Teaching with IT

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  • Piktochart Y5 Government Infographics

    The project

    Instead of just doing a prezi.com presentation or a presentation in general I thought it would be a good idea to have the students create infographics about governments. Their unit focused on the different forms of government (democracy, monarchy, etc.). At first when we I met with the teachers to propose this project we had decided the students would just do a simple infographic that would describe on type of government. The students would have worked in pairs and found out statistical information about their selected form of government.

    After the first few weeks we decided to take the project in another direction. We talked about their summative assessment for the unit and their third line of inquiry (what is life like in each form of government). We decided that the students should research statistics that related to standard of living in two countries that had different forms of governments. The would look at the following statistics: Population (male/female), Life expectancy (total/male/female), Average years in school (total/male/female), Unemployment (total/male/female), Labor force by occupation, Population below the poverty line, Internet users and Mobile Telephones. They would then have to compare the two countries in their infographics.

    The process

    • I did an introductory lesson on Infographics and gave the students and opportunity to explore the piktochart.com website.
    • We gave the students specific information to search for and directed them to three websites where they could find the information:
      • The CIA World Handbook,
      • The UN Database
      • Countrymaster.com.
    • We discussed the expectations with the students for the visual presentations.
      • They needed represent their data in a clear and understandable way
      • They needed to keep the images and graphics on topic.
      • They needed to cite their sources
    • When the students had finished collecting their information they began inserting the information into their infographic.
    • When the students finished they needed to download their infographic and email it to all the teachers involved and post it to their blogs.

    Examples of student work

    Assessment

    To assess we are using observational notes and a rubric.

    Reflection

    I really enjoyed this project. The students seemed to enjoy it as well, the process of creating the infographics. I liked how the students were really enthusiastic about their work. When you can create that enthusiasm in the students it is always a great satisfaction. If I would do this project again I would make sure to spend more time working with the students on how to organize and present their information. I would also like to give them time to reflect on their findings. I would ask them which country’s system was better for the people who lived there and to explain why using the data in the infographic as a reference.

  • Any Place, Any device, Any time

    Last weekend I attended the Google Apps for Education European Summit in Prague. It was definitely an eye opening experience. Even though I feel that I do a good job of integrating ICT into the lessons all over my school, It was nice to see some new and innovating ideas floating around. Obviously they all centered around using Google Apps in schools, which in a way was refreshing to see how many different ways different schools are using them. There were educators from all European countries except Norway, and many other parts of the world; coordinators, teachers and admin, it was just a very eclectic group of individuals with a common goal. Will Florance, the head of Enterprise EDU for Google EMEA, put it best when he said their focus was “making learning magical” to all students.
    One of the concepts that I liked the most was the fact that, even though they were allowing us to play with chrome books during the event, they were not trying to tell us that we had to buy their products. Their platform was “Any Place, Any device, Any time”. I really feel that that is where the future is heading. You cannot expect schools, especially smaller ones like mine, to ever be able to buy every student a tablet or an portable computer. Nor can you expect the families to purchase a specific device because a school told them to.
    The fact that you can create, edit and do almost anything with Google Apps on almost any computer or tablet would allow for this to happen.
    Now, don’t get me wrong, Google Apps work better and more fluidly on an Android device or a Chromebook. Just a few days after the event one of the presenters tweeted the she was “giving up her iPhone to get more out of Google Apps on an Android device”. That also doesn’t mean that it is a mediocre product on iOS or other devices. In my opinion there would be an advantage in keeping the iPhone and maybe getting an Android tablet. Which is what I may do down the line.

  • Prezi food webs in lower primary

    Project

    Our Year 3 teachers were working on a unit that dealt with how things are connected. They wanted to make food webs that would help show their understanding of how all things are interconnected. They were trying to figure out the best way to have students create these webs dynamically. I introduced our year 3 teachers and students to prezi.com. I have used the program before with Year 4, 5 and even the Middle School. This was the first time that I had used the program with a lower primary school. Most of this project was done during regular class time and the ICT lab time was used to introduce prezi.com to the students and

    Process

    • Students needed to select an animal to research
    • Students were introduced to Prezi.com and they were asked to create a practice presentation inserting images, frames and creating a simple path.
    • Students researched their animals looking for their animal’s predators and prey and other parts of their animals food web
    • Students then inserted their information in their Prezi.

    Example of student work

    Assessment

    The teachers and I created a rubric that we used to grade the student’s work. I looked mostly at the technique and use of prezi, while the teachers looked at the content and understanding.

    Reflection

    This project was a great success both for the students and teachers involved. What was nice to see was that later on in the year the students had to work on another project where they could use any media to show what they learned. The majority of students decided to work in prezi.

     

  • Using Dartfish EasyTAG to keep track of PSHE lessons

    Image from dartfish websiteThe PSHE teacher at my school, who is quite tech savy, has been looking into software he can use with iPods and iPads (if possible also Android) in his classroom. He found the free Dartfish EasyTAG app that he has been using for the past two weeks that he feels gives adds greatly to his lessons.

    This app allows the students to track what is happening in the games that they are playing in real time. For example if they are playing a game called Speed Ball the people who are not participating in the current game can keep track of the stats for their classmates. You can set up different scoring panels for different types of games. You can keep track of different match-ups as well. Another great aspect of this app is that you can export the results either via email or through iTunes.

    Dartfish EasyTAG app screenshot 1 Dartfish EasyTAG screenshot 2Dartfish Easytag screenshot 3

    For more information on the product you can visit the Dartfish EasyTAG website.

    Or you could just download the FREE app and give it a try.

    Download from the App StoreDownload Android App

     

     

  • My new approach to integration

    The more time I spend trying to figure out the best way to integrate ICT into my PYP classes, the more I keep changing what I am doing in class.

    My first two years in the program I was basically finding a connection to each of the Units of Inquiry for each class. Here are some examples:

    Unit of Inquiry – ICT project

    • Energy – Glogster poster on how to save Energy
    • Landscapes – Excel spreadsheet and charts on the worlds tallest mountains
    • Governments – Prezi presentation on different types of government
    • Story telling – Storybird to create online stories

    Technically the students were working on projects that were related to their unit, but the connection was limited and was more of a project based unit and not inquiry based.

    ICTThis year our single subject teachers (ICT, Music, Art, PE etc.) along with our PYP Coordinator came up with a plan to make a strong and stable connection with one unit from each year level. That way they could work with the classroom teachers on all phases of the unit. During the other units of the year we would still focus on using inquiry based projects. These projects would more be based on the concepts or skills that were associated with the unit.

    I also added an idea I got from listening to Brad Flickinger’s podcast of trying to have the students learn one skill really well throughout the year. For example: Year 5 – Documentaries, Year 4 – Podcasts. Having each class only for an hour a week proved to be to limiting for this approach. I found myself having the students working to often with pen and paper in my classroom. Another problem is that it would also take us more time to finish each project than was allotted to each unit.

    Over the winter holiday break I read through the ICT in the PYP documentation from the OCC. I noticed that I had good ideas but I was still teaching classes that were too independent compared to what they were doing in class. They suggest that the ICT classes be used as a tool for the classroom, with limited stand alone lessons. They also suggest not to make a project just for projects sake but to have it be more meaningful to what the students are already doing in their classrooms.

    I spoke with our Board and PYP Coordinator to establish a way for me to meet with each class on a bi-weekly basis to better integrate what they are doing in their classes with what is being done during my lessons. I know I should have been doing this already but my time at the school is precious due to the fact that I am the ICT teacher and I am responsible for taking care and fixing all of the tech related problems in the school.

    The classroom teachers are really enthused with this new possibility. We are already coming up with fun and exciting ideas on how to use technology in their lessons. Connecting both to their units and also to their stand alone lessons.

    This is just starting and I will keep you informed as to how things are going in the next few weeks.

  • SYSK Podcasts in Y4

    The project

    After following the Stuff You Should Know podcast for years I thought it would be  a good idea of having the students listen to a few podcasts and then create their own. They followed a similar model to that used by Josh and Chuck. The main difference was that our students worked individually and not in pairs. Each student had to select and research an article on the howstuffworks.com website. They then had to condense what they learned into an informative 2-3 minute podcast. This was good practice for the students to learn how to put their research into their own words. I had set up the structure of the podcast for the students to follow in a shared Google Document where the students would collect their research and write their podcasts.

    The process

    • Introduce Podcasts
    • Select a topic or article on the howstuffworks.com website
    • Read the article, taking notes of important information and facts
    • Organize the information in their own words
    • Record their podcasts
    • Edit the podcasts

    Introduce Podcasts

    Played a few clips from some of my favorite SYSK podcasts, and some other podcasts. Talk about the general organization of a podcast and show them the layout they will be using for this project. Let the students know that they would be creating something similar in our class.

    Select topic or article

    The students will have half of a class period to research the howstuffworks.com website to read through the articles and select an idea or article. They were asked to select a topic that really interested them and not just to pick the first one they read.

    Read the article while taking notes

    The students needed to read their selected articles trying to find the important facts and ideas that were present in the articles. This is something that I really had to keep an eye on to make sure that the students were not just copying what they were reading.

    Organize the information in their own words

    The students will then look over their notes and start to organize the information into the Podcast layout that they were given.

    Record their podcasts

    The students used GarageBand to record their podcasts.

    Editing and uploading podcasts

    Due to the lack of time to complete this project I edited the students podcasts (just adding a jingle and cutting out the outtakes). After they were finished I uploaded them to Soundcloud.com so the students could embed them into their digital portfolios.

    Example of student work

    [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48693350″ iframe=”true” /]

    Assessment

    I used a checklist to make sure the students met all of the criteria for their podcast (time, information, own words, etc.).

    Reflection

    I definitely would do this project again with the students next year. I would change only the timing of the project. It took to long just trying to complete the project during the one hour a week dedicated to ICT lab time in our school.

  • Full integration in middle school pt.1

    When I came back to school this September, I was informed that the school decided not to hire a part time ICT teacher for the middle school. In the past our middle school had one hour lessons each week of ICT. I worked with a partner to split the middle school classes, while I taught all of the primary school. Our school also offers ICT to half classes where I only have up to 13 students at a time.
    The Idea to integrate ICT into the Middle School was not new to me and it was actually something we had talked about the year before, but talking about it and actually implementing it are very different. Last year I worked very closely with one our school’s Middle School teacher to develop lessons and implement them during my lessons. We created many different and interesting activities such as: wikispaces.com autobiography sites, iMovie presentations on technology’s impact on the environment, prezi.com presentations about paradigm shifts that were brought upon by technological advancements.
    This year the challenge is putting those same practices in action with all of the middle school teachers. Finding a way to meet with all of the teachers as much as possible is key to making this work. At the moment there is no time set aside specifically for these meetings.
    I have already started working often with one of our English language teachers and plan to start meeting the Italian teachers next week.

  • Glogster Y4 Egypt

    The project

    The Year 4 students were working on a UOI (Unit of Inquiry) about how water usage helped in the creation of cites and civilization. Together with the classroom teachers, we decided to Create a glogster.com multimedia poster showing the history of river technology. The posters would have to show 3 different tools used water in technology to help civilization form and grow. They were required to choose at least 3 different tools that were used by the ancient Egyptians. They needed to explain how they worked showing examples (images) of them.

    The process

    Here are the steps that they followed

    • Research various technologies used by the Egyptians that is water (river) related
    • Collect information and organize it for their presentation
    • Learn how to use glogster.com
    • Create and present information in glogster.com

    Research

    We had them do research on the subject using the history of irrigation museum website along with other historical sites. They were told they could only get one of their tools from Wikipedia and that they needed to find the rest on other websites.
    Collect and organize information

    The students were asked to collect their information in MS Word or Pages in a folder on our school server where they would also save the images they wanted to use. Some students also took pictures of the shivu that they made in class, while others recorded audio about, and others yet made videos explaining one of the other examples.
    Learn how to use Glogster.com

    This was the first time I had used the software, so it was a learning experience for all. I signed up for a free teacher accounton the edu.glogster.com website and added my students to my account.

    [UPDATE: The account I had is now only available in a very limited version most of my students work is blocked because Glogster changed their policy and I can no longer access them unless I pay. Not Happy!!]

    The students then logged in and were shown some example “glogs” and I showed them the basic steps that were needed to create their glogs. They learned how to add text, shapes, images, audio and video.They also learned how to change the background and wall, which seemed to be a little distracting.

    Create and present information

    After these short lessons the students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to create their posters. We were all very pleased with the results. It is a very high quality free software to use.

    [UPDATE: The preview of student work is no longer available. As mentioned before Glogster changed their policy so all of the student accounts that I had created before are no longer available]

    Assessment

    I used a rubric to grade the students work.

  • Magnetic Poetry

    A colleague of mine bought a magnetic word kit this past weekend. The play area of their website would be great for group work and would be a cool tool to use with the Promethean boards. You could have the students work together to make poems, write sentences etc.
    The online sets have words separated by categories: Artist, Genius, Poet, Office and Romance.
    Play with magnetic poetry
    Visit the site an make an original poem. http://play.magpogames.com/
    They even have word kits in other languages which would be great for second language learners.