Tech Tips Tuesday

Exploring Fractions with iPads

This week I thought I would share some simple ideas for using iPads to explore fractions. The first session uses Notability to compare fraction size. The second session uses Explain Everything to explore fractions of a group.

Comparing Fraction Size

In this session, students are exploring a problematised situation involving fairy-bread (bread and butter with sprinkles on top). I told my students that my son loves fairy-bread, and that I was offering that he could have 1/4, 2/4, 1/8 or 4/6 of a slice of fairy-bread. My students needed to work out which of these would be the best deal for my son. I demonstrated how this could be worked out by drawing the slices of bread. I pointed out the need for the slices of bread to be the same size, and the pieces on each slice to be of equal size. I modelled how this could be done on the interactive whiteboard. I then gave students a new set of fractions to compare.

Students were given iPads and a stylus to work through their thinking. While I gave them some freedom to explore how to use Notability to solve this, and to discuss their strategies with friends, teachers who want to explicitly teach could follow the following steps:

1. Create a new Notability file and name it something suitable eg. Fairy-bread Fractions by tapping on the heading which says Note [today's date]
2. Tap on the + symbol and select "Figure" from the drop-down menu.
3. Tap on the first symbol and select the square shape from the drop-down menu.
4. Make a square shape (to represent the fairy-bread). Tap "Done".
5. When the square shape has handles on the corners, select "Copy" from the options above.
6. Tap and hold on the screen until "Paste" is given as an option. Paste as many times as necessary. (In my case we used 4 slices of fairy-bread).
7. Again, when one of the square shapes has handles on the corners, select "Edit".
8. Tap on the first symbol and select the line from the drop-down menu.
9. Draw lines to divide the square to match the fraction. 
10. Tap the first symbol and select the squiggle from the drop-down menu. Colour/shade the required fraction. Tap "Done".
11. Repeat this with the other squares.
12. Tap on the pencil tool and use finger or stylus to label the fractions.
13. Circle the fairy-bread fraction that is largest
14. Some students are selected to share their work using AirPlay on the interactive whiteboard.

What I liked about this:
While this work could quite easily be repeated with pencils and paper, I like that this task supports students to develop skills in creating shapes and using technology to divide spaces equally and shade with (their new) styluses.

Fraction of a Group

In this session, students are using counters to explore fractions of a group and recording their thoughts using Explain Everything. Students took 24 plastic counters of a variety of colours and used iPads with styluses.

1. Create a new Explain Everything file by tapping on the + symbol, and save it as something suitable eg. "Fractions with counters" by tapping on the folder symbol in the bottom toolbar (next to the house).
2. Tell students to divide the group of counters in half. Demonstrate.
3. Students take a photo of their counters by tapping on the + symbol in square on the left toolbar, and then selecting "New Picture". If they are happy with their photo, they select "Use Photo". If they are happy with the image as is they select "Done", if they need to crop it, they can use the crop tool to select what they want to keep before selecting "Done". The image can be resized with pinch to zoom and moved to a suitable position on the page.
4. Students write "1/2 of 24 is 12" using their stylus and the pencil tool.
5. Students press the red circle to record their audio (and drawing if desired) and explain what they have done in their own words.
6. To add a new slide, students tap the + symbol and then repeat the previous steps with a new fraction.
7. Repeat with 1/4, 1/8, 1/3, 1/6.
8. Some students are selected to share their work using AirPlay on the interactive whiteboard.

Extension: If desired, students could then look at the colours of counters, sort them and then create slides that describe the fraction of each colour used.

Here is a sample of student work that one of my students was willing for me to share:

 What I liked about this:
Students were able to use the language to explain what they have done with their counters. They also created a pictorial example and a written number sentence. At the end of the lesson I watched these videos and could see the students who had really grasped the concept, and those who would need further follow up. It was useful to hear the language students were using and it made me realise how few were actually describing this process in terms of fractions when recording their audio. While many had the right pictorial and written response, they tended to say "I had 24 counters and divided them into 3 groups," which while accurate, is slightly different to "I had 24 counters and divided them into thirds." It is good to see that they are making the connection between these ideas, however I hope that they CAN use the fraction terms as required. I would try this again with further emphasis on how we can describe the process using fraction terms.

Tech Tips Tuesday

Using Notability to Support the Teaching of Spelling

My current school uses THRASS resources to teach students to spell. Our methods work from a phonographic model, whereby the focus is on the phonemes (sounds) and the many ways these sounds can be represented in the English language. My class has been looking at the sound j like in jam, giant, cage and bridge. I grabbed a bunch of whiteboards and markers and sat down with my class ready to start a spelling activity, but then I started feeling guilty. Also beside me were the iPads we had used earlier in the day for research. So, instead so handing out the whiteboards, I handed out the iPads.

My first attempt was far from beautiful. I gave a brief introduction to Notability and then asked boys to simply write the four graphemes we had identified (j, g, ge, dge) and then type in words under the right  headings as I said them. I wished that I could set it up in a table, but in hindsight, I think that was just a bit of residual from years of working in a word processing environment. I needed to find the way to do this in a note taking environment.

I had a bit of spare time one night, so played around a little with it, and found a way to make it work well. This new method involves using a sticky for each of the graphemes. As I played, I also realised there was another common grapheme, dg as in budget - b like in bird, u like in bus, dg (like in budget), e like in garden, and t like in tap. When I taught my students this grapheme, they struggled to understand why it wasn't just dge, given that combination is there. What I needed to show them was that in this group of words the letter e had a different sound it represented, whereas in bridge the e doesn't represent another sound, so can be grouped with the dg. Tricky!

So....the steps are:

1. Students make a new note and change the title to something relevant by selecting the heading when in typing mode. 
2. Students click on the plus symbol and make a "typing" sticky for each focus *grapheme and label these. To change colour, tap away from sticky, then back on sticky, and option tabs will come up above. Choose "paper" to select the sticky background colour.
3. Teacher calls out words with focus *phoneme and students type these on the appropriate sticky.
4. Students share their work with a partner and discuss their reasoning. Students can make changes.
5. Teacher shows correct groupings. Students make changes as necessary.
6. Students use the highlighter tool to show the focus grapheme in words.
7. Students select a word from one of their stickies eg. Judge. They click on the plus symbol to add a figure and draw a relevant picture. They crop the picture and then select "done". They move it to the appropriate box and then tap on "Add a caption" to write a sentence about the picture (with appropriate punctuation). Repeat for each grapheme.
8. Students who finish early can record audio of them saying and sounding out words from their page.
9. Students share their work - showing iPad, using Air Play, printing screenshot, email...

*grapheme - letter or letter combination that represents a sound in a word

*phoneme - unit of sound

What's the point?

When I try to integrate ICT I often find myself asking, "What's the point?" Is there a significant reason for using this strategy over pencil and paper, or whiteboard and marker? Is this same old but just with fancier toys? I'm still not 100% sold on this idea, particularly because it takes so long I the early phases, but there are definitely some benefits.

Reasons I would do it:

• Next year my students will be required to bring their own iPads to school and will be using this app. By helping them grow accustomed to it now, they will be ready to use it independently in the future.
• My students are highly motivated when using the iPads
• Students are learning how to use technology to create documents to record their thinking  and learning
• The spell check function supports students with their writing and placement. If they spell a word incorrectly, they will have this information immediately and can consider other options.
• When you have students record their sounding out of words, it makes it easier to identify their errors with breaking the words down into sounds

Tech Tips Tuesday

iPad for Preschoolers #2 Alphabet apps

I was a little nervous about putting my iPad into the sticky hands of a two year old, particularly one who seems to hack into things with natural ability! I bought a Fisher Price cover which has proven goop resistant so far and the hard plastic case seems to have done the trick in protection from everyday kid use. While not cheap, it has made me a lot more relaxed and so has been worth the investment. There are far too many things for mothers to stress over when living with a two year old!

I also adjusted the restrictions settings to prevent in app purchases and to request a password every time for new purchases. I have put all my apps (email etc) into folders for Mummy on the last page of apps. There is enough of interest to my little one that he doesn't bother with mine.

So today I thought I would share some of the Alphabet apps that are available and which I have found useful and worthwhile. It is worth noting here, however, that my little one has been more interested in numbers than the alphabet so far, so I am yet to see how his enthusiasm for these will develop.

Elmo Loves ABCs
This app is very large with great content for each letter of the alphabet and thus takes up quite a bit of space on the iPad. Activities are provided to support children with letter id, letter sounds and letter tracing. Children are rewarded with more content. My little guy loves the videos with the ABC songs that are included in this app. Parents can also track their child's progress.

Bugsy Pre-K
This app covers numbers, colours, shapes and the alphabet. The nice thing with this one is that it includes both the text and the audio for the questions, so my little one has some clues to help him answer the questions! He loves the Bugsy games and I am able to see his progress in this and other Peapod lab apps with an account. If you are interested further, you could check out the other ABC apps Peapod lab produces as they are similar to topic dictionaries and may enhance vocabulary and letter id.

Alien Buddies
This is another general preschool app that builds learning around colours, shapes, letters and numbers. The cute alien characters add to the appeal of this app, and the matching game is attractive to littlies. I got it for free when it came on sale recently, and my little guy was enjoying it today. There is an info page for parents, but no customizable features or progress reports.

AlphaTots
This app includes an interactive activity for each letter of the alphabet. My little guy enjoys this app, and has his favourite activities. It is a good introduction to the alphabet and sure beats the alphabet frieze or basic ABC book of yesteryear!

Goodnight ABC
This is one of my little guy's favourites. He frequently comes back to it and enjoys the music on the panda page in particular. It is VERY interactive and each page has loads of learning opportunities for children. To extend further, they can change to vocabulary mode and the label for each picture comes up so that they can hear and see the name of the item. My only gripe with this app is that, unlike Animalia, the pages include items beginning with different letters of the alphabet.

Animalia
This beautiful book is the work of Graeme Base, made interactive for iPad. Each page contains objects beginning with the relevant letter of the alphabet. Children search each page for the hidden items and can discuss the many other items starting with that letter/sound. My little one hasn't explored this yet, but I feel it will be more relevant to him as he gains a greater understanding of the alphabet - particularly for extending his vocabulary. I have only purchased the iPhone version so far and upsized it to fit the iPad, as I am waiting for the iPad HD version to come on sale.

rEd Writing
We only purchased this app in the last week, but so far it has been a big hit with my little one. We have the iPhone version, upsized on the iPad, but he has mainly played it on my phone. This is an Australian app, complete with accent and appropriate fonts for Australian schools. Children are rewarded stickers for tracing letters and numbers correctly. The monsters make it very cute! I was amazed by how interested my little guy was in this one given his usual disinterest in the alphabet.

Little Writer
This is another cute app for writing letters, numbers, shapes and words. I'm not sure of the font for this words, but if that's not a concern for you, than it's definitely worth looking into (and free at time of writing). I like the way that it shows the order of the pencil strokes and that it includes some words. I haven't looked into it much yet, but there are customizable options as well. My gripe: it is not very forgiving when you go off the pathway - which is good when you are trying to promote neat letter formation, but not great for very little ones just starting out.

Other posts that might interest you:
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #1 Mathematics Concepts

11th Teaching K-6 Carnival

Welcome to the December edition of Teaching K-6 carnival. With Christmas just around the corner, teachers in Australia and New Zealand are getting more than their fair share of the silly season. Finishing the school year is tiring business - with Christmas concerts, graduation ceremonies, reports, Christmas crafts and the hustle-bustle to finish everything off in time. The summer heat doesn't help either as tired children feel tension in the friendships that have been so strong throughout the year.
There haven't been an overwhelming number of relevant posts this month, so enjoy this small sampling of delights. As you 'unwrap' this month's offerings, I hope you find some goodies to motivate and inspire.

Gripes and Brags

This month Sonja Stewart shares her frustrations about the state of education in US schools. In Where Have All the Students Gone? posted at Parenting Squad she wonders how her child is going to receive a world class education with only 15 days at school during the month of November. She questions the usefulness of half-days and their impact on student learning. Why not pop by and share your thoughts on the issue?

Following on from this, Edwin Choi presents Elementary School in Seventeen Easy Steps posted at K12 Directory of Schools Blog. These tips may be useful considerations for parents when determining the best place for their child's education. It always helps to know the philosophy of your child's school and what the school offers. This list may also help schools to identify those issues of greatest concern to parents. Edwin Choi also shares her list of The Top Ten Books for Preschoolers. These all time favourites would make great Christmas prizes or presents. Alternatively, they could be purchased for a fresh new library set at the start of 2010.

Wendy Piersall at Classroom Jr. shares free Christmas Math Worksheets saying, "These were a huge hit last year, so I wanted to share them with your readers early this year!"

Brain Strain

Tracy Rosen shares her thoughts from Alfie Kohn's QPAT speech in her post On de-rubricizing at Leading From The Heart. She questions our use of rubrics and goes so far as to call them 'creativity killers'. Rather than limiting students to a set of boxes in which they find a place to sit, she encourages us to lose the rubrics, but raise the bar.

Innovate - Beyond The Slate

In his post at Open Educator, Graham Wegner considers the term Digital Transition to describe the current state of his school - somewhere between a traditional paper based, non-digital classroom and the always on, 1:1 connected environment. Read his blog and consider your own situation and your progression within the 'digital transition'.

At NZ ICT Edublabberings you will find the must-read post from Rachel Boyd, For Kids, By Kids: Nelson Kids' ICT Expo. Here she shares the story (and videos) of the amazing things her 6-7 year old students are doing with ICT. Not only have they developed skills in the use of ICT, but they have also taken the initiative to share their knowledge with others. This a very inspiring post demonstrating what can be achieved with the right encouragement and opportunities.

Look No Further

Ferrari Dude presents Top 50 Bloggers to Help You Study, Focus and Learn Better posted at Best Online Universities.com.

Why not submit your post for the next carnival?

The Teaching K-6 Carnival is posted monthly on the 7th. I will be collecting submissions throughout the next month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite some discussion around education related news articles and a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch. For full details, please read my call for submissions.

If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of Teaching K-6 Carnival use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Support this Carnival

If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!

Technorati tags: teaching k-6 carnival, blog carnival.

Tech Tips Tuesday

This Week's Tip: Making Animations with Movie Maker

Over the past couple of weeks I have been dabbling with animations with my students. As this is a first time for me, I have been doing a lot of learning alongside the kids. As a result, it's probably been a longer than usual process as we trouble-shoot and work things out together. Today I want to break it down a little so that you can save some time if you give it a try.

WARNING: This explanation assumes some basic knowledge of Windows Movie Maker, and is a starting point for amateur animations.
Creating Characters and Setting

• Provide a variety of resources for students to use in creating their characters and setting - playdough, lego, stuffed toys, paper, whiteboards etc.
• Have students plan out and rehearse the way they would like to move these objects.

Taking Photos

• Explain to students that everything they see in the frame will be in the movie. It sounds basic, but I had a number of photos that included walls, tables, power cords etc - they imagined they could get rid of all this later.
• Make sure the camera battery is charged (and recharged) and that you have enough time to take all the shots for the sequence.
• Be aware of the light in the room as changes will be evident in the photos.
• Use a tripod if possible to limit the movement of the camera.
• For a 15-30 second promo we used about 80 photographs, but our movements were a bit jumpy.

Writing Scripts

• Support students with finding the words to get their message across most effectively
• Encourage them to rehearse their script and time it to see how long it will need to be

Recording Audio

• This can be done in Windows Movie Maker as students watch their completed movie in the preview frame. This allows them to time the two as much as possible.
• If pushed for time, you can begin recording the script in Audacity prior to movie production in Windows Movie Maker. This also allows students to edit the audio and cut out errors. Export it as a WAV and then you simply import the audio at a later time.

Storing Pictures

• Before you start using Movie Maker, it is important to upload photos to a place where you will be able to easily find them and access them throughout the project. DO NOT MOVE THESE FILES ONCE YOU START. If you move the pictures, the program will not be able to find them and they will show up as a red X on your storyboard.

Importing Pictures

• If your camera has captured large images (in terms of mb) you will want to resize them so that Movie Maker doesn't strain under the size. I do this in Windows Photo Gallery so that I can resize the whole group at once. (I'm not sure how else you might do a bulk resize. Any suggestions?)
  
• Click on Import Pictures and select the pictures you would like to use.
  

Moving Pictures onto the storyboard/timeline

• BEFORE you begin slotting images onto your storyboard, you will want to change the settings for the length of time these will play. This is a BIG time-saver! If you fail to do this, you will be shortening each picture individually (a HUGE time-waster) 1. Click on Tools/Options, 2. Click on the Advanced tab, 3. Select your desired picture duration and transition duration
• To change the length of individual slides, select the Timeline view, click on the image you want to change and drag one of the sides
• If students want to have a repeated action, they will need to repeat the action slides (basic I know, but they still needed to be told!)
• SAVE, SAVE, SAVE - I can't say it enough - we've had SO many Movie Maker crashes and it is very disheartening if students lose their work because they didn't take a moment to save it regularly.
  

Editing the Movie

• Add in the audio and make sure it is well timed with the animation
• Add in any desired titles/effects

Save as a Movie!

4th Teaching K-6 Blog Carnival

Welcome to the April edition of the Teaching K-6 carnival. This month I had a great response from bloggers who were busy writing great articles. With this month's edition comes a new category for blogs that gripe or brag about things that are happening in the classroom. We have lots of innovative ideas for teaching and thought-provoking articles to inspire you. Thank you to all the contributors for this month. Enjoy, and please, spread the word.

Gripes and Brags

In The Last Zebra the Professor encourages people to keep children's safety in mind by keeping them close. He offers suggestions on how he has succeeded with this with his own children at Professor of Protection.

Gerald Aungst shares ideas for Keeping Kids Focused at Quisitivity.org. He encourages teachers to accept that doodling assists with concentration during teacher-led discussions and points to research that suggests this may be a coping strategy for gifted students.

At My English Pages, Mohammed Rhalmi presents Teach with love and logic- Breaking the ice! He gives suggestions on how teachers can create a positive, caring environment for students. His 'ice breaking tips' are sensible ideas to help teachers to develope mutual respect with their students.

Dana, a homeschooling mum, presents What my daughter has learned through blogging posted at Principled Discovery. She shares about her daughter's learning successes with starting up a blog and creating a science e-zine with multiple contributors.

Innovate - Beyond the Slate

Remember the ant farm of yesteryear? C Merrick presents Gel Ant Farm - A Space Age Habitat For Ants posted at Gel Ant Farms. If you've ever considered becoming a myrmecologist, or want to provide that opportunity to your students, be sure to check out these gel ant farms!

This month at Keeping Kids First, Kelly Hines challenges us to openly explore new learning with our students. Rather than simply go by the book, she encourages us to venture Off the Beaten Path and create learning experiences that are highly memorable to students.

While most of the content of this carnival is focused on K-6 education, Fiona Lohrenz shares some Ideas For Day Care Activities And Games posted at Child Care Only. These ideas are great for developing skills in the early years and engaging children's curiosity.

In these times of great economic crisis, we are all sadly searching for ways to save money and prepare students to act responsibly with finances. Debbie Ducker presents Your Children and Grandchildren Must Learn to Save Money posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine, saying, "Teach your children how to save money at an early age and you will save them a lifetime of heartache."

Meaghan Montrose presents some simple ideas on using flash cards in Effective Learning Strategies and Study Skills- Part 2 | posted at Tutorfi.com.

In the News

How are you a teacher-feminist? Have you noticed the impact of gender, race, and other social schemata in your classroom? Educatorblog presents Ways of the Teacher-Feminist: Text, schema, and stereotypes, oh my! posted at An (aspiring) Educator's Blog. Take the time to read and reflect on this article and consider its impact for your own teaching philosophy and pedagogy.

Chris Mauger has taken a closer look at the development of healthy self-esteem. In Kids and Self-Esteem: Avoiding a Culture of Proud Failures posted at Maugeritaville he encourages us to provide opportunities to try and try again. Chris sees the value in helping students to achieve success for themselves rather than stepping in to do it for them.

This month I present my Thoughts on Globalisation here at Teaching Challenges. I share my personal experiences of globalisation in terms of applying for and obtaining a job in an overseas school.

Brain Strain

This month's brain strain is The Iowa series - Wrap-up posted at Dangerously Irrelevant. It's actually not a hard read this month, and contains lots of great diagrams and videos to present information visually. Scott McLeod provides a brilliantly informative resource discussing the future of education. He introduces five 'levers' to move schools forward and help students thrive and survive in this digital age. This is a resource I would confidently recommend to anyone interested in bringing about change in our schools and making them sustainable in an uncertain future.

Look No Further

Sarah Scrafford presents a helpful resource in 100 Free Online Books Everyone Should Read posted at Best Colleges Online. Here you can link to many of the classics including favourites like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Treasure Island". Her 50 Awesome Open Courseware Classes on Space & Astronomy posted at Rated Colleges may help you to touch-up on your own knowledge as you prepare to teach students about space. (I know I'll be checking it out!)

Erika Collin has gone all out with tips for Twitter this month. Her 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Librarians on Twitter posted at Learn-gasm, and Top 100 Tools for the Twittering Teacher posted at Best Colleges Online will keep you twittering away all those spare moments.

Margaret Garcia presents 100 Best Web Tools and Tips to Organize Your Inbox posted at Radiology Technician Schools. Prior to reading this post, I never realised there was so much one can do with email. If email is getting the best of you, check out this post!

Why not submit your post for the next carnival?

The Teaching K-6 Carnival is posted monthly on the 7th. I am collecting submissions throughout the month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch. For full details, please read my call for submissions.

If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of teaching k-6 carnival use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Support this Carnival

If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!

Friday Fun - 20/2/09

Fun this week:

Bushwahzee
On Wednesday we had a travelling performance group, "Bushwahzee", visit the school. They worked throughout the school day to coordinate a range of dance moves with our classes. Then, in the evening, families came back to the school to see the performance. This year's theme was "Beach Party" so the kids came dressed up in board shorts and Hawaiian shirts. Some even wore grass skirts! It made for a really enjoyable evening and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. Things like this are great for bringing the community together, raising morale and building a sense of unity.

SuperClubsPlus
I had a mix of good and bad news this week. The good news was that everything is just about ready for us to run with SuperClubsPlus. The bad news is that my state's Department of Education doesn't support student blogging, so it seems unlikely that we will be able to have a class blog in the near future. We will still be able to communicate with families through My Classes, The School Website, and my blog; and we'll be able to explore a safe Web2.0 through kid-friendly SuperClubsPlus. This week I introduced students to SCP and sent home the registration forms. Once I get these back we can get registered and get moving.

Voice Thread Challenge
I tried to implement my newspaper idea using Voice Thread this week, but I kept coming up against obstacles. When I signed up for Voice Thread, it seemed that I could use it free as a teacher, but since then I have been receiving messages to say I need to pay money. I could cancel out of those pop-ups, but then I kept having issues with the running of Voice Thread. It kept jumping to the save/embed page and for some reason our voices weren't recorded. On top of all that, I've been told that my state's Department of Education doesn't like us using anything that publishes student work on third-party websites. So...after all of that, I have decided to use the Smart Board software or maybe PowerPoint to achieve these outcomes instead! If I use PowerPoint, I should still be able to share the final product with families through school websites.

Friends Book
As part of our unit of work on the FRIENDS values, we put together a book about all the people in our grade. Students chose a name out of a hat and thought of three or more positive things about that person. After they decorated the page, we bound them all together and read the book. It's a great resource to get to know the kids better and made for a great team-bonding activity.

Maths
This week my maths group was focusing on 10 times tables and place value. I finally got around to setting up a Smart Board Notebook with all the pages I like to use in a Year 4 Maths lesson. I have a timer, hundred chart, place value chart, calculator, piggy bank and coins, number line, website links and other activities to promote Mathematical thinking. I also tried out my webcam/document scanner for a dice activity. Below is a video demonstration of this activity. (My first demo video - feedback is more than welcome!)

One place value game the class particularly enjoyed is called Wipeout. Students typed 21 469 into their calculators. Then they had to 'wipe out' the numbers using subtraction. For example, to wipe out the 4, they have to subtract 400. As students become more familiar with this activity they can play it together in pairs, or even individually.

Williamstown High School Band
On Friday afternoon we had a visit from the Williamstown High School Band (from Victoria) who played a number of great songs and introduced their instruments to us. Our children were enthralled and bobbed along to the music. I always love to watch the way students respond to music - it really adds to the atmosphere and has a positive effect on mood.

Rowan of Rin
We began reading Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda and completed a number of activities related to the book. I will publish these in a separate post over the weekend.

2nd Teaching K-6 Blog Carnival

Welcome to the February edition of the Teaching K-6 Blog Carnival. Those of us in Australia and New Zealand are back into the swing of teaching and have no-doubt been very busy setting up our classrooms, preparing teaching programs and establishing behaviour agreements with our students. In this edition we have some great examples of tools to be used in the classroom. There's plenty here to keep your mind active and stretch your skills and expertise as a teacher.
This month I was inundated by posts about free online open coursesware classes, so I've added a separate section for these at the bottom. There's quite a range of interesting courses, but I haven't explored each of these thoroughly - I'll leave that to your discretion.


Innovate - Beyond the Slate

HappyCampers presents LookyBook: Bibliovores Beware! posted at Reese's View Of The World. Find out about Looky Book and how you might use it in your classroom.

Gerald Aungst shares Gifted Thinker, Meager Writer posted at Quisitivity.org. He describes how he uses Audacity to allow students to express their ideas in spoken word before converting to written text.

In Why Bother getting Connected? posted at Digital Learning, Justine Driver shares a discussion on the importance of embedding learning technologies in our teaching. She has embedded a simple but inspiring video: "A Vision of K-12 Students Today". She writes about her early journey with the integration of technology and includes some great resources that she developed as part of this journey. Justine also shares her Learn to Read resources that she has tried with great success in two schools. These are useful with 5-6yr olds, students for whom English is a second language and students with Special Needs.

Jim McGuire presents Free Writing Choice Friday posted at The Reading Workshop. He encourages students to think and plan for a free choice writing session on Fridays. Students are allowed to choose their genre and topic for writing and Jim is there to conference and support them.

Christina has been very busy integrating technology this month she shares three posts at Early Childhood Teacher. In Podcasting and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Christina describes what she has been doing with podcasting in her early childhood classroom. These ideas are great for connecting the language skills of reading, writing and speaking. In Google Maps she outlines an excellent lesson idea for using Google Maps to placemark the birthplaces of students in her class, thus making a geography lesson more relevant.

Laura Milligan presents 25 Safe, Fun & Educational Virtual Worlds for Toddlers, Kids, and Tweens posted at eLearning Gurus. (Please note that there are varying degrees of what constitutes 'safe'. If an adult can register, how safe can it really be? Please be mindful of this when introducing students to virtual worlds and test them for yourself.)


In the News

Kelly Hines provides a thought-provoking discussion about 21st Century Skills in Why the Fight? posted at Keeping Kids First. This topic has been hotly debated in the past month and this is Kelly's response to a Washington Post article. Kelly brings new light to this discussion and shares her own perspective -well worth checking out.


Brain Strain

Gerald Aungst gets us thinking this month with his posts on Creativity vs. Discipline and Finding the Ace in Every Child posted at Quisitivity.org. He writes about finding the balance between discipline and creativity in our classrooms. He points out that some highly successful people were particularly unsuccessful in traditional classrooms. He challenges us to find ways to support all students and explore their individual talents.


Look No Further

Helen Eddy shares First issue of Early Childhood News for 2009 is on space posted at Helen Eddy's Blog. Given that 2009 is the "International Year of Astronomy" this post may provide you with some useful resources for exploring space further with your class. Here you will also find other resources about a variety of topics relevant to teaching in Early Childhood.


Thinking about taking an online course?

Kelly Sonora presents Top 50 Educational Policy Blogs posted at Online University Lowdown.

Patricia Turnerp presents 101 Killer Open Courseware Projects from Around the World: Ivy League and Beyond posted at The .Edu Toolbox.

Jessica Merritt presents 100 Weirdest Open Courseware Classes That Anyone Can Take posted at Online Best Colleges.com.

Alissa Miller presents 101 Free Open Course Classes to Learn How to Build ANYTHING posted at Best Universities.


Why not submit your post for the next carnival?

At this stage, editions of The Teaching K-6 Carnival will be posted monthly on the 7th. I will be collecting submissions throughout the month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch.

If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of Teaching K-6 Carnival use our carnival submission form or the widget at the bottom of this page.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page or on the widget at the bottom of this page.

Support this Carnival

If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!

The 1st Teaching K-6 Carnival

Welcome to the first Teaching K-6 Carnival. As we begin 2009, we are considering what this year will look like in our classrooms. Some of us will soon be meeting our new classes for the year, focusing on classroom management and getting off to a good start with our teaching programs. Others are past that phase and are now busy teaching their programs and finding the most effective ways of assessing students. This edition of the Teaching K-6 Carnival kicks off the new year with some great posts to motivate and challenge. I encourage you to visit the featured posts and leave your comments.


Innovate - Beyond the Slate

Tiger Lily shares her thoughts on Innovative Ideas for Integrating Technology posted at Teaching eVentures. She provides tips on how to teach using technology in innovative ways without breaking the budget. Her tips include classroom websites, blogs, podcasts, movie making, interactive e-books and digital storytelling.

Christina of Early Childhood Teacher posts about her experience with and use of Interactive Whiteboards in early childhood. She found a way to keep all her students engaged in the lesson through pairing the interactive whiteboard with individual student whiteboards.

Kelly Hines encourages us to consider Are Textbooks So Last Century? on her blog Keeping Kids First. She talks about the benefits of engaging students in their learning and drawing on multimedia resources to develop greater understanding of the topics being covered. She shares her argument for the use of laptops in the classroom in place of textbooks.

Jim McGuire at The Reading Workshop has a new way of grading where The More You Do, the Better the Grade. In Jim’s class students can improve their grades through regular reading at home, detailed online journal entries and by leaving comments on the class blog. He shares the rubrics he uses for grading this additional effort.

Rita Phillips would also like us to consider the ways we assess students and the support we provide. She shares three posts from Your Teacher Links. Teaching Test Taking Skills Doesn’t Mean You Are Teaching to the Test – tips on supporting students with preparation for classroom tests. Scissors and Glue and Glitter, Oh No! – tips and tools for providing students with opportunities to demonstrate their learning through projects. Teach Success Part II – tips on supporting students with note taking for research projects.

I share my article Tech Tips Tuesday - Making Good Use of Your Digital Camera which suggests a number of ways you can use a camera to enhance the learning and record progress throughout the year.


Brain Strain

Alvaro Fernandez of Sharp Brains wins the position of Brain Strain in this edition. He shares a review of The Overflowing Brain: Most Important Book of 2008. Included in this post is an article by the author Dr. Torkel Klingberg. It’s not a leisurely read, but gets you thinking more about the ways we require our brains to function in the information age. Make sure you read the comments at the bottom as Kenneth Cooper offers a different perspective that is also worth your time.


Look no further

Looking for textbooks? One Family’s Blog has a comprehensive list of Elementary School Guides, Workbooks and Assessment Resources , Elementary Public School Textbooks and Resources for Kids with Special Needs and Learning Disabilities.


Why not submit your post for the next carnival?

At this stage, editions of The Teaching K-6 Carnival will be posted monthly on the 7th. I will be collecting submissions throughout the month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch.

If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of Teaching K-6 Carnival use our carnival submission form or the widget at the bottom of this page.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page or on the widget at the bottom of this page.

Support this Carnival

If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!

Valuing Diversity Activities

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the school was involved in "Valuing Diversity" Activities. Our school is very multicultural given it's proximity to all the embassies. It is really exciting to see the children exploring various cultures through a selection of activities. The hard thing with events like this is that what you present is only a snap-shot of an impression of a country and it's culture - not completely accurate, but still valuable.

On the first day, we divided the students into mixed grade groups (K-6) and in these groups they visited different 'countries' (one per classroom). Each teacher was responsible for organising 3 or 4 activities related to a country, that students could complete as a group without teacher assistance. The groups arrived, chose an activity, did the activity, packed up the materials, and were given a score for how well they did these things. Teachers were able to determine how many groups to have in their room at any one time. As each group had about 12 children, it was suggested that 2 groups would be manageable, 3 would be maximum. For most of the day, I had 2 groups.

The teachers did a great job of selecting a variety of activities for the children to experience - these included food tastings, games, art & craft, dancing, listening to songs/stories, and races. All the kids were really engaged and it was great to see the big kids helping the little ones.

In the afternoon we had a big assembly where the points were announced and the top three teams were given prizes.

On the second day, students wore traditional costumes from around the world. We met together to parade the costumes, and then shared a lunch of foods from around the world. Parents had kindly donated foods for the children to taste. One of the teachers played the didgeridoo and some of the kindy kids mimed the appropriate animals - kangaroos, dingoes and kookaburras.
Some Balinese dancers also visited from the Indonesian Embassy to show us some of their dance style.

Both days were really enjoyable, and the kids learnt a lot from the experience. It was well planned and organised and came together really well.

First Week Back and Too Little Time Left!

I've only been back at work a week, and it feels like a lifetime! It was a really busy week, and I crammed it full of all the things I was thinking about over the holidays. I'm finding that I have so many new ideas that I want to explore, but as it turns out, so little time. There are only 9 more weeks of our school year. Sometimes it feels strange trying something new so late in the year - why not just save it for next year? But I've decided that if you don't try it straight away, something else will take its place in your mind and it will never happen!

During the holidays I started my podcast and also started to use Twitter. Twitter opened a whole new world to me and I've been learning new things daily ever since. One of the things that really struck me whilst working on my podcast and meeting new people on Twitter, was that I still have a lot of work to do in terms of partnering with parents. This week I started to email the parents of the kids in my class - filling them in on the things that I was noticing about their children. I set up an email distribution list so that I could send out group emails for things like the new timetable and the term overview. As I was making posts about things happening in our classroom, I emailed them the details for this blog, and some people came and had a look. (Thanks Suzanne for being my first follower!) I've found this week particularly draining as I've set this up, but I'm sure it is going to get easier, as now I just need to maintain things.

It has been really exciting to explore the use of email. Whilst working in New York I used email to communicate with parents, but not the same way that I am trying now. In some ways it is adding to my workload, but in many ways it is meeting many needs at once:

• First and foremost I'm communicating with parents
• Secondly I'm recording observations about students (these can be referred to again later - in sent messages)
• and Thirdly, I'm forming plans in partnership with parents for how to meet the needs of my students.

The next few weeks are going to be really busy with 'extra' things that seem to have come up in 4th term - 'Valuing Diversity Days', the school walkathon, photo day and various other things. It's all fun, all valuable learning, but my teaching team has realised our need to be very purposeful in the 'actual teaching time' we have left to gather the material we need in order to prepare our reports. It's going to be an interesting term as we balance the 'fun' with the 'assessment' (not always considered fun!)

Thinking Outside the Box

Recently I flew on a Qantas plane, and was served Spaghetti Bolognaise. Spaghetti Bolognaise? Who serves Spaghetti on a plane? I wondered. It's slippery, it's messy and it leads to noisy slurping!

After a bit of a chuckle, I decided to give it a go anyway. Not because I was particularly hungry, but it did actually look good. And, to my surprise, it wasn't too slippery, messy or noisy at all. In fact, it was fun!

This experience got me to thinking. Some brave person out there decided they'd like to see Spaghetti on the menu for Qantas planes. I'm pretty sure their suggestion would have been met with serious opposition - it doesn't seem like a particularly 'sensible' idea. I'd love to know the discussion that led to it being accepted. My hat is off to that person who thought outside the box, and stepped out to give it a shot. Like I said earlier, it was a great addition to the menu.

So, how does this relate to teaching? I'd like to encourage you to explore a 'less than sensible' idea with your students. Try something new, maybe something that other people have been too scared to attempt. Step outside your comfort zone.