One Damn Thing

After a recent triumph in which many members of the class leapt at the wiki that we'd been introduced to, a second lesson in which we used it fell very flat. I'm trying to work out exactly why, and I think I may have hit upon the reason. The lesson was designed to use the mind-map / wiki interface to encourage students to make 'links' between factors and events to do with solving three main problems of the development of surgery, pain, blood-loss and infection.

Not only am I really excited (and a bit nervous) - but I'm stupidly happy because the WiFi is free!

We've had some really interesting stuff already about how much they're investing in the role.

Wow - a wiki that works!

Jane Shuyska from the Department of Education at Oxford Uni has been showing my year 9 class (whom I call Marwick cos I can't retain the complicated computer numbers that they go by in the school timetable) the wiki / mind map combination she's working on called "thinkspace".  Jane is doing some research as to how / if students use this combination to aid their learning in history.

We're getting to that time of year again when year 12's are leaving.  In the past I've done a questionnaire to find out how my teaching has impacted on their learning, whether they think that there's anything I should be focusing on.  This year I disposed of the questionnaire and instead we had a slice of cake and discussed what makes a good A level teacher.  I typed the results into bubbl.us (because I love it!).