Uni of Greenwich Professional Development Day

Tomorrow I'll be delivering a 'Professional Development Day' for a group of PGCE students from the University of Greenwich. I will be informing them about the new computing curriculum and showing examples of best practice through my school's use of technology.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what the new breed of teacher already knows about computing, particularly as they only know the new curriculum. It shouldn't surprise me to find that a generous number of them are more 'tech savvy' than myself...

The plan for tomorrow will be to spend about 20 minutes discussing the new curriculum and the future of education. I will then spend a generous amount of time on a range of resources that we use in school - approximately 15 minutes each.

Planned resources:

• iPad apps for coding: Bee-Bot, Daisy the Dinosaur, Kodable, Scratch Jr and Hopscotch
• Other iPad apps: Explain Everything and Book Creator
• MinecraftEDU
• Scratch (will probably go through my coordinates lesson)
• MaKey MaKey, Python and Raspberry Pi

Below is a copy of tomorrow's Prezi:

My ADE 2015 Application Video

Last weekend, there was an amazing buzz on my Twitter feed. The deadline for the annual Apple Distinguished Educator institute was looming and it seemed everyone was talking about it! There are some amazingly talented people out there...

I've been reading on many blogs and Twitter posts that the application process is a great opportunity to reflect on your current practice as a teacher, and they are all absolutely right. I found myself digging deep into the last few years to unearth my successes (and failures too, of course!)

I have not even joined the ADE community yet (fingers crossed though!) but the 'togetherness' I witness on Sunday night has got me very excited for the future. Everyone was wishing each other well with their applications, and best of all, sharing their application videos! I spent a huge part of Sunday evening watching clip after clip. Each one as inspiring as the last!

So here is my ADE application video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed watching everyone elses! :)

Coding with a Positive Message!

I recently discovered some fantastic printable Scratch coding blocks and thought they would be great for some CSunplugged work! They are available to download here.

This evening I had a little idea. What if you could take some of these Scratch blocks and use them to create a positive message of encouragement for your pupils? I decided to give it a try, and this is what I came up with... while True:

This is a nice message that helps children understand a tiny bit of technical vocabulary around coding, but also gives them a useful message about never giving up! It reminds them that they may not be successful straight away, and that if that is the case, they should TRY AGAIN and work harder to reach their goal!

I wonder what other positive messages can be created using these Scratch blocks? I'd love to see what others can create!

Are you a 21st Century Teacher?

Technology, whether you like it or not, is changing the way children learn and how educators teach. No longer are we closed off behind the four walls of our classrooms. Technology has helped bring the whole world to our doorstep. And I for one, couldn’t be more excited.

To quote a video that I saw on YouTube many years ago:

“We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist...”

I love this video and that line has always stuck in my mind. The role of an educator is to prepare our children, as best we can, for their future. A significant amount of the most desirable jobs at present require some form of computing experience. A quick Google search turned up this list showing Software Developer, Computer Systems Analyst and Information Security Analyst in the top 10 ‘Best Jobs’.

With the new changes to the UK curriculum regarding Computing (here is a great CAS guide for primary schools), it seems that steps have been taken to provide children with at least a basic understanding of key computing concepts which they can build upon. This has forced teachers to move swiftly into a new area of teaching that perhaps they have never experienced before - Computer Science. And so the 21st century teacher was born!

BECOMING A 21st CENTURY TEACHER

A 21st century teacher is not the one who crowbars every imaginable piece of technology into their lessons. It is not using technology for the sake of using it. Therefore, a 21st century teacher should use technology appropriate in order to create an engaging learning environment. It is no surprise to anyone that children generally enjoy using computers, iPads, playing Minecraft, etc. So if an educator can harness the engaging power of these technologies, and uses them smartly to deliver a challenging curriculum, then there is your ‘engaging learning environment’.

In order to become a 21st century teacher, you do need to know your stuff. This is pretty obvious, of course, as how can you prepare children for their technologically advanced future without the subject knowledge yourself? This doesn’t mean going back to university to get a degree in Computer Science, but instead you can spend a little time with some quality resources. That is all… Play around with it and ask questions.

A great teacher knows the tools needed to teach. Most schools these days will have a computer in every classroom with an interactive whiteboard connected to it. A lot of schools are starting to purchase mobile devices, such as iPads. These are the tools for the modern classroom, so learn how to use them. The 21st century teacher does.

We must not forget that being able to use technology isn’t the end goal here. Using technology still has value and is, of course, very important within the curriculum, but we need the next generation of software developers to create technology too. The Raspberry Pi is an incredible piece of hardware that many schools have been picking up which allows children to do just that. The possibilities are endless! If you have not discovered the credit card sized computer yet, and you want to become a 21st century teacher, get yourself one! (I have four!)

Lastly, here is a very popular image that has surely made its way onto your social media feed at some point in the last year or so. Want to become a 21st century teacher? See how many you can cross out before the end of the year… GO!

Using Hopscotch to Create Story Animations

I have been spending a huge amount of time with Hopscotch on the iPad in the last few days. It would seem that an obsession is growing...

As you can see from some of my earlier posts, I do like to play around with Scratch to create fun little games and projects, and if I'm honest, I hadn't really used Hopscotch much since hearing about it a couple of years ago now. Then I saw a link to one of their YouTube videos:

After watching it, I immediately wanted to give it a try! With my Scratch experience safely tucked under my belt, I ventured into the wonderful world of Hopscotch!

So obsessed am I, that I have created three YouTube videos so far! Each one has progressively become more and more elaborate. 'The Magic Minecraft Pencil' even became a full animation piece. Here are my three videos in a playlist:

This really is a great app, and perfectly introduces children of primary age to coding. It is very easy to create something, and that something may be a simple animation or even a hugely complex game. I would aim this app at children in key stage 2 as there are other apps like Scratch Jr and Kodable that I would give to key stage 1 and Early Years first. That's not to say Hopscotch couldn't be used at all in those phases, of course!

I always like to look for cross curricular links in all of my teaching, and creating animations in Hopscotch could very easily support children in the writing of short stories or even non-fiction writing (instructions perhaps!) Children could either create the Hopscotch story scene first and use that as a stimulus to write their story. Or, they couldn't create the story first and then try to bring it to life in Hopscotch.

Happy Hopscotching!

Using Scratch in Other Areas of the Curriculum

I have been using Scratch for a couple of years now, and while I'm definitely not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, I have found a couple of different ways to incorporate it into other areas of learning. The reason for this is the children I have worked with have always found it very engaging, even if a tad challenging at times (what's wrong with that?!)

One obvious link to computing is mathematics.

Coordinates

Here is a Scratch project I created for a coordinates lesson that I taught with some more able Year 5 children about a year ago. To see inside the project click here.

The idea was to get the children to create a variety of shapes in any of the four quadrants on screen. As you can see from the image below, all the children had to do was change the x and y values in the blue 'motion' blocks. Remember, this was a maths lesson and not a computing lesson. I tried to take away as much as possible from the computing side of things. The most they had to do was know to take away one 'wait' and 'go to...' block to create a triangle (one less side).

The children really enjoyed doing this activity. It was much more interesting and engaging than completing a similar task in their maths books!

But don't worry if you are not too familiar with Scratch at the moment! You will probably find something great to use in your lessons by using the search function on the site. There are lots of clever people within the Scratch community and they have probably already created something special just for you ;)

Safer Internet Day 2015

As it's Safer Internet Day tomorrow, here's a great idea to help young children understand their responsibility to be respectful online.

Childnet have published a great little story about a duck called Digiduck which I have read to my Year 2 children (link to the online story by clicking on the front cover below). Now that the children know the story, I have reduced it to the main events and imported those pages into one of my favourite apps, Book Creator.

Tomorrow, I'll be asking the children to add whatever multimedia they like to the book - sound clips, videos, etc. This will allow them to comment on the story as it progresses!

I have created an example to show the children and you can download it here! There are lots of hidden sound clips so try tapping on a couple of characters faces to see what happens.

My favourite part of the eBook is the final page, where there are 4 key questions to check the children's understanding. Here the children will record their responses in video or sound clips again!

I will be using some of my children's stories to collate a school Internet Safety eBook. I've asked all the teachers in my school to create a year group 'chapter' each about a different aspect of eSafety. Once I have collected all the chapters, I'll combine them all into a great book!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow!