Looking beyond a lesson in SOLO

Now I have been using SOLO in my GCSE PE classes since April 2012.  I have to say that for me, as a non classroom specialist, it was an excellent way to ensure I had structure in my lesson.  It was much simpler than my previous 'Blooms and Accelerated Learning Cycle' mash up I was using and actually did the same things more effectively and efficiently.  It helped me plan a journey that consistently took my students from shallow to deep learning.  Now I am more versed in it and have 'seemed' to got a very good grip on it, I started to wonder if I needed to be so rigid in my use of it.  Do I simply have to use SOLO taxonomy as a way to structure a lesson and develop levels of learning?  Did it have to be the format for just my lesson planning or could I go beyond this and use it in a more powerful way?  So over the last term I have been looking at how I could develop my use of SOLO taxonomy and use its ideals as a means for things that have a bit more impact.



Non linear
When I first started using SOLO, to get a grip of it I methodically planned learning and any activities to go from Pre/Uni-structural to Extended Abstract.  I simply used it as a ladder to get from A to B and ensure that all of my class experienced shallow to deep learning.  For a PE teacher this really worked as the many individual pieces of information where learnt, assembled with other pieces, linked together and then stretched at the end.  Learning flowed and progression was very obvious and apparent.  It made so much sense.  After reading a post from Martin Said (@saidthemac) though which is found here, I did start thinking that getting to the deep learning element didn't have to be so regimented.  You don't always have to start at Pre/Uni-structural and move to Extended Abstract.  Instead, why not start with the challenge of an EA level of thinking and then work back through the taxonomy to answer it.  Why not have a driving question to begin with?  I liked this idea so tried a few lessons where I shared a big objective or outcome which was designed at the EA level of a particular topic.  I sold this as the 'bigger picture' or as a challenge for the class.  In order for learners to be able to achieve this objective/outcome, they had to go back through the taxonomy and gather information, relate it, analyse and evaluate.....all in the aim of completing the larger goal (the EA task).  It really worked and allowed students to contextualise the learning and see the goal they were working towards.


Questioning
Well thought out, effective and directed questioning is a integral tool for us as teachers.  Amongst its uses, it is a great way to check understanding, a way to check progress and a way to challenge students to think about a topic in more detail/in an alternative way.  Part of the work on SOLO involved creating a clear SOLO verb list which I use in many ways such as creating learning objectives, and now to structure my questioning.  The verbs  provide a great scaffold in planning out your questions before lessons.  It also allows you to think about the complexity of what you will be asking and who you will be targeting questions towards (asking those that need extending in your lessons the more challenging questions).

Using Pam Hook's verb list to plan out questions (very basic examples).

By using the verb list during your lesson planning, you can tie in relevant questions to the various SOLO stages.  The list also acts as a prompt in creating questions to check students have learnt the all important content knowledge (using verbs such as define, describe, combine, explain, apply, analyse......).  It can then be used to extend the thinking of a topic further and challenge students (by asking them to predict, hypothesise, evaluate.....all of which can only be done if the content knowledge is there).  These can also be used when designing tasks or written work.


Learning objectives
As a result of playing around with SOLO, my learning objectives/outcomes/thingymajigs changed.  I got some inspiration with a @learningspy post that looked at a Jackie Beere idea of 'Learning continuums' (found here).  The idea is instead of having a list of bullet pointed objectives, you could have objectives placed along a continuum that show the learning journey that will take place in that lesson.  To me, this seemed to link perfectly with the process of SOLO which is to move from shallow to deep learning and up the taxonomy.  Objectives that ranged from Multistructural to Extended Abstract could be placed on this continuum and shared with students.  This allows students to see the full picture of the lesson and see the criteria that must be met in order to achieve mastery in that particular topic.  It also makes progress very obvious and apparent.  The use of Pam Hook's SOLO verbs could also help structure the terminology used in the objectives in order to develop levels of thinking/learning.

Feedback - feedforward (Using the stages of SOLO with students for feedback and feedforward)
Such a simple change in terminology has such powerful impact.  At our school, in Key Stage 3 we use 'two stars and a wish' as the process of giving feedback on things like homework, classwork etc.  I myself am not a big fan of the 'wish' element as I wish I had £1million pounds but it's probably never going to happen.  The wish for me just seems out of reach and could be worded better (like Geoff Petty's Medal & Mission feedback is for example).  Whether or not the use of words is suitable or not, the idea is to get our students to get reflective comments on their work as well as a piece of advice on how to move forward.  When we get to Key Stage 4, the terminology of the two stars system seems a little out of date.  This is where SOLO comes into its element.  I follow @dkmead (and highly recommend you do as well!) who to me is the guru of all things learning.  It was through a few tweets of his that I came across the term feedforward, as well as the obvious term feedback.  This new term linked to Pam Hooks three key questions "What am I learning?  How am I doing?" and most importantly "What do I need to do to develop a deeper understanding".  Feedback is concerned with reflecting on the learning and providing comments about how well this process has taken place.  Feedforward on the other hand is the provision of comments to move the learning forward.  It's the comments or conversation we have that helps learners move to the next level or stage in the learning process.  Because SOLO has clear and distinguished levels of learning, it is so easy for a teacher to give feedback and then explain how to move to the next level of the taxonomy using this feedforward ("You're currently at multi-structural because you.........and what you need to move forward and get to relational level is.....").  Once this terminology is the norm in your classroom, it is then very easy for students to do this at any point when working through SOLO.  Chris Harte gives a more detailed and much better explanation of feedforward here.  So this has now become common in my lessons.  It has also helped me provide more structured comments on learners work and helped them see where they are at and how to develop their knowledge of a topic. 

Students work with Feedback in blue and Feedforward in green.

Using SOLO to differentiate
SOLO is a great tool for differentiating learning with your students.  The nature of the taxonomy allows students to have what they do focused specifically on their needs (existing knowledge, targets, ability).  There should be no reason to pull the whole class along with the same task at the same pace.  When using SOLO in your lessons, it is possible to differentiate in the following ways:

Different starting points:  By having students self assess themselves at the start of the lesson against a rubrics, students may naturally know more about this particular topic then you had realised.  By students having different starting points, you can differentiate tasks out easily so students aren't completing activities that don't actually stretch them or build upon their knowledge.  You may decide to have students choose tasks from a set list based on their starting point, or have them select a task from SOLO trays at the front of the class, or even group students based on their starting point (all the students starting a multi-structural come to these tables....).  

Tasks themselves become progressively harder (very basic differentiation):  Very obvious but designing the learning that takes place at each SOLO level naturally makes the work become progressively harder.  Some students may move onto the more difficult tasks quicker than others and SOLO has helped you plan ways to stretch these individuals.

Different students/tables/groups can have different tasks:  As stated earlier, linked to some uses at local primary schools I have visited, students work on different tables for different SOLO tasks or different SOLO starting points.

Some higher level tasks are ‘open’ and allow differentiated outcomes:  Some of the more extend or abstract tasks (EA levels) naturally allow for an open ended outcome. By allowing this element of interpretation and the chance for students to create something unique, the level of the outcome may vary.

SOLO projects (one topic is actually a multi-structural part of another topic)
We teach units in our GCSE PE course.  In these units we have carefully grouped similar topics together which have a common theme or overlap. Since April, for each of these topics I have taught them using SOLO and taken a journey from Pre-structural/Uni-structural to Extended Abstract.  At times these topics seem very separate rather than parts of a whole.  What I don't think is always apparent to learners is how these topics link to a bigger picture.  And that's where I have decided to teach things a little differently.

So during the summer of 2012, whilst watching the Olympics, I started to think if there was a way that I could teach a theory unit with SOLO as its structure.  Now I have completed a project based on this thinking and have blogged about it here.  What I did was think of an Extended Abstract outcome for the unit based on 'How can we persuade the media to give more weight to cycling in the press?' (Thanks @saidthemac for the help!).  I then looked at topics that I had left to teach that year and linked these within the project.  Each of the topics that could help answer the question (role models, media in sport, technology in sport, sponsorship......) were covered and taught.  Students learnt about each individually and went through the SOLO process to become Relational or Extended Abstract in each.  But each of these topics are actually a Multi-structural strand of the bigger unit.  Using the project as the driving force, the students were able to link these topics together (which they do, but sometimes students don't see that).  Now each of these topics became relational within the unit.  All that was left was to use this knowledge to answer the unit driving question and learners have moved onto Extended Abstract.

Planning schemes
Finally, we have been discussing schemes of work in our department for KS3 and are looking to rewrite them.  We don't currently use SOLO with these year groups.  But I was thinking that even if not shared explicitly with students, could we use SOLO as a planning tool for schemes.  If we mapped out the individual elements that we needed to teach (Multi-structural components) and then designed a scheme that would develop these with learners, connect them together (Relational) and then have a big outcome (Extended Abstract) as the form of an assessment, then maybe this can ensure all of our schemes are methodically designed to get from shallow to deep learning.  This is only an idea and has had very little thought, but is one I aim to sit down and visit in the near future.

Developing reading with..........teachers!

This post has been created as a result of a post back in April 2012 where I compiled a list of books with the help of Twitter which would benefit teachers in our school (click here).  The reason I did this came from our amazing librarian Helen Smith.  Anyone who has worked in schools for a long time will tell you there are certain people you need to get to know as they are a valuable resource in your school (caretaker, receptionists, admin staff.....).  Helen, our library resource centre manager is one of them.  We are very lucky at Brookfield to have one of the best libraries that I have seen in a school.  We have over 18,500 resources in our Library Resource Centre for staff and students to borrow.  The LRC is used by approximately 10,000 staff and students each month.  Students are encouraged to be independent users of the LRC and to return and borrow books as they wish, similar to a public library.  Classes are also booked in to conduct research using the integrated ICT facilities (PC's & iPads).  Helen changes the displays on a regular basis in line with a current topic in the news or being studied in school or on a fiction theme. 

Excellent resources to conduct research or simply read!

At the moment she is promoting a selection of books the School Library Services has recommended.  We have also been lucky enough budget wise to be able to purchase stock that the students are interested in, especially boys.  We purchase lots of books which students can ‘dip’ into, especially with our short breaks.  Dr.Who, Star Wars, Guinness Book of Records, Ripley’s, Top Ten, Where’s Wally etc.  Students also know that if the next book in a series, or a new book, is due out, they can ask us and we will purchase it.  They can read it first and then it goes on the shelves for general borrowing, but usually they have told their friends about it and there is a queue!  This gives students and staff a sense of ownership.  We also buy several copies of popular books i.e. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Twilight, Skulduggery Pleasant etc.

One part of our Staff Library

But there is one area in the library which is purely dedicated to staff and professional development.  The staff library section is well displayed and and a well resourced part of the LRC.  It currently boasts 252 books which cover a variety of educational topics such as behaviour management, subject specific resources, books for governors, texts on leadership, starters, plenaries, evidence based research.....  In fact the list is endless.  We all know, as a profession, keeping up to date on new ideas, pedagogy, research and initiatives is vital.  There are an abundance of inspirational and exciting books out there which in many teachers experiences have transformed their practise for the better.  Helen has done a fantastic job in resourcing the library and is now looking to entice staff into using this section more frequently.

Now as a member of the Learning & Teaching group involved in driving new practise in our school, I have been working with Helen to update our staff library books and refresh them with some of the books being highly recommended at the moment.  Many of these new books have come off of the 'Must reads for teachers' blog post that so many teachers helped contribute to.  My aim is to encourage more staff to undertake professional reading.  We are a good school very close to being outstanding.  We have a vast amount of inspiring teachers and having these excellent resources at our disposal can only help enhance the work we are doing.  Many of them have exceptional ideas and share a wealth of knowledge.  As part of Helen's aim, the use of the library is important and developing a culture of staff using the specific 'staff library' section is also key.  Although year on year teachers consistently use the staff library (see graph above), it isn't as high as it should be in comparison to our overall number of teachers/support staff we have.  As a result, Helen has come up with the following strategies which she is launching with staff after our INSET day this term.  She aims to roll out each of the ideas and hopefully introduce this magnificent resource to many of the teachers who didn't know it existed or who have rarely used it.  In summary, she will:

• 'Weed out' the staff library and begin removing out of date books and replacing them with current resources/pedagogy.  Latest titles have included 'An Ethic of Excellence' and 'Full on Learning' to name a few.
• Email staff for request/suggestions for new books
• Establish a culture of staff being able to ask for a book and being the first to borrow them
• Make Flyer's advertising the books, especially new ones. These can be sent by email, given out during Inset, displayed in staff room, notice boards within school

Our 'Recommended Staff reading' flyer which will be given out in our Oct INSET

• Create an information leaflet to be given to new staff on how to use the LRC and what is available to them
• Demonstrate SearchStar (library programme) to individuals or during an Inset to show how they can look to see if a book is available
• Encourage personal fiction reading as this brings staff into the LRC by purchasing ‘mature’ reads
• Encourage table use in the LRC by staff as this familiarises them with the space and the books
• Have an Open Day for staff with coffee and tea. They can view stock and the staff library.

Hopefully these simple and manageable strategies will encourage staff to begin a journey along continued professional reading.  Hopefully it will encourage a ethos with staff to keep up to date on current ideas, pedagogy and practise.  Hopefully, it will help create a professional dialouge with teachers and begin the many wonderful learning conversations that I am lucky enough to have with teachers on Twitter, but this time within our school.  Hopefully it will inspire many new and existing staff to get involed with teaching and learning in our school (as blogged about here).  And probably, and most importantly, it will help staff refine their current practise so that it ultimately has a positive and beneficial impact on the learners, and learning, that takes place in their classroom.  I would urge you, if you don't have a facility like this set up, work with your librarian and see if you can develop one.  Use my list of must read books to get you started if you need to.  It is worth the time and could be such an amazing tool for a school to have up their sleeve, and one that if promoted with staff like we are, could benefit us all.

Developing Olympic Learners

 A few months ago I talked about the exciting journey our school would be undertaking this year.  From September, we have implemented a whole school Learning to Learn programme that is specifically focused for our new Year 7's.  As we are mid way through this half term, I thought you might be interested in seeing what we have done to develop our 'Olympic Learners' (all will become clear).

If you are a first time reader and are not sure what I am talking about, we have run Learning to Learn for a number of years now as both an integrated part of PHSE and as a discrete course for our Year 9's in preparation for GCSE.  Both were not ideal and both had variations on success.  Our dream though was, and always has been, to implement this with our Year 7 learners as they entered Brookfield for the first time.  We wanted to work with them as soon as possible because this is a time when they are most malleable and receptive to our efforts in creating effective learners.

So what is the thinking behind our L2L programme?  Well, its pretty simple really.  The whole course is built upon Dweck's mindset theories.  At Brookfield, we want learners who recognise things like effort has a big influence on learning, who understand mistakes are good to learn from, who know that easy tasks are pointless if you don't learn anything and like a muscle, your brain can grow stronger through learning.  To do this we have adopted the 5R's and renamed them as:

• I am a responsible learner
• I am a determined learner
• I am a resourceful learner
• I am an effective thinker
• I am a reflective learner

We believe that if students can adapt their mindset and develop their 5R's, they can become more effective learners.  We've worked hard to extract the snake oil and design a programme full of ideas, strategies and protocols that we know learners need and have worked for us over the last 7 years.  So, here's what we've done this half term:


Launched it with staff

Our official launch with staff was in the summer term of last year.  A copy of the presentation for middle leaders and SLT is here.  The staff launch can be found here.  At the start of this year I simply used morning briefing and e-mail to remind staff of the programme.  It is essential that all staff are involved in the process and collectively promote this programme.  The students need the key principles to be reinforced by all teachers in order for the programme to have its full potential.  Response from departments so far seems great and I have had a number of excellent learning conversations as a results with colleagues about how it is really helping.


Developed displays around school (and our staff room)

Thanks to Marvel, we have assigned each of our learner attributes to a comic book character.  This has been an excellent hook for the students (and some of the staff too).  At the end of last year I asked departments to put in an order for our large posters.  Core subjects and large learning spaces could choose two posters which our budget paid for.  We did this because students go to these subjects, or use these spaces the most.  More exposure to the attributes will in return help us embed the programme.  Every other department received one free poster.  Electronic originals are available on our network and can be printed from department budgets for individual classrooms. 

L@B Display in the English corridor

Some other areas, including our library, have created their own unique displays (which are fantastic) and once again helped promote the five qualities.  In fact, in a general walk around part of the school last week, I found four personalised displays with a L@B focus which is such a positive sign!

L@B display in our school library

Talked about responsibility, responsibility, responsibility (our half term focus)

Every half term we focus on a different attribute.  This first half term has been focused on 'I am a responsible learner'.  Two departments at a time have championed this attribute with specially designed activities, but the rest of the school have been mentioning responsibility whenever they can.  We ran with this first because it is a simple focus to begin with and links in really well to a lot of the work done previously in our feeder schools.  In PE, we've used the word 'responsibility' a lot and tried to help raise its awareness as much as possible.  Students are really responding and are actually showing that they are responsible (no really they are!).  It has also been an excellent way to structure a learning conversation with a student who isn't demonstrating this quality.  Simply referring to the many posters around school with the student quickly help them see where they need to improve.  I've had a lot of good reports back from colleagues across the school where this focus has been embedded.


Organisers

Our Year 7 organisers (student planners) arrived and have designated L@B pages in them.  The aim of this is again to raise the profile of our L2L programme with students.  If needed, teachers, students and parents can refer to this page if needed when structuring learning conversations.  Hopefully these can be used in classrooms and at home with learners in an effort to reinforce them.

The page which is found in our student organisers

L@B Champions:  English and Maths

These two departments are our first champions.  English have chosen to run a project called 'The Big Read'.  The challenge involves students setting their own reading target for the half term and being responsible in their self-regulation to achieve this.  Our students will visit this project throughout the half term and reflect on progress.  Students will keep a record of their progress within this challenge and reflect on how responsible they were in meeting their target.  As part of this project, both Waterstones stores in Southampton will publicly display the students reviews.

A slide from 'The Big Read' launch in English

In Maths, students have been working through a data analysis task which really promotes team work which is one of our responsibility strands.  They have really embraced split screen teaching as a way to deliver this and made the process of learning really explicit.  Comments from staff (including a Deputy Head who is teaching this scheme) are very positive and show promising signs for helping shape our students learning behaviour (especially 'working with others' which for some students normally means having a chat!).

A slide from the 'team work' lessons in Maths

L@B merits (over 700 so far)

Our SIMS system now has L@B merits, including Responsible learner, added to the list.  This means that staff can quickly and easily give our specific attribute merits.  So far, 4 weeks in, over 700 responsible merit points have been given out.  This is excellent and really helps reinforce our focus with learners.


Wristbands

Designed as both a reward and as a way to raise profile of L2L, we will be handing wristbands to the top 20 Responsible learners in Year 7.  These individuals are selected by a mixture of L@B responsible merit points and recommendations from teachers in both English and Maths.  Each focus has a different colour.  This half term it's green bands! 

L@B champions

Our students voice of L2L.  These are a group of 12 Year 10 students who went through the last L2L discrete subject programme.  Each student is linked to one of the 5 attributes and acts as an ambassador.  So far these students have helped me plan and run the Year 7 launch assembly.  They are a credit to the school!  Their next project is to survey and interview randomly selected Year 7 students and ascertain how well the L@B programme is being embedded.


Launching with students (assembly)

Now if you watched the Olympics over the summer, you were probably as inspired by the immense achievements of our athletes as I was.  In fact, for the first time, I got a real attachment to the Olympics which I have never had before.  I am in awe of the athletes and feel that we can learn a lot from their character, their focus, their training, motivation, commitment......  I also thought that our Year 7's could learn from them as well.  So, with the help of my Year 10 champions, we designed an assembly to launch L@B whilst harnessing the power of the Olympics.

Can't see this, click here.

The assembly message was simple.  Imagine yourselves as 'Olympian learners'.  Olympians train hard for four years with the goal of gaining a medal at the event.  They put in hours of training, hard work, effort, commitment and dedication.  They have regular competitions in between to measure their progress and make amendments if needed.  They learn from setbacks and strengthen weaknesses.  They have amazing support and dedicated coaches who aim to make them better and experts in their field.  Now, remove the sports analogies and replace them with school and learning, and you all are Olympians.  In four years you will be in Year 11, preparing for you Olympic competition (exams), with the aim of gaining a medal (A*-C), with the support of your expert coaches (teachers) and have constantly been monitoring your progress and strengths (assessments, feedback....).  This 'Olympian Learner' concept is something I will use a lot and hopefully will help students see the qualities they need and the journey they must take.


Languages day link

Every half term we have a focus day.  This half term was our schools European Day of Languages on 26th September which we ran with Year 7's.  Every focus day has one of our five attributes attached to it, so this half term we had 'I am a Responsible Learner'.  The day began with an assembly in which I bridged the link between languages and being a responsible learner.  I have to say a huge thank you to Ian Gilbert who helped me put together the speech with some inspirational ideas to share.  The day was successful and challenged the students a lot.  The principle of being responsible to reinforced throughout and is something we will continue to build upon.


Reward cards

I have talked about these in a previous post (click here) but they are simple colour co-ordinated feedback cards.  Each card is linked in colour to one of the 5 attributes.  Each card also has a short learner comment, statement, habit or skill which links to that attribute.  If a teacher sees a learner demonstrating that particular habit in a lesson, they simply give that student the card which in turn is rewarded with a merit.  The card quickly identifies the particular habit that the student has used so the individual knows what the reward is for.  By encouraging and reinforcing learners to work in a particular way, it should help them develop positive habits which will make them successful learners (links to Skinners and Thorndike's Reinforcement and Operant conditioning).  If you would like a copy of the cards, they can be found here and here.  These were e-mailed out to staff to use if they wish and already a number have been passed through our reporgraphics department.  I look forward to hearing how well they get used.


Now that's quite a lot of things going on in the first half term but the combination of them all should ensure that our L2L programme has a huge impact.  It's the small but manageable details that come together to help create a programme purely designed to benefit our learners.  For the rest of the year, we will move onto a new attribute each half term and work through the same structure with individuals.  Our aim is to build up students learner qualities and support them in doing so.  We believe that if we can help our students become effective learners, then this, mixed with the teaching and learning that goes on in our school, should help set our students up for a successful (Olympian) few years at Brookfield.  It's early days and something that we are constantly evaluating, but it's an initiative that we believe could have a huge impact and are excited to see develop.

As always, any comments or thoughts are most welcome.  @davidfawcett27

Connecting beyond the classroom walls

As with many teachers, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make the learning experience within my classroom the best it possibly can be.  Now I am certain I have had a number of successes over the years.  I am also sure that I have made, and learnt from, a lot of mistakes.  I feel that the environment I create within my classroom and the the learning that takes place within it has developed greatly and is improving in quality.  But that's all under my control.  What happens when students leave my lesson?  How can I ensure that away from school, students continue to engage themselves with learning in my subject?  How can I ensure that they look for real world examples of how topics in my subject are used?  How can I best maximise the few years that I teach them to create a more rounded experience?


A lot of the emphasis should be on learners to take on this responsibility away from school.  I can't be accessible at all hours to answer questions or prompt students to do revision.  There are steps I have taken over the years to promote an ethos of continuing their learning at home such as providing well thought out and meaningful homework, the use of current examples in the press/media in an effort to encourage students to look for them themselves, and instilling a culture of 'Growth Learners' by promoting the many qualities documented by Carol Dweck.

Recently though a number of ideas I have had seem to be topics of discussion.  I am very lucky to be in the process of planning some Project Based Learning (PBL) with Team GB Cycling.  At a meeting with a regional development officer and lead coach a few weeks ago, I was mesmerised as they discussed all of the small interventions, developments and protocol that they use to ensure that they have a lead over competitors.  I have also been recording 'Road to Glory' on Sky Atlantic to use with my students as a resource for the project.  I have been reading up on the mastermind that is Dave Brailsford as his work is the major driving force of the project.  At the same time, @fullonlearning has been having learning conversations with @HuntingEnglish and @Macn_1 about lessons learnt from GB cycling and their buzz phrase 'the aggregation of marginal gains'.  The combination of these got me thinking.  Now I'm probably looking at this idea from a different angle than others (or I might not be).  What I was thinking about was "What small details, strategies, ethos, protocols, interventions and opportunities can we put in place for students, that when combined together, will make a big impact on their learning?"  How can we as teachers in our department use our skills and time to push on and support our GCSE students?  We will in due course look at the flip side and think about what small things students can do themselves, but at the moment I am focusing on my role.  If I view my students as my riders, like Dave Brailsford, what systems can I put into place to get the best out of them and help them be successful?  That is my role as a teacher.

Now I will be looking at the broader picture in the future, but for now, like Brailsford, I need to identify specific key areas.  I am therefore combining the idea of 'marginal gains' with my first issue of developing learning away from the classroom.  What small things can I implement that will encourage students to learn at home?  What things can I put in place that I might not have before that might help students develop their understanding and depth of knowledge?  After thinking through all of the various options, the use of technology and social media seemed the easiest, most accessible and potentially the medium to have the most impact with students.  So I have been putting some systems in place.  I am no means an expert, and what I am doing is not the only options.  In fact I would encourage you to follow and read the amazing blogs/tweets of @ICTevangelist, @philcbarrett and @syded06 who are miles ahead of me.  In the meantime, here are the some small strategies using technology and social media that I am currently using.


Edmodo

 
Now I am a big fan of Edmodo.  As a learning platform, it is probably one of the easiest to construct and manage.  It's style is very similar to Facebook which makes it familiar for most students.  If you have never heard of it before, I would best describe it as an online classroom.  You invite students to join your private/secure online group.  When students have joined, you have a whole host of tools to use to enhance learning outside of your classroom.  It comes as an app which is easy to load onto smart phones.  You are able to post messages or alerts which can be received by students by either e-mail or text.  You can set assignments which automatically register when work has been handed in and stores the grade that you give it.  You can have online quizzes and polls to get either quick formative or summative assessments.  You have a mark book where you can store all grades and create averages so students can monitor progress.  There is a calendar to share key dates.  A library facility where you can upload resources and store materials that students can use at home.  In the main screen you can post links to outside websites, materials in Dropbox or embed videos for flipping the classroom.  In fact there are many tools which can ensure students can continue their learning from home.  The two best reasons to use it though in my opinion is it makes organising your group so easy.  Everything I need is now in one place.  No more loose pieces of homework turning up in the bottom of my bag from months ago.  No searching various spreadsheets for grades or missing work.  Everything is in one place.  Secondly, it has a unique parent feature.  Each student that registers automatically has a parent code generated for them.  I can then give this code to the relevant parent and they can join the group.  All they can see is their own child's grades/work and this makes the link between home and school so much stronger.


Twitter (@teambrookfield)

This is a first for me but something that @peter8green introduced me to last year.  I have now created a school and subject specific Twitter account for my class.  I have made it private and made it a policy not to follow any of the students so I don't hear any awkward conversations.  I make a conscious effort to add two or three things maximum to the feed every day and plan to use it in the following ways:

• A-Z Revision:  Tweeting out a glossary of definitions and key words for some quick revision (starting at A)
• Unit/topic specific revision:  Breaking down a topic and tweeting revision notes out.
• Linking articles, materials and resources:  Tweeting out anything that I read or get passed to me that may help students.  This can range from images, videos, newspaper articles and presentations.
• Our own version of #ukedchat:  Have topic specific discussion evenings where I pick a topic and have an open forum for students to revise together online.  I am there to facilitate and support if needed but plan to let them run themselves.
• Challenge questions:  Tweet out curious questions about GCSE PE which requires students to draw upon their knowledge of subject content.  The aim is to try and create Extended Abstract type thinking for students (SOLO taxonomy).
• Q&A sessions:  Kind of an 'Ask the teacher' activity of sorts where I set a time one evening for students to tweet me questions about topics they are struggling on and want some extra help on.  No spoon fed answers though I am afraid.  Instead I plan to use coaching techniques to help students find the answers out for themselves. This will probably happen as we get closer to exams.

It's very important for me as a Learning to Learn teacher to make sure that Twitter doesn't become a 'dependent tool' but instead spark imagination/create eureka moments for students to go off and learn independently.


Camtasia

A fantastic piece of screencast software.  Camtasia allows you to record whatever you are doing on your laptop, with audio, and turns it into a movie file.  You can edit just like a normal video editing software.  So far I have recorded 5 minute presentations for our Unit 1 topics where I talk students through a powerpoint, video, revision material etc.  These are stored in the library folders in Edmodo.  They can also be put into Dropbox where they can be linked to Twitter.  These videos already helped a student who joined the course late get up to date on lessons he missed. 




Dropbox

Dropbox is an online storage platform which allows you to upload and save various electronic resources.  Many people use them to connect and share.  I have created a GCSE PE specific Dropbox for myself where I will store as much helpful revision material as I can find.  Dropbox allows you to create a link which you can copy into a tweet and share files or resources.  I can send out various materials when needed very easily.  These links will redirect to a safe host page where my students can access that specific resource and use it to enhance their learning.




Now a lot of this is very simple for those who are technologically minded.  I am also sure that a number of people will tell me that there are better platforms or screencast software which have better functions than the ones that I have listed.  But, for many like myself who are early into the exploration of technology with students (and who as a department and school don't have any ipads), these small tools can become very powerful when fully combined.  These are very small steps that closely interlink and are extremely easy to manage.  But just like Dave Brailsford and Team GB cycling, I am hoping that combination of these little factors can prove to have a big impact.  I am trying to use the best possible tools I can, using the best technology available (much like Team GB and the Secret Squirel club).  The marginal gains that each might offer to those students that choose to use it may make the difference between understanding a topic at a shallow or deep level.  It could even be the difference between a grade or two.  Now as part of any strategic plan, this is only the first of many sections that I will be focusing on to get my team (the students) to achieve the best they possibly can.  But in terms of the mini goal of getting learning beyond the classroom, I hope it is one that will prove to be successful.

20 ways to get involved with your schools teaching and learning

One thing that I have been overwhelmed with since becoming a part of the Twitter community is the amount of amazing tweachers there are who have so many fresh ideas about teaching and learning.  I see myself as a very forward thinking person in this area but even I have to admit that my own professional development has increased dramatically since being connected to other educators.  And it’s not just from reading the various amazing blog posts that individuals promote, but some of the conversations that I observe or involve myself in have been rich and full of strategies and tips.  Ideas bloom and blossom at every moment and I think that Twitter proves itself to be a significant tool for teachers, schools and education.

One of the things I do hear a lot is a number of tweachers being humble or playing down an amazing idea they have shared.  Some doubt their ideas are any good.  But in fact some of these ideas are so simple yet brilliant that they have me heading for my planner or laptop to start creating something.  There are also those who played down their role in education yet they have personally inspired me to be better.  Now I have been extremely lucky in my teaching career.  Since my NQT year I have been involved in teaching and learning at my school.  I have been fortunate to be given both the opportunities, and have the freedom to create opportunities to share teaching and learning ideas with staff.  I have learnt not to be 'gung ho' but instead find the right forums or channels to share just what is needed, to those who are interested.  So I thought I would share some of the opportunities that I have seen or have been part of myself and give some tips for those teachers who want to share their teaching and learning ideas with staff but don’t know how.

Now I have tried to loosely rank order these in terms of difficulty.  These rankings are not evidence based.  Instead they are put in an order combining things like the impact they might have, the organising it may take or the SLT/SMT permission you may need.  In fact when it gets further down the list any one of these could be repositioned.  So, if you are a teacher with ideas and want to share them but don’t know how, or want to have an input on teaching and learning at your school, maybe one of these will help:

• T&L buddy.  I have a fellow colleague who I always go to first with an idea.  I show them the reasoning, the evidence, my idea and my plan.  They give me feedback, help me tweak it, give me points for development or tell me when ‘It won’t have much impact on the learning’.  It works both ways.  If we have a good idea we share it with close colleagues.  Word spreads (so does the idea).
• Get your own Twitter account.  Network with other teachers.  Listen into threads about a topic you are interested in.  Read blogs and posts.  Then when you are ready, jump in and get connected.  Share your ideas and pick up ones which you can filter back to colleagues at your school.  There’s so much out there and colleagues appreciate it.
• Read educational books.  If they’re good, share them with your colleagues or order them into the school staff library.  Get together and discuss the content.  @HuntingEnglish recently bought numerous copies of 'The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson' for colleagues in his department.  Could an initiative or idea develop from this (in your department or whole school?)
• Read lots!!!  Read, try ideas out and open your classroom door to staff.  There are a lot of good books out there which have ideas that are evidence based and have a real impact in classrooms.  Read them, tweak them as you see fit and give them a go.  Let colleagues know you’re trying something new and tell them they can pop in whenever they want.  Invite your head of department or SLT in.  Invite feedback.  If it works then you have planted a seed and word will spread.  Keep evidence as well.  Before and after test scores.  Attainment levels and other data help demonstrate that an idea works (or doesn’t work).  Don’t try too much too soon though.  Try one or two things at a time.
• Professional development targets.  I know some schools that encourage you to focus on particular things because of a whole school push or part of the SEF.  But, if you have a particular interest or T&L initiative you want to work on, get it in as a professional development target.  This gives you the opportunity to research, trial, monitor and evaluate an idea.  See if another colleague in the school has a similar focus and work together.  Share your findings with your department or other staff.  Let them know what you found out.  People will take interest.
• Nominate yourself to oversee teaching and learning in your dept.  Our department allocates roles between ourselves.  Some look after displays, KS3 curriculum, extra-curricular clubs…..  Maybe put yourself forward as the one who works with the head of department looking into T&L?  Identify a focus, go away and research, trial, feedback and embed if necessary.  Use your department review or action plan as a good starting point (what needs working on).
• CPD.  With money tight it might be hard to get onto CPD courses for some schools and teachers.  But, make a deal with SLT/SMT or your head of department that you will lead your own session or write up your findings about the course which you can share with staff.  Great way for you to get ideas out there and share with colleagues.
• Write your own blog.  The best thing I have done this year for three reasons.  Firstly it made me reflect on what I was doing and get my ideas out.  Secondly it allowed a lot of feedback from tweachers which really help me fine tune things.  And lastly it allowed me to involve myself in conversations about T&L which has been very beneficial.  Easy for you to do using Word Press, Blogger, Edublogs……  I can now quickly link colleagues to ideas I have used.
• GEMS.  Each week, a colleague of mine sends out an e-mail called a ‘Gem’.  This is like the Bring and Buy where he e-mails a T&L idea to all staff.  They range from ideas for starters, plenaries, differentiation, groups work, learning objectives…..  Many are passed to him from other staff who he acknowledges in the e-mails.  If it’s from a book, he links it so you can click it and maybe order it.  Very easy to set up, effective and refreshing every week.
• Teaching & Learning newsletter.  We had a newsletter that an AHT put together every term.  Staff were encouraged to volunteer and write an article if they had something they had done or trialled during that time.  The idea was to celebrate ideas that staff had and share best practice.  Maybe this could work for you?  Maybe you could facilitate it?  Could it be a blog?
• Focus groups/CCMM’s.  Last year all staff were asked to join a focus group or cross curricular group.  Each group was headed by a member of staff who didn’t have to necessarily be in a leadership position (in fact many weren’t).  Each group had a different focus.  Directed time meetings were set up over the year, the focus was discussed, researched, trialled and evaluated.  Each group had to have an end product which ranged from displays in the staff room to webpages on the school system.  Maybe suggest this as an idea to SLT/SMT or offer to lead a group?
• Learning & Teaching group.  Our school has one of these.  It is made up of the two Directors of Learning, our AST’s, our Innovators, our G&T coordinator and any other interested teachers.  We have loads who have come along over the years even though it isn’t directed time for them.  Be a part of yours if possible.  See what gets discussed and involve yourself.  Have a direct input in your schools T&L policy.
• Involve yourself in an INSET day.  Chat to the SLT, SMT or AST in charge of INSET days.  Let them know what you’re interested in.  Ask them to involve you if your interest is a focus at a future INSET day.  Maybe run a small seminar or be part of a bigger presenting group if doing something whole school.  Always remember what your bad INSET experiences have been and plan to do the opposite.  Involve your audience and capture their imagination.  Invite feedback.  It may be your worst nightmare but how will you do better next time without it?
• Mixing up the daily staff briefing.  Inspired by a number of tweachers visits to High Tech High, @Totallywired77 now uses the routine staff briefings on a Wednesday morning as a way to share T&L ideas.  He calls this TMBriefings.  Briefing starts at 8.15am and two members of staff present ideas on things they have used in their teaching.  Staff are encouraged to share ideas and chat about a particular element of T&L.  Tait says "this is a change in culture, people are volunteering to present and generally everyone sees it as useful, positive, helpful and all in a relaxed, supportive and comfortable environment".  What a refreshing way to start the day!  Could you implement this in your school?
• Learning & teaching ‘cells’.  In our LTG, we split down into smaller sub groups when we go away and research a particular idea.  These groups aren’t always led by the senior members of the team.  In fact we encourage everyone to lead a smaller sub group.  This year, my group looked at developing ideas for creating an ‘environment’ for feedback in classrooms.  Our ideas can be found here.  Why not lead a small group or cell with a T&L focus and gain the experience that comes with it.
• Learning & teaching ‘marketplace’.  When our LTG group has researched and trialled ideas, we then present it at an L&T Marketplace.  We have various ‘stalls’ or presentation areas and invite heads of department, staff, SLT/SMT to see what we have done.  Ask to be involved in a stall and chat to staff.  Enthuse them.  Give out a brief hand out or direct them to a link on the school system.  Many other staff were involved.  Maybe you could set one of these up?  Great to bring staff together.
• ‘Bring & Buys’.  I started this up in my NQT year.  I guess this would now be called an informal version of a ‘Teachmeet’.  It’s simply a get together of teachers once a month/term to share T&L.  I booked the library, got refreshments and announced the event to staff.  Teachers would come along and we would share stuff that we had done in our lessons (the ‘bring’ element).  Nothing formal, no standing up doing a presentation, just listening one at a time to colleagues sharing something they did.  The best part of this was getting the e-mails about 30 minutes later from staff saying they’ve already gone away and created a new resource ready to use tomorrow (the ‘buy’ section).
• Run your own T&L sessions.  This year I had a good play around with SOLO taxonomy and found it had some powerful results.  My Director of Learning also became interested in what I was doing.  I decided to run a SOLO session for staff (click here).  This would not be directed time and would rely on the goodwill of staff to attend.  I sent out a short e-mail to all staff and then an even shorter reminder before the session.  The first session only had three people.  Still I had the chance to share an idea.  In the next session the room was full and the event was a success.  This year I plan to run another one on a different topic.  If you have an idea and feel others would be interested then run one.  SLT/SMT shouldn’t complain as you’re sharing best practice.
• Get a school CPD account.  @CanonsOPP is a Twitter account for Canons High School where they share their T&L ideas and work.  Maybe help set this up for your school and working with an SLT/SMT, AST or fellow colleague, collate ideas from teachers around your school and tweet them.  You could also get teachers to submit articles for a school blog which you can tweet links to.  Remember that this is the image of the school so I would always have this as part of a wider team.
• Organise a Teachmeet.  Now for those of you that have never heard of a Teachmeet, it is a bringing together of teachers with ideas.  It is an event where teachers come along to either present an idea to the audience or gather fresh initiatives for their own practice.  You don’t have to give a presentation if you don’t wish to but if you do, they either last for 7, 5 or 2 minutes.  Organising one may seem a bit daunting so maybe try an internal one first with your own staff.  Book the main hall, conference room, meeting room or good space.  Give staff plenty of notice and advertise it in each department staff room.  Have a Google doc or paper sign-up sheet so staff can register their interest in either attending or presenting the event.  Get some refreshments and make sure the ICT equipment is ready to go.  Video the presentations so you can share them with teachers on the school network drive.  If it goes well, think bigger and invite other schools or go for an actual Teachmeet.  For a link to the Teachmeet site click here.  For some example videos of an actual Teachmeet click here.  For tips from @ICTevangelist on organising a Teachmeet click here.

Now these all range in difficulties but hopefully will get the neurons firing.  Some are easy to do, some need SLT/SMT backing.  It’s also important to remember not to force ideas onto people.  Share what you have with evidence, examples, reasoning and practical applications.  Get out there and be part of the T&L community in your school.  You’ll love the experience.