Archive for November 9th, 2007
St Joseph’s Primary School, Fishponds, Bristol
A “local gig” today, at St Joseph’s Primary School in Fishponds, Bristol.
The name of this area of Bristol, Fishponds, derives from when it was a quarry district. The empty quarries were then filled and there were many large fishponds in the area which have since been filled in.
It is International “Take Your Father To Work” Day today so, as St Joseph’s is quite close to where my dad lives, I took the opportunity of getting him to come and see what his “ikkle boy” does. Dad was a teacher and headteacher for many years. I learnt a lot of tricks, tips and techniques from the man himself so it was fun to see him finding out how much, and how little, has changed since he listened to the advice “quit while you’re a head” 
The St Joseph’s staff have a great sense of humour and this helped them get through a few technical glitches when loading the software. This doesn’t happen very often as the games load very easily…normally! We did install some new mice so that may have been the problem.
I think that using a mouse, whether it is a wired or wireless one, makes navigating the landscapes smoother. In real life, you don’t look around in a jerky fashion, as it appears you are doing when using a laptop mousepad. Rather, your head moves in one motion, much as when you use a “proper” mouse.
I often use a giro mouse, kindly given to me by the good folk at Classroom ICT
. This means you can operate a mouse “in the air” without having a flat surface to rest on. Hold the mouse in front of you and move it… your cursor moves appropriately on the screen.
Check the “range” of the wireless mice before you buy ‘em and then …enjoy the interaction the children experience with many types of lesson.
Thank you to headteacher, Matt Condon and his staff, Pat, Bob, Ed, Rachel, Chantal, Matt, Kevin, Jane, Sheila, Paul, Hazel, Cathy, Dan, Jo, Pauline, and Doireann for a great day.
I am looking forward to coming back on Monday and challenging the people that can stretch these ideas even further… the children.
As well as our events, we like to share interesting, and more often than not, FREE tools, resources and ideas, some old, some new, and we hope you might find something useful. We'd love your thoughts. Tim & Sarah
