BBC School Report Day

Today pupils were creating news report on stories that interested them. This ranged from the local Eastleigh elections to gay marriage and the new royal baby.

My session was getting pupil to create radio reports using Audacity software.

In the previous session pupils had come up with a list of interview questions for other pupils and teachers on their topic. They had also written the script for their report.

The first part of the session had pupils out and about around school interviewing and recording their pieces. The second half involved editing their audio clips.

Having not used Audacity before I had a 20 minutes crash course the night before. Pupils were shown how to import, trim and layer audio clips.

Some of the finished products were very entertaining. They showed clear research, had other pupils' views included and in some cases a bit of humour.

Work Scrutiny Via MDKnight

Work Scrutiny by Phil Beadle

In Business Studies I have regular lessons where the starter is going through the work I've marked, doing any spelling corrections as well as writing a reflection comment based on my comments.

I then get pupils to write down a list of things they need to remember to do or improve on next time. Then when we are about to start a new piece of writing, my starter will be to find that list and ensure that it is in front of them when doing the new piece.

With regards to "the more effort i put in to my marking, the more effort they will put in to their work," I believe this works up to a point. I can see it working well with higher ability pupils but think that when it comes to lower ability, you could potentially give them so many things to improve upon that it becomes too much. Yes, by all means, target one thing at a time but again it becomes a balancing act for pupils, some of whom will struggle to cope with.

I like the idea of drafting work but time restrictions immediately come to mind. It could be done in our Year 9 foundation year but at GCSE level it's just not possible. Particularly as in Business pupils do controlled assessments so drafting is dodgy territory.

Whenever I do peer feedback, especially with lower ability pupils, I give them specific things to comment on. This not only checks their understanding of the key words but also makes their feedback more worth while.

I'm a big supporter of regular marking moderation as I know I sometimes end up focusing my marking on the negative rather than the positive. Moderation is a great way for me to pick up on when I'm doing this or to be picked up on it. 

All in all, I agree with the end quote:

"A decent leader should have a damned good idea about whose books need monitoring and whose can be used as exemplars. Middle leaders should be scrutinising their teams’ books regularly and sharing the findings in a non-judgmental but in way which very clear about their high expectations. This is just too important to leave to chance."

A trip down memory lane via Mashable

Technology Nostalgia via Mashable

Looking at this article and remember quite a few of these. 

Especially the Ski-free game! 

My dad had it on his very first laptop and I remember annoying him by running down the battery playing it.

Who can forget the flying toasters and the ever so irritating Paper clip!

BBC - Where Next?

BBC - Where Next?

Year 7 control unit - starter clips?
Year 10 Business - Unit 1.2 Communication

Via SDCullen: Dove Against Photoshop Beauty

"Dove is continuing its decade-long "Real Beauty" campaign with a Photoshop action that seeks to un-airbrush unrealistic images of models.

The Photoshop action — a downloadable file that applies an action with a single click — is aimed at art directors who may be creating such ads. The action, which was disseminated on Reddit and other places where Dove thought such art directors might visit, promised to add a skin glow effect, but actually reverted the image to its original state." Mashable Dove Photoshop Action

Computer Science Promo Video

Shorter version:

Flipped Bloom's Taxonomy?

Now there's a thought..  Flip This: Bloom’s Taxonomy Should Start with Creating

I have a lot of pupils who struggle to reach the higher levels of the taxonomy but can be incredibly creative.

Creativity followed by feedback or self reflecting/evaluating could lead to a better understanding for some pupils.