kathleen.johnston » Managing ICT

Learning Together

Kathleen Johnston — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 23:31:32 +0000

Catherine MacMillan my fellow Islay mentor, works in Bowmore Pre5 Unit, which is housed within Bowmore Primary School. Catherine has done some fantastic work using her Promethean board in the unit and I have been keen to get her over to do training in Port Ellen. In light of our success with the Kidspiration training –bringing the training into the classroom and learning the skills in situ, Catherine and I thought it would be interesting to do a ‘skills swap’. Catherine has been to Port Ellen for one and a half days to teach interactive board skills to staff and pupils within the class environment from Pre5 right the way through to P6/7. This was enormously successful and you can read all about the training sessions on Catherine’s blog.

I went to Bowmore for half a day on Monday morning to go over PC tablet skills. Bowmore have 5 tablets and are looking to buy more. To enhance the set of tablets I took over another 7 and our tablet printer so that the children could work in pairs. I worked with P6/7 and then took a group of the P6/7s to work with the children in the Pre5 unit.

I started off by getting the children to open Windows Journal and to identify 5 things which they could do on the tablets. I then got them to identify three things which they wanted to find out more about. I then put the children into groups and got them to make up a group brainstorm of the skills within the group and what they wanted to find out more about. As each group reported back I pointed out the skills within the class and that the children should use each other’s expertise to learn from one another. The children were actually very good on the tablets and this exercise was able to point out that the class had the ability to support one another to develop their skills. I stressed the value of this with the class teacher and encouraged her not to feel pressurised into knowing everything about the tablets because she can learn about them along with the children. The teacher was fortunate to have a classroom assistant who enjoyed using the tablets and she was very enthusiastic about making more use of them in class. The main message I tried to get across is to relax about using the tablets and to learn from one another – the only way to develop skills is to use them –get them out and have a go! I left the class with the Chinese proverb about ‘I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand’.

I took a group of seven of the children with tablets in hands to the pre5 unit (Catherine’s territory!). This was purely a ‘hands-on’ session for the wee ones, however it was reinforcing newly acquired tablet skills with the older children. I paired off two wee ones to a big one and set up the printer. The children drew a picture in Journal and then they were able to see it being printed off. Catherine was amazed at how every child was engaged in the activity – even the children who were waiting to draw were absorbed in watching their pal use the tablet. Catherine also remarked on the interesting development in motor skills from using large movements on the Promethean board to smaller movements on the tablets. I think lots of people are surprised at how tablets can be used meaningfully at such an early age.

I had a great morning in Bowmore and I am looking forward to working with the rest of the school on Friday. Certainly the training has been enjoyable and motivating for all involved. However, it will be interesting for both Catherine and I to monitor the long term effect these training sessions have had in each of our schools.

ICT for Term 2

Kathleen Johnston — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:34:39 +0000

A new term at Port Ellen and lots of ideas for teaching ICT, after meeting up with the other teachers this week. I met with Hazel first at P1/2 and we have decided to focus on searching and researching. The children are covering a topic called ‘Things We Eat’ and we have planned a series of activities for the children which will develop their research skills and this in turn will further enhance their understanding of different types of food.
Janice and P3/4 are still working on their Flat Stanley topic, which has really taken off! P3/4 now regularly video-conference with P4/5 in Bowmore Primary and they are even meeting up to have a flat party next week – talk about communicating and collaborating! Janice also intends to consolidate some of the other communication skills they covered last term within a variety of curricular areas this term. However, P3/4 are going to focus on their search and research skills, using them to support science and topic work . We aim to evaluate CD Roms and websites, with paired presentations at the end of the topic as summative assessment.
Maureen and P6/7 are creating a school calendar as their enterprise topic. We felt that creating and presenting skills would really contribute to this topic. The children will be designing and creating the layout for the calendar and using digital photos they have taken and edited to illustrate it. Fingers crossed the calendar will be on sale at the school Christmas sale in December.
I took the opportunity to ask my colleagues about their thoughts on the way ICT is being used this term. Each teacher was very positive and commented on how they feel their ICT skills are stronger and they also feel more confident about using ICT to support learning and teaching. Personally, I noticed that my colleagues were much more forth coming with suggestions during our planning sessions this week. Everyone is agreed that ICT is being used more effectively and it’s a lot more fun!
We also discussed the Kidspiration training session, led by Janice ( see above entry for more info). I asked my colleagues for their thoughts. Once again, they thought that this was a much more meaningful way of learning about an ICT resource – much better that a twilight session, or an after school slot. Teachers and pupils learned to use Kidspiration within the learning environment and within a relevant context. Janice commented on the fact that she enjoyed the experience of working with different stages and differentiating her approach. She also felt that the experience consolidated her Kidspiration skills. What sold it for me was that P2 used their new found Kidspiration skills to support a functional writing activity – to write thank you letters. Great stuff!

Inspiration from Kidspiration

Kathleen Johnston — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:26:27 +0000

Janice our P3/4 teacher is just back from an inservice course. She was learning all about ‘Kidspiration’ software – the company describes it as ‘the visual way to think, write and comprehend’. This software has been on our macs for about 18 months now and I am ashamed to admit that apart from the odd mindmap, it has been seriously under used in our school. Janice was thinking the same sort of thing – hence the reason she went on the course, to find out more, and more she did! The course was taken by a Glow colleague- Morag MacDonald from Dunoon, and she opened up the world of Kidspiration to Janice! Morag, Janice did you proud, she came back to school the next day raving about all the different ways you can use Kidspiration. Janice showed me how you can import photos of the children to create fantastic personal profiles – perfect for the work we have been doing in P1/2. We also explored activities relating to a balanced diet, letter writing and lots more. We could see a lot of potential for supporting class work throughout the rest of the school. The problem was, how could we spread the good word throughout the school to get Kidspiration up and running? Janice could do a wee chat at the end of the school day but it really isn’t the best time to introduce anything new. Back I came to the same old mantra – training has to be meaningful. Suddenly I had a cunning plan… Janice could take my ICT team teaching time one Tuesday to introduce Kidspiration to all classes and teachers whilst I take her class! That way with a careful bit of planning Kidspiration could be introduced to each class within a context and make a valid contribution to learning and teaching. Both class and teacher get to see the software working for them and also use it with the support of Janice. This idea has gone down well with the four class teachers and Janice is happy to spread the good word. It happens tomorrow – I’ll let you know how we get on…

An ICT Kit for the Classroom

Kathleen Johnston — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:39:38 +0000

This week saw about three years of hard work and planning eventually slot into place. All the ICT equipment we have scrimped and saved for, begged and borrowed is eventually up and running in the classroom -hurray! Each class now has an interactive whiteboard, digital projector, PC laptop for the whiteboard and digital stills camera. This is a basic kit for the classroom. In addition to this we have access to a class suite of PC tablets and associated software for the tablets and whiteboards. I know that some folk are of the opinion that interactive whiteboards are no longer the way forward but I feel that they still have an important part to play in our classrooms – especially pre 5 and primary. Also, we are in the extremely fortunate position of having tablets and whiteboards – the best of both worlds! The implementation of ICT skills is embedded throughout the curriculum and both staff and pupils are motivated by the use of ICT to support learning and teaching. So far classes have responded favourably to their kit and I am looking forward to the next few weeks and months to see what happens next…

Team Teaching ICT

Kathleen Johnston — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:57:14 +0000

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!

Forward planning for ICT

Kathleen Johnston — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:26:32 +0000

As I am mentoring a probationer this year I do not have a class full time. With this in mind our staff thought about how we could make best use of my time. Last year I covered McCrone hours and during that time I taught ICT. However, this meant that class teachers were leaving new pieces of software and hardware for me to try out and they were not having a go in class themselves. We were also concerned that ICT was being regarded by the children as something to do just when Mrs Johnston came in – not as a valuable learning and teaching tool. So we came up with a wee plan to address these issues this year. On a Tuesday I team teach ICT with each teacher in her class. This week I met with each teacher to decide which strand within 5-14 ICT to use as our main emphasis and then looked at the main features contained within that strand. We then created a forward plan which covered the ICT skills yet also contributed to lessons spread over a variety of curricular areas. It sounds complicated, but it isn’t – for example, P3/4 are doing a topic on Flat Stanley, and we decided that communicating and collaborating was a sitter for this topic. The class teacher and I have created a series of really exciting activities for the children – and the teacher will be learning how to use some of the ICT skills too with my support. We plan to fax and email Stanley and compare with snail mail. We also intend to video conference with Bowmore to see Stanley at Bowmore Primary, on his holiday! The children are taking Stanley home and writing diary entries about their adventures with Stanley – he was bramble picking last night and going to the fair tonight! The class have started up a blog and the children are entering their diary entries as posts on the blog. So you can see that all the main features within communicating and collaborating are being covered and overtaken and the class and teacher are experiencing ICT at its very best – as a learning and teaching tool. The way we have designed the forward plan template, there will be a balance of ICT skills covered every session. If you want a wee look at our forward plan templates for ICT, I’m happy to send them to you – just send me an email. I know its not ground breaking stuff, but it seems to be working for us.