Eaglehawk English

Large classrooms and video

2006-08-18T00:06:00.000+10:00

Haven't posted here much due to the iHistory project taking up a lot of time, which is good, but it means documenting what's been going on in English just hasn't worked.

Rebecca's and my group have just finished out unit on Homelessness, which went really well. Most students got into the writing tasks, although we overlapped on creative tasks, and so students struggled to do 2 creative pieces...the second was not very long, or creative! Unfortunately, because part of the course was reading "The Simple Gift" we often partitioned the class up. I reckon these larger classrooms need other methods of creating alternate teaching space than clunky partitions.

The Holocaust unit has started and yet again the class has separated. We decided to watch "Schindler's List" separately because the book task doesn't have enough books for a larger class. I can feel myself slipping into 1:25 mode, rather than 2:45 mode (ratio of teacher to student). Watching the video in a separate classroom was yet another step, necessitated because the other half of the class was too loud...and Schindler's List needs some decorum.

I'm looking forward to discussing what we've learnt from this experiment, although I reckon it will be tempting to blame the space for the problems we've been having, rather than our own mindsets.

Noise in the large classrooms

2006-07-06T15:06:00.000+10:00

We had our first class for the semester in large classrooms 2 days ago.

One of the main issues is noise. It could have been that kids were excited at being back, but it also seemed that the large space amplified noise. Yesterday I tried putting some music on - that did help because students wanted to hear the music, but it only worked to a certain volume. Over a certain volume, the noise accelerated because students raised their voices to be heard over the music.

Having small tables also helps, as long as students just talk to their table and don't interact too much with other tables.

Giving instructions has to be done when there is complete silence. I think this is true for any class, but it's triply so in the large classrooms where noise can echo and your voice has to carry a further distance.

Roald recordings in class today

2006-06-14T12:15:00.000+10:00

We tried to use the Ribald Roald podcasts today in year 9 English, with about 50 students in a double classroom. Just running the podcasts off my iRiver was pretty bad in terms of sound quality. I put them on the network and played them through the speakers attached to the computer.

This worked much better, but was still distorted. I think the problem is that I recorded them in the laundry (quietest spot in the house!). Also, Audacity is just made for recording stuff that can be played on an mp3, not pumped out!

Students enjoyed teasing my voice! They were mildly shocked by the poems, which shocked me.

Problems subscribing to podcast

2006-06-07T16:12:00.000+10:00

If the millions of our listeners are having difficulty playing the tracks or subscribing to the podcast, you need to make sure that your institution unblocks http://ienglish.podomatic.com

Ribald Roald - Hansel and Gretel

2006-06-06T17:07:00.000+10:00

In our year 9 English teams, we're doing a poetry unit. I wanted to read out some poetry but realised that with 50 students, I'm going to lose my voice.

So I've recorded a few from Roald Dahl's "Rhyming Stew", probably breaking myriad copyright laws in many countries.

Just click on the link to hear my dulcet tones. Even better, subscribe to the "Eaglehawk English" podcast by putting http://feeds.feedburner.com/eaglehawkenglish into your podcatcher.

Hansel and Gretel

Ribald Roald - Physical Instruction

2006-06-06T17:06:00.001+10:00

Ribald Roald - A Hand in the Bird

2006-06-06T17:06:00.000+10:00

Ribald Roald - The Price of Debauchery

2006-06-06T13:26:00.000+10:00

Introduction

2006-05-26T10:05:00.000+10:00

This is a blog to support use of IT in English, at Eaglehawk SC.