This is what it’s all about…

Last night, late, I came across this website. I had checked out my blog, followed a link and ended up at this site, which is what I believe the net is all about. Its a video periodic table, with video links about all the elements. Now I could have made this myself, butI didn’t. I could have searched for this, but I didnt. I stumbled across a gem due to the generosity of the creators and my own natural curiosity ( of which I have plenty). Without these two qualities, the Internet would not be the fantastic place it is.  So long live curiosity and generosity, and thanks to Nottingham University.

http://www.periodicvideos.com

picture fun

another web2.0 tool for you to try- (anyone ever worked out how many there are?)

http://www.bubbleshare.com

Anyway- this lets you make picture shows, with speech bubbles on, so great fun for staff and children! It also allows a story to be developed using images children have takes and words they type- so great for a review of a school trip for example- or for primary children to make their own stories.

I love the ease of use- changing the order, addin text, bubbles etc is simple.

And in true ‘Blue Peter’ Style, here is one I made earlier (obviously I would not normally cover faces, but I’ m sure you all understand why.)

BubbleShare: Share photos – Easy Photo Sharing

A second bite at the cherry

I had such a fun day yesterday with our nursery children. The sort of stuff that makes me remember why I became a teacher!

Just before Easter we went on a bug hunt. Children took photographs, video, recorded sound. Today was the day to review that work. The children were super, completely absorbed, watching themselves looking for bugs, identifying them, taking pictures and video of them. They were fascinated, watching and absorbing everything on the large IWB.

I asked the children to help me record their experiences using talking postcards, to record information for their parents to tell the what they had been doing. After all, as I expained to them, the children are the experts, as they had been on the bug hunt, unlike the teachers in the room!

The responses I got were amazing, and amazed te teachers too. I had children come and draw who would never choose this type of activity. I had children with English as an additional langauge want to record their ideas into a postcard. Children drew the most amazing pictures of slaters under logs, bees with them chasing. They wre running around the garden dressed as bats and ladybirds, the bats trying to eat the ladybird… “because that’s what bats do isn’t it?” (yes the teachers replied and extended discussion on food chains) Children were keen to examine plastic mini-beasts and rehunt for more real bugs.

But would the children have done this anyway? Did ICT really enhance learning? Well we think the answer is a tentative yes. Staff in the room believe the watching of the work undertaken before easter was important in the following ways.

1. Children watched it very carefully beacuse they had made it and they were in it.
2. Children remembered what they had done and wanted to talk about it again, reinforcing previous learning
3. Children were keen to draw/talk/play to extend their experiences even further. Vocabulary and concepts were visibly stretched, perhaps due to their second bite at the cherry?

Anyway, I left a happy room. I felt energised, staff were full of smiles and the  children were making me invites to their next playdough tea party !

Think about it.

Found a great website tonight-although guaranted useless, absurd and ausing! It is one which I will be able to share with the whole school as it is useless, absurd and amusing on so many levels! Great for getting children (and adults) thinking and collaborating, sharing ideas, I think it would be great with activ areana( the two pens at a time business!) as two children could collaborate on an idea together without the tedious passing pen business.

Anyway, it’s http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/default.htm

The maths experiments will get some great discussion going, some of the science ones will be good lesson starters. Some are more theatre than education, but I believe education should be fun, something memorable should be in each lsson, and this might just have what you (and my school) are looking for!

spelling city

So, you all wait a week and then three new blog posts arrive on my site!!

Anyway- spelling city-I stumbled across this whilst looking for a way to demo the whiteboard using spelling resources. It is FAB- and I think I will be rolling it out to parents as well as staff!

Dead easy to input words, dead easy to play and very simple to take a test too. Off to try it with children. I cant see any adverts on it either, which is great.

Sometimes spelling sites need a lot of time and effort to get the space to add words, this seems simple enough to get the children to log onto it, enter the words and play!

Dog and cat

How I love Q&D multimedia software. It hits the spot for all users, small children love the graphics, teachers love the gentle humor….

http://www.q-and-d.co.uk/dogandcat_phase1.htm

and this does not disappoint. It has a really claer menu at the start which I am sure my staff will be able to navigate almost as well as the childre, It also has a wide variety of activities which will mirror some of the more ‘ fun’ activities undertaken in the nursery, whilst developing the listening skills required for early reading.  I can easily see this in all classes in primary 1.  In the meantime, I may just need to take it home to play with it myself!

visual fun

two sites here- both look great to play with children- the first maybe for our 3 and 4 year olds, http://bomomo.com/… can’t wait to use it on the Interactive whiteboard!

the second for older children… base on letters and words- a great starting point for graphic designs… http://bemboszoo.com/Bembo.swf… it all looks very simple to start with…. but click on a letter and away you go!

Glogster is the new Wordle!

Glogster…. WOW- I so love it…… all, the things you can do… I could play all day! and how much fun to tell family at christmas that your new hobby is glogging???

http://alilydon.glogster.com/alilydon/

 

This is such a cool way to present learning….. the list is endless….. but my question which I will no doubbt think about…. should this replace learning how to make publisher in publisher….. which is the  most valid learning experience… the one with the best poster outckme or the one which teaches the most skills? Which skills are the best to learn? Surely the Inrernet can only continue to expand with more and mpore applications such as these… so are the days of Publisher limited in my school?

 

 

 

What skills do children born in the 21^st Century need to learn? Should applications such as this replace the traditional software skills such as Word, Publisher or Serif? As more and more web applications become available  should I be using these, or ensuring that a sound basis of core skills is learnt in popular (Microsoft?) applications. Glogster allows links straight into social networking sites, should I be encouraging this or keeping the children in nice safe places?

 

I have a niggling feeling which is taking a while to come to terms with. I have a feeling that my current curriculum was great. It suits ‘web1.0’ and ‘generation Y’. But in my school there are over 650 children born after 2000. They deserve to learn skills needed to survive in the 21^st century.

 

I find myself at a crossroads. I can see next year I might need a travel pass as I pick a path through web 2.0. How much of my current curriculum I keep and how much I change I am not sure of, but if today is anything to go by, it’s going be fun finding out.

the welly walk

To observe objects in more detail I was keen to use our newest microscope- the easiscope from TTS. At £30 it is amazing and again just right for little children with big questions. We plugged it into the computer and allowed pair to bring some of their finds up to look. All the children found the easiscope simple to use, although some needed initial help to move it slowly enough so it would focus on their leaf. I hoped the children would explore the properties of their finds, use descriptive language and compare and contrast their specimens. For some this was true. Did the children extend their observation skills?…Yes. They were very keen and excited to point things out, lots of children looking carefully and describing their leaf as “Cool”! Was language extended and enriched?… Yes, but only once I had an adult working there who could point things out and make suggestions and ask questions to extend their observations. Otherwise words such as “Cool” and “look” were the most used.

 

Other follow on activities helped to extend and enrich vocabulary and observations. The chatterboxes allowed everyone to record information about their numbered find so others could easily identify a find on an exhibition table. Digital photographs were mounted onto talking postcards, explanations recorded and put with the exhibition. The ‘exhibition’ was very popular and served as a constant reminder of the walk.

a great camera

I am so pleased with my new wee camera- fits into my pocket, bag, etc, takes great video, easy to get off the camera- just need to work out how to edit… didnt need to worry though- Easy peasy!

. Plug into the USB, choose play, and there it was. I was really impressed with the sound, as although the built in microphone was tiny, it picked up most of the voices well.

 

 

 

 

 

The children loved the video. They were keen to point out what they had taken video of and why, and also looked again at the natural objects the teacher has shown them during their trip. There were a lot more focused questions about particular objects asked in the classroom than whilst they were outside. On the welly walk they were more interested in what they had found and in finding more things, than in looking in more detail at the objects. By being able to pause the video, the teacher could extend, reinforce and question their learning.

ways i have or will use my flip camera

1) blazer cam- to record what happens on a trip, this can then be shown, discussed, paused, shapshots taken etc on return

2) PE- staff take it with them to PE- video children who then watch themselves straight away on the IWB and are able to discuss their performance

3) general videoing of children doing things- but so easy to play.

4) Playground cam- get the children to explain their game into the video, and then record playing the game. use at wet playtimes to share games for the future.

5) video of small objects infornt off blue folder to make chromakey videos about moon landings  news reports

6) video children in front of blue screen and chroma key into a nature video (which they video themselves by getting down and dirty in the school grounds)- they love being so small on the video and then they write detailed descriptions of objects they would see.

7) video concrete materials being used in maths so the videos can be linked into flipcharts for supply teachers or for support or to ebnsure consistency of teaching

8) video