You’ve got to love Seesaw!

Hi everyone,

This will probably be my last post for semester 2. I’m super excited to have just submitted assignment three and can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I have been meaning to share this with you all for a while now, but with prac and assignments to get done, I haven’t had a chance until now.

If you haven’t yet seen Seesaw in action, I suggest you all definitely try and have a look. During prac, my mentor uses Seesaw regularly for English, Especially for quick write sessions. The year fours I have been working with have been looking at Narratives this term, with the first three weeks of this semester focusing on Sizzling Starts. The teacher selects a stimulus picture and the students brainstorm what they could write about. They then have ten minutes to write after that time they post their writing on Seesaw. The teacher then provides feedback to the students on Seesaw and the next day they edit their work and re-post their writing.

It definitely makes life easier for the teacher, not having to take home 30 writing books to provide feedback in.

Today, I ran the lesson and the kids could choose to type their sizzling start if they wished. Below is some images of one of the kids work and the feedback given by the teacher.

Good luck with Assignment 3,

Until next time,

Kerrie

 

 

Plickers

Hi everyone,

I have been introduced to some pretty amazing ICT applications while being on prac. Today I observed my mentor teaching a grammar lesson about similes using an application called Plickers. It was really great to watch so I thought I would share with you guys.

Each students has a “Plickers card” with a number assigned to them. Each side of the black code has a letter A,B,C,D.

  In the website, the teacher loads a series of multiple choice questions. These questions appear one at a time on the tv screen and the kids hold up their card with the letter they believe is the answer at the top of the card. For, the image of the card above the letter A is at the top, so this would correspond with my answer to the question on the tv screen.

The teacher then scans the codes using her iPad and it registers each students’ answer. The teacher can then see the answer each student gave on a report.

If you ever get a chance to use this application, give it a go! I thought this was a great way to transform student learning.

Until next time,

Kerrie x

First hand learning… ICT

Hi everyone,

I feel like my eyes have been opened to a whole new world after spending a week with my prac class. As I have blogged previously, the school I am placed at is an Apple school, every student in the class (in fact the whole school) has a iPad. Every lesson to some extent uses ICTs. I have personally found this challenging, and a huge learning curve, but can now see how useful ICTs are as a tool in the classroom learning experiences.

I do need you to keep in mind that this school has been using apple devices since they opened in 2011. I believe this has been a huge contributor to the way they successfully implement the use of the devices within the classroom. The school has two permanent IT support staff, as well as teachers in every year level who are very knowledgeable about the devices.

This week I have seen first hand how ICTs can help differentiate for different students, allowing them to all work at the same time. For example, the students used an app called Spelling City to do their spelling test. The teacher simply facilitates the lesson, as they load the words into the app for the different levels of students. The app then reads the words to the students and they spell it online. It then gets marked automatically when they complete the test. This saves the teacher valuable teaching time, as they do not have to read out three different lists of words or mark the tests for the students, they purely record their result.

The lessons I have taught, this week are completely different from anything I have ever done before, with having to incorporate the use of ICTs. I can honestly now see why some teachers refuse to implement ICTs into their lessons. I definitely now can see they have a place within the classroom. However, I think teachers need to understand and experience how ICTs can make their job easier to give them the confidence to want to try to incorporate them within their classroom.

This week has been a huge eye opener for me. and while I have found this week extremely challenging, it has also been super exciting at the same time.

Until next time,

Kerrie xo

ICT overload….

Hi everyone,

We have reached the middle of semester two and mid semester break is upon us. Time to relax… HA! “What break?” I hear you say! I have been spending my mid semester break working on assignments that are due when I am on prac. I can almost feel certain I am not the only one doing this. I am not a big fan of mid semester breaks, because while my kids are on holidays I still find myself working away.  I need to keep reminding myself, this is all for a good cause. I struggle hiding the fact that I am feeling the pressure this semester, especially with prac just around the corner. However, I have a fabulous mentor, who has sent me lots of resources to help with my planning for prac.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, the school I have been placed at is an Apple school. Students each have their own iPad and most lessons students will use their iPads. This makes me nervous, as I have never been in a BYOD class before. Anyway, did I mention my mentor was amazing? Each cohort shares the planning amongst themselves and builds unit plans for specific subjects that is shared with the whole cohort. To do this, the school uses an iPad application call iTunes U. It allows teachers to add lesson material, create and manage lesson plans and all the information is in the app to share. This helps to streamline the learning between the classes as the same material is used in each classroom. I have been lucky enough to be provided with the access codes to have a look at all of the planning for term four. I am still yet to find some quiet time to navigate my way around the app, but thought this was an interesting tool that could be implemented in your future classroom, so, I thought I would share.

Until next time,

Kerrie

 

Prac… we meet again…

Hi again!

It feels just like yesterday I completed my last placement. I can’t get over how quickly these prac blocks seem to creep up on us. I have spent the last week trying to play catch up on uni work and everyday life which I neglected while trying to meet the deadline of due dates for numerous assignments.

This week I found a spare day to go and meet my mentor and the grade 4 class where I will be spending the first three weeks of term four. Well, I honestly feel sooooo lucky. I have been blessed with opportunity to spend my time on prac in a school that utilises the latest technology to support and enhance student learning. Upon walking into the administration block, it was evident that ICTs were a strong focus at the school, as I was required to sign in on an iPad.

My mentor has created a classroom that would be every students dream. It is a flexible learning environment, where her students can sit wherever they feel comfortable and move around the classroom as they please. The school is an Apple school, every student has their own iPad and they use a range of applications within the classroom (I saw a few of these in action when I was there). Each week the students participate in an hour STEAM lesson, and I was lucky enough to go along with the kids when they had their lesson. Every student The students have genuine respect for each others learning and while I was there, could literally hear a pin drop in the room while they were working. You can follow my mentor on Instagram or check out the photos of my classroom for prac below.

If you are going on prac, I hope your experience is a wonderful one.

Until next time,

Kerrie

Digital illiterate students…

Hi everyone,

Whilst scrolling through the mass of ICT articles online, I came across this article.  I found it both interesting and yet somewhat concerning. Basically, the author Michael Phillips, delves into the ICT curriculum in Australian schools. He identifies that nearly half of Australian secondary schools are failing to ensure their students are meeting the minimum digital literacy requirement standards.

After reading the article, a few questions ran through my mind;

Does this mean that our kids will lack important skills their future employers will be looking for?

Will they be prepared to face the challenges of their future digital world?

What can we do, as future educators to help ensure they are prepared?

Have a read and a think about these questions….

Until next time,

Kerrie

 

All about me….

Hi everyone,

I have been feeling slightly overwhelmed with assignment two.

I found locating different ICTs to use within assignment one extremely difficult. It was really difficult to know where to look to find specific applications that will do what you have envisioned for your unit plan.

Like anything new, I initially found Bubbl.us slightly confusing to use. However, once I managed to work out what to click and how to move the bubbles around, I found Bubbl.us extremely easy to use. I can see how easily this application could be incorporated into a lesson. I must admit I am glad it was easy to use, because I had included it an ICT for assignment one.

Without having the opportunity to use the program, I don’t think I would have used it. I definitely see the value of using the ICTs to become familiar with them and get the confidence needed to implement them into lessons.

Below is a mind map I made of me… I hope you can see it…. Fingers crossed.

Until next time,

Kerrie

 

Time wasting ICTs?

Hi everyone!

I still regularly visit my grade six prac class from last semester. The school is currently trialling a BYOD scheme and as of next year every classroom will be a BYOD class. Today I went to visit the class and the kids were working on an investigation into ancient Rome. The teacher had provided the kids with a number of sources they could look up and find information for their investigation. Some of these were video’s and some interactive games. However, when the kids tried to access these sites, they could not access most of them because of a state wide block. The ones they could access, they were required to download Flash Player to get the site to work. The teacher was baffled why she was able to look up all of these sites on her own computer, which was connected to the schools network, however, the kids were unable to view them.

The lesson ended up being a time waster and the outcome which the teacher was hoping for was unable to be achieved. She said she will need to get the school “ICT guru” to come in and help her sort it out before she tries that again. This confirmed why some teachers just don’t use ICTs within their lessons, as many of them don’t know how to use them themselves. When situations like this occur, well planned lessons, can turn out to be a total time waster.

Until next time,

Kerrie

Our family BYOD experience.

Upon reading another students blog post on her children’s school bring your own device (BYOD) schemes (see the blog post here Parent perspective of BYOD). It got me thinking about my own children schools. My eldest is now in grade 8, when we he was going in to grade 7, we went for the usual information sessions. There was a massive push for all of the parents to contribute to the voluntary BYOD scheme or students could hire the device from the school for a fee of $250 per year. I must admit this made me quite anxious. Going from a primary school setting where they didn’t have a BYOD scheme to a high school setting where it seemed the use of technology was of upmost importance and this would be the way the students learning would occur in all classes.

I went into panic mode at the thought of this. As if the cost of going to high school wasn’t enough, the thought of having to buy or hire a device was just another unanticipated cost i had to prepare myself for. My son already had an iPad. I was worried this device wouldn’t cut it for high school use. What about writing assignments, saving things to USB sticks? Would an iPad be good enough? What if it got stolen? What if it got broken? So many thoughts going through my head.

So, after much contemplation, i decided to wait and see how things progressed through grade 7. My son went to school without us signing up to the BYOD scheme. I am glad that we didn’t pay the money to the school now, as I believe it was an overrated scare tactic to get parents to sign up to the scheme. The kids don’t use ICTs within their daily lessons in the classroom. If they have an assignment, the teachers will borrow laptops for the kids to use during class time. My son got a small laptop for Christmas and he will work on his assignments at home. Not once has he ever had to take his own laptop to school. He is not disadvantaged by our decision and I am glad I don’t have to send an expensive device to high school with him everyday.

Until next time,

Kerrie x

Where is the time going?

Well, we are in week 5. Where has that time gone. This semester has certainly been a busy one. I’ve already handed in two assignments started working on a couple more, have one subject that requires a weekly response to be submitted, and then there is the blog posts for EDC3100 that I keep pushing to the bottom of my to do list. Time to knuckle down and get these posts done while the information is still somewhat fresh in my mind.

Monday saw the submission of assignment 1 for EDC3100. I have mixed feelings about this assignment, mainly because I always doubt myself (this is a bad trait of mine). There was so much information from weeks 1-3 and having only 500 words for the essay was a struggle. I chose to develop a science unit plan for grade 5 students on space. The implementation of ICTs into a unit about space, seems to be a logical fit. Incorporating the use ICTs in this unit will allow the students to learning to be transformed as they are able to interact with the curriculum goals by engaging with software programs that make the content more accessible within a classroom environment.

I focused on Hughes, Thomas and Scharber’s (2006) Replacement, Amplification and Transformation model to guide my thinking. This model was introduced as a guide to help teachers with ICT decision making and understand the role technology plays within the classroom.

More information on this model can be found here RAT model.

Until next time,

Kerrie x