Day 3 - Online School
Wednesday 18 March 2020
Oh how I love Wednesdays
I always get itchy feet when I talk to people in different schools around the world. So many wonderful places and things happening. When I am counting my blessings about where I am now, one of the many is the traditional idea that there is no school on Wednesday afternoon. I needed that today!
What happened today?
So it was a short day in terms of lessons - In case you are interested, here is our daily curiosity entry!
PSHE was given over to catching up with our tutor groups about how they are doing and how they are getting on with this online school. Something about chatting to our students in this environment is intriguing... can't put my finger on it - still thinking
Grade 9 - Well, I was very grateful for our 'MyMaths' subscription this morning. I like the virtual lessons as a means of helping students work through ideas and it is easy for me to see what they have been up to. I am pretty sure I saw a communication about an extended free trial to MyiMaths during the corona crisis. From this website, I did set the following cuboid challenge as an extension.... Looking forward to seing some results.
Cuboid Challenge
This activity is really easy to describe, but difficult to carry out! It is a very hands on activity that should help develop a really good understanding of the geometry of pyramids. Making them is the...
Grade 11 - These guys were working on the quadratic functions chapter from studyIB.net this morning. It is review work, so I asked them to watch the video lessons only if they needed to, then to try the online quiz and then the 3 exam style questions. As with yesterday, I had a couple of one on one calls with students and I do appreciate the focus of these discussions outside of a busy classroom. I am also really impressed with the 'apparent' ease with which students adapt.
After school, we had a little staff meeting using zoom. I was really surprised how well this went and how well the gallery wokrs so you can actually see everyone, which makes such a difference. It was well coordinated so only one person was speaking at a time and I can see it being a useful too. I think, for actually seeing students, this might be a good solution. I'll let you know.
I met a colleague online for an hour to moderate some ToK presentations after lunch which was every bit as effective as it would be face to face. It is nice to have these done!
My next big job is the final Marking and Moderating of this year's Maths Studies Internal Assessments. I will be going over these Marked Projects and the usual subjective dificulties.....
Distraction of the day!
So this incredible video was my inspirational distraction of the day. Thanks to Chris Wright who writes the School leadership website for sharing. As a bit of inspiration to think about what might be possible in our online environment - here is Eric Whitacre and his virtual choir...
and since this is from 2011 - here is the actual finished product of 'Sleep' it is a beautiful piece and I have enjoyed singing it in a choir. I now want to be part of someones virtual choir.... Have a good evening everyone! x Jim
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