Category: South West

P6 Pupils at Noblehill Primary School are European Runners Up in the Microbit Do Your Bit Challenge

During Term 4 of last session, P6 pupils at Noblehill Primary School in Dumfries and Galloway took part in a Micro:Bit Global Challenge.  Their challenge was to design a ‘gadget’ which would support the work currently being undertaken  around the world to support climate change.  The pupils chose Verity, Lilly and Sophie’s design ‘Shell Cam’ as the winners and this was entered into a global competition.  Shell Cam was designed to be hidden somewhere on the beach and video all the different species that spent time there.  This information would then be sent back to scientists so they could track the movement and number of species. 

We have recently heard the amazing news that the design was chosen as runner up in Europe!!! 

3 learners holding microbits and design for do your bit project

The success has been posted on the Micro:Bit webpage along with the answers to a few questions that our amazing team had to give: 

How do you feel being runners-up in Europe?
– ‘Amazed, surprised, actually can’t believe it, it’s just WOW!’ 

Why did you choose to tackle the problem of animals becoming extinct?
– ‘A lot of animals are becoming extinct and food chains are being damaged so we wanted to think of a way to help.’ 

How long have you been using the micro:bit?
– ‘We have only used them 3 or 4 times but we loved them.’ 

 How has taking part in do your:bit inspired you?
– ‘We want to know more about what the Micro:Bits can do as well as help the environment.’ 

What will you create next?
– ‘Maybe a similar kind of thing but more for plants/ flowers, different types of nature.’ 

Well done team, Noblehill are very proud of you!
Lindsey Kirkwood, Principal Teacher, Noblehill Primary School

 

Using Easi-Speak to develop storytelling and writing by Lynn Eileen Allison, Hoddom Primary in Dumfries and Galloway

We have been using film literacy and voice-recording to develop our learners’ comprehension of a text.

 

We watched this video: Dragon Slayer | A Short Film by Robert Kuczera and then used stills from it after the viewing to ‘read it’. The pupils in the class were given one picture each to make notes about what they
could see in their photo. They were then asked to put the photos in order that they felt the story took
place.

Having put the images in chronological order they were asked to use their notes to narrate the story by using an Easi-Speak microphone, which in a previous lesson they had been taught how to use, to record and download. Listening to what had happened, it was passed onto the next speaker to build upon the story with their own ideas.

The class loved developing the story and sharing their narration with other classes. So, the following week  they were given a storyboard with fewer shots and asked to retell their story by adding a twist to the story line. Once again, the children enjoyed developing their personal story, with the ideas they had previously generated as a class.

 

This is the story board they used:

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Digital Learning in Maths From the MIE Scotland blog

Hugh Wallace

Teacher of Maths

Kyle Academy, South Ayrshire

Twitter @MrWM4ths

Waking a Digital School

As with all schools in Scotland, Kyle Academy closed our doors on Friday 20thMarch with very little warning, and quite literally, no time to prepare.  The final week was spent ensuring that those who were still able to attend school, had a note of their Glow login details and knew how to access Microsoft Teams.

For some staff, they had already been using Teams with a handful of classes, but for most, they hadn’t logged into Glow for a very long time!  This was going to be a challenge!

As the ‘Digital Champion’ in school, and the only MIE Expert, I knew it was time to step up and offer support to the school community.  This has been a huge task, but I feel very proud of where we are now!

 

Read more on the MIE Scotland blog

 

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Digital Learning in Maths From the MIE Scotland blog

Hugh Wallace

Teacher of Maths

Kyle Academy, South Ayrshire

Twitter @MrWM4ths

Waking a Digital School

As with all schools in Scotland, Kyle Academy closed our doors on Friday 20thMarch with very little warning, and quite literally, no time to prepare.  The final week was spent ensuring that those who were still able to attend school, had a note of their Glow login details and knew how to access Microsoft Teams.

For some staff, they had already been using Teams with a handful of classes, but for most, they hadn’t logged into Glow for a very long time!  This was going to be a challenge!

As the ‘Digital Champion’ in school, and the only MIE Expert, I knew it was time to step up and offer support to the school community.  This has been a huge task, but I feel very proud of where we are now!

 

Read more on the MIE Scotland blog

 

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How digital technology enhances the engagement of learning across the primary stages? St Patrick’s, South Ayrshire

How digital technology enhances the engagement of learning across the primary stages? – A Professional Enquiry

Daniella Mancini (@missmancini27)

I set out to investigate the following points:

  • to explore whether the use of digital technology enhances engagement levels in the primary class
  • to measure the importance of digital skills across a range of primary class stages (P1- P7)
  • to explore the impact of digital technology across the primary stages

The justification, methodology and results can be viewed in the enquiry here:

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Developing Conceptual Understanding of Maths through Blended Learning – Dalmilling Primary School, South Ayrshire

Scott Morrow, Principal Teacher of Numeracy from Dalmilling Primary School in South Ayrshire has created a YouTube channel to host his videos that help learners, teachers and parents to develop their
understanding of maths and numeracy concepts.
This is his channel, where you can view his tutorials:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PvTQeUAy7M]
or you can contact him by:
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Delivering Music Instruction Remotely – North Ayrshire Music Service – From the MIE Scotland Blog

I am Rosslyn Lee and I am the Digital Skills Coordinator for North Ayrshire Education.  Part of my job is to support staff and pupils in our schools with all aspects of digital learning and teaching.  I became a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert in 2017 as I recognised the value to my professional learning as …

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Self Portraits on Purple Mash from Cargenbridge Primary in Dumfries and Galloway

by Louise Campbell – Class Teacher, Cargenbridge Primary

Our learners have been creating digital artworks of themselves using a graphical paint app. We started working on this after I received a newsletter from our school’s STEM ambassador, who helped to setup the Purple Mash app for my class.  

Our digital portraits linked well to previous learning at school. It was a fun, short, achievable task; which the children enjoyed creating, and handing in, with Purple Mash. I was then able to share their portraits on our class Teams page and the children enjoyed liking and commenting on each other’s work. This task encouraged interaction between the children, which has been much-needed at this time.  

Purple Mash contains a wide range of resources that the pupils can explore independently from home as well as completing teacher directed tasks.  I have been using the 2Dos section to set tasks in a range of curricular areas including music, art maths and science. My favourite feature of the site is the hand-in function which allows the pupils to leave me comments about their work and receive immediate feedback. The site is child-friendly and I would definitely recommend it for Early and First Level pupils.