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Doodle Buddy Maths!

March 21, 2013, 4:30 pm
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From day one of using iPads in the class, Doodle Buddy has been one of my favourites, especially for children Key Stage 1.
The app is a free drawing tool, that allows you to use your fingers to draw with a brush, chalk, glitter and smudge tool. The app allows you to also stamp lots of lovely pictures which all have their own sounds which keeps younger children amused for hours! You can also add shapes and text. There are numerous backgrounds to choose from as well as adding your own pictures.

To begin with, I used it as a way for the children to get used to using the iPads getting used to using the touchscreen and also importing pictures that they had taken using the camera to make some funny and unusual self portraits - See lesson here.
Photo 11 09 2012 21 08 56 Some unique self portraits!

It was only after seeing how confident and competent the younger children were did I realise the potential to use this as an app in Numeracy. It started when I was asked whether there were any apps to help the children with data handling in Numeracy. I searched and searched and to little avail, but soon realised the best app (Doodle Buddy,) was right in front of me.

DOODLE BUDDY IN NUMERACY

The Year 1 class were looking at pictograms and blog diagrams as a way of recording and displaying results. I had made a blank pictogram template and printed this for the children. The children then took at picture of this template and used it as the background, the children then simply added their results using either the paint brush or the stamp button - so simple, yet so effective. - Read more of the lesson here.

For older children, they could create their own templates on the pages app and then take a screenshot to import into doodle buddy. Or to save on paper, children can download a template from Dropbox - with some guidance. They could even make line graph or bar charts.

Another example is to use Doodle Buddy for children to make their own Carroll Diagrams, again using a template made as the background children could use stamps or the text option to type numbers if that was the focus. Older children can type out their own labels for each box. Again read about the lesson here.
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Other ways in which this app could be used, in the same way as mentioned earlier, by importing a template like the one below to sort numbers or objects using a Venn diagram:

Or use a template to collect data into a tally chart:


Or use a template of co-ordinates and ask them to place stamps on certain co-ordinates like this example:

Or work out a route to get from the mouse to the elephant. For older more able children, they could use more than one quadrant as any picture can be used as a background. 

Another way in which Doodle Buddy can be used which was shared to me by @SamJL27 is using one of the backgrounds as a geoboard and let the children make different shapes by following different instructions such as:




You could also use the stamp option as a way for children to count and solve word problems, a question such as "If I have 5 dogs, 4 cats and 2 mice, how many pets do I have altogether?" can be answered on the app by children using the stamps to help them count.
Teachers can create their own fraction of shapes sheet in which children can then colour to answer the question:

Children could then create their own worksheets and make their own shapes and ask their own questions about fractions. 

USING DOODLE BUDDY IN OTHER CURRICULUM AREAS

As a free app there are endless possibilities for using it in Numeracy, and could also be used as a way of recording results of a science investigation for example. Or as @SimonHaughton demonstrated as a way to solve a wordsearch:

Or you could create a  word cloud with an extract from a book, children can then import that picture as a background and highlight the nouns, verbs, connectives, adjectives.

 What is great is that children as young as Year 1 or even Reception could use it to record and display data and results and answer a range of different mathematical questions. 
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Sport Adverts to Encourage Writing - Engage those reluctant boys!

March 24, 2013, 10:37 am
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I am always looking for different ways to engage and motivate children to write and try to provide an engaging hook for the reluctant boy writers, sport is always a great way of engaging some, not all, and can motivate boys to write as it is something they are interested in.

I was asked recently to write an article for the wonderful Springboard Stories. This newly published magazine has a wealth of fantastic cross curricular ideas linked to one central theme. The next issue focusing on sport should be another amazing resource for the Primary Classroom. The article I wrote, uses a famous inspiring video and discusses the possible uses in class, most of which have been tried out to great effect with my class. After writing this article I started looking at other sporting videos which can be used as a stimulus in class. What I enjoy about using these videos is that they are not necessarily just focusing on the sport but rather examples of characteristics sport encourages children to develop. These traits such as motivation, building character, overcoming adversity, dealing with failure are just a few life skills sports instill in children. The following videos are great examples of the ways sport can engage children but also inspire them to work and try harder.


 This first example - is the Nike Advert from the 2010 World Cup and carries an inspiring theme of "Write the Future!" This video will have the boys hooked as it starts some of the biggest names in the footballing world - Rooney, Ronaldo and Drogba to name a few and I love the "Sliding Doors" effect it portrays. The film ponders the question of how specific decisions can alter the direction of our lives.

The "what if" aspect to the advert could inspire some fantastic contrasting writing. Take the Rooney section, where you see the moment his pass is cut out and he has flashes of what would happen to his life - becoming a villain, losing his fans etc. He makes the decision to tackle and this is completely contrasted with the hero status he recieves. This could be a powerful stimulus for a writing activity. Children could write from the advert or even come up with their own examples.

The advert also provides plenty of opportunities to create some wonderful suspenseful writing. The last 30 seconds where Ronaldo is fouled and lines up the free kick would be great to write as a build up to the climax. Children can also describe the atmosphere of the packed stadium, what could they see? hear? smell? touch?

Another of Nike's adverts which can inspire some great writing is the "Take it to the next level," advert. Another inspiring example which shows the journey of a non-league footballer rise to the top of the footballing world. There are however snippets that I would consider inappropriate for children (what do you expect with Guy Ritchie as director) - at 54 seconds the footballer signs his autograph onto a girls chest and at 1.23 mins he plays a prank on a team mate where he pulls his pants down. Despite this, there are excellent opportunities for children to be inspired by this message of following your dreams, working hard and being reward for that. The last 30 seconds would be great for some descriptive writing again leading up to building suspense similar to the previous video.



Moving away from football this clip from the Movie, Friday Night Light's, shows the dying seconds of the State Championship game. The way the scene is shot can be great for again encouraging the children to build suspense. They can use similes and metaphors to describe the tackles and movements of the players. It is also a great way for children to show their empathy for characters by writing recounts of those final moments and the agony of defeat as the game finishes.



Now moving onto some Poetry! I love the New Zealand Rugby Team's Haka, I think it is one of the most intimidating and intense rituals of any sport. This advert shows it in its purest form and could inspire some great poetry where children maybe write the message they think the Haka is trying to portray or use it to make descriptions using similes and metaphors or what you need to be a New Zealand play. Children could also research the history of the Haka and write a non-chronological report about it. They could learn the dance and write instructions or even make up their own dance.


The next two examples are from Sky Sports and are great for asking the children to write using the show not tell writing technique. The show not tell technique encourages the children to describe through actions or speech how a character feels or what is happening in the story. Alan Peat explains it here. My challenge would be how could they tell me about the action from the pitch without writing about anything happening on the pitch? They would have to describe the reactions of the crowd, managers, officials, the opportunity for describing the senses would lead to some very effective writing. Or another poem? The ingredients for the perfect football match maybe?




I am in no way encouraging you to use all these videos however to use something different to maybe engage and inspire children especially those reluctant boys to put pen to paper and write, they may work for you. If sport is not the thing for your class please look at how using popular video games can inspire writing. CLICK HERE

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Problem Solving in Numeracy on the iPad

March 28, 2013, 5:09 am
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The app store is inundated with thousands of different apps for Numeracy. Some are fantastic, some not so but generally a lot follow a game like structure to help with quick calculations of the four operations. These are a great way of engaging children and giving them instant feedback so they can rectify any misconceptions straight away without having to wait for the teacher to mark their work. However I sometimes find it harder to download great apps to use for more complex maths lessons, problem solving for example.

I have found some apps that are great for problem solving which have provided some really engaging and stimulating lessons where the children have been able to develop key thinking skills to help them with their Numeracy.

Working from the National Strategies guidance the three areas of problem solving are identified as:

Here are some apps that can be used for activities linking to these three strands.

Numbers Logic Puzzle - This is a great app to use as a way of putting a problem solving activity into context. You have to add numbers next to each other reach a target number, you may make 2, 3, 4 or even 5 number combinations. So start with an activity to find all the different possibilities. The free version allows you to play the level where you add to make ten. Therefore in class you can try and find all the possibilities of making ten by using two numbers, 3 then 4 then 5. Once the children have found all the possibilities they can then apply this knowledge into the game. To read more about this lesson please click here.



The Mathelona Games - A fantastic logic problem solving app made by the wonderful http://7puzzleblog.com. This app asks children to complete a grid of number sentences by adding the digits 0-9, the only rule is that you can only use each digit twice. With different levels of ability and a time limit introduced it can be used right across Key Stage 2. What I like about it is that the children learn they have to persevere and that they may not get the answer straight away, instead need to try and try again. TO READ MORE ABOUT THE LESSON USING THIS APP CLICK HERE.



Talk Maths -  This app which is available for Year 4,5 and 6 is a superb way to encourage rich maths discussion while solving different mathematical challenges. The app has four different challenges all of which are then differentiated to use more tricky numbers. Having used this app in class, I cannot recommend it enough for the way it purposely encourages children to discuss, share ideas and work together. TO READ ABOUT THE LESSON CLICK HERE.



mzm.cyrmbvpx.175x175 75 Introducing word problems to Year 1Banana Maths - Is a great app for introducing word problems to KS1children. The app uses pictures to substitute words so that children can focus more on the specific vocabulary that helps them work out the calculation needed to solve the problem. CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW WE USED THIS IN CLASS. Another app similar to this is Problem Solving: Choosing the correct operation. This app would be aimed more older and again helps children decode a question to work out the number sentence needed to solve a problem.



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There are some other apps which may come handy when doing problem solving activities. These are not solely focused on problem solving however can accompany activities to help children solve or demonstrate their learning:
Doodle Buddy - This is a fantastic app in general but can open some fantastic opportunities in numeracy. In the logic problems document linked at the top of this page, one of the activities involves trying to work out all the different ways to complete a maze. Children can import the worksheet as a background and then solve the problem using the app without wasting paper or endless rubbings out. 

Explain Everything - Couldn't finish without mentioning this amazing app. A presentation app that allows you to record your voice as you draw, write or look at pictures or videos. It would be an amazing way for a teacher to keep and evidence the children's though process when solving a problem. What system do they use? How do they solve it? What operations and why? It gives the children the opportunity to explain how they solve a problem which they cannot always do on paper. Although I haven't used this app for a problem solving activity, I did ask the children to show me their understanding of the column addition method - YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT HERE.



Please if you know of any other apps which can help with these sorts of activities, please comment and share. If I come across any more I will share them on this list. 
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Using Twitter to provide some quick and interesting lesson starters

April 1, 2013, 3:29 pm
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I am a big fan of using multimedia as a way of stimulating children in discussions and writing. As the saying goes, 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and using pictures and videos can really help children develop ideas and give them a purpose and focus for their writing.

PictureOne website which is great for providing videos, pictures and other media that can be used in Literacy is the Literacy Shed. Started by @Redgierob, this amazing resource provides so many amazing resources to cover every aspect of the Literacy curriculum.
Click here to read more about using videos and pictures in Literacy.


Many teachers are now starting to realise the massive benefits of using twitter as a way of building a learning network, sharing ideas, connecting with other great teachers and learning how to improve as a teacher to enhance the learning in their classroom. Most teachers will follow other educators however I want to share some other types of accounts which are great to use as a focus in class.

Sometimes I find that a quick 5-10 minutes writing starter at the beginning of my Literacy lessons, as morning activity or even as a task during guided reading give the children a chance to generate ideas, practise different sentence types and get their imaginations running wild! I have just started following a few twitter accounts that provide some amazing images for these types of task/starters/fillers. These twitter accounts share some fantastic pictures which you can use with your class to inspire them to discuss and write. I must warn you that some pictures are not appropriate to share with the class but each account will normally provide at least one photo a day that you can utilise to set a meaningful and engaging task. Here are some of the accounts with examples of the pictures and some of the questions/tasks that could accompany it.

Write five sentences explaining what is happening in this picure?
Write the discussion between these two animals using full punctuation.
How did the cat get into this tricky predicament?
Think of reasons why the Elephant should/shouldn't help.
Write in role of the cat, build suspense to the climax of the Elephant arriving.




Write a description of this picture in 100 words.
Write a poem about this street.
Imagine if you lived in one of these houses, write a short story about waking up and looking out of your window.
Write about what could have caused this.




Would you like to live here? Why?
Write a short persuasive advert for this holiday home?
Imagine you stayed here for a short break, write a diary about your day.
Who might this house belong to? What makes you think this?




Where are they going?
Write about their journey to reach the sea.
Write a conversation between the two turtles.




This dog has just answered a maths question, write all the different questions it could be.




Write a couple of sentences for each picture about what has made them so happy?




Should we keep animals in captivity? Write three reasons for both sides.

I have grouped all these accounts into a Twitter list which you can subscibe to HERE.

These are just a taste of some of the amazing visual aids these accounts share that you can use in the classroom. Here is a link to an interesting blog post about how to describe a picture in more depth to get the children thinking more deeply about a picture thanks to @JOHNSAYERS. You may want to use a picture for a full lesson and use it to do some shared writing - here is a video of @PieCorbett demonstrating how to use a picture for shared writing:



You may also want to give a more specific focus for the activity, encouraging children to use specific sentence types or challenge the higher ability by restricting the number of words or setting direct rules. Here are some resources to help:

- Tripico's Slow writing - This fantastic resource purposefully makes the children follow rules for each sentence making them think about how they write rather than what - read more here. 

- Alan Peat's Enrichment activities for able writers.

-@IanAddison's Teachtweet video about using random sentences to give a more specific focus to a writing lesson:

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Why should it only be children's work celebrated in Assembly?

April 5, 2013, 5:35 am
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On Thursday 4th April, I joined in on the @ukedchat discussion which was:



I really enjoyed some of the ideas shared to help reduce stress and I also shared some of mine. To read some of the fun ideas to reduce stress as a teacher - click this link to see some of the ideas shared during the chat, and click here for relevant links.

I wanted to share in a little bit of detail an idea that many found intriguing and wanted to know more about. As it was too long to explain fully in a tweet I will explain in a bit more detail here. Here was my original tweet:



The idea is that a celebration/good work assembly not only celebrates and acknowledges the children's hard work and efforts but the teachers too. Each class has their own inspection book. Each week, two different children are in charge of this book. Within the book they have to write down the amazing and enjoyable things their teacher has done. This can be anything from  a funny story they told to a lesson that everyone enjoyed or maybe news they have shared with the class, or just generally the lovely smiley face they see everyday. Usually we ask the children to finished the sentence Mr/Mrs ______ has been fantastic this week because..... or we have enjoyed the way our teacher has.... and usually ask for maybe three suggestions. We make sure that the children are positive and for younger year groups sometimes provide help from a TA or other adult.

What we often forget as teachers, is that we ourselves love positive feedback. We always try to give it to our children because we know how positively they respond to it. We are just the same! You would not believe the impact it has on teachers to be told they are doing a good job, especially from some of their toughest critics - the children. Just a simple little task of regularly asking children to share some of the good work their teacher has done does make a difference. The children benefit as they have to give the feedback and be positive. They also love the secretive approach as the teacher should never know who the inspectors are that week. It never disappoints, the inspection books being shared with the rest of the school and all the children, staff and parents can't help but smile at some of the weird and wonderful reasons the children produce.

Teachers look forward to that assembly every week, they know no matter how hard, stressful and tiring the week has been having those few minutes to be reminded why we have the best job in the world and remember why we got into teaching, fills you with a sense of worth and achievement! Try it, see whether it helps you and your staff boost team morale and self-esteem.
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Utilising the Emoji Keyboard in the classroom!

April 11, 2013, 9:15 am
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For anyone who has an iPhone or iPad they have probably added the Emoji Keyboard. A set of images and emoticons which you can add to email, tweets, messages and notes. Whenever I ask children to complete a piece of writing on the iPads there is always one who uses the emoji keyboard to add little pictures to their work, whether I ask or not. For some reason, they absolutely love using it and to be fair I do enjoy adding them to a text or message as they seem to add extra character to a message as well as humour. So it got me thinking - how could I use this in class? How could asking the children to use these symbols and pictures make them think more creatively and challenge them in different ways? If you don't have emoji - here is how to set it up:

How to set up emoji on your iPad


To enable emoji from the keyboard settings in iOS:
  1. Tap Settings > General > Keyboard
  2. Tap International Keyboards
  3. Tap Add New Keyboard
  4. Locate and tap Emoji


Once this has been completed, open the keyboard and press this icon next to the space bar. Globe icon

How to set up emoji on Google Chrome

  • Go to Google Chrome Store.
  • Search Emoji and install the add ons.
  • These are a little temperamental however if they work for you, you should be able to see emoji on a windows device. 

Emoji images



Ideas for use in the classroom

So how can you use emoji in the classroom, to challenge and add a twist to a normal activity??

Literacy

Obviously this is the subject where emoji can be utilised the most. For younger children it is a great way to help them to tell a story as they can use the pictures rather than worry about writing tricky/unfamiliar words.  One of the most obvious activity to do would be to ask the children to write a Rebus. A Rebus is a story where pictures replace words or parts of words. This can be a really challenging and interesting activity. 
Children can write their own stories or retell stories they have read in class, or rewrite some traditional stories. Here is an example of the start of a familiar fairy tale folllowing the Rebus style. 


You could extend this idea further by asking the children to rewrite a whole story only using the emoticons. This could be used as a quick way for children to review a book or even film or TV episode. Here is an example I found which recounts one of the most famous films of all time:
Have you worked it out? Yep - Titanic!

I can't help but think about the endless possibilities this could provide. Children could make quizzes of book titles using emojis, or do a book review where they recount the story of the book they have read using only pictures (quite a tricky task, but one that would challenge and show they had a thorough understanding of the story) and use some of the pictures to give it a rating out of ten. 

I shared this blog post from @AndyGFarsley about using the game '4 pictures 1 word,' as a literacy starter, read his article here. One of the games he mentioned is Pic Combo where you have to work out the compound word from two pictures. Using Emoji children can make their own compound words, here are some quick examples I made up. 

Using emoji would also be good for introducing similes and metaphors. Younger children will find using these icons much easier as a way of writing and comparing things to. Alan Peat's Writing Exciting sentence book provides an example of a simile sentence, which Alan explains can be extended by adding a where and a when to add more detail and a clearer visual picture in the reader's head. Using these pictures can make children focus purely on this where and when aspect and adding more detail to a simile. It may even be a great way to introduce these sentence types with a different and unusual approach that may get the children creating these exciting sentences in a more fun and enjoyable way.

I also feel that using emoji can be a great visual resource to use for planning a piece of writing, children could use the pictures to help them map out and plan their story before they then write it in full, the visual pictures can help the children remember the sequence to their story. Here is an example of @PieCorbett telling the story of the Little Red Hen:


And here is the visual aid I made very quickly, similar to the one behind Pie in the video  - so I could save time in the lesson by preparing this beforehand:

Numeracy

Emoji would be great to use to introduce children to word problems. Pictures could be used for objects so that the only words are the vocabulary needed to work out the calculation to solve the problem, like this example: 
For older children you could ask them to make up their own questions using emoji, or even use it to  introduce equations if 2apples = 10 what does 1apple equal.

Or you could even use emoji for data handling, such as pictograms: 

General

Emoji could help in lots of ways generally in class, teachers could display how they feel about how well the children have behaved during a lesson. Feelings could be shared during PSHCE lessons and for children who struggle to communicate feelings, emoji provides clear visual aids that may help them communicate more successfully.


There are loads of possibilities to using emoji in the classroom and most will definitely have the children thinking creatively. If you think of any other ways in which emoji could be used in the classroom please comment and let me know and I will update this post if I think of anything else. 



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Why Twitter is essential for every teacher

April 12, 2013, 2:02 pm
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I firstly joined Twitter in an educational context when I created a class account around a year ago after reading an article about how it can be used to share work with parents and friends of the school. I had my own personal account where I followed friends, sports stars etc but had nothing to do with teaching - I had no idea the power of twitter as a teacher.

The class account shared examples of pupils work, homework, class news etc and received some good feedback from parents. It was only when I came out of the classroom and took on the roll of covering PPA with the iPads did I change it from a class account to a school account. Along with this I started our school blog - http://davyhulme.primaryblogger.co.uk. I was able to set up the blog to automatically tweet new posts to help spread our work and build our audience. We quickly started picking up followers when examples of the iPad work was being shared. Through the school account I was following others and gathering loads of ideas and tips and joining in with discussions about different educational issues. It was only after I tuned into a Teachmeet to see some of our work being shared by @Ideas_Factory  (See the video here) that he suggested I start my own Tweacher account. I quickly went about setting up my own teacher account as well as setting up this blog. I felt that although I had to still remember my position as a teacher but I could then give more personal views on topics also keep the account if I was to ever move schools etc.

Four months later, I have just notched up my 1,000 follower, I have been able to network and meet some incredibly inspiring teachers, get involved in teachmeets, provide training in other schools and LEARN SO MUCH to better myself as a teacher!!

So the next step - to try and convince other staff at my school to join the Twitter revolution!!!!!

I am going to share all the ideas that I have implemented this year through learning about them on twitter, these include:



If you are in the same boat as me and need to try and convince others to join, here are some links that may help:
But of course the best way to understand the power and the value of twitter is to use twitter itself and so I posted this tweet to try and get responses from teachers who are using twitter:


And so straight away within seconds I had a handful of responses - here are some of them:















I had so many overwhelming responses that I couldn't keep up with them all so decided to make this Google form and then share this through twitter to gain responses. Please add your ideas to this conversation and help me bring more teachers from my school to join twitter!!!!



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The Dropbox Trick to create great Speaking and Listening opportunities

April 26, 2013, 4:00 pm
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Dropbox has become possibly the most valuable app since using iPads in the classroom. Linking them all up to one account and enabling automatic uploads has meant it has been a life saver as far as saving children's work to one location on my laptop without using any wire.

As a teaching tool it is great to take a picture of a child's work, upload it to Dropbox and have it appear on my laptop within seconds so I can display it on the IWB. As a teacher is a great way to store files and means wherever I am on whatever device I can access my files. But there is another nifty trick Dropbox offers which provides great potential to using videos in the class to help children with speaking and listening and aiding the writing process. 


The trick is that Dropbox allows you to download videos straight to your camera roll, meaning they can then be imported into iMovie for endless amount of different tasks.

How to do it?

First, you need a video and I have heard a rumour that there are websites where you can download videos from YouTube and other sites, I don't know if this is true or not???? ;) however if you acquire a video you need to make sure it is in the correct format of .mp4 or .mov. To do this you should download Format Factory onto your PC/laptop, this allows you to change the format of videos, pictures and music files. Once changed into the correct format, save this video into your dropbox folder on your PC.

Then open the Dropbox app on your iPad/iPhone, locate the file and press the favourite button:

Then wait for it to be downloaded and save it to photo library:

You should then have the video saved in your camera roll. It is that simple and every iPad linked to that dropbox account can have the same video! Now what to do with it!

Using iMovie children can import the video, mute it and record their own narration, conversation, instructions and much more. It enables children to use speaking and listening to aid the writing process. I have come to realise through teaching in EYFS and KS1 that unless children can verbalise a story they cannot write it. This process allows children to first experiment with ideas orally which can then transfer to their writing. It may also be a great way for children to complete a piece of writing - using a video as a stimulus for writing and recording the children read their story alongside the video can be a really effective and at times an emotional way of showcasing the children's work. 

Some examples:

  • During our Angry Birds topic, Year 3 wrote playscripts about the opening video for the game, the children then recorded themselves performing it alongside the video:
  • During our football project, Year 5 children recorded themselves commentating over highlights of a match to then help them write their match reports.
  • Children can look at creating sound effects to replace the original audio - here is Year 4's efforts at recreating the sound effects for a scene from Indiana Jones:
    Picture
  • If you can somehow download one of the amazing videos from the brilliant Literacy Shed website, this may really help with different activities suggested on the website such as tracking a characters thoughts, empathising with a character, describing or explaining the story or video, recreating a conversation between two characters (which can then help teaching children how to punctuate speech,) or a teacher could show a video and ask the children to be creative by reworking a conversation but taking it in a complete different direction. Children can also test their quick thinking skills by completely improvising a scene.
  • Other videos which are really great to use are music videos, as they normally tell a story with only music, children can narrate over the video to tell the story or record conversations between characters, one of my favourite songs at the minute has a great video to use in this way:
  • For Non Fiction texts, instructions, explanations, information, biographies, children again can record themselves sharing their writing over a video of that particular topic.
I will of course update this post with any other examples I use and please comment if you have any other suggestions. 




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Music Videos to Inspire Writing

April 27, 2013, 4:52 am
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Sat on the couch, clicking through the endless music channels to find the One Direction song that my daughter loves, I stumble across a video that had me hooked. No it wasn't 1D or the latest PSY hit, it was a video that had a story, no words spoken just the visuals and the song. It got me thinking that it would be a great focus to use for some writing. I am always looking for interesting and unusual hooks to get the children inspired to write, when I started thinking to some of my favourite music videos I found that many tell a story that has a lot of potential for writing activities in the classroom. 


After looking into this a little further I discovered that most music videos are one of three different types - performance, conceptual and narrative (read more here). It is the narrative which really lends itself well to the classroom as these are music videos that tell a story with most not having a single spoken word. Meaning children can interpret the story in many different ways. Children will respond to these videos as most watch them repeatedly at home (I have a 9 year old who is forever watching MTV.) You are encouraging them to look at the videos in a new way and one that will hopefully inspire them to some great writing. If you use iPads this post about downloading videos to your camera roll may also help with other activities. Here are a few examples with some suggested activities:


This video was the one that originally caught my attention to this idea. It is a lovely video and isn't a bad song either.

  • Watch the first 20 seconds - how is the girl feeling? What makes you think that? What might she be doing?
  • Pause just before a minute - how has the girl's feelings changed? Why do you think that is? What might she have lost? What could she do now that may help?
  • Pause again at 1.42 - Has the girl's feelings changed even more now? Why do you think that maybe?
  • Once the giraffe appears - are you shocked why? How does the girl feel now?
  • Write a description of the giraffe - what does it look like? smell? feel?
  • Research and write a non chronological report on giraffes.
  • Write a set of instructions for keeping a giraffe as a pet.
  • If you could choose any animal in the world to keep as a pet, what would it be and why? What would you do with them? How would you need to change your house to take care of it?
Another example is the classic from Blur - Coffee and TV (warning there is part of this video that may not be appropriate where the carton visits Big Suzi from 2.13-2.36)

Blur - Coffee and TV from Andrey Tukhtamanov on Vimeo.

I love this video, it is emotional, interesting and really funny. The video tells the story of a milk carton trying to find a missing son to reunite him with his family. The carton encounters numerous different challenges both good and bad but nothing stops him on trying to complete his mission.

  • Ask the children to write the journey of the milk carton in 1st person.
  • How does the carton's emotions change during his journey, what are his high points/low points?
  • What do you think the carton's view on people are? What evidence can you find to support that decision?
  • Show the children the screen from 3minutes to 3.30. Ask the children to write a atmospheric description of the setting. 
  • Look at the interactions he has with different people, what may have been said? 
  • Compare the feelings of the family at the beginning and the end, how do these differ and why?
  • Do you think the carton is happy at the end despite being in the trash? Why what makes you think this?
  • Ask the children to write similes and metaphors of objects that seem bigger/scarier to the carton.
  • Children could write another story of a journey of another inanimate object.

David Guetta Feat. Sia - Titanium from David Wilson on Vimeo.

This is another great video telling a story. What I love about this video is the viewer is left until the end to find out what has caused all this destruction.

  • Watch the first minute, discuss what has happened? What has caused this? Why?
  • Ask the children to write a description of the first scene, use the show not tell technique to create thoughtful writing.
  • Discuss the boys character, how is he presented in the first scene, how does this change?
  • Write in role of the boy, use his emotions through the story to gain an understanding of his feelings and whether he comprehends what is happening.
  • Look at the ending, who is to blame? Why? Is the boy acting in self defense? Can he control it?
  • If you could have a superpower what would it be?
  • You wake up one morning to find you have incredible strength, what do you do? How would your life change?
  • Design you own superhero, what powers, costume, name would he have?
  • Write a newspaper report of the events from the video, interview the teacher, parents and policemen.

I love the contrast of this video from the surroundings at the beginning to the end, also the message it portrays about material things not making you happy.

  • Watch the first 20 seconds, what do you think the picture shows?
  • Watch the first minute, who may this character be? What makes you think this? What clues make you think she is rich?
  • Is she happy with all the fame and wealth she has? What makes you think so?
  • Write about her surroundings at the start, the bright lights, futuristic feel to her house and gadgets she has.
  • What makes her unhappy? 
  • Who is the blue creature? 
  • By the end of the video how is she feeling?
  • Write about her surrounding at the end, the beautiful scenery, nature and simplicity to life.
  • Compare the surroundings at the start and end, which would you prefer and why?


I love the idea of this video, how he makes everyone else happy apart from himself due to the music.

  • Children can write in role as the character and write about his day.
  • They can empathise with the character and look at how he feels.
  • They could imagine that this happened to them and write a day in their shoes.
  • This could be linked to the story of the pied piper and look at using music as a way to hypnotise others.
There are probably lots of other examples of narrative music videos that could generate some exciting and interesting writing opportunities in class, if you have any suggestions please let me know and I will add them to this list.
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Examples of some of my ideas in practice

May 3, 2013, 2:24 pm
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Here is a lesson implementing a few ideas from some of my recent blog posts. I think it is important to demonstrate the impact some of the ideas have.

I am always looking for interesting, different and engaging ways to capture the children's  attention and inspire them to write. Recently I put together some ideas for using music videos to inspire writing - read more here.

 I decided to use one of those videos for Year 4 to do some writing, in particular focus on a technique to develop characters in a story. I came across this technique from Alan Peat, whose resources have become invaluable in my teaching. This focus, one of his great free resources, looks at developing characters using a 'show not tell' technique which focuses on developing feelings through the description of a character's expressions, speech or movements - See the article here. This specific video really helps children grasp this concept as clues are given throughout about how the girl feels through her movement and expression. It also shows the children how effective building up a story for a surprising climax can be - when the girl is reunited with her pet there was a real WOW moment as the children do not suspect the pet to be a giraffe. Here is the video -


 I started by questioning the children throughout the video:
  • Watch the first 20 seconds - how is the girl feeling? What makes you think that? Why might she be excited? What clues do you get from the girl's movements and expressions that she is happy?
  • Pause just before a minute - how has the girl's feelings changed? Why do you think that is? What might she have lost? How has her face and body movement changed and what emotion does this portray? What could she do now that may help?
  • Pause again at 1.42 - Has the girl's feelings changed even more now? Why do you think that maybe?
  • Once the giraffe appears - are you shocked why? How does the girl feel now?
  • At the end, ask whether the children liked the video and why? The class said that they liked the fact that at the end the giraffe was revealed which was a nice surprise. Tell the children that this is a great technique to also use in their writing.
We started with some shared writing where I demonstrated some of the sentence types I may use. The children were then encouraged to write their own stories, referring back to the video whenever they needed to. Once the children had finished, I shared an uplevelling checklist for them to work through with their partner, I have found this to be an amazing way for children to check and edit their work. They try and compete against each other and justify word choices to earn more points.


Here are some examples of the children's work:
 

 

 

 


 

 


Another really good way for children to check their work is to get them to read it out loud and record it over the original video. This gives the children a real purpose to read back through their work.  The children downloaded the video using the 'Dropbox trick,' they then imported the film into iMovie and recorded themselves reading their work. This is a really useful exercise for children to practise their oral reading skills. Furthermore it is amazing how quickly the children spot mistakes in their work as they are reading it out aloud. It is also a great way of extending the higher achievers by asking them to try and write in time with the video, therefore thinking carefully about word choice and length of their writing. Moreover it provides a real purpose to their work as the finished videos can be shared to a worldwide audience. The finished videos are also extremely effective to have the visual image running alongside the children's writing. Here is a mix of some of the children's efforts: 

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Utilising the iPad to enhance Primary Science lessons

May 5, 2013, 2:13 am
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Many of my posts look at ways to use the iPads in Literacy and Numeracy to enhance learning and engage, motivate and inspire children. But how can using the iPad also help children in other subjects like Science, History or Geography? Here are some ideas about how using the iPad can help the children show, share and develop their learning in these subjects with a distinct focus on Science.

Starting a Topic


Normally at the start of a topic, children will be asked to design a page in their books with the title and pictures relating to the topic. Or children may be asked to make a mindmap of prior knowledge, one which can then be repeated at the end of the unit to show the difference in the children's learning. One of my favourite mind mapping apps (available through the website too) is Popplet.  Another lovely way to see what the children already know and then contrast this at the end of the topic is using a Word Cloud. There are a few websites which will allow you to create word clouds such as Wordle and Tagxedo  there are also some apps which are great for this such as TagCloud or WordFoto. As an eye catching way to start a topic, it gives the children a great way to show what they already know. To see some examples of both apps click here for TagCloud and here for WordFoto:

2013-01-07 14.58.05         2013-04-16 13.51.50

It is a great way to assess pre and post learning, as making a word cloud at the start of the unit and then repeating it at the end will show how much more the children know and what knowledge the children have acquired during that topic.

Labelling and Identifing 


Many units in the science curriculum ask children to learn names and identify different parts of a specific diagram or picture. There are a few apps which are great for children to show their understanding by labelling, annotating and matching terms to pictures. To incorporate more aspects of ICT, the word processing app 'Pages,' can be used to match pictures to scientific terms. Here is an example I used with Year 1 who were looking at the different stages in a human life cycle. They had to match the picture to the correct stage but I also used it as an opportunity for the children to learn how to format and change the text and text box - Read more about the lesson here:

 

Another useful app for labelling pictures or diagrams is Skitch. This free app allows children to add text and highlight different parts of the pictures or text. If children had to label parts of a plant or parts of the human body then this app would be perfect for children to show their understanding.

Here is an example from when we used the app to label a map of our school - read more about the lesson here.





Another example is to use the app TypeDrawing which is where children can draw pictures using words. I have used this app when children were looking at the human body and they drew word art skeletons labelling different bones, here are some examples - read more about the lesson here:




Children can also label pictures using the app Pic Collage. Children can label pictures showing their understanding of different terms or scientific facts, here is an example- read more about this lesson here:

2013-02-06 15.01.27

Children can also identify and label different pictures using iMovie, creating slideshows of pictures which they can then record themselves narrating over, here is an example of Year 1 sharing what they know about their science topic of Minibeasts - Read more about this lesson here:


What do we already know about our new topic - Minibeasts? from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

Investigations

Using the iPads to plan, carry out and analyse investigations has been amazing. The main app that I have used for this has been BookCreator.  Generally this is one of my favourite apps, it allows children to import different media - pictures, video, sound as well as text.

Firstly, children can plan the investigation, share pictures of equipment, write the process and even make predictions. What makes this app great for this process is that rather than write everything children can record themselves, making it easier for children who maybe struggle with their writing therefore letting them purely focus on the science and the investigation.

Recording - Children can use the iPad camera to take pictures or record themselves carrying out the experiment or if the process will take a longer period of time, time lapse apps such as iLapse could be used to record the results - here is an example of this app although it wasn't used in a scientific context:


Trialing iLapse in our Classroom from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

If the children needed to make a graph to display results they could use the app Numbers or use the app Doodle Buddy to create a graph - read more about this app here.

Again using Bookcreator, children can analyse and evaluate their investigation using text or recordings. Every little bit of the investigation is kept in an eBook which can be saved and shared online. Here is an example of an investigation a Year 4 class did looking at proving whether air is a material - read more about the lesson here:


Using BookCreator for a Science Investigation from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

Explaining Processes and Sharing Facts & Research

Another great way for children to demonstrate their learning by explaining processes is to use the app Explain Everything. Again one of my favourite apps as it allows children to really be creative in the way they showcase their understanding. Children can use pictures, videos, text, highlighting tools while recording themselves explaining a process such as - the life cycle of a plant, or the relationship between Earth, Sun and Moon, or explaining how different circuits work, the possibilities are endless.

An alternative to this would be to use the app Puppetpals to create animations to explain processes or demonstrate learning from research. The app allows children to add characters, backgrounds and move them while recording themselves discussing their ideas. Here is an example Year 3 did to show their understanding after researching the first moon landing:


Class 3A explain the Lunar Landing using PuppetPals App from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

Children could also use iMovie Trailers to explain a process, children can change text and use pictures or videos to show their learning in a creative and different way in the style of a movie trailer, here is an example:


These were just some ideas that I have used to enhance learning in Science with iPads. As mentioned at the top of the post, word clouds can be used as a way of assessing children's understanding during a topic. Socrative is also a great way of assessing the children's learning, quizzes can be made by the teacher which will test the children and results can be exported into an excel file.

Most of these apps and ideas can easily be used in other foundation subjects such as Geography, History, RE and will have the children approaching the subjects with enthusiasm, creativity and motivation to further their learning.
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What makes a true Champion? - The Derek Redmond story to inspire writing

May 7, 2013, 1:59 pm
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I was asked by the wonderful Springboard Stories to write a article on using digital media in Literacy to inspire writing with a link to their latest issue - Sport.

Straight away I thought about a wonderful theme I used last summer in the build up to the Olympics. I am a big believer in using sport in the classroom as I find it a great way to inspire and engage boys but also to teach some of the life skills sport wonderfully promotes and encourages children to develop. I have previously written other blog posts about using sport for Literacy - Using Football and iPads to engage reluctant writers or Sport adverts to inspire writing and I also helped to build The Sports Shed on the Literacy Shed.

Sport has played an important role in the lives of children since the time of Ancient Sparta, where they saw sport as a necessary experience that mentally and physically prepared them for adult life. I completely agree that sport provides so many opportunities for children to develop key skills that will help them later in life. However, I am not an advocate for the “winning at all cost” mentality. ‘Wanting to win and do your best,’ is the motto I live by and there have been many examples of amazing feats of courage and determination in sport which didn’t result in a gold medal, but defines the true meaning of a champion, demonstrating grit, determination and perseverance to win are qualities that, if we instil in children, will help them in any direction in life. I would like to share how I used the story of Derek Redmond to inspire some amazing writing in your class.

I am not going to share everything from the article I wrote as I feel it is such a good resource that you should check it out and get a copy! However to accompany the article I want to share some of the examples of work the children produced from using this stimulus. All of the examples that I will share are from a Year 4 class.

Derek Redmond is probably best remembered for the courage he showed in the 1992 Olympics 400m semi-finals, more than anything else. Despite pulling his hamstring halfway into the race he was determined to finish and hobbled all the way to the finish line, although he was in excruciating pain. Here is a video of his story:




The way I set out this unit was to build up to writing a first person recount of the race, however break it down into parts to focus on different narrative methods.

We did a lot of build up, looking and discussing the video, using senses grids and writing speech between the characters - all of which are discussed in the article with links to apps to develop this.

When it came to writing the story I wanted to slow down the whole writing process. Taking each part separately to get the children to really focus on the success criteria of that particular paragraph/stage of the story.

We started by using Alan Peat's "In Media Res," idea of opening a story - to read more about an In Media Res opening please click here. This was a short opening paragraph starting in the middle of things, starting at the point where he tears his hamstring, but not to reveal how? where? or when? hooking the reader to read on to find out more. We were aiming to use some precise description and similes to entice the reader. Here are some examples of that opening paragraph:

 



 
 

For the next paragraph we went back to the start of the story and set the scene, therefore creating the atmosphere for the story using as much description and focusing on our senses. Here are some examples:

 

 


Once we had set the scene, it was time to build up to the point where he sustained his injury. To do this we looked at techniques used to build tension in writing, annotating examples and making our own checklist. We started this as a shared write using inspiration from Pie Corbett - see the man in action here. Here again are some examples:

 

 


Finally, as a Big Writing lesson the children had to write the climax and resolution to the story. I wanted to get the children to really focus on this ending as often it is something that doesn't get as much attention as the opening. By breaking the story down, it gave the children time to really think and focus on the ending to their story:

 

 

The standard of writing from the whole class was amazing, but more importantly they were able to see how persevering, being determined and never giving up makes you a winner every time!

And please do check out the latest issue of Springboard Stories for more great resources and ideas to use in the classroom. 




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Using Music to Remember Maths Facts!

May 22, 2013, 7:38 am
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At the start of the year, our school had a full day inset with Anthony Reddy. His ideas were fantastic to help engage and improve children's calculations skills. One of his biggest recommendations was using music to help children remember certain number facts. The idea is that maths facts such as times tables are something that can be memorised in a similar way as words. If children can read they should be able to remember maths facts. Finding the easiest way for children to remember the facts is the challenge for us as teachers.

Anthony started each session using examples from the Number Fun Songs website. The website provides over 6 books full of songs that cover almost every aspect of the numeracy curriculum. Most have a catchy tune and dance moves to accompany the words and the children love to sing all about maths in their lessons. All the teachers were up dancing during the inset reciting maths facts! With this idea of using music to assist children in remembering maths facts, here are some activities I have used to further develop this in the classroom. 

The first app/s that I have used are from Smule and are Autorap and CineBeat.


The Autorap app allows you to record a conversation of someone talking or rapping  and remix it into a catchy hip hop tune through mixing and autotune!

The children absolutely loved hearing back the songs and even could recite the facts using them! I am sure after listening a few times the facts would stick and be remembered easily!

I then repeated the exercise with the six times tables, again the rap is generated in seconds and there are loads of different free tracks to choose from, the children were bopping away to their times tables!!
Here are a couple of examples:

NINE TIMES TABLES                SIX TIMES TABLES   
The challenge for next week??? Who can recite their 7 and 8 times tables to become a hip hop star, you wouldn't believe how many came in wanting to recite their tables.

With Year 3 today we recapped on our two and ten times tables, listen to our examples here:


Another way for children to incorporate music into their maths lesson is to use the app Garageband. 
This app allows children to create their own song to which they can they sing their times tables or other number facts over. The children love being able to create music and having them sing and listen to their  song over and over will hopefully make those number facts stick! 
Here are some of the children's effort making their own times tables song:


Another app that I came across thanks to @Cherise_Duxbury is VideoStar. This app allows children to create their own music videos in lots of cool and exciting styles. Click here to see Cherise's class who made their own reading music video. Inspired by this idea, I decided to let my Year 3 class create their own music video to one of the Number fun songs mentioned earlier.
First the children had to listen and discuss the song to generate ideas about how they wanted to video to look. They listened over and over to the lyrics trying to learn it so they could mime in the video. It gave them purpose to learning these facts and they were storing them without realising! 

Once they had planned and decided in a group what each person was doing, they filmed their videos. At the end of the lesson, I just asked a few questions relating to the theme of the song, it was amazing to see how quickly they could recite the facts. Here is a snippet from one of the videos:




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Some fun with Shakespeare!!!!

June 7, 2013, 3:16 pm
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I love Shakespeare! From first performing and learning it at school, I have enjoyed many of his sonnets and plays. As a primary school teacher, I often wish that the curriculum had more Shakespeare in it. I have dabbled before with some of his work, for the Year 5 Narrative Unit 4 - Older Literature I covered Romeo and Juliet with some amazing results. The children absolutely loved it! We also did a school production for Year 5 which was a modern twist on A Midsummer Night's Dream, again with fantastic results.


I know that Shakespeare is covered at Secondary school but I don't see any harm in children familiarising themselves with some of his work and having fun with some of the older Shakespearean language at Primary. Most teachers may feel that the older language would really tricky for the children to understand but here is how you can overcome that in a enjoyable and engaging way.

I came across this idea after stumbling on the twitter profile of @Shakespearesong. An account which rewrites current lyrics of songs as if they were the works of Shakespeare. WARNING - a lot of these tweets are not appropriate for children and have to be carefully chosen if they are to be shared with your class but here is an example:

"Put your hands up for Detroit,"

I have had lots of laughs reading these tweets and trying to work out the songs. It made me think about how I could introduce Shakespeare in this way using examples that the children are more comfortable with. Year 5 children may not be able to translate a monologue from Macbeth but they could maybe translate a One Direction or Justin Bieber lyric???


Using some of these examples or even making up your own would be a really engaging and enjoyable way to introduce some of the typical Shakespearean language used in all his works. When the children have worked with some current examples, they will be more inclined to try with some real examples. This then led me to then come across the app "Shakespeare Translator," this app allows you to translate text, useful phrases, famous quotes or lyrics and give it a Shakespearean twist. It also includes a glossary of Shakespearean words and phrases with a modern day translation . Here is a screenshot:


iPhone Screenshot 1 

Using this app you could have a lot of fun in the classroom, children could turn their favourite songs into a 16th Century lyric. Or even remake some of their favourite scenes from recent movies with a Shakespearean twist, you could use the Dropbox trick to help with this. Here is an example I made with my stepson just playing with the Shakespeare translator app and iMovie (importing the video and recording ourselves over it,) using a new script and remaking a scene from Finding Nemo - Shakespeare Version. 



This approach will gently introduce children to some of the easier translations of Shakespeare and hopefully enthuse them to approach Shakespeare with a new and more positive outlook. The translations may not be 100% accurate however children will soon pick up what words such as 'hath,' 'thee' and 'doth' mean which will come in very useful when they study Shakespeare in a lot more detail as they go into secondary school. 


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Simulation games - a school trip without the Risk Assessment!

June 22, 2013, 3:31 pm
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When I was younger, I was an avid fan of simulation games. From Championship Manager to Sim City and from Tamagotchi to Theme Hospital. Many hours spent immersing myself in these fantasy worlds. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across an app of one of my old favourites - Theme Park. 

Theme Park allows you to run and build your own theme park, adding rides and different attractions to make money and keep customers happy. As always I looked at this game thinking of ways to use it in class to engage the children - following the idea of Camouflage Learning.
The app is free however lures you into those dreaded in app purchases, so making sure these are disabled is a must. The app allows you to build your park in very small steps over days or even weeks. I didn't really allow the children play the game as it is intended, instead used the Master Theme Park that the children can roam around and see all the different parts, rides and attractions. As a focus for Year 3 we used the app to produce some writing. The children were glued to the screen as they wandered around this fantasy Theme Park. I asked them to take photos of different rides they thought they would like to go on if they visited this Theme Park. 

Using some of the pictures I decided to ask the children to make some posters for the Theme Park, generating their own name for the Park as well as names for the rides. We discussed how we would need different themes for the park and catchy names, usually using alliteration along an adjective to exaggerate the ride. Using the app Pic Collage the children created their posters - here are some examples:











This was a great opportunity for children to look at the effect of using alliteration but also how effective certain adjectives are.

The next lesson we looked at making persuasive adverts for our Theme parks, using our posters and continuing to develop our use of exaggerated vocabulary to make the rides sounds better than they may actually be. Using iMovie trailers the children used screenshots from the app as well as videos of themselves looking like they were at the park or even on the ride. 


Theme Park Persuasive advert from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

With another class we looked at writing a recount imagining we visited this park. We discussed what rides we would go on and why? How would we feel before and contrast this with the feeling after. The children then planned their recounts before writing them up on Book Creator. Children could then add pictures and sound recordings of themselves on a ride or use to sound for differentiation so that children could record themselves orally retelling their recounts rather than type them out. Here are a couple of screenshots of the children's recounts:







Other ideas to be explored:

This app can link to different learning activities across the curriculum here are some suggestions - 
  • @SimonHaughton has a scheme linking theme parks with spreadsheets and numeracy - you can download his planning here.
  • Use the app iRollercoaster and let children write a description of being on a rollercoaster focusing on the senses/fantastics.
  • Write a letter to the council suggesting they build a theme park in your town. 
  • Use this as a tool to debate whether it would be a good/bad idea. Put the children in role as different parties - homeowners, Councillors, theme park owners and let them look at reasons for/against.
  • Use Google Maps to look at other Theme Parks around the world. Fill in a world map, find out where the oldest/biggest/most expensive roller coasters are. Let the children discuss which theme park they would like to visit and why?
  • Let the children design their own rollercoaster, what would it be called? What would it look like?
  • Create an investigation looking into the angle and height a toy car needs to be released from to complete a loop the loop.
  • Look into the history of Theme Parks, where was the first? How have Rollercoasters and rides evolved over time?
  • Contact a rollercoaster designer through Twitter and see if you could Skype and interview them.
Theme Park is just one of many simulation games you could use in the classroom, here are a couple of others that are very similar and could provide other learning opportunities:

  • Tap Zoo - Build your own zoo.
  • Jurassic Park Builder - Build your own Jurassic Park, would be great with a dinosaur topic.
  • MineCraft - Build and create your own houses and mansions - there is a LOT of potential with this game and one I will be investigating more over the next few weeks.
  • Megapolis - Build and run your own city, great links with Geography and local environments.
  • The Sims - Live as a virtual character - this has a 12+ rating so will not be appropriate for Primary children.
  • Design this Home - Children can build their own home, adding all the different elements - would link lovely with persuasive texts.
  • Search on iTunes for Simulation Games and there are tonnes of similar apps with different themes, however I cannot guarantee the quality of these apps. 
I just want to say I am in no way suggesting these apps should replace a school trip. School trips are a necessary enrichment experience all children should have throughout their school lives. I thoroughly believe the more hands on learning experiences children have, the better. If you can actually get to a real Theme Park, the children would learn much more than using this app. This is just a substitute to use as a tool to link topics together which may promote the camouflage learning approach.
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Camouflage Learning - Remove the barrier of "Learning being boring!"

June 22, 2013, 3:33 pm
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I have found I use iPads in two major ways within the classroom: as a tool to engage and as a tool to create. In most of the projects I have completed with the children this year, I have tried to combine both these elements to get the best work from the children. Firstly, using the iPad to provide a focus to use in lessons has had a massive impact as far as engaging children, motivating them and leading them into a "false sense of learning."

I recently attended and presented at a Speed Learning event as St Silas Primary in Liverpool. I provided a staff inset at the school where I shared different ideas of how I use the iPad to get the children engaged and then to create. I am always pleased to see some of those ideas being used. You can see the great work the school is producing on their school blog - http://stsilasblog.net/. It was during the keynote presentation from @digitalroadtrip at the start of the Speed Learning event that the phrase "Camouflage Learning," was introduced. The idea that children are learning by doing activities where they feel they are "playing" is something I am always trying to promote. It is the perfect way to get disengaged/reluctant learners on board and almost trick them into writing/reading/solving problems. Nothing sums this phrase up more than the work produced by children when the focus has been the iPad games they are obsessed with - Angry Birds and Temple Run. You can read the post here.

If you were to ask children what they had done in many of the lessons, some would say they had just played their favourite games, which to some extent is true. I usually had five minutes planned for children to play the game at the start or end of the lesson. However what some may miss telling you is that during the topic they learnt and created vocabulary word walls, character and setting descriptions, comics, stories, instructions, non chronological reports, game play recounts... the list is endless. Using these games as the stimulus and focus in class promotes that mantle of the expert philosophy too. Children are experts in these games, they know how to play, the different parts to the games and teachers can play the 'dummy' role adding more responsibility on the children to produce work which is written correctly, including all the right features. As the children know so much about the games it also means teachers can really focus on the features of a specific text. In the past I have taught non chronological reports about volcanoes, children then have to learn all the information about volcanoes on top of learning the features of the text. For some, it can be too much and focusing on all the information can mean features fall by the wayside.

Here are some of the examples of Camouflage Learning I have used with iPads:

To only use the iPad in this way however will never justify the huge expense of purchasing a class set. It will only have a limited impact on the children's learning as the real potential in these devices lies in the ability for children to find new ways to create and show their knowledge and understanding. As mentioned at the start by combining the engaging with the creating aspects can lead to some of the best work children will produce. I have seen first hand how these devices can support children with SEN and also stretch higher achievers to think more critically and creatively in order to complete tasks. 

Apps such as Explain Everything and Book Creator are redefining the way in which different tasks can be completed to incorporate different skills and promote creativity in a 21st Century Classroom. 

For me though, it all comes down to the teacher! An iPad will not improve you as a teacher, it will not turn you from a satisfactory teacher to an outstanding one. Teachers need to use the iPad in a way that will best fit into the dynamics of the class. Would I use Angry Birds to teach every literacy text genre? Of course not, however, if I know my class will respond well to using that as a focus, I will use it to get the children writing a set of instructions for example. If I feel the children will best demonstrate the objectives of the lesson by creating animations, videos, comics on the iPad then children will use the iPad to prove their understanding of that objective. 

I would like to state that in all my teaching using the iPad, I have never taught an iPad lesson, I teach lessons using the iPad as a vehicle to enhance learning in that particular subject. Camouflage learning is an approach I have seen work in my teaching. The iPad can be a great tool to use to promote this strategy but I must emphasise it is by no way the only way to use these devices.

If you feel camouflage learning is something that your school would benefit from and would like an inset/training on how the iPad can be used in this way, please visit here to learn about training I can provide.


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Introducing Stop Start Animation with KS1

June 24, 2013, 2:00 pm
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Thanks to the people over at @appsgonefree I stumbled across the app Easy Studio, a week or so ago. Usually £2.49, this app was free for a limited time and so like any teacher having to work on a budget, I snapped it up as soon as I could. Sometimes these apps can be hit and miss and I tend to only go for apps I have seen being used in the classroom. At the beginning of our iPad journey, I downloaded endless amounts of apps with some being a complete waste of time. Now I am much more selective and really need to see something in practice before considering rolling the app out to every iPad. This app, Easy Studio, is a real gem!

 The app is a stop start animation app using shapes. Children can create animations by creating shapes, photographing them, moving them, taking another photo and repeating the process so that when all the pictures are played in a sequence an animation is created. The app has two sections; an easy and expert mode. The reason that this app is fantastic for introducing stop start animation to KS1 children is that the tutorials in the easy section really help the children understand the process of creating stop start animations before they try something themselves. This video demonstrates how it looks:





The expert mode allows children to change the size of the shapes, rotate an group them with certain templates to create animals, vehicles and people. They can then photograph and move their shapes to create an animation.This proved a little tricky for some however with a little more guidance, most of the class were able to put a short animation together. 

The children absolutely loved using the app and were mesmorised at seeing their final product. It has given me a great platform to now further some more work looking at stop start animation. 

After using the app, it really opened my eyes to the potential of using this app in other ways throughout the curriculum. As the app using shapes to create the animations, it opens a lot of potential to using the app in Numeracy. A lot of discussion about names of shapes and using shapes to create pictures before then animating them. You could set challenges where the children create animations based on their knowledge of shapes. Create an animation of a square, triangle and semi circle moving, growing and rotating. Once exported, the children could then import the video into iMovie to then record themselves discussing the properties of that shape.  Here are some of the examples from a Year 1 class using the app today:



For some further examples of Stop Motion animation please click the links:
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Making new knowledge stick!

July 5, 2013, 3:42 pm
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When it comes to learning new knowledge and facts relating to a topic, it can sometimes be tricky to find tasks that help children share their learning so that they retain the information. I have seen many lessons and work in books that just seem to involve research and simply copying it into books. I always question how much knowledge the children can recite from this approach.

The iPad is now transforming the way children demonstrate their learning. Recently, I have been working with a class of Year 2 children, where we have been using different approaches relating to the same topic of 'animals in the Savannah' to show how usingthese activities are make our new found knowledge stick.


We first started by generating questions that we wanted to find out: What?..... Where?..... Why?..... How?.... We had to finish those sentences and share with others on their tables and with the class to build up a list of questions that we wanted to answer. As a class we decided to firstly focus on the Cheetah. We then had some time to research on the internet to try and find answers to our questions.

Once they had answers most of their questions it was time to decide how to share our learning. After that, we showed our understanding in three different ways to hopefully make all our new found knowledge stick. Firstly, we used a Green Screen app to let us record ourselves as if we were right there in the Savannah. The app we used was Green Screen Movie FX which allows you to record in front of a green or blue background and change it to a video or picture. We downloaded a video, using the dropbox trick, of a cheetah in its natural habitat and recorded each other sharing some of the facts we had learnt. We could not read the facts, we had to recite what we could remember. We were amazed at the final product and seeing each other stood next to a cheetah! Here is some examples:


 
Green Screen Cheetah Facts from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.
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Next we had to present what they had found out about Cheetahs using the app Puppetpals. We had to add pictures of cheetahs and what they eat as well as a background of the Savannah. Recording ourselves sharing our facts while manipulating the characters created some amazing factual videos. Again with us having to focus on moving the characters it meant we had to recite facts from memory rather than just reading from a sheet, making the knowledge stick. Here are some examples of our videos:  

  Using Puppetpals to share our knowledge of Cheetahs from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.


  Finally we used Pic Collage to create a collage of cheetahs. Using this picture we then annotated it using the app ThingLink. I came across Thinglink after @hiimpactconsult shared it at #TMStockport. This app looks absolutely superb for so many different activities. Thinglink is a webbased tool that allows you to add text, video or hyperlinks to the picture. Within the app, we can import an image and then make it interactive by adding videos within the image. It would be great to use within Literacy lessons to share similes and metaphors for examples, the possibilities are truly endless with this app. Here is one of the examples from our research:



 As an extension, we could then make Thinglink pictures about other animals in the Savannah to see them - CLICK HERE.

All these activities involved the children having to think more carefully about the facts they had learnt about the animals. Rather than simply copy them into a book they are presenting them orally meaning that they cannot simply read rather have to recite and remember. The fact that the children also know most of their work will end up on the school blog to a real audience, it gives the task more of a purpose and therefore encourages the children to create work a the highest possible standard.

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Improving vocabulary on the iPad

July 20, 2013, 3:33 am
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Sat next to my Stepson while he does his homework which happens to be writing a story, "How can we describe the monster?" I say.
"Big," he replies.
"Ok, but I can think of some better words to use...what about gigantic, enormous, colossal???" I ask.
"Big is fine," he answers.

It got me thinking, how can I get him to see the value of more effective vocabulary? So many children are happy to put words regardless of how effective they maybe. They have no reason or incentive to try and improve or choose better words. Some just don't see the value to it. Well what if bigger words could defeat aliens, monsters and other ghastly demons!

One of the children's favourite maths games is Math vs Zombies. Having to apply their quick mental calculations in order to change zombies back into humans. It has them completely engaged and give their learning a purpose - the quicker they are with their maths the better score they will get on the game. Loads of different maths apps are the same - working to get a score. When children have a competitive edge to their work, it will nearly always motivate them to do better.
I wanted to find some similar games/apps for words. Tasks that engage the children and demonstrate the value in having a solid knowledge of a wider more complex vocabulary.

One of the best resources I have used is the book Word Games by Alan Peat.

The books is full of fun, engaging games that purposefully encourages children to play with words. Given them a reason to expand their knowledge of certain vocabulary that in turn impacts on their writing by giving them a wider range of words and techniques to use.

The children love playing these games. As a warm up to a literacy lesson, or daily starter these games emphasise the message that children should play with language which will make them more willing to experiment and try different ideas.



One of the games has been recently turned into a PC game - Word Warriors. Basically the game gives you the first and last letter, your job is to try and think of the longest word you can make using the first and last letter. The bigger the word, the higher the score. The game like aspect of the game having to defeat ghastly ghouls gives that video game element that the children love.

Having played this game with KS1 and KS2 children, it clearly demonstrated how enthusiastic the children become about word choice and vocabulary when it is applied in this video game type manner. The children loved it, trying to not only compete against the computer but each other to get a better score. I am sure it won't be long before this game and other similar ones are available on the iPad. Until such time though here are a couple of others (mostly free) which I have found to be a great tool to use enthuse the children about words and vocabulary.

Word Tumble - A very addictive word game! Connect the letters in any direction to create the word, the longer the word, the more points you get. Special hidden challenges, alongside a timed or freeplay mode has the class hooked and battling against each other to get the biggest score.

What I really like about this app is the follow up activities you can do after a game has finished. The app gives a breakdown of all the statistics from the game summary to word summary and then lists all the words which when clicked reveal the definition of the word. It also gives you the letter usage of each letter. With this you could easily link this with some numeracy aspects -

  • Work out your 5 most used letters? 
  • How many 4 and 5 letter words did you use? 
  • How many times did you use the letters from your first/last name?
 As another follow up you could set the children the task of writing a short story/paragraph trying to use as many of the words they found. If they are unsure of any words they can click within the app to read the definition.

It is an app with a lot of potential for playing with and extending vocabulary.




 Letris 2  in a nutshell is Tetris with words. Letters fall down and fill up and your job is to spell out words by collecting letters. The longer the letters the bigger the score. At the end of the game again the list of words you have made appear and you can click to reveal a dictionary definition, meaning you can set the children tasks using the words they have made.

Another great app to show children the value in more interesting vocabulary, having to think quickly and under pressure also makes this game really exciting.



Opposites - Is a great game to match opposites. Starting of with easier words gradually moving up in difficulty. This app also has a built in dictionary meaning children can check words they are unsure about.

Here is a short clip showing the app in action:


Word Warrior - This is a great game. Go on an epic quest, defeating monsters using your biggest weapon - words! As you battle a villain, your are give a selection of letters and must make the biggest word to cause the most damage.

Children love this app! They enjoy the game like element to it and they certainly see the importance and worth of using longer more impressive vocabulary. This has become favourite for many and the class love spending a starter to a lesson or a 5 minute filler trying to use their knowledge of vocabulary to defeat evil creatures!




94 seconds - This app maybe more like a general knowledge quiz than a word game but great for challenging children to think of alternative words. The app provides different categories but challenges the player by having to name something beginning with a certain letter. For example, name a fruit beginning with L? A mode of transport beginning with B?

If there was a version that was maybe tailored more towards adjectives, verbs or overused words such as - name an alternative to walk beginning with S? That would be perfect! However until then this is still a very entertaining app that will have your class racking their brains trying to find answers!

I am quite aware that I don't want to make it seem that I am simply pushing the message that the bigger the word, the better it will be. I recognise that it does all depend on the flow of the text and effectiveness of that particular word, regardless of size. However after playing some of these games with my Stepson, he remarked during his next piece of homework, "Do you think the word 'astounded' would cause more damage to a monster?"
"Absolutely," I replied!



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A Year to Remember

August 11, 2013, 9:12 am
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I am currently sitting on a plane flying home from a week away, reflecting on the past academic year. It has been an unforgettable year really, and one that has completely changed the direction of my career in a way I never thought possible. 
This time last year I was feeling very apprehensive about the role I was taking on, coming out of the classroom to cover PPA across the whole school. Panicking about teaching in EYFS and KS1 for the first time, worried about other teachers and their perception of my role as I managed to dodge reports, parents evenings and levelling 35 long pieces of writing every other week. I am not going to lie, that aspect made the role very appealing however there was a fear of not having the same connections with children that you have as a class teacher and not having that responsibility for a class and see them develop and excel as learners and people. You can read more about the role here.
Would I change it now? Not at all, I learnt a lot about the school as a whole, giving me a vast experience of what being a senior leader would be like. I quickly discovered the different expectations and challenges that face different year groups and saw how vastly different teachers' issues are within specific year groups and classes. It was the best of both worlds, valued as a class teacher without the stresses (mainly paperwork) of one. I completely fell in love with teaching again and every lesson was as creative and interesting as I could possibly make it and the children seemed to revel in each one. Time that I would normally spend on classroom tasks meant I could really delve into the subject I was teaching and easily spent more time working at home than any previous year.


My role of covering PPA came with a distinct focus on ICT and embedding it across the curriculum. This is where the iPads came into play and what a difference they have made. In my opinion the potential for these devices is immense, there is nothing that comes close to how versatile and effective this technology can be when used effectively in the classroom. I foresee most schools eventually purchasing iPads, however, I fear many will not use it to its full potential. What makes the iPad enhance learning isn't the device itself but the teacher. The teacher's confidence and willingness to use them in their teaching is the real key and this is where schools really need to have a clear vision when purchasing iPads. Schools need to be prepared to invest time to train teachers and develop their professional development in this area. Schools who do this, will see the biggest impact from investing in this technology.

But my journey this year hasn't just been about the iPad it has been able to explore many different avenues for how modern day technology can impact on me as a teacher and the children I teach. Firstly, I would encourage, no plead, for every teacher to embrace social media. I know there is a lot of stigma attached and some people feel they would be vulnerable but without it you are narrowing and restricting your connections with the teaching world. The number of inspiring and truly phenomenal teachers I have connected with this year has been overwhelming and all through social media platforms such as Twitter. To read more about using Twitter as a teacher please read these previous posts – here and here.

The amount of ideas from Twitter we have implemented as a school this year has been endless. For some of the teachers I have introduced to the world of twitter, they have been amazed by how they can connect and interact with many different teachers and educators. It is also thanks to twitter that my career has now taken a completely new direction. From being recommended by other teachers I was approached by Alan Peat and have now made the decision to drop to part time as a teacher so I can provide iPad training through his consultancy company. I have had the opportunity to contribute to the phenomenal resource that is the LiteracyShed, I have also written an article for the fantastic Springboard Stories magazine and I also have other very exciting prospects on the horizon which I cannot yet reveal. All of this just from using twitter! It truly is astounding when I reflect on the amazing way this platform has created these opportunities.

Using twitter or other social media platforms such as Pinterest means you become part of a global staff room, one where you can connect with teachers all over the world. All of whom are looking to share ideas and find new resources. Most will gladly reply and answer questions and it can be a massive confidence boost to you as a teacher when an idea you share is commented on by a fellow teacher. There are no hidden agendas, just teachers who want to share and learn about ways to improve as a teacher. I heard from another teacher that she doesn't use Google to search for resources, instead hashtags on twitter and 9 times out of 10 get the answer she wanted, I too now take this approach. Most of the ideas I shared came from this blog, which brings me onto my next recommendation that has been crucial this year... blogging. Blogging both as a class/school and as a teacher has been both inspiring and a great way for me to reflect as a teacher. To really use iPads to their potential you will need a blog as a platform to share work produced on them. 

There is no doubting the impact blogging has raising standards, just follow David Mitchell for evidence of this. As this has been the first year we have blogged we have had glimpses of the potential blogging has. Our problem at the beginning was that I was the main driving force behind it without a class, meaning it limited us in certain ways. To read some of the ways in which blogging has been used successfully click here and here. We mainly used it to showcase what we were doing on the iPads and we had an amazing response (visit our blog here.) This led me to create my own teacher blog. This has been an amazing way for me to reflect and share thoughts, ideas and resources again to a wonderfully surprising response. It has contributed massively to the new direction I will be taking in September and I thoroughly intend to continue to use my blog as a way of sharing experiences and lesson ideas. 

There has also been other tools that have helped me on my way and things I would recommend getting involved in to further extend your network and also gain some amazing ideas. Teachmeets are an great way for teachers to share successful projects and resources and it has been a fantastic way to connect with other teachers, they are also brilliant as they are free! I also attended a Speed Learning event which was similar and just as useful. 

I could continue this post listed the endless great tools I have come across this year, but most will have been previously blogged about. I could also mention everyone that has made my new venture possible and I want to make it clear I am extremely grateful to everyone who has recommended me, helped me and given me the opportunity to train them or work with their school. I hope most people know who they are and the main reason for writing this post was to say thanks to everyone who has continued to support me.  I am looking forward to my new venture as a trainer for schools who have purchased iPads and require guidance for the best way to use these devices in the classroom. If you want more information and details of what training I can provide please click here.




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