The arrival of the magnifying glasses next to Google search results could have been designed for children. Being able to see a screen shot of the page enables pupils to get a sense of whether the link will be interesting and at a level of text density that is suitable for their reading level.
It is also helpful to see where the search terms appear within that page to speed up the scanning process.
Now if it could just appear on all the computers in school at once rather than a select few, that would be even better!
It will be interesting to see how the LA filtering system copes with the possibility of displaying visually inappropriate pages, but this is part of the e-safety awareness that we need to be teaching our pupils. It will take time to see whether the advantages outweigh the safety concerns. Personally I fee that anything that encourages children not just to accept the first pages that Google lists.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Adventures in Home Learning
The battle between home and school.
Now clearly homework shouldn't be a battle for anyone. OK, who am I kidding?!
Improving attitudes to homework throughout our school community has been on my remit for a couple of years now. In that time I've done a lot of reading of books and web articles, talking to children, looking at parent questionnaires and leading staff discussions.
I haven't found THE answer - and if I had then I'd be shocked - and maybe rich... But I think I have found out a lot of useful answers.
1. You will never please everyone
Some of our staff think children should be given lots of homework; some feel that children should be able to enjoy their free time and family lives. Always in questionnaires we have some parents complaining there is too much homework and others too little. Some children enjoy the opportunity to continue their learning and others are just not interested, or too busy, or disorganised.
2. Be clear about the purpose of the task.
I am working within Y3 at the moment. Children take home a task sheet in a folder each week. This term I have taken to explicitly writing the purpose of the task at the top of the sheet. Not only is this helpful for parents, it also ensure that the task I set HAS a valid purpose. If it doesn't, then it shouldn't be sent home.
3. Allow flexibility
Since the purpose is explicit, it now means that children can undertake a different task of their own devising that achieves the same purpose. Sometimes I will set one very structured task with an option of one or more open-ended tasks and let the children choose. It is always made clear whether or not an alternative task is acceptable - and so far this term it always has been.
4. Different children/families like different things
Just because I think an open-ended project is the most exciting form of home learning, doesn't mean it will fit in well with a busy family schedule. This is why I have taken to ALWAYS setting a straightforward structure task as an option each week.
5. Reward don't nag
In the past I have always spent ages chasing up missing homework or sitting in at lunchtime with children who haven't done theirs. This term I haven't really nagged at all. We use house points in my school so I've rewarded children with those as follows:
Bring it in the next day - 3HPS
Bring it in early - 2HPs
Bring it in on time - 1HP
I then award house points for different aspects of their task - ideas, effort, thoughtful presentation, extra tasks - and I'm always explicit as to what they have received each point for.
I have had almost 100% return rate this term. A couple of children who don't have the support have asked if they can do their tasks the lunchtime of the day that they're set with me - which is fine.
6. Give parents enough information to help them support their child
At the end of each task, in Y3 we now have a 'note to parents' paragraph. This gives any useful context to the task, reminds them about speaking with us if there's a problem and reemphasises how long the task should take and the fact that children can spend longer but shouldn't be made to; that the task can be completed in a different way and that use of a computer is always allowed! Interestingly, my colleagues and I have received far fewer queries about home learning this year.
7. Ensure parents are at least seeing their child's task
As a school we set up a home school record sheet that the parents sign each week so we know that at least the child has tried to share it with someone at home. It also includes space for a comment if parents wish to make one. I always initial this when I mark so the parents can see I'm acknowledging their commitment and aways respond to comments - even if it's only an exclamation mark or a 'thanks'.
8. Really focus on the fact it's learning rather than work
Over the past couple of years as a school we have gradually moved away from referring to homework and used home learning. I am much more comfortable with this, after all, continuing learning at home is what we're trying to encourage, and it's a natural thing to do.
I haven't mentioned the use of our Learning Platform, for the simple reason that although we encourage its use for home learning (and it is well used by most of our school community), it's not suitable for blanket policy as not all our families have Internet access and of the families that do, some of our children hardly ever get a look in after parental and older sibling use.
In an ideal world, there would be no 'home learning' or 'school learning', there would just be learning. In making the formalised tasks we set as purposeful and enjoyable as we can, I hope that we are beginning to remind our school community of that fact.
Now clearly homework shouldn't be a battle for anyone. OK, who am I kidding?!
Improving attitudes to homework throughout our school community has been on my remit for a couple of years now. In that time I've done a lot of reading of books and web articles, talking to children, looking at parent questionnaires and leading staff discussions.
I haven't found THE answer - and if I had then I'd be shocked - and maybe rich... But I think I have found out a lot of useful answers.
1. You will never please everyone
Some of our staff think children should be given lots of homework; some feel that children should be able to enjoy their free time and family lives. Always in questionnaires we have some parents complaining there is too much homework and others too little. Some children enjoy the opportunity to continue their learning and others are just not interested, or too busy, or disorganised.
2. Be clear about the purpose of the task.
I am working within Y3 at the moment. Children take home a task sheet in a folder each week. This term I have taken to explicitly writing the purpose of the task at the top of the sheet. Not only is this helpful for parents, it also ensure that the task I set HAS a valid purpose. If it doesn't, then it shouldn't be sent home.
3. Allow flexibility
Since the purpose is explicit, it now means that children can undertake a different task of their own devising that achieves the same purpose. Sometimes I will set one very structured task with an option of one or more open-ended tasks and let the children choose. It is always made clear whether or not an alternative task is acceptable - and so far this term it always has been.
4. Different children/families like different things
Just because I think an open-ended project is the most exciting form of home learning, doesn't mean it will fit in well with a busy family schedule. This is why I have taken to ALWAYS setting a straightforward structure task as an option each week.
5. Reward don't nag
In the past I have always spent ages chasing up missing homework or sitting in at lunchtime with children who haven't done theirs. This term I haven't really nagged at all. We use house points in my school so I've rewarded children with those as follows:
Bring it in the next day - 3HPS
Bring it in early - 2HPs
Bring it in on time - 1HP
I then award house points for different aspects of their task - ideas, effort, thoughtful presentation, extra tasks - and I'm always explicit as to what they have received each point for.
I have had almost 100% return rate this term. A couple of children who don't have the support have asked if they can do their tasks the lunchtime of the day that they're set with me - which is fine.
6. Give parents enough information to help them support their child
At the end of each task, in Y3 we now have a 'note to parents' paragraph. This gives any useful context to the task, reminds them about speaking with us if there's a problem and reemphasises how long the task should take and the fact that children can spend longer but shouldn't be made to; that the task can be completed in a different way and that use of a computer is always allowed! Interestingly, my colleagues and I have received far fewer queries about home learning this year.
7. Ensure parents are at least seeing their child's task
As a school we set up a home school record sheet that the parents sign each week so we know that at least the child has tried to share it with someone at home. It also includes space for a comment if parents wish to make one. I always initial this when I mark so the parents can see I'm acknowledging their commitment and aways respond to comments - even if it's only an exclamation mark or a 'thanks'.
8. Really focus on the fact it's learning rather than work
Over the past couple of years as a school we have gradually moved away from referring to homework and used home learning. I am much more comfortable with this, after all, continuing learning at home is what we're trying to encourage, and it's a natural thing to do.
I haven't mentioned the use of our Learning Platform, for the simple reason that although we encourage its use for home learning (and it is well used by most of our school community), it's not suitable for blanket policy as not all our families have Internet access and of the families that do, some of our children hardly ever get a look in after parental and older sibling use.
In an ideal world, there would be no 'home learning' or 'school learning', there would just be learning. In making the formalised tasks we set as purposeful and enjoyable as we can, I hope that we are beginning to remind our school community of that fact.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Five ways to make the most of your half term
I really am the LAST person to create a tips list like this as I seem to either feel like I've worked all through a half term or that I've frittered the whole week away without noticing. However, there's the whole 'do as I say' thing to go on... Anyone else's tips gratefully received!
1. Plan to relax
Actually decide times when you are going to do nothing and then don't feel guilty about doing so.
2. Plan to work
Again, decide when you will work, then try to stick to it. If you can leave your work somewhere it won't be shaking its finger at you, trying to make you feel guilty about ignoring it when you're not working, so much the better. This of course could be a plan to do NO work at all!
3. Look at the weather forecast
Having an idea of what the weather will be doing can be the motivation to go out and make the most of the sunshine while it's there.
4. Try to achieve something every day
And by achieve, I just mean something you've felt was a good use of your time: met up with friends, spent some quality time with family, tried out a new recipe, investigated a new website, got the car MOTed! It doesn't necessary need to be that exciting.
5. Find a way of recording what you've done
Over the Summer I used Memiary to record things that I'd done. I also used it as a bit of a planning tool to decide in advance things I'd like to do. Again these ranged from the mundane to the frivolous - generally a mix on each day! (I really wish I'd done that this week...)
1. Plan to relax
Actually decide times when you are going to do nothing and then don't feel guilty about doing so.
2. Plan to work
Again, decide when you will work, then try to stick to it. If you can leave your work somewhere it won't be shaking its finger at you, trying to make you feel guilty about ignoring it when you're not working, so much the better. This of course could be a plan to do NO work at all!
3. Look at the weather forecast
Having an idea of what the weather will be doing can be the motivation to go out and make the most of the sunshine while it's there.
4. Try to achieve something every day
And by achieve, I just mean something you've felt was a good use of your time: met up with friends, spent some quality time with family, tried out a new recipe, investigated a new website, got the car MOTed! It doesn't necessary need to be that exciting.
5. Find a way of recording what you've done
Over the Summer I used Memiary to record things that I'd done. I also used it as a bit of a planning tool to decide in advance things I'd like to do. Again these ranged from the mundane to the frivolous - generally a mix on each day! (I really wish I'd done that this week...)
Half Term round up
The Battle between relaxation and guilt
Well I managed to go out on a drive through the beautiful Berkshire countryside on Monday to make the most of a lovely day - the leaves in Windsor great park were stunning.
But other than that - well I did try to switch off. Really I did. And I enjoyed reading Labyrinth as part of the relaxation (and also discovering in the process of finding that link that there is a book about the goblins from the film Labyrinth!) However, I also rediscovered that actually I find books about education much more relaxing than novels as I end up completely caught up in a novel as if I've gone through the whole experience myself!
So now it's Saturday and I'm working. And I will be working tomorrow. Might it have been better to work through last weekend so that I could just rest now? Possibly. However I really needed to stop last weekend. And the advantage of leaving the work until now is that I only have two days to do it. If I had started last Saturday then I could have continued working through the rest of the week.
But I managed to not feel guilty as I rested - so that was definitely one of the main aims of the week managed. And I do feel more motivated and ready to enjoy the half term leading up to Christmas.
After all, that's the main reason why I know that I need holidays - to recharge in order to start again with the energy levels that are essential to making a difference in school.
Well I managed to go out on a drive through the beautiful Berkshire countryside on Monday to make the most of a lovely day - the leaves in Windsor great park were stunning.
But other than that - well I did try to switch off. Really I did. And I enjoyed reading Labyrinth as part of the relaxation (and also discovering in the process of finding that link that there is a book about the goblins from the film Labyrinth!) However, I also rediscovered that actually I find books about education much more relaxing than novels as I end up completely caught up in a novel as if I've gone through the whole experience myself!
So now it's Saturday and I'm working. And I will be working tomorrow. Might it have been better to work through last weekend so that I could just rest now? Possibly. However I really needed to stop last weekend. And the advantage of leaving the work until now is that I only have two days to do it. If I had started last Saturday then I could have continued working through the rest of the week.
But I managed to not feel guilty as I rested - so that was definitely one of the main aims of the week managed. And I do feel more motivated and ready to enjoy the half term leading up to Christmas.
After all, that's the main reason why I know that I need holidays - to recharge in order to start again with the energy levels that are essential to making a difference in school.
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