Education
In this category, I will share with you all education-related blog posts.
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16 Tips for Beginning Teachers
Recently, I was asked to speak with a class of Mathematics students who were finishing their teaching degree at a local university. These students were about to embark upon their first year of teaching. I thought to myself, “What would I share?“. What could I tell these bright-eyed individuals that might make a difference to their practice? What would have resonated with me back when I was sitting in their seats? It was the short, sweet & raw advice that I remembered (No filter!). So here are my top tips for beginning teachers!
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Maths City Project
After I finish teaching a topic, I like to give my students an opportunity to create a piece of work that combines ideas and concepts learnt in the topic. I have especially enjoyed this small project with my younger students. Not only will your students work collaboratively with others, but you will end up with a magnificent classroom display that enhances your learning space to become more positive and welcoming. After seeing my classroom display, other teachers have asked for me to run the project with their class, hence, I’ve decided to upload all the resources I’ve used so that any teacher can pick up these instructions and hit the…
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Teaching kids about $$$
Last year, myself and two colleagues conducted empathy interviews with high school students. The aim of the interviews was to gain a better understanding of what was important to our students. The interviews were conducted as part of a UTS workshop about implementing project based learning at school.
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Why do two negatives make a positive?
Let us first consider two examples. How did you get to your answer? How would you describe your method to another person?
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Rewards and Consequences in the classroom
Let’s talk rewards and consequences!
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Report writing tip to improve productivity
Writing student comments for reports can be time consuming and repetitive. I’ve introduced a formula in Microsoft Excel to speed this process up for myself. The idea is to use student data from the relevant assessment tasks to produce a glossary of words or performance descriptors that can be used to describe that student’s performance in the task. The performance descriptors that I’ve used this year are a standardised set of words approved by my school.
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Teaching Energy and Circuits
Want to know how much knowledge you have on a topic? Try teaching it!
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Teaching Biology using Student-directed Portfolios
I’ve had an overwhelming positive response from my students towards student-directed portfolios. The portfolios provide students with choice, differentiated worksheets and allow students to work at their own pace. A star system is used where students need to obtain at least 15 stars to complete their portfolio. Our faculty is currently implementing student-directed portfolios for Years 7-10.
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5 tips for your teaching internship
When I was a pre-service teacher, I was sent to a range of schools including a public and private high school for my practicums (In Sydney, we call them ‘pracs’), and a college which operated alongside TAFE NSW for my internship. In my first year out, I was fortunate to have landed a full-time temporary position at the public high school where I did my second prac. Here are my tips for getting the most out of your time on prac.
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Redesign your Bedroom Project
I am convinced more than ever that inquiry and project based learning is aligned with the direction of future-focused education. Projects, big or small, encourage students to seek solutions to real problems. Having taken the top and bottom academically streamed classes through a design project, I am satisfied that with differentiation all students are able to engage in this unit. The unit of work had four components: 3x Floor Plans, Sample Board, Cushion Design and Model. (As the cushion sewing component of the unit of work was completed by another teacher, I will not be discussing it).
