Naace Impact Award Nomination

I was absolutely thrilled and honoured to hear that I have been shortlisted for a Naace Impact Award in the category for Supporting Inclusion in any phase.

How YOU can help…..

If you could please leave a quick comment about how this blog has had an impact on you; how it may have given you ideas of apps to use, ideas to try in your classroom…or anything else you may think of  I would really appreciate it!

This is because….As part of the final judging process
“all shortlisted nominees are being invited to submit a short edited video (of no more than 3 minutes) – perhaps working with their pupils or colleagues – which demonstrates the impact of the work that you’ve done.  Please note that entries will be judged on the basis of impact rather than video quality.“

My PLN has been incredibly helpful and supportive to me and I would really like to include in the video that I make any impact my blog or tweets may have had on others.

I know that many people have said how they have tried some of the ideas from this blog and tweet and found them useful.

If you prefer you could even send an audio or video clip to mary3things@gmail.com  or else just tweet me. I am @ebd35 on Twitter

Thank you very much to everyone who has taken the time to read this!

Mary aka @ebd35

Science with the WOW Factor!

As a school we have begun to use a creative curriculum to teach a topic based curriculum rather than teaching discrete subjects. We are using the Hamilton Trust as a starting point for our planning. My topic for this first term has been Cool Stuff and in addition to teaching specific skills and concepts I have also tried to find some COOL SCIENCE activities to create the WOW factor.

The first of these lessons was Making Gloop which you can read about on our class blog. We had been looking at Materials and their Properties and had been examining the properties of solids, liquids and gases. Gloop (also known as oobleck) is a bit more difficult to classify. In fact if Sir Isaac Newton, the British scientist who gave us the theory of gravity, were alive today, he might be confused by gloop. Back in the 1700s, Sir Isaac Newton identified the properties of an ideal liquid. Water and other liquids that have the properties that Newton identifies are call Newtonian fluids. Gloop doesn’t act like Newton’s ideal fluid. It’s a non-Newtonian fluid. Gloop is a solution that behaves a little like a solid and a little like a liquid and seems to defy the laws of gravity.

When gloop is molded into a ball, it stays that way for a short time, but then gravity pulls it down — and it becomes a liquid. As you can hear one of the children saying in the video…..”It’s Amazing!” (click on the photo to go to the blog post).

Is it a liquid or a solid?

Our second WOW lesson Diet Coke and Mentos looked at what happens when you put a solid (Mentos) into a carbonated liquid (Diet Coke).

To say that there were explosive results would be an understatement. You can read how some of the class described this WOW activity here. Here is the video we added to the class blog.

Not only was it pretty exciting to do, the boys also really loved watching the film of what they did; they particularly enjoyed the rewind effect I managed to create using iMovie!

The science that they learnt was that the surface of the Mentos is covered with many small holes and that this increases the surface area available for reaction thereby allowing the CO₂  bubbles from the Diet Coke to form rapidly.  When the mints come into contact with the liquid, a reaction causes the formation of foam at a rapid rate.

Our third Cool Science experiment was to investigate if ALL liquids mix together. We looked at mixing squash and water, which of course they then needed to drink and tested whether various other liquids would mix together. We decided to investigate if oil and water would mix but rather than just mixing it together we decided to make a ‘Lava Lamp’.

In the morning we looked at pictures of lava lamps online and the children sketched pictures of them and in the afternoon we used vegetable oil, water and food colouring to make our own lava lamps. We think they looked pretty 1960ish cool ;o)

The Science behind why the Oil and Water won’t mix.

Oil and Water are made of different types of molecules that are far too small to be seen. When you poured the molecules of water into the bottle, they settled to the bottom as a liquid. The molecules didn’t fly apart and fill the entire bottle because water molecules stick together. Likewise, the oil molecules also stick together. Different molecules have different tendencies to stick together. The oil and water did not mix. This shows that oil molecules do not like to stick to water molecules.  When two liquids do not mix they are considered immiscible.

It has been great fun planning these lessons and even greater seeing the children’s faces as we did each of these activities!

What is YOUR most WOW science lesson?

Can’t Hold Them Back!

As my Deputyhead said, she wished everyone could have seen the excitement on the faces of my two guest bloggers, Lee and Freddie, as they watched their Werewolf Story on the big screen (well…on the Interactive Whiteboard) for the first time!

They kept looking at each other with the biggest grins; it was truly one of ‘THOSE‘ teaching moments. And when I read them the comments that were left for them, they gave up trying to sit in their seats and jumped up and down!

A HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to everyone who took the time to comment.

For both of these boys to have told their Werewolf story through traditional ways might have been a bit like this for them: 

but instead by using a little technology it was a bit more like this:

Today Freddie and Lee ‘wrote’ their second story. For this story the boys drew the pictures first and added the narration afterwards. Freddie is telling the story and if you listen closely you can might hear some of the sound effects Lee is creating.

We hope you like it as much as the first one.

A Werewolf Story by Lee and Freddie

I would like to share a story created and narrated by Lee during morning play on Friday. I used my iPhone to record the story as he told it. In the background you can hear other children playing.

During lunch play Lee and his friend Freddie stayed inside and as they listened to the recording they discussed what they should draw. It was fabulously to sit back and watch two children who often find the writing process difficult work together to plan how they would present Lee’s story.

They were hugely excited when I told them I would turn the work they did into a movie. Later in the afternoon we again used my iPhone to take photos of their pictures and import them into iMovie.

I imagine they will be very pleased with the end result.

Working with these two boys made me think that next term I may introduce a Story Creating club to run during our Friday afternoon Clubs.

Remembrance Day 2011

This past week we have been learning about Remembrance Day in Britain and why the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is so important.

The children found out why we wear a red poppy and when the first two minute silence happened in London? The First Two Minute Silence in London (11th November 1919)

We used the Woodlands Junior School site to find much of the information.

We talked about the feelings that someone going to war might have and wrote emotion colour poems.

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We also read the poem In Flanders Field by John McCrae and thought about the meaning behind the words he wrote. We made a short movie for the school to use during our Remembrance Assembly on Friday and used this poem to start the assembly off. Many thanks to Simon Widdowson from Porchester Junior School (@xannov on Twitter) for sharing the Animoto video his school made last year. It really inspired my boys!

My Class Are Blogging!

The new academic year has got off to a great start! though if you have ever worked with EBD children you know you should NEVER, EVER say things are going good as this guarantees things to change quickly…so sssshhhhhhh don’t tell anyone I’ve said this!

Last year I watched on Twitter how the hashtag #100WC kept popping up. What it refers to is the brilliant 100 Word Challenge which is a weekly writing prompt supplied by Julia Skinner (an ex headteacher) who is a great advocate of blogging and, even more importantly, of comments left on blogs.

Every week a few words or maybe even a picture (like it is this week) is posted on her blog and children, 16years and under are invited to write 100 more words on their school blog based on this prompt and it is then linked back to The Head’s Office. This way children’s writing is shared with even more people. The one strict rule is that you must visit other entries and leave comments to help other children improve their writing.

After watching from afar I decided to jump in and have my class start a blog and become contributors to the 100 Word Challenge.

 We have called our blog Adventures in Oak Class and are using it and the new #100WC11 every week in class as an opportunity for writing and it is truly writing for a REAL purpose and a REAL audience. The boys are already showing greater confidence in their writing and this is after only two weeks!!

What is really awesome is that every week Julia Skinner chooses three posts to showcase as examples of writing and….WOO!HOO! one of my boys has had his post highlighted! They will all be so pleased.

I really encourage people to visit the 100 Word Challenge and to leave comments for all these fabulous young authors from around the country.

Have you left a comment yet? 100 Word Challenge

Pivot Stick Men

If you haven’t seen Pivot, a Stickfigure Animator, I highly recommend that you take a look at it. 

Pivot is a FREE piece of software (ad supported) which makes it easy to create stick-fiqure animations and add your own backgrounds. The animations can then be saved as animated gifs and added to your school’s MLE.

As it says on the Pivot website “Pivot Stickfigure Animator is a unique software, that allows you to create stick figure animations easily and without any artistic skills. You can move the sections of the sick figure and easily create a chain of animation frames that can be previewed as you go.”

It is a very popular piece of software with the children at my school.

Here are two examples made by two 9 year old boys from my school. The project took about 4-5 weeks to complete during their weekly ICT lessons.

I hope you enjoy the work created by Kei and Ben (and brilliantly taught by Bern!)

Here’s a video of Kei’s work

and the video of Ben’s work

Please leave a comment for Ben and Kei if you have a minute as I’m trying to get other children in the school see the power of blogging!
Thanks in advance

*the latest version of Pivot installs the Bing toolbar unless you choose opt-out

THANK YOU!!!!

A very quick post to say a HUGE thank you to those who voted for my blog to be nominated in the 2011 Education Blog Awards…. WOO HOO…it has made it to the shortlist!!

I started this blog in December 2009 after being encouraged by a number of fabulous people from Twitter and PTRC and I am incredibly pleased that people are interested and take the time to read about some of the learning adventures my class and I go on.

I have learned so much by writing  it and am so happy to have met both virtually and in real life such wonderful people.

To be nominated with such a group of fabulous professionals is truly an honour! Thank you!!! and good luck to everyone on the list.

More than Myst!

Thinking of Tim Rylands as ‘just the Myst Man’ is a bit like thinking of Heinz as just ketchup!

For those who don’t know him, Tim Rylands has been described as “an extremely gifted and inspirational teacher, with a love of the creative potential of technology and an excellent rapport with his pupils”.  Tim has received a vast amount of press coverage around the world for his innovative use of ICT. Observers have commented on his imaginative and encouraging style of teaching, which allows children to express their creativity and make significant gains in attainment.

He is now much in demand for seminars and conferences around the country, and world!!!! presenting the results of his work in an inspiring, practical and often humorous way.

For a number of years I have watched clips of Tim’s presentations online and followed his blog and early last month I was finally lucky enough to have a chance to see Tim doing his thing live! and it lived up to my expectations!

Tim and Sarah came to my school early on a Tuesday morning last month and by the time they left they had done two brilliant workshops with the children, another workshop in the afternoon to a small group of teachers and a wondrous INSET at the end of the day for all the staff!
You can read his blog post about it here and take a look at the smiles on everyone’s faces!

It was great watching the 1st group asking fabulous questions and  becoming totally immersed in the role play…not something that they are always comfortable doing but Tim was able to guide them at the beginning and they then shone.

The second group were Tim’s from the word go! They are still talking about his famous walking stick and coming up with ideas! The work this group produced was awesome!

At the end of the school day it was the adults turn and it was great watching ALL the adults getting involved…Tim has a gift of not just being able to draw children into his fabulous world but adults as well.

He and Sarah left us all inspired and bursting full of great ideas.

Thank you both for a wonderful day!!

If you are not already following Tim’s blog I highly recommend doing do. I subscribe by email so that I don’t miss any!

An Amazing Start to the Year!

What a busy six weeks it has been since the beginning of 2011… and what an incredible number of learning adventures I have experienced!

SUNDAY 9th January
The Sunday Service @ Learning without Frontiers was the first amazing event I attended. It was part of the LWF festival and was free to attend. It was even better this year as many people brought their children with them and there was a real buzz in the air!

I started the day watching a presentation by Dr Jo Armitage, Adviser for E-Learning in Hounslow and Sarah Hoyle – Creative Director of Together We Create talking about the Hounslow ‘Hold on to Sports’ Wii project which my class took part in last year and are again this year.

I then had the pleasure to meet and listen to a real hero of mine in the world of iPods, Jenny Ashby @jjash from Victoria, Australia. If you’re interested in using iPod Touches and/or iPads in the classroom then I highly recommend you read her blog.

Next on my list of must sees was Tony Vincent, another guru in the world of iPods, leading There’s an App for That. Anybody can present their favorite App but they have just twenty slides displayed for 20 seconds each for a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. That’s the formula for Pecha Kucha! Fast and Furious app sharing! It was truly an amazing two and a half hours!

It was then time for TeachMeet LWF2011 where it was brilliant to listen to truly inspirational teachers such as @DeputyMitchell, @oliverquinlan, @grumbledook and @dawnhallybone (with a virtual presentation from @bevevans22) talking about what they are doing in their classrooms. I was lucky to be able to do a presentation about how we used iPod touches to write Lune poems. (see previous post).

The day (or night!) had not ended yet… it was now time for the Sunday Social and the opportunity to relax and enjoy the company of many of my Twitter buddies as well as wishing Graham Brown-Martin (founder of Learning Without Frontiers) a Happy Birthday! It was great having the chance to sit and chat and have conversations of more than 140 characters! One of the best chats I had was with fabulous Tim Rylands and Sarah Neild but more of that in another post!
Finally it was time for home, bed and a day at work!

MONDAY 10th January
Monday night brought another trip to London to attend The LWF Awards for Hero Innovators & Innovations for Learning. I was incredibly honoured (and shocked!!) to have been shortlisted in the Inclusion category. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who took the time to cast a vote for me! Here is the shortlist of finalists and the a list of the winners. Though I did not win on the night I agree 100% with @tonyparkin…’Getting shortlisted IS success – it’s like the Oscars!’

It really was like an Oscars ceremony… Maggie Phibin, of Tomorrow’s World fame, was the presenter for the evening and entertained us with questions and clips from the show. (How great if it could be brought back – repeats would be great!) One of my dearest friends-Valerie, my headteacher and Jo Armitage came to celebrate with me and made it an evening that I’ll always remember.

THURSDAY 13th January
Thursday night brought my first visit to BETT2011 to attend Collabor8 4Change the brainchild of Dave Smith and Terry Freedman. It was 20 minute table sessions which showed examples of how ICT is used to develop classroom practice. I was thrilled to be invited by @andreacarr1, head of Rising Stars, to talk about how I am using eBooks in my class and the positive impact they are having on the children’s attitude towards reading.

FRIDAY 14th January
Friday started with a BETTMeetBreakfast where a group of us met up for breakfast before heading back to Olympia for another full on day. If you’ve never been…BETT is HUGE and, at least for me, impossible to ever find where you want to be. After spending far too long looking for a seminar about using iPads to create ebooks and missing it ( I did manage to get to @DeputyMitchell seminar where he talked about how blogging transformed writing at his school. As brilliant as it was to hear him the best part for me was listening to the pupils talking about their experiences. Even more exciting and fascinating was watching one particular boy prior to speaking looking nervous and then confidently standing up in front of a crowed room of adults and in an extremely articulate manner explaining why all children should have the chance to blog. Seriously brilliant!

The rest of the day was spent having a good look round BETT and even more useful was catching up with and having great talks with people from Twitter and PTRC.

The evening ended with TMBETT2011 and a yummy dinner at Pizza Express. An incredible busy but fabulous day!

Sathurday 15th January
Back up to BETT again for a last look around and more people to catch up with and another Pizza Express visit for lunch.

The rest of January reverted back to normal….phew needed the rest )

February
@lismiss mentioned my name to Computers in Education Society of Ireland CESI and I was invited to Ireland to present at their Irish TeachMeet…what a great honour and experience. THANK YOU!!!!
On the 1st Friday in February I flew to Dublin to attend the CESI Meet 2011 in Portlaoise (the Irish version of TeachMeet) and to then go to the CESI conference on the Saturday where Tom Barrett @tombarrett made the opening keynote presentation – you can read about it here on his blog. What an unbelievable weekend!!

I talked about some of the ways my class have been using iPod Touches and what an incredible motivator they are and how they are impacting on the children’s learning.

What a brilliant opportunity to meet with Irish educators and share and exchange ideas. If you have a chance to attend this engaging conference I highly recommend it! I hope to blog about some of the ideas I heard about in the near future. (My Evernote notes from the weekend seem to have been deleted so I am searching to find the names and links I collected over the weekend)

and just to draw this most incredible time to a close I spent last Monday in Cardiff at the 1st ever BESD2BEST conference which brought together 7 EBD schools from Cardiff and South Wales. What a brilliant day!!! and how fabulous to spend time with other people working in similar settings as mine. I don’t get this opportunity very often.

The conference was the brain child of Peter Owen from The Court School and I was introduced to him by @karencymru. It was great having the chance to run a workshop and share some of the ways I have found iPod touches have impacted on my class’s engagement and outcomes particularly in Literacy. I look forward to returning for the 2012 event.

What a truly brilliant start to 2011!!!!