TA Training

This video addresses TAS (Teaching assistants) and their experience of ICT. 'The Mouse doesn't bite is a very appropriate title for this film and represents the feeling among many TAS I meet.


In the 2007 NFER survey of Teachers ICT engagement and ICT skills, we read the following:

About two thirds of teachers felt that they have the skills and support to enable
them to use the technology that is available:

So, that means there is one third, who do not feel they have the skills to use the technology that is available. Yet the report has not considered the role or needs of teaching assistants. Many of these people are excellent teachers, in all but name and can assist teachers in working with groups of children through the medium of technology, though because of a lack of skills, technophobia or at worst lack of access their input will be through the means of paper based activities.

What a shame and what a missed opportunity when there are so many easy to use tools available for both IWB and computer based learning. For example: Education City, Clicker 5 , Maths Packs , 2 Simple Software ( and the list goes on)

There is also the support that TAs can provide in terms of easing the administrative burden of admin tasks, remember those 21 tasks that were set out in the National Agreement in 2003, with the view to easing the pressures on teachers, these should be designated to someone other than the teacher, clearly some of these tasks will be taken on by a bursar or office staff, though those in the list below could be carried out by a TA with a good level of ICT competence and skill.

Extract from the list of 21 Tasks, further details from Teachernet here

• Typing or making word-processed versions of manuscript material and producing revisions of such versions.
  
  
• Word-processing, copying and distributing bulk communications, including standard letters, to parents and pupils.


• Producing class lists on the basis of information provided by teachers (teachers may need to be involved in allocating pupils to particular classes).


• Preparing, setting up and taking down classroom displays (teachers will still make decisions about what material should be displayed in their classrooms).


• Ordering, setting up and maintaining ICT equipment and software.

And

Within the video above, we see some of the above but alongside this the TA also:

• Using relevant software to support a child with special needs
• Training other TAs to create banners for display
• Researching websites for teachers and TAs to use in their lesson
• Using the IWB to teach

In Redbridge we are looking to design a long course for TAs, and I think the last four bulleted items seem to me to be the most exciting areas to focus on.

As ever I'd be grateful for any thoughts, criticism or feedback in general.

Democratising Knowledge

I was really excited by our Subject Leaders event last week. These are always energising and exciting times, not just for me but also for all those who take the time out to turn up. The day was the usual mix of hands-on with new software, news, advice and web links, but today we added an unconference element. This meant that anybody could stand up and share what had been going on at their school, with or without Powerpoint.

For me this was one of those wow/hair back of the neck moments. It was one of those times when you just step back and get excited by what is happening in some of our schools. It also proves to me that democracy of knowledge is worthwhile and that when we share our ICT knowledge in this way we do not reflect Huxley's typewriter apes in our blogs and thoughts, as Andrew Keen would have us believe. There are still those who say to me, 'so you're the expert'. No I have knowledge and skills, and expertise, I am not the expert. If ICT was guided and inspired and directed just by me, then what a narrow vision we as a borough, and I as a consultant would have.

Below is a selection of some of the things that were shared. Maybe next meeting we should turn the event into an evening with food and drink, a la TeachMeet @ BETT.

Dancing Lego Robots @ South Park Primary :




Thanks to Hermina De Wet


Proper Podcasting- the work of the Redbridge Podcasting Network and the impact of Podcasting @ Redbridge Primary



Thanks to Rob Spriddle @ Redbridge Primary

Anca Pauwells @ Highlands Primary , who showed us how to embed ICT into school, simply by having an appointed ICT advocate in each year group,and thus the applications and innovations are spread far quicker than the lone coordinator/expert. It seems when and if OFSTED comment negatively about ICT in a school, they are more likely to use the comment bank statement,

'use ICT to support teaching and learning in other subjects'

They are doing this in Highlands, without the need to shout about it, what's more through the advocates system many more of the staff are on board.


Thank you Anca

Sue Bell from Churchfields Infants talked to us about the Talk Time photo albums. It was thrilling to hear how these had been used with less able children to promote speaking and listening. A simple tool with a powerful outcome.



Thank you Sue

Lucy at Manford showed us how her school had been using blogs to showcase the schools activity week and visit to Glasbury Outdoor Education Centre centre.





Click here to see the blogs

A further tool for sharing and collaborating is of course GOOGLE docs- and here I have taken my inspiration from Tom Barrett and the wonderful joint presentation on SMART BOARD tips and the more recent GOOGLE Earth presentation. I created a sharing presentation and invited everyone present to create a slide to reflect what is going on at their school. It was very exciting for Nicholas and I to see this slide show update throughout the day and though the finished product is a bit rough around the edges, it does show what can be done.




Here's hoping that next time the finished collaboration is even sharper!! and that I can build on Tom's work with schools in Redbridge that I work in. I am also using a Google Spreadsheet to collect information on dates and preferences for a Video conferenicng project, it is proving a far more versatile data collection tool than survey monkey or a member of my admin team and a phone.

What does good look like?

I am piecing together some thoughts for a presentation on 'What makes a good ICT lesson'. I have a number of good sources to draw on for this, these are listed below. However I am trying to avoid listening to or reread with a highlighter before I throw my own brainstorm down as a blog post. I want to draw on my own teaching experience first before I consult the experts.

My thoughts- very much a work in progress- please comment and critique

Planning
Good ICT lessons need a good plan - we spent hours agonising over a Numeracy or Literacy plan, but it can be the case that we rely on an aged paragraph from a scheme of work from QCA or the ICT Coordinator as a source for the content of our lesson. I am not suggesting that we spendthe same agonising time on a plan for ICT as we would for the core subjects- a good plan does not make a good lesson, and furthermore I can remember feeling so exhausted with planning that I was zapped of the energy to actually deliver what I needed to teach! What I am suggesting is that we consider 'what the class/group needs now'. It would be ludicrous to use a 3 year old medium term plan to teach Fractions to a Maths set in Year 5, It would need a lesson that was relevant to the current group of children and where they are at!

Questioning
Closed questioning can help children to recall important facts such as data analysis procedures, Logo commands and keyboard shortcuts, but if all the questioning is closed or is just between the pupils and teacher then children will be deprived of a rich learning environment that is produced through opportunities for talk and good questioning. Open questions will challenge pupils to think about what they are doing and why.They can be made to critically evaluate their work, in order to review whether it is fit for the audience. can The same characteristics of a good lesson that we attribute to a Maths lesson or English lesson should be applied to an ICT lesson

Equality in access
Surely not all children need to be using the same program- for some children it will be too difficult to 'type up their poem' key stroke by key stroke, whereas if they are using Clicker 4 or 5, then they can build up their composition word by word, they can also be aided by picture cues too!


Reflection
This is the one thing that sticks in my mind from my four years at teaching training college. It was drummed into use to reflect at the end of each lesson. Thinking how else we could have taught a lesson, should then inform the direction of the next lesson in the block, rather than just repeating the next lesson as it is written in the scheme of work.

High Expectations

In my work I come across a range of attitudes and approaches to ICT , though most are positive, there are those who place limits on children and it saddens me to hear comments such as :

'They can't do that they are only four '

The work in Northampton and their EYFS ICT strategy, along with that carried out in Homerton and Gamesly, proves that with support and exposure to ICT applications children can far exceede our limited expectations, not to mention what many of children do at home with their consoles, computers and household technology. This should not just relate to early years either, a recent OFSTED publication emphasised an area for development nationally as extending more able at Key Stage 2.


Asessment
Not a a tick sheet of skills that is slavishly completed, but a knowledge of where the children are in their ICT capability, leading to differentiated work that stretches and supports. Assessment for learning often stays at the door of the ICT suite.

Enjoyment
If at the end of the lesson, I am having to peel the children off their seats, or you can feel a certain buzz in the room, then you know you've cracked it!

Innovation
Linked to enjoyment really, in that the same old thing can become boring for both teacher and pupil.

Relevance -
Why are we creating a database to find out who has brown eyes? Why make text a different font? The more realistic a context the better...

Progress
To use adviser speak- do all learners make progress within the lesson?...
Others

Links- I am still exploring
Terry Friedman and Russell Ingelby give a presentation @ BETT 2007
BECTA and NAACE position paper from 2001

And a brilliant book which I read last year

'Go on bore Them' by Terry Friedman

Foundation Stage / NQT Course

Links
Flickr- a good source of images

LGFL Content

• LGFL Content-

(note these will work in a London school but will not work @ home unless you log in)

• iboard- Excellent drag and drop activities ideal for Foundation and Key Stage 1. These activities cover aspects of the Foundation Stage Curriculum, along with Literacy,Numeracy, Science and some foundations subjects for Years 1 and 2. visit : iboard.lgfl.org.uk

• Virtual Experiemnts- each area of QCA Science is covered here with a virtual representation of an experiment, coupled with data charts to interpret and objects to be dragged into the correct place.There are packages for Year 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6 Visit ve34.lgfl.org.uk for year 3 and 4, ve12.lgfl.org.uk for year 1 and 2 and ve56.lgfl.org.uk for years 5 and 6.

• Talking Stories- as mentioned these animated stories and non fiction text are a good means of showcasing multi-modal texts, what's more these texts come in a variety of community languages. Visit Visit www.stories3.lgfl.net ,stories2.lgfl.org.uk or stories.lgf.org.uk

Podcasting
Links and Resources

• A vast range of sound clips can be downloaded from the LGFL Audio Network visit: http://audio.lgfl.org.uk
  

• Podium has an informative website- including training videos and easier definitions of what exactly is Podacsting and how to use it

• Audacity can be downloaded from here

• A redbridge network of primary schools, that are creating and innovating with podcasts are recording their progress on a blog - click here

The LGFL have also put together a new mini-site of their own called Podcast-Central. This does not support Podium, but does give helpful advice on how to create video and audio podcasts. visit Podcast Central here

ESAFETY - Dongle the Rabbit

Youtube Clips shown

Subject Leaders Blog

I have now migrated most of the content from the old Digital Brain website to a new blog. The intention is that this will be easier to maintain and more members of the Redbridge Primary ICT Community will contribute.

Check it out @

http://redbridgeictsubjectleaders.blogspot.com/

ictopus

It's here and I think it is pronounced ict o pus not ICT Octopuss as I have gone round saying for the last 5 weeks. I am very excited about thsi publication as it is simple, readable and above all very useful. Ictopus is made up of members of MAPE, a well established voluntary group of advisory types who seem to have a lot of very creative, but achievable ideas for and projects about ICT across the primary curriculum.

By subscribing to Ictopus, you will receive the weekly newsletter, which is actually intended to be printed off and displayed, not just linked to or blogged about. The magazine editor and website supremo, Heather Govier explains:

As you may have gathered, ictopus is aiming particularly at the more hesitant teachers who have not yet fully embraced the potential of ICT in their teaching and may still need a little hand holding. That is why SGP (Sharing Good Practice) is a printable pdf rather than something more whizzy. I am hoping it will get printed off and put on staffroom coffee tables. We do hope to include some stuff for the leading edge too in due course but we feel that they already have lots of alternative resources -such as your blog;-) so they are not our priority.

At a time when many of us are blogging ourselves silly and desperate to discover the new online tool that will 'work' in the classroom, it is great that this resource is out there for those who still feel daunted by ICT!! ( and there are many)

Not only do you receive the weekly Good Practice magazine, you also get mailed Direct2u lessons, which is a resurrection of the old ICT across the primary curriculum lessons that many of us used to receive from BECTA. These come as complete ICT across the curriculum lessons for the primary age range, these are both accessible and contain relevant web links.

Slight confession here, I have already started printing these off and now store them in a folder, complete with an Octopuss on the spine

Loving this

If you haven't been there for a while take a look at Simon's blog. I am constantly impressed with what he is doing with ICT over there. There are blogs by children and great use of 2Create a story, Beebot dances and more.

Keep on blogging Simon- it truly is inspirational

Yesterday I taught

How nice to be back in the classroom or rather the computer room and to be actually teaching 32 eager children.

I was lucky enough to be in with two Y2 classed in a local Infant school and we were creating and amending pictures in Colour Magic, using Van Gogh as a stimulus (see below) This is surely the best part of the job!!

The John Davitt Day

Thank you to John for agreeing to do this interview, and thanks to Nic form Nightingale who use the Ibook to video the whole thing.

(note be patient with this clip- i had difficulty uploading the compressed version)

So what can we take from our Literacy and ICT day??

Well I am going to paste the notes that John made and add my own- this may or may not make sense to you- but I hope that together with Rebecca and Helen we will have a Literacy and ICT mini site quite soon.

Visual plenary

John passed on the idea of taking shots of our compositions ( objects, art works even pieces of writing ) and these were then slotted into Microsoft Photos Story- a free download - music and voice could then be added quickly before viewing and reflecting.

ICT as scaffolding tool

In the new framework ICT is a tool for the teacher, allowing him/her to stimulate thinking/discussing and ultimately writing but also as a tool to help scaffold writing. This point was made first by Rebecca but illustrated by John when he said :

I don't know what I think until I write it - the computer can work as a tool or a medium for that writing.

12 strands

Though the two big strands for Literacy and ICT are 9 and 12- there is no doubt that ICT can be used throughout the whole framework- though ultimately we can not do it all through ICT - the pencil is still very much with us - and the framework calls for other skills two ( vital ones at that ) such as group discussion and drama

 

Word recognition word structure and spelling

We spent some time looking at Word root, software that was developed by John that highlights the parts of words e.g. anticlockwise (anti- against the direction of the clock)

We layed out a selection of paper words on the floor and were asked to domino or walk from one word to another by looking for sword parts that were the same. I stepped from  automobile to autocrat and over onto automatic . This was a good way of demonstrating by kinesthetic means) the links between word and offered a good tool for helping children to decode by recognizing common parts-@ I know what auto means so what might an autocrat be...hmm

Getting the screen to team ratio right.

What we did in the above exercise- journeying about the room, mapping , lining or whatever you want to call it! Is an excellent means of setting out ideas. Children could for example place picture onto the floor and step from one to another and describe each one, as a mean of planning out a story. This would be the team aspect- they could then return to their PCs and plan out their stories- this is the screen part-

The screen to team ratio remind us that children should not be sat at their seats like a 50s typing pool- they like us need break out space. It remind me of the ICT suite I saw last week with the huge bold Comic sans sign, proclaiming:

STAY IN YOUR SEATS-----WHY?

Year 5 film narrative unit…..

Online contact with author

Collab produced help files

Sharing the recipe

PhotoStory

Presentation

Brings movement to images

Easy to sequence add sound and music

The we looked at delicious

Delicious is a way of sharing bookmarks and could be described as a sort of online favorites store. it become truly powerful when people start to share their tags and bookmarks

John asked:

Why not a redbridge literacy delicious site that others could become fans of

To visit delicious go to (do be careful!! use the link below- do not just Google delicious )

http://del.icio.us/

Visit my bookmarks by following the link at the top of the page.

 

For multilayered texts

Add annotation

Strikethrough

Hyperlinks

Add wave file in insert object

Ad a music file from iTunes

Hyperlink to any type of file

In strand 9 - there is mention of creating multi-layered texts- this can initially look quite daunting but John showed us this can simply be a word file containing hyperlinks or sound objects- Dead easy to create and to share for peer evaluation

However my mind loves 2create as a tool for creating multilayered texts

The voice project

Helen ( she and Rebecca are the Literacy consultants, don't you know!) talked to us about the Voice project, which was developed in the borough over the last few years.  

It's aim were to provide children with a voice to write through a range of stimuli, this could be film, image or art work. The work that came out of this was fantastic and showed how using such stimuli could spark the imagination in young minds. We saw some work from Churchfields, where the teacher had showed a BFI animation, the children had then created their own short films using digi blue and then finally put pen to paper. It was hard to believe we were seeing work from an Infant school.

What else?

Well I didn't even talk about the afternoon where we made Flash animations and E-books or Podcasting with audacity.

What now?

The role of the leading teachers is surely to now translate and to some degree dilute the content of the day for the Mrs Jones in Y5, the teachers who will be turned off by the inclusion of ICT in literacy. The skilled ICT coordinator will not hog resources or skills but will gently coach and lead others into effective use of ICT as a tool for writing and the teaching of writing. Notice I said effective use, by that I mean appropriate use and not overuse