raves | Steps in Teaching and Learning

Make music with UJAM

December 23, 2010 in lesson ideas, music, raves, Resources in the classroom, tools

UJAM

I found out about UJAM yesterday so I’ve been playing around with it this morning and I’m quite impressed. It’s a cloud based music creation platform which lets you use your own voice as the instrument. You can hum or sing a tune which UJAM records and can play back as a grand piano, electric guitar along with a backing track. It’s very powerful and easy to use, if you have ever used music creation software before. If not, it doesn’t take too long to create a relatively plausible track in a few minutes. Here’s my own example which I made in about 15 minutes.

UJAM will never take the place of learning a real instrument but it does give you the ability to capture a tune quickly, auto tune it, convert it into another instrument, edit it and add arrangements. Very clever indeed.

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Shame if you’ve banned conkers!

November 3, 2010 in learning, raves

Kids must wear goggles

Yesterday I asked my head teacher if it would be okay to let my class play conkers to which she answered, ‘As long as they don’t wear safety goggles!’

We played through this morning as part of our school’s first ‘Conker Championship’. Every child gave their conker a name then I went through most of the established rules with the class before going to the playground. I gave a quick demonstration match with one of my pupils and then everyone started playing. We also had ‘official match referees’ set up with each pair to assess victories and record strikes made for our Maths data handling activities. You can find out more on our Official Conker Championship blog.

The experience was fantastic, for the class and for myself. We had a great morning learning about playing a game most of us adults played when we were children. Some of the children had played before but for many it was their first time so needed to be shown how to hold and strike their conkers. There was a buzz in the classroom that carried through to the next class and throughout the school by lunchtime with many children asking me if they too could enter the competition. Hopefully we will manage to find enough conkers for everyone to play with and we can then have a full school competition.

Download a poster for your school to let others know about the Conker Banning myth!

Tags: fun, myths, outdoor learning, outdoors, playing
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A jump into the unknown

September 9, 2010 in learning, raves, thoughts

springboard ©danibegood2001

Last night I was awarded ‘Learning Technologist of the Year‘ along with Cristina Costa. We couldn’t have been further poles apart with me being a Primary school teacher and Cristina based with the Research and Graduate college at the University of Salford yet we have one intrinsically linked goal – effective learning.

The award was a fantastic achievement to receive but this is only a little piece in the ever changing puzzle that is education. I’m not going into an in depth conversation about that, that’s what the ALT conference is all about. But as a Primary school teacher I feel that I am an essential part of this education puzzle. The steps I take in my classroom are sometimes fraught with anticipation, not knowing whether what I am going to do with my class will be enhance their learning.

If the technology doesn’t fit I won’t use it but when it does, my goodness, it works.

For the last 13 years, I have never shied away from my use of technology as part of my everyday toolkit. I have jumped off many springboards during that time and I will continue doing so, for with every jump my class and I have taken, we have found ourselves emerged in a wonderfully engaging world of learning opportunities that we would otherwise have missed.

Tags: effective, learning, teaching
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Here’s to those that inspire

August 12, 2010 in learning, raves, thoughts

FlickrCC search tool http://johnjohnston.info/flickrCC/index.php

Over the last 8 months I have been inspired in so many ways – from people to places, to music and words on a page. The #gtauk event was an adrenaline rush of inspiration whilst many moments in my classroom demonstrated that children will continue to inspire me. But I want to take this opportunity to highlight two educators that have inspired me this year – Tom Handley and Oliver Quinlan.

Twitter @tomhenzley

Tom has recently gained his Qualified Teacher Status and will be embarking on his first teaching post this September. I started to follow him on Twitter and keep up with his excellent account of being a PGCE trainee teacher on his wonderful blog. What set Tom apart for me was his enthusiasm and determination for he not only completed his PGCE course but also organised a Teach Meet and has been putting together through Twitter a PGCE Survival guide ebook (#pgcetips) which is due to be launched for download for free or to buy later today! Amazing. You deserve every success Tom.

Twitter @oliverquinlan

Oliver was in the same situation as Tom last year but has completed a very successful first year’s teaching post as an NQT. Again it’s his determination and enthusiasm that inspires me and I had the pleasure to meet him in July during the Google Teacher Academy which he was a presenter at. He is without doubt a fantastic teacher who puts learning first and that was apparent in the video he showed us during his presentation.

Using technology may be at the heart of my teaching and learning but I know like we all do that it is not the only answer. Tim and Oliver are both highly motivated professionals that also use technology as part of their approach to improving learning in their classrooms.

“the biggest success has to be the progression I have seen in the 31 children I have taught this year. The changes I have seen in their confidence, their work ethic, and their general attitude towards learning has been phenomenal, and I am very proud of the hard work they have all put in. There are of course many areas to continue to work on in my teaching, and that will be the subject of a future post, but I am pleased to have taken a class through a whole year and really made a difference to them.” Oliver Quinlan

This is what teaching is all about, making a difference, making a change. It’s not the tools, it’s the people behind them. Thanks for your inspiration Tom and Oliver.