School visit February 28, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Probation , 2comments
This afternoon I was at Prestonpans Infants school, to see how different social factors and actual school size might impact on teaching and learning. With another P3 teacher I talked through issues such as structured play, behaviour management, developing the curriculum through ICT and our different approaches to teaching spelling. I found it useful to have a one-to-one chat with another teacher from a different school. It offers a different perspective and makes me reflect on my own practice. I have come away with some new ideas to try with my class, and some good resources I can customise! As usual I was made to feel very welcome. Thanks to Stella for her time and Helen for letting me visit in the first place.
Observations no more! February 27, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Probation , add a comment
I had the last of my observations today, that’s another milestone checked off. This one was slightly different because it was carried out by one of the other probationers in the school - we are each observing another’s lesson. In the feedback session afterwards we both concluded this was a worthwhile exercise. As probationers perhaps we view things in a slightly different light to seasoned teachers - and have a different perspective on particular issues and difficulties affecting probationers. When we get a chance to observe experienced teachers in action it can all seem so easy, another probationer understands just how many balls we’re juggling at the one time and how easy it is to drop one! This initiative was encouraged by our mentor and may not be widespread, but I would recommend it, in schools where there is more than one probationer.
eduBuzz Names to eduBuzz Faces February 26, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Blogs , 2commentsI attended the Exc-el open meeting in Haddington this evening and managed to put some faces to the names of those who have either helped over the last few months with the set up of both blogs, or whose blogs I have been reading with interest.
It was nice to meet everyone and to hear how eduBuzz is going to move forward. We talked around some of the challenges eduBuzz would face in reaching the masses, as well as the opportunities and benefits to teaching and childrens learning.
I was particularly excited about the development of a roadshow, visiting schools in each of the clusters over the summer term, and tying in with parental involvement. It would allow parents the chance to see first hand what blogging and eduBuzz has to offer. This is an initiative I would be happy to help with, if required.
Learning Log February 20, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Blogs , 3comments 
I have come to the end of the class project on forces, which I have been recording as a learning log on the Pencaitland school blog, and so I have been reflecting on how the blogging has gone.
While I appreciate that it has been very much teacher-led, as the class is so young and this is their first introduction (and mine) to blogging, their enthusiasm has been evident right from the start, and significantly has been maintained throughout the project. While I have drafted the text, all the children have been keen to leave comments on the days experiments, even to the extent of leaving comments from home - when they could be watching the Suite Life of Zack and Cody!
They have been keen to draw their parents attention to the log, and parents have commented too - to the excitment of the children.
Further other bloggers have left comments with interesting questions which have given us other lines of enquiry, widening the scope.
Reviewing comments on the blog, and the contents of previous days logs, has allowed me to reinforce learning outcomes. It has certainly been a worthwhile exercise from my point of view and also, from comments from parents, I gather they have enjoyed their ‘window’ into the classroom. The children have enjoyed having an audience for their work and I think were more motivated to learn as a result.
As a consequence I have just started another log covering teaching of a small block of lessons on thinking skills. This log will be smaller, as there are fewer lessons. It will therefore be less time consuming and so give me time to complete job application forms!
One of the benefits of the blog February 19, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Blogs , add a commentI have been blogging with my P3 class over on the Pencaitland blog (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/pencaitland/category/primary-three/forces/) about our ‘Forces project’. One of our fellow bloggers had read a post about a diving experiment we had tried and had offered to come into school with her diving equipment to show the children what it was really like. We all had a great time this afternoon breathing from the air tank, trying flippers and goggles and learning a lot more than I would have been able to impart. I wanted to make the point that this all came about because of the blog. Had we not been posting about our project this opportunity would never have arisen, and it would have been a dreadful shame. It goes to illustrate the benefits that can come from communicating to the wider world.
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Teaching expertise February 18, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Probation , add a commentHad my attention drawn to this website. I found it to have some helpful articles and it might be useful, particularly to other probationers out there
Using questions in classroom discussion February 15, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Assessment , add a commentAt Moray House we were shown evidence that the use of higher order questions encouraged pupils to move beyond simple factual recollection and move onto using other thought processes in putting together their answer.
Clearly I have been trying maximise my use of such questions in the classroom.
Over the mid term break I have been reading “Readings for Reflective Teaching” edited by Andrew Pollard which was recommended to me by my mentor. I have found this book to be particularly illuminating on a number of topics but one chapter - on the use of effective questioning (by Elizabeth Perrot) was especially helpful. While it agrees with the view that to improve the quality of pupil response higher order questions are important, Perrot argues these need to be used in conjunction with prompting, seeking clarification and refocusing. In a simplified form, I believe these strategies to be
Prompting : a series of questions containing hints that help the pupil develop their answer
Seekinmg clarification : somtimes a pupil gives an answer that it is not necessarily wrong but lacks detail or organisation. Unlike prompting where the teacher is adding information, here the pupil is requested to do so.
Refocusing : This strategy guides a correct answer and relates it to another topic the pupil has studied.
While my use of higher order questions is perhaps good my next target is to try and combine them with those strategies outlined above to try and further improve the quality of response.
The varied day of a probationer February 7, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Probation , add a commentIt`s sometimes easy to lose sight of what an eventful day a primary teacher can have. Sitting here now with a cup of coffee I can reflect on one such day.
Getting in at 8am I was met with a note requesting some assistance to remove some blackboards because three new interactive whiteboards were to be fitted later in the morning. And what was worse none of them were going in my class! In my science lesson I tried to be adventurous and run three experiments at the same time with groups cycling round them in turn. It was very worthwhile (although it got a bit fraught at times - especialy when the deputy head popped in at perhaps the least ordered moment) as the children seemed to, both enjoy themselves, and were able to show they had understood the learning intention during the discussion in the plenary. In the afternoon I was out of class and was scraping and puttying the corridor walls in preparation for a healthy mural we will be putting up during health week. In between this I carried out a classroom observation for one of my fellow probationers. We had agreed with our Mentor we would do one observation each to give us an insight into each others teaching. The lesson was excellent and I probably got as much out of the session as Kate did. Then after school I was off to the third in the iMovie courses. This one detailed how to share your iMovies by burning them to CD, emailing them etc. I had probably jumped the gun somewhat by posting mine onto the blog yesterday but again, there was still plenty in the course that was new and worthwhile to me.
I have to say that this is the sort of day that reaffirms my choice to try and be a primary teacher rather than teach Chemistry at secondary school.
Support For Learning February 6, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : Support for Learning , add a commentWas speaking to the schools Support For Learning teacher after school this evening and was amazed at the amount of suggestions she was able to put forward for helping one of my pupils. There is a mine of good practice there that with some minor adjustments could even be used to benefit the rest of my pupils too. And don`t even get me started on the cupboard full of resources that she has. While I had seen and spoken to SfL teachers during my PGDE course and placements it`s not really been until today that the penny has dropped about what help they can be with all of my classes learning. So many more ideas to consider!
iMovie and Football after school club February 5, 2007
Posted by Dave Cain in : CPD , add a commentHaving taken a small video of my class during an experiment on magnets I spent a long and shambolic Sunday trying to
a) connect up the video camera to my school ibook (needless to say the ibook couldn`t detect a camera attached!)
b) Dig through my course notes to import and edit the movie together
c) convert the imovie format to quicktime format (75min on “expert settings”)
d) post the finished product onto the Pencaitland Blog
only to find it wouldn`t work …… Fortunately the Man Utd game was excellent and took my mind of my IT limitations. However all was not lost. In East Lothian we have some experts available who are only to willing to lend a hand and after some emails to and from David Gilmour and Ewan MacIntosh (thanks guys) I was able this evening to remedy the situation and the video is finally up on display on the Pencaitland Blog
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/pencaitland/category/primary-three/forces
Please pop in and have a look. On a completely different topic, after numerous weeks of frustration over the adverse weather I was finally able to kick off my football after school club career. I had an absolutely great time with the P6 and P7 boys and the standard of football was far higher than I had anticipated. The highlights were my Cantona style lob over the keeper and getting a boot in the face from one of the P6 boys (can I put him on the tracking sheet for that !!). I`m definitely looking forward to next week although after today I`m already beginning to ache in places I never knew I had …….
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