tsale's posterous

Collaboration is the key!

After finding out (just after half term) which class I was going to be in for September 2011, I decided to set up a google document to share with my PLN (personal learning network) via my twitter account.  Initially I could not believe the response of those that follow me, straight away a number of fellow teachers, who were all going to be in Year 5 (UK aged 9-10)  signed up wanting to share ideas, resources, planning and collaborate together.  

This then got me thinking - What if i created a document for every year group (for Primary schools) whereby teachers could share and collaborate?  So one early Sunday morning I set bout creating documents for all to the year groups within a Primary school, from EYFS up to Year 6.  Each document has the same layout 

"Here we are going to share ideas/resources/plans - anything that is collaborative to all year 5 teachers (chn aged 9-10 yrs old) with an aim to really get the ball rolling ready for SEPT 2011.  We might share some planning, or  a resource to assist in literacy.  It might be a shared document for a maths mental/oral starter.  I could even be a share live lesson between 2 or 3 classes around the world on a specific topic - the ideas are endless - Please add to the items and lets get sharing !"

It is then followed by a Literacy overview for the year with some suggested texts (many thanks to Pete Richardson @primarypete_ for creating these!) along with a link to the Numeracy units (however I am aware these will move soon to the National Archives - but will update it when they do) and finally a section for topic ideas.

Some potential ideas for collaboration included:-

 BLOGGING with class blogs - like the Quadblogging idea via David Mitchell (@deputymitchell)

VLOGGING - video news, comparisons re things like the playgound, lunches, etc :)

TWEETING - follow fellow class tweets - reply/ask questions - crowd source

EBOOKS - (@colport is the man 4 this)

GOOGLE DOCs - chn create a piece of writing - other chn star and wish/level it ? Script writing - groups can work together on one script. Comments and discussions can be used to help facilitate the writers towards their writing goals.

VOICETHREADS - simiar to above but with video and audio

 AUDIOBOO’s - on the spot news reports from schools, feedback from school fieldtrips/off site visits/trips,

PRIMARYWALL - shared M/O starters ? Words other than ? Sentence construction ?

SKYPING: maybe something completely different like passing a rhythm? Not forgetting skype calls with museums

EDMODO : Linked groups for discussions, science? Novel Study?

I have shared it via my PLN - the more teachers that sign up to a year group the better - collaboration is the key! 

Fancy joining in the collaborations - click here - find which year group you are going to be in next year - sign up and join in the collaborations !

Teachmeet for Kids? KIDSMEET!

Last Thursday (16th June) Blackpool played host to its 1st ever Kidsmeet.  This was the brain child of both James Maloney and I as we returned on the train from Bett in January.  We wanted to change the way Teachmeet was happening in Blackpool.  We both had been the pioneers behind bringing the Teachmeet format up to Blackpool and expanding on it with 4 very successful events in the past.

All the details about the Kidsmeet event (ie the wiki) are here

The full recording of the event is here

Overall I believe the event was a huge success and is just the beginning of something that every LA could take and use to celebrate children's learning - it is such a powerful way of showing what can be done.  My highlight of the day was listening to a Year 1 class (Mr Richardson's children) from Walton-Le-Dale Primary School - there blog is here

There is an app for that!

A few weeks ago when flicking through my timeline on twitter, I read about two schools creating an 'app' for their school.  An 'app' is short for application software.  

Both Ian Addison (@ianaddison) and Simon Widdowson (xannov) had both managed to create an app for their schools.  So I thought I would like one of those for my school to help withparental engagement.  After tweeting them both a few questions I set about creating the 'Mereside app' 

Once I had mange to get all the key pieces of information into my app - I then had the issue of getting it published.  They are two ways to go about this.  

1) sign up and join Apple's developer group - for an annual fee 

2) find someone who is already registered 

Having decided method two was the way forward - Twitter again helped me find Doug Stitcher (@therenegade78) who helped me through the process of getting my app approved through apple and getting it approved for android devices as well.  We also managed to get a feature in the local newspaper.

Currently we are still the only school in Blackpool to have an 'app' but I am sure once more schools see the potential of having their own app, more and more school we be develop theirs.  Download the Mereside app - here for iPhone or here for Android here

Telescopic text..

Most of us have heard about the fantastic telescopic text created by Joe Davis.  Only recently the people behind it have started to allow users to sign up (for free) and then using the same style of clicking on a word and it expanding, creating your own.

"TelescopicText.org has just gone live. It is an extension of telescopictext.com, and is primarily a set of tools for creating expanding texts in a similar way. The tools can be found by clicking Write in the navigation at the top. Texts will house an ongoing collection of selected texts. Resources provides help for using this website, and also any news, updates, guides, support and a Q&A. If you need further information or help, contact info@telescopictext.com. You can Register in order to save and publish texts, or Sign in if you already have an account. If you like what you find here and you want to help support it you can Donate."

I am planning on using this with my class in Literacy tomorrow (24/3/11) giving them a selection of sentences and the creating their own telescopic text.  We will then publish them on the class blog (http://meresideyear6s.primaryblogger.co.uk) and share with a wider audience.  Prior to that I have had a little play with the WRITE option (when you sign in) and here is my attempt

I like cake

Teachmeet (Blackpool style)

This Week (Thursday 10th Feb) we (James Maloney - @mister_jim) and I have organised our 4th Teachmeet in Blackpool.  It all started at the 21st Century Classroom in Salford when we both attended our 1st ever Teachmeet - organised by Steve Kirkpatrick (@MrKp) in October 2009.  The opportunity to see other teachers, to network, to share and see these ideas that have been put into practice was inspiring on so many levels.  This was something that had to be shared with others.

'A TeachMeet is an organised (but informal) meeting (in the style of an unconference) for teachers to share good practice, practical innovations and personal insights in teaching with technology. Participants volunteer (via the TeachMeet website) to demonstrate good practice they've delivered over the past year, or discuss a product that enhances classroom practice.  TeachMeet events are open to all and do not charge an entry fee.' (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeachMeet)

So James and I returned to the seaside full of ideas about implementing a Teachmeet within Blackpool in that academic year - we haven't stopped organising events since then.  We have taken the TM model back up to Blackpool and provided every teacher with our LA the opportunity to be inspired.  So far we have had over 350 teachers attend the last three events with this weeks looking like another 100 teachers lurking !

 This year we have 'plans' for a change to the format and a change in the style the way presenters present we want to provide a unique learning experience to all those who are able to attend and take it back to impact in their classroom the next day and to do this we need to break the mould.  

Titled Kidsmeet Blackpool, we are looking for the learners to do the talking.  To share things that have made a difference to them, to talk through projects that have inspired them or to recount a moment that changed their approach to learning.

 (http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/34964939/kidsmeetbpool)

Linoit

Linoit is an online web sticky note service that can be used to post memos, to-do lists, ideas, and photos anywhere on an online web canvas.  Tonight I stumbled/over read a conversation about Linoit that was being shown at Teachmeet Cheshire organised by Jan Webb.  It was presented by Helen Morgan.  So tonight i signed up for it, tested it via my fantastic personal learning network (PLN) on twitter and am now hooked.  

What i like about it is the fact it is so simple to use.  You can add texts, photos, links and video really easily which will make it perfect to use within my class especially when we start looking at revision in the build up to SAT's.

Here is a link to the Linoit from tonight for words other than said

Crowd Sourcing

Tomorrow my class and I are lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview a professional sportsman as part of our Literacy Biographical unit.  Having immersed the children in the layout, structure and language features I am now aiming to give them an audience, purpose and effect (APE) for their writing.  I have asked my twitter PLN 

RT do you have a question you would like to ask @Stevenjcroft of Lancashire CCC ? #mpsSCbio he is in school 2morrow for Literacy Interview

Dipity

Today (11/1/11) I used Dipity with my class to create an online timeline of Roald Dahl's live to use within our Biographical writing unit in Literacy.  I chose this web 2.0 as it is simple to use, allowing you to upload images, video and enter dates of events with full descriptions about your event itself.

http://www.dipity.com/Mereside/Roald-Dahl/

What do you think ?

I think this has real potential to be used across a number of subjects and a number of different year groups. 

Voicethread...

Yesterday (10/1/11) I showed my staff Voicethread.  For those who don't know Voicethread is 

"A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holdsimages, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies."

This offers many possibilities in which to use it within the classroom - a more complete set of ideas can be found on Tom Barrett's interesting ways - http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/

for Voicethread https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_245f2nkv3g3

BrainPOP......

Today as I was preparing for my lesson for the new Science unit (Unit 6A) Interdependance and adaptation, I remembered that school has a years subscription to BrainPop Uk.  I quickly logged in and 

• clicked on the curriculum matching tool
• clicked on English curriculum
• then clicked on the QCA schemes of work
• Science 
• and Unit 6A

WOW what a really useful resource - I cannot believe how simple and easy it was to use - right there under my nose!!

Sometimes you just forget what resources (both hardware & software) that you have in school, this is why teachers should talk to each other all the time - all dialogue is useful dialogue.  Like the Orange advert - IT'S GOOD TO TALK!