Comenius visit to The Czech Republic

In October I was fortunate to be the teacher representing our school at our first meeting for our Comenius project 'Virtual Museum of Monsters'.  It was an absolutely amazing experience.  I flew to Prague airport and was greeted by the Czech teacher Zdenek who had organised the whole program of our visit.  With his help I then travelled from Prague to Trutnov, a three hour train journey.  I love travelling by train and it was a fantastic way to see the Czech Republic.  When I arrived another teacher George was there to greet me and take me to my accommodation.  The Penzion Pohoda where I was staying was fantastic and affordable.  The room had free wifi, a tv and an ensuite bathroom!  Breakfast was in the restaurant downstairs (the cellar).

That evening as all the other teachers were beginning to arrive from, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Italy not the mention all the Czech teachers, I was beginning to feel somewhat apprehensive.  All the other schools had travelled with at least one other colleague whereas I as on my own.  When Zdenek called to say it was time to go to dinner I was relieved to be collected and taken to the restaurant.  As the teachers began to arrive I began to feel less worried as they were all so friendly and welcoming.  After a delicious Czech meal I was beginning to feel more prepared for the following few days.

Over the following days we got to know each other and were able to plan more aspects of the project in more detail.  Alongside this planning of our project we were also able to see some of the Czech schools and learn more about the education system both in the Czech Republic and from each other.

In all other European schools children are classed as preschool for longer than in the Uk.  The schools in the Czech Republic had beautiful artwork produced by the pupils with the support of specialist art teachers.  We were able to see how ICT is being developed with some of the older children demonstrating their lego robots.  The children performed dances for us and we were made to feel very welcome.

We also saw how beautiful it is in the Czech republic with a visit to Adrspach Rocks which involved a 5km walk around the rocks.  Some of which was quite scary as I don't like heights and we ended up climbing quite high.

 

 This is the view of the lake when we first arrived.

We had to walk up and down lots of very narrow steps to see some of the beautiful rocks and scenery.

The whole trip was an amazing experience.  It was so nice to get to know some of the teachers that we will be working with over the next two years.  We were able to plan how to ensure our pupils are collaborating and how the project is going to develop.  

The next visit is going to be in the UK so my job now is to ensure that I provide as many opportunities as we had in the Czech Republic to see both schools but also some of the places that you would never visit if you didn't have a guide from the country.

Guardian.co.uk - Children's authors attack plans for phonics reading test

Guardian.co.uk - Children's authors attack plans for phonics reading test

I wish I could be in the Olympics

I wish I could be in the Olympics

Phonics Check

Today for the first time I have had to administer a phonics check to all my year 1 children. Throughout the year I have done plenty of checks on their progress in reading and their phonic knowledge. The assessments I use do not continue if the child is beginning to struggle. They are linked to the different phonic phases so I know exactly where each child is working and what their next steps are. For some year 1 children I focus on comprehension and use running records to establish their reading strengths and weaknesses.

The check the children sat through today contained nonsense words for the first 3 pages. The children tried to make sense of what they were faced with and tried to apply their skills, out of context, in the head teachers office. I felt incredibly guilty administering this as the rest of my class were completing some creative writing which could have been hugely improved with the support of their teacher.

For the children involved in the check they were clearly finding the whole experience slightly strange and for others it was probably far worse as they probably came away feeling like they really didn't understand what they had just had to do.  My hope is that as it was 10 minutes at most per child they will hopefully have forgotten about it and just put it down to one of those strange things teachers sometimes do.

Now my aim is to ensure that today was not a complete waste of time. I shall look at all the words, place them in the correct phonics phase, analyse the children's incorrect responses and look at the strategies they used to try to make sense of what they were reading. Most importantly I will carry on teaching the children to read, to make sense of what they read and develop a love of books. Reading should be a pleasure it should be something we do to extract meaning and should provide us with enjoyment. I have interventions in place to help the children who are struggling with the complex skill of reading and will continue to support those children. I just hope this check hasn't damaged their self esteem and undone all that we have been doing all year.

eTwinning Conference in Nottingham 2012

This is the second year in which I have been fortunate enough to be invited to the eTwinning UK conference.  It is by far the best professional development I have received.  Often as teachers' we get sent on training courses in which you are sitting with teachers who are tired and jaded and do not wish to be there.  This is not my experience at any event organised by the British Council eTwinning team.  Instead I have spent this weekend with teachers who are inspiring and enthusiastic.

I began my first eTwinning project in October 2010 with a fantastic teacher in The Netherlands and I never for once thought it would lead to the fantastic opportunities I have since had. My very first experience was a trip to Lithuania in June 2011 in which I learnt about web 2.0 tools for the classroom and mobile technology.  I was absolutely terrified when I set off with absolutely no idea what to expect and was amazed by the fact it was such a positive experience.

I then attended the conference in Nottingham in 2011 and found that to be just as inspiring but far more daunting.  I discovered when arriving in Nottingham that most people already seemed to know each other and have lots to talk about.  I had no idea of who anyone was apart from one person I had met in Lithuania. If it had not been for her I may have decided to go home as I felt like I was a scared child again on her first day at a new school.  However, I stayed and I got to know some lovely people who I learnt a lot from.

This year my experience was completely different when I arrived I was pleased to see people I knew from training in Manchester and the European Conference in Berlin.  It was great to catch up with people and we were able to share ideas and discuss what had happened since we last met.   At the back of my mind though was the fact that there would be others this year who felt as I did last year.  I met a few people who were there for the first time and they all mentioned similar feelings that I had felt the year before.  By Sunday they were buzzing with enthusiasm just as I had been last year and have again felt this year.  I feel it is a real honour to be invited to such an event and can't wait now to go back to the classroom to put some of the ideas into practice.

Survey on the new Primary Curriculum

This is a link to a survey by a colleague for her professional enquiry for her MA.  Please help by filling it in.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Uni_Leicester_HonselWJ9FW23

The Power of Twitter

I have just read over the past few day a book called 'Starter' by Lissa Price.  It is a young adult book set in a dystopian America in which all the parents have died out and children are either looked after by their grandparents or have noone.  The only reason I bought this book was that over Easter there were a lot of tweets promoting the book and I then wanted to read it to see what the fuss was about.  I got the book during the Easter holidays but only had time to read it now as I have been reading all the books on the UKLA book awards shortlist.
I have read the book over the three days and can't wait until Enders is out later this year.  The book contains a strong female lead character and has some great twists that you just don't expect.  It explores the possible issues that would come with an ageing population who long to be young.  It also leads to the question of who should be vaccinated against disease as it is often the elderly and the young first so what happens to the young who become orphans.
Lissa Price is a new author who has successfully promoted her book via people using Twitter to discuss it.  She also uses the technology of aurasma to make her book cover come to life.  It is the second book I have that has a cover that does this and it fascinated my children.
I would both recommend this book but would also recommend the use of Twitter to positively promote books.  

Clickety Books website

This is an interesting set of books based on advice from speech and language therapists showing an understanding between the difficulties a child may have with reading if they have speech and language difficulties.
The books are not phonetically decodable but instead have a lot of rhyme.  Each book come with a cd as well.
http://www.clicketybooks.co.uk/

Year 6 SAT's

My eldest is just about to take his year 6 SAT's.  Over the past couple of weeks we have had tears, tantrums and complete meltdowns.  He is terrified he won't be able to achieve the level he has been targeted to achieve. Ever since year 2 he has worried, every May he has worried about what level he is and could he do better.  My son works hard, he does his homework, listens to the teacher and wants to learn.
As a teacher I know how much pressure there is to get children to the 'right' level but as a parent I just want my son to do his best, for himself, for his school and for his teachers who have worked hard throughout his time at school.   Credit must go to every teacher not just the year 6 teachers.  However, I think that there is something seriously wrong with an education system that causes this much stress in children from such a young age.  What is worse still is the fact that while teachers have their pupils best interests at heart they also fear the wrath of ofsted if the pupils don't make the expected levels.
Worse still I have three more children to go through primary school alongside the eldest getting through secondary school.

Escape into a Painting - Resources - TES

Plan using mindomo for a project using Bruegel's painting of children's games.  The plan incorporates, art, history and philosophy. Escape into a Painting - Resources - TES

Prezi slide show about The Queen - Resources - TES

Prezi slide show about The Queen - Resources - TES
A Prezi slide show about The Queen.

Problem solving - Resources - TES

Problem solving - Resources - TES A powerpoint for year 2 developing problem solving.

Ofsted

http://www.literacymatters.com/ofsted/

An overview of the new Ofsted framework.  They offer training online (at a cost) that takes an hour.  I have been involved in webinars through various online training I have taken part in through eTwinning and The National College for School Leadership.  Both have been fantastic but have not been at any additional cost.  I think that accessing learning through the web is fantastic but I think that it needs to be recognised that people are taking part perhaps in the evening having taught all day so sometimes some face to face learning during the day is nice as well.

At the farm

The last day of the Easter holiday we decided to go to the farm for the afternoon.  In total there were 14 children.  The children all had a great time feeding the animals, holding the pets and going on a tractor ride.  For a small farm (Stonehurst in Mountsorrel) we managed to keep all the children entertained for the whole afternoon and they didn't want to go home.  The rope swing in the barn was a big it with all the children but they all said their favourite part of the day was when they got to hold the baby rabbits.

Writing a story using the IWB - Resources - TES

Writing a story using the IWB - Resources - TES

Writing a story using the IWB - Resources - TES

Writing a story using the IWB - Resources - TES

Powerpoint quiz about Florence Nightingale - Resources - TES

Powerpoint quiz about Florence Nightingale - Resources - TES

Europa - Information Society - Digital Agenda Scoreboard - Netherlands

Europa - Information Society - Digital Agenda Scoreboard - Netherlands
The Netherlands are one of the world leaders in broadband.  Interestingly when I visited the Netherlands they do not have the same restrictions on websites in the classroom that we have in the UK.  Teacher's make great use of the resources on youtube and other websites for the children.

Europa - Information Society - Digital Agenda Scoreboard - United Kingdom

Europa - Information Society - Digital Agenda Scoreboard - United Kingdom

80% of households having internet connection.  This suggests that the majority of children will have some access to the internet.  This means we must consider how we teach children to be safe and embrace new technology.
We also seem to be at the forefront of internet shopping is this a good thing or not?

ipad and itouch Apps

From the workshop on using mobile technology in schools at the eTwinning European Conference I created this mind map using idea sketch.  It is by no means a comprehensive list of all the apps you could use but it is a good starting place.

I have watched my daughter this morning pick a recipe from my ipad cookie doodle app her friend is playing tic tac toe phonics just for fun even though it is the school holidays because it is 'just a game' and Sean has recorded a movie on his itouch.  These are our digital natives who move seamlessly from one device to another incorporating them into everyday life.  As teacher's we need to facilitate children's learning through the advances in technology.  The teachers of the future are those who I met at the conference with enthusiasm and commitment to using technology to create 21st century learning.

Click here to see the mindomo of some web 2.0 websites that I have made.

This is a website I found out about at the eTwinning European Conference.  I would be interested to see how other people use it.

During the session I made a mind map using the app idea sketch.  Using idea sketch you can either share is via idea sketch on IOS devices, share it as a picture or share it as a list in a pdf format which can be emailed.

eTwinning a model for future schools

eTwinning a model for future schools

eTwinning European Conference in Berlin

Having returned from the eTwinning European conference in Berlin I am trying to plan and organise how I am going to use and share all the inspirational things that I have learnt.  I have copious notes on my iPad including mind maps I made, lists of websites, apps and ideas that I wish to explore.  Alongside this is the idea of what education will look like in the 21st Century and how we as teachers can facilitate and foster this.
First I aim to look at the websites that were shown to us in the web 2.0 workshop and then decide which could be used in my eTwinning projects and other projects in school.  I will probably begin with getting one of my four children to use prezzi to do their homework and see how they get on.

These mind maps are really interesting, a great idea.

http://www.pearltrees.com/#/N-p=3717688&N-u=1_160834&N-fa=254554&N-s=1_513871&N-f=1_513871

Photos and my iPad

Why is it I can't upload the photos that are on my iPad to blogger? I also have been trying to upload a music file from a digital microphone but that won't work. It is so frustrating when websites don't support everything. O e of the most impressive things I have brought recently is a connector to upload photos from my camera to my iPad making it like a digital phot frame but also means they go into my iCloud so hopefully my photos will no longer get lost.

Winston

Winston is visiting from Scotland.  This is him making pancakes on shrove Tuesday.

Talking Ben

Em (7) created this using talking Ben.

My favourite iPad apps

I have tried to think of some of some of the apps that I think are useful for education. These are all apps that I have actually used with children.

Me books- they are old ladybird books but my children love listening to the stories and then try and read them.

Dyslexia quest- it is great to watch children on this as you can see what they can and can't do. It also tells you some of the signs of dyslexia and what it may mean for a pupil.

Talking Tom and other talking apps- good for encouraging children to talk, listen back to themselves etc.

Paint my wings- very creative app that also gives you the opportunity to talk about symmetry.

Dinosaur stickers- a great app for making scenes, developing visual matching as they have to find the stickers and put them in the right place.

Bloons tower defence 4- very addictive but good for working out which towers you can afford to buy.

Monopoly
Scrabble
Hand paint-another painting app

These are all great for young children.