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bookmark_borderPersonal Project, IB MYP workshop, Day 1

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Two day workshop, Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th of April, 2015, led by Gary Green.
The Personal Project is an independent research project that a student produces in Year 10. It is a creative endeavor of the student’s choosing that demonstrates the skills the student has learned in Approaches to Learning. Assessment of the Personal Project is based on a set of 8 specific criteria that are normalized to a scale of 1–7. The Personal Project is designed to demonstrate the student’s ability to organise, create, and complete a significant body of work.
(Source) Also see notes from Day 2.

 

myp_eng

The essential structure of every lesson and every personal project is:

  • Know (knowledge)
  • Understand (think about)
  • Do (skills, processes)

The personal project is the one time in which students set their own course completely.

Continue reading “Personal Project, IB MYP workshop, Day 1”

bookmark_borderA visit to Botswana

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ICapt4444uren our Year 10 Unit “The Geography of Wellbeing”, we are using Botswana as a case study to investigate responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Since many of my students initially had no idea of where Botswana is (could you point it out on a map right now?) and because none of them had been to Africa, I decided to take them on a virtual visit:  Continue reading “A visit to Botswana”

bookmark_border“How People Learn” Effective teaching in History

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86f80dff7d4c3ca38804855513f857d1I have enjoyed skim reading the book “How people learn” by the National Research Council. It aims to give practical ideas on how to use current pedagogical research in the classroom.

The three key findings that the book presents are:

  1. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.
  2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must:
    (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
    (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and
    (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
  3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.

It has a very interesting chapter about History teaching. You can download that chapter here: Continue reading ““How People Learn” Effective teaching in History”

bookmark_borderRevision with “Heads Up!”

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In 2013, Ellen Degeneres released an app called Heads Up. It’s a simple app, it works like “Celebrity heads” and it nicely made with some fun features. I used this app to revise key words from our History course, the students loved it.

(https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/heads-up!/id623592465?mt=8)

Here is Ellen playing the game with Owen Wilson:

Continue reading “Revision with “Heads Up!””

bookmark_borderTeaching online research skills

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fire hydrantIt’s sometimes astounding to see the simplistic ways in which some students look for information online. Typing a whole question verbatim into Google and then clicking on the first result is what some kids see as “researching online”. Writer Erik Palmer said that “when we prepare (our students) to conduct quality online research, we prepare them for so much more”, and I agree with that. Learning how to do quality, in depth online research teaches critical literacy and analysis and teaches students that all information comes from a certain perspective. So before any online research project, I often go through these steps:

  1. Teach them how to craft a better search query in Google by using search operators. Show them how to use the “Advanced Search Page” in Google.
  2. Look at the URL. It often contains information that can show you if it’s reliable or not. Not all sites are created equally. This comes as a surprise for younger students in particular. Explain how a URL like http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change will propably contain more reliable information than a URL that looks like this: http://damn-human-race.weebly.com/blog/the-great-climate-change-science-scandal#.VPG0n_khfYo. Checking the URL should only be their first port of call.
  3. Every website should be checked for credibility, purpose, and reliability.
    1. Credibility: Is there a verifiable author or organisation behind the page? Who is this person or organisation? Do they have expertise?
    2. Purpose: WHY was the site created? Is there a personal agenda, why?
    3. Reliability: Can you find the same information elsewhere? Can you corroborate what this information?
  4. Introduce them to citethisforme.com, currently the easiest to use online citation tool.

Continue reading “Teaching online research skills”

bookmark_borderHow to be an Essay Writing Jedi Ninja (Poster with Canva and Thinglink)

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Over the years I have honed my essay writing teaching skills and I’ve distilled it to 5 top tips:

  • RTBQ
  • TEAC
  • Signpost
  • State and Evaluate
  • Find the golden thread

Rather cryptic, I know, but my students know what it means. I made a poster using two cool sites: Canva and Thinglink. Canva is fantastic for making professional looking posters and Thinglink adds an interactive element to images and text. Hover your cursor over the image below to see the explanation of my cryptic but very good essay tips.

bookmark_borderTeachmeet Thursday 6th of Nov, at Wesley

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Teachmeet Wesley 6th of Nov 2014I had the pleasure of hosting a Teachmeet at my school this evening. As expected, it was an inspirational, informative and informal evening, full of great sharing and networking. We had an excellent group of people with very interesting presentations.

Here are the links to the tools and sites that were presented:

And here’s the full Storify, with all tweets and photos: Continue reading “Teachmeet Thursday 6th of Nov, at Wesley”

bookmark_borderA Virtual Excursion to Florence

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I created a virtual visit to Florence.

The aim of this activity is to give kids an indication of what this amazing city is like. I purposely did not include very difficult questions or complex activities; this is really about having a wander around and discover some of the places that are so important in the history of the Renaissance.

The outcome of this virtual excursion is “Seven Florence Facts”; students just have to share seven interesting renaissance facts they learnt as a result of this online excursion.

Activities include walking around Florence Cathedral (Il Duomo), going inside the Uffizi Gallery, sliding a photo on History pin to see what the Ponte Vecchio looked like after WW2 and a look inside a Medici villa.

overview Continue reading “A Virtual Excursion to Florence”

bookmark_borderOreo Plate Tectonics

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A great way to explain plate tectonics and simple plate movements is by using Oreos. This is based on a lecture by Dr Bob Lillie of the Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University. I found the PPT online at the Oregon State University website  but frankly, the internet is quite full of “Geo-reo activities”

Here is the PPT: ImageOreos Plate Tectonics. I have changed the PPT a little (mainly to get rid of Comic Sans, I get a bit twitchy whenever I see that font).

The kids responded really well to this activity. There is nothing better than some hands-on activities to make information stick. The students were like little Pavlovian dogs; salivating while moving the “plates” around on the “magma”. After 15 minutes of playing with Oreos they gobbled it up in 1 second flat. Added lesson: delayed gratification!

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