Wawne Primary ICT Journey
We receive some very lovely feedback and photos, and are very grateful to Angela Thresh from Wawne Primary, Hull, for this very thoughtful open letter following our day of training and day of lessons there nearly two years ago:
Anyone who has heard you speak, either to adults at conferences and training days or with children in school will be in no doubt that you are one of the most inspirational speakers in education today. (Thank you) However when you spoke to the teachers at Wawne Primary School in September 2010 your influence would be felt far longer than anyone could imagine – two and a half years later the “Tim” effect can still be seen!
The original purpose of your visit was centred around ICT and Literacy and indeed it was a fantastic two days but what has really lasted, the long term effect has been how technology can enhance the learning journey. Certainly, observing you inspire our young people to write so passionately was uplifting and observing best-practise is always the best form of CPD, however the long term technological impact was founded on day one.
During the first day’s training you shared a lot of websites and Web 2.0 tools with the teachers and support staff that you had used in schools – for us, this was the catalyst for our ICT developments.
It was through our journey of using Web 2.0 tools such as Wordle, Gadwin Print Screen, PrimaryPad, Tag Galaxy, PearlTrees and AudioBoo that we really learnt how children respond so positively to technology.
Staff members that joined Twitter (after your suggestion) discovered a world of school blogs. Each class now has it’s own blog, regularly updated with text, pictures, children’s work and information and they are regularly visited by the school community. We have quad-blogged with schools in USA, Australia and across the UK and our school website now has worldwide visitors.
I
n line with these developments we progressed our use of photography, video and audio, ensuring age-appropriate resources are available in every classroom and staff are confident to use them. Be it a news report or re-enactment, your influence can be felt in every class.
It’s certainly not that the staff were technophobes (well, not all of us!) nor incapable before your visit, you kick started us, pointed us in the right direction and got our technological sparks flying!
Numeracy hasn’t been left out of our technological advances – through our rural schools network we joined Maths in Motion. This software simulates the setting up of a racing car and pupils complete a variety of mathematical tasks in an effort to win a series of races!
While not directly recommended by you Tim, Maths in Motion is part of our overall ICT journey and because of that our pupils are benefiting immensely.
The future looks to be just as exciting. At the end of your visit, as you were packing away you “happened to share your iPad with some of the staff and their children”. In hindsight I fear this was not accidental, allowing the children to play in ‘Epic Citadel’ demonstrated the power of the iPad to Apple-novices!
We are now investigating the educational potential of the iPad through research, school visits and conferences and there is little doubt that our future is bright, our future is Apple!
That’s the “Tim” effect! Thank you.
Well, thank YOU Angela, & the Warne team, for letting us know how your journey has progressed, and WELL DONE.
Category: 1) Events and Training days, 2) Useful n Interesting, 4) Well Done!
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
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
