I’ve been meaning to float these for a while but after a prompting from @dawnhallybone thought I’d get my digital finger out…
I’ve used these surveys with parents and children to get a simple snapshot of the school.
The first is a simple ‘hands-up‘ chart for teachers to ask children: esafety questionnaire
The second is a ‘what are your views/thoughts on ICT‘ for the parents: e-learning questionnaire
By all means, copy, change, update. I need to update ours and re-do for this year and will float again once I’ve done so.
Tags: children chat, esafety, ICT surveys, parent surveys
Have recently prepped a load of my (and @batttuk’s) more popular links into a ‘tweetable’ form. Lots of good stuff here – not all mine. Take a look.
My TMMidlands presentation – Ben’s Google Tools: Boogle #ukedchat http://bit.ly/1eYOwkF
#esafety poster idea (used in anti-bullying week) http://bit.ly/1gRxb2F #ukedchat
Maths: layered learning – an Ofsted like. http://bit.ly/1byjSy1 #ukedchat
Macbeth resources: a veritable hoard/horde http://bit.ly/1eR7yzq #Y6 #shakespeare #ukedchat
Circuit training cards with Action Man
http://bit.ly/16UMphw #ukedchat #pe
#Y6 spellings: a collection to use & abuse http://bit.ly/1dgdsW7 #ukedchat
Maths & writing marking policy – a step in the right direction? http://bit.ly/193Mmi0 #ukedchat
Punctuation tally stickers – very useful. Levels 3,4 & 5 http://bit.ly/1fSi0jZ #ukedchat
Level 6 grammar resources (not mine – just passing them on) http://bit.ly/1cDplcU #ukedchat
Alice in Numberland – a large problem-solving pack. Can be tailored to suit. http://bit.ly/1kDMPB3 #ukedchat
Who is responsible for the death of King Duncan? http://wp.me/p14oAb-g9 #shakespeare
Shoved-in-clauses: embedded clauses, a festive take… http://bit.ly/1ec9TPz
Want 20gb of FREE cloud space? A couple of clicks and you’ll be there. COPY is fab. https://copy.com?r=MvTLGC
Using twitter in education. http://wp.me/p31ZCF-6a @ianaddison @ideas_factory
Surviving an EBD school via @njthurly http://wp.me/p31ZCF-5B #ukedchat
#battt week guest posts – old but still great to read. #inspiration http://bit.ly/128DNmx
10 ways to use twitter – a helpful guide. http://bit.ly/128DNmx #ukedchat
Twittering Tweachers @sorrell_km http://bit.ly/NIUpMP #ukedchat
School Twitter Account @basttuk http://bit.ly/Yx5MZQ #ukedchat #bastt
Twitter Tips from @syded06 @mracolley
http://bit.ly/14SQjVF #ukedchat #battt
The 10 stages of Twitter: stolen from @syded06 http://bit.ly/Y7gp0Q #ukedchat
Pimpin’ the profile – make yourself ‘followable’ http://bit.ly/X0kEzh #ukedchat #battt
Breaking out of the egg shell – show us who you are. http://bit.ly/UYDvfS #ukedchat #battt
Tags: #battt' #bastt, circuit training, ks2, layered learning, pln, resources, spag, twitter for teachers, ukedchat
Finally, I had half written this post whilst I was in London for GTA but only mentally, not pen to paper (or fingers to keys). Since the start of December, life has been hectic (both at home and at school). I like it busy but sometimes…
Anyway, to Google, it would be remiss of me and not at all true to my name if I didn’t mention the food first.
Wow!
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There was a non-stop abundance of delicious treats on offer: home-made flapjacks, muffins, cookies and more; many varieties of food for lunch and dinner (where you could eat as much as you liked) and a continental breakfast if you were there in time. Plus as many drinks as you could stomach: an assortment of teas, strong coffee and a lots of sodas. It was amazing and free. Free.
Why am I mentioning this? Not just to reminisce of the delights and to bore you with a culinary preamble but because we chatted (a lot) about why Google do it, why they offer free food and drink, surely the cost is expensive?! I think (and others shared this view) that a well-fed staff is a happy staff. If you were working elsewhere, you’d take an hour for your lunch, a couple of breaks, where you may leave the building – this is fine, your entitlement but what if you stayed at HQ all day? Would you be more inclined to talk about your work over lunch as you sat with your colleagues? Would you just grab a coffee and a muffin and then head back to your desk at mid-morning? I think you would. I think it is a simple and effective way of encouraging engagement and effort. If you come earlier for breakfast and stay a bit later for evening meal, you could be at work for an extra 30-45 minutes a day, maybe more. That soon adds up! Also, it’s a great way of showing your staff you value them – we will feed you, and with good quality food too.
As for the tech, I learnt loads. I have no grand illusions that I’m an uber-geek tech master, sure I can defrag a computer and show you where the quick links are in Word; I can even set up Google Apps and group emails but I’m no wizard. No sir. I was, however, shocked at the sheer vastness of some of the other GCTs’ skills. From coding to Kodu, from Geomappr to Google-Apper, I was in the presence of some serious Geekdom. It was great, humbling but great. There are several resources I intend to use more (see list below) and lots I need to check out further so I can use them in the classroom. That was the whole point of this journey, to develop my skills and to learn new things that will benefit the children. I am on my journey, the beginning, like Bilbo at Bag-End.
The people: it was amazing to see so many tweeters and G+ers that I’d ‘met’ digitally but never in real life. Fabulous to create links and to begin to develop networks further, that is what developing a PLN is all about. It was great to see Rachel (@rlj1981) and Simon (@simon_warburton) again (after having met them at BETT in February). Some of the folk I met there were truly inspirational: Carrie-Ann Philbin, Mark Allen, Dave Salt and Wendy Gorton to name but a few.
I am so pleased that I decided to push myself and apply for GTA, this is only the start of building something fantastic and I am genuinely excited about the future…
LINKS
Blockly – a variety of mini-apps that are great for encouraging building codes and programming.
Geoguessr – a great visual mapping game that drops you somewhere in the world, can you find where you are by using the clues around you?
Geek Gurl diaries – Carrie’s marvellous video diaries encouraging girls to blog and vlog.
IFTTT – a ‘recipe’ creator for setting up links/notifications through various social media.
Tags: blockly, free food, GCT, geoguessr, google academy, google HQ, GTA, GTAUK, inspiration, London, motivation, ukedchat, wasabi nuts
It’s GTA eve…
I’m excited.
Having spent all day at a Pupil Premium conference, my brain is somewhat full, bursting with good ideas and things I need to implement back at school. I love having a day where I get to soak up new learning, new initiatives, anything that I know will help the children at my school.
However, my brain is, as said, full. To bursting.
I was going to write a blog post about GTA anyway but now I’m doing it simply to offload. I have been told by many to ‘prepare for a brain dump’ – there will literally be so much to discuss, so many ideas at Google HQ that I will positively pop if I don’t get them all down.
I’m not a southerner and get nosebleeds if I travel further south than Leicester but tomorrow will be worth it. To be honest, the notion of stepping into Google HQ and embarking on another digital adventure hasn’t really registered much – I’ve kinda been too busy: desk-tidying deputy and distressed dad and all…
I did partake in a Google Hangout last week with the rest of Team Archimedes, my DW listened in and called me a geek at opportune moments. Fabulous fun.
So, that is it, the next post I write will be post-GTA. I will be full of ideas and projects. Stay tuned, I will definitely want to share and may want to trial things with YOU.
It’s GTA eve…
I’m excited.
Tags: google academy, google HQ, google london, GTA, GTAUK
As part of Anti-bullying week, I am leading the whole school through a few elements of e-safety. I have already delivered a starter based on a few elements to tease our way into it – see HERE. On Monday I will be using two videos: Jigsaw for the Y5/6 and Animal Magic for Y3/4. Both videos are available for free download on the Thinkuknow site.
After the session with me, the children will be going back to class to work on other elements of friendship and anti-bullying week. (I personally think Simon Haughton’s idea of calling anti-bullying week ‘friendship week’ is much better.) The children will have to design an e-safety poster based on what they’ve learnt but with a spin. They have an iPad template (other tablets are available) and they have to create the apps and say what each app is for. There is a blank template and my version as a demonstration.
Feel free to try them out and let me know what you think.
anti-bullying week pres PPoint – kept it simple. To work alongside the videos as mentioned above. The majority of the images included therein are from the thinkuknow website. 🙂
The original is a publisher file – if you want that so you can tweak it, email me: benwaldram@me.com
Tags: animal magic, anti-bullying week, ceop, e-safety, friendship week, ipad, jigsaw video, poster design, thinkyouknow
