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Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning
It is important to acknowledge that students are already interested and engaged in using technology, this creates many amazing opportunities for schools and teachers to benefit from integrating some forms of technology in the classroom and to make teaching and learning more effective. Here are some of the main benefits of using technology in the classroom.
Use of ICT resources:
Improves engagement
Improves knowledge retention
Improves individual learning
Encourages collaboration
Students can learn useful skills through technology
I implemented this lesson in a year one classroom during a professional practice at a private school in the Perth metropolitan area:
Curriculum links: Mathematics
Give and follow directions to familiar locations (ACMMG023)
Curriculum links: Digital Technologies
Digital systems (hardware and software) are used in everyday life and have specific features (ACTDIK001)
Mapping with Bee Bots
Learning Intention: Understanding of locational coordinates to navigate a map
Resources:
Bee-Bots Treasure Island Mat
Masking Tape
Lesson Description
Read through task card instructions
Code Bee-Bot to solve challenges
Scan QR Code to reveal answer
Create own challenge cards for others to complete
Use of Clicker 7 in support of children with special needs:
In addition to extensive support for learners with reading and writing difficulties, Clicker offers unique benefits for students with a wide range of special needs.
I used Clicker 7 with a special needs student in year 5 while on professional practice at a Perth metropolitan independent public school.
Build writing confidence with point-and-click access to relevant words and phrases
Clicker removes the writing block that hinders the development of many children with dyslexia by providing point-and-click access to whole words and phrases that are relevant to the current writing task. Students can listen to each word before using it, and when they complete their sentence it is automatically read back to them.
Reinforce the link between spellings and sounds with realistic speech feedback
The speech feedback built into each Clicker Grid helps students to internalise the link between how a word is represented on the page and how it sounds. Students simply right-click on any word in the Clicker Grid to hear it, enabling them to check they have the right word before using it in their writing.
The student was able to produce poetry work during a three weeks whole class poetry block.
The image of clicker 7 taken during classwork features the student producing a poem inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's painting Stormy Night.
Coyote and Lupo take on Hollywood:
Video of lesson implementation featuring my daughter Adele.
I have developed and produced a take-home literacy pack for my year 2 students to progress their learning of prefixes, specifically of the prefix "un".
The activity is constituted by a storyboard that utilises vignettes depicting a continuation of the e-book story "Lupo and Coyote go to Hollywood" called "Lupo and Coyote take on Hollywood".
Each vignette includes one dotted line where the child, with the support of an adult, will fill the dots by placing the appropriate word card from a set of 9 cards, each double-faced. On one side the cards show a word such as happy, certain, even, well, folded. On the flip side of the card, the same word is offered but with the added prefix "un": unhappy, uncertain, uneven, unwell, unfolded.
Since, story-wise, the activity pack traces the e-book "Lupo and Coyote go to Hollywood", the parent and student will first read through the e-book provided as a download for tablets or computers or as a Youtube link. I have checked that all families have technological devices suitable for the task.
The child will explore the differences in the meaning of words with and without the prefix "un" developing a practical understanding of the role of the prefix. By understanding its use, the child will be able to attain a higher level of evaluation of word composition.
The child will be adequately scaffolded by the parent and will achieve the appropriate positioning of the word cards, resulting in measurable attainment of learning.
The child has been exposed to several lessons on the uses of suffixes and prefixes explicitly and implicitly. The take at home package additionally serves as an informational session for the parents to directly know what their children are learning and as an opportunity for the parent to participate in the learning.
The child-parent interaction activity has been practised with a year 2 child and should take no longer than 10 minutes.
Use of Seesaw to explicitly teach social media:
Seesaw is a tool that we use in Primary at my school, but so far it has been limited to simply an e-portfolio that showcases student work.
The words “social media” strike fear into the hearts of many teachers and parents, yet we have to accept that about 90% of teens will use some form of social media. While nobody is advocating that we give our youngest kids Facebook and Twitter accounts and let them explore the dark underbelly of the web, many educators are starting to teach the basics of responsible social media use in their classrooms. Seesaw is the perfect tool for this.
I helped my mentor in year 4-5 classroom during a professional practice in an independent public school in the Perth Metropolitan area to explicitly teach social media using Seesaw as a main resource.
In the image above, a student is creating a post about a learning experience in STEM where group of students created their own gravity fed water pipeline.
Seesaw’s automatic settings allow students to see their peers’ work within their own class, but how can students see the work of other classes and year levels at your school? The best way to do this is to connect your class blog to other blogs in your school. Maybe you’re doing a multi-year project and need to share a survey with the grades below and above yours. Just post it to your blog and all of your connected blogs will be able to access a piece of work that otherwise would only be viewed by your immediate class.
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