Sunday 9 February 2014

#ililc4 @elvisrunner In at the deep end

@elvisrunner aka Eleanor Abrahams has recently come into a department as HOD, where possibly the biggest issue was that the kids were not engaged. In this session, she talked about the different targets she has had and the strategies she has employed to help the department move forward, bringing the pupils on board as they go. 

Improve ethos 
Engagement 
Reward
Project-based SOW
Parental involvement 

Target 1 engagement 
Create a dance routine with commands (drama strong in school so she decided to tap into this) 
Watched Ashleigh and Pudsey routine from Britain's Got Talent, and got pupils to say what would Ashleigh say, then they had to shout commands as Pudsey moved. Much hilarity ensued as we tried this ourselves... 


Target 2 accurate assessment data 
Standard tests for all brought in
Joint moderation 
Standardised level calculator 
Reliable tracking 


Visual aids for pupils to see improvement as their name moves up the ladder 

Target 3 Improve the image 
Company logo and teacher name in each room 
Resources onto the wikis 

Performing Arts department strong. 
Lyrics to Summer Nights, sort according to the order they think lyrics should be in 
Starter - 4 words one pic idea for 4 different musicals. 
Subtitle bingo - subtitles mixed on each pupil page, they tick as they see it in subtitles. 

Character analysis followed, based on the film and they created a poster using the imperative to advertise it. 

Lead the department 
Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example 
Move away from the textbook but keep their assessments, vocab can guide you as you write your SOWs (this is what we do) 
Venn diagram of key topics, with words to place on the circles - makes them think of how they can apply vocabulary in more than one area
Cluedo
Connect 4 

Strip bingo
Colours - buzz word bingo. Differentiation 
Check out all the ideas on the amazing http://elvisrunner.blogspot.com/


Start with your colour then try the next colour if you can manage it 
Eleanor decided to allow pupils exposure to past and future tenses . She recognised that she could allow the kids to be better by exposure to it and using it. 

This was a brilliant, interactive and inspiring session and gave me so many ideas to take away. The full presentation is on Eleanor's blog http://elvisrunner.blogspot.co.uk where she explains it all much better than me

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