Why aren't they getting it?

Three lessons on solving equations with a lower ability set should hopefully ensure they can get liner equations with two variables in them. Three students aren't getting it, they're not any worse than anyone else and should be solid.

It's not a new class to me but there are some characters who have come up from an even lower set and I've been spending some time with them more than I should. I also think that I've underestimated the students who have come up.

I reckon it's because I've sat the kids that I know next to each other assuming they're stronger, as I'm not sure it's the case I think I need to mix it up a bit....must check up on them though.

AFL

Well this is enjoyable, on the recommendation of a colleague at the IoE I've started something pretty good. Each student in my class has been given a red/yellow and green card and if they understand what I'm saying and what I need to do then the green card goes to the top of pile....I'm sure you can get the rest.

I'm only a day into it but one lesson in it's working pretty well-I wish I had done this before-the moment someone is brave enough to change their piece of paper I know what to do-change the explanation and task.

Bang-job done.

AfL for parents

Well I suppose that was a cathartic experience for us all but I wonder how useful it really was. With the odd exception each student dragged their parents around to teachers who told them the same thing for five minutes. Each parent must have heard the same thing on repeat for an hour and then left.

I felt really sorry for Bonkers' mother who was simply told what a crap child she had. All she could really do in return was have a go at him. As enjoyable as it was to see him with his head bowed meekly saying 'Yes maam, yes maaam' to each criticism we had of him it seemed cruel on both parent and child.

Why not organise it in such a way that each parent sees only one or two teachers and then spend the other forty minutes on training the parent on the best way of helping their child. It's good we tell them how they behave in school but why do it for so long. Let's spend half an hour teaching them how to log on to and use webstes we recommend effectively, good simple activities they could use with their child as they live with them....adding up or estimating shopping bills...games and resources they could buy. Simple easy ways of improving their children rather than merely letting them know how much we like/dislike their children.

For a profession who talks so much about assessment and feedback we're not great at giving it to everyone.

I'm so good at teaching.

I gave up a whole lesson to merely writing today. My years 8s bottomish set had just finished a statistical investigation into a football match, had made posters and written and report about the game in addition to collecting and recording the data themselves.

Well today, after a good competitive starter about writing out their 3.5 times tables ('just think of it as repeated addition was a controversial thing I told them) we had a class conversation about what went wrong, what went right and how we would change the investigation if we had to it all over again. After than they wrote up their thoughts in silence. I thought it was a great exercise for them, it was evaluative, not really teacher led, it asked for higher order thinking skills, they had to justify their decisions and explain why they thought what they did. If was meaningful self assessment. As I pointed out to them these were skills which could be used in any classroom, and more importantly, in any situation after.

It was a great way to end off a project and, amazingly, there wasn't one person who muttered 'why are we doing this...this is English'. They were making links between topics and understood why we were doing the task.

Great lesson.