Book Detectives blockbusters style

Last year I was sitting in a staff meeting thinking about how to manage my reading groups when someone mentioned the word honeycomb which my brain translated to me as Blockbusters which in turn planted a seed in the discombobulated jungle eco-system that is my brain.

My problem:
5 reading groups, each needing time with me or my classroom assistant and all needing to be directed towards appropriate comprehension tasks to check understanding.
I was forever having to refocus them on their tasks or remind them of the Book Detective comprehension task that I'd previously given them.

So, I thought about how to hand over control to them, giving the ownership while still ensuring relevant and progressive tasks.
What I came up with were a series of three differentiated blockbuster cards.

The solution:

Each child is given a laminated Blockbuster card appropriate to their depth of understanding. The cards are made up of a grid of hexagons providing a pathway from left to right. Each hexagonal cell contains a Book Detective task. The idea is that children choose their own path with tasks getting 'meatier' as they progress. There is a mix of visual and text-based tasks avoiding too much repetition of the same task.
Children have really engaged with this and enjoy choosing their own path. Towards the end of a book they engage with deeper thinking and more involved tasks.

In order for them to feel that their work is valued I also changed their jotter from a small, skinny lined notebook to an A4 jotter lined on one side and blank on the other to accommodate lengthy writing and proud illustrations. Please feel free to download my cards and try them with your class.

Click here for the PDF files

*** I must make it clear that Book Detectives is a current reading comprehension system that has been used in the school for some time. It is not my own. I have simply created the blockbuster cards as an alternative way to manage the children's learning.

Pupil Collaboration Using Wikispaces

Over the past couple of years, I've tried a few ideas to encourage children to write collaboratively using ICT to help. Previous efforts have included Google Docs, which I was told could be done, but I just couldn't find an easy way to enable children under 13 and parents to have individual access to contribute.


However, I have had some success with Wikispaces.com. What I liked about Wikispaces is that the user interface is very clear and simple and the option to register an education account means that you can register a class of children by copy and pasting a class list. You can then accept random passwords assigned to children or you can change them to something easier for the children to remember.

Once the class has access then it's really up to them as to how they populate the wiki. What I love about using a wiki is that children can consolidate their learning and peer assess. The facts that they put on the wiki may not always be accurate (like all wikis) and the grammar and spelling may be incorrect but the children are free to correct and make changes as they see fit.

Another valuable tool is the ability to see the history of every change that was made and who is was made by. This means that a pretty accurate assessment can be made of who has a good contextual understanding and where misunderstanding and misconceptions lie.


We have made two class wikis now. One last year about the Victorians and one this year about WW2 which is still being updated.

Teaching and Learning with iPod Touch Part One

This year, our school has been fortunate enough to be given iPod Touch devices for each class from P1 - P7. We have been exploring the impact that the tools, apps and general nature of learning and teaching using these handheld devices.

Whilst the emphasis has been placed mainly on the use of apps. My P7 class have been looking at how we can use the iPods in general to replace or improve current systems and make information and resources more available for all learners of various needs and learning styles.

Apps

SimpleMind+
Children have used this mind-mapping tool to organise ideas during writing and topic lessons. I was surprised at how easily children adapted to the small screen and managed to navigate around. I also anticipated issues about the speed of progress due to having to use the on screen keyboard. However, this didn't pose a problem, even for children who I expected to use the paper alternative.

Impact: Children have enjoyed this as a tool and they find it different and fun. However, it loses the group work and spontaneous benefit as children do these mind maps individually and unless the SimpleMnds+ app is also installed on the class Macbook and then connected to the whiteboard, I feel the advantage still lies with children surrounding a sheet of large paper that can be instantly shared and discussed.

KidsMathFun, ArithmeTick, Times Tables
These apps are fun little games to allow children to practise mental maths and times tables. We have used them as fun starter activities at the beginning of maths lessons. Children have also chosen to play them at times where they have finished tasks or during their golden time.

Impact: It is expected that regular and engaging times table practise will pay dividends. Time will tell.

Dictionary
There is no substitute for the good old traditional paper dictionary... or is there. The dictionary app has many more words than our class dictionaries. The app doesn't get creased and torn and compensates for misspelled words. It also has the ability to play a sound file demonstrating the pronunciation of the word.

Impact: Children have been far more keen to refer to a dictionary to aid spelling and comprehension when using the iPods. However, this means that the teaching of alphabet and dictionary skills begins to lose relevance to the children.

French, FR Lite
I installed these in case children were interested in developing or testing their French language learning in their own time. Some children have but it has not been widely used.

Impact: this has had little or no visible impact although I plan to work more closely with our French specialist to see if there is a way it can aid teaching & learning in her class.

LetsTans

LetsTans

I installed this app as an extension activity when we were looking at shape. The children immediately engaged with it and spend the next 5 - 10 days working through the many levels, competing with each other.  was very pleased to see their enthusiasm.

Impact: A huge motivational tool which really got children into competitive problem solving. As extension tasks, I will definitely look for more puzzles like this related to future maths topics.

Banner
Inspired by the 2012 Olympic Games, we used the Banner app in our class assembly to recreate a version of the matrix boards used around the seating of the Olympic Stadium. It was... fun!

Angry Birds
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! Children have made very good arguments for using Angry Birds as a maths tool through the use of estimation and angle. Fair play to them.

Smart slides
When teaching, I use the interactive whiteboard heavily. I find it drives the pace of the lesson, keeps children engaged during the 'teacher talk' part as well as allowing a clear display of modelled/shared tasks, success criteria and word banks. In this current climate of budget cuts, it is not possible to photocopy SCs, word banks etc for each child. Especially when much of this ends up being used for scrap or in the recycling box. The value of these aids last only for a couple of lessons at the most.

With SMART Notebook software, any slides created can be exported as image files or PDFs. This means that all the slides can be copied across to iPhoto on the Macbook and synchronised to the iPods very quickly. I have done this often in writing tasks and have even managed to do this after we have annotated the slides. In the 3 minutes that I give children to write the date, title and get started, I can sync the iPods and have them distributed. Children then have the most up to date versions of the slides to reference as they need.

Impact:
I have seen a great impact especially on writing. I have found in the past that children constantly need to flick between models, shared-writing as well as copying success criteria. Word banks were generally only given to those children identified as benefiting from them. Now, children are in complete control, flicking to and fro between the information that they need. They are borrowing the ideas from the shared writing, reminding themselves of vocabulary and all have access to SC, word banks, sentence starts etc. All without having to print or photocopy anything. (I always have a couple of paper copies for any child who finds it difficult to use the ipods. The rarely need them) I feel that the quality of writing has increased through the use of the ipods.


Multimedia
The multimedia element of iPod Touches in the classroom has been very beneficial to children's ability to engage with cross-curricular projects. For our assembly I imported the music that accompanied their singing into iTunes. I then copied the PDF of the song words and assembly script into Dropbox. This meant that, with headphones, children could listen to the backing tracks and follow the song words at the same time. All children had copies of the scripts which could be updated and refreshed by me at any time. At this point the iPods were not being allowed home but had they been, it would have made a huge difference to the extent to which children could engage with the assembly.

 
Likewise, for history-based lessons I imported Chamberlains declaration of war speech and an edited version of Martin Luther King speech accompanied by images of him making the speech. This way, children could engage with primary sources that were far more meaningful, with far more impact than a typed page.

Impact:

Children have engaged with primary sources in a way that they would not have if given photocopies or reading from a book. The personal nature of the devices mean that the children have had the freedom to revisit, reconsider multimedia texts. This has meant, for example, that there has been a crossover during children's work where they refer back to these resources to enrich other, but related, tasks.

Calendar
Since children are now able to take the iPods home, I have explored the possibility of replacing the diaries that children have previously taken home. The diaries have space for 'things to remember', 'keep in touch' and 'homework tasks'. I have set up the calendar so that the iPods themselves are set to their own, independent calendar that children can edit and update themselves. I have also set up a P7 calendar that automatically syncs from the Macbook. This is where I can put general events that are synced to all iPods such as itineraries for trips etc.

Impact: 
This will take time to become a habit but my hope is that it will become a more reliable way to communicate between home and school as well as helping children to be more organised. Children often forget their diaries though, to date, have never forgotten their iPod.

Dropbox
I have mostly used iPhoto to provide children with images of SMART slides or photographs of worksheets or other, photocopied resources. However, iPhoto will not accept PDFs and since many of the resources we collect from online sources are provided in PDF format (or at least can be converted from word) I have used Dropbox to make these available to all. Since children only have to log in once, there is little chance that they will not have access to the most current files in Dropbox and this gives it an advantage over GLOW documents as children still seem to have problems with the log-in process, especially at home.

Impact:
The impact of this will not be clear until we have tried it for longer.

Limitations

• The screen size is small and therefore, while there have been few complaints from the children, the long term effects of this are worth considering.
• The firmware on the devices are becoming outdated meaning that many of the modern apps will not work on the devices. This is not known until after they are installed (and paid for).
• The lack of a camera does limit the uses with regards to augmented reality applications, QR codes and most pressingly the uploading of images of pupils achievements to their online e-porfolios.

PedagooNE

I'm just on my way home from the very first PedagooNE and feel the need to update my blog straight away. As I was saying to Martin this evening, I definitely feel that my enthusiasm and interest of teaching follows regular peaks and troughs. The troughs usually follow intense peaks where I become focused and perhaps slightly obsessed with projects or ideas. Although sometimes I just fancy a rest. Events like Teachmeets and pedagooNE serve to give me a real inspiration hit and fill me with enthusiasm. Here are some of the things that I learnt about this evening.

Learning and Outreach: Special Collections Centre provides experience days and a range of free workshops and services related to a range of historical sources.

Claire Illingworth showcased Speak Up Scotland, a resource to encourage debating in the classroom in a way that can be quick and easy. Perfect for plenaries or for teachers like me who maybe are not as confident in leading debates in the classroom. Follow her on twitter @belledefluff

Duncan MacLeod from Aberdeen College took us through the process of creating a badge reward scheme for students at F.E. level and talked about the impact that this had on attainment and attendance. He shared some fantastic media projects that the students had achieved particular success in. Thanks @aktoman

From the virtual world of the Internet, Ian Simpson presented his video about Class Dojo and the positive effect that it has had on his S1 pupils. I spoke to Ian over the October break and he gave me a sneaky heads-up on the Class Dojo resource. I began using it with my class this week and it has been a great success so far. I'll blog about my experience at the end of this term. Thanks @familysimpson

And finally, Stuart Brown gave an insight to his current work with disengaged young people and how he has completely redesigned his workspace to provide a more conducive learning space for the young people he works with. Again, this is something I will follow up with Stuart and blog about in the future. His fresh outlook has already had me thinking about the positive learning environments promoted by people like Steven Heppell.

For anyone looking for my presentation on Our Class Geocache, I have embedded it below. I blogged about this in a previous post so have a look and feel free to post any questions.

 

Geocaching with P6/7s

This term the class found out that their 'travel bug' which had started it's journey less than a mile down the road, in their own geocache had managed to travel across the Atlantic and is currently 'In the hands of afamilywiththreeboys' near Chicago.

Our Scotland trackable

Confused? Excited? Yes, those are two words to describe how my class felt when we first discussed the idea of a geocache back at the beginning of 2012. Here is an account of how our geocaching adventures started and ended and were resurrected.

our cache complete with treasure

Before I continue, I suppose I should really explain the whole idea behind geocaching to anyone who hasn't yet experienced it. A geocache is a small container or 'cache' that is hidden anywhere in the world. These caches can be as small as the dust cap on your car tyre or as big as an ice-cream tub and many sizes in between. Some contain treasure and some simply contain a rolled up sliver of paper with some dates and initials. In essence, geocaching is simply a treasure hunt on a global scale.

Using a web-based database of hundreds of thousands of caches around the world, the user employs their map skills or, more commonly their GPS device to find the location of a cache. They then use clues to narrow the location down from several metres to a specific location. Once found, the log is signed and dated and if there is treasure then the user can take from the cache as long as something of equal or greater value is left in it's place.


Often, amongst the treasures are 'trackables' which are special items with a trackable serial number. These are designed to be moved from cache to cache and often travel between countries.

We decided that we should plant our own geocache and so set about using map work and our local knowledge to pick a sensible place to hide it. The rules state that the cache cannot be buried underground but can be hidden in holes, bushes or sometimes even in plain sight. We had to also make sure that there would be no environmental damage through the hiding of the cache or by the geocachers who would be looking for it.

With all that in mind we decided upon the local community woodland. This was an area that the children had already been involved with the previous year with a couple of days of tree planting. So we decided to walk to the woodland and seek out suitable hiding spots. Each child sketched where they thought it should be hidden. Then each child jotted down directions to help people to find the location. Once back at school we decided upon a final hiding place and I went back to the site after school to log the exact GPS coordinates on my phone.

Since most geocaches are hidden in areas of geographical or historical interest, this provided an opportunity for some writing in the form of a description of the local area based on children's own knowledge and further research about the development of the woodland. Further writing took the form of an instructional text explaining the concept of geocaching and how to hide a geocache. The children were very engaged in such relevant pieces.

The next task was to find a tub suitable and provide some initial 'treasure'. Some children brought in some small items like rubbers, keyrings etc. I supplied a Scotland travel bug. Since our topic was Europe, we decided that we would like our Scotland travel bug to travel as far round Europe as possible. We packed all our items in our waterproof tub and set off, back to the woodland to hide it.

After a little nudge in the right direction from the Geocaching.com website help page, I logged the cache site and awaited it's approval. A few days later it was live and the children knew that they had a special secret treasure cache that only people in the know would be able to find. We checked the website every once in a while to read logs from others that had found it (including a supply teacher working at Portlethen Primary) and we checked to see where our travel bug had travelled to.

So, almost a year on and our travel bug has travelled 5124miles. If you would like to find out more about Geocaching then visit www.geocaching.com. Our geocache is called A Fishermoss Find and our travel bug is called Scotland Flag Tag.

A lot can happen in 10 months

Wow, has it been almost a year since I last published a new blog post?

So much has happened since then. Perhaps the whole teaching malarky has meant that I'm far too busy to tap tap tap away at this keyboard. Or perhaps I am seeking the elusive 'work/life' balance?

Whatever the excuse, remind me to tell you about;

the collaborative writing using wikispaces.
or
the fantastic Geocaching experience that my P6/7 pupils engaged in and how their travel bug skipped it's intended location and is now half way across the USA.
or
our Health and Wellbeing open day that allowed children to create and run their own stalls teaching other children how to be safe through responsible cycling, healthy through football and tennis and even assisting others through 1st aid knowledge.
or
our work with a class set of iPod touches and apps, learning resources, SMART pages, audio/visual resources and lots of techy fun.
or
our vision to provide cycling provision from Nursery through to P7, from balance bikes to mountain bikes.

Oh I've been so excited. Maybe that's the reason I haven't managed to update the blog.

Ps, I'll also be publishing some new CPD opportunties that I have just learnt about too. Like this

Stu Brown ‏@stuart_g_brown

@familysimpson @mcoutts81 @charliebarrow @charlie_love forum for #pedagooABDN , spread the word!! http://goo.gl/Dpcn0

or this

Ian Simpson shared a link.

7 hours ago

Educators and parents of primary school children. Your weekends are now free: http://pinterest.com/all/?category=education

Creative Activities for Snowy Days

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed that the snow hasn't taken hold yet. Yes, I know it causes disruption, I know it means travel is difficult... but it's just so much fun! I'm in the process of adding bits and pieces to my class GLOW page so that if we have a school closure due to snow, my pupils will have lots to keep them happy and busy.

Adventure play in snow Photo: Svane Frode

If like me, you sometimes need inspiration to get the creative brain going then look no further than Juliet Robertson's (Aka Creative Star) I'm a teacher - Get me OUTSIDE here! blog. I have included some links to her snowy posts last year which include some lovely, decorative ideas as well as some more sinister, macabre goings on involving fake blood! Just click on the captions to be taken to her blog.

Snow, Stencils and Blood! Photo: Juliet Robertson

They are well worth a look and if you don't already follow her blog, then start now as there are bound to be some fantastic ideas for this year. (Btw, her site has been nominated for this year's 'Best ed tech blog' at the Edublog Awards 2011. It's worth a look!)

For other snow day ideas, have a look at this book, also recommended by Juliet this time last year. Click on the image for more details.

Playing With Snow Photo: Vegard Fimland

Possibly the most difficult exam...ever!

The following was emailed to me by a very clever friend of mine. I doubt that even he would score highly in this!

The Ultimate Exam

Faculty of Applied Omniscience

Read the questions carefully. Answer all of them. Time available: Two hours. Commence
immediately.


1. History


Elaborate on the Vatican history from its beginning until today, and focus especially, but
not exclusively, on its social, economic, religious and philosophical influence on Europe,
Asia, America and Africa. Answer concisely.


2. Medicine


You have been given a razorblade, a strip of gauze bandage and a bottle of Scotch
whisky. Remove your appendix. Don't sew yourself up before your work has been
approved. You have fifteen minutes on this task.


3. Rhetoric


2500 hysterical head hunters are about to invade these premises. Calm them down. You
may use any extinct language, except greek and latin.


4. Biology


Create life. Discuss the future culture differences of this life form, given that it has
evolved from about 500 million years ago. Be specific about the expected effects on
Norwegian party politics. Prove your assumptions.


5. Music


Compose a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform your work with flute and drum.
You will find a piano under your chair.


6. Psychology


Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, adaptability
and the surpressed frustrations of Alexander the Great, Ramses II and Hammurabi.
Support your assumptions with quotations from their works. Remember to name your
sources. It is not necessary to translate.


7. Sociology


Present the sociological problems that might arise in connection with The Day of


Judgement. Design and conduct an experiment to prove your conclusions.


8. Technology


On your desk you will find a disassembled coarse-caliber rifle. You will also find an
instruction manual in Swahili. In ten minutes a hungry Bengal tiger will be released in this
room. Take all precautions you find necessary. Be prepared to defend your decisions.
Remember that the Bengal tiger is an endangered, protected species.


9. Economy


Develop a realistic plan to refinance the national debt. Explain what effects the plan will
have on the following fields: Cubism and the Donatist-dispute over the wave-nature
of light. Establish a method to avoid these effects. Then criticise this method from all
conceivable points of view. Identify the weaknesses of your viewpoint in the same way
as in the previous question.


10. Political science


There is a red telephone on your desk. Start World War III. Give a report on the
sociopolitical effects of it, if any of the kind will occur.


11. Epistemology


Decide whether to defend or to reject truth. Prove the substance in your choice.


12. Physics


Explain the structure of matter. In your explanation, please include an evaluation of the
significance mathematical development has had on all science.


13. Philosophy


Outline the development of human ratio. Estimate its significance. Compare with the
development of any other form of thinking.


14. General knowledge


Discuss the topic in detail. Be objective and specific.

Literacy and Numeracy in Curriculum for Excellence - Part 2

As promised, in this post I will talk about my thoughts on the second half of the Literacy and Numeracy in CfE presentation that I was lucky enough to attend last Saturday 29th October. Tom Renwick presented and easily kept the room's enthusiasm and interest that had been handed over by Bill Boyd.

I try very hard to avoid being one of the statistics of people who like to talk about how terrible they are at maths. I'm not terrible at all, though I didn't do well at school. Since school I have been back to evening classes and worked on my 'areas for development'. Tom's presentation helped me to see where I had gone wrong and the importance of providing the right opportities for the children in my class so that they can get to grips.

Tom made a frightening but, I fear, well known point. Numeracy in Britain isn't as good as it could/should be. Many of the daily number tasks we do as adults are done with calulators, spreadsheets, phone apps, google. These are all great tools but if you don't know what they are doing, how can you cope when they go wrong?

With the aid of his huge 100 square, Tom talked the audience through a series of related problems. What is heavier, a tennis ball or a golf ball? How much water is in a plastic cup? How to use mass to measure volume?  I must admit, I did get a little lost at points but the message I took away was valuable nonetheless.

At every opportunity Tom solved the problems with the hundred square. The numbers that were flying around the room were no longer abstract. They were all part of patterns that were clearly illustrated on the square. They were all related to the practical demonstrations. And they all seemed to make sense (a little revisiting and reinforcement later on would have sorted me out!)

Like many adults, my wobble with maths confidence stems largely from a fear of being put on the spot or being asked a question I can't answer. Tom spoke about the idea of parents and children learning together and explained that this could easily be done in school. I saw this done a few years ago when the assembly hall of the school I was in was taken over for a day by parents and children learning maths, playing maths games and sharing their own skills together. It was fantastic and was a very comfortable and positive experience for all.

The overarching message presented in the session was that the most important thing that we can develop with children is a fluency when it comes to mental agility. The faster and more accurate a child can solve mental number problems, the more likely they are to cope with the maths through school. As a child learns to develop words using knowledge of the alphabet, they should also be able to develop maths agility through knowledge of number bonds and patterns.

I would recommend visiting Tom's website Maths On Track  and look out for the live Glow maths session lead by Tom on the 26th November. Tom has lots of free resources and videos on his site too.

Literacy and Numeracy in Curriculum for Excellence - Part 1

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to attend the literacy and numeracy event run by Bill Boyd and Tom Renwick. The presenters individually had such a wealth of experience and knowledge that I am going to blog each presentation separately to really try to give them both justice (although there is no substitute for actually being there).

Bill Boyd

Bill, a.k.a The Literacy Adviser, does just what it says on his tin (except he uses less cliches!) Having been a Principle Teacher of English, a Depute Head Teacher and an Education Manager with LTS he shares all of this knowledge in a way that captivates his audience. He has an obvious interest in modern culture and uses of film, comics and technology all blended together to present his argument that being literate means more than the understanding of books. In his talk he referred to a range of texts from comics to digital novels in the most authentic and unique sense. I'll attempt to summarise my notes from the morning in a series of paragraphs.

Language

Bill highlighted the evolution of language through our interaction with everyday texts. We learn to follow patterns in texts. He started off by having the audience consider ingredients, song lyrics, instructions and computer screens showing that we decode everyday texts using our prior knowledge and links to function. The fact that the range of texts that we use is wide and varied is highlighted by the wording of the Curriculum for Excellence's definition of texts.

"a text is the medium through which ideas, experiences, opinions and information can be communicated." CfE Literacy Across Learning: principles and practice.


Games-based Learning

Bill argues that the narrative in modern games are as valuable as texts as are film and written word. Games such as Myst are valuable when used as contexts for learning. Creative writing, fantasy worlds, problem solving and many cross-curricular themes can be found through games such as Samarost, Machinarium and the more recent Doctor Who games.

This made me think, surely the Doctor Who adventure games could provide a whole term's primary topic as children could delve into character development through the regeneration of the Doctor, exploring key points in history, familiar and fantasy geographic settings, technology as well as the idea of creative writing and parallel narratives.

The interactive novel

This resource really interested me. Bill took us through a novel titled Inanimate Alice. This was like no novel I had ever seen before. It was not simply a book converted to an ebook or simply an interactive decision-making  story. Inanimate Alice puts you in the shoes of a young girl and fires stimuli at all of the senses for a completely immersive experience. As the chapters progress, the story of Alice and her trans-migratory family progress through different territories, exciting problems that Alice solves with the help of her handheld device-based friend. Children have created their own episodes which can be seen via the website though I have yet to explore this.

Graphic Novels

I've not been into comics since I stopped my subscription for 2000AD in the early 90's. I really think I've missed something! I remember visiting my cousin in Portsmouth as a child and being awestruck at his collection of thick graphic novels (He's now a successful graphic artist). These were not comics, these were novels with all the credibility of any piece of literature. Bill reignited my interest in graphic novels and made me realise that the gap between our literacy interests and that of the children is not as great as it sometimes seems.

Having thought about this, literacy is a perfect example of human's varying learning styles. Whilst studying English Literature at University, I would often sit through the film's of Shakespeare's plays. For me, this made the language far more accessible and the characters much more understandable. For Year 4 boys two years ago, Macbeth was brought to life by the graphic novels. The narrative remains the same but the means in which children digest, process and deconstruct these 'texts' is individual and as teachers we need to understand that. Bill says, look out for The Invention of Hugu Cabret and Chemical Reactions. I say look out for Macbeth: The Graphic Novel.

Film

I used to run the Filmclub for children where we would receive feature films to watch, discuss and write about. It worked but was difficult in the sense that a two-and-a-half hour film takes 3 weeks to watch and loses much of it's impact.

Bill directed us to a fantastic few websites that provide a great deal of teaching resources for short films that are more than manageable in class. Have a look at Moving Image Education, Scotland On Screen and Screening Shorts. I was very pleased to find the short animation The Sandman which I found so intriguing and terrifying that I have never deleted from a VHS tape that I recorded it onto, accidentally, about 15 years ago!

If you haven't been convinced of the value in analysing computer games, digital novels, film and animation as forms of text by now then Bill has provided further help in the form of the 7 Reading Strategies and the 10 Tools for Reading Film. These are certainly worth a read though I think it would be far better to share them with your pupils whilst deconstructing comics or film.

You can follow Bill's blog at http://literacyadviser.wordpress.com/ and you can must follow him on twitter @literacyadviser

Teachmeet Aberdeen October 2011

I'd had a pretty full-on term and really needed a boost to lift my spirits and increase my motivation for the long days teaching, assessing, reflecting and planning. This boost came in the form of the Aberdeen Teachmeet.

I repeated my May presentation calling for teachers to become involved in an Aberdeenshire augmented reality channel to showcase children's work around the area. I also demonstrated the use of Issuu and the 'hilariously' titled Stickybits. Yes, insert captions that read 'Charlie Barrow showing off Stickybits' and such like.

Ian Simpson: Becoming Orson: Podcasting War Of The Worlds

Ian presented a fantastic piece proving that the umbrella of ICT clearly covers what we would traditionally call 'media'. Inspired by the famous Welles radio play War Of The World, Ian's lunchtime club pupils favoured the radio play genre over the celebrity music based programme pleasantly surprising Ian.

Using free audio software Audacity and microphones bought on the cheap from the Pound Store, they began work on scripting and producing the radio play. That moment we all look forward to as teachers came when Ian walked in to the classroom to find his pupils experimenting with the springs from the back of a broken chair. They discovered that they could create some fantastic foley by dropping two springs on the floor and recording the sound.

Thank you Ian for sharing your inspiration and making us all wish that we were pupils in your class!

Twitter users can follow Ian's tweets @familysimpson and access his blog at http://caffeinetangent.wordpress.com/ 

Nikki Stobie: Random name generator

In primary schools we rely heavily on tried and tested systems like using lolly pop sticks with names written on to randomly choose children for various reasons. While this has worked since before I can remember, it's always great to be able to take these ideas and modernise them, polishing them up with a little wow factor.

Nikki has found a great random name generator from classtools.net. Insert the names of your pupils and choose from the typewriter or fruit machine. The flash based animation then generates one of the names at random to a big round of applause. Nice!

Mark Hay: Glow blogs, wikis and eportfolios

Mark presented on his use of Glow blogs and Wikis. This is something I have been trying to do for a long time and I think that Mark seems to have cracked it. He went on to discuss eportfolios using Glows 'Honeycomb' based system. He also mentioned Kodu, the game development software for children which again is something I hope to follow up.

I think that the beauty of Teachmeet is that presenters like Mark can introduce resources and ideas and though I admit that I didn't follow it all at the time, the food for thought can be digested over a long period of time and this really has given me the inspiration to learn more.


Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkHay79

Martin Coutts: Games based learning and maths

I admit that when maths teachers stand up to present, I immediately feel on edge, the sweat runs cold and I get my fingers ready for some rapid calculation. In Martin's presentation he showed off a wonderful resource aimed at secondary maths pupils but which also lends itself to the extension of P7 and even P6 pupils. Manga High is a free resource with a huge amount of competitive maths games, many of which also contain teaching activities too. The resource allows for quick class registration and password generation or, as I have done in order to try it out, a random set of 30 general log-ins to be used with any class. If it proves to be a success, I'll register the class properly so that they can track their progress.

My cold sweat soon cleared and I've even tried some of the Manga High challenges. I was awarded bronze! :-/ If you would like to follow Martin on Twitter, his user id is @mcoutts81

Katheryn Roper: Geobus

Katheryn sensibly took the opportunity of Teachmeet to present the Geobus project to the 60-something attendees. To be launched in January 2012, the Geobus will be a free resource available to all secondary schools and perhaps eventually some primary schools too. It will provide mobile expertise and tailored lessons in all curriculum areas (even embedding ICT - see what she did there?) on geographical topics.

The website will be up and running soon and bookings will be taken in the very near future. I'll update the blog as soon as I find any details out. In the meantime 'd suggest some sporadic Google searches!

Gretchin Perk: Frayer Model

Another presenter sneaking in a brilliant idea to prove that Teachmeet Aberdeen was more about sharing fantastic resources than simply shoehorning ICT into teaching. Gretchin demonstrated the use of the 'Frayer Model'. The model is "is a graphical organizer used for word analysis and vocabulary building." (http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/frayer.htm, 30/10/11) It is in the form of a four-square diagram, each square for pupils to demonstrate their understanding of a concept by defining the term, defining the term's characteristics and providing examples and non-examples. 


As I write this, my plan for my P7 metric measuring lesson includes a Frayer Model activity to allow children to demonstrate their understanding. I hope it is successful and I'll be trying it out in language work and topic work in the future.

Stephanie Orr: Jousting Game

Games-based learning is popular in both primary and secondary at the moment and I'm sure it's popularity will only grow as educators continue to accept the computer game as a valuable form of literacy such as the novel and the moving image.

Stephanie has found a great little flash game that uses historical fact to create a perfect visual learning tool showing children just what jousting is all about. It's factually accurate, fun and funny and had the audience smiling for the full 2 minutes. I spoke to a fellow Aberdeenshire practitioner a couple of days ago who used this resource with her primary class last week with great success.

Ed Walton: Stagework, Dark Materials

Unbeknown to the Teachmeet congregation, Ed was busy creating an off-the-cuff presentation on his iPad having been inspired by the previous presentations. How he managed to get such a slick and full presentation done that quickly is beyond me but it was excellent.

One of his main demonstrations showed how he taught meta-cognition to his secondary pupils through a series of superhero cell-snapshots presented in ComicLife. It was a bold and captivating way to do it and I can understand exactly how his pupils must have felt when engaging in it. Using a plethora of higher order thinking through speech bubbles seemed to just work.

He also presented some interesting material through the stagework website which is full of teaching resources for curriculum areas through drama. There was also a fantastic sequence of videos from the His Dark Materials play (I think) where each shot was filmed 3 times with slightly different actions to enable the pupil to create their own version of the scene. I forgot to write the address for this properly so as soon as I find it, I'll post it.)

Darren Gibb: Resource medley!

Darren Darren Darren, what can I say. He could have presented for an hour with all the resources he had. He chose to go last which, in hindsight, could have been a ploy to make sure that after 2 hours of listening, we were all still on our toes. He covered so much in such a short space of time that I will list the bits I wrote down and will leave it to future blog posts to share how I've used some of his ideas. I've used two in the two days of teaching since his presentation. Both with great success. Thanks Darren.


Audioboo
This app has been on the go for a while and is heavily endorsed by Stephen Fry. It's like a twitter, blogging, podcasting tool in one. You record straight into the computer's mic or your android, iphone, iPad or whatever device you have, and upload it to the world. It's so quick, so easy and right up my street as it's a great way for children to publicise their work. As a form of social networking, pupil Internet safety should be at the forefront of your mind all the time but if handled carefully could be a valuable tool.

Wikispaces
This is a really simple way to build a wiki about anything. It's extremely easy to create class logins from an education account and once created, every amendment to the wiki can be seen along with the child that edited it. Assessment is for Learning, tick!

Todaysmeet
is a chat tool that allows you to create a private room that only people with the specific web address can access. You can set the room to be automatically deleted in hours, days or weeks and children have 140 characters with which to comment. I am fascinated with the idea of our language developing based on the need to cram as much in to small windows of text. Children are getting pretty good at adapting their language. I hope we can keep up with their literacy skill.

Placemats

A really simple active learning activity where children use an A3 sheet divided into quarters with a fifth, central box to hone their ideas or facts. Each child silently jots down as many notes as they can about a given topic and afterwards they discuss which are the important points to select for the middle box.

If you want to follow Darren on Twitter then he's @darrengibb

So, another Teachmeet Aberdeen over with. With the attendance increased three-fold, the next one in about 6 months time should be a cracker. "We're gonna need to get a bigger boat"...er... venue! Thanks to Stuart Brown for organising the event at Aberdeen University. Thanks to Ian Simpson, Darren Gibb, Martin Coutts for your bits. I hope they'll give me something to do next time. I could bring the crackers and cheese?

Never Mind Excuses!

Oh dear oh dear! It's been an age since my last blog post and I'm slightly embarrassed that I haven't had anything rattling around in my brain that was worth writing.

In my defence, I focused my blog-writing energy on my Coast to Coast blog documenting my off-road cycle trip from West to East Scotland. Although

Much has happened since the Summer. I've begun my probation year teaching a Primary 6/7 composite class at Fishermoss Primary in Portlethen, Aberdeenshire. That could also explain the lack of posts since all of my time and attention has been spent on planning for an unfamiliar age group and a HUGE range of needs across all curricular areas. It has certainly been a challenge but it's getting easier.

I'm looking forward to using technology to enhance my teaching, their learning... and my learning. I'm battling against some teething problems with GLOW logins, browser errors and strange unknown bugs and beasties in the system but those will soon be defeated.

Looking forward, it's the Aberdeen Teachmeet next week. Meeting up with lots of like-minded teachers is a great way to sort things out in my own mind as well as learning what colleagues have been doing recently. Watch this space as I revive Augmented Reality, QR codes, Issuu publishing and our Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion challenge progress.

Coast to coast to raise money for UK cancer charities

 

In July 2011, I will set off from the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh and cycle 270 miles, climb over 17,000ft and will be in the saddle for 7 days before arriving in Montrose on the East coast.

This trip is to raise money for both Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. Please support me, even a couple of quid will help.

Click on the logo to visit the blog where you can donate via the Justgiving widgets.

The Future (and trying to make sense of it)

Firstly, I must apologise as this is going to be a lengthy post. Today I had a tweet, it looked like this:

And it made me think. What is AR technology all about? Augmented Reality has been around for decades. In essence AR is simply the overlay of artificial (computer generated) information over a real image. For example, when your disappointed football manager comes on the telly and over the video image pops up his name, thats AR. Or perhaps the news report that has a moving ticker giving extra info at the bottom of the screen. I suppose even that radical idea of having an MTV logo at the top left of the screen. How annoying and now its everywhere. So really, to explain AR and it's applications would be a little like someone saying, so explain - what's the internet all about then?

In this post I am going to attempt to try to explain AR, it's applications and how it is already embedded in our society. I will also show how exciting it is as this aspect of science fiction has now become reality. I think it's also important to recognise that as exciting/scary (delete as appropriate) as this technology is, it is not the be all and end all, particularly in education. But I believe that it will have a huge impact on the way we learn and how we prepare our children for their future.

I'd like to start with a video that blew me away at the beginning of last year. It is from early 2009 and I wonder if the people that made it knew what the developments were likely to be over the next two years. Look out for the technology that we now know about which makes this reality much closer than first thought.





So, if you missed it, heres some of the technology already being used to make this reality possible.

touch responsive boards like SMART
voice to text and instant translation from Google
microsoft surface
xbox kinect for the 'minority report' wizardry
ipads/tablets with cameras to support gps based AR like junaio, wikitude, foursquare
paper thin video screens in magazines
paper thin mobile phones

During Teachmeet Aberdeen 2011, Jim McCracken made a salient point that we have to be careful not to replace good teaching and learning with technology. I agree, sometimes we can get carried away and I constantly ask myself, what does this tech add to teaching and learning that could not be done before? How does this help learning? And, yes, sometimes I persue the use of technology where it does not add to teaching and learning and have to bring myself back down and refocus. On the other hand, what appears reactionary now may be worth keeping in the back of your head for the future. I'm sure people thought about the potential of a 4" high-res colour screen in the classroom before teachers began lobbying for them to be allowed. Others saw them as something else to fight against. What's the use of a position of power if you have nothing to ban?

So, a fraction of the way through the post and I have to ask, where do I start?

Augmented Reality - 3D, the wow factor.

One aspect of modern augmented reality is the ability to use simple imagery to trigger 'things'. One such 'thing' that can be triggered is 3D modelling. This is where a camera can be used to detect a simple marker depicting the size and orientation of a 3D model that then pops up on the screen. Some of these are fantastic and I've included a video of the first ever 3D augmented reality CV.

You can read more about this aspect of augmented reality in my posts, Smart Grid Augmented Reality, LearnAR, Second Sight (I'd recommend looking into AR Sights for a brilliantly accessible plug in for google earth and google sketchup for free)

Augmented Reality - Image Overlay

In February 2010 I shared this TED talk video about Bing's use of image overlay. Microsoft Bing Maps - Augmented Reality

I instantly thought of the fantastic use of this technology in the social studies curriculum area as this is an area where a picture does speak a thousand words. My memory of history at school was just the copying of a thousand words! But this technology brings it all to life. If you  navigate to the US version of Bing Maps, there is the option to the streetside photos app. This shows photos overlaid ontop of street view. Imagine historical images overlaid onto street view and accessed with a smart phone or tablet. That's got to make an impression on any Standard Grade history pupil!

Augmented Reality - GPS tagging

This technology is everywhere now. Google maps on a smartphone, wikitude, layar, junaio, many apps now allow you to use the phones camera to see information about your surroundings. You can even scan your camera in any area and see where all your fellow tweeters are. Scary stalking scenarios now spring to mind. This technology is behind the phenominon of Geocaching but as a further educational resource, what if treasure hunts were actually stimulus for exploration on school trips. That was my idea when I set up a treasure hunt at Hampton Court Palace using Wikitude. Wikitude was chosen as it was easy to insert the information on the computer, simply inserting waypoints on a map. Mobile devices then overlayed these waypoints onto the phones maps and once you had located the waypoint, the teacher designed task could be carried out. Have a look at the blog post for that for more info. GPS AR Trial @ Strand Juniors' Hampton Court Trip

That leads me on to where I am at now; investigating the idea of sharing children's work with the wider network through the growing use of mobile technology. Junaio is the closest application that I have found with the ability to enable pupils to almost pick up a virtual version of their 3D design and move it around, or to send a newsletter home and have parents use their mobiles or tablets to access moving image in a window of the newsletter, or to be at a school trip and see where extra info has been virtually supplied by the teacher by way of GPS tagging or view other pupil's interpretations and comments by pointing a camera at a piece of art.

Now here's the deal. The future is all about sharing. The concept of connectivism as a credible learning theory is all about learning through networks. We do it already as practitioners through teachmeet, #edchat, blogging, virtual CPD. It's really important. If there is one thing that I have learnt this year, it is the importance of discussing ideas with others in order to see them materialise. If you would like to collaborate to get some of these ideas going, please get in touch with me. If you have already managed to, or do in the future, please let me know how you got on. I really think that microsoft's view of the future is so interesting and exciting and it's almost here. This will be out children's future and it's moving very quickly. Let's give them a running start.

The Outward Facing Classroom using Augmented Reality

For anyone that was following the Teachmeet Aberdeen on Wednesday 11th May (#tmabdn), here is my presentation on using Augmented Reality app Junaio to share children's work.

The Outward Facing Classroom using Augmented Reality on Prezi

My main points were:

• There is a wide network of people including other pupils, teachers and family taking an interest in children's learning and progress. We are no longer confined to displaying children's achievements in a closed classroom or school foyer.
• Educators have embraced the internet to motivate and reward children whilst teaching them about audiences. Take @deputymitchell's blogging work and it's affect on his pupils.
• Mobile technology is growing and becoming much more accessible to pupils and parents. Inclusion issues will soon become comparable to that of internet access.
• Augmented reality overlays digital 'magic' onto real life via cameras.
• This kind of magic has already been used by 2simple's 2animate programme. See youtube video.
• Using Junaio app, we can attach children's work to clear images. This allows children's work to be attached to their own images, work sent home, images at visits and attractions without leaving a physical mark which, in some circumstances (National Trust Properties?) would be undesirable.
• Use GPS to represent these locations on a live map.
• Collaboration is essential. I would like to set up a Glow group to work towards a Junaio channel to showcase children's work in the borough. 
• At present, a friendly user interface allows creation of Junaio Glue channels, attaching video and 3D models. (I'll upload a 'how to' video shortly)
• Much much more is possible and in collaboration with other primary and secondary school teachers we can create a template to get children's work out to a new, wider, tech-aware audience.
• Remember, to borrow a quote from elsewhere, "Email is that thing your Dad uses." We need to move with technology to excite and keep up with our pupils.

Feel free to post your comments and thoughts to this blog. Thanks.

Aberdeen Teachmeet 2011

This evening I attended the second ever, my first Teachmeet Aberdeen. Hosted by the University of Aberdeen and organised by Ian Simpson (@familysimpson) this was absolutely invaluable as a form of accessible CPD and sorely under-attended in my opinion. I'm not going to give a breakdown of all the presentations I saw, I'll instead link to the livestream video.

In summary, I learned:

• About iPad apps as maths resources for secondary (and primary) schools including a random question generator Mathsboard and maths app Times Warp. Also web resources Manga High and games design with Kodu. Thanks to Martin Coutts from Meldrum Academy
  
• About Wordle and it's many uses around the classroom. Thanks to Kirsty Marsland
  
• Stuart Brown's fantastic collection of ICT resources, pitfall lessons, mobile learning and the benefits of letting Philosoraptor set questions for pupil essays!
  
• The concept of a Genius Bar as a short, sharp, focused CPD provision. Having been bereft of a Mac for almost a year, I was intrigued to learn about the Apple Genius Bars in stores. Sounds like a definite model for education. Thanks to Ian Simpson of Inverurie Academy.
  
• An introduction to the use of Avatars for both pupils and teachers in schools. I've experienced Voki
  before and found it a wonderful resource for helping children to think about how they represent themselves online. Thanks to Jim McCracken.
• Ian Simpson presented another presentation introducing great ways to utilise iPod handheld tech in schools. Very useful looking apps like Comictwist, Sonic Pics and others as part of the Aberdeenshire iPod Development Group.
  
• And fantastic impromptu presentations by Darren Gibb, Westhill Academy on his use of Glow, Helen Bradley on Purple Mash and The Daily What and a virtual presentation from Colin Graham on Algebra in Primary Schools.

In all, a fairly mind blowing and very positive experience in a really relaxed and comfortable environment. I particularly like the enthusiasm of all participants and the fact that people felt comfortable enough to present on the spur of the moment. Obviously the whole experience was very inspiring. I would urge anyone with an interest in ICT and teaching to attend a Teachmeet. I certainly gained some good ideas and some good contacts.

If you are interested in my presentation on the outward facing classroom and the use of augmented reality, I will post the prezi on here within the next day or so.