#TeachFest @ KEGS 22/5/14

Tim Worrall doing Kung-Fu

A few weeks ago, I received a flyer (by email) for another interesting looking event at KEGS in Chelmsford. It promised an informal event of CPD lead by staff from the school (see <here>). We hopped in the car from Upminster and arrived in time for a particularly lovely flapjack and a cup of tea.

First up was Alex Steel discussing his literacy and oracy project with Y8. It gave a fascinating insight into the progress of boys developing the skills of reading aloud to their peers during form time. He explained how by simply encouraging students to read twice during the cheer had had dramatic effects on their confidence and identifying ways to further improve. He is now looking at how he can further develop this scheme more widely in the school.

Next up was Tim Worrall (see above) leading us a overview of Willingham's research into learning methodology. Important reminders about how students learn best are always vital... don't spend your time with attention grabbers or making it all 'pop quiz' and focusing on making it too relvent. Instead use stories, Q&A models and worked examples. Tim cited the work of Joe Kirby (<here> and <here>) which are well worth a read if you haven't already done so. He left us with the thought, that maybe there will be a time in the future when we look back at teaching and can't believe we didn't use psychological research when deciding upon our teaching methods... 

Lastly, Lucy Fryer, James Russell and Fred Midroit took us through their use of Edmodo. I'm a massive fan already and use extensively with KS4 and KS5 classes. They focussed on KEGS drive for deep leadership whereby students are no longer solely reliant on their staff and deep learning where students have a personalised learning journey. It was good hearing they had some of the same frustrations as me, but had some excellent new ideas for how I can continue to build on my usage... get ready for Question of the Day!

Many thanks to Jane Breen for organising and KEGS for hosting. Hopefully there will be a #TeachFest 2 at some point...

--------------------

I did get me thinking about my own school and how we need to build towards what Tom has created at KEGS. I think Ross's recent blog <here> explains some of the issues well. My first challenge is getting some more colleagues to attend TMHavering on 1st July...