Games based learning led by Darren Price.
Darren overviewed the work that he had been doing and supporting across their borough. (Which BTW is a lot bigger that
He talked briefly about the impact of the work stating that most children increased their average point’s score by 6.3 and even sighted one example of a child who had an increase of 11.3. He explained that the games where allowing children to use and apply their math’s a lot more confidently.
He then when on to demo a number of number of class activities.
He used Deal or no Deal on the Wii to discuss fractions.
As numbers where removed what was the fraction of blue and red values left.
When the offers came from the banker they would then look at the mean amount of money left to see if it was a good offer. Lots of discussions about probablity can be introduces how likely is it that a red number will come up next? Etc.. It does like any lesson require careful planning of questions.
He suggested that unless you plan questions and activities carefully when using games based learning you are just playing a game.
He extended the work by looking at screen shots taken from Deal or no Deal and asked us to decide who had the best chance of getting a red number? A great discuss came up about decimals or equivalent fractions.
Next he looked at Pictochat. Children shared a DS between two and they discussed the questions and recorded the answers. He used an ITP called guess the number. It gives you clues and you need to decide what the possible numbers could be. Children use pictochat to give possible answers. As a teacher you ask other questions what is the smallest/largest number it could be so far? Great for AFL learning.
I’ve never been a great fan of pictochat as I always feel that a WB is faster and pictochat slows things down, but Darren’s demo really showed the powerful tool it can be to get children to think and then discuss answers in some depth. I’ve always thought if it used in MM starters but this was a lesson and worked a lot better. Sold on that now, got to try it….
Finally he showed us WiiFit plus and a game where you have to make 10, it is a really simple game that supports a basic core skill. He said he had used this in year 6 and when the game used 3 numbers even they seemed to get stuck. How to make 10? What does it look like?
This then moved onto another example – Give 4 numbers arranged like the Wii Game and then asked to make 10 using as many ways as possible. (5, 3, 2, 4) This was extended to 4 number but then given a range of numbers including decinals. Like count down but with 4 numbers that you could use again and again.
A great session that included loads of games and ideas that I had not seen used before.
Screen to page led by Chris Whitney and Peter Wall.
This was a really interesting session on Film literacy and the Grammar of writing.
They suggest that when children know how to make films they can apply this back to their writing.
They pointed out that reading and making of film needs to be already familiar to children in order to fully embrace this.
When you think about composing a film you think about shots, sound, cuts all these things can be applied to your writing setting, description and paragraphing. A scary film has these sounds. How can we show this in writing? A film in the past is sepia how do we show this within text? Editing a film link to choosing where the best places for sentences and words are.
Peter spoke about his work in KS1. Where the children would make a film as part of the writing process, compare it to the drama work some of us to before we write.
He showed some great examples of films made using photostory about the Gruffalo. They took photos of the story, narrated it and then wrote it.
He talked though a number of examples using The Lighthouse Keepers Story and Lost Happy endings. He also showed a non-fiction film about pandas that had been made that led to a piece of report writing.
It was great to see this work and once video use within schools is embedded it is a great process to adopt.
F1 Fun in Maths – led by Daniel Ballard
This was the second session based on GBL. It focused on his love for F1 racing and all the maths work that could be gained from it.
He used Video clips of the races to discuss the times and how decimals are used. Looked at how to order the timings. If one car came 3rd what was his actual time, so bringing in addition or decimals. A good example of good question to bring out the learning.
This continued by investigating how the points where given out to racers. How could a racer get 8 points over 5 races? What are all the possibilities. Is it possible to get 141 points over 18 races?
Mario Kart was introduced and the points system was compared. This led to a lot of work on what is a fair system.
He said himself that he could have gone a lot further with it over the 4 weeks, buy looking at Kart and track designs. How could you make a track that is 45cm long?
Another great session that really showed the potential using context to teach complex mathematical ideas and keeping it fun.
Superheroes, Master Villains Excited Pupils led by Andy Dickenson
This was the best talk of the day for me. Using comics and comic characters with children.
He explained the basic structure of the lessons.
It starts by making children either a member of league of evil or team hero. You show a trailer about them becoming superheroes or villain and then the children have to create their identity. The trailer really grabs their attention it did mine. ;o)
It promotes a lot of discussion. What do they know about superheroes? What makes you a hero or a villain? Why is a dalek evil? Are all superheroes good at their job? Then what powers do you have? Do you have any? This is a good one for G and T pupils.
Children look at creating a cool wall of ideas and words. Children think about the best adjectives for good and evil. What is the antonym to each of these words. Children can be paired by hero and villan and write the same stories from different points of view. You could do diaries of each days work? Or recounts of someone being saved? There are loads of possibilities.
Create your own here on cpbherofactory.com Dress the character. Print screen and create a comic cover.
A great session which being a comic geek I loved. This I will also be doing next term in my class.
So BETT is here again. So what if anything grabbed my attention.
Next up - and this links to some of the great presentations I saw this Sunday and Monday at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference. (Blog spot on that to come!)
The Libretto is made by Toshiba and runs Windows 7 - It has 2 touch screen and closes up like a DS - looked amasing but the £800 price was a bit much.
Next was a Slate called the Filo 1000 (I hope thats spelt right) It is a Android tablet running 2.2. Looks nice and didn't have a bad response time for the screen. A newer version is coming soon. I'm gonna get one on aproval soon so watch this space. I was told these where aboud the £300 price point.
Next tablet was one from RM called the RM Slate 100 - Running Windows 7. Nice weight and price at £400. Again getting one on aproval soon.
Finally my final head truing find and it was on an Interactive Whiteboard! I was wandering past the Smart stand and saw 3D objects being manipulated on a slide. Interesting. Thats me rotating a object from the Google 3d warehouse. (Where you get your models for Google SketchUp) I was stuck by the ability to rotate a model of a Viking Longboat for children to study. 
Also if you have a Smart Document Camera, you will be able to use that AR cube to turn and intearct with the object on the board. Nice! This will be in a later update of Smart Notebook this summer!
Firstly my year 4 year group met up with Michael Rosen via VC. We had a 20minute session where we read him some of our poems, asked him some questions and he performed some of his. It was a great experience and we had planned it as part of our work that week on performance poems. Click here if you would like to watch the session.
Our 2nd and 3rd VC's where last week on the same day! Both year 1 and reception met up with Father Christmas. This is great. We connected to Santa's Grotto and he told us all about his holiday and then the children got a chance to answer questions. Our school news on this!
Throughout these you are always thing how will the children react to the VC - will they understand that they are talking to a real person?
In Year 4's case I showed them the camera and showed them all what they looked like on screen and gave them a chance to get all the waving out of the way. During the VC in the top corner we could see our camera image all the time, so the children where always reminded they could be seen.
In year 1's case I was told to turn off our camera view as it would take up screen space for the video we where shown. The year 1's where told quickly about the camera but the weren't always reminded they where on screen. The year ones had to get up and talk into the microphone so it was almost like them coming up to speak to a person in class.
Is it worth not having the home camera view on screen as it distracts from the full effect of the VC? Will have to try this again on the next one. Hopefully next year we will have more VC's with some American schools. Exciting.
Anyone who wants to meet up with my school contact me - you don't need an expensive VC camera to connect a web cam will do. nichughes.317@lgflmail.org
Just to explain Lego WeDo is a kit that builds over 10 different models that you control using the computer. All the instructions are presented onscreen and Max and Mia are two characters that take us though the activities. Unlike the more advanced Mindstorms Lego, this remains attached to the computer, you have a motor, a light/distance sensor and a tilt sensor to use in the models. The onscreen programming is just a series of coloured blocks that snap together, very simple to use.
I have been exploring this with the aim to introduce it as a unit next year for year 2. I was worried about the building and then programming aspects. What is the best way to teach it? I couldn't see teh point of building one week and then comming back to it the nest week as you loose all the excitment, so could it be done in an afternoon? After working for two weeks its clear that the children really enjoyed the experience and nearly all of them at the end of an afternoons work (1 hour 30 minues) had built and programmed a model. I think its possible to spend a little more working on them as well.
More importantly both classes said that they would love to do it again and they would be better next time. So over a 3 or 4 week period if you spend an afternoon on it by the 3 or 4 one the building will be quicker can you can focus even more on the programming side.
One more next week. Check out a short video of some of the action in class.
