NQT Training - 13th January 2012 'Building Resilience'

The following blog is extremely informative and rich in links and resources to support your personal and professional wellbeing: http://carycooperblog.com/

The free tool i-resilience can be found by clicking this link http://www.robertsoncooper.com/iresilience/and looks at adaptability, purposefulness, social support and confidence - well worth checking out (Well it is free!)

* The correlation between resilience and support.
* Is resilience a positive or negative personal attribute?
* Is resilience a predictor of success?
* How different people perceive situations in a different way.
* The need for perception to match people's reality.
* How do I check my perception with others?
* Where do managers get support to increase their resilience
* How you can develop resilience over time.
* How people can develop confidence through their resilience at home.
* How resilience is multi-dimensional

Useful Podcast about Resilience:
http://www.blubrry.com/engaging/794167/show-296-inspiring-resilience/

http://www.skillboosters.co.uk/

Developing Your Resilience

View more presentations from Jeffrey Russell

INSET Day - 16th December 2011: Resources

Inset day december 2011 final

View more presentations from Nina Moore.

Christmas Advent Gifts

As we countdown to Christmas, I will post a range of gifts for you here that will hopefully inspire and challenge, provoke and consolidate. It is my intention to also share some fun and unusual resources in the form of links, presentations, videos, pod casts, games and images. Here is a great offering from Lionel Cloarec to use with tutor groups or classes - Spot 100 Famous people!

The following sites are worth having a look at. 'Independent Thinking' has a wealth of interesting articles, resources and practical ideas focussing on areas including thinking, learning, motivation, leadership and creativity.

http://www.blogger.com/goog_908804900

The following is a link to David Gauntlett's work on creative explorations of use of Lego in education. This really inspired me and I hope his ideas get you thinking about how you might use Lego in your teaching:

http://www.artlab.org.uk/lego.htm

Ken Robinson talks about changing education paradigms:










20 Really useful ways to improve professional learning from 'CPD Update'

‘The teachers who get "burned out" are not the ones who are constantly learning, which can be exhilarating, but those who feel they must stay in control and ahead of the students at all times.'



Frank Smith

Over the years, we have covered in CPD Update an incredibly broad range of themes, ideas and issues directly related to the world of professional learning in schools. Below is a collection of 20 really useful suggestions for improving professional learning in schools today.




1. Keep a professional learning journal. This is for your eyes only and will be invaluable in supporting you through your career-long professional learning. Focus on being reflective and reflexive.

2. Join Twitter. There is so much high-quality discussion about education on Twitter, it amazes me that there are still some teachers who haven't cottoned on! This is a great source of free CPD, advice, information, guidance and virtual support. Hashtags (#) are an effective way of focusing your time on Twitter. For example, do a search for #ukedchat, #edchat and #education and you are likely to see current, relevant discussion


3. Consider blogging - or at least following blogs by educators. There are many bloggers out there, so it's worth spending some time searching for one with a philosophy that suits you. Blogging is a good way of developing skills of reflection - and possibly of helping others too.


4. Much professional learning is actually hybrid learning: a blend of taught sessions and self-directed learning. The internet is a rich source of high-quality professional learning opportunities that you can access at your own pace, in your own time. For starters, take a look at these ‘learning for free' sites: YoungMinds in Schools;Times Educational Supplement; Open Yale Courses; How Stuff Works; TED Talks; and Open Learn from the Open University.


5. Use peer coaching. We can learn much from our peers and, invariably, helping others is also a great way to learn. Great peer coaching involves all of the following at least some of the time: instructing; observing; analysing; feeding back; advising; facilitating; motivating; and supporting.


6. Develop your critical thinking skills... constantly! Being able to critically appraise research and other learning opportunities, as well as your work with pupils, will greatly enhance your professional learning. Critical thinking supports all other aspects of life too, as it helps us to make better choices and can help to facilitate an enhanced sense of wellbeing.


7. Focus on your creativity and your creative insights. This involves making sure that you feel safe to take risks with your professional learning and to get things wrong if need be. If you feel judged or penalised for taking risks, creativity is necessarily stifled. Look for answers - second right answers, third right answers and beyond! Allow time for your slow-thinking, dreamy, playful mind to present you with new ideas.


8. Aim to personalise your professional learning. This will mean taking a broad look at all the professional learning you do, and identifying what helps you to contextualise your learning, and what helps you to move towards independence in professional learning.


9. Take care of your wellbeing and work-life balance. Without that, you won't be the best you can be as an educator. Discuss the inherent tensions between your development needs and the needs of the school, and make sure that your goals for professional learning are well paced.


10. Boost your effectiveness as a professional learner, by working collaboratively with colleagues. Work on building mutually acceptable shared goals and values and a team mentality.


11. There is so much great professional learning to be derived from colleagues, but fears of public speaking can impact on staff willingness to present to others. On one level this is surprising - we might expect school staff to be able to do this with ease - but there is a big difference between speaking to pupils and speaking to groups of colleagues. Brushing up on public speaking skills, so that you can get your points across most effectively, will enhance professional learning all round.


12. Harness your ambitions. What do you really want to go for? Identify clear goals and a path to follow in order to achieve them. Most importantly, identify who can help you to get there. Your ambitions should ideally help to shape the pattern of professional learning that you undertake.


13. Plan strategically. Do your own research about what professional learning you might like to access and when. Build a support network - who can help you to achieve your goals and improve your practice? Think of colleagues, other professionals in your locality, professionals in national networks and international contacts.


14. Contextualise your professional learning. The training opportunities that you access are likely to be more generic than specific to your particular situation and needs, so your ability to contextualise learning is all-important. This also helps to nurture the mindset thatsomething can be learned from every situation at work.


15. Do an audit of the professional learning opportunities available to you. This isn't just about paid-for courses and conferences, but also about any professional learning that you can access at school or outside. Identify breadth and depth, and draw on this scope in your own learning.


16. Remember your calling. Why did you enter the profession in the first place? What were your original enthusiasms? Can you reconnect with your underlying goals and desires? Can you still identify your motivations for wanting to make a difference in the classroom and in the lives of young people? If you feel different now, what is it about your current experience that has distanced you from those original enthusiasms.


17. Understand what motivates you. Determine the differences between your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and use them to further professional learning. Being motivated is likely to inspire others too. This links in with coaching and mentoring skills.


18. Explore sustainable approaches to professional learning. Being overambitious is likely to lead to disillusionment, but there is much that can be achieved through, for example, discussion groups between school clusters, use of social networks, use of ICT (such as videoconferencing and Skype), and the contextual intelligence in your school. If your plans for professional learning involve big budgets, then you may need to explore more sustainable approaches.


19. Celebrate and share professional learning. There is little point in learning taking place, if it doesn't get shared. This is how areas of expertise build up, and sharing new learning is an effective way of consolidating it. Celebrating achievement in professional learning is important too, not just for the attainment of recognised qualifications such as Masters degrees.


20. Evaluate any professional learning you undertake. Remember, though, that great learning is not always evident immediately after undertaking training and development activities. Some will have a slow-burn effect, so evaluations are best done when consolidation time has passed. Also, don't evaluate without contextualising!

Some useful reading - What makes an OUTSTANDING Lesson?

What Makes a Lesson Outstanding?

View more documents from Nina Moore

The perfect ofsted_lesson_-_article

View more documents from Nina Moore

Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity and other goodies for you!

Hello,

I have previously shared Sir Ken's 'Ted Talks' on Creativity, but have found these versions to share with you:

Welcome Back - New Goodies for a new year!

Welcome back! I have found a really interesting website that I wanted to share with you called 'Born to Learn'. There are some great animations on here and some lovely resources to support your PD. Enjoy!

http://www.born-to-learn.org/


Born to Learn: Class Reunion from Born to Learn on Vimeo.

Have a great year. I am really looking forward to working with you.

Nina

Really Useful Literacy Resources

I hope you find the following literacy resources really helpful in developing your faculty and year team plans.

Annual Literacy Events Calendar

View more documents from Nina Moore.

Everybody writes secondary_guide

View more documents from Nina Moore.

01938 nlt literacy_guide_v9

View more documents from Nina Moore.

Our Marking and Feedback Policy Document and other resources

Marking and Feedback Framework


Quality feedback from teachers is more effective in raising grades than homework, uniforms and smaller classes, a Durham University study says. See the full article on the BBC website below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13558209

Love Literacy - National Literacy Trust and Annual Events Calendar

The National Literacy Trust is an excellent site with some lovely resources. Their Annual Literacy events calendar is useful and I attach a link here:

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/9619/Annual_events_calendar.pdf

AfL and Feedback Resources - Sharing is caring!

Whole class feedback_guide(1)[1]

View more presentations from Nina Moore

Assessment for learning_activities[1]

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LOVE LITERACY - Ideas and Resources for YOU

There is an abundance of amazing online resources to support literacy development in the classroom. As we begin to work in collaboration to address literacy accross the curriculum, the blog will become a central hub for us all to share ideas and resources with each other. Here are a few offerings that I have used in Media and Film Studies that can be used in any subject to explore language and vocabulary. One of my absolute favourites is WORDLE which allows you to create visual 'word clouds' on any topic/theme/combination of words. It's very addictive and makes a fantastic activity/homework/display tool that encourages thought and exploration of language: Here is the link and some examples:

http://www.wordle.net/

If you master Wordle and want to go one step further, why not give the following a try 'TAGXEDO'. It's awesome! Not so much an "alternative" to Wordle as much as "Wordle - the next generation". Go check it out!

http://www.tagxedo.com/

SAVE THE WORDS

Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language. Old words, wise words, hard working words. Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie unused, unloved and unwanted.

Today 90% of everything we write is communicated  in 7,000 words. You can change all that through help save the words. This brilliant site allows you to adopt words and offers fun ways to experiment with using new words. This is a brilliant starter activity; tutor time activity and will help to enrich, extend and engage students at all levels with language. Go on - adopt a word NOW!

http://www.savethewords.org/

To end. This exemplifies why it is so important that students leave education with good literacy standards:

More ideas and resources to be posted soon. Feel free to share some of yours! Have fun.
Nina

SSAT Conference Resources

Future school top tips on Prezi

Raising Awareness of Homophobic Bullying in Schools

Some more resources from Sarah Stirling in Art to promote awareness of homophobic bullying in schools.




http://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_school/

Very interesting and informative.

History-pin

http://www.historypin.com/
This is a rich source of historical photographs that could benefit colleagues accross the curriculum.  On this site, photos are entered according to their date and place, so they produce historical records of every part of the world.

Nina

Diwali Resources for Tutortime from Tyrone

Diwali Story

Wordsearch activity from Gemma in Maths

Hi. I am not sure if anyone has contriuted this before:


http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/word_search/

You can make your own wordsearch - I used it for literacy with my form group - it gets them asking about words maybe they haven't seen before and they have to look at how to spell it to find it in the grid! OR useful for key word plenaries in subjects etc.

Gemma Simmons - Maths

Stonewall Poster

Before half term I sent an email regarding wearing purple to honour the young people that have taken their own lives due to homophobic bullying. Attached is a poster from the charity Stonewall who work with schools to help young people who have received any form of homophobic abuse. I think if we all have this poster in our rooms it will show that as teachers we will not stand for it, and they should feel safe.

Sarah Stirling -Art

AfL Plenaries from Michael Davies MFL

AFLPlenaries

Plenary Producer

The Plenary Producer

View more presentations from mikegershon.