Training Sessions

I recently taught some trainee PGCE teachers at the college I work at on the topic of behaviour management in the classroom. The session was excellent and I received some very positive feedback from the students, which was unusually detailed.

I felt a little unprepared for the session as I had had a very busy few days at work with some deadlines and pressures around a couple of issues that have come up around both a student and some service provision that required a lot of my time. Nevertheless, I have a lot of resources already prepared for my session on managing behaviour so I was able to put in a couple of hours into planning an engaging and challenging session.

The group, 11 trainee teachers, were very receptive and a pleasure to work with making the session both enjoyable but engaging for myself and the PGCE tutor who came along to observe and join in.

On the whole, I do not like calling my session managing behaviour as I feel it kinds of offers a very narrow expectation of what I try to acheive during the time I have with my students, but I guess it helps them to focus on a specific aspect of their work as teachers so I have never thought about any other title.

In my sessions, I aim to provide students with a forum within which they can use their own experience to consider how they can motivate and inspire their own students. I also place the responsibility firmly within themselves for anything that happens in their class that is disruptive to the learning process.

Let me explain this further. Bad day notwithstanding, and extreme issues or situations to one side, the teacher has control over the learning environment and therefore if anything happens to disrupt learning or the lesson, then the teacher has to accept some of the responsibility. But, rather than place it within those terms, I allow them to see what they can do to avoid having issues of disruptive behaviour in their classrooms.

An example is where we discussed the value of Ground Rules, not just as a tool to establish boundaries at the start of the year, but a tool that is ‘live’ and used regularly, such as when doing discussion work you may say ‘Today we are going to discuss ….. (whatever topic) ….. but before we begin, can someone remind us of the rules we have agreed to help our discussion run smoothly?’ There should be a rule for everything you plan to do in class – group work, activities, discussion etc and they should be negotiated and agreed by the class. Some people find the term ‘Ground Rules’ off putting, so what about ‘Expectations’? There are many ways this can be termed but the important aspect of it is that you, as a teacher, can set clear boundaries for behaviour, plus attached to that are clear consequencies for when a student is disruptive. Get the class to agree these too and you may be surprised how severe their consequencies may be – you will probably need to tone them down a bit.

The other crucial tool is getting to know your students – greeting them by name when they arrive, remembering something about them, such as their birthday or some significant event they had recently that you can ask them about or comment on. A simple example is football – some of my students in college support a team and usually on Mondays or Tuesday we discuss the weekends results. Make sure you have something to talk to everyone about – if there is a student in your class whom you do not do this to, they will feel left out and isolated damaging their self esteem.

Being prepared for class and having all the resources you need are obvious areas that need careful attention for a teacher. But, how many teachers get full and frank feedback from their class about how the session or course is going? Doing a learning styles assessment will help, but so will asking them ‘So, how did the session go?’ I ask my students similar questions each week and use the feedback I get to plan and/ or adapt the sessions I run. For one tutorial group I asked the students to do the scheme of work for each half term. It may seem a scary thing to ask your group how they felt your session with them went, but if you set this out as an expectation at the very beginning of your class then it will be a positive experience.

In terms of reacting, if you like, to behaviour tha thappens in class, you will know what behaviours occur regularly and therefore you should be able to have your response ready. Behaviour such as late arrivals, call outs, mobile phones going off, chatting, interupting – these should all be covered by your ground rules and your response is linked to the consequences of those rule breaks. If you find yourself reacting to these, then you are not preparing yourself for class.

I was thinking of perhaps posting on the top ten behaviour management techniques as a series rather than trying to cover everything at once. Count this as just thinking aloud for now.

Fitness

Now that my Cancer Research 10k Run is over I have found myself trying to pick up my regular training again. I have a really good book by Anita Bean called ‘Six week workout – Better body’ which has helped me to produce a programme for the gym. Also, I found a website that has some blank workout cards to download to build your own programme: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/WorkoutLogs.html or you can find a programme that suits what you want to achieve: http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

I have spent most of my time trying to get back into the routine of exercise again as it can be so easy to fall into the trap of just rolling out of bed and having breakfast whilst sitting at the computer and surfing the Internet. I found that I was feeling lethargic and by the time I got to work I was already tired.

Now, I go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for weight training using the weeks 1 and 2 exercise programme from Anita’s Better Body book. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sundays I have been using my dumb bells at home to complete some basic exercises. This has been great so far and I feel I can think about increasing either my reps per set or the weight for some exercises. I wanted to feel comfortable again in the gym before moving onto the programme for weeks 3 and 4.

Going to the gym serves many benefits, not just improving health and fitness levels, toning muscle and body but also I have found that it gives me plenty of thinking time. I have felt that my time is better used going to the gym especially in the morning as before I thought I could do something useful on the computer before going to work but just felt tired from looking at the computer screen.

Also, I can have some time for thinking over things – planning or sorting stuff out in my head about work or other issues – time that is spent doing these things makes me feel more prepared for my day. I have increased my overall fitness levels and have increased energy for the day. My day job is very tiring both physically and emotionally, so time improving my fitness and helping me to think over stuff has helped a great deal. I arrive at work more prepared and ready for the day.

Now I feel I need to look at the things I eat – on the whole, as a Vegan I eat very well and I believe it is very hard to eat badly – you have to work hard at it as most things we tend to eat contain many of the things we need to keep us healthy. But, for me as for anyone else, it is those ‘other’ things you eat that have either good or bad effects on ones health. I drink a lot of coffee and tea during the day, maybe three cups of coffee and three cups of tea – more at the weekends. Added to that I eat plenty of biscuits, maybe three each time I have a tea or coffee.

So, time to set tough targets here: only eat biscuits on the weekend – but not as to catch up on the biscuits I did not eat during the week. Drink either herbal tea or water during the day instead of tea or coffee – maybe save this for a treat at the end of the day. I think that will be a tough one to achieve and will require me to alter my thinking on the tea/ coffee break time I have during the day. But, you don’t know until you try I guess!

This week I will also be introducing more cardio workout, maybe the treadmill or cross training on the days I am not doing the weights to start with. I only have limited time in the gym as it opens at 6.30am and I like to be in work by 8.00am or 8.15am.

Watch this space for my progress!

Training Sessions

I completed my second training session with a local organisation and this week we were looking at planning a session with their centre members – all of whom have learning difficulties and disabilities. I wanted to develop their skills in brainstorming – a process of organising thoughts in a way that will inform planning for either a single session or a project. Then, once they had go the grasp of this, to show them how to plan and include RARPA and opportunities to assess for SMART targets.

I had designed a rather tight session I must admit, fitting in a lot of activity but felt confident we could cover all the objectives I had set out. Unfortunately I had a rather busy morning and my planning became a little rushed and I think I had failed to figure into my session that fact that the staff are not teachers and perhaps some of the concepts I was trying to work with would be a little harder to grasp.

They are a great class to work with and I really enjoy being there with them. We have fun and it is relaxed, although this week the learning curve was steep for sure! In the end we were able to use the template I provided for the brainstorm – a simple topic web, and to start thinking about how to divide up the tasks for their project into different sessions that could last either a week or for a longer time.

To begin I recapped with the group on RARPA and SMART targets – where I used the traffic light cards to see who remembered what we had covered before. Those holding up the green cards could then explain to the rest of the group what they were confident in knowing. I used this again in the session when asking for feedback on what we had done and it is a good way of getting initial feedback which then allows for further, targetted questioning of those holding up either amber or red cards.

The room we have is low tech and means you have to plan what I call a ‘proper’ lesson. Sometimes it is easy to use technology and forget that learning needs to take place. An example of this, if you like, is from a conversation I had with a colleague on target setting. They teach an IT class, and with the other teacher in the class they had set group IT targets, such as designing a PowerPoint presentation. My view was that where was the individualised SMART target? I reflected that perhaps they could view the IT room as just another classroom which happens to have computers in it which they can use as and when needed. Then, when they have that in their minds begin to think of what do they want the students to learn.

With the lack of IT for these training sessions, I have devised a series of individual and group activities and I enjoy using humour and my more energetic style of delivery to help focus staff and motivate them throughout the time. Unfortunately, this week we started a little later and I had to rethink my lesson plan, which was a good experience for them as I share my session plan with the group so they can compare it to how the session actually went.

The brainstorming activity was more difficult to get flowing, and I had to work one to one with everyone to ensure they had the idea and could produce a topic web for their project. They worked with the activities they usually plan within the organisation, but two elements of the task they found hard to get first off. Many wanted to give the topic web a title, such as computing, Islamic group, art and craft but I said that the title of the topic web should reflect more on what they were planning for the users to learn – developing confidence in communication through stroy telling, counting change when buying things from the shop, developing creative skills by designing an Eid card. These titles will help them to think of all aspects of planning from resources, space, support issues, possibly thinking about individual needs/ targets and tasks.

This took a lot longer than I had originally planned and I then decided to just get the group to begin planning their session or projects. The original sheet I had which is similar to what we use in college seemed not to be suitable for the type of planning they wanted to do, so I had another one for them ready to use which was based on a weekly plan – something you might see or use in a youth club.

We got as far as seperating the sessions out for the week and through discussion I had them realise what they needed to do between now and when I come back again in a couple of weeks. The experience is proving to be very useful as I will be running similar sessions with another organisation in the borough, so I can draw from this when planning how to deliver the same training to a different group.

Finally, I ended the session with one of the many motivational stories I have collected from Chicken Soup For The Soul. I found them originally in a book I bought many years ago for one of my LDD groups called Building On Social Skills, which is a series of eight sessions looking at communication, team working, confidence building and dealing with conflict.

My lesson from this week is to find more time for planning and to be more organised with my time so that things I need to do are given plenty of space for thought and action, particularly if something somes up unexpectedly. Then, I could be more able to plan a session that fully meets the needs of the staff in this group.

Digital Photography

The last two weeks have been crazy at work but I managed to get some time to wander around the park and take some pictures with my camera. It is Autmun and I really enjoy this time of year – Halloween, Bonfire Night and Diwali – plenty of colour and fun!

The park where I live was built over 150 years ago and many of the views were ‘designed’ to have a visual impact. I wanted to pick up on a theme, not just Autumn – although in itself that is a worthy theme with the change in light and colour, but I was thinking about the way the trees are lined so as they provide beautiful vistas around the perimeter of the park itself.

Not only that, from running round the park, I knew there were some wonderful views through the trees, one in particular is a tree lined channel that is well trod from those who jog everyday, and is a stunning view in any season throughout the year.

The light was not good, a cloudy sky denying me the sharper sunlight that would cast shadows between the trees and perhaps create a strange reflected light from the yellow/ orange/ ochre of the fallen leaves carpeted around the tree trunks. But I felt confident my camera would respond well.

I used the landscape setting and just wondered around the path of the park for about an hour the other Sunday. Enough time to get some good shots along the way. Changing the camera between landscape and portrait gave me different views of the same scene, which was interesting. The landscape view providing a wider context to the composition and the portrait setting offering a tighter, compacted composition.

I still find it hard to take photos of people, although I do try – recently taking pictures of my students at a bowling competition. I was not so focused and some of the images are not worth keeping unfortunately. Something I need to work on I guess.

Have a look at my latest uploads here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavidism/

I feel that my gallery of images is beginning to diversify and I am ready to think about letting a wider audience view my work, maybe sending out the link to friends and colleagues for feedback.

Training Sessions

I have been working with two organisations within the borough to help staff at each develop skills needed to run sessions with adult users with learning difficulties and disabilities. This came about from discussions I was having around trying to put on more sessions, either at college or in the partnership centres, on different topics. Unfortunately, we only have a set number of teaching hours we can allocate within our programme area and we can only put on another session for students if we drop a session somewhere else. I suggested that if I could train staff to develop skills in running sessions then the partnerships would be able to run a session on whatever topic they thought would be of interest to their users.

To do this I ran an introduction session where I used a visual metaphor of hands and a tree to assist staff to think about the skills they have, what skills they wanted to develop and where their own ideas for projects and sessions fitted in with the overall ethos and direction within the organisation. From this I came up with a proposal to run a series of training sessions on topics such as: developing skills on the computer, managing conflict, communicating with parents and people from outside of the organisation and on how to plan and run sessions for users in different topics.

The first sessions I am running is on how to plan and run sessions with users, where the staff are leanring about RARPA (Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievment), which has a five stage process of setting Aims, Assessing learners, setting Goals, Monitoring progress and facilitating Feedback. Also, I am helping staff to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Relevant and Time based) targets.

These sessions were developed because staff fealt that they could do more to show their users progress in the sessions they run already, but also because they felt they needed some support in how to plan sessions so that the users got more out of them. The manager of the organisation I am working with now was keen to get staff to plan sessions better with improved outcomes where staff were able to run a session confidently.

I divided the sessions into three main topics – RARPA and SMART target setting, planning a session and project and finally developing resources. The organisation I am working with now are very keen to learn and staff take their training very seriously, although we do have fun too! I am uncomfortable with standing up and giving a lecturer and my sessions tend to be engaging with lots of activities to do and opportunities for discussion.

The first session I gave a short introduction to RARPA, which was developed specifically for putting structure to non-accredited courses. If you want to know more about RARPA follow this link: http://www.rarpatoolkit.com/en/ I briefly talked them through the five stages of RARPA but significantly I demonstrated it within my session by having a clear aim for the session – to increase their knowledge on RARPA, I assessed their knowledge using the traffic light system with three cards – one red (dont know) one amber (not sure) and one green (I know) and asked at the beginning of the session – do you knw what we mean by RARPA? Of course, they all held up the red card. I recorded this with a photography of the group. Each member of the group had a simple target to tell me the five stages of RARPA by the end of the session. I monitored this throughout the session with directed questioning and finally asked the same question at the end, using the traffic light system and took a photo of the group all holding up the green cards. To get their feedback I used post it notes and asked them to put a smiley face on it if they enjoyed the session, a straight face if their were confused – they could add a question, and an unhappy face if they did not enjoy the session. I repeated this for the SMART (if you want to know more about SMART targets follow this link: http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/acls-settingsmartgoalsandtargets.pdf ) target aspect of the session.

They all enjoyed the session and I set some homework which was to come back to the next session with an idea of what session they would like to plan, or an idea for a project they want to run in the centre.

I have offered these sessions free, within my usual work hours, to have some up to date experience of delivering different sessions from my usual behaviour management, but to get some much needed positive feedback and indorsements for my consultancy work that I am developing. I really enjoyed this session and it was relaxed, although a steep learning curve for those with little previous experience of teaching and everyone felt able to write a smart target for a user at the centre and for themselves by the end of the session.

I have another organisation I am going to work with so I need to plan in some sessions with them too, but now I have run the first one I have my format that works, some resources that are good and some positive feedback already.

Behaviour Training

I have two training sessions coming up for new and trainee teachers, one based at the college where I teach, the other is part of a year on year commitment I have to teach PGCE students at a local university. I recently had a meeting with the course tutor to discuss the details of what I will be delivering to this years students. I am always excited about doing these sessions and get lots of positive feedback, but after several years of running a similar session, I am planning to make some alterations.

To begin I have editted the questionnaire I send out to students before finalising what I plan for the session, I find that there is always something that the student teachers want to know and I include that into the session. This year I have three main focuses for the questionnaire – where they are teaching (each student will have a teaching placement), any early issues they are facing and what do they want to get out of the session. The first session is about establishing expectations with their students, so ground rules and ice breakers are covered, but this time I will be talking about where behaviour comes from.

In addition we will look at managing stress levels and dispelling some common myths about students. Also, depending on the time we have, I will get them to do a group activity called good teacher Vs bad teacher where they draw quite stylised images of teachers and we use a continuum line to see where they feel they are between these two opposites. It is a very interesting exercise and creates some intense debate.

We will also be looking at dealing with behaviour issues in the classroom and these will be drawn from their questionnaires, but I have plenty of good scenarios we can use to help us cover the basics. My focus is more on the individual – as teachers they are the managers of their learning environment and if something happens in class they need to think about what it is they missed. But also, they should mirror the behaviour they expect from their students. This is crucial and will gain a lot of respect from their students so that even when things seem to be getting out of hand, they are professional and respectful towards their students. I use my sessions to show that if their lessons are interesting, challenging and motivate their learners then incidents of disruptive behaviour are much less likely to happen in their classes.

I have been wanting to change the name of the session as I feel that behaviour management is not really the right title as there are plenty of behaviours we will not be able to manage. The training session I went to recently was called the language of learning, but I did not feel that was a good title either. Something I will have to think about.

But, what is exciting me a lot this year is that I will be setting up a website with some useful links and resources on behaviour and there is this blog, which I hope students will access and use. What has been missing before from my sessions has been some follow up, or back up if you like, where students can continue their research or even have a point of reference for questions and to share experiences. I hope it works out and it could be quite exciting.

I have to complete and send off the questionnaire so there will be time for the students to send it back to me – I just need to format it so that they can complete it as a form in Word. Hopefully, the sessions will be just as good this year as in previous years.

Cancer Research UK 10k Run

Well, my last ‘Cancer Research’ post as I have now completed the 10k run this morning.

I must say that I was impressed with my time and that throughout the run I was able to keep up about 5min 25sec pace per kilometer and ended with a bit of a sprint with a quick recovery time too! Maybe I am not as unfit as I thought. I do not want to get lazy, thinking I can do this again without training too hard, instead I will use my experience as an inspiration to get back into my previous routine.

So, how did it go? Well, it was a good day – plenty of sun, loads of people running – about 3,000 in all and lots of people showing support. Me and my wife arrived in plenty of time and once I had my running number on and message on my back to say who I am running for I settled into the warm up. Before leaving the flat I used my dumbell weights and skipping rope to get me into the mood.

We were seperated into three groups – walkers, joggers and runners. Some walkers and joggers lined up with us runners so the start was a bit slow and cramped. After the first kilometer I began to settle into  my rhythym and by the fourth kilometer I was running confidently and over taking others easily.

There was a water station at the fifth kilometer that was welcomed and before I knew it I was passing the seventh kilometer and feeling strong and confortable. I was getting a little emotional, thinking about my mother and had to hold it together as best I could. On the last kilometer I was literally sprinting to the finish and tears rolling down my face!

My wife was a welcome sight at the finish line and I almost fell into her arms in tears! I had done well, I knew that and I am sure mum would have been proud of me. A few hours later and my calfs are aching and knees for good measure, but I have a sense of satisfaction. So, what next? A half marathon ….. maybe at Easter to give myself plenty of time to training this time. Just need to find a run that is not too far away.

From now on I will keep blogging on my training programme and hopefully I can bet back into a strong routine.

Cancer Researck UK 10K Run

Well, today is the day of the run and however prepared, or not, I am, I will just do the best I can. I must remember that I am running for my mum who sadly passed away from lung cancer two years ago. I went to the funeral of her lifelong friend last week and it brought a lot of memories back for me.

Yesterday I completed the same circuit I have been doing each Saturday now for three weeks and felt confident and fitter. There was this young guy playing football with his friends who saw me do lap after lap and eventually said on lap four ‘How many laps have you done mate?’ He was impressed when I said four, then on my fifth lap he said to his friends ‘He’s got some serious stamina’. He made me feel ten feet tall and able to run a marathon!

The run starts at 11.00am and as the park is visible from my flat my wife and I do not have far to go. I thought today I would get up early, have some breakfast and then by about 9.00am start using my dumbells and exercising to get in the mood for a run. I did this another time when I did not have enough preparation and it worked well for me. The weather is going to be good too, a mild 12 degrees and some cloud in the sky so Iam hoping for a good performance.

If you have not yet done so, please visit my fundraising page at: http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/dawudmarsh I have reached half of my target so far and the page will be live for a few weeks yet. I promise to update my photo too – worth a look then, what do you think?

Positive Behaviour Support

Its been a very busy week and unusually for me I have been off site for most of it. I do not enjoy having a week where I am not around and tend to feel a little unsettled. However tough the week started and almost finished it ended on a good note with a visit to the Special Needs exhibition sponsored by TES/ NASEN. I go every year and it has hundreds of stalls full of useful resources, they tend to be aimed at school teachers, but there are plenty of stuff for those of us teaching adults in tertiary education. This year I booked myself in for four lectures and maybe this was too much as I did not have enough time to wander around and chat with presenters as much as I usually do. But the lectures I attended were very interesting.

The first lecture I attended was on Differentiation, Personalised Learning and Quality Teaching which was delivered not by the person I was hoping to see, but nevertheless, it was worth my time. We often use the term differentiation in regard to providing opportunities for those students in our class who need extra help or support. What about thinking of differentiation as the difference between where a student is now and where they have the potential to be? The presenter struck the right balance between theory and practice and discussed two projects he had been involved in, particularly in peer mentoring/ learning between students which gave me some interesting ideas for our cohort. The link between challenging students, providing opportunities for developing their potential alongside a personalised curriculum has links directly related to behaviour. How often do we find disruptive behaviour happening within students who are bored or left unchallenged in class? I always make this point to my trainee PGCE students – quality teaching will reduce the vast majority of behaviour issues within your class.

My second lecture was on the link between language and behaviour which was absolutely facinating and was delivered by a clinical linguist based at Birmingham University, which is where I studied for my PG Dip in Challenging Behaviour: Learning Difficulties and where I will also be studying my PhD. She talked about the link between specific language and speech difficulties and delayed or developmental learning and associated syndromes and learning difficulties and the impact this has on behaviour. It gave me food for thought on whether the adults I teach with learning difficulties may also have specific language needs, although many also have English as a Second Language, despite being born in this country their parents do  not speak English very well, in some cases not at all. The link between communication difficulties and behaviour is well known and this discovery was one of the many reasons I began my interest and research into mental health and leanring difficulties so many years ago.

My third lecturer was on Sensory Processing Difficulties and why some students have difficulty making sense of the world. I was interested in this due to the behaviour of some of our students that tends to have a link with the environment, particularly with those on the Autistic spectrum. I have a student in my class now and his behaviour is interesting and I thought that I could get some ideas from this lecture, which I did. The presentor covered a lot of ground and gave plenty of examples of what can affect students ability to learn in both negative and positive ways. I liked the fact that she stayed close to the learning process for students and looked in detail at senory processing disorders. I am not sure I have students who fit that definition, but  it helped me to consider the environment that I create for learning.

The last lecture was a choice made to compare notes on presentation styles I guess, and although I saw the same lecture last year, I wanted to see how the presenter delivered the topic, whcih was on the Language of Learning. I have been re-thinking my own delivery and content of the sessions I run and recently had a meeting with the programme lead at the university to discuss what I will be doing this year with the PGCE students, which I am looking forward to. Anyway, the presenter spent far too much time on humourous anecdotes and not enough time on content at the beginning of the session – for the first 10mins or more I had not learnt anything about the language of behaviour other than the fact the presenter had been teaching in different countries and had plenty of jokes! The effect of this was a rather rushed ending and the slides slipped by far too quickly for me to take anything in. Plus, he had altered the slides, the slide order and added extra slides that were not in the pack so I spent too much time looking for slides that were not there rather than focussing on the content. I came out feeling better because I knew I could have done a better delivery.

It gave me an idea and I will pursue it this weekend which is to put myself forward for next years exhibition as a presenter. Never had the confidence before but a recent presentation I made at a conference in Amsterdam on my research showed me I could do it. The exhibition itself could do with covering tertiary education and i could be the first presenter to do so. Differentiation – the difference of where I am now and the potential of where I could be. What is needed is high self esteem and this was mentioned in the Sensory presentation as having a direct link to learning and of course behaviour.

I have decided on my four students that I will to include in my positive behaviour support strategies and will spend the week finding out more about them all through meetings with parents, carers and of course staff before going into the first stage of the process. So, my postings this week will reflect that process going on.

Digital Photography

I have been carrying my camera with me everywhere I go and it has allowed me the opportunity to catch some good shots. I really like this time of year when the sun is out and there is a clear sky. The sky blue contrasts nicely with the golden yellows, browns, reds and oranges of the leaves during the Autumn season. But, for me the longer shadows due to the sun remaining low in the sky creates a beautiful canvas from which to draw from.

On my way to work the other day I walked along the canal as the sky was clear and the sunlight bright. I was hoping for some nice shadows and if the water was still some shots of buildings reflected in the canal. I enjoy patterns and symmetry and try to capture landscapes using this simple composition. The canal has plenty of bridges and underneath you will see the light relfecting onto the underside of the bridge itself, shimmering with the gentle ripple of water caused by the many waterfowl who are yet to migrate for the Winter. A simple symmetrical shot is interesting, but so is one at a slight angle that accentuates the underline of the bridge.

I also managed to capture some really nice reflections of buildings that occupy the land along the canalside. I pass by a university which has over the last few years invested in new buildings that have interesting structures, designs and colour that seem to compliment the light for this time of year.

There are different settings to use on the camera and for these I use the landscape setting, although the shutter speed will alter according to the light available without the flash. I took some that were purely of the water itself and they look very interesting. The shots I have of the symmetry of the buildings and their reflection work well too. The camera display has a setting where you can get a simple grid that helps you to compose your shot so that crucial lines are parallel with the four sides of the image.

It was my wifes birthday and I booked a restaurant and two tickets to see Wicked the Musical in town. Another chance to use the portrait setting on the camera but also to see how well it captures softer light. In the restaurant as the afternoon light faded we had two candles on and I took a few shots of my wife at the table, trying to compose the shot to include just her head and arms as they were crossed on the table top. Often when people take portrait shots they tend to include load b ackground, I prefer to zoom in and cut out any uneccessary background, including thinking about what is behind – how often have you taken a shot and then when you have seen it afterwards there is something crawling over someone’s head or poking out the top! Just move yourself a few inches to one side, or ask the person to sit to one side helps and is easy to do or even look down rather than just across the table. You may find your image is more interesting for it.

At the theatre I also took some shots of the safety curtain and the surrounding set. If you have been to see Wicked you will know the Emerald City glistens during the break with a light that is quite effective. The camera does very well taking these shots without using the flash, but you have to make sure your hands are steady. It has a camera shake feature, but you can still get blurring in your photo if you are not careful. Bringing your arms firmly into your body helps reduce camera shake, but often you can rest your elbows on a chair, or even someones shoulders (only if you know them of course!).

You can see some of my latest images at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavidism/