Author: Susan Sey

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Preparing for blended learning

  Blended learning that maximises the time in the classroom with the teacher and provides an engaging online experience is the challenge many schools are being faced with. At Larkhall Academy, we are currently exploring the best way to meet this challenge, finding the balance between introducing new ways of working while honing in on the interventions and pedagogical techniques that have the greatest impact when we have learners in class. Our blended learning approach is likely to consist of three strands; in class learning, synchronous learning online and asynchronous learning at home. I’ll outline how each of these might look and how we might overcome the barriers we face.

When learners are in class, we want to ensure that the high quality learning experiences focus on the aspects that require the most teacher input. This is done in one of two ways; introducing new content with clear explanations and models ensuring that learners will be able to continue their work once they’ve left the classroom or taking the flipped learning approach where new content has already been accessed and the focus is now on application of that knowledge. Different subject specialisms and topics within those specialisms will have different drivers, teachers will need to carefully consider what will be covered and then identify the key aspects that will be focussed on during the in person learning. Effective explanations, modelling and questioning will be essential during this time with high levels of teacher-learner interaction.

We are also planning on supporting our learners with live lessons being delivered online via video conference. Google Meet will allow us to securely connect with learners and deliver live teaching with a high degree of flexibility. It is possible that a teacher could deliver their lesson from a classroom or from home with learners connecting from a location that works for them. This might be a quiet study area in school or their home. As we begin piloting our approach, we are drawing experiences and ideas from those who have already begun. For example, we have strongly recommended that all Meets will be recorded and mandated that recordings of live lessons that feature children and young people cannot be shared. Alongside safeguarding considerations, we are giving extensive thought on ensuring equity with our live lessons because no-one should be disadvantaged because they could not access a live lesson. We undertook early identification of our most vulnerable learners and made digital devices and Internet connections available to those who needed it. This provision will be extended when we return to school and those who are struggling to engage will be further supported. Live lessons may be split into two parts, an initial part that includes only the teacher delivery and then a second part with teacher and learner interaction. This would allow part one to be made available to view again later as part of the asynchronous learning offering. Alternatively, this live lesson might be entirely made of learner-teacher interaction to reinforce or support the learning that has already occured in the classroom. One area where we see video conferencing as offering real opportunity is in the delivery of 1:1 mentoring and support to learners. We can all appreciate how a quick conversation can resolve misunderstandings, provide clarity or guidance in both curricular and pastoral settings. Undoubtedly our approach will change as we understand how time is balanced between home and school learning but the focus will remain on ensuring that the opportunities to connect with learners are as broad as possible.

Between March and June our exclusive focus has been on delivering asynchronous learning at home. In these unprecedented times, we agreed making learning available that could be accessed at any time was the best way to support the learners and their families in our community. This has consisted of many teachers using Screencastify to record lessons that have then been made available using Google Classroom. Creating that personal connection is essential to maintaining consistency and familiarity of experience for children and young people. The nature of the videos created varied widely across all subject areas but shared a common purpose to support learning at home. As a leadership team we agreed a schedule for posting work and setting due dates. The scheduling functionality in Classroom allowed teachers to assign work at times that suited them allowing for flexibility when supporting home working. This routine was published on our social media channels and supported with subject specific messaging. We also benefited greatly from being the Google Classroom guardian email summaries pilot school for the Glow tenancy in Autumn 2019. This allows teachers to register email addresses for parents and carers, allowing them to get either daily, or weekly updates on the work that has been set. These emails have acted as conversation starters for families and helped increase engagement with the assigned learning at home.

Feedback to learners is a focus of Learning and Teaching Framework and this continued when working and learning at home. Feedback took the form of comments and emails as we initially got to grips with exclusively working online. Our focus is now turning to maximising the use of features like Rubrics in Google Classroom and the Comment Bank in Google Docs to help teachers be as efficient as possible. When introducing new tools to teachers providing training and time to develop the skills and understanding is essential. We have delivered an extensive staff learning programme during this time through the use of Google Meet and YouTube live streaming. We have made as many of these videos as possible publically available to help support others too. An exciting development was the training, delivered by a short YouTube video series and a live stream, in using Virtual Jotters. A Virtual Jotter is a space where all related learning can be stored together and added to over time by learners. The familiarity with the concept of a jotter really helps children and young people collate their work. As asynchronous learning becomes only a part of the learning offering, having resources that can be accessed across all three spaces becomes increasingly important as will how we structure the learning at home alongside the live lessons and learning in class will be.

The scale of the challenge to align these three strands is an almighty one but finding innovation in our system and allowing it to scale will help us build a consistent learning experience for all. Sharing stories of success across the faculty areas will help us identify effective practice and continue to improve our offering. Underpinned by a continuous focus on the quality of learning and teaching linked with ensuring the technology supports this, should hopefully facilitate success in our blended learning approach. Watch this space!

Larkhall Academy tweets @LarkhallAc. Ian Vosser tweets @MrVosser.

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Movie Makers at Banchory Primary

Like everyone with recent events we were thrust into a new way of delivering learning.  Normally at this time of the year Primary 7 are asked to prepare a short speech on a project of their choice.  The pupils are then asked to present these to their class, the selected pupils then present to the whole school before going forward to the cluster final in which they deliver their speeches to a judging panel.

The pupils were asked to continue with the project using the skills which had been taught previously in school, the pupils use iMovie, Do Ink Green Screen, GarageBand and clips to create their speeches.

This is one example of a Student Speech that was submitted. This student created a script, got into character, filmed himself in front of a green screen and then edited the video. I am sure you will agree the content is excellent and the theme for the video has made the video extra special.

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Let’s all “Meet” up – in a virtual learning environment

Our school community are, on the whole, fairly confident and upbeat just now. To understand why I receive such positive views from across the parents, pupils and staff, I have to give a bit of background “pre-Covid”. Argyll and Bute Council have a great IT Team that have been promoting the use of G-Suite (Google Apps through Glow) for a few years now. We in Oban High School had a number of really enthusiastic staff who saw the potential of Google, ran with the training and led peer CLPL.

Around the same time we built a new school and added a Promethean Board to every classroom and gave every teacher an iPad, which they were trained to use alongside the Google Apps. This led to an explosion of online learning via Google Classroom.

The necessity to use the new technology and Google apps, along with regular training, ensured some of our staff were ready for the next step on our journey: live learning and teaching between two schools. As I lead both Oban and Tiree High Schools, it was fairly easy to merge the timetables to allow for the delivery of live lessons to and from each school. This increased the level of subject choice available to senior pupils and ensured effective leadership across the sea; consistent curriculum development and a wealth of shared CLPL.

Admin; Art; Biology; Business Management; Computing; Computer Games Design; Geography; Music Technology; Physics; and PE. Yes, PE! Theses subjects have all been delivered between our schools as part of the merged timetable or, as in the case of PE, to cover a staffing issue.

How does it work? Well, the experience gained by staff in Oban as a result of the introduction of the new technology and mainstream use of G-Suite certainly helped reduce much apprehension. All our teachers were used to setting up and using Google Classrooms (GCs), how to uploading assignments, marking work and conversing through GCs. Colleagues were used to creating Google Docs, Slides or Sheets and to saving and organising onto Google Drive. The only add-on was the move to live learning through Google Meet.

The  “new normal” our teachers faced was that some of the children’s smiling faces were now on a screen; their voices on a speaker. A class is still a class though. The exposition, the tasks, the Q&A and the plenaries are all shared experiences. When doing group work, the Tiree pupils can join an Oban group on the screen using a smaller speaker or vice versa. When they wish to ask a question, the teacher responds one-to-one over their headset. The cameras and screens allow the teacher to see every child in their (expanded) class at all times.

Concern with anything new is natural; safeguarding is a must. To begin with, we only used this with S4-6 classes. No class can exceed its SNCT maximum. IT support is on tap; a line manager is only a call away in the event of a behavioural issue; the office for a medical issue. We have now expanded this across the whole school at our teachers’ request.

What makes it work?

  • Investment by the Local Authority.
  • A core of experienced staff, keen to support colleagues and provide on-going training.
  • The purchase of good cameras, teacher headsets and pupil speakers to capture the whole class “look and feel” to make the pupils in the remote location feel genuinely part of the class.
  • The consistent and coherent use of one software suite of Apps: Google or Microsoft,
  • A safeguarding protocol to give confidence to staff engaging in live delivery.
  • Pupil buy-in – achieved by capturing the essence and experience of being in a larger traditional class environment, leading to an increased feeling of belonging to that class.

Learning and teaching from home has proved remarkably similar to what we already deliver, with the caveat that it has still been a very steep learning curve. The key difference is the need for safeguarding guidance to both staff and pupils; and a relaxation of accepted norms. We must be professional at all times in the way in which we interact with our pupils; we must have support in place for when the rules are not followed and we must keep stressing  that we’re all in a “class” when on online… but we also have to accept our four-legged friends may still appear on screen at times.

Equity for children? A recurring theme in this discussion but just as important for our staff. If there is not a device available or there are not enough devices in the home, every child, and every member of staff, is given an iPad, Chromebook and/or data Dongle. IT support is available to ensure every child can access the devices; teachers take children through getting onto Glow, Google Classroom or how to use any of the Apps. Each child is in a Clan (House system) and a pastoral team member liaises weekly with every vulnerable family or any pupil or parent who asks for help. We do Welfare and Engagement checks weekly. Those not engaging receive a call or a visit to the house where we offer pastoral, IT or curricular support for those who are reluctant to ask but need support; whether online, over the phone or on the door step – two meters distant. We’re here to help.

Delivering a virtual learning experience is not easy for anyone but it will get easier. As each day goes by we learn from our experiences and accept that change is good; or at least necessary. The “new normal” of remote learning in the future will not be new; just normal: the normality a consequence of us investing in both technology; from supporting and training our colleagues; and from teaching our children well in whatever manner we can. It works now; it will work even better with practice.

All support materials are uploaded and shared on the school website below,

http://www.obanhigh.argyll-bute.sch.uk/

 

 

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Flipgrid in the Remote P1 Classroom, Riverbank School, Aberdeen City

Aberdeen City CouncilFLIPGRID IN THE REMOTE CLASSROOM

Flipgrid, a video discussion platform, is used for different purposes in the remote classroom. Among them, to mention a few that we use in P1 at Riverbank school, are the following:

● As an engagement tool. In my P1 class in Aberdeen with 17 pupils, we have started using Flipgrid in Google Classroom, in today’s literacy assignment, children were to show their favourite book and tell us why. They show up, talk about their book and express their emotions. They improve their oratory skills, the possibility of adding stickers, backgrounds and other aesthetic enhancers is also an attractive feature to them.

● As a prompt: in Registration I upload directly from Flipgrid to Google Classroom as a short video (called shorts in Flipgrid) which is used as a conversation starter and mind engaging with the learners. Next week they will be having again prompts during registration: Things that they have learnt during confinement, even and odd numbers, using the connective “but”, using the connective “and”, something I did was it a subtraction or an addition, can you represent it graphically? They watch the video and they can choose to answer with a video back or in writing.

● As an assessment tool: Another Flipgrid they had last week The instructions were to tell us about their favourite book, mention the title and the author and tell us the function of an illustrator. The two key resources which support teachers to plan learning, teaching and assessment are experiences and outcomes and benchmarks. With this Flipgrid activity, the children should be exposed to, recognise. Describe, and make use of:

○ Recognize book words: cover, author, illustrator, theme, title etc

○ Share likes and dislikes

○ Enjoy choosing stories

Finally, let me tell you that for language teachers it is a great tool as well. It allows for fantastic feedback on pronunciation. But not only that, it can be used for presentations, acting, interpersonal communication, making connections, language and cultural comparisons. It is the perfect space for the students to practise their speaking skills and share their thoughts. The teacher can set goals and reflect on progress. Moreover, the teacher can use language to develop critical thinking, investigate, explain, and reflect. Flipgrid allows for the 4 Cs of education in the 21st century to be developed and encouraged in the activities you set. It enriches the learning experience greatly.

Flipgrid has got many other uses and functions. I would be very interested in hearing your experience with this tool.

Pilar Arqued

gw18arquedpilar@glow.sch.uk
@pilararqued
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Removing Barriers to Learning Computing Science at Speyside School

As a teacher of Computer Science I’ve always looked for ways to remove barriers to learning and make the curriculum more accessible. One of the biggest hurdles to this has been the complex nature of managing the installation and use of IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) to teach computer programming. Without a burning passion for the subject, you can forget getting a young person to download something like Microsoft Visual Studio or Eclipse at home.

A few years ago, whilst looking for a solution to my concerns I switched to repl.it to teach computer programming with the language Python. Repl.it is an online development environment which is completely browser based and requires no software installations on the user’s device. It is device and operating system agnostic, so it will work on desktops, laptops, mobile and tablet devices.

An example of the repl.it programming interface (Python 3.8)

An example of the repl.it programming interface (Python 3.8)

Over this period, I have transitioned from using repl.it to teach software design, to using repl.it to teach all practical elements of the course with support for creating rich web content using HTML, CSS and JavaScript and interrogating databases using SQLite. Students can easily share these projects with each other and with me. There are even tools to allow students to work together on the same project, allowing for latency free peer programming through repl.it’s “multiplayer” feature.

Repl.it provides tools for assessment, through their Assignments tool which provides the student with a set of instructions, a pre-populated piece of code as a starting point and a console window. The student can then submit the assignment to the teacher for written feedback and receives a notification when this is sent to them. Repl.it assignments also allow for test conditions to be set to provide some level of instant feedback to the student.

 

 

An example of an assignment in Repl.it showing student code, instructions, console and feedback area.

This has enabled my students and I to make a smooth transition from classroom teaching to remote learning for National 5 and Higher Computing Science during the COVID-19 lockdown. Although using online tools for home learning has always been a part of my pedagogical practice at this school, I’ve adapted my methods slightly. At Speyside High School, learners are currently using a combination of Google Classroom, Scholar, repl.it and YouTube videos that I have created to begin their new Senior Phase courses.

To create learning materials, I am using OBS Studio to capture my screen and webcam, which means I am then able to explain concepts to the students as if I was teaching a class and seamlessly flip between my course material and my live coding environment on repl.it.

The tools mentioned in this blogpost are all free to use for teachers.

Repl.it can be found at www.repl.it
OBS Studio can be found at www.obsproject.com


Marc McWhirter
PT Computing & Technical / Speyside High School
@SpeysideCS

Speyside High @speysiderector


 

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P1 Transition Support, Strathburn School, Aberdeenshire

 

We have used a variety of technology to support Transition for our new Primary 1 pupils.See-Saw Screen shot

 

See-Saw Screen Shot

We obtained Seesaw consent using Microsoft Forms, set up a P1 Transition group using avatar names and invited all new parents to it. Through this group we have uploaded puppet pal videos which include a school tour, delivered parental sessions on emergent literacy using sway, allowed P6 pupils to read out letters they have written to P1, used QR codes to create a treasure hunt round the school building that pupils can carry out over the Summer period as part of their daily walk, started to introduce HWB aspects of the curriculum to pupils via video and used the forum for sharing messages, introducing staff and ensuring parents/carers receive regular up to
date messages about plans and next steps. We are also considering using home learning codes to allow pupils to upload pictures of any transition work they might have done to begin engagement with them.

Sock Puppets Video

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Remote Learning, Strathburn School, Aberdeenshire

 

 

Literacy – reading

I am currently supporting a probationer and we are continuing our observations and meetings As part of her GTC profile. She has been using seesaw to create a fantastic online learning platform for her class however as part of this is also using TEAMS to meet groups of her children to teach Numeracy concepts to small groups or carry out Literacy Tasks.

Today I was invited to participate in a Microsoft TEAM meeting as an observer and was blown away by seven and eight year olds in a TEAM meet. The teacher was sharing her screen so all children had access to a shared text which they could read, discuss, and answer questions on. The children were safe, comfortable within the learning environment that the teacher has established and responded well to their teacher using technology effectively as they muted and turned on the microphone as required when it was their turn to read. I have been an advocate of Glow for many years and am delighted to finally witnessing it being used to its full potential!

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Highland Council’s Digital Support

e-Learning opportunities across Highland Council

This video looks at the innovative ways Highland Council schools are using e-learning to ensure students education can continue during the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown. We hear from two teachers who are leading the way in digital learning, Tania Mackie from Ben Wyvis Primary Schoo, and Robert Quigley from Milton of Leys Primary in Inverness.

Many thanks to Highland Council for sharing this video.