All posts by Mr MacKenzie

Modern Studies, Professional Development Workshop, Professional Learning

Practitioner Enquiry

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From February to October this year, I worked on a Practitioner Enquiry into my own classroom teaching. This course was organised by the West Lothian EIS Learning Reps, in partnership with West Lothian Council, and carried an award of Professional Recognition from the GTCS.

The course was taught by Dr Gillian Robinson from the University of Edinburgh and focused on renewing teachers’ thinking about theories of learning and modelled the process of practitioner enquiry. Throughout the course I was mentored by West Lothian teachers who are former participants and Chartered Teachers. As part of my final assessment, I shared my findings by way of a presentation to peers on the course as well as practitioners from across the country.

My enquiry was on the use of technology in the classroom, specifically on how to use it in a more meaningful way than I believe is common at the moment.  The process of carrying out this activity led me to expand and alter my pedagogies and practice, as well as sharing a number of new ideas with colleagues.  My presentation powerpoint can be found at the link below.

Here: mackenzie ICT presentation October 2015

Steven MacKenzie

CPD Sessions, Modern Studies, Teaching Pedagogy

Success in Higher Politics

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I am going to be teaching Higher Politics for the first time next academic year. As this is a new course to the school and a new CfE qualification I found this success course very useful in advancing my knowledge of the assessment outcomes as well as the layout of the assignment. Additionally, I was able to meet colleagues from across the country and set up an informal network to share resources.  Do politics, or politics will do you!

 

Steven MacKenzie

Modern Studies, Professional Learning, Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy

Educating Ruby

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I recently finished reading  “The Learning Powered School” and “Educating Ruby” by Guy Claxton.   I reflected on these two books which inform the theory and approaches of “Building Learning Power”. These books informed my thinking on planning and teacher talk in the classroom, as well as how I discuss skills and learning attributes with my students. This builds on work highlighted in “Mindset”  by C. Dweck  has had a major impact on how I talk to and discuss targets with my students. I have begun to discuss and model growth mind-set language and have seen a gradual shift in my students’ attitudes and approaches.  While the books above were very theory based, “Educating Ruby” is a much easier read.  It is a book which could easily be aimed at parents and all educational stakeholders rather than just educators.  It features views from children, parents, teachers and employers and highlights the need for reform of The UK education system and offers practical, evidence-based, ideas for teachers which do not require wholesale change, but a gradual shift.

 

Steven MacKenzie

CPD Sessions, Modern Studies, Teaching Pedagogy

SQA Markers’ Meeting.

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I have attended two markers’ meetings this year; The National 5 Assignment and the Question paper.  These have without doubt been two of the most useful CPD sessions I have attended.  Understanding the national standards in our subject areas is vital and both the markers meeting and the experience of marking papers to a consistently high standard is a challenge which has undoubtedly had a positive impact on my teaching practice over the last few weeks.  Additionally, being exposed to candidate responses from across the country has the advantage of expanding subject knowledge.  While the time commitment for SQA marking is an issue, in terms of CPD I would highly recommend it.

Steven MacKenzie

Modern Studies, Teacher Posts, Teaching Pedagogy

Digital Learning Day, 21 March 2015. 

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A really useful CPD course involving professional dialogue about the success and challenges of using digital learning in the classroom. Delegates also had the opportunity to learn digital learning skills by attending practical workshops.  Below I will share some of the highlights of the day and their impact on practice.

“Reconnecting with Glow” 

One of the key messages of the day was the potential Glow 365 has for improving learning and teaching.  The collaborative functions and cloud storage space can be used to create online learning environments and move away from the iPad/AAL as a “thing to google things” and instead to access course materials and carry out learning and homework.
OneNote in particular is being used to create digital textbooks, track students’ learning, collect and store evidence of unit outcomes and learn collaboratively.
http://onenoteforteachers.com/

“Kahoot” 

I attended a workshop on using Kahoot to create and play quizzes on any device.  I had used similar things before but this site allows the students’ responses to questions to be exported to a spreadsheet to identify areas the class are weak on.  AiFL takes place and students’ can rate their understanding of topics and enjoyment of the game at the end.
https://getkahoot.com/

I have already used this with my Nationals and Higher as part of their revision which went down very well (see below)

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Over the next 3 months I will be carrying out a practitioner enquiry, and hopefully implementing some of the ideas and practices I encountered.  In particular I will try to explore OneNote and the other apps available through Glow to enhance learning and teaching.

 

S.MacKenzie