Digital citizens

What does a digital citizen look like?  Using Hector's World that has catchy and relevant video clips explaining what digital awareness is helped us to unpack digital citizenship.

Using the printable booklets from Hector's World as part of our reading programme has helped children make meaningful connections that comes with integration as well as providing engaging, purposeful and authentic learning experiences.

We have begun to create posters using Comic Life explaining how to be safe on the internet that we will share with other classrooms.  I'd like to make eye popping posters using pic collage now that I have found you can save a bunch of photos to google docs and download them using google drive app!  Hallelujah!!

At the last Hector's World clip we created Our Discoveries and Wonderings as well as commenting on our blog post  how to be safe on the internet allowed us to practice what we have learnt.

I personally think this is something that needs to be built into our teaching programme each year and revisited throughout the year until it becomes second nature to the children, parents and staff.  What are your thoughts?

20% time

I have no special talents.  I am passionately curious

Albert Einstien 1952

I wanted to bring more creativity into the classroom but I struggle to timetable this in.  I proposed turning our Goldentime into 20% time or genius time from an idea that Google provides it's staff. They work on their own projects on Google time, but anything created is Google property such as Gmail and GAFE. (How great would it be to be allowed to develop, design or to research something that would be beneficial to our school? Outside of CRT and our other responsibilities!!) 

I looked into what genius time would look like in LC 10 and found some inspiring ideas.

Creating iMovies, learning coding (hopscotch or scratch), developing artistic skills further, learning stop motion animation, designing a simple butterfly garden the ideas are endless... Time is not however.

Thinking an essential part of learning... Indeed if you are not thinking about what you are learning, you are not probably not learning Jim Knight, Unmistakable Impact 

This was an idea I pitched back in term 2 for term 3 needless to say it hasn't been implemented :-(. Maybe an inquiry What is creativity? What makes me creative?

http://www.rundesroom.com/2013/11/passion-projects-in-classroom.html

SOLO (not Hans)

I've been wanting to use SOLO in class for a while since seeing it in action at the Thinking Forward conference last year.

I have used it to help children access higher levels of thinking when using ICT i.e. what makes a great blog comment, what makes a great photo and more recently What makes a great blogger app user.

I started by asking children what they knew about taking great photos.  A lot were in the unistructual thinking stage.  With support could take some great photos and they couldn't explain why.  By the end of our lesson most children had shifted their thinking/learning into relational with some ICT experts moving into extended abstract where they could teach others, explain what made a great photo and why you needed the correct lighting or focus.

Where to next...
I still need to explain to the children what each stage of thinking looks like.  I need to set aside some time for this.

journey using SOLO

evaluative criteria

Plickers

plickers

plicker video

Introduced the class to this, they were excited to try something new.  I modelled it using basic facts using imaging.  It gave me instant feedback who had the right answer and who still needed to check in.

Some problems we found were 

Chn blocking the plickers image

Unsure which way to hold their card

I was taking too long to type questions

I can see this being useful for group responses, having questions preloaded. Reflecting at the end of the day (using as a survey/poll)

I also had ago with surveying the chn how they found school today.

I need to use this tool more so the children can become automatic.

Bookless Wednesdays!

Bookless Wednesday's

You know you are hooking in the kids when they are wanting more bookless days! Yesterday Maree lent me her 5 iPads to use while they were at technology. Reading time the chn were reading our class and team blogs and leaving comments or reading ebooks or ipad apps relevant to literacy. The class was humming and full engagement! (Rotation of chn typing up their Mum poems on keynote, and changing their title font was a huge hit) 

Writing time we looked at what makes a great blog comment using some of SOLO criteria.  Used Cushlagh's Happy video as a model and the chn TPS comments, which were written up.

We spoke about thin and thick questions 

And how this takes a blog comment from good to GREAT! 

We also decided that we wanted to create a conversation and engage the blogger/author so asking questions would do this as well as give us more information about the bloggers post. 

The chn then went off and made GREAT blog comments.  Most chn achieved this and relished the opportunity, where some mucked around.

Overall an excellent and exciting opportunity to have and injects some authentic MLP into LC 10.

Can't wait for next Wednesday! 

P   chn engaged, writing was authentic

M  LC 15's ipads needed our apps

I    add reading apps, Puffin include bookmarks

QCT

Having so many newbies to West Melton was proving problematic and causing some disruptive behaviour especially around friendships.

I've used Jenny Mosley's Quality Circle Time programme before with a lot of success so I deliberately timetabled once a week  for 45 mins.  I found specific lessons around friendships, making friends and helping each other out.  It started off with the intention of building relationships, but I quickly learnt that if there was a problem in the class i.e. chn constantly coming up asking "what to do" or interrupting I turned it into role plays and used it as a problem solving time.

From time to time problems came up in the playground with other chn so I helped the chn become more empowered in speaking up for themselves when someone is doing something they didn't like.

There is a very specific process for each lesson, you really can't "wing it" but there is a lot of flexibility.  I also like QCT because it builds relationships with the chn, chn have opportunities to be paired up with different chn and it's fun even though we are dealing with some big issues.

For more info search Quality Circle Time

And Jenny's site here, there's also some free resources available on her site : )

Shared reading

I have been focusing on reading fluency as I found at the beginning of the year children were word reading, thinking it might've been a "holiday" mishap, I left it thinking it would improve.  It did not. So where to next?
What am I targeting?
What value am I adding?

Firstly sharing WALT with home on our shared poems to help parents with our focus.

Using voice memo app for the children to "hear themselves" reading.

Modelling what GREAT readers sound like when reading to the children.

During guided reading time implementing strategies I used in reading recovery helped targeted specific children as well as using the buddy system to check how their reading was sounding (thumbs up, down and sideways for self and peer assessment).  Phrasing, masking, re-reading and reading.

Great resources on fluency!

Shared-reading

louise dempsey shared reading.pdf

fluency app