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Maths Calculation Videos

Here's a brand new website that I finished creating this week that I'm sure you'll want to share with your colleagues, children and parents:

www.mathscalculations.co.uk

Made by me, my deputy head @mrmkemp and a few Year 6 children from my school, Parkfield Primary School, it contains a series of maths tutorial videos explaining how to progress and improve doing: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division calculations.

The skills have been broken down by calculation type and then by year group (differentiated into four different levels of challenge: good, great, super and outstanding).

The videos have been recorded using the Educreations app on an iPad - they can be viewed via Flash on a PC or opened up in the free Educreations app on an iPad (I'm led to believe that an iPhone/iPod Touch version is coming soon).

You can use the website to ensure that there is a consistent approach to teaching calculations at your school and use it in lessons as a tool for children to independently access for support, such as when completing a calculations sheet like this:

Download Calculations worksheet template Word document

Download Calculations worksheet template PDF document

I hope you find this site useful!

Creating Audio Podcasts in School

You've probably heard of a few schools that have their own in-school radio shows which are broadcast from their own miniature recording studios and been envious of their achievements - well I now reckon that you can create something similar in your own school which is just as good but costs just a fraction of the price...

An audio podcast is basically a short audio recording which is shared over the Internet, published as part of a series of similiar episodes often at regular intervals. Whilst radio shows have to be broadcast and listened to live, audio podcasts can be downloaded to listen to by children at a time of their choosing thus giving them a much wider audience reach.

A weekly school podcast doesn't have to be particularly long (just a few minutes will do) and the episodes could even all have a similar running order of content, such as:

• introduction of the presenters;
• school news/reminders;
• sharing the school dinner menu;
• current national headlines (e.g. taken from the Newsround website);
• a 'strange but true' fact;
• a book/website/app of the week;
• a reading of a child's work they have done this week in a lesson;
• 'happy birthday' shout-outs;
• a funny joke to end with.

The key is designing a show which is so easy to create for each podcast that you could hand the running of it over to a group of able children, assigning roles to different members of a 'podcast team', such as:

• two presenters (who host the show);
• a producer/researcher (who organises future content);
• a sound recordist (who does all the technical set up).

Script writing could be done as a collaborative effort between different members of the team to ensure that they all have direct input into the final show. Unlike producing a school newspaper which: costs money to print, takes quite a while to design well and is limited in size by the paper type, producing a weekly podcast: has no running costs, is extremely easy for children to produce (since they just have to read out sentences from a script) and isn't limited in size (since audio could be recorded for any length of time, within reason). Having so few restrictions, I really believe that children could produce their own regular audio podcast much more independently than with a printed newspaper. Watch this example of Bethke Elementary School in the USA to see a podcasting team in action for yourself:

Although they obviously have a big set up with microphones etc., you could quite easily record and publish your own podcast online using just with an iPad/iPod Touch and by sitting in a quiet room. The app I would recommend for doing this is Voice Recorder Pro app because it: is free, has a simple trimming tool to cut-out the start/end of the recording with (so it is nice and clean) and offers a range of sharing options for outputting the podcast with.

You could even play in sound: cues, jingles or effects from another device whilst recording using the My Custom Soundboard app (69p) too.

How you choose to share your podcast is up to you, but the way that I'm thinking would work best at the moment is: converting the recording into a .mp3 file, opening it up in the Edmodo app's library and then attaching it to a new post to share with a 'podcast' group which children can join. I like this method because it: is free, has no limitations (e.g. upload limits), promotes technology which children are already familiar with, encourages online discussion through writing replies underneath and creates an RSS feed automatically on the public page (which you could even set social media services to auto-post updates from).

Setting up a school podcast could really have a big impact in a school because it: encourages children to use technology, gives extra responsiblities to a group of more able children, allows regular prasising of children's achievements and is accessible to everyone who can listen well (unlike a newspaper which would likely be written by a high-attaining child at a reading level above most other younger children in the school).

How would you set up a weekly podcast at your school?

Creating Multimedia Story Books

I wanted to get Year 1 and Year 2 children to create their own multimedia story books on the iPads. Although this would seem like a fairly straightforward aim, the amount of preparation that I ended up doing to ensure that the children were given an appropriate level of challenge and the finished books were all of a high quality was quite a bit so I felt that I should blog about it.

The most child-friendly e-book authoring app available for iPads is Book Creator so this naturally felt like the most appropriate app to teach the children. What's nice about it is that it allow you to create a fixed-layout book (some e-book authoring apps don't have this option) and offers just the right amount of formatting tools so as to not be too confusing for young children.

Since I have 30 minutes a week to teach ICT to: a Year 1 group, a mixed Year 1 and 2 group and Year 2 group as part of my school's 'Fabulous Friday' afternoons in which the children carousel around different subjects, it was clear that the whole project would have to be broken down into small chunks that were each self-contained lessons. These were:

1. Type the beginning part of the story.
2. Paint a picture to illustrate the beginning part of the story.
3. Type the middle part of the story.
4. Paint a picture to illustrate the middle part of the story.
5. Type the end part of the story.
6. Paint a picture to illustrate the end part of the story.
7. Insert the illustrations into the e-book and record any narration.

I did think about swapping the order around slightly to do all the typing lessons first then the painting lessons but felt that spreading them out would make the project more interesting and likely consolidate skills more since things would be re-visited over a longer period of time.

For the three 'typing the story' lessons I gave the children prompt sheets from which they could copy-type their stories from. I chose to do this because there is limited lesson time to get a group of 20 children to each come up with a creative idea and the focus needed to be on ICT skills not literacy skills. To allow them some creativity and ensure they all typed slightly different stories though, I created different story outlines for each group:

• the pure Year 1 group's story would be about going into a forest and meeting a baddy at a castle or cottage they came to;
• the mixed Year 1/2 group's story would be about going to a magical setting and meeting a baddy;
• the pure Year 2 group's story would be about going up a beanstalk and meeting a strange character.

In the prompt sheets, I also gave them lots of open-ended parts in which they could insert their own vocabulary (e.g. adjectives) and produced two or three different sheets with varying amounts of sentences on for each group (so the more confident typists had more to type and were challenged to include a greater range of punctuation which they would have to find on the keyboard). Here are the prompt sheets I used, although be aware that they are in a slightly jumbled order and sometimes contain a few of the same prompts on one page so that I could save on printing:

Download Story Prompts

Obviously, the 'typing the story' lessons couldn't just have the children copying from the sheet so I encouraged them to change the text style and page background colour once they had finished to make it look nice.

For the 'painting the illustrations' lessons, I chose to teach the children how to use the lovely Drawing Pad app which has a very graphical user-interface which is perfect for KS1. As I'd given the children set storylines to follow, this meant that I could support them effectively when it came to illustrating them - I could clearly instruct them to 'paint your character, a house and a beanstalk' rather than the more vague 'paint what happens in the opening to your story', for instance. I modelled what I expected a good painting to look like beforehand and encouraged them to add fine details to it too:

For the final lesson, I then asked the children to do three things:

• type a title for their story on the front cover;
• insert their pictures onto each page alongside their story text;
• add sound recordings of themselves reading out their stories.

From doing the project, I discovered a few little things which you might find helpful:

• in the first lesson, get the children to type their name of the front cover of the book before they start typing the story on page two - this makes it easier in later lessons when they have to re-open their work as Book Creator generates thumbnails of books from what's on the cover;
• as each child has to go back to the same iPad to work on their book, create little cards to put with each one detailing the names of the children in each group that are using it to remind them;
• copy the prompt sheets onto different coloured paper for each group so that at swap-over time you can instantly visually see what needs giving out/collecting in;
• creat three photo albums on each iPad for each group into which to place their three illustrations - this will make it easy in the last lesson as you can just say to them 'go to the Year 2 album then insert your first picture onto page two' rather than 'scroll through the camera roll until you can find your first picture';
• use slightly fewer iPads than one each (e.g. I used 16 for about 20 children) - this means that you can pair up those children who would benefit from working with a partner and you can get children to cover somebody else's work if a child is off one week to save you having to do it;
• encourage children to speak near to the microphone when recording their narration so as to drown out any background noise.

Don't be afaid about the setup required - it isn't actually that much when you consider it's spread out over seven weeks. The project, in my opinion, is brilliant - the range of ICT skills that it covers is huge and the quality of the finished work is just superb. In the last lesson, get a few children to share their books with the rest of the group using Apple TV, stand back and be amazed. I very nearly got emotional yesterday when the children did this - they were just so proud of what they had achieved it was lovely to see!

You can view the story books I created with Year 1 and 2 by clicking here to visit my school's website.

Using Evernote for EYFS observations

I've spent the last fortnight investigating Evernote as a tool for organising EYFS observations and thought I'd share my thoughts on why I believe it to be so great.

To begin with, its worth noting that there is both a free and a paid-for (£35 per year) Evernote service and how you intend to use it will dictate which one you will need. In simple terms, they can be differentiated by their data limits:

• the free version limits you to uploading just 60mb of data a month and each observation/'note' can't be more than 25mb in size;
• the paid-for Premium version limits you to uploading 1gb of data each month and each note can't be more than 100mb in size.

 If you just intend to use one Evernote account to observe one class of children then I would say that the free version is perfectly sufficient. If you intend to use one Evernote account to observe multiple classes of children however (e.g. a few reception classes in the same school), then I would possibly say that you would need the Premium version. Do test it out though first - don't upgrade to the Premium version until you have seen in practice that your free data limits have been reached. A school might want to have one Evernote account for the whole school, with each cohort of children being grouped into a separate notebook (with possibly each child having their own notebook too) - although it's worth remembering that Evernote limits each account to just 250 notebooks so would having a separate account for each cohort instead (e.g. using a username with their year of entry in it) be better in the long term and mean that each account could be free?

Once you've set up an Evernote account then tags will need to be created. These are key words that are put with each note to identify what is being shown in the observation. To ensure that they are organised neatly and are quick to find in the alphabetical order Evernote puts them in, I would recommend you add them in this format: 

• have each child's name begin with an underscore (e.g. _Simon or _SH);
• have each characteristic of effective learning begin with an asterix followed by a number (e.g. *01 Showing curiosity *02 Using senses to explore etc.) - you will also need to slightly shorten some of them so they fit on the screen;
• have each aspect of learning and development contain the months (e.g. Maths Numbers 0-11mths, Maths Numbers 08-20mths).

You can find the full list of EYFS characterstics and aspects of learning in Development Matters by clicking here and going to page 5.

Making an observation using the Evernote is extremely easy. In this iOS app, for example:

1. Tap the add button.

2. Tap the camera button to take a photograph.

3. Type a title or caption to accompany the observations to describe what it shows

4. Tag the note with the characteristics of effective learning and aspects of learning and development being observed by ticking them off from a list.

NOTE - Ensure you go to settings to change the note image quality to 'small' - you can store over 400 small images per month using the free Evernote!

Having an easy tool to use is extremely important - especially in the busy EYFS environment! Recording observations on a mobile device on the go using the Evernote app like this on an iPod Touch or iPad also means that practitioners can instantly note their comments on children's learning whilst they are still fresh in their mind.

The beauty of Evernote is that it is a cross-platform service which works on a wide range of devices that sync up with each other automatically at regular intervals. This means that a practitioner could record their observations on an iPad during school time and then scrutinise them more closely afterwards using either the Evernote website or program on their laptop without having to manually move memory sticks around.

Evernote also lets you search through all your notes and filter them to only display ones which meet certain conditions - such as all those showing a particular child. This makes it easy to assess how capable and developed the children in the class are and is much quicker than sifting through reams of paper.

When it comes to sharing your observations beyond those devices which you are logged into, you will need to make a decision about how you organise your Evernote structure:

• If each child has their own notebook in the Evernote account, their notes can easily be shared with their parents electronically but it would mean that each note would have to focus on just one child at a time to avoid other children's work being shared.
• If the whole class just shares one notebook, each note can observe multiple children at once (which is easier for the practitioner) but notes can only be shared by email to each parent (which has to be done manually for each child at a PC). It could still be shared easily with other staff (e.g. the assessment co-ordinator) who would want to access all the observations.

 

The other thought to consider is printing observations out. Obviously the aim is to create a paperless environment but sometimes hard copies of things are needed. If you just click the 'print' icon in Evernote it's worth noting that it doesn't print any tags related to an observation. For practitioners this could be a major issue but I did discover a sneaky workaround - if you open a note in a new window using a certain web browser (I know IE7 and the latest Mozilla Firefox work) then you can just do File > Print and the tags are printed alongside the note! You would not believe how long it took me to find this apparently simple trick out...

I would argue that in most settings, the free version of Evernote would work extremely well, as would just having one notebook shared by all the children to put observations into. The potential it has to transform observations is huge in my opinion and I just hope that others can see it too!

Will your assessment co-ordinator become addicted to following your account to check for minute-by-the-minute updates of the outstanding learning opportunities your children are receiving? ;-)

Edmodo Rollout Resources

I regularly get asked for my advice on how to introduce Edmodo in a school so I decided to create a mini presentation for people to use to help them:

Download Edmodo rollout presentation

Download Edmodo skills checklist for KS2 lessons

Download Edmodo LI slide

Download username cards (editable Word document)

Note: You may also want to pre-register your school for an Edmodo subdomain before rolling it out at your school - it enables you monitor usage and reset teacher passwords. More information is available at www.edmodo.com/institutions/

An Explanation of my ICT/Computing Curriculum Idea

I've been blogging over the last couple of weeks about my thoughts and ideas on how to develop my ICT/computing curriculum to make it meet the requirements of the proposed new national curriculum (explained here) and to allow children to become much more independent learners. I just thought that I'd write this blog post to summarise the work that I've done so far and to clarify a few thoughts in my mind.

• Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 (until at least half-way through the academic year) would have what could be described as being 'normal' lessons where the whole class do the same activity together, with me teaching it to them. This would enable them to get a good grounding in basic skills including how to: use the iPad operating system, type with growing speed/accuracy, take good digital photographs/videos and present work neatly using different apps.
• Year 4, Year 5, and Year 6 would also begin each year with some 'normal' lessons in which they would learn and consolidate a few essential skills - notably: e-safety, how to use Edmodo, how to find and evaluate websites on the web and some word processing skills (including using text editing tools).
• All classes would also receive some dedicated programming lessons too (since skills like constructing formulae in spreadsheets or creating programs with desired outcomes require a certain amount of accuracy that I think a whole class of children might not fully achieve through independent discovery). At the moment, many programming applications need laptops to work so having the whole class using them at once would also making booking equipment much easier in school to.
• For the remainder of the year, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 (and possibly Year 3) would then be able to develop their ICT skills independently using the iPads. They would be able to choose which type of task they want to do (e.g. linked with: multimedia, digital creativity or text and graphics) and what app they would like to do it in - either a new one they want to learn or an app they still want to develop their skills in. Some might want to link in to a topic that interests them, using some useful facts/websites I've pre-found beforehand (to ensure ICT/computing skills remain the focus).
• To ensure that there is sufficient differentiation in the lessons, the children would be able to access this website I've just made that contains my 'good', 'great' and 'super' expectations for every task/app and I would discuss their current progress with them during the lesson (including things that they could do to improve). They would also use this website to get help on how to use the key tools available in each app to get them started:

www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ict

• To ensure that there is good enough quality in their work, I would get the children to peer-assess each others work at regular intervals. I would also display this slide containing generic success criteria on to remind them of my expectations too (and to make it clear to any visitors that focused learning is actually going on in the room!):

• The children wouldn't be constrained to doing one task per lesson - depending on the app, some children might need to spend a number of sessions working on a project (e.g. creating a multimedia e-book). To keep track of which iPad they're working on and for me to quickly identify which pieces of work need taking off the iPads when finished (so I can share it on the school website and assess their final outcome), each child would have this simple sheet to fill in at the end of each lesson:

What do you think of this idea? I appreciate that a lot of schools would find it challenging to deliver due to varying ICT competences amongst staff but I do think that children are a lot more capable at using technology than people give them credit for and hopefully this idea would capitalise on this.

Update on my Independent ICT Curriculum Idea

I've done a couple of things today to develop my ICT/computing curriculum idea:

• I've created this generic LI slide to display during lessons to remind the children of my generic success criteria (and to make it clear to any visitors that focused learning is actually going on in the room!):

• I've created a website up for the children (in Years 4-6) to access independently which contains: a list of tasks in order of difficulty for each strand of learning, shortcuts to apps/websites and a link to the associated LI slide for each tasks (or rather will do, when I put the PDF files online):

http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ict/

The more work I do on this idea, the more that I'm beginning to realise that it could actually work...

Recording and Sharing Audio Stories

I've recently started listening to the fabulous Big Finish audio dramas (which I would highly recommend by the way) and it got me thinking - wouldn't it be great if children could record and share their own stories with others as audio books?

There is a free app called Voice Record Pro that would let children record their voice quite easily using the built-in microphone on an iPad/iPod Touch:

All they would then have to do is share this audio file onto Edmodo (either using the 'Open With Other Apps' tool or by emailing it to me so I can upload it for them) and then all their friends could enjoylistening to it!

As ideas go it isn't new but the technology is now available to make the whole process very child-friendly and so much simpler to do!

You read a lot about children sharing their writing online but I also believe that sharing children reading stories out aloud could have just as big an impact in schools since it allows:

• (younger) children to enjoy listening to stories even if their reading skills might have otherwise limited their access to written versions of them;
• the readers to develop their: reading, speaking and drama skills (including using different: volumes, accents and speeds for effect);
• children to learn about the use of foley effects to help add realism to a narratives.

To implement this idea all you need is: an iOS device (which many schools now have anyway), a set of headphones (which I would imagine every school has), the free Voice Record Pro app and possibly a free Edmodo account too if you want to use their service to share the stories on. Consider the price of all this in comparison to the specialist hardware that is available elsewhere on the market being sold to schools for hundreds of pounds!

Even more thoughts on my ICT curriculum idea

A few more days have past and I've been having some more thoughts on my ICT curriculum idea:

• I think that Year 3 (along with KS1) still need to have 'normal' ICT lessons. The idea being that Year 3 will be spent consolidating a range of basic skills (e.g. typing, taking good digital photographs, doing simple web searches, basic word processing etc.) and teaching the children the skills needed to develop their ICT capability independently.
• As children in Years 4-6 will be working on different tasks each work, I've quickly designed this sheet to enable them to track which iPad they're working on and for me to quickly identify which pieces of work need taking off the iPads when finished:

• As I said the other day, I think children in Years 4-6 still need to receive some dedicated skills teaching lessons to ensure that the essential parts of the curriculum are taught - mainly e-safety and programming. For the remaining, more 'creative' parts of the curriculum, I'm now thinking that I should just give the children a list of apps/activities in order of increasing difficulty from which they choose which to do. I would probably present this as a web page accesed by a shortcut on the school iPad home screen - the idea being that when children click on an app the associated 'good'/'great'/'super' LI slide opens up (for them to see my expectations and receive basic tutoring on what the app lets you do) and that I can quite easily slot in new apps into the list when they are released. I would also provide children with any useful prompt sheets/website links for them to use as well to ensure the focus remains on ICT skills and to ensure they don't waste lesson time looking for resources (e.g. they might use facts from a sheet I've made about the Ancient Greeks to make up a: Keynote poster, iMovie video or Comic Life booklet):

• I also mentioned the other day about not knowing how to best track their progress to ensure they use a variety of apps. I'm now wondering if this would even be necessary as surely the whole idea of this new approach to the curriculum is that I'm letting the children develop their skills in strands that take their interest (i.e. I don't want to dictate what apps they have to use)?
• How will I ensure that children work to the best of their ability and are encouraged to work at 'great' or 'super' to improve their capabilities?
• How am I going to showcase the work they produce on the school website - will it be a case of 'Look at all this fantastic work the children have produce in ICT lessons independently. Can you spot what apps and tools they have used?'?