Two pictures from my travels/training last week. The cakes were made by the cooking club at Redbridge Primary, though sadly I never got to eat any!
The writing was done by a new arrival in Mossford Green Primary, using Clicker 5 and with a very enthusiastic TA supporting him.
In this issue:
- Priorities
- Are you committed?
- Tim Rylands @ Oakdale Juniors
- SMART Notebook Update
- Fronter Latest
Priorities
We recently offered all of you to comment on our service and CPD through our survey. Thank you if you took part. We had a very good response, and we have used the data to plan CPD over the coming year and help us with our overall vision. One interesting response was around priorities. The graph below shows what ICT Coordinators feel are their current priorities.What are you driving forward in the next year and how are you measuring success?
It is easy to get sidetracked and caught up in the whizzy stuff with ICT, but there also needs to be a whole school focus on areas such as self review and organising the curriculum. I am pleased that our survey reflected this view.
Are you Committed?
The government is encouraging parents to ask about ICT in our schools and is placing adverts in tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, alongside quality radios stations like Heart 106. The question is asked, is your child's school geared up for 21st Century Learning? Parents can sign up for text and email alerts on this issue and visit the very helpful Next Generation website. This excellent site is aimed at debunking the technology used by teachers and pupils in our schools. I would recommend linking to this on your school site as a way of increasing parental engagement. But how do you prove your school is committed to helping pupils prepare for living and working in the 21st Century? Quite simply schools that self evaluate all aspects of their ICT against a set of nationally recognised standards set by OFSTED, QCA, TDA, NCSL, BECTA and the Strategies' show that they are committed to developing, improving and generally pushing on well with ICT.
This of course, is done by completing the Self review framework. There are eight elements to this matrix and schools are increasingly choosing to work with relevant areas when they see fit, rather than rushing to complete the whole thing for the ICT Mark. By signing up and completing one element you can prove your commitment and receive:
- a certificate
- a logo for your website and letter head
- a press release
- the satisfaction of evaluating an area of ICT provision and seeing it improve
Watch Nicholas and I in the video below show how this is done:
Tim Rylands event @ Oakdale Junior
Friday May 22nd 9am- 4 pm
'I stepped out into a landscape of almost unbearable beauty, a feathered sky stretching out across the silken sea, warm sand beneath my feet. Turning, I saw steps, foot worn and timeless, winding downwards. Where would they lead me? Ben aged 10
Do you want to inspire your children to write like this?
Come along to
Oakdale Junior school on Friday May 22nd 9am- 4 pm
Here Tim Rylands, winner of the 2005 Becta ICT in Practice Award will present some inspiring, accessible tools and ideas for raising the level of writing, speaking and listening, and creativity in children of all ages.
To book a place please e mail: admin.oakdale-jun@redbridge.gov.uk
Places are LIMITED- You will need to bring your laptop - lunch not included.
Just some of the reactions of teachers who have already heard Tim speak - so what are you waiting for?For more information on Tim check out: http://www.timrylands.com/Note this is kindly run By Dawn Halybone @ Oakdale - it is not free but well worth the money.
You can see an example of Tim in action on this Youtube clip and he is also featured in Teachers TV in this other Youtube clip
SMART Board Update
I got very excited when SMART released their first Lesson Activity toolkit, some 18 months ago. The toolkit is a collection of customisable FLASH activities,themes, buttons and tools to add extra functionality to the board. Well it seems the toolkit has just been updated and can be downloaded and integrated into your gallery now. James Hollis of the Teachers Love Smart Boards blog has made a video that shows how to install this new content.
It is also worth subscribing to the SMART Classrooms channel of Youtube for updates and the latest news on SMART.
Fronter Latest
When looking through the many rooms and Fronter pages across the borough I am seeing lots of interesting work. I took a screen grab of just some of the pages that caught my eye today, see below, I will do my best to use this blog as a way of sharing the good work I come across for the inspiration of others, so if you are doing good things with Fronter, let me know and share. We do have a Fronter network that meets every half term to share progress and ideas with each other. Please email Alex to express your interest in this group and to find out the details for the next meeting.
Also all ICT Coordinators were given access to our Fronter room recently, if you have found that you can't access this room, or have simply forgotton how, email me and I'll guide you in the right direction. Tip the password is also the username.
New Esafety materials from TDA/BECTA Know it All for Primary - a review here soon
Facebook Again
I love Facebook and find it a great way to stay connected and 'in the know', but there are a few dos and don'ts that to most are obvious, but as Reuters reports, there are others who just don't get it:
Facebook surfing while sick costs Swiss woman job
A Swiss insurance worker lost her job after surfing popular social network site Facebook while off sick, her employer said on Friday.
Read the full story here
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53N4JF20090424
If you are reading this and thinking I need more concrete guidance on staff cyber activity. There are some new DCSF guidelines on school staff and cyber bullying, which were issued just last week, these make mention of behaviour on social networks and this very readable leaflet can be downloaded from here.
Remember
Don't forget you can find us on Facebook
You can catch Anthony on Twitter here
You can read Anthony's Blog here
Or you may want to read Nicholas Hughes's Blog here
The Film Competition is still open - register today and submit a four minute epic by 26th June 2009- you could win a trip for your four Spielbergs to the BBC and even a Flip each.
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