Category Archives: Teaching Pedagogy

Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Thought Piece: Is Group Work Being Overused?

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Ann McLean – Biology/Science Teacher and Professional Learning Development Officer

Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning: Professional Actions Educational contexts and current debates in policy, education and practice

I discovered this short article recently on twitter and  found it really compelling. It made me stop and reflect on how I actually use group work activities in my classroom. We’re all familiar with the benefits  of group work  and appreciate how our students can effectively  build knowledge  using their own language and experiences to express their ideas.

What about the disadvantages however?  Is it all about talking or is there a place for quiet thought ? Is group work overused?

Click on the image below to access this article.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/sep/21/group-work-school-quiet-reflection

Quality Improvement, Teaching Pedagogy

Marking for Progress

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Jennifer McKenna – Biology/Science Teacher

2.1 Learners’ experiences: The extent to which learners are motivated and actively involved in their own learning and development

To ensure that pupils are actively engaging with their work, this method of marking is easy to do and monitor. It also encourages pupils to demonstrate self-awareness as to where there strengths are and what they need to improve on for a particular piece of work or assessment.

The simple code that the pupils need to be familiar with is:

WWW– What Went Well

EBI– Even Better If

IOW– Improve our work (Improvements highlighted in yellow)

I use it towards the end of a topic to highlight the areas for improvement before sitting an end of unit test. However it is also a nice easy plenary where the pupils peer- assess their work from the lesson.  I encourage pupils to be aware of Blooms Taxonomy key words such as describe, explain, suggest, so that their improvement is always linked to progress.

Interdisciplinary learning, Literacy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Vocabulary Working Group

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Brooke Gordon – English Teacher and Literacy Development Officer

2.1 Learners’ Experiences

5.1 The Curriculum, 5.3 Meeting Learning Needs and 5.9 Improvements Through Self-Evaluation

I’ve recently taken on the post of Literacy Development Officer. As part of my post I decided to focus on improving and supporting the learning and teaching of vocabulary across the curriculum. My aim is to encourage different approaches to the teaching of, and rich learning of, new vocabulary (see my Prezzi which can be accessed by clicking the above picture). With support from Laura Compton, I have created a learning group on GLOW which acts as a discussion board for myself and some colleagues to share and try new ideas, as well as reflect upon the effectiveness of different strategies.

Using this platform has been a huge learning curve for all of us, but I feel it is an effective way to support one another as we move through our own enhanced pedagogy. We are able to share resources as well as ask questions and advice as we devise and develop our ideas throughout the year.

The research I carried out regarding the learning of vocabulary was very interesting and and I have found that working with colleagues from Murrayfield Language Centre has also helped me to channel my ideas. I then linked these ideas to the Literacy Framework and Pathways and presented this project to a handful of colleagues from across the authority. Moving forward, we hope to continue supporting one another and offering advice as the year progresses.

Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

Ukulele in the Classroom

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Siobhan Cardow – Music Teacher

2.1  Learners’ Experiences

5.1 The Curriculum and 5.9 Improvement Through Self-Evaluation

With changes in SQA, the ukulele is now an approved instrument at National level.  This is a new and exciting instrument which pupils enjoy playing and was introduced into schools across Scotland in August 2013.  In the last year, I have attended a ukulele workshop at the Fringe Festival and expanded on my knowledge of SQA requirements whilst building upon my skills on this instrument at Scottish Association for Mucis Education (SAME) conferences and other CPD events, in order to effectively teach this instrument.  The music department ordered a class set as part of the S1 and S2 Music courses and this has led to pupils performing on the ukulele at National 4/5 levels.  It has become so popular in the department that the ukulele club is also running for the second year in a row.  It provides pupils with the challenge and enjoyment of learning an instrument as well as the opportunity to become a further part of the school, meet young people from various year groups and work with others.

Responsibility of All, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Smartphones in Education

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Mr Varty – Biology/Science Teacher

Recently I was having a look through the Professional Development Edmodo Community and I stumbled across “Smartphones in Education”, a free emagazine. This provide a detailed look at why and how smartphones and other technologies should be integrated in education.

The resource contains loads of lesson ideas and strategies that I know will help me make better use of our Anytime Anywhere Learning  network that we are lucky to have available to us.

http://flip.it/oqGij

Continue reading Smartphones in Education →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, This is our Faith

CREDL PgCert Qualification (Religious Education by Distance Learning )

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Jane Laurie – Biology/Science Teacher

After finishing my PGDE in 2011, I decided that my studying days weren’t over yet and I applied for the CREDL course at the. CREDL is a Post Graduate certificate in Religious Education that is completed by distance learning. It allows practitioners to teach RE in Catholic schools.

What the Course Entailed

The CREDL course was completed online and involved a great deal of discussion with the tutors at the University of Glasgow. There were two modules and each was made up of 8 sections. These sections included a plethora of interesting questions and readings to be completed. At the end of each section I was asked to choose two questions and discuss my opinions via email with my tutor. Initially I thought this was going to be intimidating, as I was opening myself up to a very qualified university tutor, however it was completely the opposite, it gave me the chance to reflect on what my opinions and values actually are.  Continue reading CREDL PgCert Qualification (Religious Education by Distance Learning ) →

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Developing Independent Learning Skills

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Keith Varty – Biology/Science Teacher  

During the recent  staff meeting I organised a short CPD workshop to support Learning and Teaching of the Senior Phase.   This workshop focussed on Developing Independent Learning Skills and aimed to share strategies that help the young people of St. Margaret’s Academy become  independent learners.  Although I knew that I foster these skills in the young people in my classes, I did not feel like an expert.  As a result, I decided that during this workshop staff would have the opportunity to work independently through this PowerPoint presentation before having the opportunity to discuss any questions that arose. 

I then provided a demonstration of how I make use of the virtual learning platform that is Edmodo, to  give pupils more responsibility for their learning.  This involvedshowing staff how I:

  • Share topical science news articles and videos
  • Share Smartboard presentations used in class
  • Publisce deadlines
  • Create quizzes to consolidate learning
  • Set an array of homework acticities from which pupils chose their focus
  • Provide feedback on homeworks and assessments
  • Support learners outwith the classroom
  • Share research tasks with the class for peer-assessment Continue reading Developing Independent Learning Skills →
Interdisciplinary learning, Literacy, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

SSERC Chemistry Residential

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At a recent SSERC course I was able to take part in a range of innovative practical activities that I hope to be able to integrate into our science and chemistry courses at St Margaret’s.

Practical activities included:

  • a novel method for carrying out chromatography that can be used in biology (separating compounds found in plants) in chemistry (chemical analysis in the new National 5 course)
  • etching zinc plates as a new way to demonstrate displacement reactions  – this allows a possibility of creating cross-curricular links with art (using the plates for printing) or CDT (shaping the plate to make a product).
  • ethanol rockets as a way of comparing energy from different fuels (this can be run in conjunction with physics to allow calculation of acceleration, velocity and average speed.)
  • making and analysing a shampoo from herbs and natural oils
  • extracting limonene and pectin from oranges and using the pith as an absorbent
  • looking at the properties of hydrogels
  • making ceramics
  • making liquid crystal displays

Continue reading SSERC Chemistry Residential →

Numeracy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference

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Bronagh  McKeown – Mathematics Teacher

On Saturday 14th September four members of the maths department attended ‘The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference’ held in Stirling University (www.m-a.org.uk).  The day consisted of a keynote address by Peter Ransom and then the opportunity to visit four different workshops of our own choice.    Below is a summary of the workshops I attended:

Workshop 1

This workshop was entitled ‘A Square Meal’ by Adam McBride and it was both informative and entertaining (bonus!).  The focus was on investigating Magic Squares (a square in which every row, column and diagonal have the same total).  He showed lots of cool tricks that can be investigated by pupils and the algebra behind it all which could be investigated and discussed with high ability pupils.  I found it very interesting and hope to be able to find a way to incorporate some of it into my lessons. Continue reading The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Personal Development in Spanish

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Mairi Godley- Modern Languages Teacher

Having graduated from Strathclyde University in 2005 in French with Marketing, Spanish was entirely new to me when joining St. Margaret’s in 2006. Back then it was proving to be a popular subject and so I decided to embark on a graduate diploma, a distance learning course, in Spanish from Dundee University.

Miss Doran (at the time) and I initially participated in a 6 month intensive language course, which progressed onto the two year diploma. Although this was successfully achieved in 2009, my command of the language at that time did not leave me feeling fully confident to teach Spanish at senior level. Curriculum for Excellence did not pose any problems but I felt the need to further improve my level in order to teach at a higher level.

This is what prompted me to complete a Comenius in-service training course in Barcelona this summer.  I am no stranger to such courses as, in the summer of 2008; I spent 3 weeks in Granada, completing a language course that supported my studying in obtaining the Spanish diploma. Continue reading Personal Development in Spanish →