SOLO Taxonomy and Gangnam Style - A match made in heaven?

How many baths does it take to fill a swimming pool?

So here is my powerpoint showing my introduction to SOLO taxonomy for my year 8 and 9. The task at the end was "How many baths fill a swimming pool?". A completely open question with many possible answers.

Why use the SOLO taxonomy and how to launch it to students.

At a previous school we decided to launch the SOLO taxonomy to give the students a better idea about the level of their thinking. After half term i'm going to do this with two of my classes.

Using SOLO taxonomy and open ended tasks to improve thinking

Having started at my new school in January its been a whirlwind term and a half so far. As we head towards half term I am looking ahead to what to do after the end-of-year exams which take place in the first week back. I will have a couple of things left to cover from our scheme of work but should have around 3 weeks of time to play with some maths.

My plan is to set some hugely open ended tasks for the students. I am hoping that I can do some group work and then some individual work to get them planning and thinking in a different way.

Exam time - but how do you actually do an exam?!?!?

Its that time of the year. Lower Sixth finished today. Year 11 started GCSEs today. The lower school are starting to think about their end of year exams. Its revision time.

I spent some time today discussing exam technique with my Year 12s and I got the feeling that this isn't a conversation they have had many times before.

Apple vs Android

I find myself in an interesting position within my school. I used to be a full on Apple fanboy with iPhone after iPhone and iPad after iPad. Then I felt like Apple were going a bit stale so I ventured to the world of Android.