How to Leave Cover Work

This week Swap Shop was delivered by Jane Edwards (Cover Supervisor).  We were given the opportunity to consider what it was like to be a Cover Supervisor:

Cover Supervisors shared their experiences of the different types of lessons that they have been given to teach:

In groups, we looked at a variety of different lesson plans that had been set as cover work and discussed whether or not they were teachable. (Try not to get too distracted by the wide array of Christmas Jumpers- it was Christmas Jumper Day!) 

Jane then provided us with some things to consider when setting cover work:

Finally, the Cover Supervisors shared their experience of activities which always seem to go well when left as cover work:

Using a Visualiser to Support Learning

This week Swap Shop was led by Julie Hampson (Second in Humanities). Julie explained how she uses the visualiser in lessons to support students' learning. Here are some of the tips that she shared with us:

1.Visualisers can be used as a tool in most lessons to 'spotlight' good work and to model exemplar work. 

2.The visualiser can also be used to record videos, in order to play back on a loop whatever you may wish to model for the students. Chris Dunleavy showed us how he uses this function when teaching Art. The picture below shows how to select the camera and video options from the Ladybug menu...

3.The Lady bug can also be used alongside Active Inspire; you can annotate over whatever you are visualising by using this method.

4.Using the visualiser can be a great way to get students to engage with teacher and peer-marking, as shown below...

5. Students' work can be selected using the random name generator to be visualised, in order to provide instant feedback. This also encourages students to produce their best work as they are constantly mindful that their work may be visualised.

6. Finally, we discussed how it could be beneficial to visualise a pupil working in real time, during the lesson to encourage engagement and to share the learning process. Students could be selected to work under the visualiser at random points during lessons.

 

The PowerPoint presentation from this session can be found in the shared area, in the 'Swap Shop' folder.

Do you have any other suggestions for using a visualiser in lessons? Please share...

5 Useful Tips for Raising Boys' Achievement

This week Swap Shop was led by Lisa Pattinson (Teacher of Creative Arts). Here Lisa has provided several quick and easy ways to engage boys and raise their achievement:
1. Try getting students to set their own targets for themselves and each other...

2.Provide students with examples of your own work, to inspire them... 



3. Provide real examples of levelled work...

 4. Build positive relationships...

5. Don' forget to praise your pupils regularly with positive citations and college points.