On Wednesday afternoon I took some primary 3 children over to the local nursery. Our mission was to show them how to use their recently acquired portable Promethean board. The primary 3 children were amazing in their interaction with the wee tots. They altered their language to a level that the tots understood. They showed them some of the tools on the board, and how to play with Musical monsters. One wee chap, after a moment or two said “I knew I’d be good at that!” Aged 3…and do you know he was…..confident little individual. Curriculum for excellence not necessarily required there eh? 
Other tots drew on the board, handling the stylus in a way they can’t ordinarily handle a pencil. My wee peeps felt great about themselves and the nursery children took their input readily. Nothing held any fears for them. Ducks to water!!
Archive for the 'My school' Category
I’ve done this for a while now. They tell me what they like about it, what they think they can learn from it, what stage they think it is for, too easy for them , too hard etc. So I take their advice and offer it to the stages they suggest and they watch the others use it and then we take their comments. We have bought, over the years, much software with good educational purpose, which has largely lain unused and is now unable to be used, due to advancing operating systems. I’m sure other schools have done the same. It’s partly because the staff have not had opportunity to explore the potential, and don’t allow it to be used, so I now believe, give it to the children and they will explore and explain. Staff can then see its relevance for purpose and will enable its use. Sometimes that’s all they have to do…allow!
So this week Primary 3 have looked at some of the things I brought back from eLive.
Beep from Sherston, they decided was fun and way too easy for them so would be best in a P1 classroom, but they would like to show it to primary 2 to see what they thought. So I set it up on Wednesday such that they could show it to them. P2 enjoyed the fun, bright colours and activity, but said it was easy for them. Well, nice for Sherston to know they were right when they suggested age range 3-5 for this and excellent feedback to primary 3 to know they had evaluated accurately. They thought it was important that it worked interactively on the whiteboard, because the wee ones could draw with their fingers on the Smartboards. Hey!
They also had a look at Flobot, a Sherston newbie. They thought Level 1 in the teacher options was just right for them, ‘cos they’re smarties, but that level 2 might go all the way to primary 6. This is a simple to use control programme. And hey ho Sherston suggest its levels would be level A-D.
For the most part, I now advise against buying software with a limited educational focus, unless required by pupils with ASN, preferring as I do, things that can be applied in any cross curricular context, or can be found online already, but to have the children pick out learning objectives, for others, from things they enjoy doing, can’t be bad, eh?
There was much more this week but folks don’t read long postings!
I’d played about with it but didn’t know it was so easy till I went to Joe Moretti’s seminar. He showed me how to disregard the complicated bits and has tutorials and help on his website. So today I tried it out with my class of P3 , and lo, it took them ten minutes them to get it. If you want to try it out, I’d suggest the use of headphones. The results were terrific. The peer group told them what they thought would make it better and they went away and sorted it,then told me when they were ready for performance. I felt ineffectual doing inventing stuff in music previously, because it mostly was to do with percussion. Now we’re groovin’ and movin’. Ewan blogged about this great presentation more fully.
From the Edinburgh eTeam I learned that there is a tiny adaptor available for toys, lights, bubble makers, in fact anything that has a straight on/off switch, and runs from batteries, for children who can only access with their switch pad. Cause and effect technology for children with special needs. Costs £7 from Granada Learning.
Have been this week at the eLive conference and exhibition in Edinburgh. The welcome was pleasant and the atmosphere relaxed. There were only 32 exhibitors, but there was an eclectic variety of seminars and keynotes. What came across very strongly, was the City of Edinburgh’s commitment to ICT in all its forms, in education. I didn’t blog about it there, because I didn’t know, initially, there was going to be wifi freely available, and on the second day, was too interested in what was going on, to spend time doing so, in case I might miss something. We had a mini Sett event in Argyll a couple of years ago that had the same sort of aura. Several of the exhibitors there expressed interest when I mentioned it, so I have encouraged them to be in touch with those who might be interested in repeating the experience. So why did size matter? In two days I was able to visit all of the stands, have meaningful conversation and demonstrations at each, and picked up some great ideas and material to evaluate, something for every stage in my school. Not all good stuff costs money, unless ‘Time is money.’ Picked up some very simple solutions to very complex problems. More to follow.
Monday: P4’s from two classes experimenting with the Activboard software, such that they could cascade to their peers and their teacher.
Wednesday: P5’s and their teacher on setting up and interpreting a database.
Thursday: the other half of P3 with my P3’s on writing in Clicker 4.
Every day….after school.. questions.. questions ..questions .. How can I? But you know dear reader, that was great, because they were all about their whiteboard funcionality, that we had not covered in their initiation session. So they were all wanting to take things forward.
In my own class, they have been adding sound to their animation films. They have been exporting to imovie and adding sound there, showing off their skills, flicking between applications, to anyone who would stop and listen for the five seconds necessary. That bit’s been great fun for all! Still got through our Language and Maths work, but stole time from Environmental Studies and PSD, but you know, I think it was time well spent, because a sullen, disinterested child, smiled and took charge of a camera, worked in a group for the first time and was able to tell me what he was trying to do. Hey ho!
And, in between, saving and collecting reporting, people thought they had lost. Getting the right printer to work…. Oh and writing my own reports!
Another great day in primary 3. Happy, involved cooperative, communicative children, the buzz was hypnotic. A day when I love my job, when I can allow my children to take charge, at age 7. There was no chaos, I must assure those doubters. And to those concerned still with 3-18 strands, everything the children did today was on strands (level C and E) that were well beyond those laid down for P3, (levels A and B) but there were things they were asking about as a ‘need to know.’ Since they felt the need to know, I believe they will remember, much longer than if it had been something I thought they should know. I did not lay a hand on the computers or children that produced the following, did no editing or saving, so what you see is exactly what they did, by themselves. They feel empowered and don’t feel the need to exert any other negative behaviourals, so I am able to relax there too.
They will add the sound next week. I might have to take my feet off my desk to show them how to do that!
What a good day! in primary 3! Don’t blink or you’ll miss it! All three seconds of it! Language the script. Problem solving the shots and storyboarding. Art the modelling and drawing. Maths the frames per second. PSD expressions and feelings. ‘I can animate’ the isight camera, the whiteboard, the ICT. This was the first one, so that’s why it’s here, but some of the others are just great. I keep saying it ‘Give them the tools!’ Lots of serious communication and the least confident child, academically speaking, set up the computer and the board for us to use. Happy teacher.
Download
We had 5 new Promethean boards installed today. I spent some time showing how to operate, raise and lower etc. I already had done the CPD on calibration etc. So they were ready. And within 5 minutes of the installation engineers leaving, 4 were in use and the fifth had been described to me as ‘ that monstrosity that has been put in my room’ Tell you anything? 20% of our teachers….??? Mmmm…?
Anybody watch it? I only discovered it recently. So what, you might say? Well, amongst other interesting stuff, they review resources and websites, show snippets and children using them. So what did I do in My McCrone time today? Watched TV! Well for some of it. The Primary ICT prog was interesting. Ok some it exemplified my pet hate of showcase ICT ( there is a difference between this and showing examples of good practice, subtle though that difference might be, but it can give you ideas) as compared to, this is what we really do. Quite good to feel I was up to scratch with what they were talking about and was doing something right, though! Today they were having a look at an online publishing site for children where they can place their stories, and the ones voted for are published in an anthology, a real offline book. Many of the programmes are online and can be downloaded for CPD sessions, from Teachers TV. Have a look, why don’t you?
Oh and…..
Birmingham City Council have many excellent whiteboard resources and links to lots of others. So there’s no need to reinvent the wheel till you’ve had a look, there, too.
Recent Comments