graham.dickie

I thought the January-March term was the quieter one. You know, the time when you catch up on all your work, get stuck into that big topic, clear your assessment. Maybe even tidy your desk. Okay, the last one’s unlikely. But still..?! Is it World Book Day already?
This year we’re going to stick to an [...]

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Apart from having problems printing out our comic, this has been a great experience.
The P1-3 children spent their period with me last week proof reading the comic for a few ‘added’ errors, and then after storytelling an extension to the book, where the main character is visited by the witch who needs her help, we [...]

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Many thanks to Andrew and James for the advice, and for pointing me in the direction of the Akismet widget in Edublogs. It’s already begun to block some of the spam that was turning the experience sour.
No excuse for trying to get the children writing now!
And in the spirit of ICT- if anybody who wrote [...]

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I’ve just realised that I’ve been ‘doing ICT’ without realising it!
Getting the pupils to use the internet for research is now standard practice. Blogging remains easier to talk about than action! And the issue of spam in Edublogs is getting to critical level. Beyond that?
My forays into the P1-4 class has focused on them creating [...]

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For some reason, my class’s blogs on edublogs are being spammed to frustration!
I don’t want the holidays, the free Nigerian money or the car leases. The friends and the drugs are beginning to look interesting though!
The damage being is being done to my fragile ego and to my willingness to continue to blog! It’s [...]

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I couldn’t just leave them all dispirited!
They had been so intrigued by the shape of the Apodo, though I doubt “appreciating the Apodo design” is a very valid Learning Outcome!  So back to the skipping ropes!
This time – cut the number of ropes, reduce the knot to ‘barely tangled’ and … success. Whoops! Successful Learners [...]

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By and large, using the Oscars to award to “Successful learners” has worked really well, in that everybody is familiar with the concept and the criteria. So, onwards and upwards!
In the multi composite you do tend to have many individuals working at their own pace, on their own things. Time to use the team building [...]

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The Apodo has arrived, much to the consternation of all pupils. P1-4 were convinced that it had something to do with their dinosaur project! My class showed equal ingenuity when asked what creature it reminded them of. What flower it looked like was harder. Which member of staff it most resembled was clearly pushing it!

So, [...]

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I think I’m beginning to understand this, and the more I understand it the more I like the idea!
Create-a-Scape, from Futurelab, is all about getting pupils to turn any place into an interactive sound world. An example would help! Using a portable computer(PDA), they can wander across a playing field, but be on an African [...]

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.. termtime.  Completely creamcrackered, but the educational adrenaline’s still pumping!
The Hinduism powerpoint essentially is finished. The blogs didn’t get done, but at least I know now that it would be better to timetable that into language on a regular basis.  I could get the class blog done as part of the developing “Friday Finish” activities.  [...]

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