ICT in action

...and so to potatoes

2006-07-02T10:24:00.000Z

Unable to harvest the potato crop on the longest, wettest most miserable midsummer's day- I have taken the liberty of harvesting the crop after school is out for Summer.
The tatties registered 1.25kg on my kitchen scales and as there is no school we shall have them for tea. The orchard is looking fantastic and the new seating is brilliant. I especially like the toadstool seats! It looks like there will be a bumper apple crop this year after the poor showing last year.

I have started a new blog for my new job. Check out "Country comes to town" to see what I get up to in the coming months.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!

2006-06-09T16:38:00.000Z

Well that's it. 22 years and I still haven't put on a production of The Sound of Music.

The sun shone as the orienteering teams from all the Cowal schools took part in the annual competition arranged by our PE specialist Fiona McLean. Tighnabruaich won the event so well done.
A big thanks to all the staff who helped me enjoy a night out at The Whistlefield Inn. I shall return for the garden party on the 21st when we will harvest our potato crop.

Monday is D-day! A new beginning and I hope to have my new blog up and running to keep you up to date with events at my new school. I managed not to cry in front of the children, but it all seems a bit surreal. One of my leaving presents is an alarm clock..now why they think I will need that....

Anyway- my car is full of stuff, accumulated over the years. Good luck to Ellen with the continuation of this blog. Always knew she was a wee blogger.

Over at Talking Teds it has gone a bit quiet- blogger has been down the last couple of times I have tried to post stuff so hopefully this weekend.

Shinty needs a mention- Kyles beat Inveraray and are through to the next round of the Camanachd Cup. Kyles Juniors are through to the next round of the Sutherland Cup. If you want to see Kyles v Bute this Saturday come to Glendaruel Shinty Field at 2:30 as they contest the semi-final of the Celtic Cup. Cowal and Bute Ladies Shinty team are providing a BBQ as a fundraiser- see you there.

Hello

2006-06-09T14:36:00.000Z

This is Ellen signing in for the first time- fingers crossed not for the last!

Boards, blogs and bravery

2006-06-06T21:23:00.000Z

I am handing over the reigns of this blog to my colleague in P5/6/7 at the end of the week. Ellen will bravely continue the blog and once she has mastered its use she will get the children in the upper school blogging too. I will of course support as much as I can to get things going.

After school today we had a short session on the IWB. On cue some of the problems I have encountered happened. The board would not calibrate....then it would not work with the pen.......then the laptop froze (now that hasn't happened before). So it turned into a troubleshooting session. Eventually it all worked and so to blogging. I can change the comment moderator in the settings so that Ellen receives the e-mails about new comments. I am considering trying a different blog provider for the new blog but have not decided as yet.

Need to look at the SSDN mentor pack. I would hope that all the work we have done as Masterclassers will prove sufficient to fulfill the criteria for becoming an SSDN mentor. At the Masterclass conference we were told our folios were very impressive. It is good to receive recognition for the undoubted time and effort that has been the way of Masterclass. As most of us agreed, time was the biggest commitment and I suspect SSDN mentoring will be the same. Mary Hallan of East Renfrewshire commented on a previous posting that she was selected by her authority to be an SSDN mentor on the strength of her work as a Masterclasser and INSET provider.

Tomorrow I am going to send off the completed article for the CalMac magazine written by two of my P3's. I shall also post it on the blog and am sending a copy to the local paper as well. I will also present certificates to the children to celebrate their contribution to the Talking Teddies project. Marlyn has been off work this week- get well soon Mrs Moffat- your bloggers need you!

and so begins the last week!

2006-06-05T19:52:00.000Z

Today was the start of my last week at Tighnabruaich Primary school. The weather is glorious and the children have all been working hard. I have been at the school for 22 years, over half of my life. I will take up my new post at Dunoon Primary next Monday- an exciting new adventure in my teaching career will begin.
I don't think it will really sink in for a while that I have made the move, but I am sure that as I meet all the new pupils and staff and begin to get to know my way around the school, a new blog will have to be devised. There will be an IWB in my classroom- there is one other in the school at present. Don't know much else about the ICT provision except that there is a classroom in a box as well as some computers in the library which are PC's I think. Lots to find out about and new title for a blog to devise..Dunoon Diary.......Dunoon Daily......mmmmm..Dunno??
Any suggestions?

SSDN and more flags to make!

2006-06-02T20:39:00.000Z

Today I mentioned SSDN to the children as the next exciting thing happening with ICT. I did my best to explain a little about what it would be like, the Scottish Schools Digital network.
'There will be a giant website with lots of amazing things to see and do. Think of some of the great things we have seen on the BBC website and games we have played on poissonrouge.com." They listened intently..... "there will be a single sign on to access everything,' I said. "one user name and password and that's it" Now I was talking their language. Thank goodness for that I heard someone say. My class are obsessed with knowing passwords and usernames. They proudly announce the password for signing on the blog and are pretty miffed that I won't reveal my internet access password! Funny the things that bother them.

They were desperate to see the flags of the visitors to my blog and pretty impressed that I had a new country that had not looked at theirs. They have now seen the Vietnamese flag and found it in Kidspiration.

Owen and Samuel are completing their article for the CalMac magazine about the teddy project and will e-mail it next week. I shall post it on the Teddy blog as well as they have worked really hard on it.

Great excitement

2006-05-31T21:00:00.000Z

At last I have had over a 1000 hits on my blog! The children have been wondering when I would reach that number as their total on the Teddy blog is now over 1500!

I'm catching up boys and girls.

It all happens at once!!

2006-05-31T17:54:00.000Z

Following on from our very successful day out at A'Chleit beach on Kintyre and the meeting up of the two classes for a wonderful teddy bears picnic, the buzz just keeps going. On Monday all the children wrote a report on their day out. To enable the children to complete their writing we used our normal maths time as well...bit of flexibility!

Marlyn and I met up at Inveraray on Monday evening. We need to collate nd organise all the material the children have produced for the blog in preparation for our seminar presentation at SETT in September. LTScotland are providing accommodation for our stay in Glasgow. Both Marlyn and I are hoping to become SSDN mentors for Argyll and Bute and on Tuesday attended the final Masterclass conference where Neil Stewart from RM spoke to us about SSDN in detail.

In order to attend the P1 induction meeting for parents at Dunoon Primary, I had to leave early so missed most of the SSDN content and discussion. Marlyn of course, Skyped me later and filled me in on what I had missed. I spent an interesting afternoon at Dunoon Primary and faced a larger than I am used to audience of parents, whose youngsters are starting their school adventure for the first time. Survived that and I even remembered quite a few people's names!

Today the children have been typing short messages for the blog. We were able to post a few in school and will add more tomorrow. Technical hitches first thing. We have returned the borrowed whiteboard to Mr Brown- but do not worry- we wheeled the new board into the classroom and rearranged things to fit (this is a bigger board). I then had to reinstall all the Promethean software as it just would not work...aarrrgghhh. Back on track after playtime having spent the break reinstalling it all.

Our blogging display

2006-05-24T18:22:00.000Z

This is how our display is coming on in the classroom. After checking the sitemeter on the blog and the Clustermap we found more hits from around the world. The children added star labels to our world map. We then used Kidspiration displayed on the interactive whiteboard to bring up the flags we needed. The children then volunteered which flags they would make and in pairs began their tasks. They all did incredibly well- the paint was flowing and with a little artistic licence the flag factory was up and running. They added stars and emblems afterwards using sticky paper cut to shape and are very proud of their display. We have devised a quiz where all the names of the countries are on labels(created in Kidspiration by Owen and Samuel), which have to be matched to the correct flag- then find the country on the globe or world map.
Next week we are going to do a little research on each country and find out some facts-population, language spoken etc. For this we shall of course make use of the internet.

I have also been busy this week writing a case study for Digital Survey on behalf of LTScotland. I have written up my experiences of using Kidspiration which may be published. I shall let you know where and when it will be made available.

Teddy Bear Picnic is on Friday- weather forecast is not great. Today we practised singing the teddy bears picnic song using a midi-file as our accompaniment. What a difficult song to sing but we did our best-especially the speed at which the midi file went-hardly time to draw breath.

Doing time

2006-05-16T21:04:00.000Z

A well worn phrase amongst us teachers with regard to the teaching of time. Contained in the Promethean software is a great interactive clock which enables speedy time changes at the click of a pen. I can change from digital to analogue- whizz round each pupil as I stab away at +hour -hour or 15 mins or half an hour. The main clock shows the actual time, much to the amazement of the children and they cheered when I put the clock on this morning.

We then went to the Enchanted Learning website. Here I explained to the children was where we could find some German vocabulary to learn so that we can impress Flappi the Tobermory crow who apparently speaks German as well as French. Today we practised counting to 5 and using compare bears learned some colours. The children were very keen to know how to say all sorts of things and when my distant memory of Higher German fails me I shall call on Mrs Perlich, our classroom assistant who speaks fluent German.

Ich habe IWB gern!

Blogs and bus tours

2006-05-15T22:35:00.000Z

Despite the problems with the board the children remain to inspire me. Today Samuel and Owen in P3 began their work as journalists, writing the article for the 'CalMag'. Samuel feels extremely important having been given this task as he has already had an article appear in the Dunoon Observer earlier this year about our beanstalks.
As he wrote his section about the teddy project declaring that "a blog is a grate way for kids to learn about using computers" he told me about his efforts to increase the hits we will get on the teddy blog.

Samuel's parents have a lavender farm and a bus party were visiting at the weekend. He told the visitors that if they had a computer to go onto www.talkingteds.blogspot.com to see our blog. He was slightly disappointed that most of these elderly holidaymakers were without computers, but undaunted suggested if they knew any friends or family who had they could maybe get a sneaky peek at their house!

Try, try and try again!

2006-05-15T21:34:00.000Z

Today the same thing happened. The drivers that connect the board to the computer had to be reinstalled and then disappeared again later in the day-drive you mad!@!@!
Next door in P4, Mrs Petty was trying out the new IWB for the first time. It worked last week when I set it up but today the calibration was acting up and sometimes the pen would work and sometimes it wouldn't...aarrgghh!

I am busy doing my reports and so far have been unable to print any of them. I have transferred to 3 different computers and tried 2 printers and no joy.

About to get in touch with my trusty friend for some advice.
Skype is a brilliant tool as you can instant message, exchange files as well as conference call and chat- all for the cost of your broadband access. When I get my problems resolved I shall of course let you in on the secrets.

Not a good day!

If at first you don't succeed.........

2006-05-14T17:48:00.000Z

On Thursday afternoon I fired up the IWB- (interactive whiteboard). It was choosing time and 2 of the children were raring to go on the board. For some unknown reason I was unable to get the computer to recognise the board therefore no interactivity. I checked all the leads/plugs etc, restarted everything- looked in the applications folder and checked the software to no avail.
On Friday I decided to uninstall the Promethean software and reinstall it using our own new software, hey presto, all working again. It is very strange as the computer had not been used since the day before when the board had worked fine. All the necessary components for the software appeared to be there, so who knows?

I now have a starting date for my new job. I finish at Tighnabruaich on the 9th of June and start at Dunoon Primary on the 12th. I have completed the National Tests at Level A that some of my class were ready to take and am well through my reports. I know the time will just fly in between now and the 9th as this term is always so busy.

I will be going to the Argyll and Bute Masterclass conference on the 30th May but only for the morning as I am attending the P1 induction afternoon at Dunoon Primary followed by a Parent's Meeting at the Grammar School with my youngest son who will be starting secondary in August.....all go!

Life is seldom dull

2006-05-09T22:46:00.000Z

I got an e-mail today from CalMac who so kindly allowed Spencer to drive the Tarbert ferry on his way to Campbeltown. They want to do an article for their employee magazine 'CalMag" about the teddy project. I suggested that the children could write the article including photos and quotes. This means the children will have yet another audience for their work!
Our school trip has also been organised- a teddy bears' picnic with Castlehill P3 and Tighnabruaich P1/2/3 meeting up at a lovely beach on Kintyre for a fun day out. This will mark the end of the project but the blog will still be there for the world to see. The children are of course very excited about the prospect of meeting their friends on the blog.

I took part in a telephone conference call organised by LTScotland who are trying to discover the impact of the free software which was distributed to schools 2 years ago. I was rather nervous as I have not conferenced with people I do not know before but Nick Evans put all four of us at our ease. The conference took an hour and focused on the software we had made use of. I have been using Kidspiration and have delivered in-service courses for the authority on its use. I also sent some of my files to Jim Birney at Fife Education who has posted them on his authorities website. I have now been asked to submit a case study on how I have made use of it- purely voluntarily- so I just said OK. Glutton for punishment me- but I have decided that unless I give these sort of things a go, nothing ventured-nothing gained. You can see examples of the children using Kidspiration on the teddy blog of course.

Still no song on the blog. We haven't forgotten but at this time of year primary teachers have reports to write- well type as it is all done on computer. I do notice however that the secondary teachers at the school my children attend, appear to have a choice as many are handwritten! How quaint ;-)

On track with Garageband?

2006-05-07T18:07:00.000Z

This week we tried again to get sound on the blog. To this end P123 have recorded a track using Garageband and the built in microphone. After a few attempts and critical ears listening to the results, a rendering of 'The bear went into the orchard' has been made. Sounds pretty good. Now I am learning as I go along and the children are coming with me. Marlyn is a couple of steps ahead as she has already managed to get sound on the teddy blog with a bit of help from John at Sandaig Primary.
Next step was to turn the file from AIFF to MP3 so that it can go on the blog. Marlyn has talked me through part of the process for getting sound on and I have downloaded the necessary stuff....maybe later this evening.
I just hate all this technobabble. It gives me the heebiegeebies but I am amazed by what it can do and want to be able to get the kids songs on the blog! I also hate wires and putting software on computers! I still worry that I am doing the wrong thing. I set up our new Promethean whiteboard on Friday using all my McCrone time and then some. The set up instructions were not that clear but I managed to get all the wires in the right places. I did not initially install all the components of the software so it didn't work but later, after school I tried again with success. The board has a nifty, wheelable, very substantial stand and will work with all the eMacs in school. We really need the upgrade to OSX soon though as my classroom will soon have no computer that will work with the software. When I leave for Dunoon- my Masterclass laptop goes with me.
I mentioned that Marlyn and I will be presenting a seminar at SETT-The Scottish Learning Festival at the SECC in September. To find out more check out the LTScotland site.

Busy and exciting times ahead

2006-05-02T21:08:00.000Z

I spent a day last week finding my way around Dunoon Primary School where I shall shortly be taking up my new post as Principal Teacher. With some trepidation tinged with excitement I was introduced to almost everyone in school during the course of the day. I am looking forward to this new challenge and having the opportunity to work with many more staff and children.
On my return to school today I felt quite emotional as the reality of the change dawns. My class were also beginning to express their feelings and thought that they would all be crying when I go. One of my P2's lives next door and he doesn't know how he will sleep if I am not there. I was able to reassure him that I was moving jobs but not house! Working in a small school the children are in your class for 2, 3 or even 4 years so you do build up a close relationship. At the weekend I met Julie who was one of my very first P1's, 22 years ago. She wished me well in my new job and chatted confidently. She is a structural engineer, working for a firm in Glasgow. Not so confident at the age of 4 when she cried every morning for 2 weeks when she started school at first, and so did her Mum- I too felt like crying! Ah the memories.
I shall have a P2 class at Dunoon which has always been my favourite infant stage. There will be lots to learn and colleagues to get to know. I hope to continue with ICT activities as an SSDN mentor. Marlyn and I have been asked to present a seminar on the TalkingTeds blog at SETT in September so life will certainly not be dull.

The best laid plans.......

2006-04-26T20:56:00.000Z

It was my turn to do the assembly today. I decided on a theme of diaries...we looked first at my planning folder which is "enormous and full of all the stuff you want us to do" explained one of my class. Next I read some extracts from the office diary with many important forthcoming dates for our Primary 7's in their final term...visits to the Grammar...visits from Grammar staff....a weekend at Benmore and so on. Next, Anne Frank's diary and how she recorded her life in wartime and how we can read about it to this day.
In this way I introduced our blog- a web diary to the whole school, with projector- here endeth the lesson.
Despite checking that I could get on line in the classroom and making sure that the blog was up and running, a change of venue proved too much. A message about the computer not having the required privileges...a message I have never seen before appeared and prevented us from going online in the school hall. I have used the internet successfully in the hall before, therefore I do not understand. Back in class, access no problemo. The only saving came when what was stored in the cache came up so at least we were able to view one page, although not with all photos showing. My class enthusiastically oozed knowledge of blogs and slideshows, site meters and places in the world from where people had looked at the blog.
One of my colleagues noticed one pupil in my class who sat mouthing proudly, "our blog, our blog"...while their teacher muttered something alliterative.....

The day just got better and better

2006-04-21T20:24:00.000Z

First thing this morning I navigated to the page where it was possible to record audio using Bubbleshare. When the children came in the page had been loading for a few minutes but unfortunately we have not been able to access the recording facility :-(
Two of my primary 3's have written an article for the local paper about our blog. With a bit of help from me they attached a photo and then e-mailed it. We hope to see it in next week's edition.
The interactive whiteboard is proving as popular as ever with the children and the latest CD in the At the Series is a must. As we are turning the house corner into a teddy toy shop they are very keen to use At the Toy Shop. This is a super resource which integrates ICT with role play from Granada Learning. We have already used At the Doctors and At the Vets. There are 6 in total so I look forward to trying the others.
Some of the children drew their teddies this afternoon using chalks, whilst others drew teddies using KidPix. Some photographed their teddies and added captions in ComicLife. If you have not got the new KidPix Deluxe 4 we can highly recommend it and if no one in your school has loaded ComicLife on your machines find out about it. The Beebots were out this afternoon as well and as I surveyed the children at work, engrossed in their various tasks, I couldn't help feeling a sense of satisfaction as they explored, investigated, achieved and enjoyed what they were doing.

ICT inaction!

2006-04-20T19:18:00.000Z

Today we were able to get online- hooray!!. We looked at the blog and Mrs Perlich our classroom assistant signed on as a blogger and posted a comment. We read some of the postings and then had a go at uploading the photo of Campbell onto Bubbleshare so that we could sing our song for the blog........there ended our joy... unable to upload..no progress in the upload bar...no apparent blockage from iGear but it just didn't work. Left it for 10 minutes but still no upload....sigh
In pairs the children then looked at the blog, 6 computers..all online and then the restrictions kicked in. Impossible for them all to look at the photos and Bubbleshare slideshows. They read as best they could the posts and comments, scrolled down to the sitemeter and marvelled at the number showing, but of course wanted to look at the slideshows...
If as Andrew suggested in his blog we are going to offer blogging and podcasting as a way forward with a web presence great...but not with these problems. Perhaps Marlyn and I are ploughing the furrow, blazing a trail....and I know that we have chosen to follow this path, excited by the new technologies and the possibilities. We will forge on but it will not be easy if we continue to be thwarted by the infrastructure!
Andrew's vision of a paperless world looks like a distant pipedream.....let's print what we've got so far and display it on the wall..least then the children can see it whenever they want!

No blogging today!

2006-04-19T21:46:00.000Z

We took Campbell for a Spring walk and took photos for the blog. We were unable to get online and post our photos. We were going to sing and record the song using Bubbleshare but no joy with getting online. I hope that tomorrow it will work as one of my P2's said "If this doesn't work, I'm going home!'
So frustrating for 5 and 6 year olds who had excitedly practised a song to put on the blog.
As Marlyn echoes in her blog how are we to encourage the use of these technologies when we do not get online when we need to or when we have our allotted use of the computers.
Thank goodness our kids are highly motivated and love computers and what they can do. I want to encourage the children to do as much as possible but if we can't get things to post or even get online reliably....
I know I can log faults, but when I am in class, with the children it will not be able to be dealt with immediately, when I need it.

Back to school

2006-04-18T20:53:00.000Z

The children were desperate to see the blog as only one in my class had been able to look at it during the holidays. They were thrilled to see the postings by the Castlehill pupils and what an incentive to read...what do all those captions say?
The site meter continues to be a huge delight so Marlyn and I have decided to make an accumulator chart in our classrooms to show how the blog visits grow on a weekly basis.
We are turning the house corner into a specialised teddy bear shop where you can buy teddies and things for teddies.
We are also going to have a travel agents where bears can book tickets to go and visit the places shown on our Clustermaps and site meter. A giant world map will mimic the Clustermap with sticky red dots to mark the hits.
I have asked each child to bring in their own teddy to draw, which they will then write a profile for and post on the blog...and that is just for starters. If anyone has any other suggestions for us to consider, please post a comment.

Bute blogging

2006-04-16T20:01:00.000Z

I spent a couple of days decorating at my friends' house on Bute, as they near completion of their renovations. Cathy teaches French and Drama at Rothesay Primary and as I mentioned previously she spent time in France during the holidays visiting French primary schools. At my suggestion, she took a little Bute teddy in the hope of beginning some e-mail conversations between the Gap and Rothesay children. I have set her up with a blog in the hope that this may be a way to further develop the link. Please post a comment to Cathy's blog, www.bute-bonhomie.blogspot.com

What clever girls!

2006-04-07T20:16:00.000Z

Two of my colleagues have been busy this holiday working on their own personal developments. Marlyn has spent the week at Jordanhill on the first step towards chartered teacher. I had been considering this myself but must concentrate on my new PT post in the near future. I will be interested to find out about the course on her return.
My other colleague Cathy has sacrificed a few days of her holiday to spend time in a French school, shadowing a teacher who teaches English in a primary school, in a similar way to her teaching of French at Rothesay Primary. The fact that the school is in a ski resort in ' Les Alps' cut no ice with Cathy as she is not a skier ( well she might be by now! ). Not quite as exciting as a weekend in Campbeltown but I will hear all about it when I go overseas (to Bute).
I am going to help Cathy to set up her Skype account and I think I shall get her to start blogging! The more the merrier. Maybe our bears could learn a little French. After all, Cathy took a group of children to a French drama competition in Glasgow and performed 'We're going on a bear hunt"

Look no wires!!

2006-04-06T16:13:00.000Z

I continue to be amazed by technology. Today I took delivery of my shiny new wireless router from BT and proceeded to set up my eMac and then my G4 laptop to the internet. All went well but I had a problem with the wireless connection. I phoned BT and I was soon chatting to someone in the Mac department ( well done BT ) who was able to sort out the problem and within half an hour I was able to surf from anywhere in the house.
I shall no longer have to compete with Bebo and MSN messenger for surfing time with my daughter and my husband will be able to get to sleep without me clicking away in a dark corner of the bedroom of an evening, or worse.... Skyping with Marlyn even though I am using the headphones. Absolutely marvellous!
Been reading the e-mail from LTScotland with regard to SSDN mentors being the ones who will get accommodation at SETT 2006. We are having a Masterclass conference in June, when we will get up to speed with the developments...can' t wait!

New life...new beginnings

2006-04-03T18:49:00.000Z

Easter Holidays have arrived and I am ready for the break and so are the children. Looking forward to the continuing exploits of the teddies and doing more with the whiteboard.
I always get quite nostalgic in April as it is the anniversary of my start in teaching, 22 years ago, as well as my engagement, 21 years ago and the birth of my eldest 18 years ago. And to add another new beginning -well almost in April - I have been successful in my interview for a Principal Teacher Post at Dunoon Primary.
After 22 years in our wee school I have decided that the time is right for a change and I feel the need to expand my horizons. An exciting new challenge awaits as I will have responsibility for Pre-5 and infants as well as my own class. Of course I have mixed feelings about the change but as I am often told ,"What's for ye will no go by ye!" I shall take up my new post in August which ensures that the Teddy project will have time to grow and develop... I wonder if Dunoon Primary have class teddies?....

Exciting times for teachers, children and bears!

2006-03-28T18:25:00.000Z

Having returned from a weekend in Campbeltown thought I had better update my own blog. Spent Friday at Marlyn's school Castlehill Primary where I was made to feel most welcome by all the staff and pupils. Spencer, of course having enjoyed his journey on the ferry, was made even more welcome. The talking teds topic is just beginning but already we have seen tremendous motivation and enthusiasm from the children. Their desire to look after the bear, read and contribute to the blog as they wait patiently for iGear and slow bandwidth, is amazing.
On Monday morning all of my class wrote from Campbell's perspective about his experiences thus far. In pairs the children then supported one another as they typed their entries onto the blog.
Of course it is time consuming, but an aspect of education that will make a welcome return with the Curriculum For Excellence is that of the need for depth. For years now we have been pressurised into covering so much with subjects being compartmentalised into blocks of time, following prescriptive planners with seemingly no way to deviate that we have often remarked in our staff room of feeling as though we are only skimming the surface.
Our school is involved in an initiative called Smooth Transitions. With funding from Fusions providing a classroom assistant in the afternoon I plan and deliver cross-curricular topics, using Structured Play activities and planning similar to Pre-5 methodology. I had always used Structured Play but felt that it was increasingly marginalised and seen as an add on, end of the day time when other "work" was completed. I have an outline plan but take into account ideas and suggestions made by the children as the topic unfolds. Talking Teds is an ideal way to work creatively to motivate and sustain learning which has ICT at its heart and the children's enthusiasm as its driving force.

Spencer's adventures in Campbeltown

2006-03-25T20:15:00.000Z

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Greetings from Campbeltown

2006-03-24T20:45:00.000Z

Spencer and I have made it safely to Campbeltown. We caught the Portavadie CalMac ferry to Tarbert yesterday evening where Spencer and I were treated to a visit to the wheelhouse where the bear drove the ferry. I spent today at Castlehill School where I had a super day meeting staff and children and seeing the goings on in a big school. 290 pupils instead of 41! Mrs Moffat and I have had a glorious time immersing ourselves in ICT without the usual glazed looks and sad nodding of heads from those around us. I am just sorry I won't be here for the performance of 'All Creatures Great and Small," but was privileged to see some dress rehearsals today. Good luck with the performance and thank you for making me so welcome at Castlehill Primary.

They have arrived!

2006-03-22T18:58:00.000Z

The Bee-bots are here, too late for the children to see but they will be delighted in the morning.
I did an after school CPD session with our staff on the use of Comic Life. They were all very impressed with what it can do and how simple it is to use. We also took delivery today of an interactive whiteboard of our very own. A bigger one than I have on loan with the stand still to arrive.
Good news on the software front- I now have the Promethean software upgraded from their site and after a 20 minute talk through from Gary at Inveraray my Masterclass laptop now goes on the internet again in school thank goodness.
I have also been in touch with Caledonian MacBrayne to alert them to the fact that a very important teddy bear will be travelling on the Portavadie to Tarbert ferry tomorrow evening, accompanied by his teacher. This will be the start of the next exciting adventure of "The Travelling, Talking Teds". Keep checking the blogs for more updates.

Spring is in the air not a whiteboard in sight

2006-03-21T19:46:00.000Z

Yesterday I took the children on a Spring walk. We are fortunate to have an orchard as part of our school grounds, so we started there and continued around the playground taking note of any signs of Spring. We found daffodils and buds, heard birds singing and the burn gurgling. Above the school is a private house which at one time had an extensive garden and contains some fabulous rhododendrons. We continued our trek taking photos and will revisit at intervals to see more changes. Although our playground is a concrete jungle we are surrounded by woodland, forest and field so within moments we can explore the natural world.
In case you are feeling a touch envious,I always have to remember to do it now though because once the summer approaches, the midges get their hobnail boots on and make outdoor pursuits an impossibility! Every silver lining has its cloud!!

Houston...we have a problem

2006-03-20T19:20:00.000Z

Just when everything was going so well the technology conspires against us! Having installed OSX10.4.3 seemingly without a problem I had spoken to soon. The Promethean software won't work properly with the upgrade, I can't calibrate the board so we have lost the interactivity and the internet settings for school have gone!!! Are we downhearted...well not really..I know it can be sorted but it just means we can't do all the fun things we have been doing so readily.
This week the children are going to write about themselves using Kidspiration. Samuel has posted his first and the others will follow.
Spencer had a lovely buggy made for him today by Nathan and Rory using Big Builder- they photographed him aboard and instructed me to put it on the blog when I get home!

OSX 10.4.3

2006-03-16T21:28:00.000Z

I have just installed this new version of OSX Tiger on my Masterclass laptop. I always find these experiences a bit scary. I have copied all my files onto CD just in case but it all appears fine and I am even still able to get on the internet. I now have to familiarise myself with Widgets and Dashboard. Next step- install my new iWorks and iLife 06.
Had a relatively whiteboard free day today until last thing this afternoon. Whilst checking out blog postings and comments the children were amazed to see Kipper. How did you get him there? they asked. So I showed them.
ORT Clipart is a super CD which I use to create supplementary material for the reading scheme. I have written and delivered an in-service course for our authority on 'Interactive worksheets using ORT clipart.' Now the children can copy and paste onto an Appleworks document to their hearts content- I knew that yesterday's lesson in Kidspiration would come in handy!

Blogs, bears and boards

2006-03-15T20:05:00.000Z

Today was another exciting chapter in the life of the blog and the boards and the bears. We looked at the blog first thing and the children are thrilled to note that their blog is catching up with mine with regard to how many hits it has had. They were delighted to see that Mr Brown- who has achieved saintly status amongst the children, as the provider of the board had been looking at the blog. That site meter is amazing!
We watched an episode of The Magic Key which ended with Kipper asking for words to describe his Teddy. The opportunity could not be lost and although I had not intended to do so we created a Kidspiration document with adjectives to describe our wonderful Spencer which you can see on the Talking Teddies blog.
I read a criticism of IWB in TES " Are they being used as a tool to force the end of pupil-centred teaching and a return to the whole class teaching of the last century? Most often they seem to be used as nothing more than an expensive projector screen" Brian Kerslake MD of Topologika Software has obviously not been in my classroom!!
I found that today using the board enabled me to really embed Edit-copy /edit- paste facility in Kidspiration to make the repeated stars we needed. Children came out and did it- then those who suggested interesting words typed them onto the stars with spelling suggestions from the audience. Whole class, engaging, differentiated teaching and learning appropriate to P1-3 with every child desperate to contribute.

More goodies arrive

2006-03-14T19:05:00.000Z

Today I received some more of my Masterclass orders. I have got a copy of iWorks which is new generation Appleworks. I have had a quick look at it and will let you know how I find it's use in comparison to Appleworks. New Macs, I believe do not ship with Appleworks so I thought it advisable to get to know this new product. I also got iLife 06, mainly for the iWeb that it contains- this looks like websites for dummies which is just what I need ( but looks very professional). Lastly I got a game called Toysight Gold, the Mac equivelant of Playstation eyetoy. I look forward to trying it with the class and they were thrilled to see it come out of the box.
All Argyll schools have been issued with a copy and site licence for ComicLife. I showed my class today how it works- just the basics, and at choosing time Rory and Brandon P2, wanted to use it with the IWB. They took a photo of Spencer, loaded it into iPhoto, cropped it and dragged it into ComicLife where they added speech bubbles and captions. They were delighted with the end product and want to upload it to the teddy blog. Unfortunately we seem unable to upload in school as iGear blocks our attempts so I have to load things in at home.

We're still learning too!

2006-03-12T10:19:00.000Z

If there is one thing that is coming out of all this blogging it is the fact that as adults, we too are still learning. To set up the Teddy blog has taken many hours of our time. We have talked on Skype and blogged at the same time to ensure that the necessary accounts and admin privileges are set up and working properly. Marlyn has done the bulk of the setting up as she originally applied for the account but we both feel the time (our own) and effort is worthwhile. My mind is now brimming with ideas and possibilities for activities and learning opportunities to come, so keep watching the blogs to see how it unfolds. A friend told me last night that I am just a "Skyping blogger".

Talking Teds get their own blog

2006-03-09T20:53:00.000Z

Spencer says hi Campbell

Last year 2 class teddies went on an exchange visit. Campbell went to Tighnabruaich Primary and Spencer went to Castlehill Primary in Campbeltown. The bears are getting ready for another exchange but this time they will get to meet one another first when I spend a day at Castlehill. To facilitate communication between the schools Marlyn and I have set up a blog for TalkingTeds-see the link. The children will help "the boys" keep the blog up to date with the bears' exciting adventures.
The children will also use digital photos and video as well as improve their skills using Kidspiration software.
We have already had great fun with this. As Spencer has been sitting quietly watching us over the Winter months, they realised of course, that he has been hibernating, but as Spring approaches it is time for him to waken up! I am going to take Spencer in my car so I heard one pupil say to make sure he wore a seatbelt. Another said that it was too scary for him to go in a box again- it was awful dark in there.

When Spencer goes to visit Campbell........

2006-03-08T11:20:00.000Z

I can't wait to see Campbell and Mrs Moffat and all the friends I met last year. Spencer

They will play on the computer and then they might get an ice-cream. Diane P2

They will sit down and be quiet and patient. Chloe P1

They will play with the children. Rowan P1

He will have good fun with Campbell. They will go for a walk and bonce on the trampoline. Brandon P2

He might go on a bus and have fun at school. He will have good fun at playtime. Nathan and Ellise P2

They might play hide and seek-Campbell is going to be first.Then they might hav a picnic. Kieran P2

They mite play agame and they mite wotch a videyo.Jade P2

An exciting delivery

2006-03-07T19:27:00.000Z

The first of my Masterclass goodies arrived today. The secretary brought the box into the classroom to gasps of excitement from the children,"It's the Beebots," they cried. But it wasn't. One of the things I ordered was called 'How to make a Movie- The secret of pirate island'. Inside the box are scripts for the cast, directors instructions and a CD rom of music, sound effects, still pictures and video clips to enhance and customise the movie. There is also a clapperboard which I always have thought was required for any digital video project. Intended for older children than my class I would like to try it with the computer club. A simpler version could be made based on Pirate Adventure from ORT with my class. We listened to and looked at the resources on the CD rom which the children found very exciting. The resource came from Tag Learning and there are another 3 titles to choose from.
I also ordered a web building application called WebBlender from Tech4Learning. I downloaded the 30 day trial for this last week on my home computer. Within a couple of hours I had created a 6 page website with links that worked and photos and text. Having been on a one day Dreamweaver course I know which one I prefer and would be comfortable using with the children. The only problem I had with it was sluggishness- my home machine has only 128MB of memory and the recommended is 256MB. What will arrive next? Can't wait.

P3 begin to blog

2006-03-07T14:57:00.000Z

Samuel says snakes and ladders is best game on the board.

Owen says the memory game is the best on the interactive white board.It is tricky to write on it because your shadow gets in the way.

Steven says I would like to keep the board.I like to calibrate it.

Calvin likes snakes and ladders too. I would like to try the draughts game.

Hello world

2006-03-06T23:02:00.000Z

Now I know the internet is called the World Wide Web and that anyone on the planet with access can read it, but it takes a bit of time to get used to the idea. I now have a site meter and it really is amazing. When I put it in I thought all it would do was tell me that so many people had looked at my blog. I had noticed hit counters on other web sites and imagined a wee click wheel that notched up the numbers each time the page was opened- like the guys on the ferry when they count up the passengers to make sure there are enough life jackets to go round!
Well... how wrong I was. Not only can it tell you how many life jackets you need but what language you speak, where you are from, what sort of computer you are using, how long you are on the blog for and whether you take sugar in your tea and a lot of other stuff. I am pretty gobsmacked by this piece of kit- that innocuous little Rubik's cube at the very bottom of my blog, sitting there and looking all innocent is recording a huge amount of data which I can then access and look at in all sorts of ways.
If you haven't got one yet for your blog I would try it. When no one comments on your blog at least you know people are lurking in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Portugal, USA as well as in the UK- hello Blackpool. Apparently I could sign up for a meter that does more......can't get my head round that.

The wonderful thing about whiteboards, is whiteboards are wonderful things

2006-03-06T19:38:00.000Z

I am thinking of renaming 2 of the girls in my class Tigger and Roo. This afternoon at choosing time they were positively bouncing with enthusiasm and excitement- all channelled positively to activities on the interactive whiteboard. After carefully calibrating the board the girls set to their task and navigated their way to the Games folder where they knew the memory game was. After that they found an alphabet jigsaw and then a sliding puzzle. They took turns, shared ideas, co-operated and when they couldn't solve the sliding puzzle asked me to help. I'm afraid I wasn't any better than they were so we left that one for another day!

....and the result was

2006-03-05T10:55:00.000Z

A nil-nil draw and a possible ankle fracture for my son. Too swollen to X-ray at the moment as the bony bit that sticks out at the side of the ankle resembles a shinty ball! Which leads me to the wonders of the internet. As a concerned mother and sometimes referred to at work as "Medical Morag", and being the appointed person for first aid, I spent a good couple of hours delving into the millions of things about ankles on the web. I now know that the bony bit that sticks out is called the lateral malleolus and is in fact the bottom end of the fibula which forms a cup shape with the tibia for the ankle joint. With this limited knowledge I am of course worrying- only time will tell. Last year he got a broken thumb...now I found out a lot about that too on the internet. My son's nickname in the shinty team is "Bones".

Shinty season underway

2006-03-04T11:24:00.000Z

Today marks the start of the new shinty season with a huge number of cancellations due to snow and frost. Welcome to summer shinty! Kyles are hosts to Ballachulish as long as they can negotiate Glencoe.

We Are Learning To....

2006-03-04T10:52:00.000Z

....use the latest technology.On Thursday evening we had a Parent's Evening. A very good turn out and lots to discuss as usual. Many of the parents had been told by their children about the interactive board so it seemed only fair to let them see some of the things it can do. I am now of a mind to run a workshop for parents on the use of the board. One of my neighbours whose child is in my class said it had been a hot topic of discussion at work on the fish farm next day with other dads. Although a number of children have access to computers at home, many parents did not receive any computer education at school or were just leaving as the technologies were emerging. Last year our PTA paid for 2 digital projectors for the school- perhaps they could be persuaded to help fund interactive whiteboards once they all see this amazing resource and have the chance to use it themselves!

Trees, worms and iPhoto

2006-03-01T23:59:00.000Z

Today we planted trees! We have an orchard as part of our school grounds and this afternoon we added some holly, dog rose and hawthorn trees to form hedging around the orchard. 41 children, 4 teachers and a handful of parents braved the Arctic winds to get them planted. On our return to the lovely warm classroom I demonstrated to the children, using the whiteboard of course, how to transfer the photographs I had taken into iPhoto. We then had a go at cropping some of the photographs- so much easier to demonstrate to all on the big screen. Favourite snap was of a wiggly worm. Tomorrow they are going to take photos of the shells we have collected, crop, label and print them out for display.

Good old technology!

2006-02-28T18:09:00.000Z

Last night I Skyped (internet telephone) with my colleague Marlyn. I had spotted a little photo montage on another blog which said flickr.com above it. On further exploration I realised that it led to an amazing bit of software that allows you to post photos in the way you can see in the blog. So Marlyn and I decided we just had to have one for ours. Two heads are definitely better that one and despite the fact that we are geographically so far apart Skyping and typing and internet accessing all at the same time led to two happy bunnies and little sets of photos on our respective blogs. But...if you are looking at this blog in a school in Argyll you will not see the photos, just a wee empty box as iGear blocks it.
Today one of my P2's wanted to go on the internet to play some games on poissonrouge.com- a great website for infants. We set it up on the interactive whiteboard for big play but unfortunately the internet access was too slow and some of the pages wouldn't load. I certainly hope the authority gets all this bandwidth sorted soon as we will not be able to use the amazing resources that are out there properly until then.
In the morning we did sums with the sum machine from the numeracy area of ready resources on the board. I designated our only P1 to be the board master-she had to press all the right numbers and buttons to make take away stories of 11 whilst the P2's worked out the answers. At the end of the session she received a round of applause for her excellent command of the board. Again, what at first glance appeared a pretty mundane activity became an absorbing and engaging activity for all-even the one who couldn't work out the answers,but she really knows the number 11 now!

A visitor in the classroom

2006-02-27T20:41:00.000Z

Today was shared reflective practice day when we visited one another's classrooms to see what happens behind closed doors. This was an interesting thing to do but perhaps not as enlightening as it would be in a larger school. I get on well with my colleagues- we share ideas/problems/thoughts and resources readily. I have worked with Ellen for over 20 years and we have a very good working relationship. Ellen wanted to see synthetic phonics in action. A magnet board lesson with P2 on ing/ang/ong/ung was just the ticket. This led on to a discussion of spelling programmes we use in school and the possibility of making some changes. We did not feel the need to record anything on paper. I went to her class at maths time and it was interesting to see the progress that my former pupils had made.
What struck me was the skill with which one teacher juggles a 3 stage composite working on a variety of maths activities-weight, time, area of right angled triangles and decimals- every child engaged and challenged appropriately. I, of course am doing the same thing with a 3 stage composite of younger children. Being so involved in it, I feel that we often fail to appreciate our own teaching skills and it is worth remembering what a good job we are doing.
(The visiting teachers did not wish to be photographed-the clipart in no way reflects the mood or dress sense of those participating.)

To Bee or not to BeeBot

2006-02-26T16:21:00.000Z

Just back from the U17 MacDougall League Cup Shinty Final. Kyles were victorious against a very determined Oban team. The final score 5-1.

Part of being a Masterclasser in Argyll and Bute involves submitting a folio of our ICT activities which can be viewed on Andrew's website. We are then allocated funding at either basic, intermediate or advanced level to purchase ICT related items to enhance learning and teaching skills. Last year I purchased extra licences for Kidspiration, 2Simple software and bought the new KidPix Deluxe 4 which has certainly been a hit with the children and covers many aspects of ICT skills. You wouldn't think it would be hard spending money but it's a bit like standing in a sweetie shop, surrounded by so many goodies unable to make up your mind. Anyway, I think I am almost there and I am definitely getting some Beebots. We have one in our Pre-5 Unit and it is just so cute....We have a Roamer in school and I got some support materials for it last year but the Beebot so fits the bill for infants and I can use some of the Roamer mats for it as well. I shall tell you about the progress of my purchases once they arrive and how I have been using them in due course-watch this space.

One potato,two potato......

2006-02-24T16:41:00.000Z

Today we unpacked our 3 seed potatoes. I ordered these through the potatoes for schools project. The idea is that we grow our potatoes along with another 1100 schools across the UK. On a set date in June we will dig up and weigh them. A digital camera is the prize for the heaviest crop. The website www.potatoesforschools.co.uk contains a range of resources to support the project. We used the whiteboard when looking up the website and played an interactive game about healthy eating. I don't even like potatoes......unless you count chips....or crisps

Look what I made!

2006-02-23T19:11:00.000Z

They are a creative lot. This is an example of what you can do with a scallop shell, some sand and our finds from the beach visit.

2 and a half hours well spent

2006-02-23T18:49:00.000Z

It really is amazing just what is contained inside some applications. I love KidPix 4 which has an incredible amount things to do,see and explore. Last night I decided to trawl through all the grids,backgrounds and resource library of the Activboard software-Wow. My brain was just whizzing with the potential for interactive possibilities. The children discovered dress up dolls which included clowns and pirates. We have just completed a pirates topic so they were desperate to try out the features and extras for the pirates as you can see above. I would liken the board to a treasure chest- you don't know what you've got till you open it up and you won't be disappointed.
During my excavation I found targets similar to dartboards. I managed to devise a whole class P1,2 and 3 maths activity. P1 had to identify the numbers where I placed the counters then practise writing them on her whiteboard ( I only have 1 P1). P2 added or subtracted the numbers writing them on their whiteboards. P3 multiplied or divided the numbers. I wasn't sure of how this activity would last but they were really keen. When I put the clock on and gave them 20 seconds to write down their answers before the buzzer sounded the tension was audible! Suddenly having to pit there wits against the clock added a new dimension to the activity. We eventually tore ourselves away from the board and went back to doing some SPMG written work. I think I shall summon up the dartboard again tomorrow!

Look what I found!

2006-02-23T18:44:00.000Z

Thought you might like to see another view of the beach visit. Forgot to bring the digital camera home yesterday.

2006-02-22T18:01:00.000Z

Today the sun shone, the birds were tweeting and the tide had gone far enough out to allow our first visit to the beach for our topic 'Living by the sea'. Last week we had created a beach picture on the IWB using the backgrounds and clipart from the Promethean built in resources. This week- the real thing. Our visit was brief (due to the east wind coming in from Siberia) but fruitful-shells, interesting pebbles, bits of crockery, dried seaweed and some feathers. We are creating our own beach scene with rockpool back in class. On our next visit we shall visit some rockpools. Whilst looking on the web for information about beaches I came across the site for Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. An amazing wealth of resources, some of which we looked at using the board. An interactive game for putting the right creatures in rockpools was enjoyed by the kids.
We tried to watch some Quicktime movies of jellyfish swimming and limpets rushing over the rocks (speeded up of course)but were unable to view them. They had worked at home successfully so I don't know what the problem was. Now I was just thinking that a fact finding mission to Monterey Bay would be great but when you've got a resource like this on the doorstep - who needs to go abroad?

It ain't all plain sailing

2006-02-21T18:48:00.000Z

All aboard the Good Ship Interactive- back at school and raring to go. Kids fired up-new duck tape to hold the wires to the carpet 'That looks better" I heard someone say- easy pleased my class. Used the board for a handwriting demo and then again at maths time. I had downloaded some maths activities from the Promethean website. Now a word about these. The titles all seem to be like this "add20%tosub20%add20%" Just a tad confusing so I have been changing their names to addition to5 or stories within10.
The activity itself proclaimed it would be easy to print out for the children to do on paper so after a few done interactively-we printed..no we didn't because I forgot to change to the school printer from my home printer-soon realised-silly me. The activity was over 7 pages. I didn't want all 7 therefore I asked it to print each page individually. Lesson 1-don't ask printers to do things because they don't listen- command them. As we waited patiently for the document to spool I managed to fit a quick lesson in about the phrase; "Houston we have a problem" (there were rockets on the worksheets) and by the time we had gone to the moon and back the printer was trying to spit out 5 copies of 7 pages!!! Oh the ink cartridges!
Later in the day at choosing time, Nathan and Diane played snakes and ladders. They made their own counters and used the magnificent tumbling dice from special tools. I can see a market for this device alone-a little handheld tumbling electronic dice-about the size of an iPod. No more dice clattering on table tops-no more getting lost under the furniture-no sneaky changing it when no-one is looking...bliss.

The real deal

2006-02-20T16:08:00.000Z

This is a photo of the very whiteboard that I have been waxing lyrical about. The screen shows a grid within which various patterns and designs have been added. I did not intend to use the whiteboard as part of this art lesson it just happened spontaneously. As the children created designs inside their grids on paper I encouraged them to share their ideas.We then drew them on the whiteboard. I just love it when things like that happen!

Youth over experience

2006-02-19T19:34:00.000Z

To those who are anxious to know- the Under 30's beat the Over 30's by 3 goals to nil. A spirited defence by hubby kept the young pups without a goal until 20 minutes into the second half. Giving his father no quarter my son scored the first 2 goals and set up the 3rd. All's fair in love and war.......photo shows a friendlier occassion.

And so to ICT

2006-02-19T18:22:00.000Z

As a teacher of P1/2/3 and a member of Masterclass I have been given a loan of an interactive whiteboard and some Activote pods. They are from Promethean and I have now been using the board for just over a week.
Initially I realised I would have to reorganise my classroom and find a permanent place for the projector and laptop to sit. In another life I would like to be an interior designer-so the day after Andrew Brown- our ICT co-ordinator had delivered the board, we set about reorganising the classroom. Job done and by 9:30 the board was set up, calibrated and ready to revolutionise the classroom!
Now the kids in my class really enjoyed it when we used the digital projector for various lessons and are a very ICT orientated bunch- I do try to integrate ICT across the curriculum when possible and appropriate. Day 1 was spent just trying out some of the built in software and making use of Kidspiration for story writing- as the week has progressed the potential use of the board just keeps on growing as has its interactivity.
I am as they say just a few pages ahead of the kids- I take my laptop home and explore the built in software. Each day I am therefore able to say-"Look what I found last night!" I am greeted in the playground of a morning by comments such as 'I wonder how the whiteboard is today?" "Who will calibrate it today Mrs Macdonald?" My colleagues keep popping in for a look when they can and my headteacher knows what she would like to get next financial session.
I have included the 'IWB' as a structured play activity allowing 2 children at a time the chance to play with the board. They take seriously the responsibility and work well to keep out of each others shadow and navigate their way around the board.
One of the most successful activities so far was a maths activity. We found some spinners-each child took it in turns to spin the spinners to create a 3 number sum. The child in charge wrote it on a small whiteboard while the others wrote in their jotters. P2 did an addition- P3 a times then added the 3rd number. The children were completetly engaged in the activity-mistakes were discussed. A simple activity but the use of the board made such a difference to the time they were able to concentrate for- they were adamant everyone should have a turn- all 13 involved in this maths session.

Holiday weekend

2006-02-18T13:24:00.001Z

Just off to watch the Under 30's play the Over 30's at shinty. With husband in one team and son in the other I shall have to be a neutral supporter. Shinty season gets underway again at the beginning of March so my ICT activities will be interspersed with gadding about Scotland to support Kyles Athletic Shinty Club. I shall let you know later how the teams fared. The event is a fundraiser for the Primary School Shinty Club with reception and disco after!

Welcome to my blog

2006-02-17T22:49:00.000Z

Another new experience. My first blog. No school today-In service. I should now be a better thinker so I shall just PMI this blogging business- get back to you when I have done my thinking!