Category Archives: Links

83. Tolsby Tutor

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Earlier this year I adapted an idea from Pinterest for tutor time. The concept was having a framed photo of your class on the wall by the door. Pupils could be checked in/out using dry-wipe marker on the glass.

I printed out a small size picture of my form from SIMs and put it in a £1 Tolsby double-sided frame from Ikea. It was small enough to sit behind my monitor when not in use.

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In registration, if my computer was slow to load, I just ticked off their faces so that my students wouldn’t be late for lessons. If I was busy giving out letters or speaking to a student, I gave a marker and the frame to another student to tick off. The supply teacher found it very useful when I was ill – especially as I had more than one pupil with the same first name.

When the new timetable starts I will be doing this again – especially as it will be a whole new form group!

82. Gadget of the Day 1

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What are these?

compasses1

I came across them when I was making a circle skirt and it occurred to me they’d be a great teacher tool. They’re generally known as a yardstick compass. You attach the pointy end to one end of a metre (or yard) stick and the pencil end at your desired radius. Each end has a cap which tightens to the height of your ruler. Hey presto – a giant pair of compasses! Never again will you search high and low for something big and circular to draw around or try using a drawing pin and a piece of string.

compasses2

There are lots of American websites that sell them, but in the UK I’ve only seen them on Art supply sites eg Handover.co.uk

81. Xmind

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My HoD introduced me to Xmind earlier in the year. It is mind-mapping software that is available for free and compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux systems. You can download it from Xmind.net. The initial mind-map can be linked to subsequent maps with the click of a button. Each new mind-map appears on a separate page, just like worksheets in Excel. Here are three examples of it’s use:

1. Schemes of work

This year I’ve taken a more abstract look at schemes of work. We’ve changed over from modular to linear with our foundation GCSE pupils (Higher are already linear) and the scheme needed a shake up.

Year 9 Set 4 Scheme

 

Instead of word documents or spreadsheets of topics, you can mind-map every aspect of your scheme from outline programme of study through to resourced, objective-led lessons. You can insert links from the scheme to resources and create hyperlinks to web pages. If a unit is moved within the scheme, you simply drag it to the new place – no fuss or cutting/pasting. Even the techno nervous can confidently use this software in under ten minutes.

Personally,  I like the fact that I can stick the whole plan for a unit of work on the wall on one sheet of paper next to the A4 overview of the year.

Angles (6hrs)

 

2. Mindmaps

Of course, Xmind is mind-mapping software and students can also use it. Recently I’ve used it to consolidate group work by getting each group to contribute an idea to a central mind-map, they then kept going until all the ideas in the room were included. Then I took on the role of editor and dragged common themes together. I also added anything they’d missed. The class could have a readable mind-map each, confident that it had been checked by the teacher and knowing that they had contributed to it. I could also then use the map as a starter in the following lesson, without having to stick bits of flip chart paper on the board.

 

3. Survey Feedback

You can also use each page of the mind-map to represent a survey question, which had a written answer. You can summarise and categorise a lot of information in a single page.

Note
There are similar compatible smartphone apps which means you can sketch out an idea on your phone and finish it on a computer.

76. Celebrating success

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How can you celebrate individual pupils’ achievements, without having different reward schemes for different abilities?

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I found this lovely activity at Teachwithme.com. Everytime a pupil achieves a specified goal, their peacock gains another tailfeather. The website has a link to a free pdf template.

You could start a new peacock each term and they’d be a good discussion point at parents’ evening. I also thought you could adapt this for each term: baubles on a christmas tree, leaves on a tree or flowers in a vase.

This would make a very colourful wall display in a Primary or Year 7 classroom and you could adapt it for any subject or pastoral targets.

75. Factorisation Forest

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MrNussbaum.com

I found this brilliant website via Pinterest. It is a great way to practise prime factor decomposition and it allows pupils to either be creative or use a timed challenge.

I particularly like the fact that you can generate as many base and power boxes as you want, as opposed to similar games where you are given a rigid structure to complete – pupils are allowed to try their answer and be wrong, rather than see their answer doesn’t fit and just give up.