Developing an Evidence-Informed Culture: 5 Essential Ingredients
Educational research has the power to supercharge a school’s teaching and learning culture. The question is, how can PD and school leaders, prioritise teacher development and embed these insights into the fabric of daily teaching practices and school culture?
Visual Instruction Plans: Word-diagrams to Support Writing
A Visual Instruction Plan (VIP) is a set of visual prompts that provide a clear step-by-step outline of what students have to do to complete a procedure or process. They are much like the instructions you receive with IKEA flat-pack furniture — they have limited words, use diagrams and have simple steps to follow. Learn how they can be used in class to support students with analytical writing.
The Science of Learning: Top Five Tech Tools
In recent years more and more educators are engaging with evidence from cognitive psychology and introducing research based practices to support teaching and learning. Here are my top five tools and apps that support research from cognitive science.
Top 10 iPad Apps for Revision
We all know revision is not easy! The good news is that students can make use technology to help organise, process and memorise learning effectively.
Learning with Digital Green Screen
You might have seen recently on Twitter my example ‘Macbeth’ animated quotations made with digital green screen in Keynote and iMovie. I found the process of creating these can be a powerful method for students to explore the main quotations deeply whilst engage in deeper thinking.
Digital Creativity for ALL Learners
Our new Digital Creativity course for Year 7 and 8 has made a massive impact on our students with disabilities at Corpus Christi College. The course is based on Apple’s Everyone Can Create curriculum and is designed to provide students with core digital skills in photography, video, audio and drawing.
'Teaching with iPad: Keynote Practical Pedagogy' on Apple Books
I’m really excited to share my latest collaboration with the talented Lou Cimetta. 'Teaching with iPad: Keynote Practical Pedagogy' is the first book in a series exploring how Apple’s core apps can enhance teaching and learning.
Teaching with Keynote: #3 Scaffold Screen-recorded Tutorials
Students can combine Keynote slides and screen recordings to create tutorial videos. To do this, provide a simple structure for students to follow by making a clear scaffold in Keynote. Screen-recordings are a simple and effective way for teachers to see and hear what students know about a topic. Provide blank slides for students to drop in their recordings.
Teaching with Keynote: #2 Document a Process
Students can use Keynote to document a process with photographs. For example, students could show the process of photosynthesis, the process of building a bed-side table or the process of throwing a cricket ball. An image (or short video) on each slide supported with audio narration and text help children consolidate their understanding.
Teaching with Keynote: #1 Annotate & Animate
Students can use Keynote to animate their hand-written notes on top of an image and then add audio to explain their understanding. As we know from cognitive science, a combination of visual and verbal information allows students to retain information more effectively. Here’s a screen-shot example from a Science class.