Linoit - Reflections for Mathematics

During one of the Mathematics lessons, I realized that the girls might not understand why they are doing corrections for problems they have done wrongly so I wanted to think about the rationale and I used Linoit for this purpose.

I can always revisit this again to remind the girls what they have put down as Mathematics is a language about accuracy and clarity and as Mathematicians, they must make sure what they present is clear and precise.

HeuMi - Another major lesson observation

Boon Keng told me the International Advisory Panel is coming in March and would like me to design a lesson involving HeuMi. Let me explain, HeuMi is a multi-touch table that allows four students to sit at each side of the table and collaborate on a thinking template simultaneously. It allows them to put in notes, ink and annotate, surf the Internet for information, perform screen captures of what they have done and also save these into a USB drive. We have also designed collaborative tools like timers, a spinning wheel and even talking chips so that we can use these tools during a typical lesson.

It took me a while but eventually I managed to design a lesson that bridged the unit we were at, which was storytelling, to storywriting. Here's the lesson plan.

To get the girls ready to use the device, I designed a prior lesson which requires them to analyze a character from Harry Potter using the MEAL structure. The picture shows the analysis done by one of the groups. The girls were to analyse how indirect and direct characterisation is done by Rowling in creating an impression on Luna Lovegood (actually I wonder if the girls noticed the name meant something too!)

eTips - an initiative

To give more air time for my eCoaches, I suggested for the eCoaches to create and send out eTips on a monthly basis. This is the first eTip created by me. Very rudimentary but I hope it starts the ball rolling:

Google Sites - Archiving past seminars

One of the things I wanted to find out about when I came to CGS was the professional development work done in CGS. I realized that the information was not consolidated at one easy-to-find location and hence the idea of using Google Site to archive all past seminars came about and this is the product that is still going through work in progress.

We shared this site with the staff  in 21 February.

Google Docs - Dictogloss

This activity came about as part of the EL assessment literacies workshop conducted in CGS.

Find the lesson plan here.

Interesting situation

I am teaching only 3 classes this year, a Sec 1 Comm Arts class (meeting the girls 5 hours per week) and two Sec 2 Math classes (meeting the girls 3 hours per week). The interesting thing is I am also teaching the Sec 1 class PBL and I am also their co-PC teacher (PC stands for Pastoral Care).

Holding many identities with the same Sec 1 class means I have to wear many hats and sometimes I think the voice I use with the class is confusing both to me and to them. When am I speaking as their co-PC teacher, when am I speaking as their Comm Arts teacher? This is something I must understand first so that I can be more effective in my communication with them.

Google Docs - Starting the first Communicative Arts lesson right

The ideal situation would be for the girls to attend the first day of school already with their learning devices. So far, only my previous school context has the luxury of making that happen as it is a 100% Direct School Admission specialized independent school and they know who their students are when the PSLE results are released. In other words, when the students go to the school to register, they would have already placed orders for their learning devices.

This is not the case in CGS, as this is a government school and the students have to put in their options for their secondary schools upon release of the PSLE results and will only be notified of their school posting late December. When they come to register then, they get their uniforms and book lists and so on, but not their learning devices.

But I did not want the girls to be disadvantaged and after the first lesson when I set my expectations right (I hope), I brought them to Green Lab (one of the two labs in the school with computers) to have their first Comm Arts lesson and I got them to input responses into a Google Spreadsheet.

Using this spreadsheet, I got to know how much they know about Cinderella type of stories and this provided me with the springboard to discuss plots and ideas and show them examples. I also got to sense how technologically savvy they are and this will help me in my planning of future lessons.