Our Final 3 with Comments Are the Following

As was agreed at the Poznan Conference, in May and June, we are sending our simple evaluations and reports on the 3 most popular tips in our school, listing the overall winner and two runner-ups to Beyton school to be posted on our website, so the results can be shared by teachers from the other schools and feedback is available to all.

Berlin (Germany):

Our Final 3 with comments are the following:

· Feed the Monster (from Italy)

The teacher divides the classroom in 2 teams. Each of the team first has to draw a monster with a big mouth and a big stomach. (Max 10 min.). Then the teacher takes a box with flashcards (i.e. about food and drinks). He/she shows a flashcard and asks the name. The team which says the correct answer can feed the monster sticking the flashcard on its stomach. The team which sticks the largest amount of flashcards, wins.

We used this trick with pupils aged 7 to 9 for repetition of English vocabulary. It went very well and we did not need to make any changes.

· Stepping Stones (from Bulgaria, Sofia)

Divide the class into two teams. Draw on the board two rivers (one for each team) with a certain number of stepping stones. You need one stepping stone for each task you have prepared. Representatives from each team come in turns to the board. If they successfully complete the task, the team “steps” on the next stone. The team which crosses the river first is the winner.

We used this trick with pupils aged 6 to 13 during English and cover lessons in different subjects. It was fun for the pupils, everyone was active! It was a great means of revising in an enjoyable way.

· Pass-it-on book. (UK Loughborough)

Objective: to promote writing and also to create a class book. The class teacher decides on a topic eg: My favourite place/ food/ shoes etc.. and starts off the book by writing their entry and shares this with the class. Each night the book goes home with a different child to add their entry, but they are also encouraged to ask their brothers/ sisters, parents, grandparents, neighbours etc.. to write in the book too. Illustrations can also be added and as many or few pages can be used. The book is returned the following day and the entry shared with the class. When the book is complete add it to your library and start a different topic.

We used this trick with pupils aged 10 during German lessons. The pupils were very interested and it work well. The only slight problem was making sure that all pupils bring back the book the next day!

Beyton (UK):

Every member of staff was provided after Christmas with a printed booklet containing all the tips sent to us by our partners. We hope that these individual copies will still prove useful in the future as a teaching tool and not just at this stage of the project.

Our Final 3 with comments are the following:

· The Gold fish Bowl (UK Beyton)

1/ Introduce discussion topic. A statement works more effectively than a question. (eg “Change, not charity is what Brazil needs” – this has been discussed by year 7 pupils in geography)

2/ Provide relevant background information and time for pupils to think about their opinions.

3/ Introduce ‘Goldfish Bowl’ discussion. 6 chairs in centre, ‘2 hot seats’, the rest of chairs are put in a circle. The discussion takes place in the centre. Pupils around the outside do not talk. If someone wishes to join the discussion – they tap the shoulder of someone in a hot seat (once they have had a chance to speak). The first person MUST give up their place. It may take some time for the discussion to start, and there may be silences – resist the temptation to intervene. NB As the teacher does not intervene it provides a good opportunity to record pupils’ involvement and contributions. I do this in my planner / register, recording who has joined in and any relevant notes eg managing the discussion or making complex / well argued contributions.

This proved an excellent activity to encourage pupils to hold responsible discussions. We used this trickwith pupils of different ages and in a wide variety of topics. it needed a little bit of practice but the pupils soon got the knack of organizing themselves. The most challenging part for us teachers was to avoid interfering and let the pupils run the show. A very useful trick.

· Fun with Syntax and Tenses (Germany)

To strengthen knowledge of syntax and tenses in mother tongue or foreign language: Set the structure of a grammatically correct sentence on the board: e.g. subject, verb, object, adverbs (specify these if you wish, e.g. time, place…). Additionally, the tense of the verb should be specified. The pupils make a table with the parts of the sentence as headings of the columns. Now every pupil fills in a column, then folds the sheet of paper so that the word(s) cannot be seen and hands it on to the next pupil.
Thus the children go on completing the different columns. Finally the very strange or funny sentences can be read out. You can work in teams or with the whole class.

We used this trick with pupils aged 12/13 during French lessons. The children enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun. It was an enjoyable way to work with grammar and structures.

· The Shoe Box

The pupils in a class collect little objects that are specific to their everyday life and their country: for instance you could select a time table a sweet, some coins, a copy of a bus pass, a photo of the classroom / school grounds, a menu from the canteen, a copy of the class names, a booklet on the town sites, a copy of the music charts for that week, the television listings etc... The items collected by the pupils are put into a shoe box to be sent to a class in another school in another country that has been contacted and is doing the same. We the shoe box arrives, it is opened in class and the items are examined and commented on. The pupils can do follow up activities, drawings to illustrate what they have learnt, questions to send to their new friends etc...

We used this trickwith pupils aged 9 to 12during French and geography lessons. The children found it really interesting and there was great excitement in putting a box together and in opening one. it was a lot of fun and we learnt a lot about the countries. We want to continue with this activity in the future.

Poznan (Poland):

Our Final 3 with comments are the following:

· The Apple tree (from Bulgaria, Sofia )

Construct out of coloured paper a big tree with six branches. Write across the branches: READING, GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY, SPELLING, HANDWRITING, BEHAVIOUR. Put the tree on the wall. You are going to need a lot of green leaves, some brown leaves and some apples (preferably in red and gold as being the most attractive to the children) to stick on the tree. They should be made of paper. Write on the leaves the names of the children. During the week stick the green leaves with the names of the children round the brunches, marking the areas they are good at. The name of one child can appear on more than just one brunch.
If a child does not behave well or is too lazy at schoolwork, write his or her name on a brown “withered” leaf and stick it under the tree. At the end of the week the best pupil, who has the highest number of green leaves, becomes an “apple”. Stick the apple with his or her name on the top of the tree. Sometimes more than one child becomes an “apple”. As an option you can give the “apple” child a small award or diploma to take home and be proud of.

We used this trick with pupils aged 7 to 10. It was very exciting for children and very useful for teacher. It was not necessary to adapt or make changes to this trick.

· Bench Hopping (from Germany )

To be used in Maths, English/numbers, spelling problems, either in the mother tongue or in a foreign language:

· The pupils stand beside their chairs,

· first pupil goes and stands beside others sitting behind or next to him and give them a task

· the pupils shout a solution

· the quickest pupil to answer goes on to the next table etc...

· go through the whole classroom according to the seating pattern of your class

· the winner is the pupil who kept going and went on the longest through the class

We used this trick with pupils aged 10 to12. It went well. All students liked it very much, it was very interesting way of encourage them to learn at home. We had to adapt a little as students wanted to play all at the same time. All students stood at the end of class. I asked the question, students who knew the answer rose their hands. I asked for an answer from only one student. If the answer was correct, all students with raised hands jumped on the nearest table /or the row of tables. If his answer was bad only he lost one turn or he had to go back. The student who jumped all tables first was the winner.

· Flowers (from UK, Loughborough )

Make an interactive display titled “How do you feel today?” Decorate it with brightly coloured flowers with a feeling in the centre of each flower, eg: excited, nervous, tired, happy, angry etc… Each child is then given a wooden peg with their name on and is encouraged to think about how they are feeling each day (and throughout the day) and consequently move their peg to the appropriate flower. This may then lead to discussions about why they feel sad/ angry/ excited, but also help them gage the feelings of others (including the class teacher!)

We used this trick with pupils aged 7 to10.It was very exciting for children. They like this way of describing their own feelings. They observed very carefully feelings of their friends asking ,,Why do you feel bad?”. We didn’t need to adopt it, but we asked different questions: Did you understand the task/ the lesson? Or What do you think about …? We have prepared different shapes to show the answers like ?, !, …

Marina di Pietrasanta (Italy):

Our Final 3 with comments are the following:

· The Shoebox (from UK, Beyton )

We used this trick in the context of an English lesson with 10 year olds.

It went very well!! We exchanged a lot of material brought by the children with the school in Portugal. The pupils were enthusiastic both in gathering things and in receiving them. They sent a thank you letter and questions to their friends. They also wanted to do some Easter cards. They improved not only the English language, but their knowledge about another country.

· Feel and Live (from Turkey, Sahil Private School / Ordu )

All the teachers in school agree on a list of examples of positive behaviour. This could involve Greetings, Saying “Thank you”, Saying “I am sorry”, Showing Respect to one's elders, Helping each other etc ...Then the teachers informthe pupils thatthis week is “ Greeting week”. So all of students say “Hello”, ”Good morning”, ”How are you” to everyone in class, in the playground, in the corridors, everywhere!
The teachers stick the themes for the week on the notice board and post on the names of the pupils who give the best examples of polite or helpful behaviour.

It went very well. The pupils, all the teachers and the school staff were involved in the activities. We made little changes to involve staff and parents (with up-to-dates boards outside at the gate). We formed THE COMENIUS COMMISSION (2 pupils per class) as we were used to in the past. The Commission was the jury who checked the best class for tidiness (with the school care-takers) and the winner of the “Greetings week”. They also discussed and decided to evaluate other educational situations, for example the behaviour during lunch time (with traffic lights as in the Bulgarian tip).

· Traffic lights (from Bulgaria, Razlog)

Through this game, a version of the game ‘’Rally’’ pupils formulate their own rules for good behaviour. They define rules, responsibilities and prohibitions. According to the age or learning situation they can change the text in the corresponding zonesof the indicator board. Once a week by voting, pupils decide whom to select among the pupils who always during the past week “passed on a green light", kept the rules. He or she receives green circles. Pupils whobreak the rules receive red circles. Duringthe whole working week circles haveto stay on pupils ’ desks. At the end of the term or schoolyear the pupils who collectedthe greatest number of green circles, win the prizes.

We used this trick in the context of History and Social Studies with 9/10 year olds.
It went well; it has been very useful. The pupils themselves wanted to make some changes. They also decided “their rules”. We didn’t give any red or green circles to the pupils. They suggested making a kind of “driving licence” where register (drawing a red circle next to the rule) only the violations to the established rules for a good behaviour. (Click on thumbnail for full size format).