Tag Archives: bootcamp

Secondary Department

Week 3: The first conversation

This week saw the start of the learning conversations.

Students in S3 used a self-evaluation wheel (similar to that used for PRD) to reflect on the strengths and areas for development in their learning. They pinpointed goals to improve their learning and highlighted the impact of achieving these. To assist the conversation, the student also explored the status quo: what the issue is, why something is not working and what they have tried to do already. This forms part of the coaching conversation and we thought that students coming in prepared would help us achieve our aim of 4 conversations per period.  They seemed to find all this quite easy and were comfortable with it.  So far so good.   The conversations will show how accurate this assessment is….

Due to having to catch-up the 3rd years on the process (S3 assembly last week blew our carefully laid plans out of the water), we only completed one learning conversation rather than four.  And that one conversation probably lasted about fifteen minutes.  Still, Simon found that the coaching questions flowed quite naturally.  He noticed that the student had a strategy already in mind, but that she found exploring the options difficult.  She couldn’t see past her initial solution.  Maybe the blue-sky thinking bit needs to be developed?  Maybe we need to explain to kids how the options should take in a range of things that they might consider unlikely, but could solve the problem.

However, by the end of the conversation, the student had identified a way to achieve her goal and was clear about how and when she would know if she had been successful.

Mia supervised study this week.  Three little blighters either didn’t have homework or didn’t have resources.  Mia, very kindly, gave them an eye-wateringly difficult editorial from The Guardian to analyse (all were S3 or S4 and capable of dealing with this task) and warned them that they must come prepared for next week.  The rest got on well after a spot of Shark Eye from Mrs Stewart.  Mia then got on with checking emails and migrating contacts to Glow.  All very efficient.

Thoughts from this week:

  • how to keep to time on a regular basis?
  • encourage students to think outside the box when it comes to solving their own problems.
  • what to do with those who don’t have homework?  That’s a problem we need to solve.  Off the top of our heads, we’re thinking something news or current affairs related would be topical and relevant for all.  Also news articles can be heavily differentiated – Newsround vs Time magazine for example.  We could stockpile a selection in the shared area maybe?  Or a batch of articles could be organised each week?  Finding a range of articles covering a range of abilities might not take too long to do.  One person could do it within half an hour – time would need to be provided.  It could ensure the smooth running of the course for everyone else.  Just a suggestion.  Any others would be gratefully received.
  • We think Personal Support is a clunky name.  It needs to be rebranded.  Answers on a postcard please.

 

Primary Class

A Picture of Outdoor Learning

Today we went outside to do some art in the sun. We were creating pieces of art using natural materials from the environment around our school. In groups of four we had to look around and collect anything that we thought would look good in out picture. It was important not to destroy any flower beds or vegetable patches and find things on the ground. Some of the things we found were stones, weeds, leaves, broken flower heads or petals, sticks/bamboo, logs, grass, bark and mint leaves.

We had to work together as a group by having some people as collectors and some to organise the materials. We had to communicate with one another to tell the collectors what to find and to decide what our picture would look like. It was good exploring parts of the school that we don’t usually get to go to and it was fun! We had to watch our time because we had a time limit. It was a competition to see who could think creatively and use the materials usefully. It got quite competitive hunting for unique things. Kai even turned up with the top of a broken bird table. We liked learning out doors and enjoying the environment. It was difficult to choose the winner but as a class we decided to have two winning groups – my group who made ‘Joanna Jelly’ the Hawaiian lady and ‘Funhouse’. Well done!




























Primary Class

Class 4 is reading about John Muir

Screenshot from the graphic novel, John Muir, Earth – Planet, Universe.

graphic novel

We have learned about John Muir.

He became famous when he made an invention to get people out of bed. A Wake-you-up-bed!

We also learned about graphic novels.

A graphic novel has pictures in boxes, captions, speech bubbles, action words and lines to show movement.

Christopher said, ‘Graphic novels are awesome!’

Thomas said, ‘They are epic!’

‘Fantastic,’ said Kenneth.

Lucy said, ‘I am going to make a graphic novel when I grow up.  I might turn it into a TV show.’

Download from the Scottish Book Trust here.

 

Secondary Department

Week 2

This week, our aim was to continue to build the rapport with the class and to foster positive relationships between the students, particularly between different years. We used a couple of icebreakers which worked well. Some senior students were still reluctant to get involved but they were in the minority. Students learned the timeline for learning conversations and what they are expected to do: self-evaluate; participate in a conversation and reflect on how to take their learning forward.

We also analysed the pupil evaluation document completed by the class last week. The responses were overwhelmingly positive – here are some comments about what students hope to get from the class:

  • “I would like to be more organised with studying and doing schoolwork.”
  • “I hope that I can be more confident about my learning and I have a teacher I can go to.”
  • “To be able to talk about my subjects and any difficulties I might have.”