Specific aspects of primary ICT to showcase my skills
1. ESAFETY: I have read the contents of the ICT Pledge and handed in a signed copy to the course leader, Alan Cross, on 4 September 2012. I have also attached a copy below.
2. AUDIT: I completed the ICT audit below and rated myself B/C where B=I am competent and confident and C=I have an adequate level of competence but wish to strengthen my skills. The key areas where I have to improve are in relation to developing lesson plans, classroom management of ICT, monitoring children's use of ICT and awareness of legislation relating to pupils' access to information.
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3. WEBSITE CREATION: I created this site on 9 September 2012 after comparing moonfruit.com and blogspot.co.uk with weebly.com. I created accounts on moonfruit and weebly and explored both sites. Although I had heard from fellow students that they preferred the moonfruit site, I actually found that the weebly site was more user friendly and allowed me more opportunity to create a simple and user friendly identity for my site. I think that where the content is the primary objective that a consistent layout with easy navigatition is key. Although I have had responsibility for the content of both the web and intranet sites in my previous career, this is the first website I have created and I was impressed at how easy it is to build a website, the choice of layouts available and especially that is it possible to create and publish a site for FREE!
4. BLACKBOARD: I set up the blackboard application on my iphone in week 1 and have found it a useful tool to check when I am at university.
5. WIKI: I joined the "McrPrimaryPGCEEnglish" Wiki on 5 September and uploaded a children's book review on 'Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson' and have enjoyed reading other suggestions.
https://mcrprimarypgceenglish.wikispaces.com The search function is particularly useful and can be used to search by part of the book title or author name. |
6. TWITTER: I joined Twitter on 11 September and have started to follow some educational tweets. Speaking to teachers it sounds a great way to get some new and creative ideas, for example it is where I first read about BlogDipping.
7. BLOGGING: I chose this option from the 'pick n mix 1' list on 18 September. Please click on Blogging for further information.
8. MIND MAPPING: I chose this option from the 'pick n mix 1' list on 18 September. I have used mind mapping in my previous career, for example when planning the Capital markets survey I used mind mapping to highlight the activities I had to consider for the launch. I have always done mind mapping on paper but downloaded the Freemind software and have experimented with this. I can see how in school that mind mapping could be a good way to help children in brainstorming ideas in a visual way and this was mentioned in the SEN lecture as being a useful tool for children with special educational needs.
On my Pathways Placement, I observed the Year 5 children mind-mapping on ipads using 'my popplet'. A popplet is a big pinboard that you can put popples onto.
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9. HEALTH & SAFETY: I completed the Health & Safety Online Course on 21 September and passed with 100%.
10. FLOOR ROBOTS: We discussed the use of floor robots in the Maths lesson on 25 September as part of the lecture on shapes and we were given the opportunity to try out the Bee-Bot. In my group we used it on a mini beasts mat and picked cards to find where we wanted the Bee-Bot to move to. I found it easy to use once you remember to clear it each time. We also played with the Bee-Bot ipad application on our first Humantities session on 28 September and I could see how children would enjoy completing the different levels and competing with each other. I have also downloaded the Bee-Bot application to my iphone and can see how it uses memory and logic thinking to progress. Speaking to KS1 children in school, they prefer using the ipad version.
11. INTERNET SAFETY: I read through the information on 'Internet Safety for Teachers', watched the video with Sid and completed the link to say I found the information very useful. I also attended a cyber-bullying presentation on GPP given by 'Gripping Yarns Theatre' , an association of storytellers working in schools, and discussed children's internet safety during PHSE. |
12. SCHOOL REWARD SYSTEMS
DOJO: I watched the video of Mr Lane explaining this web-based tool for classroom management and thought that children might like this as it is not dissimilar to the Moshi Monsters craze that is currently popular with children. I think that there is potential in this system but it would require buy in across the school and a consistent approach. Tallying rewards and allocating them to children via a smartphone or PC would mean they were not forgotten about and the children would be very interested to see who had the most at the end of the week/term. It is a more sophisticated form of the Merit system which I think does motivate children to work hard and behave well, but rather than a sticker or name on the board, this is done online and can show patterns and trends. It is these patterns that I find particularly appealing and the ability to award for consistent behaviour in a particular area or identify any inconsistencies or unexpected results |
VIVO: This was the reward system used in the secondary school which I visited for my KS3 experience. The web site states that "Vivo is proven to improve student engagement, raise attendance, improve grades and help achieve school values". The maths teacher explained that vivos could be exchanged for retail or phone vouchers, however while I was in the classroom it became apparent that few children regularly checked their account and had little idea how many vivos they had received. This made me realise the importance of a visible system to motivate children to achieve goals and where chidren are rewarded in front of their peers. |
13. WHITEBOARDS: For further information please click on Whiteboards.
14. CLASS VOTING SYSTEMS: In our Science lesson on 11 October, we were given the opportunity to experiment with a voting system used in schools called Activote. It was something I had not seen or heard of in schools but I thought would be very useful to quickly gain a whole class opinion on something rather than the "raise your hand if you think x" approach and therefore would avoid children copying their friends. In addition the children would be eager to set up the voting systems themselves; therefore using imagination and considering possible scenarios as they completed the question and possible answers. |
15. ESPRESSO: The lesson on Espresso on 22 October gave us a thorough look into the leading digital curriculum service in the UK, which offers a suite of high quality, video rich broadband teaching resources and student activities for primary teachers. I was interested in the fact that research shows teachers find what they are looking for much quicker using Expresso than an internet search engine.
16. SERIF DRAW: This is the program that the children used to create their designs for their DT project and to create their Christmas cards.
The children experimented with shapes and tools and this was inclusive for all abilities and the children enjoyed helping each other and 'carouselling' to see each others' work. |
17. VOICE RECORDERS:
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I made use of these on GPP during literacy for the SEN children as they had difficulty writing down their ideas quickly. They would use the postcard voice recorder to record the sentence they wanted to write and then play it back so they could concentrate on writing it down. Or they would record a sentence that had been shared in group discussion. I think it was a very useful and practical support for the SEN children.
I have also seen the Easy Speak Microphone where you can record voices, sounds or music on the move, so children can be the roving reporter or singing star without being attached to a PC. |
18. RM MATHS: RM Maths is an integrated learning resource that is used throughout the school. For further information click on RM Maths.
MATHLETICS: I observed this program being used at my Pathways school for homework. The children, and especially the boys, were motivated to do their homework online and to have their results compared across the yeargroup.
20. LEARNING WITH GAMES: I think that games can be a great motivator for children. On my KS3 visit, I observed an IT lesson where the class had completed a data collection form and then used the information to create a superhero using the website marvel.com. The children all had very individual ideas about the powers that their superheroes would possess and how they would appear and were all motivated and ‘on task’ throughout the lesson. I have also looked at Zondle, where you can create and play games to suit learning needs, and I think as long as the balance is achieved, that there is nothing wrong with being ‘entertained’ while learning as “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing" (Dale Carnegie).
21. AUDIO RECORDING: As part of my Literacy Pathway and exploring early reading, I have been considering the use of pictures in text. In this short clip, I recorded a 4 year-old reading a book and telling the story through the pictures.
In the Morning I think that using the pictures to encourage the imagination is vital for early readers to instill a love of books and to take pleasure from them even before they can read the words. |
22. RANDOM NAME GENERATOR: A great alternative to the lolly pop sticks and children enjoy the suspense of who is going to be picked. Obviously it can be slightly engineered!
23. NEWSROUND: At my Pathways school, the children watched Newsround after morning break and they enjoyed hearing about interesting real-life events and this often provoked much debate. I would like to do this with my class. |
24. YOUTUBE: I also think that Youtube can be an unvaluable tool in teaching; whether it is acting as the hook for a new topic, or demonstrating a different viewpoint, or simply making the children think. Obviously the only caveat is to make sure the teacher is fully aware of the content before showing it to a class!
25. DIGITAL LITERACY: I enjoyed the English lecture where we discussed visual/digital literacy and in particular using voki to create and send messages to your class from different fictional characters. I think that this would help to establish a real purpose and audience for writing and capture the imagination of the children.