This year, I have achieved Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert status. This has been awarded to 8,800 educators around the world.
This journey began when I became a Skype guest speaker through the British Council over a year ago. Through this I discovered a range of online professional development courses. These courses have enabled me to explore the Microsoft range of software and apps for use within the classroom.
Through these courses I have been able to introduce children to OneNote with preloaded content that enables dyslexic pupils to use immersive reader. Immersive reader allows the pupil to have the text read to them. This turns a lesson into a fully inclusive lesson in which all pupils can access the content within the lesson without needing additional adult support.
OneNote allows a range of content to be added including the fantastic Microsoft forms. In the class OneNote I am able to provide pupils with the immersive reader if they needed it. I can then follow up their understanding of what they had read and learnt throughout the lesson using Microsoft form within the Class OneNote. This provides good summative assessment of the pupils learning.
As a school we completed Critical Thinking training through the Geographical Association and British Council. This led to a partnership with a school in Amman, Jordan based around the Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights.
The Microsoft 21st century skills course was extremely valuable for planning lessons based on developing the skills pupils need for the 21st century. These skills are essential for our pupils for their future. To develop this further I have based our international Erasmus+ project on critical thinking skills. This will enable me to share my knowledge on 21st Century skills with other teachers who will be visiting from other countries.
I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the Microsoft Innovative educator expert community and can't wait to develop my skills and knowledge over the forthcoming year.
Sunday 26 August 2018
Tuesday 19 June 2018
Skype in the classroom #mysteryskype
Since discovering the main possibilities of Skype in the classroom, my pupils have become huge Skype fans. Today we took part in a mystery Skype which was great fun for the children as they tried to guess where our Skype guest was from using questions where the replies could only be yes or no.
The learning that took place during this process was impressive as the children used atlases for a real purpose. It was also a great opportunity to complete some assessment for learning linked to their geographical knowledge. It became apparent very quickly which children knew a range of countries and those who were struggling. The children formulated some good questions that enabled them to eventually guess the name of the country (India) and then a few further questions and more searching in the altlas enabled them to name the city.
Our Skype partner then shared a fantastic Sway on screen to introduce the children to some key information about India. The children learnt about the religions, dress, food, festivals and dancing.
It has been amazing to be able to introduce the children to people from around the world, from Skype with our partner school in Jordan to a Skype session with the author Christina Farley from the UK. The children are so excited to find out where we will visit next.
The learning that took place during this process was impressive as the children used atlases for a real purpose. It was also a great opportunity to complete some assessment for learning linked to their geographical knowledge. It became apparent very quickly which children knew a range of countries and those who were struggling. The children formulated some good questions that enabled them to eventually guess the name of the country (India) and then a few further questions and more searching in the altlas enabled them to name the city.
Our Skype partner then shared a fantastic Sway on screen to introduce the children to some key information about India. The children learnt about the religions, dress, food, festivals and dancing.
It has been amazing to be able to introduce the children to people from around the world, from Skype with our partner school in Jordan to a Skype session with the author Christina Farley from the UK. The children are so excited to find out where we will visit next.
Friday 1 June 2018
Microsoft in the classroom
Sway
I have begun using Sway as both a teaching tool and for pupils to create their own presentations. Following a visit to Jordan in February I have been working on a project with the school in Jordan that we are partnered with. The project is linked to the sustainable development goals and human rights.
First, I used sway to create an interactive presentation with photos, videos and links for the children to learn more about Jordan. https://sway.com/RSIcKNpzPFP6ldlV?ref=Link Following, this we looked at universal human rights with a specific focus on the UN children's rights.
The children in both the UK and Jordan then had to work on deciding which rights they thought were most important. They then had to put them into a diamond 9 of their most important. The British Council provide a good pack of ideas to support the lesson:
The children in both the UK and Jordan then had to work on deciding which rights they thought were most important. They then had to put them into a diamond 9 of their most important. The British Council provide a good pack of ideas to support the lesson:
The children in both Jordan and the UK then produced pictures to represent the right that they though was most important.
The children then shared their pictures during a Skype session and were able to ask questions that had been shared prior to the session.
The children then shared their pictures during a Skype session and were able to ask questions that had been shared prior to the session.
Following on from this we explored the sustainable development goal of zero hunger. Again this was introduced using Sway. https://sway.com/P5zjYBCnAEoWtDA8?ref=Link
Finally, the children were given their own login to create their own sway on human rights to share with the children in Jordan.
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