Why do we count in 4s?

 Why do we count in 4s in England?

As a former maths teacher who chose to work in #FEmaths I think we may need to look at assessment at age 16.

I give the analogy of a pilot in my book.

A pilot proves knowledge has been acquired and retained on key aspects of flying in an exam. But to fly a plane commercially they accrue hours of competency. They evidence, over time, how they apply this acquired knowledge. They progress in their roles held in a hierarchical structure with flying hours a key part.

When I think about assessment in England, we assess at 16 a whole course approach and those who don't achieve the desired grade 4 are immediately affected for the rest of their lives. 

Imagine a student who achieved a grade 3 in maths but 7s in all other subjects. They gain 4 A levels (not in maths). Go to university and achieve a BA. They do an MA and then decide to get a job.

The first qualification that is often required is a grade 4 in English and maths. The rest of this students brilliant study doesn't get taken into account unless that grade 4 is there.

The 4 is what counts.

Sure the student can re-sit alongside other study but the point is, we place all our emphasis on this assessment designed for students aged 16.

What were you like at 16?

We don't take into account experience, skills, evidence of learning over time. 

We count in 4s.

I say this having taught an adult who worked as a healthcare assistant in a hospital, during covid, who wanted to be a nurse. They re-sat maths 6 times. They earnt a healthcare assistant wage for the 6 years of re-sits they took. They gained vast care and medical experience in that time. The year of covid they passed maths and immediately began a nursing qualification. Upon completion all the years experience were recognised and they entered nursing at a higher band salary than would be usual.

The experience counted but only after we counted in 4s.

So I come back to the pilot example, yes a skills test of the basics. Then a process of evidencing learning over time, applying the subject to real life, showing what you know in a variety of non exam ways. Sounds like a good maths course for 16-19 years olds, no?

These are not our decisions to make but we can raise our voices and show how we think change would deliver better for our students.

We need to stop counting in 4s.

This analogy and other arguments for disruption are in my book which is raising funds for charity. It is also available as an audio listen along version as well. Info at www.whatthetrig.co.uk 

Building Communities Online ish

Relationships play a key part in what I do. As a professional and as a teacher. What I love is getting to know, and helping people. I recently presented at Canopy Live on building communities online. This is a session I trimmed down from a full day's training that Dr Lou Mycroft and myself offer colleges and schools ( happily discuss more about this with anyone interested, anytime). We talk about the practice of care in what we do and making people feel valued.

Forgive me for forgetting where I heard it, but the saying, you haven't arrived in the room until you have spoken. How do we create that culture of safety for students to feel that they have arrived and able to speak?

In the #JoyFE #IdeasRooms the opening round is always 'How are you?' This is a perfect way to arrive in the space, everyone feels valued, everyone is heard, no pity party is held but pain is acknowledged. And sometimes we need to say we are not OK and for that to be acknowledged for us to start to feel better. yet when teaching, this is a question I tread very carefully with. It is not that my students are worth less than my colleagues who I share this caring practice with. It is that I want my students to feel safe.

We know teenage years are incredibly awkward for many, we have lived them after all. If I were not OK when I was 16 and my maths teacher asked how I was, I am not sure what my answer would have been. possibly, 'yeah fine', and move on to the next person or maybe 'actually I'm unwell and I really need help because I have recently experienced X'. The first answer worries me as a teacher. I want my students to feel that they can talk to me about anything. I really do. How do I know when they are fobbing me off and saying they are fine when they are not? How do I unpick that as a teacher who sees them once a week? But it is the second answer that concerns me most.

A few weeks ago I was teaching online and I asked my students my own version of a question that welcomes them into a space. (Secret revealed shortly, hold on!) In the chat box came all the answers from my students and I commented on them as they came in. Then a student posted, "I've got the rona." 

When you ask "How are you?" You have to be prepared for the raw, honest and hurtful response that you may hear. You have asked how the other person is, and they are choosing to share. You can't preempt that response, therefore you cannot regulate your emotions to what is about to come your way. You are open and vulnerable to what is coming, you made your position clear when you asked "How are you?" Whilst vulnerability is brave and respected it is not a naturally comfortable position.

So what did I do with my ill student? I (rightly or wrongly) offered empathy, offered support and offered them a breakout room to chat more. Their reply was "nah, it's just having to isolate that does me in" 

What my student wanted was for how they are feeling to be acknowledged, they didn't need any help at that time. It is wonderful that I am aware and I can offer support for them in other classes and check on their health in a follow up message later. But they weren't annoyed at having Covid-19, they were annoyed at having to isolate. This then prompted a lengthy 15 minute chat between students about how isolation was causing havoc with their work and personal lives outside college. 

Honestly, as an adult, these were not the concerns that I was expecting. But this is what we do, we expect certain behaviours from students. Prensky (like or loathe the term digital native and immigrant) talks about how teachers need to communicate in the language of students. I struggle with a lot of what Prensky wrote in that piece but I think there is something in our expectations as teachers vs what students reactions. I am not talking about inappropriate behaviour nor refusing to engage with work. I am talking about how we, as adults, think along one path and students may think along another. How we expect students to respond to "How are you?" and how they choose to respond may be different.

So what do I do? I ask a random question that falls into my head. My previous top 10 hits have included asking "favourite sci-fi film?" "Pepsi or Cola?" "Best size of Easter egg?" "Favourite Christmas song?"

What am I trying to do? I am trying to welcome my students into the space by asking an extremely low stakes question. I can then engage with responses and hopefully build rapport. They have arrived in the space once they have spoken. This started off with good intentions and has been well received. So much so that with a returning student (a student who didn't achieve their target grade and is being compelled by law to resit again) said when introducing me to our new class together "You will like her, she asks all sorts of questions to get us going, she is funny like"

Teaching Maths Online Issue 5

 Synchronous vs Asynchronous

On our journey to become asynchronous we had another lockdown. Full on big style lockdown, the time pressure of this was now more real than before, we kind of knew we weren't physically going into the building but now it was definite. Although colleges remain open in the lockdown initially, my adults and I were an honest bunch and we all recognised we had seen the last of each other for a while. I was very grateful to have had them in for their mock previously. We needed to get this online learning working better and quicker.

Gathering all the feedback from my learners whilst balancing my own workload I began looking at tools we could use. (My workload for info, I am contracted to teach the class for 3.25 hours and the class is 3.25 hours so there is no planning time, marking time covered in the contracted hours, this is common in FE unfortunately.) I like Transum, Maths Kitchen, Study Maths, Mathsbot, YouTube videos, PearDeck, Nearpod, Edpuzzle, the list goes on. My learners particularly liked Transum, Maths Kitchen and Study Maths. Transum has levelled progression and the learners were capable and confident to drop down a level or jump up a level depending on how the task was going. They particularly like the check it button that self marks part way through the task. Maths Kitchen gives levelled progression and videos if you get stuck. Study Maths has quick 10 questions that change all the time and are instantly marked.

The hyperdoc concept had worked but to create a hyperdoc of all the videos, tasks for the vast amount of content that we cover in class it would be a booklet of hyperdocs in no time at all, defeating the object of it being a one stop shop hyperdoc. I wanted to give them choice over the tasks to complete, if they preferred Transum they could do that, or if they wanted a Maths Kitchen, I wanted to give them a choice. Likewise I wanted to give them a choice over which videos they watched, there would be one of me explaining the topic with my nuances but I wanted to give them another option, I didn't want them to get stuck at any point. I decided on Google Forms, the same theory applies to Microsoft Forms too. I used branching logic, or go to section based on answer to create a path for my learners through their asynchronous work. Much like my favourite choose your won ending books of my childhood the principles applied nicely here to Forms.

I began with writing the learning intentions and giving them the video of my explanation. I did this by pasting a link into the form text, in Google Forms unless it is a YouTube video it cannot be inserted. I didn't want my learners heading to YouTube and becoming more lost, they were staying with me on this form! 

If they were ready to practise, they would be taken to a choice of tasks to complete, if they wanted another video it took them to a YouTube video explaining the same topic. No matter what their route they all ended up at a final exam style question in the form and a self reflection score.

We trialled it synchronously first. We had 3 different topics to cover in our 3 hours. I inserted each of the Forms into one hyperdoc and wrote the timings on for each section. I ran one to ones with learners in those self study times. At the end I was exhausted, there was no difference for me, I still talked for 3 hours constantly be it in a group chat or a one to one. I gave them 45 minutes on each topic and we came back together for what was planned to be 15 minutes cover misconceptions chat but ended up just being a chat. The chat was fun. In the Form I also included a file upload question. Here the learners could upload a screenshot of their work on the task. This was less successful as many couldn't do screenshots so took photos on their phone and then sent them via our Hangouts messaging chat instead. Either way I still got evidence of how many correct they go in the task. So the chat time in the lesson became more about the technical features of the file upload section and by the third round of forms I had an almost 100% success rate of file uploads coming in.

At the end we chatted about how the lesson had gone, I am honest enough to say I am trying new things to help them and I need their feedback to decide on the next steps. Overwhelmingly this was their favourite lesson so far. We decided to make the switch to asynchronous from next lesson. (I best get some videos and forms made quickly!) The main feedback was they felt less pressure not being on a large call with all of us. They like the peer support but they all felt pressure. In the one to ones that I held this was expressed too, they didn't want to be the one with tab issues slowing people down. So that's it we are now trying asynchronous learning. 

3 forms with go to section based on answer enabled (branching logic in Microsoft forms) choice on video, choice on task, upload evidence of work, answer exam style question to assess, and give self evaluation score too. All pulling in to one Spreadsheet for me to analyse.

Easy done, never need to speak to them on a call again right? No! I have long been aware that the value of the teacher is in the explanations and tackling misconceptions not in delivering content. So in our 3 hour timed slot I will be available for one to ones for 45 minutes. Followed by 3 workshops all 45 minutes long. Where I will tackle misconceptions address errors, recap key points, the mini teaching we used to do in small groups in class. Sometimes I will invite learners specifically to come along. All have an opportunity to speak to me on a one to one basis, at present it is first booked first served. I would like this to be a rotation basis so that they all get time regularly. I am excited by this. I am excited by spending more quality time with my learners, at this moment I have no idea if it will work at all! Hope you're online teaching is going well.

Angles in parallel lines

I have to admit that this is not a topic I am personally brilliant at. Every time as a department we did a mock paper there would always be a heightened anxiety I had if there was an angles in parallel lines question on the paper. I am not great at spotting F and Z angles. I struggled with it at school. I was taught it as F and Z angles and they’re no longer allowed as descriptions! It’s just not my kind of topic, I have a brain that means I have to work harder with shape space and measure topics! I have some great lessons to demonstrate alternate and corresponding angles and I heavily rely on these to be clear in my demonstrations. I have to admit in my early years of teaching I had my fingers crossed that all the students would get on board with it and there wouldn’t be many questions! As the years have gone on I am more confident to field the questions that learners have on the topic but I can’t help but empathise with those learners that just don’t get it!

Have you ever sat in a training session thinking, nope no idea where this is going, what time is lunch? You can see that look on learners' faces sometimes and I see it more often than not in angles on parallel lines. One year I had a learner who was in a bridging provision, not quite an alternative provision but not a mainstream school placement, she just couldn’t grasp angles in parallel lines. I went back to teaching angles on a straight line and recapped that. She turned and looked at me and said “yeah what’s that got to do with this stuff though?” and I thought, oh yeah she’s right! It made me think. What is the best way to sequence angles on parallel lines? I wasn’t sure I had it right? I went back to the exam boards scheme of work. I then checked another exam boards scheme of work and both indicated angles in polygons and angle facts on lines were the building blocks to angles in parallel lines. So yes, what did it have to do with this new topic of angles in parallel lines?

I questioned myself. I know it is 2 sets of lines and angles facts but why do I teach it as an abstract standalone topic? Was it because of my previous lack of knowledge in the topic? Was I projecting my fears onto my learners? So being brave and taking the risk with my next group of learners I taught angle facts on straight lines and around a point then in the lesson on angles in parallel lines I left it as a challenge for them to calculate missing angle values in parallel lines. Unsurprisingly with their existing knowledge they were able to answer the problems. Obviously their reasons weren’t alternate and corresponding angles but their numerical value answers were correct. I then taught my usual lessons edited a bit so that we covered the reasons for parallel lines in the following lesson.

Now I teach GCSE resit to 16+ learners. I teach 16-18 and 19+ learners and as you can imagine both groups require different approaches. I find that 19+ often crave the knowledge for perfect answers and will tackle angles in parallel lines with greater ease than 16-18 learners. 16-18 learners have sat the exam already, if not more than once. They have seen angles in parallel lines in many forms already, they’ve learnt F and Z to help them remember but then had that crutch taken away and ‘should’ know how to calculate missing angles in parallel lines with reasons. However they haven’t achieved a grade 4 and have to sit the exam again and what if they still ‘can’t’ calculate angles in parallel lines? So I now teach it as 2 sets of angles on a straight line problem and that the angles repeat. For example:

When you look at the mark scheme, the majority of the marks are for the numerical values, 

This is taken from Edexcel Foundation Paper 2 2018. ¾ marks are for numerical calculations. This example had an isosceles triangle included as well as parallel lines. I have now, almost, enjoyed teaching angles in parallel lines this way. I find that if their angle fact knowledge is secure I can introduce the labels on top for alternate and corresponding angles easier. 

You may not have the difficulties I had with angles on parallel lines, you may not even teach maths! My point is had I not been challenged with “but what does that have to do with this stuff though?” I would never have looked at my sequencing on the topic. Perhaps you have a topic that often falls flat in class? It may be worth re-evaluating your sequencing up to that point, does it make sense, almost ask yourself, yeah so what? Why am I teaching it this way? I don’t need to remind you if you are in education of the need for impact impact, IMPACT! If you taught it this way what would be the intended impact and if you taught it that way what would be the intended impact? What is the actual impact? Can you trial both ways? 

We must, as educators evaluate where we have been on the learning journey in order to guide our learners to their intended destination. We don’t often have the time or prioritise the time to undertake such evaluations but hopefully this post inspired you to take a moment and think? 

Planning for blended learning

As I write this, we don't know what September will bring. We assume September is coming as expected but local lockdowns and bubble collapsing appear to be the normal. I have been fortunate to have 5 minutes to think about what do I want my classroom to look like in September. I am fairly certain I don't want to teach live lessons virtually. I am fairly certain for a few reasons: 

1) How will I check progress?

2) How will I adapt if they're not getting it?

3) How will I give feedback

4) It sounds exhausting

In terms of checking progress, my usual go to tool would be Pear Deck or Slido. Both allow me to collate feedback, confidence checks and contributions whilst presenting. In the section of my lesson where I chalk and talk. In the new virtual world. This should be entirely still possible. However I have been delivering staff CPD virtually for a few months and in the majority of cases staff's internet hasn't been capable of hosting a virtual meeting and another tab in the browser. I have tried guiding staff through joining both Pear Deck and Slido via their phones as well as the Google Meet on their browser. This was a clunky experience for all involved. I'm not sure I want to pursue this. 

Adapting my content, sure, this is a skill I have in my locker but is it a skill I have when running a virtual meeting? When I will be in present mode and not see my students? I am able to join the Google Meet on another device so I can see the participants on one screen and present on another but the focus and attention that takes means I am not focusing on what matters, the learning experience.

Giving feedback. The awkward delay waiting for a response when you throw a question out there, then they talk when you talk. No thank you. If I have an important message to give I want to give it my full attention in my delivery and the recipient to be ready to receive it also. All of this sounds exhausting.

I have blogged before on the Driving Digital New Normal blog about planning. As I have gained more experience in the virtual teaching world I am more convinced than ever that we need to deliver in a team teach approach. In a traditional classroom we plan 15 minute episodes. Ideally staff could take it in turns to deliver 15 minute episodes. Whilst one is delivering the other is running the chat, offering feedback. This seems sensible to me. So far it doesn't seem to be catching on as a concept.

So we are back to square 1, how will I deliver content virtually. Alice Keeler and Jo Boaler have often said, stop pretending that Google exists. Now more than ever we need to embrace the tools and material that already exist. I think the skill of teacher is in the relationship and feedback the teacher builds with the learner. The learner has to trust the teacher and in that trust be willing to take risks, that's when transformative learning experiences can take place. 

My plan currently is, and this is subject to change, record my chalk and talk section. Post this to Google Classroom with the resources of the lesson, then hold a live virtual meeting to discuss how the work has gone and give valuable feedback and build those relationships. Followed by a class virtual meet where we quiz or assess our skills at the end of the topic. I could run a quiz or a bingo in a Slides presentation like in class, where they draw a 3 x 3 grid, and that seems like a nice experience for students.

Hyperdocs are going to be key. Everything all in once place. Self marking quizzes to help check progress. Existing videos that explain my point. You know for that moment when no matter how you say it some students just don't follow? Now we can include an alternative video on the same topic so if they need to hear it from another voice to help it sink in, we can! There are opportunities to be had, we need to seek them out a bit.

Circles, pi and Slido! The best lesson ever?

I'm not sure I should write this blog post but anyway! I taught for 3.5 hours 10 adults GCSE Foundation Maths where we looked at shape, space and measure topics. I had planned to do this lesson last week but due to a family emergency I was absent. As my class are adults I was nervous today that I may get a rough ride for the inconvenience of skipping out on them last week. Not true, they were wonderful. One lady said, "never apologise for putting your kids first". I thought, wow that's really powerful. I'm hoping to hold onto that when I am saying no to the million CPD lates I'm asked to do but I realistically can never deliver.

So I have to admit there was a very free and easy approach to my planning, I had a tonne of activities photocopied for a variety of SSM topics as I was out of sync with my scheme of work. I took a look and thought we will start with circles and see where we end up. We had just finished statistics and graphs as a topic a couple of weeks before so I quickly rustled up a retrieval grid on that, set that out as they arrived whilst I checked over my Google Slides presentation on circles. Just at that moment in walked 2 colleagues to do a peer observation. I have an open door policy. As an experienced teacher I feel it is my duty to offer an open door policy. Generally staff ask ahead of time out of courtesy if they can come in. I always reply with "come anytime, I won't be doing anything special" today's lesson couldn't have been more true! 

Off we go then with circles in Google Slides. I have my learning intentions displayed and I write them on my board with my keywords to remain for the whole lesson. I also write the date in words. I'm a bit of a stickler on this one as good habits help make better teachers I think. I was once taught by a head of department that if you write the date in words you are showing learners that there is a quick way to write the date but have pride and high standards and wrote it fully. I quite like writing it in words and it upsets me when it is missing from classroom boards and when it is written as 1/2/20 I always flash back to my old head of department. 

In the slides presentation I have inserted slido. Now Slido is a great polling tool that pops in really easily. It is an add-on to Google Slides (I am a Google Certified Trainer so most things I do are in GSuite) I have used Pear Deck before but due to connectivity issues at the remote campus I find Slido works better. I break down the learning intentions by grade, a grade 3 student should be able to do this and a grade 5 student can do this. I give my class my same old speech: "if we teach to a 4 and we fall short we will get a 3 so no apologies I teach to a grade 5 to give you the best chance of achieving a 4." This is high expectations in its simplest form. The Slido then appears and the learners rate themselves out of 5 stars where they are against the grade 5 broken down intention. We get a split of ratings, and some questions about what a sector is. (The grade 5 intention was about calculating area of sectors!)

I begin with labelling parts of a circle. Reminding them of correct spelling. English isn't the first language for many learners, for some it's not even their second or third language. This takes some time and is dull. I am worried I am losing them. I planned to do a mini quiz on the parts of the circle and a card sort but the mood in the room is, we have notes, you will out this on Google Classroom so we have your notes too, what time is break? Picking up the pace I jump in with the circle song! You can watch the one I use here. I know there are others but this is my favourite and I encourage them to sing it to themselves in their exam!

Back to the lesson... I can then see joy at the song but confusion at pi. No surprise, who actually knows what pi is? I quickly grab the elastic bands from my photocopying and ask them to measure the diameter whilst a partner holds the band in a circle shape. I then cut the bands and ask them to measure the length of the chopped band. They then tell me that they are measuring the circumference and that is. We record the 2 measurements from each pair on the board and discover that the circumference is about 3 times bigger than the diameter. We then look at where pi is on our calculators. There is the inevitable conversation of borrowing calculators, we can debate high standards and correct equipment vs financial situation vs local demographic vs adult learners another time.

I then come away from the presentation and project some circles onto my board with varying measurements of radius and diameter. I then give the learners the option to go through area first and then circumference. I highlight that in my experience the thing people get wrong in this topic is doing the wrong one in the wrong question. Calculating area when they needed circumference. Or I give the learners the option of my default every time way. They choose my way. Everyone I see a circle I write CARD. We look at this example where we are asked to find the circumference of this circle:

The question gives us 4cm as a radius. We can write into CARD that R is 4cm and D is 8cm. Quickly singing pi r squared sounds like area to me… we can write in that the circumference would be pi x 8 and area would be pi x 4 squared. We then look back to the question and see what it asked us to calculate. In this case it was circumference so we circle that one and work it out. I like this method as it build solid repetition of the skill of recalling and applying the formulae. I also like it as it encourages the learner to reflect and choose is it area or circumference before diving in. 

In my class today the lower level group struggled to start but once CARD had been repeatedly applied they had rapid progression through the tasks. My top end learner decided his way was better and off he went. I always say, I don't care how you get here, just get here if you can. Meaning here is the correct answer! All the learners have access to the answers of all the tasks, they are marking as they go along. Suddenly my top end learner becomes frustrated. He has got most of the work wrong. I take a look and he has done the classic mistake of circumference when it wants area and vice versa. I remind him of CARD he gives it another go and signals to me 5 minutes later that he is being more successful now!

Whilst the learners are working I take 3 of them out one by one for a mini tutorial. They are my 3 at risk learners. I let them know I am putting in interventions for them and say that I believe with hard work they can improve. I am then taken aback realising my peer observers are with me in my final mini tutorial. I am mortified I left my class unattended with peer observers in the room. I apologise and my peers are great and they say, no we think it's brilliant you have taught them well enough to leave them for 5 minutes and these mini tutorials are equally important. I check on the class and they have all done a nice mix of area/circumference including semi circles and compound shapes. I give verbal feedback (should have written more down!) It's almost time for a break but not quite and I am just about to move on when one of the learners makes a safeguarding disclosure to me out of the class so I call a break for 10 minutes while I make notes and report it to my safeguarding lead. I bid farewell to my peers.

I grab 2 minutes to think about what we can do next. I had planned to do angles in parallel lines but I'm concerned that the secure circle knowledge is at risk if I go to angles. My other option is loci or bearings. I decide to go loci. I don't know why I don't teach loci particularly well. Actually it probably ranks as one of my worst lessons. I don't enjoy it and I struggle to visualise the boundaries of areas in the complex questions. Decision has been made now though, I am writing my new learning intentions up on the board before I remember how badly I teach loci!

We do a quick Slido to check our rating now on circles. Everyone has improved. We review the grade 3 and grade 5 learning intentions on loci and constructions and do another Slido, the class has no idea about the language of the topic. No one rates themselves higher than a 1. With a feeling of dread that this has been a poor decision we begin by drawing line and angle bisectors on blank pieces of paper. I demo them in my Slides presentation. (Someone years ago shared a nice demo where the compass moves and the arc appears, I would never have the time to make such a beautiful presentation so I am very grateful to still have it!) Cue difficulties with expanding compass widths in between arcs. Some are unable to keep their pencil in the compass. Some can't use the compass. I get round everyone improving their techniques I see no harm in spinning the paper rather than the compass if the learner struggles. We then take a look at some exam questions. They progress into not explicitly stating it is a line or an angle bisectors but a more worded question. All can do the explicit ones, most can do the more challenging ones. Progress is through skill repetition practise here.

I then put an x on the board (I have been rummaging in my bag for post it notes whilst they were working) and I ask each of them to put a post it note 20cm away from my x. They chat amongst themselves. Some want to do a line, someone twigs it would be a circle, then there's a competition on who can be accurate and exactly 20cm away. I am observing this active learning loving the conversation. I then demo a dog tied to a post would have a circle locus. Then a dog tied to a bar would have a running track shaped locus. (Handily there's a bar outside my window to help visualise) all are keen to get going and for some unknown reason I then decide to demo one of the complex garden planning questions. I draw a rectangle ABCD and ask them where I could put my path that is an equal distance from AB and CD. I start to get clammy I am about to jump in and answer my own question when one of the weaker learners contributes "would it be a line dissector?" We will skip over the incorrect language for now. I check the room and all are thinking the same. Another learner says "yeah this is fine but more than 5m away from the tree for the fountain that isn't any bisect or anything so what do we do there?" I am over joyed. The long phase about the path was because they had twigged that it was a line bisector and were struggling with the next part of the question. I demo an arc 5m from the tree and all are itching to get going. We do a quick Slido and no one rates themselves below a 4!

I circulate the room giving feedback. All have the answers so can tick and flick. I see little merit in me ticking and flicking their work. My role is to shape their learning journey and I do this through feedback not ticks and flicks. I can't believe it, everyone can do it! The lower level ones have some beautiful running track shaped around lines and even a running track around an L shape. The higher level ones are shading the correct regions in the town planning questions. One learner even attempts a create a shipping path question involving 5 elements. I look at the clock and 3.5 hours has gone! I pull them back for a final Slido, it stays the same. I recap our learning intentions and ask them to reflect in their fake iMessage sheets. See my blog post on feedback for these. They all thank me for a brilliant lesson.

I grab a cuppa and sit down to respond to their feedback iMessage sheets. Here are some of the responses:

"Why has no one shown me CARD before? Changed it all now"

"I will forget loci but I won't forget the lesson"

"Thank you it was epic, I learnt more than the last 4 years of studying for my GCSE"

I honestly think this was my best lesson ever. Yes I had pre planned presentations and my photocopying was ready but I made responsive decisions throughout and reflected on learner points. I don't think I did anything special, I certainly would never do anything special for a peer obs, and it all came good in the end. The peer observer emailed me a few weeks later and said she was trying Slido and some other bits she had seen me do, that is why I have an open door policy!

Padlet and notice boards

One of the things I am often asked for is an online noticeboard. Staff want to use them to inform learners, assess learners and display student work. The natural choice is Padlet. See my previous post on challenge for all. This is an example of my challenge for all Padlet. When we were ready to enter the challenge for all zone I would display my Padlet and learners would choose a challenge to apply their knowledge from the lesson to.

I hit a problem when Padlet became popular at work. We were limited to the free accounts only and this meant I now had MASSIVE messy padlets. No longer was a nice collection of things, it was now a repository for everything shiny. We trialled a few others, Linoit was my personal favourite.

Linoit allows you to get learners to collaborate together on a large noticeboard. I liked the ease of it. I disliked the basic feel of it. We were then introduced to Jamboards. I must always point out I am a Google Certified Trainer and I do use Google a lot! Jamboard replaced Linoit for me as it was very similar. The real power of Jamboard is the app that can be used on any device and everyone can collaborate live. This is seen best with an actual Jamboard in the classroom. I take the point that it is another type of board and it is unaffordable for many. I am not totally convinced on any type of board to be honest. Some of my lessons are in a room that has a projector onto a whiteboard and I annotate around my slide deck in whiteboard pen. I am very happy with this arrangement! Like I said before, I am not a fan of tech just for the sake of it and an interactive board is not always necessary in my lessons.

Anyway Jamboard...I like the collaborative nature, I like the name, join a jam, I like the colours and ease of it. I dislike the feature limitations and that it doesn’t recognise maths notation (quite a large problem!)(I m hopeful Equatio will be built in soon!) However I work with teachers of all different subjects and it has transformed some lessons. This is a simple maths jam that I use. It’s a drag and drop to reveal a hidden picture. Very similar idea to the amazing Catchphrase activities that the brilliant Laura Rees Hughes made in the early years of my teaching career that were very handy to have. 

I work with provisions with learners with additional needs and some learners with profound learning needs. I hoped the power of Jamboard would be useful to the teaching staff in these areas. I was right. The learners enjoyed the kinaesthetic nature of dragging and dropping to reveal a picture. I then expanded this to reveal giphs. One learner loved buttons, so I used buttons instead of the sticky notes and it revealed a giph of underwater creatures bubbling away. We then used the Jamboard to practise mark making. I inserted mark making worksheets as backgrounds that learners wrote over. Finally we looked at traditional categorising card sort activities and replacing them with the Jamboard. We used the Jamboard to categorise shapes that had 4 sides on. I simply inserted lots of shapes, using the Google image search feature on Jamboard. It layers them nicely on top so you have a stack of them to move about. I then added a sticky of the category.

We then built on this to parts of the body, we did an activity on vowels and consonants. We also did an ordering activity where I inserted the images of washing your hands and the learners had to put them in the right order. It has been hugely successful with our learners with additional needs. My maths learners like the maths sticky activities too. So from a tool where we collected ideas on Padlet we have now moved to Jamboard for assessing and categorising. This meant I still had a need for a tool for displaying ideas and resources. I was introduced to Wakelet. 

You can add anything to Wakelet, your own material, material from the web, videos, bookmarks the list goes on. The aim of Wakelet is to curate your collection. The very problem I was having with Padlet ending up all messy is resolved with Wakelet as it is about picking your best, and being selective. My learners like Wakelet as a reference board. For example I would make one on multiplication, starting with lattice method. Then multiplying decimals. Supported with some videos and some practise on the methods. I am by no means a Wakelet expert, others I work with are! But I see the benefit and I like to set them up after a staff CPD session just displaying the tools or theory I raised in the session.

Google Forms

In my quest to be better at giving feedback I am willing to give anything a try! I make no apologies I am a Google Certified Trainer so Google is my thing. You can recreate this in Microsoft Forms I am sure but Google is what I know. I wanted my learners to go over what they had done wrong in an exam independently. I had a class of 30 with 3 papers to go through and a variety of questions answered incorrectly across the board. I decided to go down the route of Google Forms to get feedback and next steps all done in one lesson. 

I chose 3 key questions from each paper, 9 in total. I marked the papers at home, entered them into my analysis grid and chose my 9 questions that were fairly red on the analysis grid. I had in my mind a choose your own ending scenario, like the Goosebumps books from my childhood! The form starts with instructions, assumptions are the enemy of a teacher. The instructions ask the learner to have the 3 papers, some paper to make notes, headphones etc. Question 1 asks “Did you achieve 5 marks for question 14 on paper 1?” The options are yes or no. The question was 5 marks for drawing a pie chart and a comparison between a pie chart and a bar chart. If the student answers no on the Google Form it takes them to a video on You Tube (Corbett maths) covering drawing pie charts. This is achieved with the After This Section Move to (‘After section’) part of Google Forms. If a student did get 5 marks on the question the form would take them to another section with a video on interpreting pie charts. After those videos the learner is given a question on what they have watched on the video, the question self marks as it is written as a multiple choice. The learners are then reunited on the Google Form and it asks again about another of my 9 questions, again with a yes or a no route. 

There are a few things I learnt through this process. First 9 questions was too much and too long. The next time I used a Google Form for feedback I only chose 3 questions and it ran smoother. Second thing that I learnt was that learners will sit quite happily watching videos about the topics. I wanted a way to harness this and assess them more robustly during their peak engagement with the videos. I discovered EdPuzzle, you can read more about it my experiences with EdPuzzle in my next blog. Third thing that I learnt is learners enjoyed the experience and that they could go back over things at their own pace.

I am never a fan of doing something for the sake of it. At the time of writing this Esports is everywhere and I am yet to see the benefit to my learners so I am not on board, for now! A while back QR codes were everywhere, Every worksheet, poster, display and staircase, yes staircase! I was a little late to the QR code game, it took me a while to find a place that was meaningful for me and my learners! A really nice way I found was to use it in a feedback sheet. I took the idea that students liked watching videos and were willing to work at their own pace via this medium. I created a table with the 9 questions and added 2 QR codes. One linking the learner to the video drawing pie charts and the other QR code linking learners to the video on interpreting pie charts. The point of Google Forms and the QR code sheet is to engage the learner with taking next steps or guiding them to recover topics they need to look back over. Both ways were successful in this aim. Successful in students making progress?, I have no clear answer but we try these things and build on them, I am still building!

Another use of Google Forms I have used in maths is as mini assessments. I was tasked with reducing the marking workload of the maths teachers for a LARGE number maths learners. The team wanted a 30 minute assessment on the topics covered to far that was robust and akin to GCSE. I cut and paste images from Exam Wizard and Exam Pro (both exam boards were used so I ended up making 2 assessments!) I would then make 4 choices on a multiple choice question. I was fascinated by Mr Barton’s Diagnostic Questions and the idea that you can diagnose a misconception. An example would be an averages question asking for the median of a data set. Option 1 would be correct, option 2 would be the mode, option 3 would be the mean, option 4 would be the median but using unordered data. The aim being that if the learner chose the mode or the mean you can assume the learner doesn’t know the difference between the 4 types of averages. The learner who chooses option 4 knows the median is the middle value but forgot to order the data. They need teaching differently to the learner who can calculate averages correctly. One needs practise on the language of the question, the other needs to practise median. This is a very crude example but I hope I make my point.

In my 30 minute assessment using Google Forms I made all the questions multiple choice. I enjoyed finding misconceptions. Using the incorrect trigonometry ratio, listing a highest common factor when we were looking for a lowest common multiple, it was great fun! Once the responses are in the Google Form you can direct them to a Google Sheets. From here we can mark them correct or incorrect using IF formulas. We can then RAG rate the student’s work. Staff appreciated the reduced marking, but challenged the use of multiple choices. Ideally free text would have been better but I couldn’t see a way to mark it automatically this way. If the answer was vertically opposite angles are equal learners could have made spelling mistakes that would have been marked correct if the spelling was logical. In a later blog I will talk about Equatio, a potential solution to this.

The advantages of using Google Forms in this way was that we could batch upload student results to our student data system. When it came to assessment time again 6 weeks later we could see progress within the areas assessed. Problems arose when staff got ahead or fell behind the scheme of work. Students felt under prepared. Nothing will ever be perfect but we are making strides in the right direction. If this has peaked your interest and you want to know more about my use of Google Forms, please get in touch. My plan is to write an ebook at some point about them in great detail...