FPP - Google maps

In my class, we are working on the topic: "Hooray... Let's go on a holiday!". One of our geography tasks was to look at different ways people travel to their holiday destinations.

As a carpet activity, we looked at how we might find out the methods of transport for our favourite holiday destinations. Google maps helped us do this by showing the children the distance between Middleton (where our school is) and the holiday destination. We then looked at the travelling options and discussed the best way to travel.

Here are some examples:

Middleton to Blackpool

Middleton to Disneyland Paris

FPP - Bee bots in maths

We used bee bots for a maths lesson on quarter turns and half turns. Bee bots were used to explore how many quarter turns are needed to face a certain direction, and other commands that are needed to reach a certain destination.

Using bee bots helped children visualise what quarter turns and half turns are whilst also enhancing their computing abilities. The work on bee bots can then be consolidated using worksheets in which children follow certain instructions (e.g. make a quarter turn to the right and move forward 5) on a treasure map to find different treasures.

Data logging

Data logging is an ICT medium that can be used to enhance the delivery of the curriculum. 

For example in one of our science sessions at university, we used data loggers to measure and record the temperature of water with ice cubes and salt to see the effect of salt on temperature. 

Data logging can be useful in science practical work as it: 

• Measures physical properties such as light, heat, sound and acidity. 

• Is a speedy and easy method of data capture 

• Provides an immediate link between the investigation and the result. Pairs real time events with their symbolic representation

• Provides time for pupils to observe and think about the experiment, rather than spending all their time recording data 

• Enables children to discuss the different aspects of a graph (e.g. gradient) 

Bee-bots

During my GPP, I did not use bee-bots as I felt that they were too childish for my year 5 class. For my final placement, I will be teaching year 1 and I am looking forward to use this opportunity to incorporate bee-bots into my lessons.

BareFoot Computing has a lesson plan for an introduction to programming using bee-bots that I might try to incorporate in my maths lessons.

The lesson feeds into computing and maths in the following ways:

computing

- algorithms - understand how programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions

maths

- geometry: describe position and direction 

- fractions: understand whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns 

The lesson: 

Pupils create sequences of instructions to enable the Bee-Bot to navigate a route tracing out the shape of numeral e.g. 3.

 The children can also try to record their instructions using simple drawings of the commands before executing the commands.  

The task is more difficult than it sounds and the initial algorithm that the students come up with may not do anything close to what they'd like the bee-bot to do.

For example, for the numeral 2, children may start with the following: 

This gives an opportunity to talk about turns (half turns). Scaffolding should eventually help students understand that an appropriate algorithm would look like this:

The activity will allow students to learn about programming, debugging and algorithms.

Computing

Simon Haughton's website

Thinkuknow

Safety Net Kids

Scratch

Rapid Router

CAS Barefoot 

English

Inspiration for writing

Literacy shed

Talk4writing

Pobble

Grammar

Bitesize sentences 

Bitesize punctuation 

 Phonics

Phonics Play

Sound buttons

General 

Woodlands Resources

Crickweb 

ICT games

Maths

Woodlands Resources

Primary Games Arena

Counton

Topmarks

EPP - Editing photos and writing instructions

In the computing lesson, the year 3 class used their iPads to take a photo and edit them using an editing app. The teacher started by discussing how to hold an iPad safely.

Even if children nowadays are digital natives, they need to be reminded of how to use hardware safely. Children might be able to hold an iPad or laptop with just one hand but it is always safer to hold things with both hands to prevent them from dropping expensive school equipment. There may also be children with certain backgrounds who do not have iPads, laptops and other mobile devices at home. It is thus important as teachers to ensure that children are aware of the basics of handling ICT equipment.

After the pupils took a photo and edited them, they then moved on to the main task. Their main task was to write an instruction on how to take a photo with an iPad. At this school, most tasks are differentiated in 3 levels: good, great and super. The computing tasks were differentiated with more challenging computing skills required.

Good
- Type instructions for taking photos
- Insert photos

Great
- Explain why photos are edited
- Change the next size or colour

Super
- Type handy hints to follow
- Change the page background

Sometimes we forget to differentiate tasks in subjects other than English and Maths but today's lesson made it clear that their is a big difference between children who frequently use computers and tablets at home and children who do not have much access to these equipment. Thus, its important to differentiate computing tasks and allow children to do tasks that are appropriately challenging.

The main task in this lesson could also be computing unplugged task where students need to create concise instructions which outline ALL the necessary steps. The importance of outlining all the steps can be emphasised through scenarios such as :"If it doesn't say I need to hold the iPad firmly, I might drop it!", "if you don't tell me to save it, I might lose all my work."

EPP - Consolidation using ICT

During a maths lesson on identifying right angles, a group of children were taken out during the class worked on their tasks independently. The pupils solved some angles problems on MyMaths, an online teaching and homework subscription website. It was used as a supplementary resource to aid consolidation of children's learning. 

The tasks were presented in progressively more difficult stages and all questions need to be completed to be able to move on to the next stage. It allows children to build their confidence and fluency on solving maths problems.

I think that using a website like this is particularly effective when used alongside a maths lesson as a revision, consolidation or assessment resource. It allows pupils to do extra work at home with their parents in areas that they don't feel very confident and should enhance student's self-regulation and sense of responsibility for their own learning. Additionally, the parents can also access the website to monitor their children's progress. 

GREAT RESOURCES

My enquiry placement school has an IT specialist who was extremely kind and shared us his website which has some great resources including lesson plans for teaching computing.

His website is full of resources for e-safety, mechanisms of different software / hardware, using programming applications such as Move the Turtle & Rapid Router, algorithms etc. This website is immediately going to my bookmarks bar since it has the resources used for his computing lessons.

There are easy-to-understand objectives that teachers can use to plan their lessons. It clearly specifies the skills that the pupils need to achieve and both parents and children can easily understand what the objectives are. 

Podcasting

Podcasting is a great way to encourage creative learning and new ways of communication. School podcast allows children to plan, research and create podcasts on any aspect of the curriculum. Participating schools are given a website with channels for each group and additional channels for after-school clubs.



 It offers children an alternative way to present their learning, and can be used as a tool for differentiation based on interests and learning style. It also allows peer to peer learning where students from one school can watch podcasts created by pupils in different schools.

Here's an article on why schools should be podcasting.

EPP - Move the Turtle

Move the Turtle is an app on the iPad and iPhone that allows children to learn the basics of programming, using intuitive commands. It familiarises the user with loops, procedures, variables and conditional instructions. The display above is from a computing suite in my enquiry placement school.

The video tutorial shows the app being used. The main goal is to command the turtle to go to reach the diamond. The task gets progressively more difficult as it demands more complicated instructions. The age-range for the app is 6-12 and the increasing difficulty of the tasks make it a suitable app for teaching coding throughout primary.





The app can also be used to explore patterns and create geometrical shapes as shown in the display above. It allows cross-curricular links between maths and ICT, where a coding software can be used to explore the properties of shapes.

E.g.
In a square, there are four 90 degree angles.
forward 10 steps --> 90 degree turn to the right --> forward 10 steps  --> 90 degree turn to the right   --> forward 10 steps --> 90 degree turn to the right --> forward 10 steps

Simple displays

I quite like simple posters that don't have long e-safety rules that children won't even bother to read. The school for my enquiry placement had this poster in the computing suite. Having something straight forward like this makes it obvious what the children need to do when they are being bullied on cyberspace.



There are other posters that are nice to have in classrooms and/or computing suites. Using an acronym makes the rules easy for the children to remember.

EPP - Computing Suite & Cross-curricular links

The computing suite in my enquiry school had lots of posters on computing terms such as algorithms, debugging, sequences and also on e-safety. A visually stimulating computing suite!

There were also a display of artwork created using Keynote. Great cross-curricular links! 

Using role-play

After the session on using drama, I was inspired to think about other ways drama could be used to enhance learning. In terms of ICT, roleplaying is a great way to get children discussing about how to stay safe when using ICT.

Below are some scenarios found from the CAS community webpage. They are things that could very easily happen to the pupils and through roleplaying, pupils are encouraged to think about (and discuss) how they should act to stay safe.

Watching videos on e-safety might be useful but children tend to be passive in the process unless there is time to discuss the important aspects of e-safety. On the other hand, actually acting the situations out makes the scenarios more real to the children and should get them to actively think about how to deal these problems.

Pupils could act out how to act and how NOT to act, and can even film this as an additional use of ICT. The videos can then be shared with parents and other pupils of the school.

EPP - Who wants to be a millionaire?

Assessments are a big part of teaching and teachers sometimes need to be creative with how they assess children's understanding. Sometimes we want a quick idea of whether children know basic facts of a topic. I often used questioning and worksheets to do this during my GPP, but I think I might add this activity which I observed at my enquiry placement.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher used the 'Who wants to be a millionaire' format to assess children's knowledge of forces/magnets. Students were really excited, especially because the questions got increasingly challenging.

It's incredible how something so simple like this can make an assessment activity more exciting. Using sound effects would be great too!

EPP - Reading comprehension tasks on iPads

On my Enquiry Placement, I observed that a group of children were using their iPads during Guided Reading. They had different groups doing a set of tasks. The five groups were:-
- Guided reading with the teacher
- Answering comprehension tasks using comprehension cards
- Reading own book
- Handwriting practice
- Reading a book and completing comprehension tasks using iPads

The school is subscribed to Bug Club (Active Learn) where children can have their personalised reading journey. When they login, they are taken to their personalised homepage and can choose a book to read. As they are reading, they see a bug mark which indicates that there are some comprehension questions. Answering this questions allows them to earn points which they can convert into rewards that they can use on Active Learn.

I must say I'm not a big fan of using iPads for reading (simply because I love the feel of real books and I think children spend too much time on computers / phones at home anyway). However, I think this is a great way for encouraging children to read. Even though they are still reading a story, simply allowing them to use technology makes reading an exciting and rewarding activity. The questions that pop up as a little challenge also removes the daunting and boring aspect of having to answer a list of questions at the end. Definitely an example of ICT being used to enhance reading and comprehension skills!

I also like that children are given the chance to read using both the iPad and actual books during the week. I'm sure the children will appreciate the touch of real books too.

EPP - iPads instead of document cameras

During GPP, I used the document cameras a lot to show good work or examples on the screen for students to use. But not all classrooms have document cameras! However, I observed a lesson where and iPad was used instead!  The teacher' iPad was synced to the computer / smartboard and the smartboard showed what was on the iPad screen. The teacher took a photo of a student's exemplary work and this was shown on the smartboard screen for everyone to see. It was just so quick and it was a great example of using available resources!

Audit - January 2016

After my first audit, I identified specific areas which I felt that I needed work in. Reflecting on my GPP experience and the observations I have made regarding ICT and computing in different schools, I have highlighted the points that I feel more confident in. At this stage, I am feeling much more confident about computing and would rate myself as A/B. 

1. Level of knowledge and skill in using:

• Coding/ programming ✓
• Individual learning on different coding and programmes apps as well as observations of computing lessons (e.g. Rapid Router, Scratch, Move the turtle) has enabled me to feel more confident about planning computing lessons based on coding and programming skills.
• Mobile App Publishing 

2. Ability to demonstrate and use the following computing hardware and equipment:

• Voting / handheld devices △
• Although I do not have experience in using voting / handheld devices, I am fairly confident in using other equipment that I should be able to pick it up fairly quickly. 

3. Ability to harness technology as a primary teacher:

• Identify areas of the curriculum that could be enhanced by computing ✓
• My blog posts hopefully indicate examples of different programmes and computing hardware being used to enhance areas of computing. (See sections on My Use of ICT and ICT in schools)

• Use computing for administration systems for recording progress ✓
• During GPP, I used the SIMS software to take the register. 

4. Ability to develop lesson plans that integrate the effective use of computing across the curriculum to:

• Cover the programmes of study of the National Curriculum for computing △
• I have been able to gather useful resources and web links that will help me teach the objectives for computing. My focus for FPP is to plan and teach computing lessons. 

• Teach computing elements of the other core and foundation curriculum subjects

5. Ability to monitor and assess children's use of Computing

• Identifying how computing influences objectives and outcomes

6. Awareness of issues and legislation relating to pupils' access to information

• Copyright regulations ✓
• The Data Protection Act ✓
• I have read about the Copyright regulations and Data Protection Act 

Areas that still require some work are:-

- Level of knowledge and skill in using:

• Mobile App Publishing 

- Ability to develop lesson plans that integrate the effective use of computing across the curriculum to:

• Cover the programmes of study of the National Curriculum for computing
• Teach computing elements of the other core and foundation curriculum subjects

- Ability to monitor and assess children's use of Computing

• Identifying how computing influences objectives and outcomes

GPP action plan

• Take note of how I used ICT to enhance a lesson.
• See My Use of ICT

• Note down any observations regarding computing, e-safety and using ICT. 

Mathletics

My little brother is in year 5 back in Japan and since I was teaching year 5 for my GPP, I often asked him what he did in school. He told me he did a lot of Mathletics and he really enjoyed it because he could compete with people from around the world.

I think Mathletics is a great way to get children to practice their skills and improve their arithmetic fluency. However, my brother also told me that he did a lot of Mathletics, Maths is Fun and similar activities where he would just answer questions to get points/coins. It was fun but when there was something he didn't know, he'd just read the hints and clues to find out the correct answer without really quite understanding the mathematics behind it.

I feel that although online math activities such as Mathletics can be a great resource, it is easy to fall into the trap of not doing enough teaching and exploring. I think that in schools, teachers should allow students to use practical resources and explore patterns, then do some whole class teaching, and then use websites such as Mathletics for homework where the students can practise the skills they have learnt at school.

Making games on scratch

To build my confidence in teaching computing using Scratch, I created a simple game after watching a tutorial.

The aim of the game is for the dog to touch the key without touching the bat. The bat moves up and down to guard the key. 

1. The bat needs to move up and down

Needed to do change some of the values so that the bat moved vertically. 

 2. The dog needs to move according to the arrow keys

3. The game needs to stop when the dog touches the bat

4. The game needs to finish when the dog gets the key. 

Although I watched a tutorial, I tried to figure out the instructions myself. I did end up using the tutorial to help me out with how to finish the game.  Using Scratch is a great way to get children to problem solve and figure out ALL the steps necessary. It's quite challenging but can be quite rewarding when sprites finally do what you want them to do!

Creating a game on scratch is best used as project at the end of a half-term in which students demonstrate the skills they have learnt. An interesting game on Scratch requires the students to understand the concept of variables, sequencing, repeating events and conditional events and be able to use the appropriate instructions. 

KS3 - Creating games

I observed a computing lesson in KS3 which discussed about how to create a game using a computer programme.

Pupils watched a video about a game developer discussing what the process of game making and the elements of a good computer game. The students then discussed about other elements of a good computer game such as good characters, gameplay, sound effects and etc.

The students then played flappy bird and discussed the following questions.
a. What is the purpose of the game?
b. What objects did you have to use? (e.g. computer mouse)
c. What were the sound effects?
d. What was the background?
e. Who is the targeted audience
f. Was the game appropriately challenging?

The students were then told that they would be creating their own simple game using Scratch.

Although this was a KS3 lesson that I observed, it can be easily adapted to a KS2 lesson. Children can play a simple game and discuss what they need to think about when creating a game. Students need to be aware the games need a targeted audience and purpose.

Using books in KS1

Books are a great resource to teach children about e-safety, especially in KS1 where children enjoy picturebooks.  Kidsmart provides some books available in pdf format about e-safety.

The first book deals with Smartie the penguin asking an adult when strange images / ads pop on the screen, and when getting an email from unknown people.  There's a song that the children can sing as well. This book is probably for pupils in reception / year 1.

The second book is probably more for older children in ks1. It deals with Digiduck who thinks of sharing a silly photo of his friend. In his dreams, the Wise_owl shows what will happen if Digiduck shares that photo - his friends won't invite him to playdates and parties as they are not happy with what Digiduck did. After getting up, Digiduck realises that it is important to make sensible choices online. 

The storybook format is appropriate for pupils and it will be very relevant to them as friendship is an important aspect of being in school. 

There are a few questions at the end that can be used for a class discussion as well. There is a guidance for parents as well on how to keep their children safe. Most parents are probably unsure of how to deal with e-safety and may not have any rules for how often their children can use computers. A story book like these with guidance gives parents an idea of how they can educate their children to be safe and responsible users of the internet at home.

GPP - Interactive games for maths

ICT was a great way of making maths enjoyable. I used interactive resources a lot for increasing children's competence with fractions. Here are some that the children enjoyed a lot.

The first one is 'racing on', where the bikes can move by 1/4, 1/2 or 1. It can be played by either 1 or 2 players. For the lesson, I printed out the race course as an A3 sheet, laminated it, and created my own fraction cards so that children can play the game in groups of 5.



Children absolutely loved the game element and were practicing counting on fractions whilst having fun.

Another interactive resource I used allowed children to match equivalent fractions as a class. I picked students to come up and pick a pair of equivalent fractions. The timed element made the activity a little more exciting. There are three levels so the game can be easily differentiated.

GPP - Flip videos for end of topic project

At the end of our topic on Ancient Greece, the children started their project on creating a 'Horrible Histories' type film using all the knowledge they have learnt about the life in Ancient Greece. It was the children's (and my) first time to use a flip video but they are EXTREMELY easy to use. Just a few buttons so it's the perfect equipment for schools. It's easy to import the videos into the computer as well and the students can quickly edit their films using an editing software such as iMovie.  

Using a flip video to create videos is a great way to demonstrate children's learning at the end of a big topic. Children enjoy it and are enthusiastic about sharing all they know, and it's an effective way to encourage children to link their learning from different subjects. For KS2, children should be able to use the flip videos themselves and film each other. Perhaps for KS1, it is better for the teacher or TA to film the children.