The Skills Tests! Are they fit for purpose? I don’t know!

Are the Skills Tests Fit for purpose? (discuss)

I remember long ago taking my skills tests, way back then we had to take a literacy, a numeracy and an ICT test. I booked my three tests one Wednesday evening and I was all set for taking them in a sensible order, ICT, English then Maths – I was training to be a Maths and ICT teacher so I figured a thorn between 2 roses. There I sat in my chair about to start the maths tests and I thought to myself Oh good grief, as a Maths and ICT teacher! What happens if I fail the maths and ICT components?   No added pressure there then! (I passed all three during that first Wednesday session) – despite proclaiming not to be any good at English.  I’m fluent at Kimglish but, as my writing often suggests, I’m not a fan of the dreaded apostrophe and full stop. I do love a good comma, a new paragraph and an exclamation mark though!

Anyway this segues along to my topic for today. I have recently tutored two students in preparation for their skills tests. Both have GCSE grade B’s but are what I classify as maths phobic. They are both so incredibly scared of maths.

So these two adults with degrees are now trying to pass maths in order to teach.

I spoke to the lovely Julia Smith, who was fabulous with all her help.

Are the skills tests really fit for purpose?

And what purpose?

Of course I agree that teaching candidates should have the requisite level of mathematical and literary skill with the element of practical and problem solving skills.

The time came to take the practise tests. They both failed dreadfully with a maximum of 3 marks on first taking. They were both terrified of fractions decimals and percentages. And with the time limit of course they panicked!

The best tutoring option turned out to be watching me take the test as I explained my thought process. Teaching the links was key. For example; In a class of 20 students 9 have school dinners what is the percentage of student who have school dinners? So turning a fraction into a percentage – obviously the link 5 20’s goes into 100 so 9 x 5 = 45 %.  (the next panic was the big numbers of 9 – only a 7 would be worse in my student’s eyes)

It was amazing how much learning to look for the links took away the fear.

So back to my question! Are the tests fit for purpose?

Would it be more suitable to have a test that is suitable for those teaching different key stages?  Do KS1 and KS2 really need the same level of maths skills as a teacher teaching GCSE?

I completely understand that cross curricular skills are required so that GCSE teachers require a certain level of mathematical and literary skills to engage students.

Both of my students with some coaching passed the tests

So, back to my question. Are the skills tests fit for purpose?

My students were able to learn the skills required to pass the tests so from that perspective the tests are valuable as a learning to learn tool.

My students both needed that GCSE skills refresher where they re-learned FDP, charts and graphs, averages. They both needed a re-fresher on how to understand questions.

I don’t know!

Are they fit for purpose? Are they a valuable learning skill? Are they a perfect example of the growth mind-set where they are lead towards the Pitt and they need to find the skills and practise the skills required to succeed?

Is there a different way? Is there an alternative?

I feel the need to repeat, I don’t know!

 

 

 

‘Twas the night before the holidays.

Here I am, The start of my Summer 2016 #Blogaday

Breaking up on a Thursday has baffled me, all day.

My head says its Friday! I was so convinced that it was Friday that I nearly missed my duty, and I was good to go with my #FFEd

So I’ve got my new classes, my new sets and I’m still awake at 1:25 because my head is buzzing.

I’m making my new timetable (so it looks pretty) and I’m making my new planner so Its Kim friendly, colour coordinated and dated.

I’m printing the class lists for my new mark book Having checked the point to mm converter

I’m trying to decide what colour my new Arch Lever file should be – Pink is the current front runner but I’m off to Paper chase tomorrow.

I’m working on all of my lists; the IKEA list, the Staples list, the Wilco list and of course the YPO, Amazon and EBay lists.

I’ve started my new book and prepped my book /kindle list.  I’ve got book 2 lined up, A Tom Clancy to start with; – the Jack Ryan Jr book 5 followed by my absolute nemesis, Will Self and his Book of Dave. Then onto a Paddington and back to another thriller!

I’m planning to gather all the Elephants in the “Herd of Sheffield” stampede.

I’m sitting here tapping away listening to the rain, cup of tea by my side. So where will my summer challenge head this year? I’ve got 30 school days or do I go for 42 days?

Of course Tea tour continues too!

Well I’ve achieved all of these plans and my alarm is set at a way more respectable 6:50 rather than 5:30.

2016 reading challenge

I’m starting my 2016 reading challenge with an author suggested by a colleague. I’ve read NYPD Red 2 by James Patteson. it’s my  first JP book so I didn’t know what to expect. I liked the twists and I liked the fact that I was …

Interesting Articles that fascinated me enough to warrant a tut or a nod.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/10/school-dress-codes-reinforce-the-message-that-womens-bodies-are-dangerous?CMP=fb_gu

New poverty advice for Scottish schools http://schoolsimprovement.net/new-poverty-advice-for-scottish-schools/

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/companies-desperate-for-workers-with-decent-maths-skills-31515817.html

http://trib.al/dfJMOp0

http://bbc.in/1NQnfXD

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-09-10/companies-desperate-for-workers-with-decent-math-skills/
We must save the lost boys in education | via @Telegraph 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/11803625/Top-university-chief-You-might-well-be-better-off-not-going-to-Uni.html

5 Study Habits You Should Be Practicing http://moreti.me/1Ojcix9

Click to access EIS%20poverty%20Advice%20Booklet%20pageWEB.pdf

Four tips for reducing maths anxiety | gregashman http://wp.me/p6BKvA-fn
Girls are more afraid of maths than boys http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36110880

Some fabulous articles stating what most maths teacher already think!

  This morning,  whilst checking some education news articles and forums, I came across these fabulous, very relevant articles.

I consider them to be excellent reads so I though I would share them through the medium of blog:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/companies-desperate-for-workers-with-decent-maths-skills-31515817.html

http://trib.al/dfJMOp0

http://bbc.in/1NQnfXD

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-09-10/companies-desperate-for-workers-with-decent-math-skills/

I have already shared through the medium of Twitter but I really did find myself nodding , seething, moaning and complaining along with a few sharp intakes of breath.

They are worth reading !

The new school year , the cost of returning to school

The cost of returning to school
  

Yesterday whitest doing my research for today’s blog , I found an interesting article about the cost of returning to school.  

Back in 1980 when I started secondary school, my Grammar school had a bottle green uniform – not the most common colour- we could buy the school : blazer , tie , scarf, summer uniform dresses , summer uniform fabric from 2 shops in the nearby town. Bottle green cost a small fortune.

Anyway this article surprised me! It’s a really interesting read !

Billions of pounds and millions of students – back to school 

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/datablog/2015/aug/30/billions-pounds-millions-students-back-to-school-data 

Being one of the many stationary addicted teachers in the world , I thought I would take a light hearted look at the average (me) teachers return to school spending.

So the obligatory uniform requirements:

1. New winter coat, £150

According to

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-140275/How-buy-perfect-coat.html

 How much should you spend?

Buy the best coat you can afford. You’ll be wearing this coat every day for the next few months so be prepared to spend a little more to ensure you get the best quality and a coat that will last – work out the cost per wear ratio if you need more convincing.For a lightweight coat look out for cashmere/wool mixes which will be warm without the bulk and weight of a 100% wool coat.

2. New school bag

We don’t need one, but we buy one just in case

A teacher sized Cath Kiddleston oilcloth £35

A teacher sized Fat Face bag is £60

I prefer a double bag approach combining a bag that I can carry my marking in (see above)

 (the small ikea blue bags used to cost 20 p each, were perfect but they don’t make them anymore) a pully case capable of holding laptop,iPad, planner etc.

Average price ( cheaper option) £50 you can silly over £150 prices too

3. New school shoes

Sensibility is required so Clarks it is, average price £70

But that at least doubles because we usually need at least 1 pair in case the first pair fall our of favour. And of course it could mean 3 or 4 pairs depending on the colour of our blouse- or is that just me ?  

4. It’s winter so new school boots too just in case!

Let’s head to Fat Face or Mantaray, average price is £90

I’m not even looking at the price of a seasonal new wardrobe , this is variable.  

Let’s say a few hundred,…., few really is a variable between 1 hundred and 20 hundreds- yes really

5. New teachers travel mug with a lid – the last one got left on your desk and went a bit Manky

Average price on Amazon and eBay is £10

6. New stationary oh dear, where do I start? (I’ve been very conservative this year)

This year I have gone sharpie silly and have indulged in several shades of Sharpie

Sharpie spending alone was £25 Luckily @tesco had fab offers.

Tesco also sell my favourite copier paper, I prefer the 100 g stuff bought 5 Reims can’t remember how much they cost I’m thinking around £30

Tesco also sell my favourite poly pockets I think you younger people call them plastic pockets or plastic wallets, but those plastic see through things, tesco do a brilliant heavy duty one that’s perfect for your average Kim, obviously I need about 10 packs of 25 for a start. That’s about £30.

New marking pens – my marking pen of choice is the Bic crystal 1.6 fashion colours , the green one you have to buy a boxes of 20, soi bought 2 because I had to, as there are 4 colours. The don’t cost that much but P&p does, marking pens £20.

My Costco trip  

Pack of 6 Pucka A4

Pack of 6 Pucka A5 wire bound

Pack of way more than I needed post its – they had new colours 😵

New label maker, last one died from over use , you know a typical teacher who a la Shelton labels the label on their label maker.

Costco stationary aisle spending £90.

IKEA

Oh dear, they had new coloured tubs, a new range of storage options ,  they had white board pens in pretty colours , they had speech bubbles, scissors , they have packs of 3 for about 80p I need/want a class set of 32. Plus random other stuff. Cost £120.

Then meatballs for lunch! Of course!

eBay

My second ‘Oh dear’ moment , new dice, various numerical combinations , various sizes, various colours! New magnets, I’ve made my own magnet board peg holders, they are cute! My new array of random stationary items like page highlighters, page markers, random other stuff. I did well eBay spending was only £50.

Miscellaneous

New lunch box/ bag , I like the little ones that look like a hand bag, my Thomas the Tank one was laughed at so £5. 

New files I print out my planner , the ones you buy are brilliant but the paper is to thin so I need a new file for my new planner,  printed and dated a term at a time £5

Paper chase 

 new school diary, plus misc pretty things £40 

So I’m ready for tomorrow. I think:

Ive done a very rough calculation at 1440 ish
I didn’t  include all my new clothes,…Or my laminating pockets, 

I didn’t include my visit to the range as I went silly 

In my defence, I go a bit overboard:) 

Things to add 

I have just been reminded by @MissBsResources  about the tes I calculator offer this year , I bought 5 🙂 lots of teachers bought class sets 

  

If the world was a village of 100, one of my favourite resources!

Celebrating all that is different Ever since was a child, I have been fascinated by diversity. Colour, accent, language, religion. I was such an inquisitive child! I always wanted to know why, where and how. And don’t think for one moment that I could be …

Rewards

Rewards During the summer, I have once again ordered my usual array of new season rewards. With a surname like Thomas , my rewards often have a certain tank engine pictured or since #grafdad has collected all the #mathsbadges. My most recent cards feature a certain …

What about those times when technology fails!!

What about when the technology fails?

Let me set the scene. A fair few years ago, during my GTP year, (I was training to teach maths and ICT) The worst thing that could possibly happen, did. 

No students were fighting , the students were on task, there was no bad behaviour , there was no swearing….  

My maths observation had gone really well, only one slight incident prior to my lesson where someone had thrown a chair at another student… (It missed 😊) 

BUT during my second lesson, tragedy struck! I was about to introduce excel to a group of bottom set, mostly SEND students.

So I’d logged on prior to the lesson starting.  Everything was set up.  The monitor just needed turning on. 

The scene is set, almost like a modern day Shakespearean tragedy.

The students were all eagerly waiting , mouse and keyboards poised. Nothing happened, absolutely nothing!

I later discovered that a well-known utilities company were working on the main road outside the school, and somehow the school telephone lines had been cut.

Oh hum, I’ve got 20 students ready to be wowed and excited with knowledge about Excel. My worksheets and my exemplars were all computer based. My lesson plan was computer based and had been uploaded from home onto the school server. OOPS!

As a former lecturer, I went into my default panic mode, I immediately reverted into lecturer mode. We gathered out data and input our data onto a hard copy.

As a lecturer, I was used to not relying on technology.

During my GTP, I had become incredibly dependant on technology. At that time, I did consider myself to be quite the technology whizz kid. The fact that I could have lessons so completely designed and timed was wonderful. I could make area come alive with cm squares. I had numbers flying from one side of the equals sign to the other doing cartwheels whitest changing signs!

Following this incident, I made myself do all my lessons without using technology for two whole weeks.  

Having said this, I am a huge fan of technology and think all teachers should embrace what is available. There are some incredible programs and some wonderful resources that we all share. There are so many incredibly selfless colleagues out there who share so much wonderful practice. Technology can enhance the learning experience for our learners and educators. The internet is full of articles extolling the virtues of how technology enhances learning.   

I think a number of readers of this blog will have been in the situation where technology has failed. My husband, who teaches vulnerable adults in non traditional settings often has no access to technology and suggests that all educators should make themselves teach without technology once a month to ensure that we maintain all our teaching skills!

Numeracy challenge days

The fun of a numeracy and maths challenge day for KS2 students.

I love being able to invite local primary schools to send teams to a numeracy and maths challenge day.

I love throwing a number of curve balls towards the students and giving them a range of tasks from working together in groups to leading students individually towards the pit. Some easy four operations challenges to some GCSE questions.

My last school embraced the growth mindset so I tried to lead students towards the pit and encouraged them to use the skills they had to move out of it.

Each time I have ran a challenge day, I have invited each feeder school to enter up to 2 teams of 4 students. I have told the schools in advance that there will be 4 operations challenges, shopping challenges, displaying data and some engineering challenges.

Once the students arrive, each team has to draw a caricature team portrait, marks awarded for the ones we can guess.

I have a team of maths mentors helping run the event. Often, the biggest problem is that the maths mentors get very excited and want their old primary school to win. This just means that we have to organise the mentors so they are with a school that they didn’t attend. It’s only natural as I would want my primary school to win too.

I start with a treasure hunt around the school so the potential students can see the school in its normal environment.

The obvious ice breakers,

I always use a Kagan activity where students do a stand up, hand up, pair up activity. Each team has 4 questions on 4 different coloured cards. Students are only allowed to pair up with students who have the same coloured card. I keep this activity very simple and usually do it with the four operations and squared numbers. I give any visiting TA’s and my mentors the same cards too so they join in. This encourages the KS2 students to not be as shy and they quickly start to cooperate.

So now the students are up and active. I introduce the day! I start by giving students a shopping challenge. They have to buy my shopping list from the shops around the room. Obviously my shops have different prices for different goods and all the shops sell different goods. Points are awarded to the first team to finish. The most points are awarded to the team who complete the list as cheaply as possible.

Now an individual challenge, well sort of individual. I give each team 4 different work sheets of varying difficulty, from 20 minutes style challenges to addagons, from fractions to percentages. This challenge I have to ask staff not to help. It is however incredibly difficult for staff not to help and the mentors have to enforce the rules. The worksheets are face down then I insist that the students read the instructions on their sheet very carefully. I give them 1 minute to read the instructions. The most difficult part of the challenge is not allowing the students to start until they have read the instructions.

Then I start to have fun. Students are asked to start. I give them 5 minutes to complete as many questions as possible, then ask them to stop. They have to pass their papers around the table clock wise 3 students. Then we start them again, 1 minute to read the instructions, start the activity, 4 minutes to complete as many questions as possible, stop the activity. Move papers forward clockwise 2 students. Start, 1 minute to read the instructions, start the activity, 5 minutes to answer as many questions as possible, stop. Move papers clockwise 1 student. The fourth student is given 1 minute to read the instructions then 4 minutes to complete as many questions as possible. It is essential that there are enough questions on the work sheets to fulfil the 18 minutes of questions. I have found that the KS2 students did not enjoy doing the adagon style questions.

They were really uncomfortable in THE PIT.

We use the experience as a learning opportunity where students find they are good at some skills and not so good at others but their ability averages out and they still help their individual teams.

Back to group activities. I give every student the infamous pack of mini smarties. Each team is then given 4 sheets of graph paper, 4 rulers, a calculator and a pair of compasses. My only instruction is to present the data 4 different ways.

Now onto another individual activity where students do a tables challenge 10 minutes to answer as many questions correctly as possible , 4 different sheets per table. Within a few seconds, some students put their hands up to tell me the question sheets are all different. Some students hadn’t realised and were copying from the person they deem to be best at times tables.

Another group activity.

Assuming their dream bedroom has nothing in it apart from a bed, a wardrobe, a carpet and curtains. Students are given Argos catalogues and £1000 to accessorise their bedrooms, from play stations to televisions, from gaming chairs to guitars.

Another group activity of a collective memory. I usually use one of the wonderful numeracy and revision mats available on line. Last time I used the angles revision sheet

I then do a pairs activity

Two students do a coordinate challenge. Once again there are a number available on line but I usually create my own dependant on the time of year and I make it seasonal. Pudsey coordinates are always popular around children in need times and obviously Rudolf is a huge hit around Christmas.

The other pair are given an origami challenge, I have a wonderful origami book that I use. And I give them a net challenge

http://www.senteacher.org/worksheet/12/NetsPolyhedra.html

is brilliant for nets.

My last two challenges have become very popular, a variation of spaghetti towers

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/~/media//Educators/Educators_downloads/spaghetti_challenge.ashx

Spaghetti Tower

There are a number of different options for spaghetti towers activity. I just prefer the science museum one.

And a variation of straw bridge challenge. Once again there a number of different versions of this activity online. I just prefer this one.

Click to access Straw%20Bridge%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf

Straw bridges

I change my challenges depending on the time parameters and I try to work within the confines of the SoW our feeder primaries are following.

If students have concentrated on shapes , I will do a shape activity.

If feeder schools have had a literacy focus , I will use the how much is your word worth.

I can easily adapt the day. I have built up about 100 different activities, GCSE questions are always incredibly popular because KS2 students love the challenge.

As always, I have my reward cards and reward magnets alongside biscuits, certificates for the mentors choice, a shield as a reward so it can be passed on from year to year. Individual cups for the winning team , certificates for the competitors.