Blooms Races

I first designed the interactive seating plan in my NQT year, 2012. I have since developed this through three different versions to the current version 3. Over ten thousand teachers have downloaded a version and use the interactive seating plan both within the UK and internationally.  It has gone from having to manually type all the information into just having to copy and paste data from your student information sheet.

Bargain words helps students to focus during activities, such as watching videos, reading pieces text or even the whole lesson. Students have to choose three subject specific words. Once these words have been selected the students have to calculate the value of each word. Throughout the lesson or activity students have to keep a tally of how many times their word appears. At the end of the lesson students will need to calculate the frequency, 'total', and find the value of each word. After adding the values together find out who was the richest student. 

Theory

Independent learning is buzz term that has been around for several years within education but what is it all about? Why are some students more independent than others and how can we as educators breed a culture of independence within our schools and classes? Banksy is of the opinion that “A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to” (Banksy). So, is it not our job as educators to tell them to be independent? Is being independent as easy as just being told to be?

Battle Words is focused on the core skill of co-ordinates. The idea is that students apply their knowledge of co-ordinates to remember and define key words. It is a competitive game with bonus points awarded for guessing the key words before having all of the letters and for being able to accurately define the key words. This activity would be great as a recap starter, plenary or revision tool.