All posts by Mr Olyott

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Weekly Web Wonder #8 – Manga High

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Manga High is a free games-based maths teaching resource.  It is of very high quality!  The games look credible, and are attractive to pupils, who are motivated to play them.

As a teacher, Manga High provides you with a number of tools to monitor and assess the progress of your pupils.  You also get to assign different games or challenges to pupils and pupil groups.  (This is even better when the stars at your local authority set up all your pupil logins for you!).

(url – http://www.mangahigh.com/en_gb/)

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Weekly Web Wonder #3 – Spelling City

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This week we have the rather splendid and very handy Spelling City.
Spelling City offers a range of games and activities to help learn spelling words.  You can listen to them – advise headphones to avoid cringe worthy American accents.  You can either just type in a few words to work with, or access saved lists.  I’ve been submitting Target Spelling lists for a while, so there are plenty to choose from here.
Basically select a list, then choose Teach, Test or Games.  There’s something for everyone here, great for reinforcing this weeks words, extending those who are doing well, or another way of challenging those who are struggling.  The words are also put in sentences, so it is good for sentence building and putting words in context.
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Weekly Web Wonder #2 – Primary Games Arena

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Primary Games Arena is the largest resource of Primary School games in the universe.
You can select games via subject or year.  It is based on the English system, so just add 1!  so Year 5 = Primary 6 etc.
Lots of simple little games for follow up, fast finishers or extension activities.
Plenty of Maths and Language activities.
Warning: Check beforehand that links aren’t blocked!
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Weekly Web Wonder #1 – BBC Learning Clips

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Back in the day, I used to send out a (hopefully) useful website link to the school staff.  Not really that radical an idea, and most were pretty well known – to those moving in the right ICT circles.  So, here we go anyway.

BBC Learning Clips

There is a wealth of video clips here.  You can search by Topic or Subject.
You are given quite a lot of blurb along with a short video clip (which can be viewed full screen).
Olympics, sport

Jumpers for Goalposts

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Despite the best efforts of the Closing Ceremony, the Olympics still burn brightly in the memory.  They were truly a fantastic spectacle, within fantastic settings.  The success of the home team has no doubt added to the success of the Games, but even the most random sports (to us) proved captivating, with sell-out crowds, and massive TV audiences.  The likes of Handball, Volleyball and Water Polo enjoyed the sort of profile, that in this country, is usually reserved for the big money sports, which TV companies embark on a bidding war for every few years.  Perhaps the rest of Europe, and the World, see them differently?

So, Legacy.  Yes, that word that has been bounded about over the last few days, weeks, even months.  Riding on the crest of the euphoric Olympic wave, there seem to be no insurmountable obstacles.  Here’s one, the start of the new football season.  For a significant proportion of the population, Olympic Spirit, Values and Fair Play, will go out the window as quickly as the first debateable offside flag is raised.

To many it’s an obsession, it’s fanatical.  It is tribal, it has edge, it is a way of life.  It’s more important than life and death.  It is big business.  It sells copy.  It sells subscriptions.  It is a media obsession.

Also, it’s accessible.  Jumpers for goalposts.  To take my class to the nearest Athletics track, which is about 5 or so miles away, would cost anywhere from £100 to £200 for a coach.  Bikes, horses, boats?  We can just about cover jotters, pencils and rulers!

So, what do we need to do to allow pupils to experience so many of these sports that we have seen at the Olympics?  Training, resources, facilities, experts, athletes, time.  Boris, who loves a bandwagon, wants 2 hours a day.  At the exclusion of what though?  Some time every day could be a great idea.  Research is positive about starting the day with exercise leading to better focus and concentration.

Seb Coe faces a massive challenge to break the stranglehold of football in his quest for an Olympic Legacy.  Wall to wall coverage on TV, packed stadiums, big money sponsorship, a team in every town, all provide significant hurdles to overcome.  Come derby day, the exciting cup draw, a big European night, will “Handball” just be something to shout at the ref?

games based learning, Mario Kart

Mario Groups and Positive Behaviour

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Having created a group identity, the pupils also created a group vehicle to represent them on the class track.  Interestingly, some went for bikes, some for cars, some for a banana!  The race track which some of the pupils created was to be used to in conjunction with the schools positive behaviour system.  In reality, this didn’t really happen, but the track could still be used to show the order in which teams would have use of the Wii, as a visual indicator to some of the pupils who really need that, and also as a reminder to myself, as to who has had a turn (not that the pupils were shy in reminding me!).  I think if we had planned the project for the first term, then it could have been used more heavily for positive behaviour.  As it was, the whole school policy was being followed, although the project is a great incentive and reward for pupils.