KimP’s Blog

Creative

Innovative

Student centred

Bouncing boards for teachers and students to use to explore and enhance learning.

All on my list for BETT 09. 

BETT Show 09 – bring it on!

That’s what I wanted to see – and here are my best picks:

Film Club – great resources and ideas for using films with students, to widen worlds, explore feelings and reactions and share enjoyment of films and capture imaginations.

“FILMCLUB is designed to inspire, entertain and arouse creative and curious minds.”

Lots of potential here – maybe not as an afterschool activity – not really part of the culture in Australia – but as part of what we do in school, as a lunchtime activity or a reward activity perhaps. Though the use of film within classrooms should be encouraged across the board.

Students manipulating film and creating their own trailers; students exploring themes and mashing, examples from films to demonstrate or present their opinions students creatively exploring , learning and presenting – great!

Pixton comic creator provided more ability for students to manipulate and control images, text and storyboards. A class account was also a good idea (even though it costs!) to keep the sometimes unsavoury comments and comics made on sites such as ToonDoo away from the kids.

Students love working on comics; they used them in history, geography and literature contexts and were able to construct pertinent and enjoyable comics about a variety of subjects. The extra features and manipulation of objects available in Pixton will mean that they have even more control of what and how they use these objects. Looking forward to trying this out when I’m back at school.

Microsoft Innovative Teachers programme gives teachers the chance to share what’s happening in their classrooms with other teachers around the world. Innovative practices are displayed, written up and shared so that others can learn alongside outstanding teachers.

A great model for encouraging and supporting all teachers to improve, experiment and achieve. Will look into this programme with staff at Belmore South when I get back.

The Promethean Team were enthusiastic, skilled and passionate about the new Promethean products. But by far the most impressive aspect of the team was their ability to keep all demonstrations and talk within the classroom. They knew what they were talking about and related example after example of how and why to use each feature with students in the classroom.

Promethean products and support are available through the Promethean Planet site that encourages and celebrates the creativity of teachers and students in designing quality flipcharts for inspiration and ideas. Definitely a place to look at to help find and share new ideas and ways of using the Promethean software.

Well, that’s it – I know I’m extremely late in posting this, but better late than never (not sure this applies in the blogging world tho)

Gotta love travelling.

Different outlook = different outlook!

I don’t think I want to leave this place

Next stop was just down the road to visit Rich Olyott and his P7 class at Easter Carmuirs Primary School.

Rich and his class are yet more blogging friends, and we had lots to catch up on when we made it into the classroom.

A solid bank of interesting and thoughtful questions were fired at us – and this time it was MrsP who was having trouble with accents ;-I.

I think we all came to realize that both countries and kids have a lot in common, although it was the differences in scary creatures and climate that caused the most “oohing and ahhing” from the kids.

Spiders, sharks, snakes, stingrays and other assorted deadly creatures were very popular topics and promises of some scary creatures to be sent over from Australia were made.

After a tour of the school by some very capable and talkative tour guides, we returned to the P7 room to be shown the many ways the class uses games in their learning.

We saw dance mats being used for gross-motor skill development,

Buzz questions for general knowledge, and wii sports for addition and subtraction games. Everyone was positive and enthusiastic about how games were being used and could articulate the why and how games helped/supported learning.

Whew! I love being part of a busy, enthusiastic and engaged classroom! A big thank you to Rich, P7 and Margaret for a fun filled visit!

 Here is a slide show Mrs Vass made……. thank you :_)

My class has blogged with students from Carronshore Primary School for over two years now – swapping comments and working together on a wiki about Australia, so it was very exciting to visit the school and say “Hello”.

We met Margaret (who was the teacher I blogged with – now on secondment to the local Falkirk Council ICT Team) who led us on a tour through the school to meet students and staff.

We had the pleasure of hearing the P4 & 5s sing for us – definitely the best singers in the school! The artwork along the walls and on display boards was terrific, it really showed us the subjects and themes studied in schools in Scotland. We learnt about WALT and WILF (although this caused some debate in the Staffroom about the actual meaning of WALT and WILF) – if anyone can help me out on what each one stands for please do!

And then we made our way to P5LW room where we were faced with a classroom full of eager little people armed with questions for us to answer. The students had devised questions for us – some were about Australia and some were about blogging. It was great fun to try and answer the students, although our accents seemed to baffle some of the students.

Thanks Cassie, for preparing your class so thoroughly for our visit

The best laid plans of a bracing walk through the wilds of Scotland with John were overthrown by the weather, and so we spent a great few hours in the cosy surrounds of the elegant lounge room at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel (in the west central Highlands of Argyll).

We chatted our way through most of the ills facing education today, planned and plotted how to fix the world and made our way back to what we were all up to and planning for the next year or so.

In The World According to Three Educators by a Fire, this is what we came up with:

Know your goals as you set out.

Take a steady approach, but always with your goals in mind.

Be prepared for serendipitous events, embrace them, use them and learn from them.

Allow students to lead their learning – support, encourage and celebrate learning as it happens.

Need to backward plan at times to enable a more open and exploratory type of learning to take place.

Thanks John, with your knowledge and understanding of students, learning and ICT I know you will continue to make a positive impact on learning in North Lanarkshire schools.

A HUGE thank you to Ollie Bray who organized a busy and information packed Wednesday that took us to Wallyford Primary and Musselburgh Grammar to see Games -Based Learning in action in a variety of classes and age groups.

Gail and I were accompanied by Margaret and led out by Ollie to see a range of game platforms being used by great teachers, enthusiastic students and a proud & passionate Mr Bray.

Without exception, students from the two schools were engaged and enthusiastic about the use of games in their classrooms. Whether the games were being used for skills practice, skill speed improvement, concept development, or as a context for learning new skills  – students responded to the playfulness and fun of the games.

This allowed teachers to harness and support this enthusiasm into meaningful learning experiences for their students.  Maths drill and practise became purposeful and competitive; story writing was embedded in a shared context; and dance and movement was personally challenging with goals and targets to keep on track.

It was interesting to see how the teachers “unpacked” the learning taking place with their students. Discussions, suggestions, strategies and rules could be seen in charts and on walls of the classrooms that indicated the learning that was taking place was deeper than the skills emphasized in the games themselves.

Problem solving strategies were listed and articulated, child protection issues were talked about and solutions offered, management routines were developed with and by the students. All of which engendered ownership of the learning that was taking place, and the strategies and routines that students could use to confidently use and make the most of the games and learning they were involved with.

All in all a wonderfully fun and enlightening day in many ways. Thanks to the teachers who were so willing to share their classes and teaching with us.

Do we “tick the boxes” or teach in a creative, child-centred and thought provoking way where students and teachers are given permission to learn and discover together, in a partnership of learners?

Do we encourage young teachers (all teachers?) to engage with their students, form relationships and learn together using new technologies and applications to enhance learning and relevance?

Do we support the exciting and innovative, scaffolding the teacher (like we do the students)  so that they have freedom within a framework?

Quite simply, I think we do, I think we have to.

We owe our students and teachers to encourage and advocate for the inspiring, the innovative, the exciting and the relevant.

Do we?

Can we?

Will we?

Snug and warm in a tiny café off the Royal Mile, we met up with the Adventure Author team: Judy, Cathrin and Keiron, to catch up and to discover what everyone had been up to since we last met.

The Adventure Author Project has finished, and the intrepid three are moving on so it was a good time to recap and talk about what they had found out and where they might go next.

Judy shared some of the newer features of the Adventure Author software:

1.    Comment Cards – which allow comments to be made and shared between students and the teacher

2.    Evaluation Page – specific criteria to be evaluated

-       star rating

-       attach evidence option

3.    To Do List – to keep track of what has been done and what needs to be done next

And we discussed how they have been used by students how they might be used by teachers to scaffold and support writing (as well as game making).

Judy and her team insist that students are at the centre of their learning – that students need to drive their own learning, work together to explore and discover and then share what they have found out.

This approach seems to give students the permission to take responsibility for their actions/plans, gives them the structures to develop their learning around and the confidence, time and expectation that they will then share and evaluate what they have done or discovered.

We discussed how this approach works in various settings (with undergraduates and Primary students) and all felt that an unexpected bonus was the creative way students could (and did) respond to the challenge of being in control of the what and how of their learning.

As always, some wonderful and thought provoking ideas about creativity ensued – eg does one create and then find a purpose for the creation or does one create for a purpose or does one create because they can?????? (Maybe all at different times).

Thanks team for a great afternoon and night of interesting, provoking and thoughtful discussions and sharing. Looking forward to hooking up with something new in the not-too-distant-future.

A drive north, to the Aberdeenshire Council GLOW team offices at Inverurie Aademy last Monday was spectacular – clear skies, sunshine and remarkable scenery: ocean, rocky cliffs, hills, fields, forests and plains. Another beautiful part of a truly beautiful country!

We travelled north to meet up with Anna Rossvoll and Jonathon Cordiner and were treated to a couple of hours of insightful and passionate discussions around the use of COTS games in classrooms. The ideas and applications within Aberdeenshire were inspiring. We heard first hand from enthusiastic practitioners about the successes, the possiilities and the limitations of the many fantastic projects that Anna and Jonathon were involved with.

From the famous Nintendogs Project, and Crazy Talk, to Myst, to Guitar Hero, to Kororinpa, to Endless Oceans and wii Fit; these two GLOW mentors have done it all!

In trying to find a common thread through all of these different projects, and what made them so popular with students and teachers alike I think ……..

The games all provided a context for the learning that was taking place.

The GLOW mentors provided ideas  – which were put into the hands of teachers to see what the individual teacher could come up with and put into their classrooms.

Control of the project was in the hands of the teacher and class – authentic and real-life tasks usually provided an end point or satisfying conclusion to each project.

Playfulness in the form of active, hands on challenges, activities and tasks, which were child centered, kept enthusiasm and engagement high. 

Anna, Gail & Jonathon @ lunch!

After 2 years of on-line friendship, it was great to meet up with Margaret and her husband Jack over the weekend. It was an interesting experience to finally meet someone you “know” a bit about, for the “first” time.

There was lots of comparing blogging and ICT implementation between Australia and Scotland, explaining how things are done in the two countries, and sharing frustrations regarding filtering, time and top-down expectations.

As well as lots of talking there was ample eating (including my first taste of haggis, neeps and tatties – yum,yum) and celebratory champagne to wash it all down.

Add many photos, a trip to the Falkirk Wheel and promises of meeting up again during the week, and the wonderful afternoon came to an end.

Thanks Margaret and Jack for your hospitality, kindness and welcome to Scotland.