QR Codes

Fun.  Why hadn't I hooked into these before?  Was chatting on FB with a librarian friend in a Uni library about what they use their iPads for, QR codes was one of the uses linked with training students on how to use the library and forresearch purposes.  This got me playing with QR codes.  They seem like heaps of fun and I'm thinking that my Year 1 students would find scanning a QR code heaps easier to get to a YouTube video or learning task following a guided reading session for example than typing in all the details or going through the process of logging into our class page and following the links there.

I wonder how many of their parents have smart phones that could scan these codes for home learning support?

I've found some helpful ideas.
10 Ways to use QR codes in your classroom
nuts and bolts
QR codes in the classroom
QR Codes in Education Prezi

And if the links weren't interesting enough...love the simplicity of navigation for the student in the YouTube video above!

Puppets

Today we had the excitement of the 'enchanted wood' in our school hall.  I watched my students faces, the ones who wriggle or are often chatting to their neighbour were transfixed on the stories unfolding in front of them.  This evening I am exploring ways I can learn more about puppets with the view to using them to provoke my students into deeper thinking or problem solving or to introduce new material or learning.

The above YouTube video has some good advice for starting out.

For starters I am going to get the students to make their own shoebox theaters for finger or small stick puppets that they can use to retell stories or make up their own stories.  But I think I want to make some puppets...need to investigate that a bit further...

Thanks for some inspiration Magic Play House team!

iPad in an interactive Classroom

I was finally brave enough to support students to use my personal iPad in class last week.  We were working on puppets in discovery time and after exploring some YouTube videos on how to make string puppets I showed them my Puppet Pals app which another teacher at a workshop had shown me (thank you).  The students told stories and used different characters to create their story with a problem and a solution.  I loved seeing the ideas that one of these children had - forming letters and words remains a challenge for him so the ability to tell a story often gets lost.  Today a Promethean Planet email came through with one of the links being to an article "What Can I Do with an iPad in an ActivClassroom?"

This took me on an online learning journey.

Apple Kills the Interactive Whiteboard with iPad 2

Interactive Whiteboard meets the iPad

My kids (11, 9 & 8 years) have been enjoying ScreenChomp - like a whiteboard where they can write up a problem and they can record their out loud thinking and changes - much the same as 'ShowMe' but a bit more child friendly.

As we look to having more of these in our classrooms I wonder what Apps other teachers are using with success in their classrooms?

Teachers Pay Teachers

Snow Day #2...following on from my enjoyment of Pinterest, I have decided that visiting other 'teacher' blogs can be inspiring, entertaining and a great way to source resources and ideas that can help engage students.  I love that some teachers choose to share their resources using download sites like Scribd and even google docs (with google, I can save it to my own google docs rather than complete download).  But I also like that other teachers are being proactive and are putting their resources onto sites like 'Teachers Pay Teachers' for others to purchase and download.  From the resources I have made and put together for students I am teaching I understand the time and energy put into these.  I enjoy the fact that these are digital and they don't add to my paper piles, they are ready for me to utilise when the fit a learning need in our class.

Pinterest

I love stuff, and Pinterest is a site where I can 'pin' stuff I like on my boards - like a digital scrapbook or ideas book.  Mainly I like it for me, the me who isn't a teacher...but once again the lines are blurred and I find out uses for it that inspire and grow me as a teacher, was cruising around some pinboards and found 'teachfactory' and love what I have read so far...awesome posters you can download from flickr with quotes & stuff as well as some interesting/thought provoking thinking, check this post: Technology = Engagement

I Love Teaching

Spending precious term break time at a teaching conference may not be everyone's cup of tea, or coffee if you are like me.  But ILT in many ways is what a teacher needs half way through a busy year...more inspiration and refocusing and there's still plenty of time to put stuff in place in this years classes to benefit our tamariki.

Lots of concepts and ideas were bandied around...
Personalising Learning - learning for themselves
Eureka
Challenging Learning
The Pit
Great minds do NOT think alike - we can influence but we cannot change people!
Treat others the way they want to be treated, not the way you do.
"If you can reach me, then you can teach me!"
Building gifts into talents - building talents on the foundation of giftedness
Fostering intelligent relationships
My work is my play - Be Brave -Participate to progress

...and that's just a few of them!  All fitting within the underlying umbrella competencies of Managing Self and Relating to Others.

Pushing the right buttons

Today I am at an I Love Teaching conference in Invercargill.
I have been lerning about personality types and how to work alongside different types as well as ways of developing understanding these in the classroom context. A couple of resources have been mentioned including Ali Mooney's book "pushing the right buttons" and a book called "the treasure tree" which relates the personality type to some animals. At the workshop i was also given a lesson plan to support the teaching of this in class.