Reflection and Resolutions

In 4 days the new academic year will begin.

I survived my first year of teaching. It was the most hectic, busy and stressful year of my life thus far. It was also highly enjoyable (though sometimes I did wonder if I was going to make it to the next day with my sanity intact).

I think I did a lot of things well, and I believe that I grew as a teacher throughout the year. I certainly started to develop a (slightly) better work-life balance - my friends were very excited by the prospect of seeing me more than once a month.

However, there are many areas that I know I can improve in. Here are my 'teacher resolutions' for 2013:

1. Stop procrastinating

This is a fairly obvious one. I need to be more organised and to get things done immediately - it'll make my life easier. I procrastinated an awful lot this year, and this is a habit I plan on breaking.

     2. Slightly less 'Miss Nice'

I know this is one of the first things that they tell in when you embark on your teaching qualification - you're to start out strictly. Did I? Not so much...and I know that occasionally students took advantage of this. I need to be stricter and maintain tighter control of student behaviour and expectations. I plan to emulate a colleague of mine, who maintains excellent relationships with her students while still being firm re: deadlines, etc. I still plan on being mostly me...just slightly meaner when it's needed!

    3. Mark more frequently

I want to keep better tabs on my marking, to maintain a more accurate record of student progress. Don't get me wrong, I knew where my students were at all times, but I know that I could've given even more feedback, and built in more opportunities for them to improve. This is one of my main goals for 2013. I really like Hayley Thompson's excellent document on marking, and plan to implement this. 

4. Maintain my commitment to technology - and to tech-literacy

I want to maintain my commitment to technology in class, and to push this even further. I hear a lot of talk about how our students are tech-literate, and this frustrates me. Our students can use technology very easily - a byproduct of growing up in such a digital age - but they are not literate in it. My task is to teach them to be more critical of what they see, how they search for and consider information, and how to use specific programs e.g. Excel, Google Earth, etc.

5. To not just be local, but global

Down here in Australia, I've found that it's easy for a lot of people (especially students) to forget that there is a wider world out there. I want to remind them of this - there are so many opportunities for them beyond the shores of Australia (though it is a rather good place to be most of the time). The curriculum has a very Australian and Asia-Pacific focus, and I want to look beyond the mandated content/ideas. To this end, I plan on having a 'What in the World?!' wall in my classroom(s). This will have a world map on, a country of the week, and contain a space for current world events. While I will start this off, the aim is to transfer responsibility to my students. I am also going to try to set aside some time each week where we can discuss a current event. Dream large!

Further from this, I would really like to develop links with schools overseas - I'd be happy for this to take the form of emails, Skyping, a joint Wikispace (or similar), etc. Learning about the lives of others and gaining an understanding of different viewpoints, letting yourself be challenged - these are all skills and knowledge that our students should have. If you're interested in linking up with some classes in Australia, please email me. 

What are yours? 

Who needs learning styles when you have learning activities?

I first learned about learning styles when I embarked upon my Masters in Teaching. I'll admit it, I was 'super excited' when I first heard about it, primarily because it involved educational theory (#geekalert). It also seemed to make some sense to me. 

Fast forward a couple of years, and I no longer ascribe to the idea. In fact, I now find it lazy and too narrow. We are meant to do quizzes to find out how our students learn, and I don't think that's a bad thing. However, they are invariably based on learning styles. Students nominate 1-3 top learning styles. This is what I don't like (sounds a bit contradictory, I know). You get students claiming they can only learn in specific 'styles'. Not true (in my experience). They might find some 'styles' more comfortable or accessible, but ultimately can access them all - I feel that it all depends on clarity and explanation. 

I much prefer the idea of offering a variety of learning activities/assessment opportunities and multiple options for demonstrating learning during major assessments. Instead of asking students what their preferred styles are, I have them nominate 3-5 preferred learning activities. I feel this is more practical (no faffing around trying to make up activities for each style). I put these up in class as a graph (so they can see why there is a focus on certain activity types) and use them to plan learning activities for my class. 

A learning activities graph for my Year 10 History subject

The activities listed definitely need more refining and variety, but it was useful as a document to quickly understand what my students enjoyed in class, as well as providing me with activities for them. Students also appreciated the opportunity to complete activities that they enjoyed. We utilised about 90% of these activities across the 2 terms that I had them for. Students made posters, brochures, websites, videos, wrote essays, took part in class discussions, presented information in groups, worked in groups and individually and regularly utilised ICT. We used organisers to clarify concepts and sort ideas, and used Human Continuums and others of that ilk to explore political concepts and ideologies. 

I now also provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways:

Year 7 Assignment on Ancient Egypt

I'm open to most forms of demonstrating knowledge and skills - after all, it's the acquisition and ability to use them that counts, not the method in which they show it. Giving them this choice engages them more, which is always a good thing. 

Long story short: Vary your learning activities, give students opportunities to have some ownership over assessment, don't allow them to pigeonhole themselves. 

I still have more work to do in this area - I want students to generate more of their own questions, to take more ownership and responsibility, and to become a teacher who is better capable of introducing these ideas skilfully. 

A New Google Resource: World Wonders

Those of you who visit my blog will probably have picked up on the fact that I'm slightly (read: completely) obsessed with UNESCO World Heritage sites. This probably comes from being a geographer and an avid traveller. I have a vast appreciation for the myriad wonders of the world. This is why I was extremely excited when I heard about UNESCO's latest project. 

UNESCO has created a site on the World Wonders (World Heritage sites) that offers a VFT (Virtual Field Trip) experience. Check out the screenshot below - students can explore the site, plus there is background information, pictures and video resources (where applicable). You can search for locations by theme or by location. One caveat: There are no African sites and very few Asian sites. I'm assuming this will be rectified where possible at some point in the future.

To supplement this website in the classroom, they have also produced some educational resources for history and geography, with cross-curricular ideas in in their 'Primary' and 'Secondary' guides. History themes include studies of Pompeii, Versailles and the Hiroshima Peace Monument, while Geography themes include a coastal study using the Jurassic Coast of the UK. 

I was hoping to use this in the classroom with my Year 7s, given what they're currently studying (see: UNESCO World Heritage 'Should We...?' Assignment), but most of the sites that they're looking at aren't up yet. 

Limitations aside, this promises to be an enjoyable and useful classroom resource. 

Hexagon Templates - SOLO Activities

I've put together some hexagon templates of differing sizes for those who want to use them in classes for SOLO activities. I've seen some great examples of hexagon activities to check, consolidate and explore student knowledge. 

I've made small, medium, large, extra large, and extra extra large hexagons. Feel free to download them for use in your classes. They are all A4 templates. 

Small - 18 hexagons

Medium - 10 hexagons

Large - 4 hexagons

Extra Large - 2 hexagons

Extra Extra Large - 1 hexagon

#geogsolo

This is why I love Twitter. It's a dynamic environment filled with intelligent, enthusiastic and committed people. 

A short conversation by @johnsayers regarding his idea to create a website of SOLO-based resources for the Geography classroom spiralled into a global effort, with our first #geogsolo (our Twitter hashtag) meeting scheduled for the 16th of June at 12pm GMT/ 3pm UAE/ 9pm AUS EST. 

Follow the #geogsolo hashtag on Twitter to find out more, to locate resources, and to meet other practitioners. The more the merrier!

UNESCO World Heritage Sites Task

I just designed a task for my Year 7s around the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The focus here is on developing and utilising higher-order critical thinking skills, such as evaluating and creating. As this is quite a lot of work for KS3/Lower Secondary students, mine will be presenting it in groups (encourage the use of technology in presenting - PowerPoint, Prezi, Animoto, Google Presentations, etc). 

The Lowdown:

Students must answer the following key questions:

• Why should we care about protecting cultural and natural sites?
• What do you think should be the key criteria for protecting a place? (Students will design their own key criteria re: what makes a place worth saving)
• Can UNESCO's criteria be made any better? (Students will evaluate UNESCO's criteria, providing an overall opinion, reasons, and potential improvements)

They will also need to research a current UNESCO World Heritage site (or a location of their own choosing that they feel needs protection), provide background information on their site, and evaluate it using their own list of criteria to decide whether it is worth protecting/preserving. 

Other things:

I would also recommend printing out images of World Heritage sites to provide inspiration. 

You will need to scaffold and model thinking - I talk it through with my students and use Project Zero thinking techniques e.g. Think, Pair, Share, plus graphic organisers and coloured pens to get students generating, sharing, and writing down their ideas. You will probably also need to discuss the UNESCO criteria with students - I've greatly simplified them, but the language is still quite formal - if anyone can simplify them further, I'd love to get in touch with you. 

We've just started, so I will let people know how it goes and share insights re: the final product. You could probably get 8s and 9s to do this as well. 

The assignment handouts are available below - feel free to modify them for use in your classrooms. 

Resource 1: Should We...? Task

Resource 2: Group/Record Sheet

Resource 3: UNESCO Criteria Sheet (Simplified)

UPDATE:

Resource 4: 'NIP' Graphic Organiser (use this for evaluating UNESCO's criteria)
Resource 5: Should We...? Criteria Sheet (Mark sheet)

Depending on which sites you're looking at, this website on World Wonders + Google Earth/Maps could be very useful. It doesn't have any African sites, and very few Asian ones, but there are plenty from N. America and Europe on there. It provides students with a VFT (Virtual Field Trip) experience. 

Scoop.it!

One of the many lovely Twitter users that I follow, @geographynerd (Rebecca Nicholas) clued me into Scoop.it. I'd seen it before, but had never really thought about using it. Bec explained how easy it was to use and voila! I was hooked. I've now started my own Scoop.it at Geography - The World Around Us. While I use mine to curate articles on all aspects of Geography, Bec has demonstrated how it can easily be used for a class. She collates articles regarding climate change for one of her Geography classes, so they have a constant supple of quality links and source material. You can find it here. 

Enjoy!