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Showing posts from 2014

Combining Literacy with Coding with the Adventure Creator App!

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The question is always asked - "How should we use the iPad to cover the coding and programming aspects of the new Computing curriculum?" I usually answer by listing a range of apps that will challenge children to write and debug different programs and algorithms. I recommend websites like primarycomputing.co.uk  from  @DrChips_  or  @SimonHaughton 's fantastic websites - SimonHaughton.co.uk  and computing.parkfieldprimary.com . I then normally advise not to spend hundreds of pounds on different schemes of work to teach it but simply use twitter and find lessons usually better that what can be found in certain schemes. I have never ran training focusing specifically on programming or coding as for me I don't feel it is a strength of mine. I was never really taught it at school myself and honestly am not blown away with enthusiasm about it. My use of technology focuses more on using it as a cross curricular tool and showing how embedding it can impact on learning i

A festive treat - Merry Christmas!

It has been an incredible and amazing year for me! The support from all the teachers and schools around the world who have followed my blog, invited me to run training and attended my conferences has been unbelievable and I want to thank everyone for all the help and support. As a thank you, I am sharing the latest Christmas video created for this year's talent show. For the past number of years we have made a christmas dance video to top off the annual talent show we have at school. All in the name of entertainment, the children loved every second of each video!  (Click here to see previous efforts)  Unfortunately, my dancing partner is no longer at the school and so felt it would be wrong to dance without him! Instead, I decided to do something different. I apologise now for the awful singing and acting, but the children seemed to really enjoy it and had a huge smiles on their faces, so was worth it just for that! Here it is, the teacher parody of Frozen's 'Do you wan

Alan Peat Presents Using Technology to enhance the New Primary Curriculum in association with Grow Education, 8th December, London

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I had a wonderful day sharing some ideas and strategies to enhance the new curriculum using technology on Monday in London. Around 38 teachers attended and there was a great buzz in the room! An amazing and truly inspiring course yesterday by @ICT_MrP has given me the drive to change the way we use technology in our school. — MissGW (@missgw_) December 9, 2014 Thanks to @ICT_MrP for an inspiring and practical training yesterday! — Lainey Franks (@lcfranks) December 9, 2014 @ICT_MrP inspirational course yesterday left with loads of ideas. Thanks! — Grow (@Grow_Education) December 9, 2014 A massive thank you to everyone who came and for all your useful and valued feedback, very much appreciated. 37 Feedback forms 31 rated the content of the training as excellent 5 rated the content as good 1 rated the the content satisfactory 32 rated the delivery of the training as excellent 5 rated the delivery as good Some comments - "Funny, informative, ins

Mr P is abducted by Aliens!

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I woke this morning in a cold sweat after having the most peculiar dream. In my dream, I was abducted by aliens, taken on their spaceship and talked to in a language I didn't understand. When I went to get ready for work, I noticed something strange on my arm - At first, I thought it was a wash on tattoo, so tried to wash it off in the shower. But no matter how hard I scrubbed, it wouldn't wash away. I panicked! Desperately, I searched the internet trying to find an explanation. I stumbled across an app, that told me to scan the unusual symbol and it would tell me if it was real! Well, something happened. Something strange, something amazing and something that told me it was VERY real! Post by ICT with Mr P . I shared this story with a Year 3 group of children I worked with today. I showed them my arm, demonstrated what happened when it was scanned by the special app and they couldn't believe their eyes. They then wrote some fantastic newspaper arti

Pre Order - 50+ iPad for Exciting Sentences

I am very excited to see my first printed book co-written with  @alanpeat  is finally going into print! It is the first in a series of books that will support teachers in the use of mobile tech to teach and improve writing. You can read more about the book here . You can now PRE ORDER the book and make sure you are the first to receive a copy. All you need to do is fill out the following form. We cannot confirm an exact date when the book will be ready to be sent out but we will update as soon as we know. I cannot tell you how excited and proud I am that this book is nearly ready. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and the blog and making this happen. Loading...

Edublog Awards!

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I was flattered when my blog was nominated in the UK Blog awards! This has been followed with my blog being recognised in the Edublog awards 2014 in the Best Individual Blog category and the Best ed tech/resource sharing category! Voting is now open so I would love as many people to vote for my blog! A massive thank you to everyone who have voted for me! You can vote here, all you need to do is press the thumbs up button, you will need to log in via facebook or twitter and then press the thumbs up button again - See full list on Listly See full list on Listly You can also vote for Alan Peat's Pocket app of Exciting Sentences in the best Mobile app category - See full list on Listly Also vote for the Literacy Shed, which I regularly contribute to, in the best educational use of media - See full list on Listly Please take a second and vote for  @GazNeedle  who is voted in the New Blog category - See full list on Listly And of course, for the Lifetime Achi

Should Minecraft be used in School?

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Any followers of this blog will know my answer to this question, however as a stimulus for children, I knew it would be something they would want to write about and I was not disappointed! Even though, the children didn't touch or play Minecraft in anyway, just discussing the game had them completely enthralled and focused throughout the day. Over the past few days I have been asking teachers all around the world to give me their opinions on using Minecraft in the classroom and I want to thank everyone for contributing, (especially if you purposely gave the opposing reason just to help us!) This is a link to the form - Should Minecraft be used in School? The response in only a couple of days was overwhelming - Feel free to use this form and all the reasons suggested. The children looked through all the data and picked three for and three arguments against. They then wrote a discussion text. As always, we couldn't just leave it in the book. Using an app I first

Explain Everything to mark children's writing

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We started today's lesson looking at feedback from the previous writing session. I decided to do a little experiment and mark half the children's work using written feedback with my green pen and highlighters but then used Explain Everything with the other half to record myself annotating and giving verbal feedback. I then asked the group to use the feedback to correct their writing. I often question the impact of written feedback with particular children and wanted to see whether watching and listening back to my feedback would have more of an impact? From this session, it certainly seemed to. Comparing the corrections children made, there was significantly more with those who had iPads. After a discussion with the children, they seem to prefer it too, it was clearer, easier to understand and made them realise where they could improve. Obviously, I am not saying that from this one session, we should get rid of written feedback but it was certainly eye opening. This i

Please help my class!

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Boosting writing using the iPad

Over the past term, I have been working with a group of Year 5 children, looking to boost their writing using the iPads. All the children were slightly below where they need to be in terms of their progress with writing, so it has been my job to try and improve this using the iPads. It has been tricky as I have only been able to work with the group once a week and even then, whenever a teacher has been ill or on a course, I have had to cover so missed the session. However in the short sequence of lessons we have had we have seen some incredible writing inspired by the use of iPads. I have been using a lot of ideas from Inspired Mind's fantastic book -  Developing Writing through Comics  and decided to use a comic app as the inspiration for the writing project. The app 'Shifter,' is an interactive graphic novel with some incredible artwork, sound effects and an augmented reality partner app. The only problem with the app is that it has a 12+ rating on the app store as fur

Real Life Learning on the iPad - Examples from Class

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Last week, I blogged about a few apps I have discovered that challenge the children to apply their understanding and knowledge in real life situations. YOU CAN READ THE BLOG POST BY CLICKING HERE. Today I tried a couple of them with our Year 3 children who relished every minute using these apps! In Numeracy, we used Motion Math: Pizza!  This app is brilliant! The children were instantly hooked! There are so many aspects of this game that get children thinking carefully. They start with a budget of £50 have to buy ingredients, design a pizza and then decide how much it should be sold for in comparison how much it cost to make. They then have to deal with customers who buy different amounts of pizzas. They have to answer quickly before the customer loses their patience and leaves. The children may run out of ingredients, have customers who feel the pizza is overpriced. After each day the children are shown what profit they have made and can then buy more ingredients and make more pi

The 12 iPad lessons of Christmas in action!

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My eBook - The 12 iPad lessons of Christmas is available NOW for just £3.50! On the first day of release it was the 3rd best selling eBook in the UK! Thank you to everyone who has downloaded a copy! If you haven't yet got one, be sure to give it a download as it will provide you with some fantastic and inspiring ideas in the lead up to Christmas! Just to give you a flavour of some of the lesson ideas, here are a couple of finished examples children have created using lessons from the eBook - Interactive Advent Calendar Descriptive Winter Scene Pictures Class 4a Winter Scene Thank you to @primaryideas  for sharing the Emoji Christmas songs his class made - Created with Padlet Some more interactive advent calendars - From  @lynne_1978 - @missvilder -  http://missvidlerict.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/christmas-advent-calendars/ @TinaWatsonTeach and her class - Thanks for the idea @ICT_MrP #y4 recording a nativity using #PuppetPals2 pic.twitter.

Whole School Training - Feedback

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Most of the training I provide is in the form of a whole school INSET for a day. This involves all the teachers and TAs having hands on practical training using technology to raise standards across the curriculum. The difference with whole school INSET and a conference is that you get a complete spread of confidence levels in teachers towards using technology. With my conferences usually attendees are ICT co-ordinators or teachers already confident in using technology. Sometimes with whole school INSET days some teachers do not believe technology can transform and improve learning beforehand so it is interesting to hear their evaluation after the training day.  I am often asked whether TAs should take part in the training and the answer is always YES! They are incredibly important in the support of children's learning and building their confidence is just as important as the teacher. Last Friday, I ran a whole school training day at Sandford Hill School in Stoke. The assist

Alan Peat Presents...Using Technology to Deliver the New Primary Curriculum - 18th November Peterborough

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On Tuesday 18th November at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough, 50 teachers attended my conference looking at using Technology to support and enhance the Primary Curriculum. The day was fantastic and the teachers were so responsive and enthusiastic! I want to thank everyone for attending and for the amazing feedback! 44 Evaluations 44 rated the content of the speaker as excellent 42 rated the delivery of the speaker as excellent 2 rated the delivery of the speaker as good Feedback  "Wow, excellent, creative and lots of amazing ideas to inspire hundreds of children! Thank you!" "Interesting, enthusiastic speaker, who obviously believes passionately in his subject and importantly is still practising what he preaches as a 'real life' teacher."   "A BRILLIANT day. Without a doubt THE best course that I have attended. Can't wait to get cracking!"  "Very inspiring - thank you!" "Was inspiring from t

Real Life Learning on the iPad!

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I am a massive fan of using real life situations for children to develop their learning in different ways. Having a real life stimulus makes learning relevant for children. The ' Mathematics Apprenticeship ,' by Gareth Metcalfe  is a perfect example of this. A fantastic resource for gifted and talented mathematicians to apply their skills into real word contexts. I have previously blogged about the use of simulation apps as a stimulus in class here. I have come across a couple of apps that have great potential for cross curricular real life projects. The first is KeyPlan 3D . This short little video will demonstrate what the app entails - The potential to this app in the classroom is incredible! Children have to apply their knowledge of measurements if they were to redesign the classroom or create a replica of a room. They could use it for a project to design their own house, contact an estate agent to price up the property and even read then write some adverts for the

#TMStockport 19th November @ Cheadle Heath Primary

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What a fantastic night at Cheadle Heath Primary School for #TMStockport! A massive thank you to  @MediaShaw  for organising! Big thanks to  @Gazneedle for his wonderful LIVE doodle notes! The night kicked off with myself and I shared the recent Kensuke's Kingdom project to demonstrate how iPads should be used to enhance what can be done on paper! Sarah Lyons then shared how she has been using QR codes in her classroom! This was followed by Bryn Goodman, who shared all the ways in which he has been using Minecraft to bring the History curriculum alive! Andy from  @IntoFilmFest then shared some of the wonderful ways to use film in the classroom. @MediaShaw then demonstrated a couple of her favourite apps with Make Dice and Tweetroot! Everyone then enjoyed some lovely hot pot courtesy of Cheadle Heath! After the break, Alayne Levy  treated us to a wonderful demonstration of using iPads to create music with young adults with learning difficultie

Mr P goes international - working with ITTC in Dubai!

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I was very fortunate to be invited over to Dubai to run two seminars with teachers from all around the UAE in October. Working alongside ITTC , a newly formed company looking to provide quality CPD to schools across the UAE, I ran two training days sharing ideas, apps and strategies with some enthusiastic and friendly teachers. The feedback was incredible and I want to thank everyone who came to the seminars! I will be coming back over again soon no doubt, so if you are interested in further training please contact Shama here -  shama@ittrainingconsultancy.com  or phone on 0508803995. Here is a video showing some of the highlights from the event - I also want to say a huge thank you to Steve from iPadEducators, who really helped spreading the word about my visit and has supported a lot of what I have been doing! I recently did an interview with him which you can read here - 

Shape Lab - Fantastic app for properties of Shape

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The latest app from the fantastic team at Shiny Things (the team behind the great Quick Math bundle) is Shape Lab . This app is fantastic for children learning about different shapes, their properties and measurements. When looking through the new Numeracy curriculum and the objectives for properties of shape and position & direction, most can be covered using this brilliant app. Children can simply draw their own shapes using their own fingers and the shape will appear. Children can choose from a range of backgrounds include centimetre paper, four quadrants, dotted papers and triangular graphed paper. When shapes are created, they are filled in a colour which can be made transparent making it easy for children to work out the area of the shape with the cm paper as the background. Images can also be added as the background meaning children can clearly identify a range of different shapes within a picture. Children can easily create Tangrams and then also work o

Sainsbury's Christmas Advert 2014

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Another amazing advert was released in time for Christmas, which can be used as a great stimulus in class! Here is the video -   The video tells the story of British and German WW1 soldiers stopping the trench warfare for one day - Christmas Day. This advert reminded me of a short story written by Michael Morpurgo, which you can view HERE. The links that can be made here to the recent Remembrance Day celebrations along with the 100 year centenary. This resource from the British Council may be useful - CLICK HERE . As well as this fantastic Football Remembers pack, click the picture - The writing opportunities in this pack are fantastic so do please have a look! Please share any work you produce with your class with me and I will link it on this post.  Here is a padlet wall with more ideas from  @Watsed -  Created with Padlet

Top Trump it across the Curriculum!

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Top Trumps is a popular game enjoyed by millions worldwide! The new free app 'Top Trump it,' give you the ability to make your own set of Top Trump Cards. This can be used as a tool in so many different ways! I want to share a few! For plenty of other ideas on using Top Trumps in the classroom, especially in Numeracy, check out The Numeracy Shed's Page here.  When you load the app you have to create a username and password, you can then make a top trump by adding a picture, using the camera or choosing from the photo library. Then you can add a title and add three stat and values. It would be great if you could add more, but it is just limited to three currently. There is a range of different backgrounds you can pick from before saving the card to the camera roll. Here are a few quick ideas, that came to mind when playing with this app: Literacy Why not test children's understanding of a story by asking them to make Top Trump cards for characters in their