Tag: Technologies

ICT Resources to Support Social Subjects in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with primary class teachers on a variety of ICT resources to support teaching Social Subjects in the Primary School.

Resources

Here are links to some of the resources shared:

What was there, then and now – Tools to compare photographs of same views then and now http://glo.li/pzwVdT 

Class character exchange – engaging with another class in another part of the world by exchanging a soft-toy character or other figure. Provides a route into pupils having a better understanding of people in place. http://glo.li/NUzqij 

On This Day in History Link topic to events by particular days http://glo.li/Whu37F

Timeline Tools – Marking Milestones in History Timeline Tools including Fakebook – Facebook-like timeline, Twister – Twitter-like events as they happen http://glo.li/IYu6fU 

Geograph the British Isles – combining mapping, photography and gaming http://glo.li/HbTeQZ

Our Governments – Scottish, UK and EU parliaments http://glo.li/mSDggW

World Disasters and Emergencies – Learn about natural disasters around the world. Resources to support dealing with emergencies http://glo.li/JxNmxr 

Use digital video cameras for pupils to engage with social studies topics and demonstrate their understanding of the information. Create stop-motion animation to illustrate features, concepts or event sequence. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/

Outdoor Learning – the outdoor clasroom http://glo.li/rycd4U

SCRAN – Cultural Resources Archive – Images & videos with full descriptions and automatic credits for use in class projects. Free access through Glow http://glo.li/mTo4Ui

Google Earth – Explore anywhere in the world http://glo.li/v4NDkU 

Quiz-creation tools – create self-correcting quizzes, provide feedback on what has been learned by pupils, pupils creating quizzes motivates & helps embed learning http://glo.li/g73CnR

Further Online Links

Teaching Ideas – a series of crowd-sourced ideas shared by teachers http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/history/contents.htm

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/geography/contents.htm 

Cybrary Man links to resources by category http://cybraryman.com/socialstudieslinks.html

ICT to Support Modern Languages in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with primary class teachers on a variety of ICT resources to support teaching Modern Languages in the Primary School. 

Resources

Audacity – Record pupil voice with Audacity, create and edit audio as pupil listening activities (e.g. cutting individual words or phrases and pasting them out of sequence in the audio for other pupils to correctly re-sequence the words) , turn into mp3 files (such as recitations or songs of individuals or groups of pupils) for sharing on school website, class blog or Glow group: http://glo.li/gJxmOi  

Little Bird Tales – Pupils create stories combining their voice with text (of vocabulary, phrases or sequence of sentences) and their images (either uploaded or created online with an artpad within the Little Bird Tales site) http://www.littlebirdtales.com/ and http://glo.li/rsrAzz for description, guide and video of use. 

Use digital video cameras for pupils to engage with texs and demonstrate their understanding of the text. Create stop-motion animation to illustrate vocabulary, phrase, poem or song. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/

Hello Mylo for Games-based learning, has online badges reward pupil progress, teacher account provides pupil progress reports. http://glo.li/RqNj0r

Create word-cloud images for wall display, blog, or website. Pupils create a word cloud of vocabulary on specific topics. Connect foreign word and English word in Wordle by adding a tilde between the words (~) or omit the connection and use as lesson starter for pupils to connect word and translation with pen on interactive whiteboard http://glo.li/f2Ifx9

Comic Creation Tools – pupils sequence stories in chosen language, or annotate conversations with images and speech bubbles for visual story-telling. Free online Comic-creation tools and resources here: http://glo.li/eEkUjo 

Google Translate – Use Google Translate to translate any text by copying and pasting words/phrases, paragraphs or a whole document or website. Use the speech feature to hear the text spoken with the accent of the chosen language. Translate class blog or school website. http://translate.google.com/

Lingro – Highlight words on any website in chosen language, Listen to the words spoken, Translate, then play flashcard games with all words chosen – all within the Lingro toolbar along the top of any website you choose. http://glo.li/hNnhFk 

Song Videos with Lyrics – Online videos with printed lyrics to follow http://chansons-fr.com/ – may provide inspiration for pupils to create own videos http://glo.li/gTmdzS (for resources about using Flipcam-type video cameras). Lyrics-gap Songs on video with choice of level of missing words for pupils to select from words while listening http://www.lyricsgaps.com/ 

Classtools: Online class gaming tools already created for French or German. Easily add own arcade-type games with own questions/answers http://www.classtools.net 

Quiz-creation tools – create self-correcting quizzes, provide feedback on what has been learned by pupils, pupils creating quizzes motivates & helps embed learning http://glo.li/g73CnR

Further Online Links

Teaching Ideas – a series of crowd-sourced ideas shared by teachers http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/foreignlanguages/contents.htm

Cybrary Man links to resources by category http://cybraryman.com/foreign.html 

Comments from participants included: 

“Made me keen to try sites with my class.” 

“Really useful, easy to understand and well presented.”

Using a Smart Board to Support Active Learning in Primary Mathematics

Anne Forrest from Steljes presented a continuing professional development course to staff from a wide range of primary schools in Falkirk on “Using a Smart Board to Support Active Learning in Primary Mathematics.” This was organised and supported by Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team.

This provided hands-on guidance to making use of many of the interactive features of Smart Notebook software to support staff to make learning and teaching in mathematics more engaging for pupils.

Reference was made to resources available to download for free at Smart Exchange. Smart Notebook Express provides a means to access some of the tools in Smart Notebook online.

The presentation by Anne Forrest, along with a host of other resources colleated by Malcolm Wilson to support Falkirk teachers to be able to download the software for use at home, can be found by clicking on the Falkirk Glow Group for ICT in Learning and Teaching.

Comments from participants included:

“Lots of interactive ways to engage learners – opportunities to try these out were useful.”

“Excellent ideas to take away.”

“Very good tips on using the Smart Board in class.”

“Excellent mix of information and practical activity.”

“Extremely helpful course which has provided a vast amount of knowledge and resources to help deliver engaging lessons.”

ICT Resources to Support Physical Education in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with class teachers and visiting specialist teachers of physical education on ICT resources to support teaching physical education in the primary school.

Dance

The session started by everyone having go at the dance steps provided with the dance mat to all Falkirk primary schools (along with the free software installed on all PCs). More information about that can be found here: http://glo.li/L7znnN

Glow Groups for teachers of PE 

The session included time to browse the planning and support materials for teachers of PE which can be found in various Glow groups which included the following:

Falkirk Glow group for teachers of PE http://glo.li/e2ZeBf

Curriculum for Excellence Expanded Experiences & Outcomes (Falkirk Planners) PE http://glo.li/WKnowe

Falkirk PE resources in Glow group for Health & Wellbeing http://glo.li/gov97Y

National Glow group for teaching PE http://glo.li/Y93cGJ

Online Resource Sites

Online resources which were highlighted included the following:

www.kidnetic.com ideas for classroom, hall, outdoors or in the home – includes on-screen dance robot simulator

http://cybraryman.com/physicaled.html Cybraryman resources by category

www.pescholar.com PE Scholar

www.physedsource.com PhysEdSource – categories include gymnastics, sport/games, individual, outdoor, dance, health, research

www.thephysicaleducator.com/resources/ includes games skills cards/infographics posters, apps, blog, podcast, pupil recognition cards

www.teachingideas.co.uk/pe/contents.htm crowd-sources ideas shared by teachers, warm-up and cool-down ideas, games, sports.

Smartboard Smart Notebook Resources

SMART Board SMART Notebook PE resources can be found in Notebook by clicking on “Gallery” – enter “sport” in search box http://glo.li/rQ3eRl

Blog about class PE

Creating a class PE blog can help raise profile of PE, promote positive pupil esteem, share learning of PE activities Resources to get staretd blogging can be found here: http://glo.li/qMeQl3

Activity Timers and Random Name Selectors

A host of online or downloadable countdown timers & stopwatches, and random name, group or activity selectors, can be found here: http://glo.li/jU9ja0 

Teachers of PE on Twitter

Twitter provides access to a Professional Learning Network of colleagues sharing PE teaching ideas. Resources and a guide to setting up a Twitter account and how to use can be found here: http://glo.li/qpaM79. A short video guide “Twitter for PE Teachers” including how to get started, how to find others, use of Hashtags and more can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMjGcrBJK-c

QR codes and PE

QR codes provide quick access via smartphone QR code scanner to videos or explanatory onlien resources without any need to type in long website addresses. For examples of use of printed Step-by-step guides linked by QR codes to associated PE skills demonstration videos follow this link:

http://www.thephysicaleducator.com/resources/skill-posters/

This Video shows a report of one teachers use at a school fitness trail http://glo.li/YU4beZ

For resources to find out how to make you own QR codes follow this link here: http://glo.li/z1JVmB

Making Videos to show PE skills

Use digital video cameras for pupils to see their performance after they have finished and to compare it against their peers or against videos of professional athletes. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/ 

Comments from participants included:

“I intend to use Photostory 3 especially for gymnastics.”

“Excellent course!”

Sharing the learning in a blog for primary 1 classes at Denny Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, supported staff at Denny Primary School to set up a joint blog for pupils in the primay 1 classes to share their learning journey.

This was set up at the request of staff so they can post about what’s happening in their classes so that the posts can easily be seen by the school, parents and wider community.

Posts have included photographs, videos, slideshows and descriptions of the activities in which the pupils are involved. The blog is set up so that staff create and publish the posts while others are also able to add comments.

Click here to see what’s happening at the primary 1 classes at Denny Primary School

Class Blogging in Avonbridge Primary School P5, 6, 7

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, supported staff at Avonbridge Primary School to set up a class blog for pupils in the Primaries 5, 6, 7 class to share their learning journey.

This was set up at the request of staff so they can post about what’s happening in their class so that the posts can easily be seen by the school, parents and wider community.

Posts have included photographs, videos, slideshows and stories. And other pupils are also commenting on the posts, showing they are engaged in the blog.

Well done staff and pupils in the primary 5,6,7 class at Avonbridge Primary School for sharing their learning journeys. Click here to see what’s happening at the primary 5,6,7 class blog at Avonbridge Primary School

Kinneil Primary School whole-school blog

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, supported staff at Kinneil Primary School in setting up a whole-school blog to share the learning journey of pupils.

This was set up at the request of staff at the school so that individual classes can contribute to one blog in one place, rather than separate class blogs, so they can post about what’s happening in their class and by tagging and choosing from their class on a list of categories, the posts can easily be seen by the school, parents and wider community.

Although all staff in the school are set up as full administrators of the blog, Kinneil Primary School also has a team of pupils called the K.P.S Blogging Team who are publishing blogposts describing the work going on in classes. They upload photographs, videos, slideshows and write the stories. And other pupils are also commenting on the posts, showing they are engaged in the blog.

Links are provided to the school website and the school’s page on the Falkirk Council website. Safety features are set up on the blog. Well done staff and pupils at Kinneil Primary School for sharing their learning journeys – click here to visit the whole-school blog for Kinneil Primary School.

Whole-school blog for sharing the learning at California Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, supported staff at California Primary School in setting up a whole-school blog to share the learning journey of pupils.

This was set up at the request of staff at the school so that individual classes can contribute to one blog in one place, rather than separate class blogs, so they can post about what’s happening in their class and by tagging and choosing from their class on a list of categories, the posts can easily be seen by the school, parents and wider community.

Links are provided to the school website and the school’s page on the Falkirk Council website. Safety features are set up on the blog. Sharing of the learning journey in California Primary School can now take place in one more avenue – click here to visit the whole-school blog for California Primary School.