Monthly Archives: September 2017

327. Digital Exercise books

Sorry – haven’t invented a digital Exercise book and I don’t use iPads/tablets in class. Today I’m sharing the inventiveness of my class.

I printed out one of those brilliant Corbett Maths textbook exercises to use with a Y7 class. It was a recap task, so I stressed that students could pick the level of difficulty. They cut out the sections they were doing and stuck them in their book. Because there were lots of different questions being completed, I allowed them to use their phones to scan the QR code to access the answers. A couple asked to scan the help video QR code.

I saw a few pupils being fussy about their cutting out – why were they cutting out little bits? That’s time wasting! No one should be time wasting!

Then I checked exactly what they were doing …

… The little geniuses:

They were cutting out the relevant QR codes and sticking them in their books. If this is the level of forward thinking in Year 7, they are going to fly through GCSE revision.

326. Instant whiteboard

Welcome back to school!

I must say your display boards look lovely …

What’s that? You could do with another whiteboard

Why would you need that? They’re not cheap you know!

To help you actually teach? You’ve never needed the space before…

Oh … you have needed the space … you have raised this before …you’re still waiting …

Why didn’t you say! I’ll put you on the list for when we have some spare funds & time

You know the feeling – you could do with more space, but there just aren’t the funds to do anything about it. I initially needed an extra notice board because two form groups were going to use my room. We have a split lunch and I thought it only fair to give the other tutor some space. The idea of those ‘magic whiteboards’ was nice, but they are flimsy and expensive. They’re also pretty useless when you have a rough breeze block wall. Rummaging around Amazon I found some extra thick sticky back whiteboard roll, which was half the price of the ‘magic’ ones. There are a lot of different makes and sizes of roll depending on your needs. I bought a long narrow roll and cut it in half: it fits splendidly on my double doors. The quality is good too, however I think they’ll need a bit more TLC than a heavy duty whiteboard.

So, I’m feeling rather chuffed by my ingenuity when I discover they’ve changed our form rooming and I’m no longer sharing with another form. Nevermind – one board for form notices and one board for homework reminders!

If you like the look of mine it was by Rabbitgoo on Amazon. They are different sizes and prices so I haven’t put a specific link. The description of the one I bought is: Thick Whiteboard Chalkboard Wall Sticker 44.5cm×200cm Thickness:0.18mm