Guys this is going to be a big blog post so you have been warned.

So what’s the latest in my teaching?

Where do I start?

In my last post I mentioned creating a lesson using spreadsheets and packets of MnM’s. The lesson worked well apart from one pupil not being interested. The fact that they were getting to eat the chocolate after still didn’t help matters.

The class all created the spreadsheet no problem, some were leaps and bounds ahead of the rest but all got the basics for the topic which to me was good.

It has been a bit of a challenge to get motivated recently. Which when you’re trying to teach General Purpose Packages and are not motivated can prove difficult. However all seem to have grasped the basics of databases and so I am aiming to build on that when we start back.

The S4 have now been introduced to visual basic programming, with me only a few pages ahead of them. I’m really looking forward to getting into this software development side of teaching as it’s not a part of the course I have done before and will be a challenge.

From what I’ve seen so far it can be hit or miss for some of the kids but one pupil who hasn’t showed me much of a willingness to experiment while on the computers was able to complete an extension task I set for them which made my day (In actual fact my week as it was in the last week!).

Higher and Int 2 is still proving to be my biggest challenge and one I hope I’m working well on. I intend to apply some formative assessment techniques in the future as I fear I’ve been treating the classes too much like lectures. I experimented with this recently when starting computer software. This is the fifth and final topic of computer systems.

The pupils were asked to create PowerPoint slides giving information about one of the layers of the operating system. One higher pupil was paired with one Int 2 pupil and sent on their way.

Some of the pupils presented their own work to the others in the class, some I had to go over. I then made these all available to them on the network and set them some questions to complete individually.

If you’re still reading this I hope you have/had a Merry Christmas and enjoy the festivities over the New Year period.

All the best for 2007.

Later!