Making connections

We are now five days into the programme with two to go, today was a pair of whole days workshops on English Language and Maths. It was also a day in which there was a change in tone, tempo and activity. The English workshop got the delegates early into practical sessions based on speaking and listening in English using stories and the message/moral of the story as discussion points. In the Maths workshop the whole day was based around the PCAME technique with lots and lots of practical sessions for the classroom including playing fizz buzz, throwing dice, analysing the Premiership Football league table and lots more. And at a really practical level in the Maths workshop the delegates were introduced to using a simple laminated sheet of white A4 paper with a felt tip pen as a personal whiteboard. High technology indeed! One of the most pleasing things though was the connections that are starting to be made such as delegates talking about the structure of potential lesson plans during the English session and Maths delegates using the Constructivist pyramid (Bloom's Taxonomy) to identify steps such as remembering, understanding, and applying. I think we are starting to get somewhere!