Teacher Well Being

Teacher Well Being

Recently I attended a SENCO conference on mental health and well being.  It was a truly fantastic conference organised by Forest Way Teaching School Alliance.

One of the speakers, Des Hewitt, was very inspiring when he spoke about the importance of looking after teachers mental health and well being.  It made me realise some of the elements in my career that have helped me to keep going.  

1. Connect with others

For me the connection with other teachers has always revitalised me when I am feeling uninspired.  This is mainly through connecting with teachers around Europe through eTwinning.  I know that the network of UK eTwinners and European eTwinners are always there to support and offer suggestions.  I also know that this community holds the principles of education as being collaborative as central.  The ideas and resources that are shared, as well as, the fantastic opportunities I have had through eTwinning have ensured that I haven't become disillusioned with teaching.

2. Learn something new

I have always enjoyed learning and have had plenty of opportunities to be a lifelong learner. In my career, I have been fortunate enough to have head teachers who allowed me to take part in a range of CPD.  Some of my passions are SEN, literacy and iPads.  However, through eTwinning, I have learnt a lot about computing and technology.  I have been able to attend courses at the future classroom lab.  The future classroom lab is in Brussels and the presenters there are so inspiring, with some great ideas for activities to inspire learning in class.  Not only therefore have I learnt new things but the pupils I work with also benefit.

3. Be aware of your own feelings

This is a very personal one.  While working at a different school someone suggested I need more resilience.  This led me to question what resilience is and whether I did lack it.  I think that being aware of my own feelings is far more important.  I was very unhappy at that school and once I recognised this I was able to deal with this.  I handed my notice and moved on to the role I am in now.  I am much happier, although it is not easy.  I am also honest with the people around me and make sure I make time to connect with others in school.  It is really important that we are aware of how are feeling affect our interactions and I hope that I have become much better at this.

4. Get Active

Just before the summer I began running again with a couple of friends.  This is something I know has a very positive effect and is one of the hardest to keep doing. I haven't been as active recently and I do notice this.  I know that to keep positive, running is one of the best things I can do.  However, at the moment I am trying to do either a walk or a run as I have hurt my knee.

5. Do something good for others.

At school at the moment there is a lot of pressure from external advisors.  This is leading to staff feeling quite low at the moment.  Des Hewitt, talked about an NQT who made some well being bags for staff at her school.  It was such a lovely idea that I wanted to try and do something similar.  I contacted a number of educational companies to see if they would be willing to donate anything to my teacher well being bags.  The response was absolutely amazing.  

Thanks to Twinkl, eTwinning, TTS, Worth it projects, Be the Jellyfish, Curve Theatre, Action for Happiness, Education Support Partnership and Nasen for sending donations.

Tomorrow I will be giving these bags out to all the staff in school not just teacher's but every adult who works in school.  I hope it goes a little was to helping everyone feel their contribution is valued and hopefully they will all try to do follow the advice of the teacher 5 a day for mental health and well being.

Pokemon Go in Italy

I have to admit that ever since my children introduced me to Pokemon Go I have been very fascinated by it.  

Anywhere you go that attracts tourists is great for Pokemon hunting and Florence was no exception.  With so many beautiful landmarks, the poke stops are only a few metres apart.  While I am getting somewhat bored with catching Pidgy's Ratta and Sparrow's at home, I decided to give Pokemon hunting a try while visiting Florence.  

Initially I was somewhat disappointed as a Pidgy appeared followed by a Ratta.  However as I stocked up on Poke balls and potions an Evie appeared.  Then I spotted on my nearby list a silhouette of something I didn't have.  After a bit more walking toward the river I had caught a couple of magicarp, then a Pinsir appeared.  I had not caught a Pinsir so was excited to add a new Pokemon to my pokedex.  Sadly after three attempts the Pinsir ran off.  Later that day I discovered Pinsir's are not rare in Florence and by the end of my short stay had caught seven.  

I hatched another egg while walking and was fortunate enough to get a Lapras from it.  My buddy, a graveler, managed to give me enough candy to evolve.

My most exciting catch was Pikachu who appeared near a poke stop while I was sitting enjoying a pizza for lunch.  Then on the way to the airport I caught a Grimer who I had never even heard of before.  I used a raspberry and an ultra ball in the hope it would guarantee a catch which luckily it did.

All in all I think I may stick to Pokemon hunting in tourist places from now on as it is more exciting than the Pidgy's and Ratta's around my house.

Pokemon Go fun for the Summer

During this holiday the app Pokemon Go has dominated my children's time.  Having discussed it with them I realised that the appeal in this game is based on the desire to collect the best, highest rating and rarest Pokemon. If they felt I was going to try and make it educational they would soon switch it off and find something different.
It has however provided plenty of opportunities for discussion and has developed certain skills.
I have seen a number of negative articles and a number of articles that suggest how Pokemon Go can be used in education.  I do not intend to suggest ways it can be used in education, instead I have some reasons why it is a positive app for children to be playing on.

There are a number of crucial elements to this game that children and adults have to understand in order to succeed:

1. You have a choice of starter Pokemon and the all three, plus Pikachu are quite hard to find.  
2. Depending on where you live, you may have difficulty finding interesting Pokemon, unless you leave the house and walk around.
3. The best places to find lots of Pokemon are parks.
4. The higher the level you are on the higher the combat power (CP) of some of the Pokemon you catch.  
5. In order to progress you need to catch a lot of Pokemon as you get more XP for one that isn't in your Pokedex.
6. You need to catch lots of the same to evolve your Pokemon as you need to gain enough candy of each type to evolve them.
7. You can train in gyms controlled by the same team as you, you have to fight in gyms controlled by other teams.  
8. If you gain control of a gym you are rewarded with Pokemon coins.  (you will need these if you run out of Pokeballs.)
9. If you visit 10 different Pokestops in 30 minutes you get a bonus.
10. You have to walk or ride a bike slowly to hatch your eggs.

From my 15 year old to my 10 year old, all are playing on Pokemon Go.  Rather than sitting in front of screens they have left the house and walked around searching for the rare Pokemon.  We have walked along beaches, the Thames, through parks and theme parks searching for Pokemon.  Discussions have involved how many magikarp are needed to evolve if you get 3 candy per magikarp and need 400 candy to evolve.  They also have walked and walked to hatch their eggs.

The reason I like this app so much is that it has got my children out and about, talking to each other about what they have caught and seen.  We have visited places that they would have protested about in the past including some beautiful parks in London.  You can even catch one or two on the London Eye.

Green Screen workshop eTwinning Conference 2016

It’s behind you! Greenscreening in eTwinning

Led by Joe Dale

Prior to the workshop we had been emailed a list of apps to download that we would be using in the session.  This was really helpful as it meant I had a chance to look at them prior to the workshop.  

Having been to one of Joe Dale's sessions before I was prepared this time for the pace.  Joe's sessions cram as much into them as possible and at times the speed at which he is able to do things can be quite scary.  I would love to record the sessions so that I could pause at certain points to practice for a bit longer.  I was trying to make notes and follow the step by step instructions which was going well until we go to using FlickStackr Explore.  I decided the best way to try to note take was to screen shot as I was doing different things.

First Joe asked us to save a green background to our camera roll.  

Then we used my talking avatar app to record u to 5 minutes of speech.  

  

This clip was them put into Doink green screen app along with the green background.  We then could record our avatar against another background.

Moving swiftly on Joe then asked us to use Tintype to make a photo look old.  

Then we put this photo into Yakkit kids.

I choose an image I already had in my camera roll for this.

Then using image chef we place the green background into the newspaper.

Then we saved this to our camera roll and went back to green screen doink app.

This then enabled us to create a talking newspaper. (very Harry Potter like)

Following on from this Joe then showed us how we could get an image like a TV but make sure it was creative commons licensed.  At this point he used the explain everything app to put the image in to edit it and then went back to the green screen doink app.

Joe had then created a video clip on an old style TV outside a French cafe.  I was starting to plan how I could use this in the classroom.  I think it will be a great way for SEN children who struggle to get things written down to succeed and share their ideas.

Using MSQRD you can create some fantastic special effects, that again, I think my class will really enjoy using.  These can then be put into the green screen app with a different background.  

Joe also used pic collage to put a message in a heart shape.

                    

Joe then showed how to use adobe spark.  I have used adobe spark to make video clips but hadn't thought of using it with green screen.

Joe's session introduced so many apps that could be used in imaginative ways that I would never have thought of.  It was great to have the time to explore them but, the session really wasn't long enough.  I am really looking forward to exploring them further and hope that the children I work with will take the ideas even further.  

It was a fantastic and very informative session that covered a huge amount.  I now need the time to embed all I have learnt and may well need to contact Joe for further advice when I realise I have forgotten one of the steps of the app smashing!

This was the list of apps we downloaded prior to the session:

Doink

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8 (this costs £2.29 but Joe finds it really useful in getting some hands on practice in Greenscreening)

FlickStackr Explore

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/flickstackr-explore-for-flickr/id390094427?mt=8

My Talking Avatar Free

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-talking-avatar-free/id933034219?mt=8

Pic Collage

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pic-collage-for-kids-best/id977081997?mt=8

ImageChef

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/imagechef-mix-text-photos/id330357169?mt=8

TinType

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tintype/id573431688?mt=8

Yakit Kids

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yakit-kids/id794546203?mt=8

Tellagami

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gami/id572737805?ls=1&mt=8

MegaPhoto

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mega-photo-800+-free-real/id471883260?mt=8

PhotoFunia

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/photofunia/id321240709?mt=8

MSQRD

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/msqrd-live-filters-face-swap/id1065249424?mt=8

Etwinning conference 2016 Minecraft in the classroom

Minecraft Workshop

Led by Ray Chambers

I am really keen to try to capitalise on the children's obsession with minecraft and use it as an educational tool.  I am however very concerned that I need to spend time understanding how it works before I do this.  I therefore, took the opportunity to go to Ray Chambers workshop on minecraft.  He began by suggesting some of the curriculum areas minecraft could be used to develop learning in a different way.  

I know from watching my own son on minecraft, the power it can have.  He was able to create some amazing structures and was even able to create and run his own servers, however I am not sure that I could do such things or have enough time to do it.  

Ray was able to explain how the educator edition of minecraft works, although there is a beta version released by microsoft which may be slightly different, as a teacher you have control over the world the children are in.  That means you can freeze the players, withhold objects, keep children in creative mode rather than survival and you can stop it becoming dark.

Ray demonstrated his knowledge and expertise with some explanations followed by a opportunity to play.  I realised how it becomes very addictive as you just want to finish what you are doing and so when the session ended I wanted to finish the house I was building.

I am still somewhat reticent about using minecraft in school as I know how addicted some children are.  However, I am going to look into having a lunchtime minecraft club once I get the educator edition.  I hope I can use it to challenge the children to build specific structures linked to stories, like the example Ray showed of a bible story told through minecraft.  I would really like to see the children create some games or challenges in minecraft as well.  Ray showed a great example of children having to use grid references to find treasure that was buried.  

I would really like to use minecraft in a traditional tales project.  I would like to see the children creating a fairy tale world with all the different building, such as the gingerbread cottage, little Red Riding Hood's house and Grandma's cottage, a giant beanstalk with a castle etc.

As Ray pointed out is like lego but speeded up.  I love lego so can see no reason why I can't combine minecraft and lego.

The final element I want to capitalise on is the use of writing within minecraft.  I think some of my reluctant writers might be willing to write a sign or in a book in minecraft rather than putting pencil to paper.  

Etwinning Conference 2016

The etwinning conference in Nottingham has to be one of the highlights of the year.  I always come away feeling inspired, enthusiastic and part of a fantastic network of educators.  This year was no exception, despite the uncertainty following the EU referendum, it was clear that this was not going to stop teachers from discussing projects and planning global learning.
Following the results of the referendum it is crucial that we continue to develop children's global awareness.  Etwinning is one of the tools that can be used to do this, through projects that link to the curriculum and collaboration with classes around Europe.
This year the focus of the conference was digital literacy.  There were workshops from some excellent presenters that gave some great ideas for classroom practice.   The keynotes were interesting and informative. @inkythinking's visual representation of the whole conference was absolutely amazing.

It is always hard to quantify what was the most inspiring aspects of the conference.  What I do know is that even with only 3 weeks of term to go, I am planning my next etwinning projects and thinking of all the digital literacy skills I will enabling my pupils to showcase in their projects.

Week 5 etwinning MOOC