Building confidence

The "Archaeologists to Artists" project have planned in some great steps to build student's confidence and skill level so they can master new materials confidently.  Students are using their knowledge of archaeological finds at Simonside to inspire a ceramic wall tile display planned to be installed at school.

What have you done to maintain the classroom culture?

These quotes from the teachers running projects highlight three very important parts of maintaining classroom culture
1. We all need to see what the purpose of the "team" is, so that we can worrk together.
2 Community an dculture need regular attention.
3. Critique is a great way to build supportive learning communities. 






Regular critique & a culture of optimism - a 'we can do' & 'nothing is out of our reach' approach. 



Took the Crammy Wipeout students out on a trip to meet Britain's strongest man today who owns a strongman gym in Consett. Students treat him like a celebrity; taking pictures of him at the end of the workout he had designed them. This was an opportunity to show a range of fitness strategies. The activities encouraged critiquing technique and team spirit by supporting other students. I asked students to write a paragraph about the experience. Most wrote 3- 4 paragraphs. 

We have had an exciting day today! We started by reading each other's 1st drafts, offering valuable critiquing to each group. Groups were then able to make necessary changes to their work. We were then visited for a professional storyteller who explained how to read to children. Finally we visited Newcastle Central mosque, exploring the Muslim culture!

This constant team work and collaboration helps to promote a collective classroom culture of confidence and happiness, working with our new friends.

Past Present Future vintage

Briefings, regular review stops, critique. Setting up room and resources in a way that the students will engage with and respect(high quality resources).

We have encouraged students to take more of a lead in training and activities.

·         5 students have put themselves forwards as potential captains (4 slots available)

o   Students started to co-lead warm ups and help with equipment

·         Focus on a team culture – can’t win as individuals need constant critique and coaching of each other

·         Students watching video footage of their own plays to critique, soft on player hard on content

·         Skype call with coach from another flag football team from Darlington taking his team to USA.

o   Students see how he went from our stage to his over past 5-8 years ( Seeing the big picture)



 We did a gallery style show and tell and used post its to give feedback, groups then had 10 minutes to read their feedback and respond, including a to do list for the next session. We also did a literacy exercise on how to summarise information (not cut and paste!) using the funnel thinking map.

A lovely student journal

VOX Tool

A nice suggestion from the Life as a Professional Athlete.

We are using the Vox tool while watching instructional videos. Students post questions using their tablets (or some students used mine as didn’t have one) while watching the video. This enables us to prepare for quality answers, students don’t forget questions, don’t have to be start stop on instruction video.

Vox can be found in the Project class blog in Frog. 

Nice example of the route through a day

What have you done to build a sense of community or team ethos?

Here's a selection of ideas from around project fortnight :

1.       Names with stickers on, reflection diary with a focus on shared responsibility and being a team player.

We have begun to build a team atmosphere by playing ‘get to know you’ games including: two truths one lie and name rhymes. Pupils have now been put into their groups and have presented their research to each other. We have discussed empathy and what we need to be as learners, teachers and friends.

Overall, a fabulous start J

They’re assigned into World Cup Teams and points are awarded for each activity. Good sportsmanship and organisation is also rewarded whilst poor behaviour/concentration can also see teams lose points.

A strong feature from our Group Agreement was the adoption of regular critique. We had our first round today, with some good feedback from the group. It was made very clear that the presenting group needed to take accurate notes during the process so that they then could use them as action points. The other important routine established was  drafting , with the acceptance that work completed today would be radically improved by June 27^th. Not earth shattering I know, but important nonetheless.

Stiudents giving critique P3 as to what makes a great team (look, feel, sound). Groups allowed to fail, review as to what went wrong and next steps forward. Result? Damian and Kieran self-regulating their behaviour by leaving their respective groups temporarily, designing and modelling an awesome clock, whilst still maintaining responsibility within their original group.

Students  mentioned in today's review that they like that it is a "real audience and product"


We just did a getting to know you game (find the lie) and came up with a class agreement, will be more SoP and feedback agreement on Wednesday after trip tomorrow.

To build up team we have a rewards board. We award stamps for team work, problem solving, new knowledge, developing a skill, and giving specific and helpful feedback. The team the with the most points everyday wins a prize. 

    The students have just ‘got on with it’

·         No fuss or issues – students very cooperative with each other

·         We’ve used Quality Audience, counting back from 5, played a team game on Monday morning

Where will this project take us?

The "I just felt running project" uses two very simple but highly effective strategies to allow students to gain a sense of how the project will develop over the fortnight:

1)  'The Big picture'  - a calendar of events and learning pinned to the classroom wall and door so students know what to expect and deadlines

2)  Students create a model to represent themselves on their journey through the project. Students do this on day one and track the miles they have run throughout the fortnight, making their way to Bamburgh from Cramlington as they gain miles on their daily runs.

Project Blogs

Each project has a project blog, which teachers are using to share the resources the students needed to complete the project.

This great example is from the Life as a Professional Athlete project. It has video clips, lesson resources, online specialist tools such as http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.

Project warm up

The "Break Out" project encourages an active and healthy lifestyle.   Here they are using the field the get students warmed up and ready for learning during their launch this morning.

Group Agreement to build classroom community