Chalkface Blog

Tickled Pink

14/04/2008

At least I was for about 5 seconds until I realised this is just as robot working on Senator Obama’s behalf. Still, a nice souvenir for the grandkids, don’t you think?
Best assessment review ever

14/04/2008

We have had user reviews in Yacapaca for a few months now. They are generally positive, and often useful, but they are probably not the most exciting feature. Over the weekend, though, Jenny Heath from Hobart High School in Norfolk left one that really made my heart sing. Here it is: (in context here)

These are coursework essays for AQA English language and literature (we use Shakespeare as a cross-over piece). The reason I did it like this was so I could comment on their work while it was still in progress rather than paper form – you do have to ‘lock’ the essays from your teacher ‘tasks’ page, to prevent coursework being done outside of school. The only problem is it doesn’t print in paragraphs, so I think we’re going to have to copy and paste it into a word document (also will check their spelling then) and then print a final version.

I’ll definitely keep doing this for essays for all classes – I might even set KS3 some homework through this: It took me hardly anytime to write comments for each of the year 10’s essays – more time for planning the next one! I’m a yacapaca convert!

What I love about this review is that Jenny gives clear specifics that will help other teachers to decide whether or how to use the material. By pointing up the problems she had, she also gave me pointers as to where the issues are with the system. We have since had some correspondence about the value (or otherwise) of printing essays that are written online, for example. This kind of discussion is enormously helpful to me, given that I don’t have a classroom of my own in which to use Yacapaca with real kids.

I’m planning to offer prizes for the most useful reviews: this is certainly a candidate!
Well done Mum!

13/04/2008

This is my mother abseiling off the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge this morning, just 3 weeks short of her 76th birthday.
Flickr's Donuts campaign as Citizenship education

13/04/2008

I see in the news that the We Demand Donuts campaign on Flickr has already won. If only ending global warming were so easy.

It set me thinking. Which is a better introduction for young people to becoming politically-aware citizens: a school mock-poll on the EU Constitution, or a daft (but successful) campaign on a popular public website? I know which I’d rather use as a teaching tool.

But perhaps I’m biased because I like donuts. See you in SF on the 16th.
Gifted & Talented Challenge

08/04/2008

I actually wrote this a week ago whilst I was in Ukraine, and then discovered I’d failed to bring my password file. Sadly, the promise of worldwide access isn’t completely idiot-proof.

Geography author Paul Laird invited Alex (our CTO) me up to Huntcliff School last week to help launch the Redcar & Cleveland Gifted and Talented Challenge.

What Paul is doing is really innovative; pitting gifted kids from each of the participating schools against each other in teams to perform a series of challenges, and holding the whole thing together with a variety of web tools. Getting meaningful collaboration between schools is a huge benefit to the gifted kids, who often find themselves quite isolated and without a natural peer group in their own schools. There are benefits beyond G&T as well; cross-fertilisation of teaching ideas, for example.

Alex and I got really engrossed in Paul’s vision and came away wondering what we could do to support it, beyond hosting the quiz component which we already do. If you are doing or planning an inter-school competition I’d love to hear from you. And if there is a way we can support your efforts, we will gladly do it.