Skype in the Classroom

Today we tried another new tech in school - SKYPE. 

Year 1 were having a Space Camp day which included various activities including Space Camp on the Wii learning about being an astronaut. For part of the morning year 1 wanted to speak to Neil Armstrong on the moon! As my staff often rib me about I don't mind dressing up in school for a various events and days, so out came my Neil Armstrong outfit. A pair of white overalls, a paper maiche helmet, lots of printed NASA logos, gardening gloves and supermarket veg box painted white. We set up two Skype accounts and created a space themed backdrop in my office. Simple! 

We then set a time and I skyped into the year 1 class with some prepared answers unfortunately my visor blurred all my notes, so off the cuff answers had to do. 

The children loved it! totally enthralled, great questions (more than I'd been given to prep) - every child engaged in the questioning, felt comfortable asking questions, hopefully learnt some new facts, hopefully will have been inspired to write (we'll see next week) and as the video shows totally believed they were talking to an astronaut in space (they asked me to come back soon pleeeeeaaase)

I went down to class afterwards the children were buzzing and then spent all lunch telling any adult they could find about the astronaut they had spoken too! Brilliant! One of the most effective uses of tech I've used so far. Unfortunately for me it seems I may be dressing up even more in future - Santa, Zeus, Churchill, Roald Dahl who knows...........

Following a chat with my wife who works in the the learning difficulties team at Bradford LEA we decided to host a teach meet with a SEN/Inclusion theme. I went through the organisation process, including discussions with @lordlangley73, @pederosa and @idletim from the Bradford Curriculum ICT team with regard to the wiki, sponsorship and tech side of things. The difference with this teachmeet to others I've attended was the promotion through the council website and the discussions with Learning Difficulties team which resulted in many teachmeet first timers attending.We quickly racked up 70 plus attendees with only a small percentage being from the local twitterati. The teachmeet had a studious feel about it with very few tweets and certain lack of banter, however each and every presenter was welcomed and supported whole heartedly. Hopefully some of the newbies will continue to attend teachmeets and share their innovative practice. Bradford has a few more planned in the near future - keep an eye out. I truly believe in teachmeets as a fantastic way to network, share ideas and learn lots of new ones, what can be better than a teacher telling another teacher what works in their classroom! I am not going to describe the superb presentation as I can't add more than what @idletim and @brynll have done in their blogs 

http://bradfordschools.net/blog/lac/2012/11/10/teachmeet-sen-bradford/ 

http://brynllewellyn.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/tm-the-evolution-of-teachmeet/   

I just wanted to share my brief thoughts on the organisation of a teachmeet and the widening of the audience at teachmeets - which can only be a good thing to boost moral and bring innovative practice to our maligned profession at the moment! I will post the video taken of the presentations -ENJOY!

Teachmeet Bradford SEN from Innovation centres on Vimeo.

Once again a huge thanks to our sponsors on the evening @airedalearchs @AspectBuilding @tes_SEN @educationcity

#tmsciencebd10 5th July 2012 - Greengates Primary School

I am a relative new comer to the idea of Teachmeets, having attended 3, presented at 2 of them and hosted 1 of them. The speed at which I have become a firm favourite of teachmeets I believe is indicative of the power of a teachmeet.

IT’S ABOUT -

·                                            Teachers sharing good practice with teachers

·      Teachers sharing what has gone well in their classes

·      Teachers sharing innovative ideas

·      Fun informal CPD

 The evening started in a relaxed atmosphere around the BBQ, huge thanks to the staff at Greengates School for cooking and serving the food - it was greatly recieved and very much enjoyed. The food and drinks were sponsered by Masterplan Systems and Pudsey computers and again massive thanks go out to these companies for their support.


 Tim Bleazard (@idletim) and Andy Gaunt (@andygfarsley) hosted the evening with tech support from James Langley (@lordlangley73). First up to present was my 8 year old daughter Hannah demonstrating the easy yet effective iPad app - Pic Collage. She confidently talked about how she had used the app to create great fact files and posters to display her understanding of science. The app allows the user to grab photos from the web, ipad's memory or take photos then apply text and backgrounds to create very visual eye catching files.
I     I presented next on outdoor maths - the main focus of the presentation was think big and bold, swap counters for bean bags, multilink for hoops and paper number lines for 30 metres of rope. Outdoor maths enagages and stimulates children, it gets them out of their seats and head first into maths.

Copy of Outdoor Maths on Prezi

Simple games such as a variation on domes and dishes - throw a stack of cones onto the play ground and then ask questions - I've got 3 cones how many more to make 10? Collect a multiple of 3 cones between 20 and 30. Doing it this way allows each child time to think and solve the problem. Lay a piece of rope on the floor and ask the children to write a number between 0 and 30 onto a whiteboard then sort themselves into order - this also works with fractions, decimals,place value. Use the ropes to create huge venn or carroll diagrams and use the children to add the data ie who's got a cat or dog? who has a brother or sister? But what makes these activities work is quality questioning whilst keeping the children engaged.

Darren Martin @dmdazza A foundation stage teacher from Peel Park shared a couple of apps for the Ipad. Doodle Cast which he uses for speaking and listening skills across the curriculum and candy count a maths based app. He has used both apps effectively to enhance the speaking, listening and sharing in his reception class.

Claire Holt @amazingholt Claire presented on the Art of noticing - All too often we walk around with our noses stuck into a smart phone these days, well Claire was advocating ditching the tech and using our senses whilst walking in the countryside to smell, see and touch our natural environment and then write a comment in a little notebook - very retro! From this sensing she then wrote a beautiful poem. Even our resident geocaching, tweeting, facebooking techno guy @lordlangley73 commented on how much he had enjoyed walking about without tech - try it!  http://bradfordschools.net/blog/lac/2012/02/06/the-art-of-noticing/

Tim Bleazard @idletim along with his son shared an app called Sonic Pic. This app allows the user to record a voiceover onto a photo slide show. Tim and his son went on a minibeast hunt around his garden taking photos of the various minibeasts they found then record a commentary of their habitats. A very simple but effective app which enabled them to create a short film of their findings. Have a look at what they created!

Shadow puppets click to see app

Virtul Heart click to see app

Andy Gaunt @andygfarsley A nano presentation showcasing 3 IPad apps - all of which will support, embed or enhance science teaching.

Moon Globe -click to get the app

Catherine Odor - Year 1 teacher at Greengates Primary School
Catherine showed how she has used many curriculum areas in her outdoor provision. The following videos will give a flavour of how she has engaged her class by developing an inspiring, stimulating outdoor curriculum - Quote of the night "Outdoor learning Engages Children"



Alex Llewellyn @alexllew - Alex DH at Fagley Primary shared how she has been working on converting units of measurement using both metric and imperial units of measurement. This discussion led talking about golf in her classroom. She then developed this idea by taking her class outside to devise a golf course, play it and work out the measurements invloved.

Alex also shared Domo Animate, a web based animation programme, which she has used across the curricuulum

Hello and welcome to my blog

My name is Andy Gaunt (@andygfarsley), I am a relatively new Headteacher of a 1 form entry primary school in Bradford. I have been teaching 18 years and held a number of roles and subject coordination posts, but my particular strengths are PE and ICT. I decided to start writing this blog for a number of reasons
1.  I don't find writing easy and I am asking my school children to embrace blogging, so I have decided to have a go myself and see (prove) how easy it is!
2. To create a diary of our progress.
3. To create a store of ideas dovetailling future tech into our school curriculum.
4. And to share our progress with other schools embarking on the development future tech in schools.


We have been through a massive learning curve over the last 12 -18 months trying to decide WHICH, WHEN, HOW, WHERE and WHAT technology kit should we use in school. I had concerns that we were failing our children with regard to ICT, but had no idea which direction to take. Our suite was 5 years old, the PC's were failing every week and the ICT curriculum was extremely narrow and uninspiring. The guidance I needed came from an unlikely source - A headteacher conference. The conference was themed around raising aspirations! At the conference we were asked to tweet our comments.I wasn't into social networking nor did I see the benefit of the iphone - I wanted a phone to ring people! - check emails, surf the net, tweet, QR codes, geocache from a phone why? How wrong was I? Twitter - wow - supportive - helpful - wise - brilliant. I linked with @lordlangley73 from the LEA on twitter he sent a welcome tweet and the phone never stopped bleeping for 30 minutes with welcome follows from the Bradford twitterati. No going back now!

Over the next few months through twitter my contacts grew, at school we trialled podcasting and geocaching in school and generally dipped our toe in to tech to support learning. We bought into a support contract with TICB  and myself and another member of the SLT decided to attend the Bradford mobile learning conference (Bmoble). Here we heard a number of inspiring speakers and schools sharing good practice.

Through discussions with the SLT we decided to purchase a small amount of tech kit and upgrade the wireless network, so over the summer we bought 10 ipods, 10 handheld sat navs and 6 kindles.

SEPTEMBER 2011

I spent the summer playing with ipod and kindles, my children were totally absorbed in them. All the apps were either free or 69p and the 10 books totalled £10.
The kit was introduced to the staff during a staff meeting, the staff were encouraged to take them home and play with them. By October half term the staff were literally fighting over the ipods - they were never in my office.

ADVICE - START SMALL, IDENTIFY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, ALLOW STAFF TO PLAY WITH THE KIT, DON'T EXPECT DETAILED PLANNING OF THE KITS USE!

By taking the above approach the staff became familiar and confident with the kit and began to see how to dovetail the kit into the pedagogy of their teaching. Our biggest break through was the progress an austistic year 2 child made. He struggled to communicate and access the curriculum so his support trialled a simple letter ordering app, he came to my office everyday asking for an ipod and after half a term he had progressed from ordering 2 letters to ordering 24 letter correctly.

I was asked to present with James Langley @lordlangley73 at an ICT in education show in Stockport regarding our journey into techology. It was at this conference I begun to realise the difference between ICT as a subject and as a tool to enhance and engage learning.

From Twitter to Nintendo Wiis on Prezi

At this conference I met an extremely influencial speaker who helped shape my thinking about the future of tech in my school. I was still thinking that ipods etc were part of the development of ICT as a specific subject - but NO ipods etc are tools for engaging learning in schools not ICT specific. I am now of the firm belief that tech is about 3rd Millenia Learning. The icon below links to Tim's blog about me and then further links to an abundance of resources
ADVICE FOLLOW THIS BLOG MASSES OF RESOURCES

November 2011

Purchases - 60 laptops and charging trolleys, 20 ipods and 2 ipads

ADVICE - GET THE BEST MANAGED WIRELESS NETWORK YOU CAN, IT ENSURES YOUR NETWORK TRAFFIC DOESN'T CLOG UP AND IS MOVED TO DIFFERENT ACCESS POINTS
BUY A DEDICATED IPOD / IPAD SYNCHING UNIT. SYNCHING / SETTING UP IPODS/IPADS INDIVIDUALLY IS TIME CONSUMING AND MIND NUMBING

The laptops have proved to be a big hit, constantly being used in classes across in small groups to full classess.
The ipods continued to be a hit and now become more embedded into the curriculum in a more meaningful manner.
I wasn't sure about the ipads, my initial feeling was I could buy 2-3 ipods for 1 ipad. So I bought 2 ipads for the SLT to trial in both an admin and curricular role.

November 2011 The Blog

With support from the Curriculum ICT team we decided to begin blogging - www.bradfordschools.net/blog/greengates was created and our first attempt was on residential at Ingleborough Hall. Here is a link to our first blogging attempt.

On our return to school, a number of parents commented on enjoying comments and photos whilst their children were away. The fantastic twitter community in Bradford I had built up assisted. I sent a tweet to half a dozen of the Bradford twitterati asking for comments on the blog - 6 responded within the hour - the children really responded and loved the fact people were commenting on their activities. The power of the blog was confirmed to me on that residential and I set about sprucing up our blog, putting CPD in place and promoting the blog at every opportunity. At this point I spent many hours reading other blogs, commenting on a few and researching web2.0 tools to enhance ours.

These sites were the ones we began experimenting with. My staff really took to them trying new ideas for the blog and their general teaching.


Year 1 - recorded all the phonemes on audioboo.
Rec, Year 1 and Year 5 began embedding maths trails in QR codes.
All classes uploaded photos to photopeach to create slideshows.
Videos taken in class were uploaded to a school you tube site.
Year 6 created a prezi  called the Digital Nativity.

Jan 2012

We had spent a term playing, learning, getting used to the kit and change in pedagogy, now was the time to start proving we were doing the right thing!  So to date we had been backed by the governors and significantly upgraded our kit.
A new managed wireless network.
60 laptops in charging trolleys
30 ipod touches
6 kindles
2 ipads
12 garmin sat navs
1 Nintendo Wii
We had not spent a a huge amount on Apps or books and found most of the Wii games on ebay

Jan 2012 Blogging Launch

Following a slight revamp and a CPD session we launched our school blog to the parents and world wide web via twitter. So far the blog has been predominately used to showcase what we have achieved in school. Slideshows, videos and podcasts being the biggest slice of the posts. I wanted the blog to improve writing standards, this has been slow but  our first success was picture of the week linked to our weekly speaking and listening activities. We posted a picture on the blog and displayed in class and asked the children to comment or question regarding the picture. This example is a panorama on which the photographer of the orginal picture from South Africa commented.

http://bradfordschools.net/blog/greengates/2012/01/28/picture-of-the-week-8/#comments

Bettys Bay Beautiful Sunrise Standing Next To Ocean in Greater Cape Town The whole school were extremely excited to learn that someone from another country had taken the time and effort to comment on our blog. This then inspired some collaborative writing with a link to a Google Doc - the children followed the link, wrote a sentence or two leaving the story at a point where somelse could continue. This was the result. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LOt74ZuqyWOOaGQ6ZGt3G-Hku3HzniHEXvgicdWbxNE/edit

Other specific writing posts that have worked well were  year 5's Who am I riddles and the whole school Olympic limerick
I started a page called The Well Done Blog on which children were sent to me to photograph, video or podcast some the great work going on in school, this was then posted to the blog and shared with parents. I believe its a great idea but I was running before I could walk! The time I was taking to share the children's work was too long and therefore lost its impact with the children and parents.
WHY?
1. I was still the main person posting on the blog, staff were developing their confidence with regard to posting on the blog, so time to post became an issue.
2. I didn't promote it with the parents effectively enough.
3. I found the format wasn't as ideal as I would've liked, as it was an additional page to the blog it didn't allow individual posts, so the comments weren't matched to the media. This meant the parents didn't comment on their children's work as I had hoped would happen.