What a Week

Well, just finished a very long week.  Put maximum effort into my Year 10 GCSE Class today.  Had learning objectives linked to bloom, national curric levels, 2 hours spent preparing the running order, powerpoints, starter, plenary, a fun quiz and so much more.  Were they interested No they really were not and I was very frustrated that my maximum effort resulted in the Year 10's looking merely bored and telling me they couldn't make the effort.  Tricky situation because I wasn't happy with the uniform and yet the Ast Head of Year 10 was observing me and I suggested that the pupils should sort out their uniform.  What went wrong  Well, perhaps I expected too much.  Or perhaps OCR theory is boring, perhaps it was just Red Nose Day ..... Meanwhile the Year 7's really didn't get the database lesson and I couldn't get the database up so we could all created in the form wizard.  A couple of the really smart kids got it straight away and were pilot navigating whilst the lower abilities, kept saying "what do I have to do miss".  I felt like saying "shut up" but I actually said research what OMR means!  And we had a nice hardware component starter which they liked.  Oh dear.  To top it off I had a rather unnecessary remark made by another teacher who is supposed to be in charge of the KS3 curriculum, of which everything is out of date.  I thought I'd have a moan because after this I am not going to do anymore work this weekend and think about it.  Yes, clearly I am asking too much, but guess what it's full moon tomorrow and the pupils always seem crazy at this time of the month.  Meanwhile, the HOD was very understanding and took us out for a drink.  Sue Sentence rang late on Friday to say she has found me a place for a week in VI Form at Sandon School in Chelmsford.  This was very encouraging and will get me out and about again so as I don;t take it all too much to heart.  I was going to write up my evaluations of lessons but this is really it.  Disappointment at my effort so badly received and I am thinking well it's only 2 lessons.......I think teaching music must be easier (and more enjoyable)!  Nevermind, press on.

TeachShare

TeachShare meetings are held online and are a great way for teachers to share ideas.

There is one on Monday 7th March at 8pm about using Scratch in Second Life. For more details see this website: http://www.vital.ac.uk/content/teachshare-welcome-second-life 
Leon Cych will be talking about MIT's Scratch for Second Life and Scratch for Open Sim.
He will be showing how get an avatar and how to download the programs to do this.
This TeachShare will introduce people to both technologies and how they can be used in classrooms.



Another teachshare is being held on Wednesday March 9th from 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Link:  http://bit.ly/eHiqF8 (open from 30mins before the meeting starts)
Topic:  *The Little Man Computer*
**
No registration is required, just log in using the link above, settle down
and enjoy!  (NB.  It helps to get in early to sort out any hardware/software
issues with the session ... we're still learning here :))

*The Little Man Computer is a free online simulation of a low level /
machine code programming environment.*

*What does this mean? It means that students can explore exactly what
happens inside a computer when it processes instructions. It can be used to
help students learn about the stored program concept, the fetch-execute
cycle, basic programming constructs and interpreters as well as low level
programming using machine code and mnemonics.*

*Already an incredibly useful resource for A Level Computing, the LMC is now
included specifically in the OCR GCSE Computing course as a board set
assignment for unit A452 (Practical Investigation Controlled Assessment).