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Graffiti Learning

1/5/2019

http://blockwatch.com/graffiti-vandalism/

Ok, time for another idea for you to ponder. It is easy to adapt and change to suit your approaches, needs and aims.

I have trialed this a few times before and it works well, but haven't brought it into my current school as yet...

#Graffitilearning is a simple idea children really enjoy, perhaps because they can perceive it as something a bit 'naughty'.

The premise is simple.

You need a wall (one that people can see including parents/families), some chalk, a waterproof tub and the optional use of one of my favourite outdoor learning resources: Blackboard Paint.

Choose your wall, paint it with the blackboard paint if you wish, put out the chalks in the watertight container, explain the protocols and practices to the children and you are ready!

This wall is for sharing learning and nothing more.

Did Y6 crack fraction by fraction division? They can write how and give an example.
Did Y3 crack the placement of fronted adverbial phrases? Write one and underline it
Have your class been learning a British History timeline? They can draw it here.
"Mr W., I know Roman Numerals now..." Write them on the wall.

The children just name and date their graffiti. Everyone gets to see what they are learning, children can critique and discuss things that are there. I've seen great debates over written methods in maths!

I have not only encouraged children to share vocabulary like a glossary, mathematical methods, key facts, but also labelled diagrams, flow charts and lists.
And that's it...

The information on the wall grows over the week or the half term, it tends to clean itself with a bit of weather, but is easy to clean if not, just a child and a bucket of water!

Other members of the school community can have a hand in it too, teachers, governors, siblings and parents can note comments (positive preferably), corrections and questions on the wall and suddenly everyone is involved in the learning.

It should be a free access space that all children are entitled to use. I have never yet had issues with children being anything other than respectful of each other's work. In fact seeing someone in Y5 help a Y1 with their spelling can be nothing but a positive action for everyone.

Adaptations:

This could be done on black paper on a wall in class, or with WB pens on a window or glass door.
If you'd rather keep it inside rather than outside, then a board in a corridor or the hall could work well, just use liquid chalk pens to save the dust and mess!
Each class could have their own space, depending on how many classes you have vs the amount of space available.
It could be focused on a particular subject area or theme as your school priorities dictate. Are you having issues with SPaG or focused on Multiplication Tables?
Need everyone to see what you are doing about it? #graffitilearning

When it comes to showing progression across the school, perhaps the writing really is on the wall!

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Eureka! The light-bulb moment.

5/1/2018

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/6693777/Mark-Hughes-Emmanuel-Adebayor-to-face-Arsenal-in-Carling-Cup.html

Sometimes it is the small things that really make your day.

Our Y5/6 children were waved off on their annual residential trip today, so as Y3/4 teacher I was left with the 2 children who weren't going along with their friends. Not a massive issue but potentially something of differentiation nightmare!

As I am fortunate enough to have a Teaching Student in my class, I took the 2 children off to do some 'age appropriate' work in another class. They had been learning to calculate with fractions, so we went back through the basics and then moved onto multiplication of one fraction by another. They knew how to do that and were able to explain the strategy and we made sure that we could (all, me included) explain the strategy using modeled diagrams and images. All good so far.

"What about division?", one child asked. I shivered a bit because fraction by fraction division is something I am quite sure I had never done. "I honestly don't know," I replied, "Let's see if we can work it out."

So we talked, drew, tried things out and eventually, we were pretty sure that we had a method that worked and one we couldn't really see fault in. It transpired that their class had been doing fraction division the day before and neither had felt they understood it. We had pieced together their knowledge, my guesses and alleged maths specialism and decided we needed some help to confirm our working.
Enter "Khan Academy". One video tutorial. The three of us were Hi-5-ing each other with excitement! We were absolutely right.

"I can't believe it is that straightforward!" said one of the children, "It can't be, but it is isn't it."
"I had no clue yesterday and now it seems so obvious!" said the other.

We did a selection of further examples and remained confident that we knew what we were doing, our answers and explanations matched.

"This seemed so hard before, no one in my group could do it," said the 1st child.

A quick tutorial in "Explain Everything" and both children have written and recorded their own short tutorials for their class mates on their return to help them have the Eureka! moment we had today.
All three of us left the room feeling like the guy in the header image. We now held power over the fractions.

Pencils, paper, thinking, collaboration and a little bit of well placed technology led to the children not only moving their own learning forwards, but mine and hopefully that of their classmates too.

The method: Flip (Reciprocal), Multiply, Simplify.

Simple.

This absolutely made my day (and I suspect, probably theirs!)
Original Post: Summer 2016

http://mypeaceigiveyoushalom.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/eureka.html

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The Cabinet Of Curiosity!

4/10/2018

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I wrote about inspiring children's curiosity here: Curiosity may have killed the cat...

This is a short follow up post.

I like to consider myself a curious person. I have always liked objects, trinkets and curios, I have loads of them kicking around in desk drawers, boxes in the loft, on window ledges and various other places.

I was compelled to buy a small cabinet of objects from eBay not so long ago. It is a lovely little handmade wooden cabinet with small alcoves containing all manner of little oddities. Animal bones, insects in resin blocks, fossils, old and foreign coins... it's great.
If only Mrs W. would help me find a space to put it!

The power of using strange and unfamiliar objects with children is huge.

They need to think carefully, apply knowledge and reasoning, make connections, form arguments and justifications, when they can't grasp the answer they have to seek out information, work and think collaboratively in order to create new understanding.
I have never yet found a child not get animated and excited by handling animal bones and trying to layout the skeleton to try and figure out what it might have been and how big it was, what parts are missing and what they might look like... (I have a sheep in a shoebox too! Literally!)

If the idea interests you too then I recommend the following two books, they are wonderful and document, in this case:

The Little Book of Awe and Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities by Matthew McFall

Cabinet of Curiosities: A Kids Guide to Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World by Gordon Grice

The history of Cabinets of Curiosity, and a selection of puzzles, riddles, etchings, photographs, diagrams and all sorts of lovely things to read about - a truly fab book!

Gordon Grice documents his love of natural history and hid personal desire to collect it. He also gives lots of advice on where to get or how to create/build your own cabinets.

From:

Typesetter Trays

Cigar Box

Shoe Box

This is a project I would love to undertake in school - build a cabinet, put it somewhere central and allow children and adults to bring items to fill it.

Create little cards to explain the object and use it as a focal point for discussion and learning.

I might be planning my class project next term here...

Original Post: August 2016

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Curiosity may have killed the cat, but...

4/3/2018

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Curiosity is…

Do you have things to make children curious?

I don’t mean Challenge Based Learning/Games Based Learning/Mantle of the Expert and so on. All of these approaches have various benefits and like any system or approach to teaching and learning can work well and help children to succeed academically, socially and personally.

I mean ‘Curious’.

Puzzled, Perplexed, Inquisitive, Intrigued, Eager… [Insert thesaurus link here…]

Getting a genuine WTF?! moment. (Perhaps not literally, but most certainly figuratively!)

This goes without saying, but I have sometimes met children who aren’t. They just want to be told the answer, the explanation, they aren’t seeking the answer themselves. I worry that sometimes the answer is “Google it”. As though the internet has become to children (and adults – Guilty Your Honour!) the sole, all-encompassing fountain of all the required knowledge and understanding available. I recently taught a child (11) who referred to himself as a ‘Wikispert’ – he had everything he needed to know on Wikipedia – now that is scary!

Although I am impressed with his noun creation!

When presented with a ‘Curiosity’, children’s discussion can be very powerful indeed.

Towards the end of some work on Teeth, I showed the children (Y2) a Skull (it was a Sheep).

I asked them 1 question and 1 question only, the rest came from them.

My question: “What is it?”

Discussion grew organically and followed a sequence including all these responses, talking to each other, not me …

The vocabulary they used, understood, shared and modeled together then led to some purposeful research, done both online and in the library just outside the classroom. The written and Art that was produced was excellent and was scientific in nature and saw the children applying the language that had been used in discussion.

(On a small aside – The OfSted inspector at the back liked it too!)

I only asked 1 question, 3 words, 8 letters…

The rest came from curiosity.

We had the initial “Ewwwww!”, “Gross!”, and an internal “WTF?!”

They could then draw upon and apply knowledge and understanding and use it to build more.

Getting children to investigate and utilise that inherent curiosity they have in spades is important, the guidance is important too.
Remember the Nature Table?

I do – many fond memories.

I find they aren’t as common as they used to be. What with Health & Safety, cleanliness and other such protocols – all of which have such valuable learning and experience value for young children, have limited its use.

Bring it back I say!

Either that or a ‘Curiosity Table’.

Something that could easily be changed for different themes and topics, gives the children time and opportunity to work out objects origins, uses, materials, ages etc.

They can question, practice and investigate. They can get it wrong and try again.

The simplest and one of the most powerful questions!

Second only to “Why?”

Aren’t these the 2 questions that children ask the most?

Let’s ask them instead!

Original Post: June 2016

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The Diabetic Teacher

3/19/2018

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It's the end of Week 1 back after a half term, I am chronically knackered. This is compounded by having had a Student Teacher for 6 weeks before half term. This, teaching all the lessons thing, is hard work!

Cake and biscuits are the fuel of my staff room and as I am not known for being especially Pie Shy, I'm not backwards in coming forward for the biscuits at break. However, I am a Type 1 diabetic and have been now for almost 20 years. (So, I really should be more careful and self controlled, shouldn't I?)

This post was inspired when I realised I couldn't focus on my laptop, nor could I get my thoughts in a straight line. The Blood Glucose test told me 1.9mmol, normal is 4-7mmol, but I usually control at 6-9. In theory, with levels that low I should be unconscious and therefore is the reason I have just chugged quite a bit of Lucozade and am eating Haribo Minions.

It is something that as a Teacher I have to be acutely aware of at all times. My man-bag contains a few emergency supplies, there's Lucozade and sweet things in my cupboard and I need to be very careful to make sure that lunch times are sacred.

Over the course of the years, I haven't had many genuine issues, a few wobbles that haven't caused an issue. (There was that one time I collapsed while teaching a class and had to have an ambulance called as a precaution, but that's another story!)

I usually make sure that my class know about it. More often than not many of them have experience of the condition usually through Grandparents, but I figure if the people I spend the most time with know what to spot, then that can't be a bad thing - can it?

I haven't told this class. I have mentioned it in passing but never extended the discussion. I wonder if perhaps I should.
So, what's the point?

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering.

Diabetes is classified in the Disability Discrimination Act as a Hidden Disability, it is a life long condition which can have an impact on my ability to do everyday things (it can, I am not saying that it always does). It has a knock on effect on general well being. The issues that can occur when Blood Glucose levels drop below normal are obvious, the issues when they are too high less obvious. Feeling sluggish, irritable and needing to nip off to the loo far more than normal can be difficult if there is no other adult around.
When I am feeling tired and run down, this is one of the times that I find my levels can fluctuate. There's nothing like a high pressure, high stakes, long hour working job leave you tired and run down!

Pass the Minions...

ORIGINAL POST: June 2016

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Using iPads in the Outdoors

3/10/2018

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I confess that I'm not the most tech-experienced, but I'm getting more opportunities to up-skill myself. I'm going to share some apps that I've used when working with children outside.

The main premise of working with children outside is to reconnect them with nature and limit the screen-time they get, but it's impossible to get away from the great apps/features of an iPad that lend themselves to when you step outside the classroom.

iMovie (Free with eligible hardware)
Lots of application for recording/editing videos taken during outdoor explorations. Perhaps most powerful when back in the classroom. Musical trailer to represent a PE Lesson or developing a full scale 30-60 second evaluation of the school's environmental practices.

Pic Collage (FREE)
Other apps are available, like Moldiv, but I think PicCollage gives simple templates to collect and share photos from the children's adventures in turning over stones/logs and sharing the images taken during the woodland walk or school visit.

Flipagram (FREE)
Use this to create short picture montages after performances and educational visits. Children can quickly create videos for sharing on social media or the school website.

PhotoBooth (Built In)
I'm a fan of all the image distortions on this app. I've let the children in EYS/KS1 go on a walk watching through the 'Thermal' view. "It's really like another world!" John (5)
Taking photographs through the filter, can then lead to some wonderful Warhol-esque artwork.

http://thinkshareteach.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_01_archive.html

TapMedia Voice Recorder (FREE) & Notes (Built In)
Record thoughts, observations, vocabulary, actions for use in writing later. Record shapes in the environment, using text or sound for younger or SEND children.

I-Beam Mag. Glass (FREE)
Great free app with infinite zoom. Fantastic for up-close photographs of leaves, bark, soil samples and mini-beasts.

Tim O's Compass (FREE)
Send the children on a treasure hunt like real pirates following the map. Develop awareness of direction.

Clock (Built In)
Use the clock, stopwatch or timer. I set it running as the children go out and then they know precisely when they should be back!

Calculator (Built In)
Work out maths problems while out and about!

EcoExplorer (FREE)
Designed by a Science Leader Steven Lewis-Neill, the app has 100s of web based activities and tasks for KS1/2 Sc2 Topics - easy login for children and will track their progress (Needs a subscription).

Warblr (iPhone app) £3.99
Great app at a reasonable price - the microphone identifies bird songs and brings up a fact-file on the bird it picks up. Makes for a great survey of wildlife, outside of insects/bugs!

Birds of Britain Pro (Lite Version FREE / Pro Version £2.29)
Similar to Warblr, but fact-files on birds and sound files of songs. Free version has 30 birds, Pro version has 199 birds. I like the quality of the information texts on the go.

BBC Weather (FREE)
Using the app to develop the children's awareness of symbols and make predictions of the weather over time, can be used in conjunction with cloud identification apps (Cloud Types £0.79 or Coton £1.49).

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Take a running jump...

3/10/2018

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I have left myself under an hour to write this and get it out...

I started this post about a week ago and then left it to brew... I hope it hasn't stewed.

I was talking to a colleague of mine a short while ago and we were talking about things that schools had banned, because they 'weren't safe'... Good grief!

I won't list all them, but here's a list I can remember:

Triangular Flapjacks - because children had a fight. Square ones are still allowed, despite having more corners!

Swimming Goggles - Many UK authorities, have banned children from wearing goggles when in swimming lessons because they could be “snapped and pulled against a child’s face” and cause them to “bump into each other”.

Running in the Playground - Yes, you heard me right. A school banned it as dangerous. Seriously. I am writing blogs about getting children to climb up piles of pallets and tyres and schools are banning running!

Loom Bands - Apparently, one school decided that loom bands were a tripping hazard. What precisely is the sense here? Unless of course they were creating some sort of escape rope. Perhaps this ingenuity should be commended!

Conkers - 1/6 schools have banned conkers, although it may not through fear of injury, but through fear of allergies. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents claim that increasing numbers of children are allergic to conkers because less children are playing outdoors, doing stuff like, well, playing conkers.

And this (tenuously) is where I get to the point...

OK, so I like the outdoor learning thing, but unless we let children take risks, how will they learn what is and isn't safe. As teachers we can monitor risk, but I honestly think that we should not be responsible for removing it from children's lives. (There are enough overprotective parents doing that already and despite these words, I fear that sometimes I might be one of them!)

I won't go down the "when we were children we..." line because that path is well trodden. Children do need to know that nettles sting but not forever, that a grazed knee or elbow gets sore but is OK and that getting a splinter, while quite unpleasant, is not the End of Days!

We care for our children and for the children in our care, but do we overprotect them?

In my school, the school council are very active in terms of promoting pupil safety, but I haven't yet heard them request a ban, just that people be considerate, respectful and careful towards each other.

Children are children and they need to get a bit dirty and jump off high things... we want children to be risk takers, mover and shakers as adults, but we want them to sit quietly and be careful as youngsters. I am not promoting dangerous activity, but children need to learn to be safe, by occasionally not being!

How about this?

In New Zealand, "The School With No Rules..."

(Oh, and his shoes are very risky!)

ORIGINALLY POSTED: 2015

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The A - Z of Learning Outside

3/8/2018

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Today's post is brought to you by Me and Poppy (5), thought I'd get a play expert on the case today!

Today's post is an A-Z of Learning Outside, just, well, because. Sometime alliteration will happen, sometimes it won't, but either way perhaps there's an idea in here somewhere, if not, then just a nice list!

The A - Z Of Learning Outside

A - Any Art at all!

B - Bug Hunting

C - Climbing

D - Digging Holes

E - Exploring Everywhere

F - Flower Pressing

G - Greenhouses and Growing Things

H - Hedgerow Ferreting

I - Independence

J - Jumping in Puddles

K - King (or Queen) of the Castle!

L - Leaf Rubbing

M - Marbles

N - Number Work

O - Observational Drawing

P - Photography

Q - Quietly Listening

R - Running! (See previous #29daysofwriting Blog)

S - Secret Messages and Trails

T - Tracking Animals: Real or Imagined.

U - Upside Down: Change the viewpoint.

V - Vision: Use binoculars, telescopes, mirrors and magnifiers.

W - Water Fights: Summer Fun! You know it makes sense!

X - eXperience the weather: Wind, Rain, Fog, Sleet, Snow and Sunshine

Y - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU COULD'VE DONE INSIDE!!

Z - Zoology! (Z is hard)

So there you go.
An A-Z List

What do you think? There were lots of options for some letters, Orienteering, Bark Rubbing, Birdwatching, Data Handling...

Feel free to add any more of your own activities...

(Originally posted in 2016)

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The Crazy Professor Reading Game

3/6/2018

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I leave this here for you to look at and consider.
I wonder what you think…

A while ago, I was in a Twitter chat that was discussing ways to teach/encourage reading.

Several ideas came up:

Extreme Reading,
Read Around the World,
Reading Races and so on.

It reminded me of this:

I first came across the Crazy Professor Reading Game (Chris Biffle), when trying out some Power Teaching ideas in 2007.

If you haven’t come across Power Teaching it is a Elementary School teaching style from America relies heavily on Learning Styles.
(Please don’t hit me! **Ducking for cover** I was younger and impressionable at the time!)
Look up Chris Biffle & Chris Rekstad.

I tried it out a few times and did have some success with it. Children certainly enjoyed it and they did want to play.
I have tried it a few times since, and it does, genuinely engage children in the reading activity.
I am not sure I would use the format used by Rekstad in the video, but I would go along with the core principles.

THE 4 STAGES OF THE CRAZY PROFESSOR GAME:

STAGE 1:   Read your text using as much expression as possible

STAGE 2:   Read again using lots of expression and physical gesture

STAGE 3:   Teach Your Neighbour – Summarise your reading to your partner, show you understand what you have read.

STAGE 4:   Crazy Professor vs Eager Student:
The ‘professor’ gives an excitable summary, being expressive and asking the ‘student’ questions. Meanwhile, the ‘student’ listens attentively, answers the questions and encourages the ‘professor’ to give more and more feedback.

PROS AND CONS OF THE CRAZY PROFESSOR GAME.
PROS:

I can see how this might aid children’s comprehension skills.
I can see how the use of expression and gesture might encourage enjoyment.
I can see how the paired feedback and questioning would support mutual understanding of the text.
I can see how this might be one way of teaching a whole class reading lesson. (Not THE way.)
It allows for differentiation of a text to higher and lower levels.
It would allow the teacher to join in and work with whichever group of children were the focus for that session.
It would quickly show those children who might need help, or are being 'passive'. (Not my favourite word).
Could be great for reading comics, including speech, then lead to drama and performance.

CONS:

How sustainable would playing the game be?
Could it lead to genuine and significant progress in children’s reading?
Would this just lead to children shouting out stories?
Would it be a technique leading to measurable progress?
Could it 'put off' those children who are less 'boisterous'?
If it was that awesome wouldn’t we all be doing it?

I really would like to know your thoughts.
I am not selling the idea, but I have tried it on and off over a few years and while not in any way sold on it, I remain curious.

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Beachball Baffler - A Learning Review Game

3/6/2018

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All you need to play BeachBall Baffler (adapted from another Power Teaching idea) is a balloon or beachball.

This is a really simple game I have used, that my classes have loved.
I use it as a reward for good work or behaviour, or during a wet playtime to keep spirits up!
Handy for Multiplication Tables, Mental Maths, Lesson Reviews, On the Spot Quizzes... whatever you like.

Here’s how to play:
1. Throw the ball toward the class. One (or more people) bounce it into the air.
2. While the ball is in the air, ask a short question, “What is 4 times 4?”, or “What is the capital of Brazil?” … any question you wish.
(It can be helpful to have a list in front of you so you don’t have to think them up)
3. The class must answer the question in chorus before the ball comes down.
4. Then the ball is batted into the air again by the next person … you ask another question … and so forth.
The goal is to see how many times the ball can be batted into the air before either the ball hits the ground or a fair number of the class aren’t answering or are giving a wrong answer.

To increase the tension:
- The class only gets three tries (their goal is to break their previous best class record)
- Increase the difficulty and interest in the game by posing harder questions
- Wait until the ball is drifting down before posing a question (and thus your students have a shorter time to answer)
- Have half the class volley the ball to the other half of the class, etc.
- Introduce the idea of levels and keep making the game harder and harder.
Beach Ball Baffler could last for months!

One final note:
If anyone complains about anything, your score keeping, a classmate’s failure to hit the ball, anything (and we know someone always does!) … it automatically reduces the number of hits earned.
So, for example, the class kept the ball in the air for 10 hits … but Rick complained about Carl’s miss-hit, Glen said that Maggie never answers a question and Carole complained that the ref, you, wasn’t throwing the 'ball' properly… those three complaints reduce the score to 7 …”
This one can be a lot of fun!
It can be used effectively in nearly any subject area, with any age group and can be a great way to reinforce learning, vocabulary or key points of a lesson.
For additional change ups you might substitute a large balloon if you are in a smaller or younger classroom
Make sure you have spares for either a balloon or a beach ball! (Lose 50 points if you pop it!)
It is so easy that children could run it themselves, or even as a small group task with a balloon.

So, there you are ‘Beachball Baffler’.
Have fun!

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Graffiti Learning

Eureka! The light-bulb moment.

The Cabinet Of Curiosity!

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but...

The Diabetic Teacher

Using iPads in the Outdoors

Take a running jump...

The A - Z of Learning Outside

The Crazy Professor Reading Game

Beachball Baffler - A Learning Review Game

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