How we use video technology in the teaching of A level and BTEC law in post 16 environment

Why am I repeating myself..? Why am I repeating myself..? Why am I repeating myself..? Why am I repeating myself..?

I've said it on many occasions but, as teacher, we have more tasks to do than we have time to do them. I would doubt that anyone would dispute this notion. I think anything that will save us some time in the future is worth investing in in the short term.

As a post 16 teacher I teach the same things to the different groups so I end up saying the same thing several times over. There might be some modification in the way that I do things from group to group but often the basic instructions on how to do a task will stay the same. This is especially true with BTEC subsidiary groups when setting them up to do assignment work, it is important that each group gets exactly the same instruction which fits within the BTEC rules so I'm limited on what I'm allowed to say.

I can end up saying the same thing six times in one week and once I realized this I also acknowledged that it is utter madness. You'll set up the assignment to the class and then little Wasim, who is late because he had a dentist appointment will come in and I'll start up and say it all again!

Quite simply put, I don't have time to do anything more than once and that is why I took the step of recording myself giving instructions which I need to give out more than once. I know a lot of people fight shy of voice recording because it is very embarrassing (I don't disagree!) and those who do try it end up spending hours doing take after take to get it exactly right (I've done this too!) Perfection is not necessary, as far as I'm concerned as long as you're not interrupted and you don't swear on the recording then it is more than good enough. You wouldn't practice in front of the mirror if you were going to say something to a group 'live' so why practice when you're going to record yourself saying it?

So you have two options, if you have time, record yourself before hand and then just play it back to the group or alternatively you can record it whilst you say it to the first class and then play it back to class two and three, the late kid, the kid who wasn't paying attention and the kid who forgot what she was supposed to be doing. Then you can do something else whilst they are listening.

The only thing you've now got to do is work out what to do with all that extra time you've bought yourself.

A no preparation technique to encourage creativity

I find that when learning the law students get very few opportunities to be creative. Most times there is a right or a wrong answer, the law is the law and it must be learnt accurately, a small distortion of an offence, for example, can completely change the meaning. I understand that accuracy when learning is a skill which can be invaluable but it's not always the most exciting thing in the world and I love to give my students the opportunity to be more creative.

For teachers of older students creativity often means making a spider diagram on A3 sugar paper with coloured pens. Now I won't have a bad word spoken about this technique, it can be a great way of injecting some interest, especially when it comes to revision.

The revised Blooms taxonomy puts 'creating' at the top of the hierarchy of skills meaning taking existing knowledge and reorganising it into something new and it is from this perspective that I took this new approach which I try to use as often as possible.

Teacher - no internet

This might be an odd moment to write a post bearing in mind that the college computer network is all but dead at the moment.

It started yesterday morning when I arrived at 7:10 to find that my laptop wouldn't connect to the college wireless so, no internet, no documents, no registers, no printer. This isn't overly unusual, things occasionally go wrong over night and it's almost always fixed by about 8:00 but this wasn't the case this time. In fact it's now more than 24 hours later and there's still no internet.

The good
Lack of room to procrastinate has been really good. I've got on to a machine that still works, done the few things I need and got off within about 15 minutes.
In the rest of the time I've been forced to do the less interesting things like filing, marking and paper based admin.

The bad 
Lack of easy access to my documents is problematic. I'm not overly concerned about losing documents as everything I have is stored in the cloud with Google Drive where as those who store everything on the colleges storage system are starting to get that creeping worry about what happens if you never get it back.
I'm not able to choose the order I do things, it's been dictated to me and I'm not finding that very convenient.
I also miss the possibility of the natural segue into a related topic quite restrictive. Yesterday there was a spontaneous discussion about the different uses of the word "squat", most understood it just to mean the hideous gym based exercise and not many had heard of it as a place where people bed down without permission. A couple of quickly thrown together images from Google would have really helped but I couldn't do that and I felt it was an opportunity missed.

The ugly 
It's currently observation season at college and people are fully expecting that 8:30 email to say that they are going to be paid a visit. No internet is causing mass panic as people aren't able to get to their planning, use their whizzy smartboard resources or even access the email to tell them that they are coming.

Overall, it's been an interesting experience. I've found that having my autonomy to choose what order I do things is frustrating as I've ended up with a big to do list of things I must do the next time I can get to a computer. On the other hand, I've also found that I've done everything far more quickly because I'm less distracted and so I've got through the big to do list.

I'm certainly considering having a no-tech day once a week, but I wonder whether I'll actually do it once the WiFi comes back on.

Miss...? Miss...? Miss...? How to stop answering the same questions over and over again

I teach one particular group of first year BTEC law students who constantly want reassurance that they're doing it right. They're asking question after question, usually on stuff that I have already covered.

This is something that I felt I had to sort out to make them more resilient and independent. As human beings one of our greatest skills is our ability to work things out for ourselves and this is something that needs to be practiced. In order to move them away from super dependence I have introduced question tokens. For a week long activity they are allocated three question tokens which entitle them to ask three practical questions about the workings of the activity. I don't limit anyone on the questions that they want to ask about the subject of the lesson, in fact I'm considering giving out tokens to collect for really great questions.

The impact can be instantaneously. Ensure that the new token system is the first thing you explain that lesson and watch them lean forward to really listen, jot down notes on their booklets and read and reread the written instructions given. When working in groups you'll see someone put their hand up or call me but before I can get there someone else gets them what they need to do.

The problem of concentration or - If I had a pound every time I felt distracted...I wish I had a puppy.

Concentration and engagement is a key issue for every teacher, especially new teachers like me. I realised that you can have the most brilliant, engaging and stimulating range of activities but if there is a huge car accident on the roundabout right outside my classroom window then I'm on to a loser. To try and swing the odds into my favour I've put together a list of tips and tricks which have worked in my classroom that my students can take into other environments.

1. Let them eat cake
Maybe not actual cake, but some sort of non-messy, quiet food which students can munch throughout the lesson. If they're hungry their mind will wander.

2. Let them play
The saying goes that the devil makes work for idle hands and that is certainly true in my classroom. Some students need that external stimulation to allow their mind to really focus on what they see and hear so give them something to fiddle with. If you give them a whiteboard and a dry-wipe pen to 'draw what they feel' about what you're discussing as a group they're engaged and they're fiddling. I know that this is true because I have to fiddle with something during class discussions.

3. Drink, drink, drink...
If they're thirsty they'll be distracted. If they think they might be thirsty in the future they'll be distracted too. Circumvent the issue and request that they bring a drink of water to every class.

4. "I need a tissue"
I get this one all the time and my suggestion that they use their sleeves does not go down well. I'm fitting a toilet roll dispenser in my new classroom and I'm hoping that I can sweet talk the cleaning staff to fill it up on the normal loo roll run. For some, taking a very short break to get some tissue is all they need to refocus and get back to work without leaving the room.

5. Scaffolding
Even asking my 17/18 year old A2's to write a one hour timed essay you see their eye bulge as their brains start to disengage. There is nothing that I can do to change the format of the summative assessment but I can do a lot to scaffold the run up to completing it. Instead of researching, assimilating and writing up all of that information in one huge lump they do tiny little sections over a period of time and build it up. They understand it better and can actually use the information instead of just regurgitating it.

6. Insist on organisation
I nearly broke down and cried when a student asked to borrow a pen and paper two weeks before the final exam. It made me question everything, if they turn up without these absolutely fundamentals to a lesson knowing full well that they have needed them EVERY OTHER LESSON that year then how will they know anything in their exam? Will they remember to get to the exam on time? Will they even turn up to the exam? Ever since then I have insisted on very specific list of resources and a filing system that every student brings with them every lesson and the first activity of the lesson is to get it out of your bag and on to the desk. No faffing during the actual lesson.

7. What's wrong with headphones?
When doing a longer independent task I see no problem with students listening to their music as long as they understand and follow the rules.
a. You must choose a playlist and then listen to it without changing the track.
b. You must use both earbuds so other people can't hear the music
c. You have to keep half an eye open for when I wave frantically at the front if i want everyone's attention.

If it helps someone get into their own little world and really concentrate then I would be mad to stop them!

8. Go with it

I can't compete with a solar eclipse and that's okay. 

There have been so many times that I have put together a carefully considered lesson plans with very specific activities and then I discover that the group wants to take it in a different direction. When I first started teaching I was a slave to the lesson plan, if it wasn't on then I didn't do it but now I've realised that the best way to hold a student's attention is to give them ownership over what they're learning. If they're doing what they want to be doing in the way they want to do it then everyone is happy.

9. Some times it's just a bad day
One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn as a teacher is that you cannot fix every problem that comes your way. In the ten minutes left of first lesson after the recent solar eclipse I don't think I got a single moment of work out of any of my 2nd year BTEC students who were sitting there. Their mind was still squarely focused on what they'd just seen (and that the world had not ended...) and there was nothing I could do about that. You can't always win the room because sometimes the outside stuff is bigger than whats going on in the classroom on that day at that time. And that's okay.

I'm a published teacher - sort of...

The college produces an in house teaching journal called Learning Matters and I was published in the 4th edition. It's not exactly the Times educational supplement, but it's a start.