51 replies to this topic

[donald cumming]

With the new year all but upon us, it would be great if people shared any new ideas in this thread too - any great inspirations for body smart ideas or memory tricks you've had over the summer especially!

Thanks,

Donald

[donald cumming]

NATURE SMART

Nature smart is seemingly less easy to pin down in the History classroom - nature smart students are aware of and concerned about environmental change; they understand natural/animal analogies; they might therefore be motivated by the Diggers/any other time natural phenomena can be brought into relevance. They may well enjoy categorising and observing too.


However, having considered the latter point for a while it would make sense that if nature smart students are aware of changes to their environment then they will be extra aware of everything around them even when they aren't out in a field with our Geography colleagues. Thus they will notice whats on our classroom walls more than other students. So to make the most of this particular intelligence, make your classroom walls learning tools. Sit down in a students chair and check the view they get of you. Is the display one that supports their learning? Key words and conectives can undoubtedly be grabbed from the English dept. Check that any writing is large and bold enough to be read from the back of the classroom. Does laminating make the display too shiny to read? Could you make one wall a reusable timeline? Or a guide to writing effective mind maps? Are there key utility questions you want students to remember in their exams? I sometimes get my year 11s to close their eyes, visualise the walls and then write down as many connectives as they can remember - hoping this might help in an exam emergency! Nature smart students should perform well at this.



As for displaying students excellent work, this is fantastic for corridors. Show it off, praise it, and label what makes it so good. This will also support the students who take the time to read their friends fine work.


Has anyone been trying ideas from the seminar - I would love to hear about them.

Donald

[DAJ Belshaw]

As I think I've said elsewhere on the forum, I've realised that sometimes pupils don't understand the words we put down on the aims/objectives board (even when explained). To this end, I've created some definitions of key words (e.g. 'define', 'prioritize', 'explain') which, along with historical pictures, are dotted around my classroom.

Although no pupils have commented on it explicitly, I have seen a number of them looking at them when they're 'pausing for thought'...

Doug

PS I've shared the key words on my website here

Edited by DAJ Belshaw, 03 November 2005 - 07:49 PM.

[Samantha Murray]

Doug,

This stuff is so good! My classroom is about to be redecorated.

Where do you find the time?

Thanks

sam

[DAJ Belshaw]

This stuff is so good! My classroom is about to be redecorated.

Good, good. Glad it's of use to others!

Where do you find the time?

What's this 'having a life' business people keep telling me about?...

Doug

[Nichola Boughey]

I don't know if this fits in exactly here but here goes:

I have been attempting to be more creative during lessons and I recently started using History football and tennis ideas from the teacher's toolkit via interactive whiteboards in lessons and they were successful. I decided to pick up a koosh ball and that had such a dramatic effect on questions being answered in class that I was sent out to buy four more for the rest of the department.

I was recently looking on: The Training Shop and came across this little kit and decided to indulge myself:




The kit included:

- 2 alphabet dice

- 5 question dice

- 1 call bell

- 3-minute sandtimer

- Induction Pocketbook

- Drawstring bag

- Activity instruction

I have had amazing fun using the items:

Alphabet Dice:

After a topic has been studied ask students to volunteer to come to the front of the class, role the dice and talk about a person or key theme of the unit using the letter that comes up on the dice, e.g. A2 class recapped on the Holocaust and were able to reel off vast amounts of information about key figures and many even used the German name. If they repeat themselves or pause then they get dinged by the bell. The one with the longest time wins. I was concerned with the Cambridge candidate who got dinged out after 2 seconds and she had the letter J!!!!

Question Dice 1

The question dice have the History staples of WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW?

The first time we used these I had a set of questions about Motte and Bailey Castles:

Who built them?
Who ordered them to be built?
What were they made from?
What did Saxons think of the castles?
Where were they built?
Where was the Keep built?
What was a Keep?
What was a Bailey?
When were they built?
Why did William build them?
Why were they easy to defencd?
Why were they easy to attack?
Why were they changed?
How long did it take to build them?

You get the drift. You have to have more than one for each question as it's the luck of the dice. The girls took it in turns to roll the dice and answer questions. The class had three minutes to answer the complete set of questions. If they made a mistake, repeated themselves or paused - DING!!!!!

Question Dice 2

GCSE Class this time. Wrote a topic on the board at the start of a unit that they have not studied before, gave them no information and then split the class into 4 groups. I gave each group a dice and told them to roll it 3 times. They then had to come up with 3 questions, based on the roll of the dice, that they wanted to be answered about the new topic during the lesson (they wrote their own lesson objectives) - some groups had the same questions but there were quite a few different ones written on the board. By the end of the lesson I had to make sure that I gave information to answer all of their questions and I quizzed them to see if they could answer them as well - we got 7/9. A good outcome I felt.

I am sure others could come up with some excellent ideas for this kit as well.

Hope this was some help.

[alison denton]

This looks absolutely brilliant!!!!
But what is this kit called, as I can't find it on the site.

[Nichola Boughey]

This link should take you straight to it now:

Induction Pack

You can buy all of the bits separately - I don't really need the egg timer or induction book.

[alison denton]

thanks for the tip - I'm going to order some myself.

[Dom_Giles]

Have just bought the kit, which is excellent and the small book on Accelerated learning, very very useful. I highly recommend it.

[Neil DeMarco]

NATURE SMART

Nature smart is seemingly less easy to pin down in the History classroom - nature smart students are aware of and concerned about environmental change; they understand natural/animal analogies; they might therefore be motivated by the Diggers/any other time natural phenomena can be brought into relevance. Donald

This is a spoof, right? Please tell me it's a spoof!

[A Finemess]

This is the whole problem with all this multiple intelligence stuff - where does it end?

Smell smart ( or fart smart?)- kids who have particularly sensitive noses. They could readily identify different smells from the past?

[Dom_Giles]

I'm not sure if this is exactly the right place for this - but this seminar has been so useful that I thought I would post this here, it is connected to Accelerated Learning.

Has anyone checked out this site http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk It has some useful info. and if you register you get a termly newsletter with help and advice.

[donald cumming]

Neil/A,

I do genuinely find awareness of the smarts invaluable and, whilst the idea of a smell smart is entertaining (the ninth odour intelligence perhaps), it doesn't actually help focus our support on our students or their learning needs. If you are up for finding out more about environmental intelligence I would recommend a perusal of this book:

Intelligence Reframed by Howard Gardner
http://www.thinkingc...ces/default.asp

It isn't a spoof and it isn't nonsense fine sirs!

Don


Edited as I sounded grumpy before!!

Edited by donald cumming, 14 December 2005 - 06:01 PM.

[donald cumming]

Regarding the 'smell' smart of earlier postage, research does suggest that a strong scent seriously reinforces memory - the nasal nerves are linked directly to the oldest (in an evolutionary sense) part of the brain, one associated with fight/flight/freeze/flock reactions and so forth. The link between memory and smell is, I believe, called the Proust effect.

Apparently smell is a stronger trigger for memory than sight and sound are.

Time for fresh bread in our classrooms and exam halls?

Edited by donald cumming, 20 December 2005 - 05:15 PM.