Last day...

It's the handing in day.
All the assignments are nicely packed up in their plastic wallets, waiting patiently in my bag.
And I sit and type my final blog.

I notice something about the blogs that I have written so far - they are all out of order!
I now know that there is no way to change the publishing order of a blog. You can have a post written, or half written for a while. Until it's published, however, it's not there...

So that explains that then.

In our last ICT session, we looked at some other Smart Notebook presentations. Peer Assessment is a funny old thing. It made me at once jealous, confident, desperate for praise, and full of derision for the comments that I received. (I made up that last bit)
It was a sneak peak of what is to come - lots of observations and lots of people commenting on my work.

The first 7 weeks back after Christmas are going to be fun, but possibly difficult and definitely challenging.

I cannot wait.

In the meantime, enjoy my posts, and have a very Happy Christmas!

Comuter Programming and control

Two blogs in one this time -

I'll be talking about computer control, and computer programming.

There were taught over two sessions. And yes, I really did find my inner child. I loved playing all the games, and designing new games for others to play.

ROBOTS



Let's start here. We were given a Bee Bot to play with. It can be programmed to move in a variety of ways.
One soon became two, and then the idea of synchronised bees just got us going. On Jack's blog, you can see the video of our final effort. I was the very steady-handed camera man.
Why haven't I put it up here? Well... It was a group effort and I think credit should be given to all of us.

We also used this session to look at other resources like visualisers and microscopes.

The beauty of these is that you can simply plug them into your computer's USB drive and start using them right away. Some come with very simple software.

I love using these, and have been doing so in class. It makes reading a story to the children a very different experience, as they can all look at the pictures, up on the smart board. FANTASTIC!

PROGRAMMING...

I'm all for doing this with children. HOWEVER...

My experience with schools has so far only been at Key Stage one.

I struggle to imagine my previous year 1 or year 2 classes settling down to do this work.

ICT is so great, but I need to make up my mind on when I will introduce it to kids. I think the best idea is to do it slowly and build up their confidence.

Talking and Listening - 14th November

Capturing a moment in time.

What a wonderful thing to offer students!

There are several ways of capturing the thoughts and ideas of children in the classroom.

Crucially, most of these are extremely accessible. They can choose and use these items themselves. Below are a few of the

Talking Tins

Originally manufactured for blind people, these are great for recording a short piece of sound.

See the talking products website

Digital Cameras

Can be used for a huge range of activities. There are some that have been designed specifically for use in schools. These are rugged, and simply designed.

Voice recording

The TTS Group has made a number of products, including microphones, cameras and visualisers.

• voice recording

A note on voice recording specifically - these are an excellent tool for working with EAL children. They can record in their home language, and then provide a translation for the rest of the class. The other way round, they can be used to help EAL children who need constant modelling of language.

Podcasting

This is a great way to get kids interested in ICT. 

Use of genre is great too - they can be news reporters, or sports people being interviewed after an olympic win!

Even better - a VODcast, or put more simply, a video.

Film children doing funny things.

  A note on safety - make sure that, if children are using video and taking videos on their own mobile phones etc., that they are being SAFE with it.

We may not have control over how some videos are used outside of class, so we need to teach kids about e-safety. Refer to earlier posts about this for more info...

Interactive what boards?

We live in the future. It's official.

Our lives are now so hugely different, due to innovations in technology.

Planning a holiday with a few people used to mean endless phone conversations, and gatherings around a pub table. Now, I can set up a Whatsapp group on my phone, and include everyone in the conversation.
Facebook means that parties can be organised without any human interaction before the agreed date.
Of course, we have all heard stories about poor people starting 'open' groups about a house party, where the address is given out, much to the chagrin of the organiser, and usually, the organiser's parents!

Teaching has changed too. I remember a lot of classrooms at my school had the revolving blackboards, that would trundle up and down during a lesson. I also remember one particular physics teacher that had an entire year's lessons on one OHP transparent spool, which was the sole method of transferring knowledge to each class. I can only imagine her consternation at the thought that pupils might be permitted, if not encouraged to WRITE on the transparencies that had, over the years, come to be looked on with the spiritual reverence as might be afforded the shroud of Turin.

We have had a session on the use of Interactive White Boards (IWBs).

They make the job of a teacher, in my view, so exciting. They also make the job of being a pupil (to take on new information, use it, and create with it) very exciting too.

There are three scenarios that I am going to explore:

• Learning outside the classroom, inside the classroom
• Differentiation
• Creativity made easier

So.

1. Learning outside the classroom, inside the classroom

I have to state, right now, that I do not think that this is a replacement for any school trip. The fact that there is a really cool, shiny and let's-not-forget, fun IWB at the front of the class, does not mean by any standards, that the things out there in the real world will be any less fun.

What is DOES mean, is that we can do a lot of preparation work before getting to our destination, based on what we will see.

2. Differentiation

Thinking about this, it's going to be very useful for me. In two ways.

Children that have English as an additional language can always have a visual aid. We don't need to spend ages cutting out, sticking and laminating pictures from the internet. Instead, we can have a 'picture bank', saved on our computers for easy access.

Secondly, any kids in the class with SEND, who might usually be in a lower ability group, and not engaged with fully during all teaching, will have the opportunity to come up to the front of the class and have a go. I've worked in a class with a young boy like this, and he absolutely loved this feeling of inclusion.

3. Creativity made easier

You can do so much! The IWBs are so versatile, that I challenge you not to be able to fit them into a lesson. In my recent three day placement at a school in North London, I noticed that the teacher didn't really use the IWB in her classroom much.
I was teaching a mental/oral started for a maths lesson, and used the IWB for this. She was interested in the things I had done, and asked me to show her some more tricks.
So, the next afternoon in her PPA time, we worked together on producing a set of slides that she would use for the whole of the next week in her English lessons. It took about an hour to do this, and I hope that the class and the teacher found those lessons even just a little bit more fun.

Also, on the point of creativity, it really does encourage me as a teacher to be creative! I really want to find cool ways to present things to my class. I want them to have some 'Wow' moments when using an IWB.

4th December - Games and Learning

The purpose of today's session was to introduce us to the various games, both software and hardware, that we might choose to use as teachers.

I have listed some of them:

Kodu Game lab - Extremely difficult! I found it frustrating to play. Also, many games were designed with a different controller, so when I tried to play them just using a computer, they didn't work! Much research and planning would be needed if I was going to use this for teaching. Have a look on the Microsoft website dedicated to this software, to find out more.

It's supposed to be for KS2, but some think it can be used by KS1, including our tutor. I must say, that unless I spent some considerable time playing around with it, that I would find it difficult to teach! Preparation is absolutely key here. But I guess we are finding that with all our subjects!

Nintendo DSi - Dogz - can be used for science. One teacher used it with their class, where they looked at all the breeds of dogs.
To reflect on this, I think it must be difficult to get children out of a purely 'gaming' mindset, and into one where they see the learning opportunities and engage in an academic way.







Professor Layton - another Nintendo DSi game. Puzzles and problems are given to children, who play the role of a professor. There are treasure hunts and various other activities that take the Prof. on his journey. It can be used for geography, for literacy, and for mental maths. This seems like a really fun idea, using characters and role play to engage the kids. Also, it would tick a very big box for Using and Applying mathematics, that we are all so knowledgeable about, now we have done our mathematics assignments!

Nintendo Wii - Endless ocean - The object of this game is to dive into the ocean and find fish. Year 1 teachers have used this with a class to do cross-curricular projects - when they find a fish, they can write about it in their 'fishing journal'.
Year 4 classes have constructed databases of the fish.
I might also think of using it for the class to create their own set of 'Top Trumps' cards - a game they would design during ICT and Science, and play during the Golden Time at the end of a week.




We were also told about a great project, carried out by two year groups in upper KS2. This was mostly concerned with mobile learning. Pupils created a tour bus company. They planned the routes, and the costs around the company, and made a promotional video. The final part of this project was to take their video, on mobile devices, to Trafalgar square in London, and 'pitch' the idea to tourists who told them if they would use this company or not.

Ground breaking - a new teaching paradigm

This is really breaking out of the traditional teaching mode. It requires a very well resourced school.

My initial thoughts are, "When does it stop being education, and when does it start being game playing?"

 This is really blurring the lines between what goes on 'in class' and what goes on during play. It is also really challenging my views on teaching. I know we need to make things fun and interesting for children, but surely we can do that through traditional means? Am I a student teacher who is horribly behind-the-times?

Look to Tim Rylands and how he has shown that game playing can transcend from he home or playground, to the ICT suite and beyond, into the literacy, maths, or frankly, any other lesson.

Useful websites for games

The Kent Trust has some excellent games, and links to other sites like Sebastian Swan.

Wordle

Great, fun way to depict an essay, or in fact, any old bit of text.

A wordle of this blog:



I'm so child centric, aren't I?
All about the kids.


Making a Lego man.

Make a lego figure for jumping around on the smart board - useful for number lines!
All the class could have their own, and use them in various ways. It could be good for behaviour management, having them all on a smart notebook page, then moving them up or down depending on how the children are behaving...