Fotobabble experiment

Voicethread

I am very excited to be trialling voicethread with my class. At the moment I am just teaching a few of the children in my class to become voicethread experts. I am showing them how to record their voice matching it to their image and storing it in voicethread, an exciting way to capture student voice. At the moment we are just doing a class trial. Looking at celebrations we have done some work around Diwali and the children now know a bit about this celebration. It is great to have them talk about what they know giving them a chance to speak uninterrupted. Looking to Myra's list of ways to use it, and thinking ahead to a second way to use it. I am thinking of putting a random picture eg: a stick, in the middle and asking students to tell me if this was in a story what would it be and its role maybe? They can then let their imaginations run wild turning it into a witch's broom, a sword, a tool used to make fire. Then they can play back each others comments and hear how many different identites this one object could take on. The kids are very enthusastic about trialling this new tool as with any new tool we have trialled this year. It is great to see how they take it on board and are willing to teach others. One thing I must set up, an idea which came from Marcelle was the idea of an experts wall around the computer. So that if students are on the computer during classtime and get stuck using one of the tools they can ask the expert rather than interrupting the teacher. Looking forward to what this next web tool can bring.

BT course on ICT

It was interesting to go along to my BT course with Toni Twiss leading an ICT day.  I guess I had never really compared my own ICT growth against what other schools are doing apart from at clusters like Southwell where we are all obviously on some ICT journey. But going to the course today it was surprising to see the number of teachers who didn't have a classroom blog or wiki. It felt great to know that I am already using these valuable tools available through the support and guidance of my school. ICT is not only part of the curriculum but is important to motivate often reluctant students and to create life long learners with tools they will need for their future. It was amazing to hear what Korero Pt England School are up to with their blogs and using itunes to showcase their book reviews. Putting it on a place like itunes meant a wider audience and audience is often something we talk about but is sometimes hard to create an authentic situation with a variety of audiences, (not just the same old same old audience, which no doubt looses its impact over time). This school has become so widely viewed that when new books are published they receive a copy to review along with the likes of magazines and newspapers. (A great way to add to your school library!!!) I would like to try a smaller scale idea of this perhaps getting one interviewer and one child summarising the book they have just read using the flip. Going back to the idea of an audience, should we be connecting with other schools blogs to widen our audience? The kids love it when another teacher from within our school comments on their post. How excited would they be to know that other people at other schools were interested in their learning? Another example we were exposed to today was a teacher using flickr where she had a five frame story. She had photographed the kids doing something which could then be turned into a story. This could work for our procedural writing at the moment having the language experience with photos and then referring to the photographs to write. Perhaps it could be taken a step further to embed it using voice thread and with each picture the student reads out their step they have written??? Toni also told us about using define:(WORD) in a google search engine and it will bring up the definition of a word. I know that ICT needs to be incorporated throughout daily programmes not just saved for ICT time so perhaps this is a new tool for getting students to look at their vocab words occassionally??? The next step for my class in the short term is to set up individual blogs for my class. I started the year with a class blog as all of this blogging was new to me and my students. But the students are working well with the technology now and our class blog is becoming bombared with information. I also want to set up voice thread and have a go at using this to leave comments on the video footage I have from their speeches.

ICT Trial with Jo

The first session with Jo was very full on with a lengthy survey.  It was hard to gage for some of the statements where we would fit. But the second session was valuable to talk about it in more detail and with a clearer understanding of each statement. Bouncing ideas off the whole syndicate and with Jo allowed us to see that we are actually doing more than perhaps we first thought.  We are being reflective of our own practice with our individual blogs and do have great PD opportunities with the cluster meetings at Southwell. It is great to have tools such as class camera's, and flips to capture the moment to then share with the students, their families and the wider school community. It is hard with ICT time being limited but hopefully the netbooks we have got are just the start of students being able to access this technology more readily. It is an exciting time looking to what is ahead but it sounds like we are on track to offer our students the tools to become life long users of this technology.  One interesting thing to come out of our meeting was the school's vision towards ICT and the need to consolidate this so that everyone has a clear direction and reason for using these forms of technology.  I guess we know what were using our own class blogs for and the purpose of this but having a clear understanding of our school vision will continue to steer us in the right direction for future ICT growth.

Reflection of the ICT journey so far

I am really enjoying using the technology available and feel I am getting into the swing of it all now. At the beginning of the year it felt like one more thing to learn and come to terms with and while I knew it was just a matter of playing to see what it could all do I felt like time was an already stretched resource. But getting ideas from one another and trialling them in my own class one at a time rather than getting bombarded with all the great ideas has worked well.
For Room 11 while we have only recently got a flip video I can already see the benefits of capturing those moments and using it as another reflective tool. Having got Rhiannon to video Josh with his reading has made him more aware of reading with expression and quickly. He enjoyed being filmed and then enjoyed being behind the camera filming Rhiannon read the same book modelling what a good reader sounds like. This is something I will use to monitor his progress as it is a medium that he enjoys rather than pen and paper activities or just reading a book for the sake of getting that reading mileage.
As far as blogs go Ashton (our regular ICT goer) has been fantastic and is always keen to share back with the class what he has learnt. One of the first things he likes to do when he gets to school is to go on the blog. It is a great way to get students writing without them really knowing they are and assists with the reflective process. We have started using the reflective questions as a springboard for reflective posts on the blog but we still need to work on giving detail and thinking more deeply about the question.
This term I also want to get students to go back to old posts and make the time for them to read the comments they have received from others and responding to the comments/questions left for them, rather than just going on to make a new post. As well as this I want students to not only go onto their blog and make a post but use the ICT time to maybe comment on someone else's before their own to increase that idea of writing to an audience.
The two ICT cluster meetings I have been to at Southwell have also been great in getting me inspired about what technology can do in the classroom and being creative in the approaches we take to teaching. For a lot of this generation being in front of a screen or using technology is part of their everyday lives and will only become more prevalent so why not use it in our teaching and teach them the skills they will need in the years ahead?

Reading (part 2)

Rhiannon reads with great pace and some expression a good starting point for highlighting what reading should sound like when reading like we talk.

Reading

I decided to use the flip video to record Josh reading. I have been working on getting him to read like he talks, speeding him up to make it more fluent. So I put the technology to good use by getting Rhiannon to film Josh reading The Leaf Boats a book he has read with me and is comfortable with. Then I got Josh to film Rhiannon reading the same book. She reads it with expression and speed. Tomorrow I will spend our guided reading lesson reflecting on these videos, comparing them with me asking Josh what he thinks his next learning step will be in reading.

Writing Moderation with Pukete

Yesterday's writing moderation with Pukete was good to get the feel of what other schools are doing and if we are moving in a similiar direction. Our group placed books on tables according to being at, getting there or below. While this was helpful to see that we were on the same page, I would have found it more beneficial to look at specific examples of a Year 2 Level 1iii for example and to work with these levels which can be hard to place sometimes.
Pukete brought up an interesting comment with their writing being done in pen; due to less time wasted sharpening pencils and no rubbing out of ideas that all form the end product. I guess this highlights the fact that the children's books are living documents that evolve and showcase the process not just the end result. I can see the pen idea working well in my class particularly for a group of boys who will waste time at the rubbish bin sharpening their pencils. Perhaps children may even feel as though with the pen becomes the responsibility to keep their book work even tider?
As a middle syndicate at Vardon I think our notetaking notebooks have been a great way for kids to get pen to paper and just write ideas and highjack these ideas off one another, planning their writing and then using these words in their writing. Language experience and the motivation to write is another big thing which wer are continually looking at ways to encourage not just the reluctant writers but to push those more capable. I guess language experience helps to put children in the shoes of the person in the story or to help build up the picture in the readers mind as they experience it first hand. I often find too with language experience that simlies find their way into writing without children even being aware sometimes, as they describe raindrops feeling like rocks falling on their heads.
Writing is tricky to assess and can often be a challenge to teach but the rewards are great. Seeing how far they have come as well as sitting down next to a child and being surprised with where their imagination has been able to take you as a reader. While writing may feel like a dying art we will always need to write and communicate in one form or another and people will always enjoy a good book, whether it is snuggled up with a hardcopy or scrolling through the pages of their i-pads.

River Walk

Room 11 River Walk on PhotoPeach

ICT in the class

It was exciting to see Ashton come back to class after lunch buzzing from what he learnt during ICT club today. It shows how relevant ICT is for the future.
Within our class we have been using our interactive mobi daily and the kids love working with it! It has been particulary helpful with writing and modelling to the whole class in a format they can all see and be part of brainstorming ideas and adding to others contributions. In writing we have been looking at narrative and being able to bring up a picture of a character to describe, or to model writing a short descriptive piece and then using the highlighter to pull out the adjectives in the piece is working well, setting the kids up to write their own exciting stories.

Writing Ideas

Today I went into Room 10 to see how they do their writing. It reminded me of using language experience to inspire writers who often struggle to know where to start or what to write. It is something I used a lot last year but haven't used so far this year.
The class went outside to stand in the wind. Coming back to class it was great to see them using their notebooks, once again reminding me that I need to incorporate these notebooks more throughout topic and writing to get the key points and provide students with a base to then work from. One group stayed on the mat and worked with Gwynneth. They had the extra assistance of the experience and then a great illustration of what happens when it is windy, once again providing them with the stimulus of what to write.
Having a number of hands-on boys within my class, language experience is something I can see working well with this group of lower writers as well as extending the more able writers. I could use this idea of wind and then revisit the idea of language expereince looking at similies using popcorn which is an easy one to look at describing it looking like a sheeps body or sounding like fireworks exploding.
For me this lesson highlighted that the kids don't have to write a lot during writing time but focus on writing well and adding depth to their writing. This is an area I am working on with a lot of my writers and this was a great lesson to stretch sentences out and make them more interesting with the verbs.
Where to next?
In my class I have a number of posters along the wall that talk about nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. I am going to make it a goal of mine to introduce one of these posters a week and to then do some work around what it is quickly for 5-10minutes a day. This way students should be able to identify these in the books they are reading and develop them in their own writing.
Key questions for me now would be.
-How frequently can you incorporate language experience with it still being effective?
-What are some effective language experiences to target boys and lower writers?

My teaching goals for Term 2

This term I want to especially focus on;
Maths-using a range of materials with each maths group to simplify the problem and then work through each phase from materials to imagining and number property within each new strategy taught.

ICT- getting the most out of my interactive white board by incorporating it in my daily maths and reading programmes, allowing it to be child driven with them using the equipment as another tool for learning. As well as utilising the blog to become reflective thinkers and writing for an audience.

Writing-establishing good routines for independent writing, so that students are able to be productive at checking their own work, while I am busy with other students.

Reflective thinking

How can increase reflective time in class?
How can I make reflection time beneficial for Year 2s and 3s?