its Nature Detectives website, so keep an eye out for new and exciting ways to encourage children and young people to interact with nature, especially as we move into the summer.

< Read the previous post in this series

The material in this series of blog posts is taken from the article 'A practical guide to outdoor learning' by Amy Williams of The Woodland Trust.


Have you enjoyed this series? Tell us what you think!

Saturday 26 April 2014

Snapshots, Twitter and tiny people



Photography teacher Jane Hewitt inspires her student to look at the world from a different perspective, putting the power of creation and creativity in their hands!

Allow me to introduce ‘Bert’ he’s only a couple of centimetres high but has such a story to tell!

Meet Bert!
He didn’t start out with a story, but simply as an inanimate prop for my GCSE Photography group who were trying to recreate images in the style of Slinkachu, a modern street artist based in London who creates tiny scenes using these ‘little people’ and then abandons them on the streets for people to find.

I began by trying to do some of these images myself – call me a coward if you like but when I’m trying something new or something that is outside of my comfort zone, I prefer to try in private away from 30 or so sceptical pairs of eyes!

I duly set up ‘Bert’ in the middle of my lawn and lay down to take my images (not sure what the neighbours thought!). He is so small it was easy to find a range of places for him – in the middle of a patch of clover, perched on the fence with a spider’s web behind him, in a puddle so you could see his reflection. You can see how small he is and the whole fun of these tiny people is to create ‘worlds’ for them.

In some lessons pupils used plasticine or scraps of card to create scenes, but I have seen images where sugar or custard powder was used for a beach scene. For just £2, I managed to buy an old metal traffic light, which was part of a discarded train set at a local antique store. Look around your kitchen … liquorice allsorts make a great climbing mountain, cups and saucers make seats, tea bags make backdrops – the only limit is your imagination. The book Microworlds, authored by Mark Valli & M Dessanay, gives some inspiring ideas.


Liquorice allsorts make a great climbing mountain
On showing these images to my KS4 students, they immediately started to talk about these tiny toys as people with a history – he had to have name – hence ‘Bert’ and it was sad that he had everything that he owned in the three colourful bags on his bench. They then couldn’t wait to examine the other people – I’ll just introduce you to ‘Gladys’ who is my own favourite! She has a shopping trolley full of objects – you have to study closely!


Meet Gladys!
She has a shopping trolley full of objects


The Photography students had to physically create the ‘worlds’ that these figures inhabit – but I have done this with a Year 7 class where they have created worlds with words and written their stories on Twitter. @TheHeadsOffice is a wonderful supporter of creativity and Julia Skinner, founder of the 100 Word Challenge, suggested that we could in fact use these as stimuli for our stories. Visit the website www.headsoffice.co.uk to see the weekly 100 Word Challenge for creative inspiration.

Combining a visual stimulus that pupils can control and manipulate, with a rigorous, but fun, written challenge can produce really imaginative results. Students were amazingly creative – below is an image of Bert in winter – set up in the classroom using a sherbet fountain and an old pinecone. 

Sherbet and pinecones put Bert in deepest winter!

The GCSE Photography students’ task was to research, design, record, manipulate (using Photoshop) and then analyse. The Year 7 pupils worked in pairs, to choose their little person and create their character and world. I ‘scaffolded’ this by agreeing the criteria – name, age, occupation, a secret they had and their best moment ...the possibilities are endless. To take this to the next level we began to link our people together – thinking about how peoples’ lives become interwoven. We joined pairs together and began to link stories – did they go to school together? Had they had an argument in the past? Taking it to the next level we created their village – using a flat sheet, masking tape and post it notes (thanks to the wonderful Dorothy Heathcote for that inspiration!). Who lived where, worked where, where did Bert meet Gladys? What do we need in our village?

So, where do I get these figures? Well they are model railway figures made by a company called Preiser – you can get them from Amazon or eBay (they start at £3.99). There is a huge range – I buy the finished ones but you can buy them unpainted and be even more creative! The size of the figures means that they are unsuitable for young pupils but older ones think they are ‘awesome’ (not my word!) and are happy to be creative. Take them outside and use natural backgrounds, create and draw your own world, find a world in a book and use that image as a background. Be warned – this is seriously addictive! 

The material in this blog post was taken from the article, 'Snapshots, Twitter and tiny people' by Jane Hewitt, published in Creative Teaching and Learning, volume 2.4.

An intrepid little person discovers the dangers of the school pond!


A guitar is used as a prop here

Coca Cola makes a great lake, as one student discovered
A little man takes cover

One student used sugar and lollipops to create a retro beach scene

Thursday 24 April 2014

The best augmented reality apps for science



Source: dailygalaxy.com
As the name suggests, augmented reality (AR) enhances how users perceive the actual world. Images of the real world are overlaid with a virtual world made up of text, video, or audio. 

It's a brilliant tool to use with kids - what's more exciting than seeing your surroundings come to life in a way that's impossible to replicate in the real world?

Below, you will find four of Creative Teaching and Learning Blog's favourite virtual reality apps. They're all science related, but can be adapted to a wide range of subjects for use with students of all ages and abilities.

Which are your favourite?

Anatomy 4D
Price: Free
Available at: iTunes and Google Play
This Anatomy 4D app eliminates the need for an anatomy lab. To use the app, print out the target and point your Anatomy 4D app at it. This target is also automatically available to print through the app itself via a wireless connection to the nearest printer. Looking at the target image through your app, you will be able to see a detailed 3D model of the human body and view various biological systems, turning them 'on' and 'off' with the touch of a button. In this way, students are more easily able to understand the interrelationships between bodily systems. 

Aurasma
Price: Free
Available at: iTunes and Google Play
Aurasma is classic AR. Just point your tablet’s camera at an image, object, or place, and Aurasma will give it an 'aura' composed of rich media in the form of animations, text, videos, 3D models or web pages. It’s perfect for general science-related exploration (such as nature walks) for which there may be no specific app. You and your students can also make your own 'auras', allowing for much creativity and enjoyment.

Star and Planet Finder 
Price: Free 
Available at: iTunes
This app literally outdoes the traditional school trip to the planetarium by guiding students through stars, planets, constellations and satellites. It’s easy to use. Students simply choose a planet, and move their tablet according to the pointer display. Detailed information (diameter, mass, range) then appears. The app also has a number of other features, including automatic time sync, moon phase display, a compass, and an accelerometer. 

Scimorph 
Price: Free 
Available at: Website
Featuring a cute alien, Scimorph is designed for younger students. Kids discuss and solve scientific-based problems by guiding Scimorph through different experiences. For example, the 'Gravity' activity zone helps students determine why Scimorph feels different in space. The site offers detailed instructions for printing and using AR markers. Since marker images are a key part of every AR resource, it’s a great introduction to AR in that respect. What’s also great about Scimorph is that it provides a companion with whom kids can become (in the words of the app developers) 'social adventurers'.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

How to reduce risk when teaching outdoors




Intrepid, excitable students, mud, nettles, bugs, rivers, dogs and trees so tall you just have to climb them can sound like a scary combination. 

In fact, the risks involved with teaching your students in the wild woodlands can sound so scary, you could be tempted to lock the classroom windows, close the blinds and stay inside where it's safe and you can't get sued by angry parents...

Of course, taking a group of students outside will always involve a certain degree of 'risk'. But assessing these risks beforehand and taking action to avoid them can put your mind at ease and contribute to a healthier, happier experience for students.

The table below outlines some of the more common risks associated with the outdoors - but it's not comprehensive. You should definitely assess your own outdoor sites in accordance with your school's risk assessment procedures and apply risk levels.

But don't wrap your students up in cotton wool! Kids need to encounter some form of risk in order to develop the important problem-solving skills they'll need when they encounter risks later on in life.


Hazard                                     Action


Sharp or prickly materials
Encourage long sleeves and sturdy footwear (not sandals) and discourage wearing shorts. Carry a First Aid kit.

Poisonous berries/fungi

Give verbal warnings not to eat anything or put things/fingers in their mouths. Seek medical assistance if ingested. Wash hands carefully after the trip (especially before eating or drinking) or carry wet-wipes or antibacterial gel.

Low branches

Give verbal warnings to take care (especially of eyes).

Uneven ground, holes, slopes, fallen branches

Advise to walk carefully. Wear suitable footwear and plan a route appropriate to the weather.

Children going out of sight/missing

Advise children on boundaries and give verbal warnings. Adults to keep visual contact with their group.  Make sure you have the correct ratio of adults: students.
Have an agreed ‘missing person’ procedure that everyone is aware of, including an agreed meeting point in emergency situations.

General public

Avoid contact with strangers and animals where possible. Ask owners to control their animals if passing.

Insect bites/stings or allergies

Be aware of children with allergies (such as nuts, insect stings, hay fever). Check anyone with severe allergies has their asthma pump or EpiPen, and they are able to administer it. Remind everyone of the risk. Carry a First Aid kit.

Dangerous Litter (for example, fly-tipped waste, broken glass, syringes and so on)

Conduct safety sweep of area before activity takes place. Remind people of dangers and if appropriate, show an example.

Disease or infection– for example, Toxicara canis (from dog faeces), Leptospirosis (from rat urine in water), Tetanus (from soil), or Lyme Disease (from ticks)

Cover broken skin on hands (for example wear gloves or use plasters), advise of risks and symptoms, and seek medical advice as soon as possible if infection is suspected.
Tuck socks into trousers if in potential tick area.

Sun/ultra-violet radiation

Advise of risks. Cover exposed skin, especially top of the head, back of the neck and shoulders. Work in the shade where possible.

Slippery surfaces

Warn about mud or ice. Change activity or route according to the weather. Wear appropriate footwear.

Electrical storms or gale force winds

Check weather websites for the latest information and severe weather warnings. Cancel activity if too severe.

Open water


   

Give a verbal warning of danger area. Advise to keep clear of water’s edge and banks.
Have a throw line handy if working near deep or fast flowing water.


Look out for the next blog post in this series, which will offer a number of inventive ways to engage students with the natural world, this spring and beyond.

< Read the previous post in the series                       Read the next post in this series>

The material in this series of blog posts is taken from the article 'A practical guide to outdoor learning' by Amy Williams of The Woodland Trust. 

Wednesday 16 April 2014

10 ways to make outdoor teaching easier



Taking learning outdoors can sometimes prove quite stressful for a teacher. There's so much to think about beforehand - what to take, what to wear - and what about when you get there? The wild and wonderful world of the woods is just so distracting for students... why would they bother listening to you when there's so much to explore?

But there are a number of things you can do to make teaching outdoors easier! And they're actually really really simple.

To get you started, here are ten ways you can keep your students safe and their attention firmly focused on you  all the while making sure you're giving them the best and most enjoyable outdoor experience you can.


  1. Set expectations before going out – Understanding what is going to happen and how long it will take will help children relax. Keep it positive and emphasise ‘care’ through looking after themselves, each other and the natural environment.
  2. Take a rucksack for necessities – This would include a first aid kit, water, mobile phone, emergency contact details, hazard tick list, sit-mats, whistles – a gentle sounding one to call the group back together (i.e. owl hoot or ocarina) and a sharp-sounding emergency one. Don’t forget any evaluation equipment you plan on using – for example, a camera (and spare batteries) or post-it notes. And if carrying props for any activities, pack them in order of use to make your life easier.
  3. Appropriate clothing – Ensure children are wearing appropriate clothing and footwear. Suggest zipping up/tucking in/putting on hats before they start getting too cold (or hot).
  4. Be sensitive to fears/preconceptions – Children may feel woods are dangerous (thanks to many nursery rhymes and fairy tales, as well as negative media stories). If these arise, try to deal with them in an understanding and non-judgemental way.
  5. Keep it simple – Children find it hard to listen to someone talking for too long, especially outdoors. Have a clear mental plan of the session before you go out.
  6. Go visual, auditory and kinaesthetic – Engage everyone by trying to have a visual focal point (for example, stand near or hold the thing you are talking about) and if you can, demonstrate it too.
  7. Circle-up – Get the whole group, including adults, into a circle when introducing and ending activities, as this means you will have everyone’s attention and hopefully only have to say things once. Invent different ways to do this to make it fun (i.e. ‘sticking’ elbows, knees or toes to neighbours).
  8. Weather affects ability to learn – Try to stand facing the sun when talking to your
    group so they won’t have to squint. Attention span decreases in windy, wet or cold weather so adjust your expectations accordingly.
  9. Meeting dogs off the lead – Ask children to fold their arms and look away from dogs if you meet them off the lead. The dog should quickly get bored and leave.
  10. Evaluate outside – Sharing the learning experience while still outside will provide more valuable feedback because it is done in context.


Look out for the next blog post in this series!
Of course, taking a group of students outside involves a certain degree of risk. The third post in this series will feature a hazard tick list which will outline a number of the hazards you may encounter while outdoors and what you can do to avoid them.

The material in this series of blog posts is taken from the article 'A practical guide to outdoor learning' by Amy Williams of The Woodland Trust.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

"What did you just say?!" - Using student voice to enhance your teaching



'Student voice' and student participation have become established features in most schools, but this is often restricted to input about school meals rather than teaching and learning. 

Here, we investigate how teachers can ensure students play a role in personalising their own learning.

Many schools gather student opinion on areas such as school meal, bullying or uniforms... in fact, student voice is viewed as essential in every area other than the most important - their learning! 

Asking students to provide constructive feedback on your teaching may sound a little scary at first. But since students can often give surprisingly perceptive advice, to avoid student voice is to avoid a powerful tool for improvement.

‘One of the most creative and productive ways I have found of using student voice is to adopt an explicit coaching model,’ says Marcella McCarthy in a recent article for one of our magazines. 

She suggests the GROW model:
  • Goals
  • Reality
  • Obstacles
  • Way forward

In other words, you need to focus on where you want to get to, where are you at the moment, the things that might get in your way (and the ways around them) and then agree a course of action.

G - Establishing goals
One easy way to establish shared goals is to make them part of a starter activity. Using post-it notes at the beginning of each lesson to ask students to set a personal target can a tremendous tool for gauging the mood of the class that day and finding the things that students themselves are worried about.

(photo: fairfieldcitizenonline.com)
Marcella says: 'A favourite tactic of mine is to set out the learning objective, explain that this is what I would like the students to learn, and then ask them what they want to achieve in this lesson. I make clear that this might be the learning objective, but that it could be something else, even something as simple as trying to ask a question.

'Written on a post-it, then put on their desks, or on a board, the target remains as a visible reminder of their own purpose; a concrete goal. 

'Following this up with another post-it task at the end of the lesson, where students have to write down what they achieved can be equally revealing. I tend to use the formula: "it can be the same thing that you planned, or it may be something completely different that surprised you".

R - Establishing reality - where we are now
Establishing 'where we are now' is already a familiar teaching tool - after all, what is marking students' work and giving feedback on assessments if not focusing on the reality of the 'now'?

Ideally, marking should be more than an assessment of where a child currently stands with regard to a particular skill-set,' says Marcella. 'The best marking engages in dialogue with the student, and builds into its framework space for a response. 

It's also a good idea to get student feedback on your own work. It may seem challenging, but there are a number of ways this can be done.

A useful tool is a set of plenary question cards. Questions might include:
  • What did you find most and least useful in today’s lesson?
  • What did you learn in this lesson, and how did you learn it?
  • What learning choices did you have in this lesson?
  • What was the most engaging part of today’s lesson?
  • If I were going to teach this lesson again to a similar group, what would you advise me to change?
And so on. The notes gathered from their responses can come in handy, not only for the overall learning process, but also for giving feedback during parents’ evenings.

O - Recognising obstacles and/or options
Obstacles to learning for the student in your class are clear enough - recognising such obstacles is the core of good differentiation practice. 

Teachers at Marcella's school use class profiles. This is a colour-coded seating plan, indicating students’ educational profile (SEN, summer-born, most and least able etc.), their education needs (would the student benefit from a different coloured worksheet for example?), along with their current working levels and predicted levels.

Asking students what strategies they find particularly useful, and what obstacles they feel are getting in the way of their learning, is one way of personalising learning, and finding out more about what makes your students tick.


W - Finding the way forward - a case study
Marcella recalls: ‘When teaching two parallel classes in Year 10, working toward a controlled assessment in English Literature, I found it difficult to deal with what seemed to me a certain passivity about what they were learning. I felt that students wanted me to tell them what to do at every step of the way, and were becoming less and less curious and independent.’

Marcella decided to follow the GROW model.

Goals - working out where they wanted to be
'Although the students were already aware of the task and the assessment criteria, I took
another lesson out to explain these things to them again. I showed them a model essay on a similar topic, and got them to identify what the student had done to deserve a high score for this task.'

Reality - working out where they were
'I shared with the students some recent marking to give them an indication of where they
currently were with regard to these skills. We took time to discuss what a good mark in this unit would mean to them personally, and what kind of marks they currently thought they might get.'

Obstacles - what did they fear?
'A long discussion about the potential obstacles to this then ensued (which I marked
for speaking and listening).

'I soon found that many of them felt that Shakespeare was too challenging, and anticipated that other students would find it ‘easy’. Even within the class, they were reassured to find that everyone had reservations about their ability to succeed.'

The way forward
'Following this, I laid out for them a number of parameters. I explained how many 
lessons we had, and we divided up the skills that they felt they needed to practice. I told them that they could choose what I taught them in the intervening time, and could also choose how I taught it.'

I gave them some suggestions, but at this stage stepped back from the discussion, curious to see what would ensue. Both classes came up with a list of priorities for my teaching as a result of their group work...These priorities were surprisingly similar to those that I would have set if left entirely to myself.'

'I made the priorities into PowerPoint slides, and we used them at the start of each lesson, as a forerunner to the learning objective. Each lesson we highlighted a particular focus, and as the lessons went on, the students could see that I was paying attention to their plans.

'As we went on, the plans were modified to reflect student progress, with some asking for more input on certain areas. It became personalised learning in the best sense. 

'Because of their sharing of their goals and the ways in which they discussed their perceived obstacles to learning, I managed to forge a stronger relationship. with both groups, where learning, rather than behaviour or entertainment, became the basis of our discussions. 

More than this though, Marcella found that these lessons created a new sense of purpose for all her students, who then went on to complete the controlled assessments to a high standard.

The material in this article is taken from the article, 'The coach in the classroom: Practical strategies for using student voice to improve teaching' by Marcella McCarthy, published in Professional Development Today.