Tech Tips Tuesday

I thought that today I would mention the tech tools and resources that I called on in my first week back at work. One of my challenges has been remembering what some of the online tools and resources are called, and after that finding that they have changed since I last used them! Some of the resources below were already being used by the teachers in the classrooms I share.

Information sources:
Talking Textiles - This contribution from "The Children's University of Manchester" provides interactive activities and quizzes that help students to develop an understanding of textiles including how they are made and decorated.

How the Body Works - This Kids Health site has movies, quizzes, articles, word finds and activities to teach students about the body systems. I used this with the Year 5/6 students who will be writing explanations of the respiratory system later this week.

Behind the News - This ABC program was used in both Year 3 and Year 5/6 to expose students to recent news and to create opportunities for discussion around current affairs.

Study Ladder - (previously Smart Kiddies - and wow, what an upgrade!!) I used this resource for interactive whiteboard activities for Maths lessons, but there are now activities in a great range of learning areas. Study ladder is free for all my purposes, but for more information on costs see the pricing chart.

Worksheets:

Math Drills - I used the free black line masters for fractions to use with my Maths class.

Classroom Organisation:

Super Teacher Tools - I used the Group Maker tool to create random pairings of students in my Spelling and Maths groups.

Lesson Design:

When creating interactive whiteboard pages for my lessons I returned to the Flickr Creative Commons for images to bring the pages to life.

Friday Fun - 18/9/09

We've almost made it to the end of the term and with holidays just around the corner, we've been madly trying to finish all the things we've started. As a result, there wasn't a lot of new learning taking place, but rather refining and completing. We did, however, have an exciting excursion to the CSIRO Green Machine...

Fun This Week
We joined in one of the great programs offered at the CSIRO. Students learnt some background information about colour and then explored the colours that are used to make a black marker:

They then created T-shirts using permanent markers and ethanol to spread the colours:
The kids had a lot of fun and proudly wore their new creations. Some thought they should be adopted as part of school uniform!

Before we left the CSIRO, our teacher showed us this awesome experiment using ethanol:


We then walked to the Botanic Gardens for lunch on nice green lawn in the shade of big trees. We took a walk through the 'rainforest' and saw some lizards down by the loos, before hopping back on the bus and returning to school.

Friday Fun - 28/8/09

I want to pause for a moment to brag about the wonderful kids I teach. They are a lovely group of kids with an interest in learning and willingness to focus on a task and get the job done. I am impressed with how self-directed they are and also with how well they cooperate together. For the most part, I can trust them to do the right thing. The teachers who have been taking my classes while I do courses and executive duties tell me that they are delightful to work with.

On Monday I arrived at school to this message:

And this morning I was greeted by a student who had written me a poem.

I feel so spoilt to have the pleasure of working which such great kids.

Fun This Week:

ABC3 Promo
In Australia we are in the process of getting a selection of new free-to-air television channels. One of these will be ABC3, a television channel aimed at programming for children. They are currently calling for primary school students to create promo videos for their channel.
I was recently challenged by the need to create more opportunities for students to write for a real purpose and audience. When I saw this competition, I thought it would be a great opportunity for students to write/create a persuasive text for a real purpose.
This week students from both Year 4 classes formed small groups and began thinking about and planning their approach to this task. They are feeling very motivated by this project and (in my opinion) should be able to create some high quality video promos.
For more information about the competition, visit ABC3 By me.

Listening for the Author's Voice
Last weekend I was reflecting on how I teach my students to write. I was going through the First Steps Writing resources and considering what I'm doing well, what I'm not doing well, and how I want to implement First Steps further in my writing program. One thing I realised I wanted to put greater emphasis on, is the concept of personal voice.
Trent Lorcher at Bright Hub provides some tips on how to explain 'personal voice' to students. I shared this with my students and then we investigated the voice of different authors we know using the following chart:
Students then went on to do their reading for the week and jotted down notes about the voice of their selected author. They discussed this further with their Cooperative Reading Group on Tuesday. The next step is to help children to get a better sense of their own voice.

Bringing Dance to Life
We are going to perform some dances for our assembly next week. The students chose from two themes - 'flight' or 'fireworks'. We explored these themes earlier in the term and students had a chance to create dances in small groups. We are now asking them to fine-tune a dance to share with the whole school. They began practising their dances and we pulled out some scarves for students to use as costumes. It's beginning to look really effective and the kids are keen to perform next week.

Wakakiri
The Year 5/6 students performed in Wakakirri this week and did a really great job. Their dance was spectacular as were their costumes and backdrop. The rest of the school got to watch it on Monday afternoon.


Textiles and Design Homework Projects
Students have been handing in homework projects they created using their textile and design skills. Don't they look great? We plan to share these with the school community at the assembly next Friday.

Place Value and Multiplication Tables
This week we explored place value in Maths and practiced multiplication tables. There were some great interactive websites for this. The Crickweb Maths Teacher Toolkit had some handy place value activities. Woodlands have some great interactive times tables games. My favourite for using on the interactive whiteboard is Hit the Button. We also made our own whiteboard page. Students gave some digits from their phone numbers and I wrote these up on the board. We then ordered these four-digit numbers from smallest to largest, simply by touching and dragging them. You've got to love having an interactive whiteboard!
Students also played with a range of other manipulatives to practice their tables and place value including dice, tables wheels and wind-ups. They rotated through the activities over the week.

Making Movies - Second lesson
Students continued making their movies this week and some finished them, ready to share with parents at our upcoming Learning Journeys. We had a bit of a set-back this week, as many students wanted to include songs, and we needed to find something appropriate that wasn't protected with copyright.
I need to find some Creative Commons songs and collect them together into a common pool that students can select from. That will be one of my jobs this weekend. Any suggestions? I'm also looking for a site that collects "kid safe" songs and won't be blocked by my school.

Senior Sport
In Terms 2 and 3 students in Years 3-6 select a sport to attend on Friday afternoons. Options include things like tennis, indoor soccer, aerobics, circus and ten pin bowling. This term I have been going along to supervise ten pin bowling. The kids love it and are so supportive of one another. It's a great way to end each week.

Friday Not-so-fun

I spent Friday curled up on the couch snoozing, sculling down liquids and gobbling down food in an attempt to help my body fight what I assume is swine flu. The doctor said it is a virus and that I am contagious. Given that I had the flu injection earlier this year (which should cover me for most of the known flus they have vaccines for) I expect that it is probably swine flu. The doctor said that they aren't testing everyone for swine flu now, but only those at risk - asthmatics, elderly, pregnant women, and people with a temperature over 38 degrees Celsius.

I've been achy, coughing, and OH SO TIRED! It wasn't all bad though, as I got to enjoy a lazy day while it rained outside my window. I love the rain. And, today (Saturday), I'm actually feeling a lot better. I woke up this morning to find my feet tapping (something they do when they want to go for a run) and as I prepared my usual coffee and porridge, I looked out at the gorgeous day and felt it would be a perfect day for a bike ride. Obviously, I'm not going to put my body through any of that today - I still need to rest a little longer. But it's good to see I'm well on the road to recovery.

So, I spent even less time in the classroom this week and when I was in there, it had it's own little elements of higglety piggletiness.

Fun This Week

Chance and Data
We covered Chance and Data in Maths this week. I taught one lesson on this for my own Maths class and one lesson for Mr Tucker's class. (His relief teacher had to go to her sick child and I was off class for my executive day, so I went back on his class to fill the gap.) We explored ideas around rolling dice, pulling counters from a hat, tossing a coin, and spinning a spinner. Students really enjoyed these activities. For teachers in Australia and New Zealand, there are some great Chance and Data activities available on Scootle that allow students to explore these concepts.

Textiles and Design Projects
This week we introduced students to the next phase of their learning in our Textiles and Design Unit. We told them that they need to create an item that they can sell at school (at a fete, or market day or other). They need to consider the needs of their clientele and design something that they can make in three weeks using easily accessible resources and drawing on the skills they've learnt so far. We talked about the need to create quality items and determine a fair price. We also suggested that students speak to their proposed clientele prior to making their items in order to determine if their is a market for their product. It is exciting to see the ideas that students are coming up with and their enthusiasm in getting started with the process.

Cooperative Reading
I used my iPhone to record students thoughts about our Cooperative Reading Groups. I plan to use this information to make some adaptations. Here is a summary of their thoughts:

Good

• You can discuss your books and how you're enjoying them
  
• Learn more about how to write better stories
• Small groups with different books and we tell each other about those books
• Get to space out the reading time
• Have little groups and get to discuss your ideas and can have your own opinions
• We share our ideas with people
• Learn how to use a roster
  
• Allowed to read a book and do activities to get you more into the book and learn how to write better stories
• People are enjoying their books and having fun
• After we read we write it all down and the teacher gets to see what we're reading and then we share it with our groups too
• Get to experience new authors and how they create characters, settings and plots
  

Bad

• Most of the activities are too short
• You get through the writing activities too quickly
• Some of the Reading Response Journal sections are too easy
• It's hard to know what to write in Reading Response Journal
• Reading Response Journal is too repetitive and can get boring
  
• People with large books are having trouble finding the time to do their allocated reading AND the writing tasks.
• When there's too much talking it's hard to concentrate
  

Based on these responses, it seems that students find the discussion time very beneficial, but the Reading Response Journal needs to be re-worked. Perhaps it would be best to have a focus for each week and students write to that focus and share about that focus during their discussion groups. For example, one week might be focused on "interesting words and phrases", another on "descriptive passages", another on "characters", another on "author's style", another on "my perspective" and so on. That would mean there would be less repetition and that students would focus on these areas in greater depth.

Friday Fun - 7/8/09

I really enjoyed this week as it was a nice balance of classroom and administration. The classroom felt settled and successful and the students were engaged in the lessons. In my administrative role I achieved a lot - planning, paperwork, phone calls, supporting teachers, and observing lessons. I've given a couple of lengthy explanations today in case you would like to replicate the things we've done in your own lessons.

Fun This Week

Skilling with Textiles
We launched into some skill development with textiles this week. I conducted an online survey with students (using Tiger Survey) to determine students' prior skills with knitting, sewing, crochet etc and to find out what equipment they had access to. I asked students to volunteer to be coaches if they classified themselves as experts with particular textile skills. Students then selected which groups they would like to join to develop their basic skills. As we didn't have quite enough equipment for the first session, some students created God's Eyes and then brought in some extra equipment for additional sessions.

The knitting coaches were a little nervous about starting their group as they weren't sure how to cast on. At recess, in the staff room, I found out that our librarian knew how to cast on and had some time that she was willing to share to teach it to the coaches. While she explained it to them I recorded the explanation using my mini camcorder so that they could revisit it later if they needed to. They practiced during their lunchtime and were ready to start after lunch. I was amazed by how well they remembered the instructions and were able to teach the others.
Students were allocated an area and then the coaches ran their sessions with minimal support. They were responsible for ensuring their materials were cleaned up and their areas tidy at the end of the session.

As students complete one skill area, they are welcome to move to another group to try out a new skill. At this stage the emphasis is more on trying new skills than on creating a finished product.
That said, the students with the weaving looms have successfully made beanies and scarves; the sewing group have made little cushions; the crocheters have made snakes and lizards (from a basic chain); and the knitters are well underway with knitting rows. Mid-week another group started up with french knitting using cardboard rolls and paddle pop sticks.

I've been impressed to see that the kids are loving it all so much that they are even doing it during their lunch breaks and asking to take it home. Two students have already created textiles projects at home and turned them in. It's great to see their enthusiasm.

Touch Footy
We are preparing students for a Touch Football Gala later in the term, so after our Maths sessions we go down to the oval to do some skill-building. Some of the boys are particularly keen about this and they are grabbing a ball to continue practice during lunch. We are hoping to get some mini games started next week.

Munching in Maths
For one of the Maths lessons I bought a bag of apples and used them to help students apply maths to everyday life. I must say that I was particularly lucky as the numbers kept working in my favour.

We weighed one apple (125g) and then students tried to calculate how many apples there should be in a 1kg bag. Some worked it out by adding 125 repeatedly and keeping a running total. Some worked it out by doubling and tracking the number of apples. And others worked it out by dividing 1000 by 125. As it turned out, for whatever reason, there were actually 9 apples in the bag instead of the 8 we calculated mathematically! We also discovered that it was possible that the scales weren't so accurate.

We then created a new word problem that required students to determine how much one apple would cost if the whole bag was $4. I passed out some calculators for students to use to assist them. Students were a little boggled by the decimal result they got 0.44444 and thought it must be wrong. One of the students worked out what it meant and explained it to the class. So then I asked students to work out how much 2 apples would cost; 3 apples; 6 apples; 5 apples and we discussed how to work out the answers mentally. Then I flipped it around the other way - how much would half an apple cost? A quarter? As you can see, the numbers were very favourable as they were easy to multiply and divide.

One of the students called out "Can we EAT the apples?" So we launched into yet another problem to be solved - How much apple can each student have? With 9 apples and 25 students, there weren't enough for one each, so we would have to divide them into halves. Students calculated that we would have 18 halves - still not enough pieces. But then we realised that if we cut them into quarters, we would have spare pieces. I demonstrated this on the board as an example of division with remainders (which we learnt earlier in the week). 36 pieces would give us 1 quarter each, then 11 remaining pieces. One student decided that they didn't want any apple, so then we were looking at 24 students and 12 remaining pieces. While they munched on their apple I asked students to think about what they know about the relationship between 24 and 12. One student pointed out that 12 is half of 24. So how does this help us with dividing up the remaining pieces? Another student realised that we could cut the remaining quarters into half again to make another 24 pieces. So what would these pieces be called? One student worked it out and another explained how they came to the answer. They then worked out how many eighths they had had altogether.

You could feel the energy in the classroom as students buzzed from one calculation to another and solved the real-life problems.

Dancing
We explored anger through our dancing this week. We told students the story of a farmer who was angry because some of his workers broke the machinery. There were three parts to the dance music - the angry farmer who stomps and shakes his fist, the trembling workers and the broken machinery. Students explored these roles through dance and then worked in small self-selected groups to create and present their own dances. I was captivated by the way they told the story through dance.

Leadership Assembly
We had a school assembly to recognise and welcome in the new SRC and Enviro Squad for the second half of the year. Students also received certificates for their achievements in the Computer and Science competitions.

Friday Fun - 31/7/09

I'm enjoying my time acting School Leader C. I enjoy getting to know the other teachers better. I enjoy the variety. I enjoy the challenge of trying something new. I enjoy seeing the big picture perspective and then zooming into the detail in the classroom. I enjoy supporting other teachers with what they are doing in their classrooms. It has been a very enjoyable week.

Fun This Week

Weaving
Last weekend I stocked up on ribbons, wool, beads, buttons and numerous other bits and pieces to use for our Textiles and Design unit. I raided the art storeroom and found some hessian just waiting to be used. I then handed the ideas over to my relief teacher to bring to fruition in my absence! Students pulled some of the strands out of their hessian square and then weaved ribbons through what remained. They threaded on beads and buttons to enhance their designs. Everyone was engaged and enthusiastic with their work.


Cooperative Reading
We made a great start to our new Cooperative Reading process this week. Last week students planned how many pages they need to read each week in order to complete their book by the end of the term. They also planned writing tasks and which weeks they will complete them.On Monday students read their required pages and completed an entry in their Reading Response Journal using the four roles of the reader.
On Tuesday students met together in their groups to discuss their reading. As I wasn't there for this session, I asked students for feedback. Next time we will allocate more time and try to find an easier way for the recorders to determine the key points to write down. We also need to get new batteries for the stopwatches that the Time Keepers use!

Group Meeting Recording Form

View more documents from pennyryder.

On Thursday students began working on their writing tasks. Some focused on the planning stage while others began their first draft. Still others worked on their reading as they still had additional pages to read. At the end of the session we had a sharing circle to report back how things were going and what everyone was working on.

So far I'm impressed with how well students are taking responsibility for their learning and working through the tasks they have planned for themselves.

Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late
This week my literacy group read Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems. Students discussed the different arguments one might give for staying up late. They then wrote a letter to their parents pleading to stay up. While I wasn't teaching for this lesson, I heard that my students were very enthusiastic about this book and enjoyed the activity. They have been giving me suggestions for what they would like to do next. One suggested that we could record our letters with the Snowball Microphone. Another suggested we make our own "Don't Let The Pigeon..." books. Yet another told me that she had found this file to show you how to draw the pigeon.
Look what happens when you hand back some control to students! They actually start to think of ways to learn for themselves!
Thank you also to Allanah K for sharing this Pigeon Teachers Guide. I'll have to buy The Pigeon Wants a Hotdog next time I'm in the US.

Division in Real Life
My Maths group has been having some trouble with both approaching word problems and using a calculator. This has been worrying me, so I have been trying to find ways to include one or both in my Maths lessons. This week we pulled up the Qantas website and made up some word problems, pretending that Qantas was having a half-price sale. I wrote up the word problem on the board and just changed the student's name and the original price each time:
..... found out that Qantas was having a half-price sale. If the original price of a ticket was .... how much is it on sale?
I selected students to choose where we would go and then the whole class tried to work out the sale price using calculators. This was an important process, and it was great to see students thinking through what you press on a calculator in order to work out half of a number.
To extend this further, I showed my class how they can use Excel as a shortcut to work out the prices by typing in a formula. This is something I hope to build on further.

Creativity

Last week I mentioned my new interest in crochet, particularly amigurumi. I've been playing some more with the idea over while creating my own crocheted creatures. I looked at a couple of patterns and was dumbfounded by all the crochet jargon for the instructions. It left me thinking, 'huh'? What I WAS able to decipher was that amigurumi are made by a spiral. So, I searched on YouTube for how to make a crochet spiral. There were some great videos there about how to start a spiral when making a beanie. She also gave some instructions on how to increase and decrease the amount of stitches. Armed with this, I had a go, and here's what I've come up with...

A bunny. (My sister in-law wants me to make one for her, too)


And a Frilled-Neck Lizard. (He's a little hard to make out, given the camouflage, but I thought it wasn't too bad for an early attempt!)


So, whilst making these, I did a lot of thinking about creativity and my own response to tasks, and what I like to see my students doing. I don't generally like to stick to a set pattern - I usually like to add my own twist. I take the main idea, learn the basic skills and then shape it to suit my own interests. And I like to see my students doing this as well. When I set a task, I don't want to see 30 exact replicas - that only shows me that students can apply the things I teach in the one way that I have suggested, and under my supervision. I want to know that students can apply their learning to their unique situations.

I do realise, however, that sometimes we need to practice the 'traditional' way of doing something before we are ready to bend the rules to make it personal. We need to have the opportunity to learn the essentials before we can play with the non-essentials.

As I approach the next unit of work (Textiles and Design), I'm trying to balance things in my mind in order to provide the required amount of guidance paired with the desirable amount of flexiblility. I need to find a way to teach my students to take the creative approach.

When I was a kid, I wanted to get everything 'right' and if I dropped a stitch, I panicked and couldn't figure out how to resolve the issue. I don't know how or when the shift happened. Somewhere along the way I must have realised that there were times when 'my version of right' was actually valued more by my teachers than the set pattern they put before us. I don't think I've actually let my students in on that secret yet!

How do you bring out your inner creativity? What things enable or disable it? How did you learn to let your creativity shine through? What do you like to create? Please share your thoughts below.

The Year To Come - 2009

I am excited at the prospect of a new year and have already been busy thinking, dreaming and planning what 2009 will hold.

At school I will be teaching year 4 with a male teacher who I've worked well with in the past. Our Integrated Inquiry units will include the topics:

Personal Relationships - including a novel study of "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda, nature conservation at a local ridge, and hopefully the development of a class blog. Through this unit students will learn about building and maintaining positive relationships; and roles and responsibilities within a community.

Australian History - including a focus on Aboriginal history prior to British colonisation and then the different challenges faced by settlers up until the time of federation. Through this unit I would like to see students developing timelines with Dipity and trying out video casts to explain Australian history.

Textiles and Design - looking at fabrics and their uses, exploring different techniques with textiles, and creating their own designs to suit a particular purpose. I would like to see children working in team project groups to liaise with others, determine needs and wants, and produce products to meet communicated needs eg. costumes for school dance performance, craft items for school fete and commemorative t-shirt for year co-hort.

The Solar System - including an understanding of apparent size/distance, gravitational pull, current information from space exploration and the causes of changes to the surface of the Earth or atmosphere. There are numerous interesting and useful websites to support this unit of work.

At school I will also be working on our Student Enrichment Policy - trying to link up, document and promote all the great things the school does to enrich student learning and growth. I am excited by this prospect because I really do feel the school does this so well.
I've also expressed an interest in helping the school find and purchase a class set of laptop computers. Given that we now have wireless internet access, I can't wait to get the students started on laptops!

In my 'computer world', I hope to connect more with my personal learning network - testing out my webcam and exploring "Flash Meetings". I want to do some more podcasting, for Link 4 Learning, but also consider its future direction. I've recently taken on a Blog Carnival, so hopefully will be able to maintain this throughout the year (the first edition will be out on Jan 7). I'm keen to get my Delicious accounts working for me even more than they are currently. And, I'm sure I'll be surprised by a number of other opportunities that will pop up.

On the home front, there will probably be renovations, and hopefully a 30th Birthday overseas trip for my husband. He wants to see the Northern Lights and also drive on the German Autobahn. With all of this, it will come down to how much we can save up and what we decide to prioritize! Speaking of prioritizing, I'd like to get back into my running - probably early morning, or home from work in the afternoons.

All in all, it's looking like a great year.