My Student Life

Computer Kid reflects on Semester One in Year 8 I am really pleased with my results from Semester One this year. The subjects that I enjoyed the most were Latin, Science and English. I enjoyed them the most because: All of the teachers for those subjects were very engaging and made learning fun The subject content is interesting to me The teachers make sure that everyone is up to date with what we are learning, so if anybody in the class doesn’t understanding the material, the teachers help them to make sure that they catch up and understand.  I am proudest of my Latin results for last semester. In Latin I got a Meritorious (deserving reward or praise) Achievement, which means that I got very high, consistent marks for the subject. I got top marks for Latin, which means I was in the top bar A and also outstanding achievement for the entire semester.  I think that I was able to achieve these results because of the way the Latin teacher teaches ...

Sport Kid likes his music teacher above all of his teachers, because his music teacher chats to him and asks him questions about his life. Sport Kid feels like his music teacher cares about him.  Sport Kid likes his music teacher above all of his teachers, and not because he loves learning a musical instrument, in fact, it has nothing to do with the subject that this particular teacher teaches. It is because the music teacher chats to Sport Kid and asks him about his life, he puts in effort to kid to know sport kid and sport kid feels like his teacher cares about him. Sport Kid says that he knows all about his teacher too and they talk about what they do on their weekends and the sport that they play.  Sport Kid, who has had a lot of behaviour issues in the classroom, got an award last week in Music for the effort that he has been putting into his lessons. Sport Kid isn’t named Music Kid, because he doesn’t have much interest in music, but he is prepared to sho...

Computer Kid Week 3 Term 1  This week I had Art, Geography, Sport, Latin, Math, English, Science, Textiles, PD.H.PE. My favourite subject this week was Art. In Art we are learning about dragons so we can make a ceramic one, so this week we have been watching Dragon Heart the movie. My Art teacher is my favourite this week because he has let us watch a movie as part of our learning this week. Some people might say that watching a movie isn’t good for study but in this case it is because we can see what the dragons look like so that we can make our own. I love that we learnt about dragons and got to watch a movie in class. The worst subject that I had this week was Math. Once again it came down to the un-realistic scenarios. If the teacher used more realistic scenarios it would make me like my math lessons a lot more interesting.  I understand that the teacher is just trying to teach us math and I want to learn, but if the scenarios are too un-realistic then ...

Sport Kid Week 3 Term 1  This week I had English, Maths, Chinese, History, Science, Mechanics and Music. My favourite subject this week was Music, the same as last week. This week we learnt another song, it was a really old wedding dong and I got a merit award from the Music teacher for learning it so well. My Music teacher was my favourite teacher again this week because he is always calm with the class. He is also really nice and makes me feel like he cares about me, he always asks me how I am, how I am doing and what I am doing on the weekend. He chats with me and I have found out that he plays netball. The worst subject this week was science because the lesson was all theory, we read out of a textbook and copied down what we were reading into our exercise books, it was really boring. On the plus side the teacher didn’t yell at this week. My teachers were good this week, none of them yelled at me or the whole class and I felt like I learnt a lot this week....

Especially if the Ipad has simply replaced the textbook and the full advantages of having Edtech in the classroom isn’t utilised! Integrating Edtech in the classroom can be a beautiful thing and if you are lucky enough to have a set of Ipads at your disposal, your options are almost limitless for creating a fun, interactive classroom. But just because students are holding an Ipad doesn’t necessarily mean they are engaging in the learning experience. This week Sport Kid told us how he had a double lesson of Mechanics where his class read theory off the Ipads. Regardless of the access to an Ipad, Sport Kid found this lesson boring and not engaging because reading for 2 hours from an Ipad or a book has little difference when it comes to being engaged with your lesson content. Most students these days would be classified as bodily-kinaesthetic learners and the Ipad certainly appeals to the kinaesthetic learner through the motion sensor in the screen that allows students to...

Sport Kid Week 2 Term 1 This week I had Visual Arts, English, Maths, History, PD.H.PE, Science, Mechanics and Music. My favourite subject this week was Music and my favourite teacher was my Music teacher. I really enjoyed music because it was a hands-on practical lesson where we got to learn a new song called “Frere Jacques” on the piano. I enjoy learning with my Music teacher because he has a different way of teaching than other teachers. He is really chill and relaxed in class. The subject that didn’t enjoy this week was Mechanics. We had a double Mechanics lesson and we read theory on iPads for both lessons. It was really boring. The lesson could have been a lot more interesting if we could have had a change of activity in the second lesson and been able to do some practical work.  Are you looking for teacher professional development courses? Extra Credit has a range of online courses for developing your knowledge and skills and increasing your PD hou...

Computer Kid Week 2 Term 1 This week I had Art, Geography, Sport, Latin, Math, English, Science textiles and PD.H.PE. Once again my Latin teacher was my favourite teacher this week for he was the most engaging. I hate to be repetitive but my favourite lesson this week was also Latin.. This week, my Latin teacher made learning Latin fun by getting us to translate and act out a play. I liked the idea of translating a play, because we could use the end result of our translation to create a play, it gave us a purpose for doing the translation.  My least favourite subject this week was Geography. I found Geography really boring and frustrating because I felt like we were being taught useless facts that are never going to be useful in my life. We studied Antarctica for all three lessons this week. For all three lessons the teacher stood at the front of the classroom and spoke to us.  All of our learning was listening to the teacher talk and completing works...

Language was Sport Kid and Computer Kid’s favourite subject this week.   Even though they are learning different languages, Chinese and Latin, they both enjoy their language subject and have told us that from their experience in class this week, and their experiences learning languages last year, that language is a practical, hands-on learning experience that has scope for all different kinds of fun. It’s clear that both students’ teachers are using successful teaching tools to engage their students and this may be something we can explore further. This week however, we have decided to explore the benefits to students from learning a language.   The benefits of learning another language  Learning a language can have more benefits than just providing students with fun and the opportunity to dabble in a new language. Learning another language can provide life time benefits for student’s including improving their career prospects, providing them with opportu...

Sport Kid and Term 1, Week 1, 2018. This week Sport Kid has told us that he didn’t enjoy his science class and described why he didn’t like it. It wasn’t because he doesn’t like science as a subject or he has a particular aversion to the theory of evolution or the periodic table, but because he felt that the teacher was yelling at the class the whole lesson and he really didn’t like it! Whether or not the teacher would feel that they were yelling the whole time or if they were indeed yelling we can’t know, but we do know that Sport Kid’s experience was of a teacher yelling at the class and this has raised the question of how yelling can impact a student’s learning. We all know it’s not a good thing, but it happens to the best of us, so how does a teacher find themselves yelling in the classroom? Teachers have all had those moments when they have just had it with the behaviour of students in the classroom and shouting is the response to the feeling of losing control. ...

Sport Kid Week 1 Term 1  This week the subjects I had were Maths, Science, English and Language. I enjoyed Language the most this week. I enjoyed language the most because I like practical hands on lessons that are different. My favourite teacher this week was my language teacher because he is funny and he makes things easy to understand and do. The worst class this week was Science. Science was the worst lesson because the teacher stood at the front the whole lesson yelling at us for not knowing what invisible cells were. The teacher could have made me hate this lesson less if they didn't yell but explained calmly and explained what invisible cells are and not be expecting everyone to know the subject. Sport Kid

Computer Kid Week 1 Term 1  I started Year 8 this week and the subjects that I had were Latin, Mathematics, Geography, Science, sport, PDHPE, Christian Studies and Textiles. This week i enjoyed Latin the most. My favourite teacher this week was my Latin teacher. The way teachers amuses us when he is teaching, such as he got people to dress up in togas makes him my favourite.  The class that I think was the worst this week was Mathematics. It was not engaging because the circumstance that we were basing the math off such as "if Jim has 200 toy cars then he buys double that at the shop then he sells 16 of them how many toy cars will he have left?" It's just unrealistic and that makes the work a bit more difficult in a way. If the teacher made the circumstances more realistic and was a bit more engaging mathematics would be much more fun and thus would make me more enthusiastic to learn.  I think that teachers overall need to think about the story behind act...

Sport Kid is not a huge fan of school. Sport kid would rather be running around outside or playing the Xbox rather than sitting in a classroom. He isn't a huge fan of school but enjoys language subjects, practical subjects like food tech and metal work and of course sport. His relationship with his teachers is polarised by different teaching and classroom management styles. When it comes to hands on activities in the classroom, sport kid kicks goals all over the place. If he gets to cook, make something or draw or paint. Art, Food Tech, Metal Work and Wood work are stand out subjects for Sport Kid.  Core subjects of English, Maths and Science are a whole different ball game for Sport Kid. It isn't that he doesn't have the capacity to engage intellectually with the content of the lesson, he certainly has the capabilities, he just doesn't find it engaging or fulfilling.  Sport Kid has had some trouble with his teacher's in the past, with both teacher and...

Computer kid loves school! A proud, self professed, computer geek, Computer Kid enjoys his academic life but always needs to feel that he is directing his own learning to keep him focused and engaged. He loves creating anything using technology and also loves learning Latin. Computer kid loves to learn and he particularly enjoys his learning experience if it is conceptualised in the real world. Real world examples are where it is at for Computer Kid. If he can see the application of what he is learning in his own life, you've got him hooked and he will put in 110% to work towards learning new content and concepts. He has an eye for detail, and any detail that he feels is incorrect will stall his learning. He can often get caught up in the detail and loose focus on the bigger picture and needs to be guided to move past the detail to learn broader concepts. Assignments and homework help Computer Kid to thrive if he can use his own imagination and the content is broad en...

Welcome to My Student Life A blog from the Extra Credit Academy  Have you ever wondered what is going on in the mind of your students while you are standing up the front of the classroom teaching?  Follow the school life of Sport Kid and Computer Kid, learn about what helps them engage at school and how they perceive their learning experiences. Two students, blogging about their school week. What did they like, what didn't they like? Which subjects do they enjoy and why? Which teachers do they enjoy learning from and why? Sport Kid and Computer Kid answering these questions will give a unique insight into what motivates and engages students with different learning styles. It is well known that providing students with effective feedback can enhance their learning. It stands to reason that gathering student feedback  can enhance a teachers's ability to teach effectively. Re-framing feedback to enhance teaching and learning is an endeavor that can be taken on b...