Flip ! Is it that time already

Well, here we are at the end of the first term, and Santa has bought me an early Christmas present, ideal for teacher training purposes and video blogging ! It's called a Flip and it's a dinky little digital video camera, about the size of a mobile phone and it's just FAB ! I came across it while on a Study Day for my Online MA in New Literacies at the University of Sheffield, back in November and I knew I just had to have one ! So, for those of you into technology and gadgetry get it on your Christmas list ! I shall definitely be using more in 2009, both to liven up my blog, but also to possibly video activities in class and to look at the potential for teaching and learning.
So here a little demo to leave on.... a Christmas greeting to you all !

Micro Teach

We are now about half way through the micro teach session (with the Tuesday morning group actually completing all of them today !) and I have to say that the ones I have seen have been very high quality, with an interesting range of methods employed to engage and stimulate the learners.

Aims and Objectives

For those still unclear about aims and objectives it might be worth watching this short 3 minute video of a group of tutors discussing the difference as part of a sharing good practice workshop.

The difference between 'Product' and 'Process' Objectives also caused some confusion, so I have included the table (used in my Powerpoint) that contrasted the difference. I would also like to signpost you to chapter 5 of Reece and Walker (2007), that covers the topic in much more detail. The key difference is that with product objectives you are looking for something very concrete and results are likely to be similar from group to group. Where with process objectives the outcome is more open ended and open to interpretation and the outcome could be potentially different from group to group.

Key features of the Product and Process models

Product model
Concentrates on the output i.e. the end or terminal behaviour, the end product
Students tend to learn very similar things
The teaching and learning are seen as a means to an end
Learning is observable or measurable
Outcomes are predictable
Content important and dominant


Process Model
Concentrates on the learning experiences and student activities
Students may learn very different things because the experiences are individually interpreted
The teaching and learning activities are seen as inherently worthwhile
Learning may not be observable or measurable
Outcomes may be unpredictable
Content not so important

Lessons from the 5 minute presentations

Big thank you to all of you who have delivery your 5 minute presentation this week. I really enjoyed them and hope you got as much out of them as I did. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to reflect on the potential learning that took place. Below I have tried to summarise some of the comments / observations that were made.










1. 5 minutes is not a long time, therefore the presentation needed to be well structured with just a couple of key points and then a question.

2. Questions posed at the beginning or relatively early on helped get the audience engaged and participating taking the 'spotlight' off the presenter.

3. Technology can sometimes let you down.

4. One suggested tip to calm the nerves was to imagine your audience naked !

5. Using props - handout / resource etc. can be useful to tools to support the presentation.

6. Peer teaching can sometimes be more daunting. Fear is that your might be judged more critically, but is this really the case ? The 5 minute presentations demonstrated how supportive of each other you were, which was good to see and bodes well for your micro teach and personal skills presentation as well as collaborative learning within class generally.

7. You can always learn something new from watching others, as well as reflecting on your own performance.


Ok, that will do for the moment, if anyone can remember any other comments or would like yo add anything, then why don't you leave a response in the comment box ?

Initial and Diagnostic Assessment - it's nearly over

Most of you have now completed the majority of the initial and diagnostic assessment tasks and just looking at some of your faces you're looking a bit battered and bruised. I think it's important to remember that it's the taking part that's counts and the opportunity it has afforded you to review your skills, rather than getting too hung up on scores.

In the next few weeks I think it will be useful to reflect on the experience. Firstly, to begin to identify where your strengths lie and what, if any, areas of development you might focus on for your Personal Development Plan (PDP3). But secondly, to think about how you would manage the initial assessment process with your own learners. Part of this whole exercise has been to mirror good practice, so it is important for you as trainee teachers to think about where initial assessment currently fits with your practice, as it will be something I will be looking at as part of the teaching observations.

Initial Assessment

Having got all the college and course inductions out of the way, we are now getting down to some 'real' work and where better to start than with inital assessment. Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking at the subject of initial and diagnostic assessment and you will be undertaking a range of activities to review your own skill levels as well as reflecting on the initial assessment process itself and what it might mean for your learners.

To help in your understanding and research the topic in more detail I have created links to a number of websites such as ReadWritePlus, Quality Improvement Agency and the Key Skills Support Programme, which I think might be of interest.

If you have a particular interest in initial assessment and want to read more then take a lool at the FEDA report Initial Assessment to Identify Learning Needs, it's a little dated (1998) and the link is to a scanned copy, which isn't great, but the information contained within the report still represents good practice.

Welcome to my Teacher Training Blog !

This blog has been set up to support you in your studies to be a Teacher, as you begin your first year of your Cert Ed/PCGE programme.


My name is Nick and I am one of your tutors.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be posting messages, embedding photographs and videos and sign posting you to other resources that I hope will be of interest to you. I will also be encouraging you to comment on my postings !

If you'd like to set up a blog, either to log your development as you progress on your course, or just to have some fun playing around at blogging, then let me know and I'll show you how to get started. It's very easy, lots of fun and it maybe a resource you might want to investigate using with your own learners !

As we begin the course I'd like to to reflect on the message contained with the short video below and consider the teachers you have met and what kind of a teacher you want to be.

Did a teacher make a difference in your life ?