Tales of the Unexpected

Sometimes kids surprise us. They often demonstrate the ability to see tasks from a different perspective or they have ideas that we as adults/teachers had not considered. This especially so when it comes to technology.

An example of this happen just happened in a library lesson. The students were in small groups and had been given the task of reading the same book. They then had to summarise the story in the form of a Rap. Our Teacher Librarian expected a set of lyrics that would hopefully be performed with a few finger-click or hand-claps as accompaniment. The result was somewhat different. As the lyrics were being written, many students turned to their iPads for inspiration, and the phrase "There's an app for that" proved itself to be true once again. In the week that Apple announced that there are over 1 million apps available for iPad, it's not surprising really that there are a whole host of useful apps for Rap writers & performers.

The student's creativity shone through, with the support of the right technology to improve the whole process. I can't wait to see what results they come up with next week.

Orchards Project

Get up early on a Sunday morning, come in to school & spend the day working hard with fellow students from across three year groups. Who would do that? A very enthusiastic and dedicated bunch of students, that's who.

Or maybe they are less 'Student' and more "Learner'. This was one of the concepts we explored as we began the first steps on our new & innovative Orchard Project. The team who are driving this exciting project are: Naomi, Nicolai, Daniel, Farah, Manett, Kelvin, Josh, Mei, Han-Yi, Shunna, Irene, Megan, & Melissa. 

Learner or Student?

The Orchards Project is an innovation being implemented by Apple Distinguished Educators in 3 countries - Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The students involved will become advocates - showcasing, modeling and speaking out with a credible voice - to help schools create and articulate a vision for connected, personalised learning.

The Orchards Project aims to create frameworks which will help schools to effectively engage learners and teacher-learners in an exploration of how technology tools can personalise learning, and how to better design learning experiences and spaces which connect to the lives young people live. This may include:

- working with ADEs within their country to create and publish examples of participatory, production-centred learning

- helping teachers to design learning experiences and spaces which connect to the lives young people live

- helping teachers to understand how technology tools can personalise learning working with schools to test the infrastructure requirements necessary to support connected and personalised learning models (network access, appropriate productivity apps, appropriate communication & storage environments, etc).

The KL Orchard Group

There is hope that some members of the Orchard group in each of the three countries will showcase their learning in a live studio at regional conferences this term. For the Singapore Orchard Group this means participating in Learning 2.013; for the Malaysia Orchard Group this involves participating in the FOBISSEA Leadership Conference; and the Thailand Orchard Group will take part in the EARCOS Leadership Conference.

More Global Connections

 

The children in Yr2 have been learning about 'Our Wonderful World', and this gave them an ideal opportunity to connect with other children around the world.

When I popped into their class they were chatting with children in a small international school in a very remote part of Russia (on an island in fact). They were able to share stories about their lives and identified the many ways in which they were just the same. Other aspects of our lives were also very different, and the children were all very curious about some of these.

Our Global Connections

Year 7 have been exploring their digital online lives. We've considered our roles & responsibilities, issues of safety and security, and the concept and importance of our Digital Footprints. Today we looked at hoe technology allows us to easily be connected to our friends and family. The map below shows some of the connections we have around the world.

View Global Connections in a larger map

Talking Art

For our student led conferences, Yr6 presented their recent Art project with a QR code attached to each piece. I was pleasantly surprised when I scanned one and immediately heard the voice of the artist, explaining the concept, inspiration and style of their work. I like the idea of this being an audio link, as it allows you to immerse yourself in the art as you listen to the description, rather than reading the information yourself. I'll be heading back there later to listen to a few more.

Audioboo was used to record the commentary. 

Language Teachers Learning Tech

For the last 2 days our MFL teachers have been learning loads of cool techie stuff to use in their lessons. Mr Joe Dale, an expert form UK, has been here at ISP sharing his experiences and knowledge, particularly in the use of iPads. There some great iPad apps for language learning. Expect some exciting stuff in you classrooms soon.

Tech Consultant

That's me. For just one afternoon I was hired as a consultant by Year 4. They had been producing their own digital guides for their upcoming Art Gallery. The idea is that visitors to their gallery are given an iPad, and they use it to guide them around the gallery, providing them with detailed information about the exhibits. The children have made these in Keynote, complete with photos, videos and audio, all hyperlinked from a contents page. 

The reason they hired me as a consultant, was because many had ideas of what they wanted to achieve, but didn't know how to get Keynote to do it. If this was the case, they made an appointment to see me, by signing up on a sheet, and had to wait for their assigned time. The process was slick and smooth and they all got their problems solved.

During the rest of the time, they were preparing for their exhibition, or having other appointments with their class teachers about other issues.

I thought this was a great model for giving them the responsibility to be more active in seeking support as needed.