Issac Greaves - Latest Comments

Re: The Power of Persistence

Issac Greaves — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 05:52:50 -0000

Thanks Suzi :0)

Re: The Power of Persistence

Suzi Bewell — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:40:28 -0000

Great work and they are lucky to have such a great teacher as you Mr G x Well done!

Re: Language Perfect World Championships 2013

Issac Greaves — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:03:32 -0000

Hi Kate,

I was really chuffed to have received this email this morning and thank you for the tips. I think anything extra that can be done, should be done to promote languages. I will be more organised this year and put these things in place. Do you use twitter? I am @issacgreaves .

I never realised that Language Perfect had re-posted my blog post and I was concerned as students were coming up to me in school today saying that they saw me on Facebook, but it all makes sense now.

Best Wishes

Issac

Re: Language Perfect World Championships 2013

Kate Lawrence — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:36:16 -0000

Hi Issac,

My name is Kate Lawrence. I teach at St Johns College in country NSW, Australia.

A lot of our ideas to boost engagement were similar to yours, and our stats showed a MARKED improvement on last year's efforts.

I have a few ideas to share with you (and I will be stealing some of yours, like the house competition!!)

1. We noticed last year that students weren't playing over the weekend, so we opened up the computer rooms from 9-3 on Saturday and Sunday and encouraged students to come in around their sporting commitments. We had a photo booth, ran competitions for students who earned the most points (for attendees only) on each day - with a much coveted canteen voucher as a prize.

2. There are 4 language teachers and we had a "Beat the teacher" competition

3. We sent out press releases before and after the competition to raise the profile of languages in the community and also to praise the achievements of the students.

4. We set a goal of 3,000 points for all of our students and it was really interesting to hear the discussions among students who were adjusting this number to something they thought was realistic

5. Make sure you have access to all available language lists to maximise point scoring and vocab learning!

Congratulations on a fantastic result!

KATE

Re: Can you save time assessing?

Chiggs — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:12:02 -0000

Ive seen this in action in the classroom.. It ensures that students have regular progressive comments that focus on their expected next steps and moves us away from NC level marking.

Re: Intensive Spanish – Week 1

Issac Greaves — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:26:19 -0000

I am enjoying Class Dojo to be honest and so are the students - they have been logging in, and even the most reluctant students have been asking for their logins again once they saw what the others have done.

I will let you know if I can think of anything!

Re: Intensive Spanish – Week 1

classdojoblog — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:09:29 -0000

Hi Issac - Kalen from ClassDojo here. Just wanted to say thanks for the shout out and that we're really happy that the student logins are working so well! Let us know if you have any suggestions on how they can get better :)

Cheers!

Re: Class Dojo

Issac Greaves — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:40:22 -0000

Thanks for the comment, always appreciated! I am almost in disbelief at how well this one class has taken to it, I am enjoying teaching them more. As it is so visual, I am not having complaints when people are asked to stay back to complete a 'restorative meeting' as it is clear to them what they have been doing.

Will definitely try it with more classes from September, without a doubt. Only problem I am anticipating is if it becomes popular, the kids may not appreciate the novelty of it?

Re: Class Dojo

Nessalovesshoes — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:44:33 -0000

Great post Issac, I have been using Class Dojo for the last couple of months with one of my classes (kind of a pilot), and they truly love it! The behaviour of the class has totally changed for the better. The class have added new rules too, i.e get to 10 Pts and you can upload own avatar, school credits are worth 2 class dojo Pts etc...

Re: Class Dojo

Issac Greaves — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:27:22 -0000

No worries, I think you mentioned that there were problems with old versions of IE. The thing is, usually us mere teachers don't have the right to just download a new internet browser, or download anything for that matter. Just mentioning this FYI.

Otherwise, there is a lot of interest in Class Dojo atm... :0)

Re: Class Dojo

classdojoblog — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:49:31 -0000

Hi Issac - thanks so much for the great blog post. Please accept our apologies for ClassDojo not initially working on your school's network! Glad to hear it's working so effectively now!

If anyone who comes across this post has any questions about ClassDojo or needs help getting set up, please don't hesitate to reach out at hello@classdojo.com :)

Re: Class Dojo

classdojoblog — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:47:22 -0000

Hi Claire - Sorry to hear it's not working in your computer - let's get this figured out...this sounds like an issue with the internet browser. Can you see if you can get it working on the latest version of Google Chrome - www.google.com/chrome (this browser is the most powerful and will run our site the best - old versions of IE has issues).

If that doesn't work - shoot us an email at hello@classdojo.com :)

Re: Class Dojo

Issac Greaves — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:13:03 -0000

Hi Claire, I was able to log in and half of the features would be missing and the site looked a mess. I told the technicians and they made it almost like an app through firefox so I can just click onto it from the staff programmes and it launches and all works fine. I think @misstdunne also had problems with windows when she used it.

Definitely speak to the technicians :0)

Re: Class Dojo

Claire Hampson — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:31:59 -0000

Hi Isaac, I would love to use class dojo but am having problems getting it to display on my PC. I can load up the program but then after I log in, the screen is just blank! Any ideas? did you say you had an issue like this (needing firefox thingy) or was that something different? Thanks, Claire Hampson

Re: LW2012: Reflecting on ‘Conversation in the Classroom’ with Steven Fawkes

classdojoblog — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:20:26 -0000

Hi Issac - Kalen from ClassDojo here. Just wanted to reach out and thank you for mentioning us in your post - the whole team here appreciates your support.

If anyone who comes across this post has any questions about ClassDojo or needs help getting set up, please do not hesitate to reach out - hello@classdojo.com :)

Re: Exciting Times

Issac Greaves — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:07:09 -0000

We have enrichment on a Friday afternoon, so the cooking aspect is definitely not out of he question, and I think the students will enjoy it. Food and healthy eating is a part of the GCSE course, so a great idea.

I need to find out which Spanish films would be accessible for the students and some songs they would be interested in. Great ideas.

Grammar definitely on the list and I will make a conscious effort to get them speaking as much as possible as well as looking at some phonics.

Than is a lot for this!

Re: Exciting Times

Claire J — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:55:04 -0000

Wow - sounds like an amazing opportunity!! I am afraid that I am not vastly more experienced than you but would say that theming days / weeks round a topic sounds like a good idea, as you mentioned with food. E.g. music - cover some vocab, listen and evaluate some examples in TL, work to create their own (cross-curricular opp?) and evaluate...? I think like you say - practical activities - film language then watch a film and review (bring in media studies type analysis to raise cognitive engagement?); food then do some evaluation of how healthy recipes are, decide one to create, cooking and tasting (could also build in imperative here if desired). If your school has collapsed days you could talk to the people who co-ordinate them to see the kind of activities they bring in around a theme, then adapt them to happen in TL?

I am sure it is on the list anyway but get them having conversations as soon as possible - it will help to motivate, build confidence, and be useful for CA. If you haven't already you could look at Greg Horton's group talk work, there is some info on SSAT website and ALL London blog from his session last week. Phonics work would also be really useful, and I would get in some grammar (tenses etc.) if you can - the sooner it starts the better...

Good luck - Hope you all have lots of fun and they get off to a flying start for Y10. Let us know how it goes :)

Re: BFL Workshop – From Behaviour to Relationships: Peter Keane

Issac Greaves — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:37:23 -0000

I can't believe this was actually nearly a year ago, but it did have an impact even then. A lot of people never got on with Keane as he literally did the whole session through analogy, but for me, that's what made it all stick. Since then I have done a four day restorative justice training course and it ties in nicely with what he has to say. Planning to embed some of that into my first ever lesson, so watch this space :0).

Re: BFL Workshop – From Behaviour to Relationships: Peter Keane

Michelle Cairns — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:30:06 -0000

Looks like you got a lot from that workshop! Thanks for sharing your notes, I like the idea of a low hurdle for good behaviour too!

Re: New Classroom

issac — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:42:13 -0000

Note to self: TL phrases, numbers and look at MFL Sunderland for more ideas...

Re: LW2011 – Olympic Values and Intercultural Understanding: Isabelle Jones

Graceland — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:18:58 -0000

I love reading these articles because they're short but ifnromtaive.

Re: Sean’s first Voki

kendaves — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:25:50 -0000

¡Que chévere!

Re: Sean’s first Voki

Michelle — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:12:49 -0000

Great voki Sean! I like the hypnotising Pope idea too, very cool! If you try it with your own voice (without publishing it if you want) the lips move in time with what you say and it looks even more real! We recorded ours with Audacity and it was really easy to upload. Good luck with your studies, lucky you having a brother to help you. I look forward to reading your blog soon!