Day Two of the National College Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Leadership Programme Phase Three, at The Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, and we are providing the afternoon Keynote, focusing on the learning, harnessing technologies and adapability.

During the morning sessions we attended John Davitt’s Workshop “Old learning new tools” – an exploration of what is known about learning, where ICT fits in the process and how it can be used to ensure students are active learners with a variety of media and activitiy types in a Web 2.0 connected world. An informative and enjoyable session with challenges and humour, and learning.
John noted that when he did a Twitter search for “shopping” and “learning”, shopping outstripped learning 3 to 1.

John raised an interesting question: why are the best online tools, and feedback systems, reserved for online shopping. How useful it would be to get the feedback responses we get from Amazon, and other virtual shops, in our learning environments.

John’s site, Newtools, has some more of John’s unique reflections on learning.

John organised his whole presentation using his new resource, Learning Score.

Learning Score  is a multimedia lesson-planning and delivery tool that uses a music score metaphor to show the range of planned activities for a lesson as a graphical timeline. The software also allows you to embed the resources you will use (pdf documents, videos, audio, web sites) in the visual plan itself. Whole lessons can be saved with all their resources and annotations for later use and sharing.

Learning Score was invented by John and “grew out of a desire to provide teachers and learners with modern, flexible, technology-friendly and pedagogically rigorous approach to lesson planning suitable for the 21st-century classroom”.

John’s Learning Event Generator prompted us to explain knitting as a Common Craft explanation.

A keypoint he made being “Good teaching is active learning and valuable feedback”.

Our table rose to the challenge and created a ‘Periodic Table as a 30 second sound file’, and we were really proud of it!
Thank you, John.

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Today, we were running a workshop looking at different technologies that can have an impact on standards in the classroom, as part of the Phase three of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Leadership Programme and their two-day residential conference, at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate. 
The two day conference consists of structured debates, workshops and keynote speeches.

Delegates came from Bedford, Bolton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Lancashire, Leeds, North Tyneside, Nottinghamshire, Oldham, Peterborough, Sefton, Stockport, Suffolk, Tameside, and Wakefield.

Although I have seen Tim present many times over the last couple of years, once again, at the BSF Leadership programme, for the National College, in Harrogate today, he reminded me why I wanted to be a teacher all those years ago.

The delegates from Schools and Local Authorities in the BSF programme were engaged, inspired, challenged and intrigued by Tim’s magical mystery tour through his tales, and real examples, of how to make learning fun with the use of ICT.

His passion, enthusiasm, understanding of learning and child centred-ness would move the most difficult “technoplegic” groups or individuals you could possibly come across.

I can’t wait to have the privilege to be in one of his sessions again.

Bob Harrison, Education Adviser, Toshiba Information Systems, School and College Governor, Consultant Becta and National College.

WordsLike.net is a free service that allows you to find words and phrases that are similar or related to each other.

Type in a word or a phrase and WordsLike.net will come up with a list of related words and their corresponding definitions.

When we are doing the translator activity, getting students to “translate” (using the same language but different vocabulary) what one of the imaginary characters has invented on the spur of the moment, those children are often much better at the activity than adults.

I think this is because, whilst adults have an ever expanding thesaurus of alternative words to use, it is more that they spend a bit longer trying to find the ultimate word to impress.

We do need to expand the collection of alternatives our children have access to. We also need to encourage them to pick words up and juggle with them. This is why WordsLike.net is useful because, as well as giving synonyms for individual words, it also finds alternatives for complete phrases.

Day two of the “Nurturing Narrative Event” here in Kent. Today, we had the joy of working alongside staff, and students, from Stone Bay School,  Broadstairs, Kent.

And… Wow! What a superb experience! The Kent SEN ICT crew, are a remarkable bunch. In the run up to this event, we have had a lot of Skype calls and “virtual meetings” to build resources, support materials, and some delightful tactile stimuli, such as plants, magnifying globes, and even a balloon containing a mysterious fish like creature. These really added to the buzz of communication in the room.

Joe White, a teacher at Stone Bay, recorded his thoughts on the day:

The most striking aspect of the morning sessions was witnessing the engagement of the students increase within the first 10 minutes. From slouched and surly in one or two cases, to leaning forward, participating and demonstrating their ideas. It was clear that the focus of the students moved from the screen to their own ideas and a need to show, and state, what their thoughts and ideas were.

The students didn’t seem concerned about the unusual setting, or busy room, filled with strange faces. They saw the image on the screen and seemed interested. It had not been explained to them what would be occurring in the sessions. This meant they weren’t under the pressure of living up to an expectation. They weren’t aware what they supposed to be achieving and nothing was asked of them above being in the room.

I don’t know if this gave the session a different atmosphere to a “lesson” but no negative behaviours were shown, the students were focused on either Tim or the screen from the start. Despite the distractions of cameras and flashes the students focus was totally on the front, whether that was their peers or Tim using “the rat” (wireless mouse) and discussing their thoughts.

It is inspiring to see how the students and staff worked together to get the ideas recorded in a variety of mediums. I believe all the students would have been motivated to stay for even longer and develop their ideas further. There was barely a quiet moment before a response was either coaxed by or more often thrown into the centre.

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The students benefited greatly from the open forum style of the session which allowed any comment to be relevant and taken aboard. At times the students were prompting each other and feeding off each others ideas, this boosted their confidence to put forward their own ideas in whatever context this was. Some felt compelled to stand up and touch the board others shouted ideas out, but there was not one student who remained silent for the session.

Thank you to The TEAM for the past two days!

Roz Brown – English teacher at Valence School, Westerham, Kent, was kind enough to record the first part of her thoughts on using some of the virtual worlds with her special needs students.

Valence is a special school for students with physical disabilities and complex medical needs. Students are divided into ability groups for lessons.

Having seen Tim in January 2009, I decided to use Myst to devise a scheme of work for writing non-fiction with a group of students with complex difficulties who all use alternative means of communication.

Whilst Myst clearly lends itself to descriptive writing, I decided to use it to stimulate non-fiction writing as the students in the group have limited experiences, and often unreliable memories, so that writing about concrete facts can be very hard. Using Myst as a stimulus, with added tactile objects, would give students ‘experiences’ that they could then use to write about.

The first activity involved building up the students’ interest in the topic by saying that we were going on a journey to a mysterious new planet. I then showed students a range of images from Myst on the IWB which we described to the students as a number of them have visual impairments and asked questions e.g. would you like to live there etc.

I then asked the students to each think of a name which would sum up this new place. Each student came up with an idea which we shared and then they voted on their favourite; Prison Planet was chosen.

I then told the students that their assignment was to be a journalist, a guest writer on the ‘Prison Planet’ newsletter for which they would be required to write a number of articles.

The first article was writing a ‘Where is it?’ article describing a place in detail so that others could try to guess the location. I played the image of ‘Tomahna’ without the image to enable students to focus on the sounds. I also had a range of objects that were taken from the scene: a rock, a cactus and some cotton wool (to represent the clouds). The students were encouraged to explore the objects and comment on how they felt using their communication books. We also had a range of smells (oils) for students to smell and pass comment on.

Finally, we actually looked at the image and described what we could see. In the subsequent lesson, we looked again at the image and objects and I gave the students a symbol board encouraging them to make short sentences: I can see/hear/smell/feel + mountains/clouds/a bird etc.

The students were then asked to find their own describing word(s) (from communication book) after which they were given the option of having a bonus word from their symbol sheet e.g. circling, twittering. The results were really exciting: a selection of short sentences from each student with the bonus words which helped them to go beyond the limited vocabulary in their communication books.

The second assignment was to write diary entries based on activities that they experienced on ‘Prison Planet’. For the first diary entry, I showed the students images from the beach and we talked about the kinds of things that could be done on beaches.

Using a range of props (kites, buckets and spades, swimming floats, sun hats and sun cream) the students were photographed in front of the IWB taking part in these different activities. Using a symbol board, the students then composed diaries of their day on the beach using temporal connectives and then adding their own thoughts about the activity.

Once again, the students were really motivated by having ‘visited’ the beach and the photos of themselves doing the different activities. A second diary day was then done in the ‘granny flat’ – which we called The Dragon House’. We explored this environment together with the students making decisions e.g. shall we go in here or press that button etc. The students were really engaged by this. Once again, I used tactile objects when we went into the round room and looked at the objects.

The students were photographed interacting with their mystery object. The way out of the ‘Dragon House’ was down the roller coaster which comes much later in the game. We sat in front of the screen in a roller coaster formation and got the staff to provide the necessary sound effects.

None of the students had ever been on a roller coaster and all of them indicated that had been their favourite activity in the Dragon House.

More to follow from Roz soon, on the fun she has been having with her students, and on the impact it has had.

Day 1 of the Nurturing Narrative Special Schools Event, at the East Malling Conference Centre, in Kent.

This event is designed to look at “inspirational ways of motivating students who have significant variations in their levels of communication, behaviour and learning needs bring together colleagues from a broad range of settings: Warmstone PRU, Harbour School, Foxwood School, St Anthony’s School, YMCA Yr 10/11 Centre, Challenger Centre, Phoenix Centre, Ifield School, Grange Park, Stone Bay School and Valence School.

The focus is on uniting digital technologies and teaching skills for use with KS2, KS3, KS4 and post 16 students, who will benefit from developing narrative skills, such as communicating a sequence of events, as a future life skill.

The event aims to give staff confidence to integrate technology, teach and engage students with mixed levels of language, communication and literacy needs.

A joy to spend time with staff from such a broad range of settings. These folk are really up for challenges, and for finding different ways to integrate technologies, of many kinds, in to their teaching.

Some of the elements we covered can be used by students in many environments, or they can be useful for staff when they are preparing resources, or when they are interacting with each other.

Thank you to Sarah Lloyd-Cocks, Sheryl Bunyard and Rachel Keen for organising the conference today. We are looking forward to working alongside the sudents at Stone Bay school tomorrow.

A fun day of lessons at Binfield Primary School, Binfield, Bracknell Forest. Another lovely day, full of more laughter. Thank you to Jill Hanson, her colleagues and pupils for a thoroughly enjoyable wander through the world of words.

It is always a joy to watch growded-ups and children, take off and fly, with speaking and listening, writing, exploring, creating and more.
“Verbal jazz”, the ability to make things up on the spur of the moment, is a skill that empowers every kind of person, in so many walks of life.
We need to encourage creating sentences, and ideas, as they go. Trying and flying.
How?
One of the techniques I use is to get children, or adults, to start talking when they get asked a question. For example, “Aha! A good question, my child…” said one of the characters today. He was ten, by the way, but still got so much in to the role that I believed he was a grizzly, old retainer.
That “starting to talk”, rather than nervously umm-ing and ahh-ing whilst you wait for the words to come, means that you break your own nervous silence.
The words you want, and didn’t even know you had within you, appear to flop in to place behind those opening phrases.
“Start and the rest will follow”, seems to give confidence to even the most reluctant speakers.
The same principal also feeds ideas for even the most reluctant writers. Start, however stumbling you may feel, and you might find you are running with words in a short space of time.
Believe me. It does work.

The children who did some “instant creativity” today, provided great moments of entertainment for the others in the room too.
Well done all the children.
Thank you to Jill Hanson, her colleagues and pupils, for a thoroughly enjoyable wander in the world of words.
As somebody, amusingly said today, after one of the funny gems a child invented, “You just couldn’t make it up”!
“Oh! Hang on! They just did!”

And after all this the teachers reflected on the ideas and techniques explored today during a Twilight Training session.

Here’s a different way of making a stop frame animation.
It is a good way of showing that you really do need to plan before you start.
Imagine the prep for this short film.

Wow!

What a varied and wonderful week! Northumberland, Darlington Birmingham, Newport.

And, what a way to end the trip, with a day spent alongside colleagues and pupils at Milton Infants School, Newport, South Wales. Read the rest

A very enjoyable day in Carmel RC College Darlington, leading their “Creative ICT in Teaching Conference”.

The aim of the conference is to raise awareness of the use of gaming, Web2.0 technologies, and the associated teaching techniques, that will engage learners through ICT. There was a main focus on English and literacy, but with transferable skills to other subjects.
Read the rest

Today we are at The Alnwick Garden for Northumberland’s “Be Creative in English” Conference – an inpressive setting,  including acres of fascinating plants, water sculptures, an infamous Poison Garden and one of the world’s largest wooden tree houses.

The conference was introduced by Lynne Swainston, Primary Strategy Manager. Lynne beautifully read the poem ‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka , a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured, as an example of what had inspired her 30 years ago.

Lynne talked about how the touchstone of an excellent curriculum is that it instils in children a love of learning for its own sake.
Read the rest

Up North, in fact, as far North as it is possible to get in England, before heading over the border in to Scotland. The first of two days in Northumberland.

Today, we are working alongside the staff and children from Eastlea Primary School, in Cramlington, joined by visiting colleagues from across the authority, for a day of demonstration lessons across Keystage 1 and Keystage 2 classes.
Tomorrow, we are at The Alnwick Garden, for the “Be Creative in English Conference”.

The town of Cramlington is about nine miles north of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Read the rest