The lengths people go to….

Having seen the Promethean interactive whiteboards in her daughter’s school (St Mary & St Pauls First School, Harting). Jo saw the benefits for 2 ½ year old daughter Skye who when she saw the board became very sociable and animated. She named animals, answered questions and helped create stories. She had just started pre- school and Jo wondered how possible it would be for the setting to purchase a system. 

The possibility was discussed at the next Harting Village pre-school committee meeting and it was agreed they should pursue this wonderful opportunity. They applied to “Awards For All” (joint Lottery grant programme supported by Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England.) www.awardsforall.org.uk

 They were awarded a lottery grant for an Activboard and Activprimary Software including a projector. The equipment would be installed in the village hall. The newly developed Activboard+2 meant that the height of the board would not be a problem as it could be moved up and down to accommodate children and adults alike. Not only would it be used to help educate young children ( from 2yrs-4yrs) but it could also be used by the local community who also, obviously, used the village hall.

 I recently visited the village hall, where the board has been installed. I have been to numerous schools around the country and spoken to a lot of teachers, but to be using the software with two year old Ben was amazing. This little boy, having never seen the board before, confidently took the pen from me and explored the library of images. He quickly remembered how to move to a new page, and how to “kiss” the library window goodbye. (Clicking on the little cross in the top right hand corner of the window). He named animals, listened to sounds, and began to use prepositional language with complete ease.

“This one is bigger and the bird is higher”.

“The giraffe is very tall.”

“Let’s make the fish smaller.”

 At two, Ben was engaged and focussed for over 30 minutes, until his friend rode by on a bike and his wistful glance in the direction of the bike suggested that he had had enough, but no, I was wrong “I want to do something else on the board” he said.

ACTIV-Math Lessons That Work

Recently an article was posted on the UK Planet site entitled Maths Marvelous, by TLA Chris Stone. http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/server/show/nav.5975 If you have not had a chance to read it and you teach math whether it is primary or high school, I encourage you to take a look at the page. Chris offers many suggestions and ideas for using the Activboard in your mathematics lesson.

Every suggestion and or tip offers a wealth of knowledge for integrating the Activboard into the math classroom. As a Geometry teacher, I use many of the same tips and ideas that Chris mentions in this article. It has certainly made me a more proficient teacher; I also feel that it has made the achievement gap come closer together.

Some of the ideas that Chris mentions, like using color and images from the resource library in order to clarify his point, I employ, as well. For instance, the chapter that I am currently teaching is ‘Surface Area and Volume’. To help to build conceptual knowledge of the shape that we are working with, I pull said shape out of the resource library, and highlight its different parts for labeling.

To Chris’ comment on screenshots: bravo! I can not express how helpful that third column is to a math teacher. I find that I start to see that I am drawing or using the same type of figure through out a lesson, I pull it over to my third column. Previously, we studied a chapter on circles, and as easy as it is to draw a circle, I find that having it in my third column for easy access is handy. Again, I encourage all math teachers to read this and explore the flipcharts that have been posted.

I would also love to hear how you use Activstudio to help to enhance your ‘Maths’ lesson.

An immersive digital learning environment

Last week I was fortunate enough to visit Brichta Elementary school in Tucson and saw a school totally immersed in technology.  http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/Brichta/

Promethean boards in most classrooms, but also a mixed economy of both laptops and desktops and both Apple Macs and Windows machines.  Students as young as 5 seamlessly transferring between machines with different OS!!  It wasn’t the Mac versus PC argument raging here, it was the learning software offered on either platform that was the draw.
However, I did see some free software from Microsoft called Photostory that the students were using to tell their own digital stories.  The particular application I saw it being used for was for Grade 1 students to write “about me” stories.  It blew me away that kids this young were able to produce digital autobiographies.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Send your kids to the moon!!

Well we might want to some times…

But seriously… NASA are including a list of names on a special microchip that will travel inside the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). You can sign up your students from this website It only takes a moment and you get a nice certificate to print out afterwards but note that the closing date is June 27th.

This could form a great introduction to an Earth and Space topic or a report writing lesson. The website has plenty of images that are free to use in flipcharts. There are also plenty of educator resources that could be adapted for a lesson.

You can find out more about the LRO’s mission here

The last time I did this with my class - the Lunar Polar Orbiter that was carrying their names crashed somewhere near the north pole of the moon! It all adds to the adventure - and reminds them that space travel is not as easy and as safe as they might imagine.

Is it Education Reform or Deform with Buzzwords?

As I reflect back on my new career of 5 years as a public high school teacher I cannot resist but think of all the professional development workshops that I had to attend. I also recall all the graduate classes I had to take to get my teaching certification.

But I am scratching my head as I try to compile a list of things that I was able to adopt and adapt and truly apply in my classroom for teaching and learning. The single tool that was able to use successfully in my classroom was the “HEI” Method , a Japanese tool, a way of teaching Science in Japan. Interestingly this was shown to me by a Japanese PhD student and not the professor who was teaching the graduate class. As I understood how this simple yet powerful way of teaching worked, I immediately saw a natural fit between Promethean Activotes® and HEI. This tool turned out to be so popular and powerful that students would identify and comment on the way they understood the concept of “Surface Tension” in chemistry, 2 years after they took the course.

So what happened during the myriad of meetings, workshops, faculty meeting and planning meeting during the last 5 years? I cannot recall any active spirited debate, honest reflections or discussions in those meetings. But I certainly was overwhelmed with many words and acronyms like:

• Differentiated Instruction
• CMCD
• Common Assessment
• World Class School
• Higher level Questioning and Thinking
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Benchmark Exams
• SLC ( Small Learning Community)
• Higher Standards
• Project Based Learning
• The three R’s, Rigor, Relevance, Relationship
• Technology Rich Lessons
• Item Analysis
• IB, MYP, Teaching Lesson through 5 lenses
• Focus on Student Writing
• Credit Recovery

The list goes on and on. It seemed like we would tackle and talk about all these initiatives for a fleeting moment, feel good about making progress and never talk about them until the next year. The following year the cycle would repeat itself with the same approach packaged with new terminology. I felt that I was being bombarded with myriad of packaged initiatives for school improvement and reform but was never asked to debate the merits of the initiative or given specific examples or demonstration on how to make it happen. The message from these meetings seemed to be forever trapped in buzzwords and reams and reams of handouts.

So is this American Education Reform or Education Deform?

Arthur Hu (who describes himself as specializing in Asian Americans and Affirmative Action)has a blog on this topic. He wonders if these buzz words are indeed part of education reform. He thinks that the “standards based” education movement is neither progressive nor traditional.

Why does it take so long to bring and implement proven technology in the classroom? Why is “Return on Investment” calculations often not done before a new tool is purchased? Why does it seem like we spend a lot of time talking about peripheral issues and not hit the bulls eye during professional development?

When I presented at the GAETC Conference in November last year on the topic “Powerful Interactive Teaching and Learning using a Blended Toolkit Powered by Promethean Activboard”, a teacher in the audience asked me quote ” Why can’t our Professional Development Workshops” be like this presentation? I asked her to elaborate. She said that teachers at her school want to to learn new things that are directly going to affect the climate of their classroom. They want to learn new tricks that will excite their students. They want to create a culture of interactivity and learning in their classroom that will virtually leave students no time to even contemplate misbehavior. But unfortunately teacher’s planning times, whole school professional development time and school faculty meetings are burdened by nuts and bolts issues leaving no time for peer to peer interaction and resource sharing.

Since Finland has scored the number #1 consistently on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) Scale for Science Education, why do we not discuss and try to understand what they are doing?

Why do we not see and discuss videos like the following as professionals during faculty meeting? The remarkable point that I found in this video was the highly reflective personality of the school administration in Finland.

SCIENCE IN FINLAND VIDEO (6MB, WMV)

Editor’s Note: Gautam Saha has joined the Promethean Planet Blog as a guest author and Promethean welcomes his great input to this important education debate. Readers may also want to check out Gautam’s “teacher feature” on Promethean Planet where you can see him applying his HEI method with his class.

If the article has perked your interest and you want to engage with the question - then please do add a comment.

Do your children take Education for granted?

Promethean is sponsoring two schools out in Africa. Read more here

http://www.firstsparks.co.uk

Your school could become involved :

http://www.firstsparks.co.uk/help.html

These schools will not be getting Activboards or anything similar, it is about our wanting to support Education more broadly.

Anybody got any suggestions as to how they might make this link in with Global Citizenship and Geography Learning Objectives?

I have some, but would be interested in yours …..

This was the beginning of an interesting topic in the forum - the posters began……

Thought you might like to see how these children have “owned” some bags we sent them.

The bags were incredibly well received. The possession of a school bag may seem like an every day thing and something which school children in developed countries would not even think about, just taking for granted the fact that every one has at least one bag! Here in Mfuwe things are rather different and often children just tie up their school books and equipment in a piece of rag or string made from split palm leaves or try to make do with a discarded plastic shopping bag so for each child to have their own proper bag is great - especially as they are all the same. It’s easy to tell which children attend Yosefe School now as those bright orange bags are so visible!

Many children have to walk miles to school, most of them along the main road through Mfuwe. This is not a busy road but there is some traffic along there and the bright orange bags prove practical not only for carrying school equipment but are a great help in road safety too.

Sarah Carpenter then wrote

<<Love the group picture Margaret - well done Promethean!! >>

Alison then wrote

<<As to the suggestions as to how we might make this link in with global citizenship and geography, well, we recently changed our geography topic from Norway to Africa. It makes it so much more real to the children, who are only 6-7 years old, if they can compare something that they are already familiar with, ie school. They learn to contrast and compare themselves and their environment with others. It could be the focus for our entire topic. They would learn about the environment too, looking at the facilities available and the homelife of the children. They very much take for granted all the materialistic things they have. I’ll never forget the look of shock and disbelief on one of my girls when I explained that hand held computers, such as a DS light didn’t exist only a few years ago!

We are only just beginning to explore the global dimension, having recently set up links with a school in Germany. The children have been given themes, such as the past and the future and used this to look at the way the world has developed. We usually have a cultural week at the start of each year, and this would link in beautifully!

Well, there’s a couple of ideas for a start, anyone else got any ideas?>>

Saha then wrote

<<There is a sense of entitlement to education, free school transportation, free textbooks, free school supplies, free and reduced lunch.
Unfortunately often this entitlement mentality crosses over to the idea of “good grades as entitlement”.

I think here is a situation where “less” would be “good”.>>

I then wrote

<<Walking for miles and miles in fierce heat to share a seat with at least one other child and then “hang around” for up to two hours lunchtime - where sharing a peanut or raisin literally is where these children are “at” - makes for heart rendering awareness of how poor “our” children’s perception is compared with the needs and aspirations of children such as those whose focus would knock “ours” off the scale!>>

Hemske then wrote

<<A couple of friends have been involved with the Heifer organization. A book entitled Beatrice’s Goat retells the story of girl who desperately wanted to go to school but her family can not afford it. The extra income from the goat finally makes her dream come true. I think it is another good example of the extreme situations many children live in and how free education that many kids take for granted is the ultimate gift for others.

I greatly applaud Promethean’s efforts. It is yet another reason while I think you are all the BEST!!! >>

Gem then wrote

<<Teaching with an old blackboard which is full of holes and with chalk (the old kind that isn’t dust-free), no books, kids sharing one pencil between two makes you realise how lucky WE are as well. Take nothing for granted.>>

Alison then wrote

<<Just wondering if anyone else took part in the world record ‘Send my friend to school’ lesson today? For those that don’t know, it was an attempt to have the biggest lesson (the most people teaching the same lesson across the world at the same time). It was very much focussed on this exact topic.>>

Ben then wrote

<<Never heard of it. Can you give your friends over here across the pond a little more information??>>

Alison then wrote

<<Hi Ben

It’s part of the Global Campaign for Education. It’s to raise awareness of the 72 million children who miss out on an education and their right to learn too. Best thing I can do really, is to put the link in for the website, as it explains it much better than I can!

http://www.sendmyfriend.org/

At the bottom of the page, in the middle, is the link to the info on the world’s biggest lesson.

They actually did it before in 2003! It was a fantastic experience and the children really had thought provoking responses. One of our Year 1 children (Kindergarten age!) produced an amazing response. It’s on display at school, so I’ll scan it in on Monday.

The whole idea just linked in so well with Margaret’s post, I wondered if there was anyone else in our online community who took part!>>

Ben then wrote

<<Alison,

This looks AMAZING! I wish we had known about it, because we would have totally participated! Maybe next year…>>

Then I wrote

If we could set up a charitable status scenario whereby people could sponser a child?

I am feeling we should be doing something a bit more specific with these two schools - not from a Promethean standpoint, but getting schools (the pupils within them) to recognise how lucky they are….

What are the implications for that do you think>>

Teachers enhancing the technology

When talking to teachers I often state that the technology should be invisible and that it is merely a tool to enhance the teaching and learning in the classroom.

I am beginning to think that actually I should put that another way - without the teacher the technology would be no use whatsoever!

Primary/Elementary teachers are creative and imaginative in their teaching. They are skilled communicators who recognise that children are extraordinary in their limitless potential to accept and engage with new concepts. But for some teachers technology still remains something of a mystery, not only in its application but also in the affect it has on children’s learning.

A dynamic presentation on an interactive whiteboard can raise opportunities for collective engagement, offering varied and exciting ways in which learning outcomes can be achieved. They can form the basis for effective use of multimedia including websites, video and audio, interactive software and other digital equipment including electronic microscopes, cameras, scanners and digital presenters. Many children today are visual learners, images, pictures; colour and other visual media help these children learn. They have been born into a multimedia world often reflected by their bedrooms and home life and they have no fear when it comes to accessing technology.

Flipcharts are digital representations of text and images and can contain numerous pages. A Flipchart can be saved in advance and reopened when needed. Allowing children to access the board independently is one of the most exciting ways in which the software can be utilised. Here are some examples of what can be achieved with very young children using Activprimary on an Activboard using some of the backgrounds from the library.

Technology, in all its guises, has had a revolutionary effect on teaching and learning. It is not about the technology it is about what it can do.

The ability to surf the net, save and edit work, share material across the world, let alone across a local network in a primary school, has meant that everybody has had to rethink the way in which they operate.

A school in Northern Ireland is so keen to ensure that its children and its teachers have the ability to use this technology that they are fund raising :

http://www.shanballyns.ie/news.html

Recently one family, impressed by what they have seen, donated another Interactive Whiteboard to the school.

Other funding raising initiatives:

• Funds from our upcoming Golf Classic
• A School Fundraising Sponsorship Walk
• An Evening of Music

Three Fifth Class Students, raised €102.00 during a recent Cake Sale. They decided to raise the money to contribute towards the Fundraising for the IWBs.

With this type of commitment and enthusiasm I am sure that this school will continue to offer iwbs to all its classes.

Interesting that it takes this type of innovation to ensure that it happens though!

Google Maps gets Contour Lines!!!!!

Not content with the powerful combination of maps and aerial images - Google have now added contour line data for many parts of the world!

The new “terrain” options combine with the other established features to offer an amazing toolkit for teaching with your Activboard.

You will find it as a button at the top right of a map.

Google terrain map of the Matterhorn in Switzerland

Click this link to get a map of Sagarmatha in Nepal (Mount Everest)… How high is it?

Some ideas…

• Combine Google Maps with the Activ software “overlay” tools to trace a specific countour line
• Work out routes through the mountains and calculate heights gained and lost
• When you have found a location you can use the “link to this page” function of Google maps to add it to a flipchart so that it can be shared with students.
• Combine your own or the students custome images and annotations on Google maps with height data - perhaps as part of a study into the effects of altitude on vegetation.

One of my favourites is to:

• Plan a reservoir!

Photos, music… bring it all to life on your Activboard with Animoto!

Peter Lambert passed this one on…..

I love finding out about tools like this…. It is always great to be able to bring something new and exciting to the classroom to surprise and engage learners.

Animoto is a web based tool that lets you “mix up” pictures and music to create music video like presentations.. Exactly the kind on interaction to engage the “digital native”

With creativity being one thing that technology excels in supporting, tools like this open the door for fantastic discussions about moods, themes, media and audiences. You could also use the impactful videos it creates to develop powerful topic introductions and critical inputs.

Better still Animoto is offering a free classpass. You can find out more about the special offer for educators at:

http://biz.animoto.com/education/overview.html

With plans for YouTube integration and the simple interface this is exactly the kind of tool that you can use to harness the amazing world of the Internet on your Activboard. You can also download the videos if you want.

Need some inspiration? Sparta School District have used it to make an advert!

An easy and effective teaching method that raises standards

Dr. Eric Mazur, from Harvard has developed and refined the concept of Peer Instruction - a straightforward method for teaching classes interactively. The method has developed a large following, both nationally and internationally, and research indicates the very positive impact of his approach on rasing standards.

Essentially, his method involves asking students a question, then asking them how confident they are of their answer. Once the results are in the correct answer is NOT given - but instead the class is asked to debate any discrepancies and convince each other of the “correct” answer. The test is then taken again and the answer revealed. The impact of the method on standards is profound with gains of over 20% when applied consistantly as an approach and where the students adapt to the ‘peer instruction’ model.

So how does it work in an example….

Working with Grant Wiggins, author of Understanding by Design and innovative curricula based on “Backwards Design” and “Essential Questions”, Promethean performed exactly this method using Activote to an audience at his conference at Princeton.

When first asked, the physics question about the forces acting on a steel ball that was thrown in the air revealed a spread of responses but a fair level of confidence from the group. After some lively debate and the second asking of the question - the responses had clearly narrowed onto one option and the group confidence was very high. It was then revealed that the group was in fact wrong and had convinced themselves that they were correct. By now they were very emotionally engaged and desperate to know what they had got wrong… The answer that the bulk of the group had setlled on was in fact incorrect because of a common misinterpretation about forces and the nub of it related to a short phrase in the question.

So… most of them got the wrong answer…?

So the method is not making them get the correct answer… How can that be good…?

Well that is the best thing about this method.

If they had got it correct the teacher would move on knowing just how secure the class and the individuals in it were in their ideas… but in this case the teacher had all the information they needed to intervene most effectively and correct the students misconception while building on their emotional engagement to ensure it sticks. In fact the teacher could just say they were wrong - and ask them to “think again” and get them to solve it themselves and justify it back to the teacher.

Of course this raises deeper questions about the role of the teacher as facilitator and the power of group based teaching and learning. If the students were working in a box, independently, online and relying on the University of google for their facts and with little or no immediate feedback and discussion from a facilitator - would they be in danger of reinforcing the misconception to a point where it would be a challenge to unlearn it?

This is a very simple idea to apply with either Activote or Expression which has instant click “Confidence Check” and “Agreement Check” options to support exactly this kind of interaction.

You do not need a voing system to do this - but it really helps - and you get all the data for making fully informed decisions if you do.