Jen is one of the band members at Times Tables Rock Stars HQ, and as a former teacher, she knows a great tip when she hears one! Read on to gain some MTC wisdom - straight from our teaching experts!
Thank you to everyone who has watched the ‘Maintaining Engagement until the MTC’ webinar (special shout out to those that joined me for it live!). If you haven’t seen it yet then it’s not too late – hit the button below to avoid spoilers in this article!
OK great, now that you’ve definitely watched the webinar, it’s time to pick out the juicy nuggets of information! So, without further ado, here are my main takeaways…
OPENING ACT: SARA RAHMANI
First up we had the brilliant Sara Rahmani. Sara is a Year 4 Class Teacher from Granard Primary School in London.
Sara shared how she uses the Sessions Bolt-On to monitor play and shine a light on pupil progress via our single player Gig Mode.
Sara’s Pro Tip:
“Show the children how they can access their Gig results (via their Stats area). It gives the children that ability to reflect on their progress and when they see how much progress they are making, they will want to play more and more!“
NEXT TO TAKE THE MIC: JACOB WOOLCOCK
Next up we had the legend Jacob Woolcock. Jacob is Head of Computing and Digital Learning at Penpol Primary School in Cornwall. He created not only a buzz on the webinar, but a buzz in his school by making a TTRS Rock Status display for the Computing room and also showing us a ‘wheelie’ good gamemode resource he uses in his lessons. Both incredibly impactful.
Jacob’s Pro Tip:
“Be colourful, bold and exciting with your display. If you’re excited about it, the children will be too.
They’d knock on my door and say ‘Sir, I’m a busker now can you move me up?’ It just spread and spread and spread to the point where children are coming in groups while I’m teaching a lesson to a different class asking to be moved up!”
CLOSING THE SHOW: CHRIS LAWSON
Concluding the webinar we had the awesome Chris Lawson, Assistant Head and Year 6 teacher from Parbold Douglas C of E Academy in Lancashire. He showed us where to download pupil heatmaps (a brilliant resource for parent’s evenings) and also a Stats Bolt-On feature to win over not only the teachers, but pupils and parents/carers too.
Chris’ Pro Tip:
One of my favourite features is the Fluency Slider (included with the Stats Bolt-On). You can show your whole class where they have started to where they are now in a super visual way…PLUS your pupils can log in and access their very own!
The look on their faces when they watch the heatmaps change colour is golden. The slider is a reminder that it’s OK to ‘go back’ when it comes to learning. Actually, reinforcing and consolidating, is part of every pupil’s learning journey.
COMING UP: 'CLOSING GAPS BEFORE THE MTC' WEBINAR
⭐ Identifying students in need of additional support;
⭐ Engaging parents/carers;
⭐ Teaching ideas for quick wins.