As a school, we’ve been TEEPed. We had two training days on it before Easter with another coming up in September, and the school is a’buzz with new teaching and learning ideas. It feels like a new school year!

I quite like the TEEP model because it doesn’t seem too different from my understanding of good practice. The bit that I really like though are parts 3, 4 and 5 of the lesson cycle: Present New Information, Construct Meaning and Apply the Knowledge. That is what I have been concentrating on this week.

I am also doing bits and pieces of work with iPods, as part of the Emerging Technologies project and in preparation for my workshop at the SHP conference this July. And so, in an effort to make part 3 of the TEEP cycle a bit more exciting for year 10, currently studying Medieval punishments, I have spent quite a lot of time on this website this week.

QR codes are cool! I feel like they are those magic eye pictures from the 90s, which everybody could always see except me* – if I squint hard enough, will I be able to see the text? Well, no. But it’s a nice idea.The QR codes I generated for the lesson each contained a piece of text about Medieval punishment. I stuck them around the room and loaded some school iPods with QR code readers.

Here was my slide for the lesson (it was the second lesson of a double – not that I need to justify not having a starter up there or anything…)

Number one dealt with sharing new information. Number two allowed them to construct meaning (and add to their notes) – though in TEEP terms this bit of the task probably needs some work. Number three gave them a chance to apply by creating a Punishment Man – I had it in mind he’d look something like a Medieval Wound Man, and shared this idea with them as an example before we got started; though in reality none of their models looked anything like I had imagined, which was fine. I sacrificed some old ski socks, stuffing, carboard and masking tape to the task, which were enthusiastically and creatively used.

The task worked very well. When I was making the QR codes I wondered if it might be a bit dull – after all, they were still making notes from information points stuck around the room – but they really went for it and got the information together quite quickly. The best bit for me was discovering that the QR code reader on the iPods stores the information.

The reader I have for my Android device does not, so this was useful to know. It means that when I do this for revision with exam groups, I can ask them to bring in their own iPods etc, with the app ready loaded, and they will then have the notes samlessly transferred onto their devices, ready for revision at home. No writing needed, and no wifi.

I repeated this with year 12 today to gather information about Fascist Intolerance to Diversity. Tomorrow I’m going to used it to revise Protest movements with year 11, and next week year 13 will have to scan QR codes containing chunks of an exam essay, which they will then have to reconstruct. It’s time consuming to make them, I suppose, but once made they are done for next year.

Medieval Punishment QR codes are available here. I will add the Protest ones when they are finished.

* My husband is scandalised that I can’t see them. For several weeks he made me stare at a one every night for five minutes before bedtime, in an attempt to train me. He was not successful, but I learnt a lot about how not to encourage pupils who really can’t do it.