Google+

I use Google tools every day - especially the calendar, Gmail, Docs and Drive... However I have been a bit slow with getting on board with Google+. I am aiming to start using it more often as I think it is a great way to share ideas with others - something which has changed my life completely through Twitter! I know that Google+ has the potential to improve my teaching practice greatly, so I need to pull my finger out and get on it.

I actually have three Google accounts, my personal one, work one and a professional one, but have decided to stick to using just my profressional one. You can add me here.

If anyone has any tips for using Google+ please send them my way!

Thanks

Why Cite?

I was asked by our lovely Science teacher to help her grade 7s with creating bibliographies for an essay they were writing. The particular push they needed was to understand how to cite images properly. We use the MLA Referencing style, which means we can use EasyBib for FREE! I have an EasyBib tutorial video on YouTube, which sits in the students Library iTunesU course and has been sent out in school newsletters several times. We also use Britannica Schools and Britannica Image Quest - these give you the reference right in the article or next to the image! Easy Peasy!

I created a short presentation to try to explain some of the reasons we need to reference in a positive way. Far too often these sort of lessons tend to warn students off plagiarism and make students afraid to use other people's work, so I tried to move away from this, even showing them how to reference your own work!

Here are some screen grabs from the presentation. There is a link to the presentation on TES here. I can also make the Google Doc available to you if you want.

























Hopefully this explains itself. There are a few sections which were meant to start a class dicussion, such as "how do I know if a source is reliable." At the end I created a bibliography, showing all the images I used. I refered to this bibliography several times in the presentation. I am also creating a bibliography for every presentation I deliver, to any grade, so I can lead by example!

Why Cite? TES

Again if you need any help with this, pop a comment on this article of tweet me.

World Book Day 2014

World Book Day was RAD!

Here's what we did:
Period 2 - Students had a Literay Inspired Breakfast! Parents came along too!
Period 3 - We had a readathon, with students reading books, magazines, newspapers and e-books, in our lovely bean bags
Period 4 - The whole school watched a live stream of an event with the fantastic Robert Muchamore

Students all got so involved and really enjoyed the day - as did parents and staff!
Student also recieved a goodie bag containing Garfield Bookmarks, 'Books are Magic' pencils and their WBD vouchers!





Some food prepared by our students:









The room:




and Robert Muchamore!


Did you know if you buy his WBD book in a WH Smith you will get a free plectrum!!!

My favourite World Book Day so far!

Google Science Fair

I am so excited to introduce our grade 8 and 9 students to the Google Science Fair 2014! I have made a quick Google presentation, which other people are free to use. The website itself is really straight forward and easy to use, so students will have no time navigating it. I just wanted to make a linear presentation as it is easier to show a big group of students. Feel free to use and enjoy!
Also on TES!
The site has no many similarities to the MYP/IB curriculum, linking up to different subject criteria, key concepts and the IB Areas of Interaction/Global Context - it can even be used as part of their Community and Service! LOVE IT!

Coding Class

I have uploaded a very simple coding lesson. this could be used as a stand alone lesson or you could expand it to make it run over a few different lessons. I actually used a similar lesson for cover when I was off sick, but changed it, so that anyone can use it.

It is available on TES as a PowerPoint or a PDF. ENJOY! If you have any difficulties with this, please let me know, I am always happy to help! This lesson should be self explanatory and students should understand the sites straight away. Also all websites used can be used on the iPad or on a computer. I put an extension where students could use Light-Bot - Light-Bot is an app, not a website, so only available for iPad users.

The Day Debates

I have recently taken up a subscription to The Day for our school. This is a fantastic resource and hopefully all subjects will start to use it. Our English teacher does an activity every week where students respond to a news article, so will hopefully switch to The Day. Subjects will use articles relating to their subjects in class. The French, Spanish, German and Italian translations will not only be used in languages lessons, but to support our EAL students. Lastly I will start basing all my debates for Debate Club on an article on the day.


This is an email I sent out to Debate Club members about this week's debate.

"This week we will have the motion "This house believes it was wrong of Lego to introduce Lego Friends."

Please read this article before Debate Club: http://theday.co.uk/chosen-by-you/angry-girl-s-letter-demolishes-sexist-lego

There are loads of additional articles on sexist toys and Lego's introduction of Lego Friends online - if you want to do additional research this will help you!

Some extra reading:

video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8399000/8399994.stm

article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/6729588/Labour-MP-ban-shops-from-selling-sexist-pink-toys-to-little-girls.html

article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/20/toyshop-sexism-children-gender-stereotyping

Campaign: http://www.pinkstinks.co.uk/ Loads of fantastic resources

GOOD LUCK"


I would be very keen to hear how other people are using The Day. Please tweet me @missedutton with your suggestions!

SKYPE

Chatted a bit to Skype at BETT, but only just had a chance to check out their new education site. It looks so exciting, and allows you to take part in various Skype activities form field trips to author events. I am really excited to connect with other classes and have create an event to try to hook up another Debate Club with my own...
If you are interested, the information is here: