TeachMeetChester
#TMChester Upton Heath 2
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Despite truly horrible weather on Thursday 16th June 2016, 25 people attended the TeachMeet at Upton Heath CE Primary School. We had an impressive list of presenters who came from far and wide to share ideas for enhancing and transforming teaching and learning. Resources from their presentations are below. The #teachmeetchester team thank all who participated in the TeachMeet. Comments and feedback about the presentations and the TeachMeet as a whole can be found on Twitter - search using the #tmchester hashtag.
The TeachMeet was topped and tailed by presentations from Jade Lewis-Jones (@pshee2015) from Elfed High School. The first on 'Snappy Starters & Learning focused Apps' was full of brilliant ideas for engaging and maintaining children's attention and involvement in learning. The second, on the use of Pickers, introduced the audience to another great tool for questioning and learner participation. Jade is moving to pastures new in the summer, so won't be presenting at the next TeachMeet - we wish her all the very best for the future and thank her for her contributions to #teachmeetchester.
Next up was Stuart Rathe (@Mr_Rathe), from Overchurch Junior School who shared his unbounded enthusiasm and passion for all things Shakespeare. His Prezi was crammed full of ideas, resources and links for teaching and learning about and through Shakespeare's plays. Highlights were an activity centred on Shakespearean insults - you fobbing, ill-nurtured gudgeon! - and Stuart's own scheme of work for teaching 'the Scottish Play'. Like Robbie at #TeachMeetEP, Stuart's presentation demonstrated once again how a teacher's personal enthusiasms can contribute hugely to children's engagement and learning.
Jen Simpson (@glp_jen) from the Global Learning Programme probably set a record for the quantity of information she managed to squeeze into seven minutes! From Ofsted to E-Credits, she covered a huge amount of ground and reminded the audience of the extent and value of GLP.
Kate Jones (@87History) from Elfed High School delivered a highly engaging presentation full of her innovative and inventive ideas for learning. There were secret missions, speeding tickets, emojis, superheroes, Harry Potter, keyword grid challenges and more! Something for everyone - primary, secondary and HE - to take away and try out in their classroom tomorrow. Thanks, Kate.
For more of Kate's ideas and inspirations, go to her blog: lovetoteach87.wordpress.com
Next was a bit of a change of gear. No PowerPoint this time, but instead a personal and quite conversational exploration of different ways of looking at the world and at learning. Si Poole (@theloosekites), a tutor at the University of Chester, contrasted folklore and folk tales with more conventional ways of explaining the landcape and landscape features. Using the examples of Beeston Crag and 'Old Ma's Bowder', the language of folklore was contrasted tellingly with the language of geomorphology - very different, yet equally valuable ways of engaging with local geography and learning about the locality. Thought provoking. Si's article on 'The Lore of the Landcape' is featured in the Spring 2016 issue of Primary Geography.
Viv Spencer's (@vivspencer) presentation had the intriguing title: 'An engaging balancing act or a load of balls?' She told the tale of a visit to a clasroom where the teacher had met the needs of her class by replacing chairs with big, blue exercise balls. Viv explained the rationale for the change and the research on which the intervention was based. She then went on to share the concept of reciprocal reading and the roles that children take on when they explore and interpret text using this approach. A really interesting presentation, which presented some innovative ideas and underpinning research.
Finally, Phil Nottingham (@trysomeicytea) took the audience through the steps of creating 'The Five Minute Paper Computer'. This was an 'unplugged' computer science activity, which used paper folding and cutting to make a binary calculator. Keeping true to TeachMeet's roots of sharing ideas for educational technology, this presentation neatly rounded off the event - for more of Phil's ideas and details of the training events and courses that he runs, go to trysomeicytea.com.
Raffle prizes for the TeachMeet were generously provided by Twinkl and Connex Education.
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