Innovative lesson for an Abacus
This blog piece is written by Rachel Sneyd. Rachel is currently completing an undergraduate degree in History and Politics at Trinity College Dublin. She is a keen writer and has just submitted her first teen-fiction novel for publication.
I set the team a task of thinking of an innovative lesson or use of a new toy, abacus - especially not for maths!
Rachel was thinking about using it for younger kids as a way of measuring progress/encouraging them to push themselves. If a student is having particular trouble writing, you could use it to build up the number of sentences/words they'll write and if they're having trouble reading you could use it to get them to read more paragraphs/pages/poems and so on!
So all the beads would be on the left hand side on the first day. You'd get them to read or write as much as they're willing to. Then you would move one bead from the top row to the right hand side for every sentence written/poem read etc.
The next day you would reset the abacus to show how they got on the week before and then challenge them to do better, so maybe this time you will move three beads over instead of two. As the weeks go on they will be able to clearly see that they are improving and hopefully they will be motivated to beat their own scores!
Brilliant - Just the sort of idea I was looking for!
Learning your own mistakes
Autour le Monde- Around the world
This lesson is create by Annika Stephan who was born in Düsseldorf. Completed her Abitur in 1996 and moved to Ireland in 1997. Commenced studies in Cultural Studies & French at DKIT in 1997. Completed BA Hons. in Heritage Studies & French at GMIT in 2002. Lived & worked in France between 2001/02. MA Hons. in German Literature from UCD in 2008. Lives with Muffy, the hamster and two guinea pigs, Billy and Bob.
The aim of this lesson is too learn French vocabulary in a fun and dynamic way. For prep you will need to make up some visual flash cards. To make it easier in the beginning especially with younger groups you could add pictures to the cards.
This is a game to play in a larger group of at least three students! But it is more fun with more students. Autour le Monde translates as Around the World, and this is exactly what the aim of the game is all about: to get around the table back to your own chair by guessing the correct translation of words in French.
Learning from Mock Exams
The snow before Christmas had a knock on effect for many exam students this year. Students sat mock exams later than normal without getting a chance to finish any more of the course work. Everyone has anxiously awaited results and feedback. At The Homework Club we believe evaluation is vital to success. The Mock results don’t have to set what you will get in June. Included are some of the top tips we go through for our own students. The mocks are a test run! They test our endurance.
If you had a good mocks - you should be always be careful. Were you just lucky with the paper? are you likely to get the same questions in June? If yes, your on the road to success.
If you had a bad mocks - Don’t despair. Above all else stay confident. Always aim for the stars and you will reach success. Find your mistakes and learn from the experience. It's not the end of the world.
There are 8 main factors that effect exam performance
Subject Knowledge
Your Exam History
Exam Preparation
Exam Practice
Experience of the Subject
Writing Skills
Use of Time
Attitude and Approach