May 2015
Issue 17
Supporting the Educational Community
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Exploring the
Fragile
Earth
p10 Learning Literacy through Topic in Context
p22 The Plight of Pollution
p23 Using
GPS
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Networked Educators
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Knowing your Stuff
14
Field Trip: Worth While?
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Issue 17: May 2015
Subscribe by email for free at ukedchat.com/emails Subscribe to the print edition at ukedchat.com/magazine 4 Using MineCraft in Education
Danny Nicholson looks at bringing the virtual world of Mindcraft into the classroom and using it across the curriculum.
6 How can Teachers make Global Connections?
David Rogers shares ideas for forming global connections between educators, schools and pupils.
7 ICTmagic EdTech Resources 8 Teaching Grit in the Classroom
Barbara R. Blackburn discusses how students and teachers can build grit and resilience to improve their performance and confidence.
10 Literacy in Context
Liam Murphy writes about his experience of using ‘Literacy and Topic in Context’ to bring a sense of the real world into pupils’ learning.
From the Editor Recently we witnessed a partial solar eclipse in the UK. Another reminder that, except for a few lucky individuals who have ventured beyond, everyone we know and every place we have been is cradled on a tiny rock, cocooned in a whisper of an atmosphere, floating in the empty and hostile inky blackness of ‘out there’.
11 Subject Knowledge: Knowing your Stuff
The Earth is fragile and, as its current guardians, the decisions we make will determine whether this is a permanent tenancy for humanity or just a fleeting visit.
14 What is the point of Residential Field-Trips?
Educators have a tricky task of exploring important world issues in an informed, engaging, and rational manner. In this issue of UKED Magazine we are exploring the Earth and some of the challenges it, and we, face.
Rachel Jones discusses her admiration for specialists, and the breadth of knowledge of primary teachers alike, in her exploration of subject knowledge. Jo Debens shares her excitement for field trips and her conviction that they have a large positive impact on the learning of pupils.
20 Pollution: The Developing World Pandemic
Esther Wiredu explores the blight and devastation which pollution bestows upon the people in the developing world.
22 The message is sent... Now what??
Natasha E. Feghali and John Howitt discuss a range of issues, including the careers path changes from the present to what our student can expect in the future.
23 Using GPS in the classroom
Martin Burrett shares a collection of ideas and resources to bring geolocation activities into your teaching.
24 UKED Resource
Enjoy the exploration. Martin Burrett - Editor @ICTmagic @UKEdMag editor@ukedchat.com
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Contributors Danny Nicholson @dannynic Rachel Jones @rlj1981 David Rogers @davidErogers Barbara R. Blackburn @barbblackburn Liam Murphy @ThisIsLiamM Rachel Jones @rlj1981 Jo Debens @GeoDebs Esther Wiredu @EstherWiredu Natasha E. Feghali @NEFeghali & John Howitt
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Using
Minecraft
in Education
Cross Curricular ideas By Danny Nicholson
I’m sure your classroom has already experienced the Minecraft phenomena, but in case you’ve missed it, Minecraft (minecraft.net) is an open sandbox game that allows players to construct their own virtual world. They can build structures, farm animals, mine for resources and much more. It has become amazingly popular with children of all ages. There are two different modes available within the game, to allow you to play it in slightly different ways; Survival Mode is a challenging mode where the player needs to fight for survival against other creatures in the world, whereas Creative Mode provides unlimited resources to build and create without limitations. As a classroom tool I’ve mainly been investigating Creative Mode as it’s easier to build large structures quickly as there are no limitations on the resources you can use. Minecraft can be played individually, or as a multi-player environment allowing children to cooperate to build and explore together. In multi-player mode they connect to a Minecraft Server on the internet or locally (running on a game hosted by one of the computers). It’s a relatively simple task to set up one computer as a host, and then allow the children to share a world and build together. Minecraft is available in many flavours, including a Raspberry Pi version (pi.minecraft.net), a pocket edition for the iPad (bit.ly/uked15may01) and a special Educational version designed to run in schools (minecraftedu.com). There are many ways that a teacher could use Minecraft with a class to teach different curriculum subjects. Here are just a few to get you started: Minecraft and Numeracy Minecraft can be used to investigate many 2D and 3D shapes such as prisms, cubes and pyramids. The buildings the children create can be used to pose numerical problems within a meaningful context. Ask the children to calculate the areas, perimeters and volumes of different structures that they have built. For example, what would the dimensions need to be to build a wooden box that could hold 100 granite blocks? Is there only one possible answer?
Danny Nicholson is an independent trainer, PGCE lecturer and consultant. He is a former science teacher and now delivers Computing and Science training to teachers all over the UK as well as overseas. He regularly blogs about educational technology at whiteboardblog.co.uk and can be found on Twitter as @dannynic. Image credit: All images provided by Danny Nicholson and adhere to the guidelines at account.mojang.com/documents/brand_guidelines
04 UKED Magazine
The YouTube video at bit.ly/uked15may02 demonstrates some of these ideas. Minecraft and Science The Minecraft world uses real-world ecological zones, such as forests, deserts and mountains. Children can relate their understanding of habitats and the environment to these regions, and explore them virtually. The wildlife within the game is limited, but the children could imagine the animals that might live there, perhaps using a tool such as Build Your Wild Self (buildyourwildself.com) to design animals for different environments within Minecraft. Also, animals can be farmed and will need to be looked after, teaching children about the needs of living things. Minecraft also allows for models to be built, such as a giant plant cell (bit.ly/uked15may03) or an animal cell (bit. ly/uked15may04), a nice idea that was developed by Alex Gething @adgething. Models could be made of solids, liquids and gases using blocks. The building blocks available to use within Minecraft have very different properties from one another. This gives an opportunity to talk about materials and how we use them. Metals, such as iron and gold, are produced by smelting ores and sand can be heated to make glass. This can help to give children an understanding raw and manufactured materials. The website at (bit.ly/uked15may05) has some more ideas for using Minecraft in Science.
Minecraft and Literacy Children can use their experiences within Minecraft as a stimulus for writing work. They can use events or locations within the game as a basis for writing stories and poems. Alternatively they could recreate buildings from books they are reading, rebuilding them within the Minecraft world. Minecraft can provide children with opportunities for writing instructional texts. For example the pupils could build a house, then write instructions for other children to replicate it. They could even write their own guides to surviving in Minecraft for new players. The blog post at bit.ly/uked15may06 has some other ideas for reading and writing activities using Minecraft. Minecraft and Geography Minecraft can be used to explore many geographical features. The Minecraft world includes features such cliffs, mountains, ravines, beaches and lakes. Children could recreate their local area by building it in Minecraft. Working in groups they can plan and build streets, roads and buildings. Many different rock types are included in the game as building materials; such as sandstone, obsidian etc. Children can find out about where these materials come from, and how we use them in the real world. The game world includes lava, which will turn to stone when it meets water. This introduces children to the idea of molten rock which can then solidify, and so beginning a discussion about igneous rocks and the rock cycle. Within the game, many minerals can then be “crafted” into other materials. For example an in-game forge allows metals to be turned into tools and clay into bricks. These processes give children a chance to begin to explore the idea of natural resources and how we find and use them. They can even explore farming! Minecraft and History Minecraft could be used to construct famous buildings from History, such as Egyptian or Mayan pyramids, or Roman and Greek temples. Children could investigate castles by building one of their own! Read some more ideas for Minecraft and History at bit.ly/ uked15may07.
Minecraft and Computing Minecraft includes a set of resources known as Redstone, which can be used much like electrical circuits are used in the real world. Redstone can be connected to switches to turn on lights and open doors, for example. Children can set up a simple system with a light sensor to make a light come on when it gets dark in the game, or a pressure pad that opens a door. With the right set up, you can even build AND and NOT gates. Here’s some more info on how you can do that: • bit.ly/uked15may08 (blog) • bit.ly/uked15may09 (YouTube video) • bit.ly/uked15may10 (blog) It’s even possible to add modifications or “mods” to Minecraft that allow for more sophisticated coding opportunities. A mod such as Scriptcraft (bit.ly/uked15may11) lets children program in JavaScript within Minecraft. The children can also build their own mods using software such as LearnToMod (learntomod.com). There’s plenty of ways that a game such as Minecraft can be used in the classroom, and not just within computing lessons. So – how are you using minecraft?
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How can teachers make global connections? By David Rogers
As a geography teacher, I’m often asked how to set up links that have a global connection. Indeed, as a geographer I am often called upon to teach about places, concepts and processes that I have no direct experience of. I’ve been lucky in the past to be involved in setting up a school link with a secondary institution in South Africa, and the British Council (britishcouncil.org) can help here greatly. However, global links needn’t be epic to be memorable and, through new technology, it’s possible to bring the idea of global development into the classroom. Here are five simple tools to help open up the world: Digital Explorer The digitalexplorer.com team are brilliant. A dedicated team that share expeditions and explorations with the classrooms around the world. In particular, check out their Oceans Live initiative. This brings schools the opportunity to connect, live via Skype in the Classroom (education.skype. com), with Ocean researchers live from the field. Arctic Live (bit.ly/uked15may12) starts in May. In terms of global cultural understanding, check out these pages that compare life in the UK with Pakistan. Some powerful learning opportunities. Gapminder It’s hard to think that some geography teachers may not already know about Gapminder.org. This powerful tool visualises development information from around the world. Students find the interface really engaging. The site can be used to reinforce mathematical skills (such as describing and predicting correlations between variables) as well as exploring some of the factors affecting development. Mapping the Tweets of London twitter.mappinglondon.co.uk is a really interesting resource to start off a unit on global connections. Start with asking students to describe how the distribution of Tweets in each language is spread around the capital before starting to research the areas. Use Google’s Streetview to see if there is any evidence in the built environment to reflect the 06 UKED Magazine
concentrations, for example, do the tweets match up to the location of embassies? Bing start page Whatever you think of bing.com as a search engine, it’s daily image is a stunning way to introduce different places around the world. Display the image with a simple thunk, such as ‘What evidence is there that this place is developed?’ This can create some lively classroom discussion before students delve deeper into the location. It’s a very useful way to tackle the misconceptions that students have about how development can be measured. Public Profiler Another useful little tool for demonstrating the connections that young people have with the world through their surnames. Set a homework to use the site and then see if your young people can investigate and uncover any real connections with the places shown. Also a useful suite for practising exam skills such as describing geographical patterns. Finally, head over to the Geographical Association’s Global Learning Programme pages at geography.org.uk. Image credit: flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/5280585822 by Michael Coghlan used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
David Rogers is a multi-award winning teacher, author and wannabe ultra-marathon runner. As an Assistant Headteacher in Brighton he helps lead Teaching and Learning across the school. David doesn’t like desks, but has sat behind one for long enough to write textbooks and educational resources, becoming a Microsoft Innovative Fellow and Google Certified Teacher and Mentor along the way. David is most proud of being a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and winning its coveted ‘Excellence in Geography Teaching Award’ in 2013. This year, his challenge is to learn to ride a unicycle. Find him @davidErogers and read his ramblings at davidrogers.org.uk
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ukedchat.com/magazine 07
Teaching
Grit
in the Classroom
By Barbara R. Blackburn
A popular topic in educational conversations today is grit. Grit is perseverance; the decision (and ability) to keep moving forward rather than giving up. Many students have grit, just not related to academics. When we are teaching grit, students may experience some frustration. That is normal; in fact, if they aren’t experiencing frustration, then they do not have the opportunity to use grit. Students who demonstrate grit are more confident, and ultimately, learn at higher levels. Therefore, it is important for us to teach and reinforce this skill. How can we do that? There are two basic steps. 1. Create a climate that encourages grit. 2. Provide opportunities for students to demonstrate grit. Create a Climate that Encourages Grit Your first step is to make sure your overall classroom environment encourages grit. This starts with you! Share your own experiences where you struggled and persevered. Model it for students. I remember one year when I was teaching graduate students. They were all teachers coming to school at night to work on a master’s degree. Research writing was a challenge for them. One night, I brought in an article I had written for a journal; one that had been rejected. I showed them the comments, and then explained what I was going to do to revise and resubmit the article. It was an eye-opener for them. As Kim said, “I never realised you didn’t write perfectly all the time!” Our students don’t see us struggle. They think we just magically do what we do. It’s important to show them otherwise. We can also provide role models with stories of people who have persevered. This can be with posters of those people along with a quote exemplifying how they overcame success, or by reading about them. One strategy I used was to have my students research someone who struggled and create the posters with accompanying narrative. Today, I would probably have them create a fake Facebook page on a poster for display. Another alternative is to use literature to learn about perseverance. Of course, you can read non-fiction books and articles, but there are also examples in literature that teach this lesson, such as Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind and Watty Piper’s The Little Engine that Could. Third, talk about grit. Be explicit when discussing the role of grit in learning. Regularly use words such as frustration, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, and self-confidence. Also be sure to praise students specifically using this vocabulary when their efforts warrant it. 08 UKED Magazine
Provide Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Grit The second step is to allow students to actually practice using grit. This one is a bit tricky. You must know your students well enough to know how much frustration they can handle, and then provide them a learning opportunity in which they will struggle. Quick success is not your goal in crafting the activity; providing them an opportunity to feel frustrated and respond is. Thomas Hoerr (2013) describes an effective process to use when presenting students a learning opportunity to develop grit. 1. Create Frustration a. Before they start, ask students to anticipate how hard the assignment might be and to think about something else they have done at the same level. b. Next, ask them to think about a task when they were successful and how grit played a role. c. Then, have students work on the assignment with 5 minutes of full force effort. When they struggle, they should stop and breathe, reflect, and try something else. d. Remind students that a good failure is one where you learn. What are you learning?
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Reflect and learn. Discuss the lessons learned. Then celebrate progress! Take care with the amount of “grit opportunities” you provide. For many of your struggling learners, everything is a “grit opportunity”. These, however, will be structured experiences in which you coach them as to how to respond appropriately. You’ll also want to make sure they understand what you are doing and why so they don’t give up. Conclusion Grit is a skill that is needed in today’s society, and it is one that can be taught. It’s important that we incorporate strategies for students to develop grit in our classrooms.
2. Monitor the experience a. Gauge how frustrated they are using a simple scale (numbers or just up and down). b. Ask how they respond to frustration. Place them in groups based on the strategies they used for a response. Ask the groups to discuss. c. Create checklist to monitor progress. You may want something like a two column chart with headings of key points in the lesson on the left and a place for notes on the right. For younger students, you can keep this as the teacher (based on your observations); for older students, they can self-assess.
Barbara R. Blackburn is an educational consultant and the author of 15 books, including Motivating Struggling Students: 10 Ways to Build Student Success - View these on Amazon at bit.ly/buildstudent. She currently resides in the United States. View her site at barbarablackburnonline.com and follow her on Twitter at @barbblackburn. Image credit: flickr.com/photos/bigganbivi/16895955525 by Birgitta Sjöstedt used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License. flickr.com/photos/zionfiction/10475616246 (cropped) by R. Nial Bradshaw used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License. flickr.com/photos/misgoddess/8795626821 by Monica H. used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
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Literacyopicandin T Context LaTiC (Literacy and Topic in Context) was born out of a visit to Nene Park Academy (@NeneParkAcademy) in 2014. At the academy, while visiting for the day, I observed ‘Literacy in Context and Culture (LinC2)’ (bit.ly/uked15may22) being taught in Year Seven. I took this idea (being used to bridge the transfer from KS2 to KS3) and adapted it for my Year Five cohort. Here’s what I did: I looked at which of our cross-curricular English / topic links would best suit this type of teaching. I picked out our teaching of explanation texts and its link to rivers and river systems. The unit of work would have an outcome of writing an explanation text of ‘How a River System Works’. We’ve currently taught in this style for three weeks of the school year. In future we may increase, but for now, it’s just used as a one off. The first step was to take two classes and put them into four mixed ability and mixed class groups. Sixty children, split four ways: fifteen per group. Next, we worked backwards from what we wanted the outcome to be (writing an explanation text) and created lessons and independent activities based upon giving children the knowledge and skills required to completed that end of unit outcome. We needed twelve independent activities, twelve teacher lead activities and then three lessons at the end for planning, writing and editing. Over the three-week unit, we had five lessons per week, so fifteen hours in total. In this, each session was thirty minutes long. Here’s an example from rotation one: Group A: River Channel Explanation Comprehension (Independent) Group B: Sentence Type (Teacher 1) Group C: Key River Term Definitions (Independent) Group D: Explanation Text Features Identification (Teacher 2) Over day one and two, each group would rotate through this and cover all four parts. Days three and four would have the next rotation and so on… Every thirty minutes sees two groups working independently, learning or deepening geography knowledge, while two groups work with a teacher on aspects of the English element - writing an explanation text. 10 UKED Magazine
Having fifteen children for thirty minutes provided the opportunity to spend more time with each child, better understand misconceptions and facilitate discussions between peers. Teaching children an aspect of a text type while they’re also experiencing the learning of the subject knowledge to accompany it also allows features, sentences types and punctuation to be even more explicitly taught in context. The teacher has to, over two hours teach the same thing four times, but with less children, refining it each time and in context. I found this a really powerful way to teach a text type, in context, providing children with my time and developing independent learning skills. It’s worked really well for me and I hope it’ll be successful for others too. The biggest success was in the final outcome, where both the geography knowledge and English skills were noticeably improved for all children. Image credit: flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4005631298 (cropped) by woodleywonderworks used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
Liam is a Year 5 teacher and team leader at a four form entry junior school. He is a computing subject leader and half of Half of @PrimaryIdeas primaryideas.org and is in his ninth year of teaching. Find him on Twitter at @ThisIsLiamM.
Subject Knowledge
Knowing your Stuff
By Rachel Jones What do you think you know about the subject that you teach? For some teachers the answer might be obvious. They know everything about their subject. They love it. It is what they studied at University. They are passionate about that discipline and have continued their subject learning into their professional career. (Geography geeks are guilty of this in my experience) Teachers should, I believe, aspire to a dual professionalism of mastery over their subject knowledge as well as pedagogical knowledge. For other teachers, the idea of teaching the subject they studied at University is laughable, as what they teach currently is so far removed from their original study. Others might be latecomers to teaching, and have already have a career to draw on, rather than a simply academic background. Let’s not forget the Primary sector – where these guys teach everything, which is, quite frankly, damn impressive. (I am going to throw in a cheeky ‘Go Primary’ in here!) So, I think it would be useful for us to reflect on what we know, or at least what we think we know. When I was studying for my degrees, every time I found I knew something, I discovered a whole area that I knew nothing about. In fact, whole areas of history to which I was totally ignorant. Much of learning now feels like this to me. I am learning about teaching IT and computing – I am so very aware of my ignorance in many respects of the subject. This shouldn’t paralyse you or make you fearful of learning. In fact, it is liberating to know that you are on a journey that had no endpoint, no final destination. Just as developing your practice is never done, so it is the same with learning. I am planning to audit A-Level Computing at my school this coming academic year to try and fill in some of the holes in my knowledge, but there are lots of other steps that I could take. If you think you have holes in your subject content – then congratulations for being honest that your brief learning (probably quite some time ago) is probably not the be all and end all of that particular subject. I am well aware that teaching subjects to GCSE or A-level does not require teachers to have the same subject mastery as a Professor at University. However, what it really does require is for teachers to not be, well, blagging it. If you have knowledge gaps, never try and blag it in front of a class. You will lose credibility much quicker, than if you confess and honestly Google the answer. Teachers should not have to be encyclopaedias of information, but you do need to be a credible authority. There are many courses available from exam boards, education authorities, educational consultants and subject specific professional bodies. Most schools are prepared to allow teachers a number of professional development days a year, and it might be worth while working specifically on subject knowledge content. Alongside this is the teaching and learning area of development. I don’t care if you have never got less than a Grade 1 in observation. This is something everyone can improve on. You think you are outstanding? Then let’s try and be even better than Outstanding (Great phrase, misquoted from @KevBartle). I honestly do not think the key here is by throwing money at it. There are numerous free options to help you improve your teaching practise. Blog, and take the time to reflect on Image Credit: flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4263321185 by Horia Varlan used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
your own practise. This can be done easily by setting up a free blog on one of the many platforms, such as WordPress or Blogger. If you don’t want to start your own blog, then write something for UKEdChat or @Pedagoo to engage with the wider teaching community. Of course, there is also Twitter. This aside, I am always staggered at how few teachers get to TeachMeets. Do yourself a favour, look on the TeachMeet wiki and get to a local event. They are free, and there is often free cake/food as well as a sharing of ideas. You don’t have to present – but it will certainly help inspire you through the next half term, and I have always come away from them with at least one good idea to try in my classroom. Really perhaps what we know, ultimately, is that we can always strive to be better at what we do, in terms of both our subject and pedagogical knowledge. How we go about improving these two things is very much the choice of the individual. For some, they work in schools that have a very prescriptive approach to professional development. I believe that is can only be a good thing for us to work towards a more bespoke approach to development, which lets face it, can hardly be the sole responsibility of the school. You are the only one who truly knows the areas in which you need to improve. Rather than hiding these, and letting the years lapse by, why not take the positive step of doing something about them. Schools are often more than happy to support the individual efforts of teachers to develop themselves, and so why not take advantage of this, as well as it then being obvious to those above you at school that you are actually trying to improve, not just for your own benefit but for the benefit of your educational community.
Rachel Jones is a teacher and e-Learning coordinator. She shares interesting ideas about pedagogy and other geeky stuff on her blog at createinnovateexplore.com. You can find her on Twitter @rlj1981.
My Basic Essentials for Outdoor Learning
It’s the summer term, the sun is out and, even though Outdoor Learning takes place all year round, this is the time when the more reluctant teacher ventures out of the classroom. I’ve been there, we all have. I was asked what basics I thought should be hand for use outside. Good question. This is a list of the resources I think are easy difference makers. Easy to find and source. Low cost - High Impact. They can be used with children of any age, for a diverse variety of learning experiences in different curriculum areas. It is not a perfect or complete list. I would encourage reflection and discussion. Each item has a variety of uses and applications. Use your imagination. 1) Chalk – Thin and Chunky 2) Tyres – All sizes. 3) Paint & Brushes – poster paint/watercolour 4) Mirrors & Magnifiers 5) Sticks & Canes 6) Wellies! (Oversized so children can wear over shoes) 7) String, Thread & Ropes 8) Crates, Boxes and Baskets 9) Stones, Pebbles, Shells etc. 10) Bricks & Blocks – Real ones, not just plastic 11) Sink/Running Water/Hose/Pipes – plumbed or outside tap 12) Sand, Soil, Woodchips or Bark @WatsEd Lincolnshire - Assistant Head Teacher 12 UKED Magazine
Board Games in the Classroom
In Brief
Image Credit: flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4329173343 by Horia Varlan used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
Some of the hardest things to teach are the most intangible. I always tell my pupils I want no-one to leave my classroom without better manners, consideration of others and communication skills, but teaching these can sometimes feel like constant nagging. Board games, in my experience, can be a fantastic way to develop these ideas as foster a sense of fun and community in the classroom. Board games have come a long way since Monopoly. There are some amazing, intriguing games out there which can be adapted for whole-class use or you could split your class into groups and have them play copies of the same game. Some of my favourites include: 1. Dixit. Great for creativity, writing and speaking. Can be used as the rules suggest or in a myriad of other ways, for example as creative writing prompts. 2. Word on the Street. Fantastic for spelling, using dictionaries and strategic thinking, I have made a whole-class copy that can be downloaded here, with the publisher’s permission. 3. Wits and Wagers (Family Edition). A maths estimation game that helps teach measurement, capacity and units as you go, with a fun ‘betting’ element – a firm favourite in my classroom. @honeypisquared Essex - Teacher
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ukedchat.com/magazine 13
What is the point of
Residential Field-Trips?
Are they worth it? #YearOfFieldwork
I just got back from a field-trip to Iceland with forty students and my team of staff. It was epic. We were straight back into teaching and the new term today after arriving back at school at 10pm the previous night, but it was totally worth it. This year is the 'Year of Fieldwork' but I still hear / see so many conversations that include 'why bother', 'it's too much hassle', 'my school won't let me out', 'why should I organise it?', 'it's too risky', and see conscientious teachers worrying about benefit vs cost and whether trips are worth the effort. Well, they are. End of. Because it's not about the hassle, the paperwork, the emails to the British Council, the liaising with parents, the money collecting, the itinerary building, the bag packing, the passport checking. All of the minutiae isn't worth focusing on. We say life is a journey; that destinations aren't important, that learning is a process and that the end point isn't always the actual achievement - well I think that fits to trips as well. Does it really matter whether every student has a better grasp of coastal processes or volcanism at the end, will the trip itself make them more successful at an exam? No, not in itself. Five days in Iceland doesn't pass an exam, but it doesn't half make a life changing difference to some students. Because what matters to the students themselves on a residential, and what they remember most, isn't necessarily what we as teachers are focusing on. Are they bothered whether they stop for twenty or thirty minutes at a waterfall, or are they more concerned with whom they sit next to on the bus? I'll be honest, I didn't have forty students asking me deep and meaningful geographic questions every minute of the day - but I did have deep and meaningful conversations, and saw students having them for themselves. So why bother with residentials? This was some of the feedback from the students last night that I overheard whilst they were updating our trip blog for the last time (geogdebens.wordpress.com if you're interested):
14 UKED Magazine
"I really loved spending time with people I hadn't known before, and finding out we had become good friends by the end" "I was dead nervous before the flight as it was my first time flying. I was sitting next to a student I hadn't met before and, Miss, they kept talking to me and reassuring me, and making me laugh. Before I knew it I was confident, and I had a new friend. Now I just want to travel everywhere!" "I loved every minute of the trip. The teachers were fun and I learned so much by accident. But best was getting to know my friends in a whole new way, and learning to look after ourselves." "I liked that the teachers gave us freedom and trusted us. We could make mistakes but knew that they were there to look after us and help if we needed it. I felt safe to try something. I've never crossed a river by hopping stones before, never been on a glacier. I was scared but now I'm confident." "I've never walked that far before, and when I first started up the glacier and up the waterfall I didn't think I could make it. But I wanted to have a go, and Sir kept me going and chatting and distracted me from worrying. I realised I could do more than I thought and that fear had been holding me back. My mum was proud when I told her I did it." "The trip was epic. We nicknamed the teachers and it was good getting to know them in a different way. They helped us when we had an argument with people in our room and I learned to ignore the little things and not get so stressed." As teachers we might focus on what we want students to get out of a trip, in an academic sense maybe. Students will have different priorities. There might be a disconnect between our disparate aims unless we are careful. Of course this is natural to some extent, but no reason why we can't cross over more.
What do students worry about / ask about most on trips? Easy: food and friendships! The most often asked questions were to do with who they could sit next to, who they shared a room with, what free time they got, what food they will have. The only tears we had were on the last night when a room key was hidden as a prank and this caused hurt feelings of 'they don't like me' before being resolved and forgotten. Right up there alongside glamorous glacier hiking and Blue Lagoon bathing in the 'what we enjoyed most' category was the time spent with friends, the 'girly chats before bed', the walking and talking together, the food. Simple things, but powerful. They make or break a trip. As far as I'm concerned, a residential trip is multi-purpose. I took mixed year 9 and 10s, all GCSE Geography students but a wide range of abilities and personalities and circumstances. I had some with serious health concerns, some child protection children, some first-time travellers, some world jet-setters, all sorts. It wasn't a 'clipboard-tastic' trip. If someone has paid ÂŁ850 and gone in their Easter holiday then I want them to enjoy themselves. The kids called it 'learning by accident', which I love. We had snowball fights, laughed at ourselves, told stories, shared experiences but also learned about waterfalls by being inside one, learned about waves by listening to them and watching them smash the shore, learned about glaciers by climbing on them. But on top of this we watched students blossom from being shy to being outgoing, learning how to hold conversations, learning independence, sorting their own problems (if you
lose your room key, you try to sort it out first), dealing with fear, building relationships, becoming more well-rounded young people. Residentials also have a purpose for the staff involved. We bonded ourselves, having not all worked together before. The science NQT had some 'in at the deep end' learning experiences (and can check off some standards in his folder!) - you could see his confidence clearly rise throughout, and his presence with students changed both out there and now back in school. The non-teacher learned all sorts of subject knowledge and logistics planning. The member of SLT got to let their hair down and build relationships with teachers and students in a different way. The returning-to-work Geographer had some in depth hands-on CPD and came away buzzing. I also think there is a benefit for the parents and carers in some ways. We had a twitter stream for the duration of the trip (@eggarsgeog #EggarsIce) updated by students and staff throughout the day, and the GCSE blog shared the day’s events and photos each evening. I had such positive feedback from parents and guardians for these. They felt involved in their child’s experiences from afar, and some commented that by asking students to update via Twitter they actually found out more from them about their day than they would normally at home at the dinner table! This was inclusive. Many parents sent thank you emails and cards saying how their children had returned more confident, and being more
ukedchat.com/magazine 15
Of course the difficulty is ensuring that access to opportunities is equal and available to all, regardless of social position and finances. This is a challenge. If a trip is not ‘compulsory’ or a specific part of the curriculum then we cannot always get bursaries for disadvantaged students to take part. But we can still seek funding from other sources, e.g. the Royal Geographical Society and Geographical Association have opportunities to apply for grants (as well as other grants available, e.g. grantsonline.org.uk / grants4schools.info ). Of course we will not be able to take every student away to every destination, it just isn’t feasible. So it is important to offer a wide variety of opportunities in the ‘fieldwork diet’ for students to pick from. This can be something as simple and cheap as camping on the school grounds overnight, walking in the nearest woods and geocaching, orienteering, finding a local river and wading through it, using tools like the John Muir Award and Mission Explore for inspiration. Fieldwork doesn’t always have to be far-flung to have high impact – doorstep geography can make a real difference. Seeing year 7 exploring the undergrowth of the school grounds looking for wildlife and minibeast habitats is still good, can still build independence and social skills. It is the responsibility of Geography Departments (as well as others in school) to offer variety and to tailor the opportunities to meet the needs of learners within that school and their circumstances. It’s not always about the destination ;-) On the last night meal we had speeches and awards. Our newly appointed Head Girl made a thank you speech to staff that made me well up. She thanked us all, but particularly made me well up by thanking me for the opportunity that they had never had before and for 'making life better' since I Image credit: All foreground images were provided by Jo Debens
The Golden Ticket Post assessment marking is done. DIRT is used by students to make amendments after marking. Changes made using green pen, 1 paragraph is chosen by me to be rewritten and improved. SPaG amended, in green. Students answer WWW and EBI on docket used for feedback and ONLY when all these are completed do the students bring me the docket and get their grade. This has impacted and improved the student’s achievements and prevented a furore over grades as paperwork is handed back. ‘Golden Ticket’ now operate across all my classes. @chappers44 - West sussex - Teacher of English
16 UKED Magazine
joined. This trip wasn't about the geography, it was about the students. And as far as I'm concerned, it always will be. Why am I a teacher? For spine tingly, eyes-welling up moments like that. Was it worth the hassle of 6 months of planning? Hell yes. Staff happy, students happy. And when else do you get to be on a trampoline under the northern lights with a bunch of teenagers chatting about the meaning life?!
Jo Debens is a Head of Geography and Numeracy Coordinator at a comprehensive school in Hampshire and has been teaching for seven years. She likes to dabble with anything creative and will try to get food, games or tech into learning when possible. Jo is a Microsoft Innovative Teacher and Google Certified Teacher who tweets from @GeoDebs and blogs on jodebens.com when inspired.
In Brief
responsible for themselves, and that they as parents were realising they could let go of the reins a bit more. Independence being stretched.
When Knowledge Becomes Secondary Everyone knows how it feels to tick a massive, complex, timeconsuming task off our “to-do” lists - amazing! But a lot of times we forget how many personal, social, and psychological skills are associated with the completion of such tasks. The perseverance, communication, and “tinkering” required to complete a task is enough to put many people off doing it altogether. We are quick to forget that these are the basic underlying skills with which we do manage to complete those tasks. Unfortunately, these skills are still often viewed as “secondary” in the classroom. With shifts in education focussing more on skills instead of knowledge, it is crucial that children have opportunities to build important “real-life” skills, such as cooperation, perseverance, and recognising the importance of a positive, reflective attitude. Project-based learning gives children a starting point, guidelines, and a clear end goal; it is up to them to figure out the rest. Teachers acting as mentors as opposed to dictators give children the chance to generate their own ideas, discuss them, and work through various steps before reaching a clear solution. In the process, they gain more than just “knowledge” - they gain something much more valuable; a sense of genuine accomplishment. @MissCurrie19 - Leigh-on-Sea, Essex - Year 3 Teacher
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ukedchat.com/magazine 17
Book Shelf
Drawing Projects for Children by Paula Briggs
Drawing can really strike the fear into many teachers who lack the skills or confidence to share their artistic flair in front of a class of pupils – especially when you think that many in the class have a better eye for art projects than you! It can expose you as actually being weak at something – a skill where the students are potentially better than you. Fortunately, help is at hand, as Paula Briggs fantastic book is packed with advice, inspiration and ideas on encouraging pupils to experiment with different drawing techniques which will help make some wonderful creations. Paula Briggs With three tiers of guidance (Getting Started; Have a Go, and; Push it Further) this book guides you through the materials and projects that can help you inspire children to discover the joys of drawing. Ideas are uncomplicated (such as the continuous line drawing idea) and go through to more complex notions such as making illustrations and adding weight or depth to drawings (we particularly enjoyed the ‘Making Marks which tell a story’ idea – a super activity which can easily be adapted to include literacy skills!). Helpfully illustrated with a great mix of images and illustrations, this is a super art-based View on Amazon at book which can easily be used by teachers of all drawing abilities to help inspire, encourage and boost pupils in developing their artistic skills. www.bit.ly/drawingprojects With a cover price of £14.95, this book is available from Amazon (link) priced at £13.17 (paperback only) and published by Black Dog Publishing.
How to survive an Ofsted Inspection By Sarah Findlater
Many fear the inspection regimes currently in place in many educational systems, but love them or loathe them, being prepared for such a visit is key to ensure a less stressful time for everyone included. Within the England system, the Ofsted regime reigns over the schools sector, being answerable to the government, and in this new invaluable guide from Sarah Findlater, teachers can find everything they need to be fully prepared for an inspection and to get as much out of the process as possible. Sarah has supported many a teacher through an inspection and here shares her advice and experience. The book includes: • Practical strategies for improving key areas that Ofsted inspect • Logistical details of everything that will happen • Analysis of important parts of the Ofsted school inspection handbook • Extracts from outstanding inspection reports • Different phases for the reader to dip into whether Ofsted is on the doorstep, or if preparing in advance
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This is a handy book for school leaders, practicing teachers, or those venturing into the profession who want guidance and advice on such inspections. The system and priorities constantly change (the moving goal-posts!), but the main thrust of this book is to keep you calm and ready for inspections and to improve your day-to-day teaching. With an RRP of £16.99 this book is available from Amazon priced £15.92 (paperback), or £15.12 (kindle) and published by Bloomsbury.
Good Ideas for Good Teachers who want Good Jobs by Gerald Haigh It is very easy to get complacent and comfortable at your current school, working with teaching colleagues, the kids are great, and all seems well. Some people are like this, and good luck to them, but others are thinking about the next step on their career path, which might not necessarily include the school where they currently work. Let’s face it, we live in a world where a job is not for life, and we all need to make sure we are well placed when taking the next steps in our career. In his new book, Gerald Haigh provides a guide that contains everything you need to know about interviews, jobs and career progression. He makes sure that as you approach each step on the career ladder, the choices you make and the actions you take are really worthy of your status as a good teacher. As a good teacher you can carve out the career that suits you – on a ladder leading to headship and beyond, or on a winding and intriguing path through a series of jobs that broaden your experience of life. Good teachers are flexible visionaries. Good teachers are doers. Good teachers know where to find the jobs. Good teachers do not count their chickens. Good teachers know that, in job hunting, knowledge is power. Good teachers know how to fill in application forms. Good teachers have good answers to interview questions. Good teachers avoid interview pitfalls. Good teachers don’t feel rejected. Good teachers are decisive about the job offer.
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This is an easily digestible book, that won’t get you bogged down throughout the application process. The straight talking nature of the text reassures you, and helps you celebrate what is good about your career so-far, and gives you a helping hand in securing your next job. With an RRP of £12.99, this book is available from Amazon (paperback) or Kindle £12.34 and published by Crown House Publishing.
18 UKED Magazine
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Pollution:
The Developing World Pandemic By Esther Wiredu
When Dr. Jenny Linden, an air quality scientist, attempted to measure the pollution in Ouagadougou, capital city of Burkina Faso, one of her instruments got clogged. The instrument was, in fact, designed for road dust in Arizona, but the dust in Ouagadougou exceeded the machine’s limit by far. It had to be sent to the United States for repair. I believe pollution is a global issue and everyone contributes immensely to the problem. Although, exposures to environmental pollution remain a great source of health risks the world over, these risks are, in the main, higher in developing countries, where lack of investment in modern technology, poverty and weak environmental laws contribute to cause high pollution levels. Undoubtedly, environmental pollution affects a number of health problems in our world today. Sanitation and hygiene, water pollution, indoor air pollution, outdoor pollution and contact with chemicals, both indoor and outdoor, are all important risk factors. Though, it may be challenging to measure, accurately, the health effects of pollution, figures available prove that between developed and the developing world, between the rich and poor, the developing nations – the poor – suffer these health risks. Research has it that about 8 to 9% of the world’s total disease challenge may be linked to pollution, but largely, in developing countries. Even in developed countries, environmental pollution continues to exist most especially in the poorer communities. Environmental pollution can be defined as the presence of a substance, in the environment, which is potentially damaging to either the environment or human health. So pollutants take many forms. They include not only chemicals, but organisms and biological materials, and energy in all its forms. These pollutants are, in fact, innumerable, and this is what makes the issue more threatening. Some 30,000 chemicals are used today, any one of which may be released into the environment during usage or processing. The Global Fate
and health, or make reliable assessments of the distribution or mortality linked to pollution. In many developing countries, monitoring of diseases, reporting of mortality, environmental and population surveillance are unsuccessfully dealt with, because of the general state of poor routine monitoring and reporting. However, it is these developing countries that suffer the health risks from environmental pollution. The World Health Organisation estimates that, overall, cardiovascular diseases account for between 19% of total deaths worldwide. Cancer, an estimated 12%, acute respiratory diseases 8.1%, unintentional injuries 5.7%, diarrhoeal diseases, approximately 5.8%, chronic respiratory diseases, 5.7% and perinatal conditions 6.2%. Whilst these figures estimate the global challenge of disease, and are not linked with any health causes, they are a major help in the provision of comparable data. Smith et al, attempted to assess the environmental contribution to the global disease challenge, using the WHO’s data. The attempt reports that environmental factors account for between 25% and 33% of the world’s total diseases, but with an uneven share of this falling on children under the age of 5. Diarrhoeal diseases are attributed to the environment. Malaria, 88% and acute respiratory illness, 60% are seen as outcomes for which the environment is noticeably influential. Poor water and sanitation is estimated to be responsible for about 5.3% of deaths around the globe, whereas, air pollution contributes 1.1% and 0.5% of total deaths. Environmental factors are responsible for 4% of the global challenge of disease. Problems of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, account for an estimated 6.6% of disability-adjusted life years in Africa and 3.6% in south-east Asia, compared to 0.4% in Europe. Risks related to environmental pollution in developing countries are 15-35 or more times greater than in developed countries. Doom and Gloom?
It is somewhat challenging to estimate the contribution Many of these risks and health effects can be avoided of environmental pollution to the problem of disease easily. The solution does not lie in cutting-edge technology 20 UKED Magazine
or even expensive drugs. Instead, it lies in the need for preventive measures to reduce the emission of pollutants into the environment, first of all, and this is largely attainable with existing practical knowledge and ability. In many of the richer nations, it has been implemented. The question, then is, what is still allowing environmental pollution to have damaging effects on developing countries? Well, it is not the many failures in science and technology, but the lack of political will and economic liberation. Are we begging for deliverance to come for those at the mercy of environmental pollution?
Esther Wiredu is an English teacher in Ghana, and is passionate about helping students acquire creative writing skills. She writes and edits professional/ academic literature. Esther will write just about anything. Currently, she is the managing editor of her school’s newspaper, The Early Bird. Follow her on Twitter at @EstherWiredu. Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbakr/9380065716 by Damiån Bakarcic used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
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Now what??
By Natasha E. Feghali in collaboration with
In a second attempt to further understand the new trend amongst human behaviour in the 21st Century or in the technological age (as it is called) I had met up with my collaborator Superintendent John Howitt again for our followup article to our 1st collaboration together. Superintendent Howitt and I put our thoughts together to try and hypothesize on how we see the flow of communication, the flattening of hierarchy in the workplace and what it means when it goes wrong! What are the repercussions and how can this affect a career, dreams and perhaps more! According to many researchers, millennial babies are not used to receiving critical feedback and may not tolerate workplace hierarchies. After receiving trophies for not winning, speaking with their parents on household decisions and a community concept in schools, millennials are not going to tolerate the pyramid structure in a work environment. Yet what happens when they make a mistake when communicating with their said “boss” who also is part of the flattening movement in the workplace. According to Dan Schawbel in his article Millennials vs. Baby Boomers: Who Would You Rather Hire? (2012) for Time Magazine, wrote that even though young workers are less likely than previous generations to actually be in the workforce, the youth of today have very strong opinions about the workplace— how it should be run, and what their place should be in it. . Superintendent Howitt also shares that “it is flattering when people want to communicate with you and ask your opinion on certain pedagogies and educational literature”. However, Superintendent Howitt continues to share that we shouldn’t neglect our due diligence and the boundaries that come with the job. Appropriate and respectable communication is quite important when workplaces are massaged with both baby boomers, generation-x and millennials. Everyone needs to work appropriately together which in turn creates healthy relationships and work place cultures. In our search to understand the way communication is transforming amongst those in positions of authority and those mentoring under them, it is important to continue to understand your role in the system. “Yes, I welcome and look forward to communicating with everyone I work
John Howitt, Superintendent of Education – Elementary Staffing and Information Technology, Greater Essex County District School – 6 years. His previous roles include Elementary Teacher, CAIT, Elementary Vice-Principal, and Elementary Principal. Committees: Technology Council and John collaborates with Community/Provincial Liaison: Faculty of Education Liaison (Elementary Practice Teaching Placement) and CWE Executive Committee. 22 UKED Magazine
John Howitt
with however, if that trust is broken, where does that leave our working relationship?” said Superintendent Howitt. Because communication is an integral part of the work environment, learning the etiquette necessary for respectful and appropriate communication is something that we as teachers could integrate into our daily lessons. Although we (the non-millennial generation) see the dynamics changing, it is very wise to remember that individuals in positions of leadership have worked hard to get there. Keeping that respectful dialogue present whether in person or via on-line medium is important. Can it be a career breaker? Superintendent Howitt explains that while it will not be a career breaker, in many cases it can hinder relationships and break trust. This will in turn change the dynamics of that relationship and could sever all ties. As Schawbel also mentions in his article, Gen Y will also reshape the workplace—sooner than later, if they have their way. Among other characteristics that stand out, millennials, who have come of age with the text message and social media, are an impatient bunch: They’re hyper-connected, tech savvy, entrepreneurial, and collaborative. They also favour fast-paced work environments, want quick promotions, and aren’t fans of traditional office rules and hierarchies. It is important to ensure that the relationship is trusting and has honor. Although many working relationships are friendly, it is important to understand that a hierarchy does exist in the workplace and responsible communication as well as, we have a responsibility to keep our broader audience in mind. In the 21st century we are able to communicate globally and this gives communicators a due diligence to keep the messages constructive and positive; especially if it will take place over social media. It is when the confidence is broken that ties are severed and communication will cease. It is an interesting walk…
Natasha E. Feghali, is an artistic ESL/ FSL Specialist teacher, DELF/DALF formatrice as well as AIM educator for the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) in Windsor, Ontario-6 years. Feghali has taught with the Ministère de l’Education National de France where she worked in Bordeaux, Aquitaine. Feghali has been creating alternative ways of learning a second language by the use of art, culture and more. She has created well received workshops which have helped many educators yield positive and encouraging results in their second language classroom. She is also an award winning free-lance journalist for the last 12 years with experience in arts, lifestyle and fashion journalism and most recently educational pedagogy. Find her on at @NEFeghali.
Knowing One’s Place
Exploring with GPS By Martin Burrett
I write is on an unusually warm Early April afternoon long a river bank a few miles away from my home. You now no doubt have an image in your mind of the location. If I continued by saying that I’m in Constable country, and he painted one of his most famous pieces a few miles away along the river at Flatford Mill (bit.ly/uked15may35), you now probably have a fairly accurate idea on the vista in front of me now. However, if I told you that I’m facing south across the river at 51.963396, 0.994802, you could see it for yourself. I’m a big fan of paper maps and atlases too, but pinpointing your location with tech brings many additional benefits. Tools such as online and mobile based maps have changed the way we look at the world and can provide an extra dimension for educators and learners which has never been available before. Now with GPS and high resolution aerial photo maps that can track your precise location on screen, learners can explore in safety and without bounds, and hopefully, with guidance, follow on foot. It is easy to design location based games in your local surrounding. Services like FourSquare pioneered the genre, but you can also design your own activities. Geocaching, where one person hides something at a location for others to find by sharing the GPS coordinates has many educational applications. For example, pupils could be sent on a ‘mystery tour’ (with family if you teach younger children) for homework to research the history, geography, biology, art etc of the local area using a breadcrumb trail of coordinates. ‘Capture the flag’ games can be enhanced by using technology. A great example is Google’s geo-location game Ingress.com (Enlightened will be victorious! - excuse me!) Maps can be combined with photos or QR codes of a marker to ‘capture’ a location by recording a code. Apps like trebleapps.co/knit allow users to write messages which are location specific and are activated. This is great for creating treasure hunt games where you leave a string of clues for your students to find and solve. Ultimately, the aim is to better acquaint your pupils with there surrounding and to stimulate their curiosity.
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ukedchat.com/magazine 23
Upper Middle phase
Runoff
Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation Fold and cut vertical slits
Water Fall Middle phase Upper phase Lower phase Fold and cut vertical slits
Side support
3D Water cycle diagram by @ICTmagic Download at ukedchat.com/PSC00005
Side support
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