ICT in my Classroom

Buckleys mate

That was the first reply from @deangroom to my Twitter request in support of a maths lesson earlier this week. I had asked my network to explain to my class of Year 5s / 4th graders what the probability of snow was for the following day. In my planning I had included this activity as a plenary to my maths lesson on probability. The children were exploring a range of statements and deciding what the likelihood was. The conclusion of the session was planned as follows:

Explore with the children the language that they have used in the session. Ask: Is the same vocabulary used in other countries? Ask Twitter network to respond to: “What is the probability that it will snow where you are?” Explore the responses and discuss the reasons for any differences.

“Buckleys mate” threw me a little though, I shared it with the children and after a little searching we discovered that it is an Australian slang term meaning “No chance” - so we figured out what @deangroom meant!

Time Aware

One of the most important things that I have learned from successfully using Twitter to impact on my lessons, teaching and ultimately the children’s learning is that you have to be time aware. I sent out this tweet, as you can see, at just after 9.15 GMT.

I did not need the responses for a further hour but allowing your network time to respond is very important. By the time that I was sitting with the class to finish the session we had approximately 20 responses to explore, and more was rolling into twhirl as we were working. I simply displayed the “Replies” view so the children could see specific responses to us.

I was also very aware that America was still tucked up in bed and only those very early risers, insomniacs and those burning the midnight oil would be responding at the time from the US. The morning session worked out that we continued our maths on until lunch so I retweeted 2 hours later and then again around 1.00pm. This may seem like you are pestering your network but single tweets can get lost in the torrent for many of your network - some may not respond because they simply may not have seen the request. I knew that the 1pm tweet would nudge those in the US and many added their responses to the stack of examples we had to discuss with the kids.

Shaping the learning experience

As you can see from my planning and the request I sent out the focus was on the language that other people would naturally use to describe an event’s probability. And the coincidental geographic information that justified such a likelihood helped our discussion. We were able to establish from the early responses that they were mainly from Australia and the children were amazed to read the responses:

This naturally lead to a discussion about why residents of this country would give this sort of response, we discussed their climate and the ostensibly long history of no snow days and how this leads people to believe more fully that it is highly unlikely. Then came a response from closer to home.

I swooped upon the language that @jonesieboy had used in his tweet and saw it as a good teaching point. I focused the children’s attention upon his use of “1 in 4 chance” and we explored how this could be rephrased as a a quarter and that led us naturally to the equivalent percentage - 25%.

The children had been using 5 words to describe their own statements in the main part of the lesson. Certain, probable, possible, unlikely, impossible. After reminding them about this I asked them to position “1 in 4″ or 25% on their own scale and to give a word that best describes the chances of snow in East Lothian. It is amazing what a single tweet can do to a lesson.

Creating a learning experience

In a similar way to how our Geotweets lesson proved successful the quality and quantity of responses from my network offered me an opportunity to create a new learning activity. The initial plenary was really successful, we discussed the tweets we had received at that point and the language differences it presented. I decided to continue with the maths lesson for the rest of the morning and spent 10 minutes, whilst the children were outside for breaktime, creating two additional SMART Notebook pages that incorporated the Twitter responses.

The main focus was of course the language individuals used and although we concluded many people, when asked about probability, responded with a figure/percentage, I challenged the children to juxtapose the responses onto our original scale.

The second notebook page was an additional bonus, but the geographical information is very important to explore with the children when reviewing any responses in Twitter. In the case of this maths lesson the probability could be justified by geotagging the tweet. I used a rudimentary map and we discussed the location of the respondees and how this affected their responses. I could have looked at a map+Twitter mashup but this would not challenge the children’s geography knowledge, rather it would just display the locations.

To create these pages in SMART Notebook I simply used the screen capture tool to snip the individual tweets from Twhirl. You have to ensure that the inactive opacity is set to 100 as Twhirl becomes inactive when you switch to the SMART screen capture tool. You can download the notebook file with these two pages in here.

I was delighted to use this networking technology in this way and it was great to finally execute what I had long conceived to be possible in my head. The lesson was so much richer for the carefully planned introduction of Twitter responses. The two SMART Notebook pages supplemented the original nbk resource and the discussion in the plenary. The parallel Y5 class was able to benefit from the depth and quality of responses as they also located the tweets and scaled the responses using the notebook. In terms of my own teacher assessment of the lesson I think that the children had a truly global picture of what this question meant to real people and a far greater understanding of the variety of vocabulary used to describe probability. For some people who responded the possibility of snow was almost far fetched and for others it seemed they were having to literally defrost the very keyboard they were frostily typing on! When I look back at the short paragraph of planning I had written it’s brevity does not reflect the depth of opportunity it actually produced. I move on from this lesson knowing that when you invite responses from your network to expect much more and to be flexible enough to make the most of the learning opportunities it readily presents.

With a careful, planned approach I think I have proven (in this instance) that Twitter can be used to impact on the children’s learning. That may be a very narrow impact in terms of a wider curriculum but it is an impact nonetheless.

Make it work in your classroom

• Think carefully about what topic to support - the simplest questions are the best.
• Phrase your 140 characters with great care. Get as much in as you can. I must have taken a good 5 minutes redrafting the original tweet.
• Be time aware. Think carefully about who will see your tweet when you send it out. Send your request for information prior to the time you actually need it, to allow the network time to respond.
• Don’t be afraid of retweeting a request so that people who have just logged in can pick it up.
• Request a location from your network as this can form some excellent points for discussion.
• Display the responses using the Replies view in a Twitter client like Twhirl or Snitter, this way you will not be distracted by the other conversations passing by.
• Share with the children the language of Twitter and what it all means, one of my children heard the alert sound of a reply and said “That means someone has tweeted us!”
• Be flexible and prepared for the direction that the tweets can take you.
• Save an image of your replies for future reference - you can see all of the replies we received for this lesson here.

Many thanks to all of you who responded to our question - thankyou for contributing to our maths work this week.

Times tables are such an important tool in maths for primary aged children to master and there has never been a better time for online resources. Here are my top 5 recommendations that tick all the boxes. I would be looking for resources that are engaging, have a depth of maths involved, flexibility so it can be used in different ways, perhaps an assessment breakdown at the end and give quality feedback. All of these have been added to our school’s del.icio.us links and the children in Year 5 access them both at home and when they are using the laptops during morning activity time in class.

Multiflyer - A wonderful resource that can be used throughout a child’s practise of times tables. Engaging and very well presented by a digital designer Dan Perkins. I have been using this for a long time and still think it is one of the top resources around. It is free to play, and there is a version you can pay for with some little extras. There are lots of options to look at specific tables so you can focus the children’s efforts on their weaknesses and a printable results sheet that we will be using this term - all good for work life balance eh?! Well worth a look.

Times Attack - this is one of those amazing finds from the site multiplication.com when I was getting into Multiflyer. A standalone game that you can download that is nothing like you have seen before. A first person game that allows the player to control a character through a series of levels that test their times tables. I cannot do it credit in this description, you need to see this one! The demo is free and just allows you to play, quite adequately, on a single level. We might consider the full version if the demo is received well in school. Don’t worry the children will take to the controls far better than you! They enjoy the unique way it is presented and hardly realise they are working on their tables.

BBC Skillswise Times Tables - a classic in my mind - I discovered the great resources available over on the Skillswise part of the BBC site back in my first year of teaching. This is a clear, bright and engaging resource that is ideal for the IWB. In our school you can often hear it being played on first thing in the morning as the children are coming in. In fact I have used it during my register time, I say good morning, they come and answer a question on the IWB. Again you can be specific about what you practice so it is suitable for all ages and for individual use too. Lots of fun.

Maths Trainer - I have only recently come across the last two resources in this list, some new entries into the Top 5! This is part of a series of excellent resources from the Maths is Fun website. This works best when an individual is working on it, as it reacts to their weaknesses and can be carefully tuned to their individual needs. It is always the aim to not only be accurate but also to be rapid in your recall of the times tables, so the timing element is most welcome. In this resource you can work on different chunks of the times tables at a time, lots of flexibility which I really like and quality support too. You will also notice that there are options for the other operations, well worth exploring. Whilst you are there I would recommend looking at Speed Maths and Reaction Maths.

Multiplication Puzzle - Much like Maths Trainer this resource is flexible enough to allow you to tailor it to individual needs and offers valuable practice. It works on a missing number type puzzle within a number grid. The numbers to multiply can also be missing along the sides, so children are encouraged to use the inverse operation to check these. One of the best features which makes it stand above the rest is the way you can alter how much time the children have to work. You can change the length of time for the whole activity or based on how many questions they need to answer. This offers an excellent way to encourage those who can recall their tables accurately but need to speed up. A simple but highly effective resource that offers real depth and flexibility. In addition it has one of the best “Well Done” sound effects I have ever come across, but you will have to find that out for yourself!

I hope that you find my Top 5 Times Tables resources useful and you have fun using them in your own classroom setting. There are many, many resources for maths but there are much fewer that have the depth and flexibility that is required to be used effectively in our classrooms.

Let me know what you make of them and what successes you have, or even if you think that you have a resource I have missed that qualifies to be in my Top 5!

Videojug and the pursuit for folding glory!

Who is doing instructional writing? We have been covering this text type for a few weeks now and two weeks ago we used this site as part of reading and evaluating instructional text. I decided I wanted the children to compare 3 sets of instructions for the same thing and to rate the instructions I chose to look at a renowned video titled “How to fold a T-Shirt in 2 Seconds”. However I did not reveal the video until the class had tried to follow two different text instructions (no pictures). And yes I did take in a load of T-Shirts for the kids to use! Don’t worry by the end of the lesson you will have all of the neatly folded!

The two sets of written instructions were taken from the Videojug site - a written set accompanies most videos. The first set the kids used was one edited down to one paragraph, no numbers or bullets. They struggled, but the point is they are meant to. (T-shirts become messy at this point) Suddenly the children are talking about how difficult it is and saying that this feature or that feature is missing.

We then looked at the second set of instructions which are just the exact written set from the Videojug site - as you see it online. The children still struggled, even though there are far more reader friendly features. There was some mild folding success, but not much. We discussed as a class why this was and rated the instructions as before.

I then told the children to open the laptops they had on their tables and look at the video. I showed it on the SMARTBoard too. I suggested to pause the video as it played so the children could keep up. It’s good as it has a “You will need” section and clear numbered steps on the video. I would recommend getting the site preloaded if you are getting lots of machines to access it - also if you are working on a wireless network.

There were lots of serendipitous moments and suddenly children were expertly folding the T-Shirts as if they had been working in a clothing boutique for the past 10 years! We then had a Fold Off, children folding as fast and accurately as they could. I even challenged the other year 5 teacher, Rick to a contest. Entering his class with his kids backing him, I struggled and lost my 2nd pinch as he made a beautiful fold to the rapture of his children’s voices, I skulked off and called for the return tie!

Create a Graph

A classic maths tool, Create a Graph is saved by about 850 other people on del.icio.us and is a wonderfully useful tool for your data handling work. It can of course be used as an excellent way to demonstrate the creation of graphs with a whole class but This week we used it as part of an independent activity in a maths lesson. The children had pulse rate monitors fitted and a laptop to access the site. They needed to record their pulse after 2 mins of resting and then again after 2 minutes of walking around the room. This was repeated for 10 minutes - we tried to predict the shape of the line graph and the children managed very well with the tool. An important aspect of the tool is the ability to add a minimum and maximum value to the graph, so that you can create a more balanced graph with greater detail. We also discussed why 0-30 would not be useful on a pulse rate axis!

Once the line graphs were created we exported them as PDF files and talked about them in the plenary of the session using the SMARTBoard. You also have the option to export/download the graph in other formats: SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) PNG (Portable Network Graphics) JPG (JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group) EMF (Enhanced Metafile Format) Can be imported into programs such as MS Word or MS PowerPoint, EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) Can be opened with graphics programs such as Adobe Illustrator or QuarkXPress. A good range of options to keep everyone happy!

I like the way that you can continually preview the graph as you enter data which allowed the children to spot errors as they built the graph. All in all a good apple!

Good Ol’ MS Word 

Now even though I have dabbled in blogs, wikis and online documents I still think there is great value in just some basic word processing skills. We are using the new MS Word on the class laptops and we have charged the children to write a set of instructions, a help document for the excellent Sploder game creator site. It has been great seeing the children bring to their work basic skills they have learned along the way and to develop some new ones. It has also brought us excellent opportunities to recap saving routines and simple image manipulation.

I know, and have experienced, the value of working on writing with other collaborators, with other children, other schools using new age writing tools. But in this instance I wanted to write without publishing along the way, I wanted the children to hone and master a single piece of work for a chosen audience without the outside world looking in. That’s not so bad is it? We have had some fantastic results, which you will no doubt see glimpses of here soon, and the children have been extremely motivated by the whole writing task.

Last Thursday night I presented to Ivanhoe Grammar School about the uses of ICT in my classroom. But this was no ordinary professional development event, Ivanhoe is in Melbourne, Australia.

We conducted the net cast using a free trial on some desktop conferencing software and used Skype for the voice call. It was quite a challenge for me as you don’t have the ability to see the faces of your audience so you don’t know when to go back over things or just shut-up fo a minute! Joseph Papaleo helped organise the event for his school and from his responses it seemed to be a success.

During the presentation I covered a range of topics, giving practical examples of their use in my classroom -

>>Blogs
> Writing for a real audience and purpose
> Visitors and comments

>>Google Earth
> Starting the day with a “Wow!”
> Going beyond geography
> Being an information tourist

>>Using Wikihow for instructional writing

>>Turning Point audience voting system

>>MS Photostory - an alternative presentation tool

I would just like to thank Joseph and the staff at Ivanhoe for inviting me to present and I hope that although the line was a bit poor you all were able to take something that could make an impact in your classroom.

I came across this great little Maths game - thankyou Sandaig Otters. Lots of Japanese text so no instructions.

All you have to do is choose three spheres that add up to 10 before they scroll off the bottom of the screen, if you get a total that is greater than 10 you lose part of the life at the bottom. You can make other numbers by combining smaller integers. It would be a great little starter for a maths lesson to get the kids brains working - works really well on the IWB.

We have SMARTBoards at school and one of the new features of Notebook 9.5 is the lasso screen capture feature. Just click on the camera icon on the toolbar.

In our newspaper work we have been looking at the differences between direct and reported speech. A simple activity that involved the screen capture tool was that we went to the Newsround website and scanned news stories for examples of the different speech. A child then chose the lasso capture tool and lassoed (!) the part of the text, this is then captured into the notebook software and we sorted it into a table.
I have also used this tool in the past when exploring shapes in a photograph (like of railings) the children can draw around the shapes they see - these are then captured to Notebook. It is then possible to sort the shapes into different groups, triangles, quadrilaterals etc because the clipping retains the properties from the photo. In the past you could only do a square around the shape so it was more difficult to organise them after they are captured via their properties.

Here is a movie (WMV) from the Steljes site of the tool in action.

It has been a busy day for ICT in my classroom today - ususally is on a Tuesday as we have our time over in the ICT suite. Anyway I will try and explain everything we did.

Google Earth - Where are we today?
Did this slightly differently today as I explained to the children I had found the location of some people who had commented on our class blog. So I started looking down on the earth from afar and very slowly zoomed into Sydney and Canada respectively. We then looked closely at Sydney and loaded a 3D model of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - we even zoomed onto the bridge and panned along it, on the model there are even tiny cars and bikes - I said to the kids it was a good way to start the day - driving along Sydney Harbour Bridge!
Mayomi
Used this great visual mindmapping tool/site today to explore what we had learned so far in our 2D Shape work. Really simple to use when combined with a IWB and wireless keyboard which I used today.

Unfortunately there is no way to embed the map into your own site which would be great so I am going to explore whether I can hack some code to embed the mindmap into a wikispace.

RSS / Newsfeeds for Headlines
Just mentioned this today as we have been looking at newspapers and a journalistic style in our work. I had seen something on a blog before about it, but I just explained what RSS is and how we can get newsfeeds really easily. I think that it is very important to explore how different literacy and news is today - not just broadsheets and tabloids anymore, but a more fluid style of news that is much more personalised.

I just used the “Latest Headlines” bookmark on my Firefox toolbar to show them, we then just guessed from the headline what the news story was about.

Also briefly looked at Headline History which is cracking site I hope to use agin this year.

Quikmaps and our class Wikispace
I was a really happy bunny this afternoon as I knew that I had set my children a challenge, and they rose to it so well! Basically my Year 6 children had made a Quikmap (see previous post about the activity), powered by Google Maps, and then embedded the map into our class wikispace. It looks great! Take a look over on the history pages on our Wikispace. Scroll down and wait for the maps to load - don’t forget to click on the placemarks to see the work the children have done and why it is under History.
It also helped me to understand some of the practical problems that occur when you have lots of concurrent authors of the same space. Look out for some details soon.

Further to our work on Mina’s journey using Google Earth - I asked some children who had completed the standard addition sums in their maths books to calculate the different distances of Mina’s travels. They used the measure tool in GE 4 to plot her journey from major city to major city - they then applied the addition strategies to work out her total approximate distance.

Aims for the session:

• To give you some real, creative and practical examples of ways to embed the use of the IWB in your teaching.

Introduction:

• Tom Barrett
• Year 6 classteacher
• ICT Subject Leader
• Assistant Headteacher
• I have been using IWBs for the last 5 years in my teaching.

5 Ways in for Free

1. Ferry Halim

Non-educational site providing a wealth of beautifully created games. Ideal for early whiteboard or mouse skills. Links to these skills I have highlighted in my Ferry Halim Guidance document.

2. Furbles

A maths programme that needs no internet access and runs as a small piece of software downloaded in seconds. Its uses range from sorting according to colour, shape number of eyes etc – to data handling and creating pictograms and bar charts. DOWNLOAD IT HERE
3. Mathszone

An extremely useful set of maths links to interactive activities throughout the maths curriculum. Notable links include activities from Toftwood Infant School.

4. Northumberland Grid for Learning

Some excellent activities for early mouse and whiteboard skills; such as connect the dots and dress the teddy.

5. Using Digital Photographs

Where is your troll?!
Taking photographs using the digital camera and feeding these into a literacy activity.

Instructional texts – link with science and forces. Year 2

Class went outside with skateboard, TA with a digital camera recorded each step when discussing how to skateboard. TA returned to class and loaded the pictures into whiteboard software (also printed small pictures off and photocopied for other independent work) – lower ability children were asked to work independently (could be supported initially by TA) to put the photographs into the correct order. Highly motivated and completed the task successfully.

Your next steps

• Make the most of online resources - get the children using the boards with the Ferry Halim games.
• Approach the IWB as a tool that can be used in every part of the lesson - from shared to independent to plenary.
• Never worry about doing something that works perfectly well without an IWB; you are allowed to switch them off! - Just be aware of and reflect upon the choices you make.
• Share your experiences regularly with each other. Have a fortnightly clinic session or make time for getting excited about successes in staff meetings.
• Perhaps plan an IWB related target for performance management - as the development of IWB skills will be something that is already happening and is part of the School Development Plan

Any Questions?

Giving Feedback for this session

http://tbarrett.edublogs.org

At the very bottom of the post is a link to COMMENTS please leave your feedback in this way and if there are any questions or queries in the future please feel free to add a comment or contact me and I will try my best to help.

HANDOUT from the session with these notes.