CLASSROOM COUNTDOWN TIMER

Sometimes a countdown timer is exactly what you need in your class. Today for an English activity my class are working in groups. Every ten minutes I need to give out different instructions. Here is the perfect tool for doing that – on online countdown timer. There are lots of different styles to choose from with my favourite being the BOMB!!! As a side I have even used it at home to get my kids to eat their meals. They love it.
Click here for the online stop watch or countdown timer

YOU TUBE – Science videos

Now that my projector is working in my class I have decided to use YOU TUBE a little more. It is a fantastic resource and the reality is it takes little time to find good resources. Personally I find it adds heaps to lessons and the students appreciate the different focus.
Today for science I had to do a lesson on levers. Here are a few of the videos I used in between a few notes and a practical.

Making fraction videos in class

Last week I began a new unit on fractions in Maths. After a couple of lessons going over some of the basics I showed a very simple YOUTUBE clip about fractions. My hope was to just provide some different examples about fractions to my students.

As I was watching the clip I thought that we could do the same in our class. So with no planning at the conclusion of the video I got them into groups, gave them a few parameters and then let them go.
My aim was to get them done in 4 lessons including the first lesson with the original video.

We completed it easily. Here is an outline of the lessons.
Lesson 1 – YOU TUBE clip / into groups / parameters / write intro
Lesson 2 – write ‘what is a fraction’ and key terms.
Lesson 3 – write worked examples / write on big sheets of paper
Lesson 4 – video on flip view

I then took the videos home and used coral video to make them. Took 5 minutes each one and this saved wasting more lessons on the students doing video work. After all it was a maths task and not and ICT task.
I was pleased with the process the students had to include how to add or subtract fractions and I did no teaching on this so the video served as an eye opener into this process. I will need to teach this aspect as the videos proved some groups have not grasped this concept yet.

I also found doing it quickly a benefit. We didn’t waste lots of time but the students certainly learnt lots. Sometimes we waste so much time doing these types of activities they end up hindering learning.
Here is an example of one of the finished videos. Hope you enjoy.

CLASS CHAOS IN MATHS

Chaos in the class today. For Maths we were finishing off some videos on fractions we had started as a class. There were kids everywhere, paper everywhere, cameras everywhere and one rather grumpy teacher trying to get things going!!

In the end we got there. Four lessons to plan, write, video and then edit a movie is a tough ask by the teacher but we got there. To cap off the day I got to eat the chocolate cakes that were used in the videos. YUM. Videos and lesson structure will come in the next few days.

Class survey – easy peasy with Google docs

I used Google Doc today to complete a class survey. It worked perfectly and must go down as one of the most under-rated classroom tools available on the web.

For me technology must add something to my class with little effort or enable me to do something better than in the past. About a couple of times a year I get the students in my class to complete a survey about our class; the good, the bad and the things we could improve. In the past I have just collected the sheets at the end, read through them and then put them away.

With this new system I spent 10 minutes making the test, 5 minutes within a computer lesson completing it and then the results came in. Then we had a cklass discussion about the results, easy with the summary sheet and I finally put the written responses onto a WORDLY sheet. click here

When I wrote the questions I added a little humour to the last question. Check it out for yourself . A great way to build up your self esteem as a teacher and have a little laugh.  Click here.

Samsung Tab – Rival to the Ipad

Check out the new Samsung Tab – rival to the ipad. I will be interested in trying this baby out and seeing how it compares to the Ipad. The Samsung runs Google’s Android 2.2 operating system. It is also supposed to include official support for Adobe Flash and the ability to video conference, two aspects that will leave the Ipad in its wake.

One of the issues I have with Apple is the applications and the need to purchase them. This can be expensive for schools and hopefully this device will have the same standard of applications. The price will also be interesting.

e-portfolios and Key Competencies

Currently I am looking into setting up e-portfolios within the Year 7 – 10 department of our school. For me the question I am wrestling with at the moment is a simple one, but it will ultimately determine where I go with this. The question is -

What are we doing e-portfolios for?

I know all the standard answers like assessment, informing parents, collection of work, feedback and feed forward. But I have yet to see an e-portfolio system work in a school with large numbers with ALL staff and students engaged. If I am honest there are better systems around for doing most of the things I have mentioned above. However, if you are running e-portfolios with a large school group than let me know how you are doing it.

Talking with a staff member the other day he had the idea of linking our Year 7/8 portfolio with the Key Competencies. The Key Competencies within the NZ curriculum are thinking, using language, symbols, and texts, managing self,relating to others and participating and contributing. His idea got me thinking. Could e-portfolios be used in this way??

Where my current thinking is taking me is that I would like to look into the idea of using an e-portfolio as a place to measure students progress against the Key Competencies. Sometimes these are hard to assess and placing them with an e-portfolio could be a great way to provide detailed evidence of achievement.

What say you?? I have been rather brief and general in these points but I have yet to really see a e-portfolio system work in a secondary system for a number of reasons. Perhaps trying it as a tool based around the key competencies could be the answer.

National Standards – my view

While this blog is essentially about ICT within education, I may from time to time put my own voice onto the educational topics of the day. One such topic at the moment is National Standards. Something my school is attempting to navigate its way through at the moment. Below is an article that I wrote at the beginning of this year on my other blog – Ozy Mandias Warning. Have a read and feel free to comment.

 I am sure that the other day you received a personal letter from our Prime Minister, John Key. The letter was an introduction into the new National Standards which must be implemented in schools this year. Personally this was the first letter I have received from John Key and I was very excited and I have therefore sent a reply back to him about the new standards. For your interest I have included the letter below.

Dearest Mr John Key

Thanks for the heartfelt letter I received in the post the other day. As fate would have it happen it was also the same day that you announced that 30% of teachers were useless and not fit for teaching. Being a teacher of 7 years I wondered if you included me in this number. As I had taken off early and left work at 4:00pm I assume you probably did.

John, I am a supporter of National Standards as a principle. I believe if they are used correctly they would provide a good framework that could benefit students as they progress through primary school. I would even advocate a national test at Year 8 as I think this would benefit students. However, as they currently stand I am not a fan of the standards you are attempting to implement. To me they seem to be ill thought through, implemented quickly and without any vision for the future.

Firstly, Mr Key, I see very little difference in the National Standards to what many schools are currently doing for their assessment. If you look at the new requirements many schools are providing much more information to their communities through the current reporting system. However, if you look at the letter people received the other day you would think you have reinvented the wheel and are trying to trick everyone into believing it was your idea. I feel you are misleading the people of New Zealand.

An important fact which I believe many parents fail to understand is that there is no one assessment that is used to determine if a student is reaching the new National Standards. This means it is left up to teacher’s judgement to determine where kids sit on the levels. Perhaps we should look at the Year 7 Reading Standard as an example. The standard states that

By the end of year 7, students will read, respond to, and think critically about texts in order to meet the reading demands of the New Zealand Curriculum as they work towards level 4. Students will locate, evaluate, and synthesise information and ideas within and across a range of texts appropriate to this level as they generate and answer questions to meet specific learning purposes across the curriculum.

Compare this to the expectation that the National Standards have with Year 8.

The difference in the standard for year 8 is the students’ increased accuracy and speed in reading a variety of texts from across the curriculum, their level of control and independence in selecting strategies for using texts to support their learning, and the range of texts they engage with. In particular, by the end of year 8, students need to be confidently and deliberately choosing the most appropriate strategies for reading in different learning areas.

So how does a teacher work out the difference between someone working at the year 7 standard or the year 8 standard? Well according to the Ministry website

“Teachers will use a range of assessments to make an overall teacher judgment to work out where each child is at, what their next learning steps are and to set goals.”

Basically as a teacher I have to use my professional judgment and rank students against the National Standards. Ironically this is what I am already doing against the achievement objectives within the curriculum. I will have to be able to justify my judgments, but, at the end of the day it is still a call based on opinion and not facts.

Do you really think that there is going to be a fair Standard across all of New Zealand if we leave it up to teachers to decide what level students are working at?

So your promotion that the National Standards will bring about greater information about where your child is working at is not true. Essentially we are doing the same thing as we have always done but you have sugar coated the outside just to keep people happy.

You also stated in your letter that as a teacher I am able to use plain language reports. This apparently means I can use straight forward language and I don’t have to ‘sugar coat’ my words or phrases. This is fantastic;

“Cody has had an awful start to the year. He is an obnoxious in class and has few friends. He seldom comes to school but when he does he does he has no lunch and is working well below the Year 3 standard for reading, writing, (except graffiti which he excels in) and Mathematics.”

This was actually my toned down version. My first draft I did a Honi Harawera and included some differentiated adjectives. Is this the kind of reporting you had in mind John? Plain language reporting in my view is just another laying of sugar you are coating on our education system. It might look good to the masses but it wont change much

I am also concerned about where the National Standards will go. There have been rumours that you will force schools to publicize their results or even use the results to identify under performing teachers. I do hope that you think very carefully before you go down this track. Our current system is far from perfect but implementing something similar to league tables, I believe, will have devastating effects on many schools, communities and teachers. It hasn’t worked overseas so what makes you think it would work here?

Mr Key I would like to finish with two final points. To me they are the most important and I hope you take them on board. Firstly, you seem to think that the National Standards will help students. I can tell you now, and I would happily put my house on it if you put your Hawaii beach house up, that New Zealand will have the same educational problems and be reaching the same educational standards in 10 years time. To me National Standards could be good in a few years time. Before that there are other strategies and policies that should be in place before these are attempted. I sometimes wonder if the people who make policy in New Zealand have been within an ants willy of a classroom, so strange are their ideas. Don have you spent extended time in a low decile school and seen the rubbish that many of those teacher have to put up with daily? Have you been to a small rural schools and seen the limited resources that they have to work with? A little time invested at all levels of education in New Zealand may surprise you with many of the good work being done and the REAL issues many have to deal with.  

Second up on my list of frustrations is your leadership and the leadership of your wing lady Anne Tolley. To me leadership is about imparting your vision onto the people you lead. It is about inspiring those who work around you to follow you. As a teacher who essentially follows your lead it would be nice to have some vision, guidance and honesty about where you are heading with New Zealand’s education system. Honest answer around league tables, funding and standards would be a nice beginning. I might not agree with your answers but at least I would have the opportunity to hear your vision and where you believe education is heading. It is from that point that I think robust debate and

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my ranting Mr Key. In reference to your comment about under performing teachers I have taken note and am about to do a little prep for my classes next week, on a Saturday.

Yours sincerely

Using Google Forms in the classroom

Last week I went on a great e-learning course. During the course the facilitator used Google Forms to excellent use as a diagnotic and summative tool to grab all our thoughts and ideas. I had never used Google Forms before but see them as having the potential to be an excellent learning tool within the classroom.

For those interested in using Google Docs and Forms in your class as a learning tool here are some detailed instructions.

Basically Google Forms is a versatile data collection device and its use within the classroom is limitless. It could be used prior to learning, as formative assessment or even as summative assessment at the end of a topic. It can collect date in different forms including text, paragraph, check boxes and many more. The only limitation is that larger volumes of date can be hard to organise but for classroom and school use that is not a problem.

STEPS to get GOOGLE FORMS working in your class.

1. You need to have a google account. Click HERE to sign up
2. You then need to enable google docs which can be done on your google account page.
3. You are now ready to start. Navigate your browser to docs.google.com.  Go to the menu labeled “New” at the left and select “Form”
   1. A new Google Form has been created.  Click to edit the title and give your form a neat description, then click “Add question”  
   2. Edit the question text and list the possible responses. Add as many questions as you would like choose a response field ( text, paragraph, click box that fits your needs)  
   3. Click “Save,” then click the link at the bottom of the page to view your published form.
   4. People now need to fill out the form. Email the form around or set as a link in a webpage. After people have filled out your form, you can view analytics for your form data by clicking “Show Analysis” in the edit form view. This can be viewed as people submit answers.
   5. All of your form responses are stored in a Google Spread sheet, which can be easily exported to .XLS/.CSV for making custom graphics in Excel.
   6. You can edit your form at any time by visiting the FORM button on the spread sheet view.
   7. I hope this give you  the idea on using Google Forms within your class. Ultimately this piece of technology is limited only by your imagination. Good luck and give it a go in the class.

First ‘Class Chaos’ Post

There is always something eciting about you first post in a blog. I have been blogging for a number of years at Ozymandias Warning and Kiwi Kids News but today I embark on a different journey.

My goals are three fold;

1. Reflect on the trials and positives oftrying to cincorporate ICT into my class.

2. I would like to provide links to cool stuff on the web.

3. I would like to stir the pot a little. From my experience we are far to willing to embrace technology like a long lost prodigal son. By doing this we adopt technologies that don’t actually improve learning, waste time and don’t achieve what we really want.