kathleen.johnston

On Tuesday I had my first stab at team teaching ICT with colleagues and it was great! We started off in the morning with P1/2 working on our PC tablets. We put the children into groups of three and each group was supported by a P6/7 ‘buddy’. The buddy supported their wee group to start up a PC Tablet , make individual folders for the desktop and then to make a picture in ‘Windows Journal’. They helped each child to save their work and to take home a printed copy of their picture. This sounds an awful lot to do in one session, but we will be visiting these same skills with support from the buddies over the next three weeks. Also, you wouldn’t believe how quickly these wee guys can pick up these skills!
After morning break I worked with P3/4 and their teacher to make a mindmap of how a blog could support them in their class work. We talked about the importance of sustaining a blog and making it a regular feature within the classroom routine. I then supported a child in putting an entry into the class ‘Flat Stanley’ blog.
After lunch, I worked with P6/7 and their class teacher, who were working on spreadsheets and pie charts as part of their health topic – we revised the necessary skills on the new class promethean board and the kids were saying, ‘ oh, its just like a big tablet!’ I left the class teacher working with the children as they were creating the pie charts on the tablets.
P5/6 were establishing ownership and responsibility of the tablets this week, creating individual folders and putting photos of themselves on the desktop. We discussed the importance of looking after the tablets and how we can best look after them. They then went off to write out a set of four rules for looking after the tablets, on the tablets! The teacher in this class is a probationer and new to our school, so she is learning about the tablets along with the children.
Today I saw P3/4 video conferencing without any support from me. The class teacher was amazed at how motivated the children were and she in turn can’t wait until the next session! Whilst online they established email partners with Bowmore Primary and this is going to be the next step within ‘communicating and collaborating’. It is great to see ICT skills being embedded so effectively – a good start!