Thursday 25 September 2014

Snacko - Healthy Snacks

Whilst I'm on...

I was asked about what we could do about Healthy Snacks in school.

Click on Snacko to see what I came up with before...




... could he be useful?


Khan Academy Videos


Hello All

I've just added a new tab to the Our Hero's Journey blog. It's a tool I've made for you to find, quickly, instructional videos on Khan Academy. It might be that you'd like to include them on your blog.

Click on the tab - KhanAcademyVids- above and have a look. Clicking on this link will take you to the same place too.

Let me know if you find it useful.

Paul



Tuesday 26 August 2014

A New Year Begins...

Just a gentle bit of fun to get the creative juices flowing...



When you've had a look - go to the Plotagon website and download the free software and have a go. Alternatively - you could go to the iTunes app store and download it for free onto your iPad.

Could this be useful for writing (playscripts in particular)?

Agenda for INSET

The agenda for next week!


Monday - 1st September


9.30am Session 1: The State of Play & The Art of Teaching
10.30am Coffee
11.00am Session 2: Lesson Study 1 - Literacy Observation
12.00pm Lunch
12.30pm Session 3: New arrangements for this year
1.30pm Classroom-based

Tuesday - 2nd September


9.30am Session 4: Response to Self-Directed Task
10.30am Coffee
11.00am Session 5: Lesson Study 2 - Maths Observation
12.00pm Lunch
12.30pm Session 6: Development of Teaching & Learning Policy
1.30pm Classroom-based



Monday 21 July 2014

A New iDawn!

So, teachers... you'll have received your iPads by now - how exciting! You'll have been given a crib-sheet on how to proceed. If you follow this link then you'll be able to choose from some more suggestions.

Remember - this will be used everywhere! For your admin and for teaching so get to know it well! Each classroom will have an Apple TV box too - have a look at the link to see what that could mean for what goes on in your room.

In the new term - we will also be sorting laptops as well as the ICT suite so lots going on. For now - have fun with the iPad.



Tuesday 10 June 2014

Mindmeister - Planning

Hello everyone.

From now on, we will be using Mindmeister to help us create and carry out our development planning. Tonight's staff meeting will have an input on it and all teaching staff will have been sent an invitation to sign up as part of the school's Mindmeister account. If you haven't been invited then let me know and I'll sort it out.

There is a new tab above the blog called Mindmeister Tutorials - spend some time looking at those as they will explain the basics of the tool.

The video below shows how the planning is to be done in our school. So, watch the tutorials first - then have a look at the video below.


Friday 9 May 2014

Want a Young Child to “Help” or “Be a Helper”? Word Choice Matters

This is the excerpt discussed in briefing this morning. The research is from:  Christopher J. Bryan, assistant professor of psychology at UC San Diego.
How do you get a preschooler to help with chores and other household tasks? A new study suggests that adults’ word choice can make a big difference.
The study, by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Washington and Stanford University, appears in the journal Child Development.
The researchers carried out two experiments with about 150 children aged 3 to 6 from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds who came from middle- to upper-middle-class homes. In both experiments, an adult experimenter began by talking to children about helping. The only difference between the two studies was that in one, helping was referred to with a verb (e.g., “Some children choose tohelp”), while in the other, it was referred to with a noun (e.g., “Some children choose tobe helpers”). Then the children began playing with toys. While they were playing, the adult provided four opportunities for the youngsters to stop and help the experimenter – to pick up a mess, open a container, put away toys, and pick up crayons that had spilled on the floor. In each case, the children had to stop playing to help.
The researchers also gathered baseline data, looking at to what extent a child chose to help the experimenter when helping was never mentioned.
Children who heard the noun wording (helper) helped significantly more than children who heard the verb wording (help). When the experimenter talked to youngsters about helping, using verb wording, the children didn’t help any more than when the experimenter never brought up helping at all.
“These findings suggest that parents and teachers can encourage young children to be more helpful by using nouns like helper instead of verbs like helping when making a request of a child,” said Christopher J. Bryan, assistant professor of psychology at UC San Diego, who worked on the study. “Using the noun helper may send a signal that helping implies something positive about one’s identity, which may in turn motivate children to help more.”
Earlier work by Bryan demonstrated that word choice matters with adults as well: People cheated less and voted more when encouraged to be a voter or not be a cheater. See “Do the Right Thing” for more.
Chris Bryan

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Blogging

And so it begins!

 Have a look across the top of the blog. You will see a new page has arrived - it's full of videos explaining how to 'blog' using our new blogs in school.

 Give it a go. There is a 'training blog' set up for you to play with.

Do what you like on it or with it (except deleting it!). It's there to be messed around with.

 Once you're feeling confident - create a blog with your year group partner for your year group. What can you add to it? How can it be used as a source of learning?

Monday 14 April 2014

Resources - IWB Timers

These are great for setting challenges and (dare I say) for helping to tidy the classroom or get changed for PE quickly!

Follow this link: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/


Resources - Videos to help with SPaG

A quick first offering for across the school. More can be made to order!




First Post

This is the first post on Our Hero's Journey! Hurrah!

Take some time over the coming months to check back here to find ideas and (hopefully) inspiration prior to and post-staff meetings and INSET.

As time goes on - you'll be able to search the site for all sorts. The titles of the posts and pages will give you an idea as to what will follow.

Enjoy.

Paul