Yolande Ifold
I have worked as, and enjoyed being, a classroom teacher for many years. I am currently working as an independent primary science consultant and a National STEM Learning lead facilitator.
Location Southwest England
Activity
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Yolande Ifold replied to Sue M
I agree Julia Donaldson's books are truly wonderful. Such a vast range.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Milly Bentham
@MillyBentham How would you encourage your class to investigate this?
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Yolande Ifold replied to R L
@RL These are great to make. What comparative tests might the children engage with?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Kimberly Smith
@KimberlySmith I like the way you have linked this to a real-world situation.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Joanna Braun
@JoannaBraun Thank you for sharing this excellent idea.
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@TobinVadeboncoeur There are some great light and colour resources and activities on the STEM Learning website https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/community/collection/12741/year-6-light and https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/community/collection/12719/year-3-light which you will find useful.
NASA's website https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/ has a good...
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@TatsianaKanstantsinava(Callaghan) Please may I have your permission to share your name and/or informative comment on the course blog page on the National STEM Learning website?
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
Thanks for the excellent examples shared in the comments below.
Have are a couple of quick links:
BBC Bitesize https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55797927 (short and engaging).
Science Museum Group https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55652071My favourites:
https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/ and https://www.twigsciencereporter.com/
Hopefully you will... -
Yolande Ifold replied to R L
@RL Do take a look at Explorify https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/. You won't be disappointed. I would be interested to know what you think.
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@RinaCastro Videos that are appropriate, engaging, explain concepts clearly and have real-life examples are great. Thank you for sharing these examples. I have not seen these before. Have you also tried Explorify https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/?
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@VictoriaFalloon Thank you for highlighting the issues of differentiation while remote teaching. Have you tried Explorify? https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/? You will find this excellent free resource is ideal for extending children's thinking and reasoning skills.
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@VaniaMontaño I agree. It isn't always easy and can be time consuming. However there are many prepared ones to use. Have you tried Explorify https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/ yet. I think you will find it a very useful free resource.
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@RachelPeacock Thank you for sharing this insight. Please may I have your permission to use your name and/comment in a course blog post on the National STEM Learning website?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Natalie M
@NatalieM Thank you for sharing. I think this underlines the importance of you as the teacher to the children. Do you have any examples of the activities which you feel helped the children's learning the most?
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@DanielaStoineaBruma Thank you for highlighting the importance of being able to 'practise their working scientifically skills'. Which activities are you planning to use?
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@KayDooley @JoyCrumly @RachelPeacock Please may I have permission to share your names and/or comments in a course blog post on the STEM Learning website?
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@emmaLlewellyn please take a look here https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56687245
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@MoniqueS I would be very interested to know if you have had the chance to broach this idea with you SLT and what the outcome has been. A whole school topic equally will work well once everyone has returned to school and not just for home learning. Have you any ideas which topic you would like to use?
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@CiaraCullen A great idea to encourage sibling interaction.
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@VickyKenny This is similar to https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55701739. You might be interested in discussing this further.
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@NatashaBeauchamp Thanks for sharing this well structured planning and highlighting that many families may have to share one device between many. This also prevents any one child being exposed to too much screen time and allows for flexible and open ended tasks to be used.
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@VaniaMontaño Thank you for sharing this. Has this approach worked well for you and your colleagues? It would be interesting to hear which of the transdisciplinary activities you have used have worked best. Please share some examples if you have time.
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@IreneDunbar Thank you for highlighting the importance of siblings working together where possible. This can add a little of the interaction that is missing when children are away from normal class situations.
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@FionaEccles Thank you for highlighting the role of TAs if they are available to assist with home learning. Can you share which activities you are able to involve your TA in and how this helps to support the children?
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Thank you @EguonoIsuekevbo. These are also shared by other learners https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55444167
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@AoibhinnSweeney Thank you for highlighting these thoughtful expectations.
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@CiaraCullen A very well thought out and reflective post. Thank you for sharing your compassion and ways of boosting children's confidence.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Rina Castro
@RinaCastro Yes it is good to be compassionate and reassure the children. Your expectation is also shared by others https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55929489 and https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55843980
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@GretaDromgool Thank you for highlighting this challenging issue of the diversity of children's home situations and the range of support provided. You might find this post interesting https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56382102
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@SibongileGwala Thank you for sharing this. It would be interesting to hear about which kind of activities you find work best to encourage the children to participate during class time.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Andrew B
@AndrewB That sounds like a good comprise. How did the children respond and what did this tell you about their understanding?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Tim White
@TimWhite Thank you for sharing this with us. So challenging to try and engage a child when they are not interested. I often use an appropriate story book to try and capture their interest. Depending on the age of your daughter, the beautifully illustrated book 'The Adventures of Apun the Arctic Fox' may be helpful...
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@AoibhinnSweeney What a great way of engaging the children. You are so right about children needing hands on experiences. Thank you for sharing this idea.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Milly Bentham
@MillyBentham This sounds interesting. Please share with us what you planned to make it work. How did it engage the children's learning?
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@VictoriaFalloon Thanks. It is brave of you to share this. Sometimes it is enough to embrace an experiment that hasn't gone quite to plan and reflect on why with the students.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Vania Montaño
@VaniaMontaño. This has created extra challenges for you. A recent report has found that parents think that engagement is the main barrier to their learning learning at home. This section of the course https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974843 will help you build up a bank of science ideas and activities for...
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@ShimaaAhmed please share with us examples of any practical activities you have been able to ask your pupils to try out. You may also find this useful https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55586720
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@GwynHubball thank you for sharing this with us. Making poo is definitely a highlight!
I also like to link science and literacy - often using appropriate story books. Are you familiar with 'The Incredible Book Eating Boy' by Oliver Jeffers or 'The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business' by Werner Holzwarth? There are some superb resources on the...
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@RenuTewari I am very interested in what methods you have used relating to everyday life. It would be most helpful if you could share these with us and how the children responded to the activities.
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@AndrewB This sounds interesting. Soil is always a great opportunity for some messy exploration. A topic about plants would follow on well. http://www.thekidsgarden.co.uk/teachingkidsaboutsoil website has some really fun activities. My favourite is making an edible 'soil shake' with milk, chocolate biscuits and gummy worm sweets as well as a few other...
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@CiaraCullen I often link children's story books to science topics to help engage children and make links to other areas of the curriculum. Have you come across 'Michael Recycle' by Ellie Bethel? Michael, the hero in the story, sets out to make recycling fun!
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@RinaCastro Please share with us how you plan to assess their understanding of prior learning and how this will influence what you plan to teach next?
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@VickyKenny Thanks for sharing. How will you encourage staff to assess their children's understanding and plan to extend their learning?
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@SianStagg You will find some great practical activity ideas here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974849 These will help your students engage with science.
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@VaniaMontaño Welcome to the course. You will find some great practical activity ideas here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974849
Please let us know which ones you think will enthuse your elementary children and help them progress. -
@AndrewB that is great. Yes the materials from this course translate to in-school as well as remote learning. A school and home learning partnership is very powerful. Maybe you will be able to undertake this as a form of 'on the job' research to see how this strengthens children's learning and progress.
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@ShimaaAhmed Thank you. It is great to read that you have achieved this.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Rachel Peacock
@RachelPeacock Thank you for sharing this thoughtful insight. I am especially interested about how you have been exploring how to ensure active engagement. Are you able to share the ways you have found most successful?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Monique S
@MoniqueS thank you for your comment. I am very interested to know which of these websites you will be using when planning to help progress your students' learning. Please share.
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
Thank you for sharing your thoughts below.
The main points that many of you feel as a teacher delivering remote learning is to make activities:
FUN https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55453241
ENGAGING https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55942391
CREATIVE https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56046368
and INVOLVE PARENTS... -
@MissDalwai Welcome and thank you for joining us. Congratulations on becoming a Science Lead. This course will support you in many ways - you may wish to share Ofsted's recent remote learning report with your colleagues https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974843
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@VictoriaFalloon Many thanks for sharing this. It would be interesting to hear which activities (with child friendly instructions) you find work best and help your students progress their learning.
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@AndrewB great to know that you enjoyed that. It is so important that children ask questions and engage with the activity like you did.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Monique S
@MoniqueS Thanks for sharing these interesting ideas. How might you guide your pupils to carry out these activities and to record their findings? How would you check their understanding?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Shimaa Ahmed
@ShimaaAhmed That sounds a great idea. Thank you for sharing. How would you direct the children to carry out this activity? How might their responses help you assess their learning?
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@JoyCrumly what a great opportunity to make so many links and encourage them to share ideas and talk.
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@AndyLucas a great way of linking their learning. Thank you for sharing.
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@AndrewB I like the idea of a short series of interviews to showcase the children's learning. Thanks for sharing.
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@VickyKenny This is a brilliant question. Thanks for sharing? What do the children say? What does this tell you about their understanding?
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
This type of scientific enquiry lends itself so well for activities students can carry out very simply at home. This is a good example: https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55935320
Another example - children could freeze water in interesting shaped containers.
One of my favourite ice activities is to fill disposable gloves with water to make ice hands...
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Yolande Ifold replied to Ciara Cullen
@CiaraCullen Thank you for sharing this idea which is so easy to do at home. It looks ideal for developing children's observation and thinking skills. How might you guide them to recording their observations?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Andy Lucas
@AndyLucas this is a really excellent activity for developing children's learning and thinking skills. Many thanks for sharing this. It would be very interesting to hear about what the children say. How do you think it will develop their understanding?
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@LeslieSnyman Welcome. Do share with us how you get on and which parts of the course work best for you.
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@NatashaBeauchamp Welcome to the course. You will find some great practical activity ideas here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974849
Please let us know which ones you think will enthuse your Year 2 children and help them progress. -
@StephaneAbiRizk Great that this works so well. Please share with us what was covered in the videos that helped engage the children. How did they respond? What did this tell you about their understanding and learning?
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@anantamarak Please let us know how you get on. Do look at the responses from other learners to give you ideas and what they found worked best for them.
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
Thank you for all your contributions. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experiences here. What stands out are the ways that you have worked to overcome the stumbling blocks that you have come across.
Here are some of the posts from below for quick... -
Yolande Ifold replied to Ciara Cullen
@CiaraCullen Thanks for your post. It is great how you have evolved the presentation of the videos to accommodate all learners. Please could you share with us some of the modelled examples and how this benefited the children's learning.
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Yolande Ifold replied to Katie Middleton
@KatieMiddleton you have raised some very good points. Thank you for sharing with us. Parents have experienced many challenges during this pandemic. What steps could you take so that parents understand how important it is for their child to be 100% involved in their own learning? How do you think it could have been addressed at the beginning?
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@KimberlySmith others are also sharing your experiences. Is there any advice you could share with each other. Please look at https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55539295 and https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55576587
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Yolande Ifold replied to Joanna Braun
@JoannaBraun it is good to know that you anticipate this resource being useful. How do you see it making a difference? I am curious to know what you think.
Limited help from parents has also been experienced by other teachers on the course https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56295251
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@AlejandroRamírezRamírez please use Google Translate so that you can share your valued contribution with others.
Translation - "The first advice is to be patient with your children. Second, I would tell them to ask questions like why? Why is the sky blue?"
How could you support parents who were unsure how to answer questions they might not know the answer... -
Yolande Ifold made a comment
I WONDER .... is such a great way of stimulating children's curiosity and engaging them. Thank you for contributing so many creative ideas for 'I wonder' activities.
What stimulus materials might you use for your chosen activity? Often the simpler the more effective.
https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56077347 @VictoriaFalloon has shared her favourite...
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@RachelPeacock The Explorify clips are fanatastic. How did the children respond? What did this tell you about their understanding? Thank you for sharing with us.
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@FionaEccles This is a great question to get children thinking and questioning. Have you used Oobleck (which acts like both a liquid and a solid) as an extension to your idea. Please take a look at this commenthttps://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56077347
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@TobinVadeboncoeur the example you have shared looks great for developing children's questioning and thinking skills. How would you help your students to discover why the sky appears blue?
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@AlejandroRamírezRamírez thank you for sharing. Please could you use Google Translate https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=translate so that others can read your comment in English? Translation - "I would use a light bulb, a cable and a bucket with water and a bucket with water and salt. I would ask the children if water conducts electricity and...
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@GretaDromgool Welcome. I look forward to reading about your thoughts and experiences in the comments as you progress through the course. Looking through other learners' comments will give you lots of ideas of what has worked well for them.
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@TobinVadeboncoeur Congratulations and welcome. I look forward to reading about your thoughts and experiences in the comments as you progress through the course. Please share what you find useful and inspirational. There are some excellent resources such as Explorify included further in the course...
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@MoniqueS Thank you for this top tip - it is a great way of empowering a child and giving them control as a learner. Do you have any specific examples you could share with us?
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@RinaCastro thanks for sharing these five top tips. Please could you expand on how you would encourage parents to "5. Link the new learning to prior learning". Could you share some examples with us?
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@KimberlySmith Thanks for posting. I am interested in the question stems you provide parents with. How helpful are they for helping parents support their child's learning? Please could you share some examples to help other teachers see what they could also use.
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@ReboneTlhapi thank you for your TOP TIPS. Great suggestion about creating songs to help children remember and learn. Do you have any examples of songs for learning you could share with us?
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@FionaEccles Thanks for your post. You have focused on the asking of "what?" and "why?" Please could you expand upon why you have chosen this as your top tip. If you are not sure where to start, maybe think back to a time when you were using this form of questioning with your class and what made the session successful.
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
There have been some great TOP TIPS added in the comments below. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.
I have linked a few here for quick reference:
https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55934086
https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55275621
https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55452094Please continue to share your TOP TIPS read other comments.
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@SHANECABAK Thank you for reminding us that fun is a very important part of effective learning!
Please could you clarify what you mean by a knowledge organiser. It would be very interesting if you could share an example with us and describe how the parents can use the information to support the teaching. Do you do this for every lesson?
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@CiaraCullen thank you for this idea - a very good to reinforce learning. Do you have any examples to share with us about how successful this can be? What have you asked the children to teach their parents? Did it work better with some children than with others?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Katie Middleton
@KatieMiddleton Did your students share any of their excitement and findings with you and their classmates? How might the students extend this when they return to school?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Sue B
@SueB this is such a great initiative for families. Did your students share any of their excitement and findings with you and their classmates?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Kimberly Smith
@KimberlySmith Making shadows would make an engaging activity. What patterns might you expect your students to discover? Also thank you for sharing your excellent idea about investigating how long it takes water with different amounts of salt to freeze. How might the students extend how they work scientifically and also make links to real world situations?
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
There have been some excellent ideas shared in the comments below for easy sorting or classifying investigations while home learning. Thank you for these and others - https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55935193, https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55867715, https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55849686, https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/55848634,...
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@RL it is also good to consider individual needs. Based on the task to gamify the learning, please can you tell a little about some of the activities you have used with your students. You may find this example useful https://www.futurelearn.com/comments/56045741
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@ShimaaAhmed Welcome. I look forward to reading about your thoughts and experiences in the comments as you progress through the course. These sections will help you achieve your wish - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974836 and...
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Yolande Ifold replied to Sally Harley
@SallyHarley that is really good to know. Which resources and tools do you especially plan to incorporate into your future teaching? What do you think will be most useful?
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Yolande Ifold replied to Rachel Hall
@RachelHall maybe you will still have the opportunity to do so in the future. Adding this course to your CPD will be helpful. Also much of the content can be used once back in school. Please share what aspects you plan to incorporate into your face-to-face teaching.
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@AlejandroRamírezRamírez Translation - I think that what they have said is quite important and it helps me for my work. What has caught my attention the most is the involvement of parents in teaching, but how to do that, how to link parents in their children's learning when are they tired?
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@VickyKenny thank you for sharing about using this framework alongside Rosenshine's Principles. Children could share their work on Padlet which is included further in the course https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-for-home-learning-primary-science/5/steps/974848
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Yolande Ifold made a comment
Other learners on this course have used this framework alongside Rosenshine's Principles. Rosenshine formulated ten key principles, which he strongly believes are essential for an effective approach to instruction in lessons. Very interesting reading. Rosenshine's Principles are covered in another FutureLearn course and can be read about using this link -...
