Weeknote 1

After reading Doug Belshaw's post about weeknotes, I felt inspired to begin my own weeknotes series.

According to Weeknotes.com are:
"...Updates about what your business has been doing over the past seven days or so.

They're about reflecting on your work, your achievements, and what's on deck."

This notion of reflecting on my practice is something I have tried to do more since completing my Leadersip Pathways course in March. Therefore, weeknotes seem like a great way to do this. However, knowing the irregularity of my blog posts, maybe 'fortnightnotes' or 'everysooftennotes' would be a more appropriate name. In fact, to prove my point, my first weeknote is late - I refer to the week ending Sunday 30th May.

This week I have..
Helped to organise our school's talent show
It would appear that I have become a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I guess all teachers do! I never realised that my teaching career would give me experience in using audio equipment. My main role in organising the talent show this year was to organise the music side of things - creating iTunes playlists for the acts, setting up microphones, balancing the audio and providing music for before and after the show.

Completed the process of revising our school hours
Over the last few weeks I have led the process of revamping the timings of our school day. This process involved consulting with staff, pupils, parents and governors before finally announcing to the parents and local authority this week that our new day will start at 8.45am and end at 3.25pm for juniors (infants starting at 8.55 and 3.15). It was a relief to finally get this sorted.

Learned the value of INSET days
When I am a headteacher, I will value the importance of INSET days as a day to promote teamwork, develop the curriculum, explore teaching strategies (that use technology and that don't) and for building skills for teachers. All of these will benefit the children.

iPhone Apps

Since I upgraded to an iPhone in January my whole life has benefitted from the functionality of this fantastic gadget. My first instinct was to go app-crazy and download as many as I could. But after filling my phone with apps in a couple of weeks, I had to slim them down.


The following is a list of apps that have proved to have made the most difference in my lifestyle:

CalenGoo
For some reason I could never quite take to the Google Calendar app on ths iPhone, but I have found this app to be much easier to use.


Facebook
I never check Facebook on my laptop anymore, just on my phone.


Tweetdeck
My preferred Twitter client.


Notes
I know this one is free with the phone, but it is so convenient to just record quick reminders about things, school football match scores and other short messages. It's good that you can email the notes.


Spendometer
A really simple app that allows me to record my spending and to see my average daily expenditure. I wish that the app would be upgraded to show graphs of my spending, and the ability to set the expenditure to match with the dates that I am paid.


Toodledo
I adore this. It syncs with the website and is a great way to manage my tasks and to do list.


ShopShop
A basic, but handy, shopping list.


Dropbox
Quite possibly one of the best apps. It's hard to imagine an easier to use and more effective app for syncing files with different computers and your iPhone.


Evernote
I like the way that I can add information on the computer and then access it on my iPhone. Brilliant!


Shazam
I have always used Shazam to identify new tunes, but the iPhone app is simple to use and does it's job incredibly well. I also like the way that I can see where I was when I tagged the tune!


Amazon
It's great to have full access to the Amazon store from my phone.

MobileRSS
This great app works with Google Reader so I can read all of the blogs I subscribe to on my phone.

Memiary
I use this app to record five things that I'm proud of each day.

Flickr
I can view photos at my Flickr account, and my contacts using the Flickr app.

Tumblr
I'm experimenting with Tumblr at the moment. I think I want to use it to share resources and links. But I love the simplicity of the app.

Momento
This is a diary which also adds in my Flickr photos, and Facebook and Twitter updates.

Color Splash
In this app you can edit photos in a really clever way. You can turn the picture black and white and then colourise something you want to highlight.

Run Keeper
Perfect for recording the details of my running and cycling.

Love Flim
Used to choose the films we order.

Comic Twist
Add speech bubbles to your pictures!

2010 SATs

Given the number of schools that have boycotted this year's SATs, this experiment may not prove to be very popular, but here is a PrimaryPad where you can give you thoughts on this year's papers.

SATs boycott

One of the biggest issues in our school over the last few weeks (and probably most others as well) has been whether or not to boycott the Year Six SATs. Rightly or wrongly, after much debate our school has decided to enter the pupils for the SATs. Now, I don't want to offend anyone who passionately believes that SATs should be boycotted, but I just wanted to record my thoughts.


Personally I felt that we should take part in the SATs this year. Now this is not at all because I agree with the idea of testing in the current format, I just felt that it was too late in the year for the school and the children to not take part. I realise that this is mainly our fault in not preparing suitable assessment alternatives. Had we had the foresight to plan ahead at the start of the year, we could have arranged something to happen in its place.


I am a member of a union, mainly as advice throughout my career has encouraged me to, but I am really not in favour of 'being told what to do' by a collective of teachers. Just because three-quarters of less than 50% of the teachers who voted decided they wanted to boycott, there is an expectation that everyone should follow suit. I appreciate that being in a 'union' implies that we should all do the same thing, but I dislike the idea that my own decisions do not count.


Of the many main arguments against SATs, I am sympathetic to all, but not all of them apply to our school.

• Teaching to the test - this may be true to a degree, in that we use SATs questions as a plenary activity, or set a few questions as a homework based on what has been taught during the week. But in our school we aim to develop the children's skills for the future, not for the tests.
• Narrowing the curriculum - our SATs revision this year has consisted of a week and a half of revision in Maths (revising the topics that the children requested) and in English we developed two units based on our visit to Liverpool in March, and our PSHCE study of alcohol where we explored several styles of writing (which the children have enjoyed). We have attempted two past reading comprehension papers and one spelling paper and no others. Therefore, we have spent around three weeks 'revising'. Throughout the year the children have taken part in three days of first aid training, a book day, an Africa day, an Eco day, been on two visit and attended a five day residential in France. There has never been more than one Maths and one English lesson each day. Now I really don't believe that our curriculum has been narrowed as a result of the SATs.
• Pressure on the children - our message to the children throughout the year has been consistent - all we want is for the children to do their best. Levels are nice to achieve, but in the end we don't really care as long as the children are satisfied that they have done their best. We try to avoid the using the word 'tests' and prefer 'opportunities' as they are an opportunity to show what the children have achieved. Admittedly, some of the children are nervous, but we do our best to play the SATs down. The weeks before and during the SATs have been spent preparing for our 'Grow A Pound Week' which takes place the week after SATs. The atmosphere during the papers is relaxed and we try to be as encouraging as possible.
• Pressure on schools - now all of the above has to be put into context. I am fortunate to work in a school where children traditionally perform very well in the SATs. We have been lucky enough to do fairly well in the school league tables. Parents are supportive and we are in a town suburb, with families (on average) with few socio-economic difficulties. I don't think we feel as much pressure on us to perform as with some schools in the country (in fact, probably within our own town.) I realise that the boycott is about making a stand on behalf of such schools, but in the end we have to do what we and our parents believe is right for our own pupils.

The decision to enter the pupils for the 2010 SATs was based on discussions with staff, governors, pupils (38 for, 16 against) and the results of an open forum with parents. However, the feeling from everybody was that we should not participate in the 2011 SATs, and measures will be implemented next year to ensure that, if SATs are still in existence, we will not be taking part, but will be creating our own assessment methods.


Despite not taking part, I completely support the decisions of others' to boycott the SATs and I wish every pupil and school the greatest success in their assessments in Year Six.

It's a laughing matter...

During the inset day before Easter we enjoyed an introduction to Laughology workshop.

At Laughology, we are serious about humour. We want to put something positive into people’s lives in business, health and education. How? With a unique programme of tried and tested laughter and humour techniques. They improve everyone’s performance and productivity, health and well-being.
The Laughology model gives each individual a ‘tool-box’ of methods and models they can use to help them think and act positively. The tool box is transferable -- anyone can use it, anywhere! -- and it's sustainable, because it just goes on working. We work with public and private-sector organisations to enrich best practice.


The workshop really was funny and it made me think about the science behind laughter - what makes us laugh and why and what happens when we laugh.
 
I learned an interesting facts - babies and toddlers laugh up to 300 times a day. As adults we laugh up to 17 times a day (on average). When we laugh, the body releases endorphins. When they are released into the body, they cause a sense of well-being. They also act as analgesics - they can fight pain and make us feel better!
 
We also learned that we can increase our happiness if we follow the rules of FLIP:
Fake it - if you are feeling down, fake the body language used when we laugh;
Language - use positive language - be aware of the language you use;
Imagination - if you imagine something it will happen;
Pattern breaking - be aware of yours and other people's patterns.
 
"Life is too serious to be taken seriously"
Oscar Wilde
I guess this quote is easy to forget at times, but it reminds me how important it is to be happy and to enjoy life. Above all - laugh!

Leadership Pathways learning mindmap

This mind map (created using Bubbl.us) shows my main learning from my Leadership Pathways course.

Spelling City

I've finally taken the plunge and had a go at using Spelling City. This is a great website which is designed to help children to practise their spellings.

Inspired by http://www.spellingcity.com/mrbarberturnham/ I created an account for our school and uploaded the spellings for the SATs spelling tests from 1996 to 2009.

The process was very easy to do - literally, as easy as typing in the words. The site then creates a sentence which uses the word to put it in context.

The children can go to the site and practice the spellings. Words are read out for them to spell! Simple, yet brilliant!
You can find our SATs Spelling lists at www.spellingcity.com/churchlane.

Shakespeare

A few weeks ago we studied two of Shakespeare's plays, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

Here are some resources that I have discovered. I hope they may be of use to others:


It was a joy to find the BBC Animated Tales on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/shakespeareanimated#p/u







We bumped into the Classical Comics stall at the Education Show and purchased copies of the quick read versions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. We also bought a copy of the teacher's guides which are excellent resources. http://www.classicalcomics.com/


Dawn wrote in her blog about her excellent work on Macbeth raps, inspired by this video:


This would be a great addition to our work for another time.

During the work we produced comic strips, retellings, newspaper reports, play scripts and newspaper reports. The children thoroughly enjoyed the project. Later this year perhaps we'll take a look at Hamlet too!

Does anyone else take Shakespeare in Year Six? Does anyone have any other good resources to share?

Leadership Pathways: Final Thoughts

The final day of Leadership Pathways was my favourite, and when I finally began to realise the message of 'reflection' that the course has tried to foster throughout.


I have never felt like much of a reflective practitioner. Being reflective requires time and time is something I haven't got enough of. But by the end of the LP course, I was becoming more and more reflective and continuing to do this after the course is over is something I am looking forward to. I need to make time to be reflective. I guess this blog is becoming the perfect place to do that! (Actually, looking back, I have used the blog less and less as an outlet to report news affecting Year Six, but more as a place to reflect on and to share my school-based experiences.)


Core Day 3 of the programme is subtitled 'celebrating success'. It was the day to share learning with each other and our coaches. We were asked to share a presentation about our 'whole-school change project' that we had been working on. I had been worried about this, but some good advice from @deputymitchell, @dawnhallybone and @primarypete_ on Twitter calmed me down. As a result of their advice, I decided not to use any ICT in my presentation. This was definitely the right decision. It was actually great to be free of the constraints of a PowerPoint presentation. I did, however, use PowerPoint to prepare and structure what I wanted to say.

LP Presentaion

View more presentations from guest6a9520.

A lot of this, I understand, won't make sense without some context. So this is what my project was all about:
Through the process of taking the online units, I realised that the school is good at informing, collaborating with and involving the community in its work. We weren't, however, as good at consulting and empowering the community. I decided to set up a questionnaire to learn more about the community and their thoughts about our school. At the moment we are part way through this process. The surveys have been distributed and returned and the analysis process is underway right now. The project is enabling me to gain experience in using data, using influencing strategies and work with the community.

Overall, I believe that I have developed as a leader through the Pathways course and I am looking forward to seeing my learning have an impact throughout my work in school.

Leadership Pathways: Creative Resource Management

This online unit was suggested as part of my routemap analysis. With hindsight, I wish I'd chosen a different unit. C'est la vie...

The most important idea that I took away from this unit was that continuing professional development is important to keep a vibrant, happy workplace that is able to change and adapt.

I liked the idea of asking staff to 'bid' for resources - to encourage them to consider the value of their ideas, and the impact on the children and the school.

CPD should be integral to everybody's role - it should form part of job descriptions. This unit suggests that CPD should include developing skills as a teacher, but also different non-classroom related skills too. Provide a range of learning experiences for staff as well as pupils to promote creativity and a positive atmosphere.

Develop an ethos of learning - encourage people to 'have a go'. Find ways around a problem by exploring and inventing. Create an environment that is safe, comfortable and yet challenging so that creativity can develop.

Leadership Pathways: Data & Beyond

My final online unit was entitled 'Data & Beyond', reminding me of Buzz's catchphrase in Toy Story. However, that word 'data' made this unit just about as far removed from fantasy as possible! Actually, everything about this unit is to do with facts and evidence and using it to instigate changes. This is what I learned from the unit.

There are ten tips for making a difference with data. These are taken from the NCSL website:

1. It's your data - use it internally to improve standards.
2. Prior attainment - assemble as wide a range of data as you can.
3. Follow through on the data - collecting data is only as useful as the use that is made of it.
4. Review how your school uses data - does your school's use of data have a clear set of purposes or is it more of what we have always done?
5. Take the evidence seriously - examining the evidence can shed new light on things schools take for granted.
6. Use significant data - carefully identify the data items that your school needs to collect and analyse to inform its vision and strategy and to have impact.
7. Look beneath the data - looking beneath the data to understand the individual experiences of the children it represents is a key part of validating its usefulness.
8. Involve parents - parents can be essential allies in helping their children develop - if they have good information about how their children are developing and what targets they are working towards/
9. Involve pupils - if data is being used to improve individual pupils' performance, it's all the more effective if the pupils themselves are involved and given awareness and ownership of their own learning.
10. You're in charge - being familiar with your data and using it in a regular, planned way, within the context of your overall school's development, will ensure that the data serves you.

Data collection and analysis does not really form part of my role (my colleague leads this process) but reading this got me thinking that maybe it should be! We are constantly told that Ofsted want 'evidence, evidence, evidence' yet this doesn't seem to be something I have been gaining experience in using. From the very beginning of the unit I realised that data is a process that I need to find opportunities to develop my own practice.

I learned some practical advice for data collection:

• Look for the right type of data - will it help you to show what you want?
• Often, the data produced for external reasons is not the data you need. It might be more effective to produce your own data.
• Data can be quantitative - in lists, tables, charts or numbers.
• But data can also be qualitative - opinions, feelings, pictoral, words. It must be rich in value.
• Find the right bits of information which will help us to teach better and, more importantly, the right kind of data to help my pupils learn better.
• A representative sample can be identified.
• Sensitivity must be used when monitoring practice.
• Surveys must be planned and organised thoroughly.
• Note the current model so that the impact of changes can be compared.

Practical advice for data analysis:

• Evaluate the impact of changes regularly.
• Data hasn't got to show what has gone wrong - try to discover what works best, or what will work better.

Advice for acting on the data:

• Data should be acted on in a positive way - make changes which are for the better which will benefit the pupils, the staff and the wider community.

When giving feedback regarding data:

• When giving feedback about data explain why you are saying things - be specific.
• Use data to support anything difficult that you want to say.
• Don't just deliver a monologue - create a dialogue.
• Empathise, but don't sympathise. Don't back down - make it clear that support will be given to help people move forward.
• Make sure your message is clear.
• Consider how you want to open the feedback, and also the effect of how you want them to be at the end.

Learning to collect, analyse and act on data must form part of my next steps in my career.

Inspiring people and blogs

UPDATE
Over the last few months I have read various blogs by various educators and it is hard not to be inspired when you read about the wonderful things that the children are enjoying in their classrooms.

Here is the list of just some of the blogs that I've found really interesting over the last few months. I wanted to share them just in case there's anyone out there who hasn't stumbled across them before. I apologise if I've left anyone out.

Maybe there's an easier way to share these links? I'll have to work one out...!
Webb's Wide World
Mr Mitchell's Blog
Simon Haughton
Mrs Spencer's Blog
Mike McSharry
Tales from a Trainee Teacher
Digital Teacher
Adventures In learning
Bits & Bobs
Chris Leach
Jamie Keddie
Mr Warner
Primary Pete
Steps in Teaching and Learning
Edte.ch
Doug Belshaw
Robert Drummond - Teaching resources, ideas and comments
Primary PGCE - Trainee primary teacher in Somerset
Ian Addison - The blog of an ICT Consultant and Primary school teacher

Leadership Pathways: Effective Influencing Skills Workshop

For me, the Effective Influencing skills workshop was the best part of the whole course so far. It's just a shame that I only had the chance to take it two weeks before the whole course finishes!

The idea that there are many different ways to influence others is something that I just hadn't even considered before.


The workshop made me aware of the different ways that I work currently and the ways that I want to work in the future.


We began by hearing about the three different levels of influence - rational, emotional and political. These different influences have different effects on different people and do not necessarily work on every person and in every situation. But, in an ideal work, to have complete influence over everybody, you need to be in to middle, using all three levels of influence.


We were introduce to nine different styles of influencing.

• Value-driven style
• Goal-driven style
• Need-fulfilment style
• Visioning style
• Rational style
• Pushing style
• Institutionalising style
• Educating style
• Supporting style

These are all push or pull (or both) styles of influencing. Push behaviours are rational, assertive and explicit.  (Energy comes from you to make others have to change.) Pull behaviours are emtional, involve listening to others and being open. (Energy comes from others because you have made them want to change.) Overuse of each type can be counter-productive so it is important to find a balance.


I have always believed myself to be a 'puller' - someone who makes people want to change, but after taking an auditing exercise I believe I have become more of a 'pusher'. Whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing, I know now that I need to be more aware of the influences I use.


Force-field analysis is 'a strategic approach to influencing situations at work'. It analyses and prioritises the driving and restraining forces. More information is available here.


There are always pros and cons to a decision – nothing is ever that simple! The secret of good decision-making is figuring out whether the pros outweigh the cons BEFORE you take action. With force field analysis, you list and score the factors for and against a decision, total the scores and see which comes up best.

If it's a close call and the decision for or against is not clear, you can add an extra step. Review the factors affecting the decision and create an action plan to increase the “fors” and decrease the “againsts”. Simply repeat the force field analysis with the new conditions and your decision will be clear.
 
I found the idea fascinating. I can use this idea to consider any change I wish to make before I introduce it to staff to see how successful it could be. At any stage in the change process it can be used to evaluate the success of the project.
 
The ideas in this workshop actually link up well with the stakeholder analysis in the Leading Through Influence online unit.

Mystery Stories

During our project on writing mystery stories, we watched these Scooby Doo episodes. They fit in well with our fairground/theme park topic and helped the children to 'shape' their story.







The children used the mystery short story rubric at Intel's website to encourage the children to think about the quality of their writing.

This website was used to help to structure their stories.

Some great ideas and planning sheets are available at this Scholastic site.

Hope you find this helpful.

Education Show 2010

I attended my second ever Education Show yesterday. I really enjoyed it and acquired a tonne of information and ideas. It was great to meet some interesting people too.

When I got back, it took me a while to work through all of the free mugs, free pens, chocolates, flyers and brochures that I collected, but I believe I have various things that I will try to explore when I get the chance over the next few months.

Whilst I'm not endorsing any of these resources, I thought I would mention the ones that I plan to investigate further or those that I purchased at the event.

Software:

• I acquired a copy of 2Simple's 2DIY for evaluation. I have heard such a lot about this on Twitter, finding the 2Simple stand was a priority for me. I will enjoy exploring this and hopefully the school will be able to afford to purchase a site licence at the end of the trial.

Websites:

• www.peplanning.org.uk - this interesting looking planning resource is in its testing phase. It's something I will pass to our PE subject leader.
• www.millionaireforschools.co.uk offers eduational quizzes for the children. I like the look of this, but I'm not sure we can afford it yet.
• www.asthma.org.uk/educate
• www.thepuncs.com
• www.iamlearning.co.uk - whilst I'm not necessarily a fan of revision, I was really impressed by the learning through games at this site.
• I renewed our subscription to Education City.

Learning Platforms:

• After spending nearly three years establishing our Uniservity learning platform in school I am reluctant to move to a different LP provider. Having said that, I was very impressed by the simplicity of the service offered by www.dbeducation.co.uk.

Resources:

• I'm a big fan of Polydron resources. I bumped into a director of the company who asked a while ago if he could include some of the videos from our Polydron work onto their website. I told him that I had quite a few more so he should be expecting an email with details soon! (You can see them at our vimeo channel at www.vimeo.com/churchlane.) The Polydron Engineer sets look really promising.
• Classical Comics: I love their version of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet and so I was pleased to purchase copies of the teacher booklets for these plays.
• We purchased some PDF ebooks for excellent prices which were produced by www.topical-resources.co.uk
• Filmclub sounds simple fantastic! The school will certainly be looking into this!
• We found some brilliant lino cutting materials which will be great for our William Morris art project in the summer. www.educationalart.co.uk
• I loved Rory's Story Cubes and I will definitely purchase the iPhone app!
• www.GoodMorningChildren.com seems like pretty good value and seems a pretty good way to start each day.
• www.memory4teachers.co.uk - After signing up for a free memory stick last year I was annoyed that I never received it. The salesman explained that there had been supply issues last year. Yesterday the memory sticks were given out at the show!
• www.lightningeducation.com - APP Assessment Angel looks like really good value and a great idea for a manageable solution to recording APP information.
• I'd love to get a Support Your School initiative started at our school.

Money & Careers topic:

• The Primary Enterprise Game produced by Halton Education Business Partnership looks amazing but very expensive. I'm not sure we'll be able to afford this just yet.
• www.credit4life.co.uk is a pfeg approved board game which encourages discussion about credit cards. I would love to buy these, but the cost may prove to be a barrier for a while.
• Raising Aspirations looks like a good resource for promoting higher education to pupils in the primary school.

Residentials:

• We chatted to a salesman from Manor Adventure who gave use some really good ideas for how we could further improve our visit to France next year.

As you can imagine, a lottery win would only just cover the cost of buying all of these resources. But it's great to know what is available, and, if finances allow, what could be bought to help to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools.

Junior Librarian.net

A lot of my time recently has been setting up Junior Librarian.net in school.

Junior Librarian is a complete library system for schools. It allows pupils (and teachers) to borrow and return school books. It allows users to reserve and review books. Our version uses a barcode reader to check books in and out.

It's not cheap, but it is a good bit of kit and, although we are just getting started, I feel that it is going to be very useful.

I foresee it being used in many ways:

1. Library books won't just get 'lost' any more. We should know exactly who has them.
2. We can further raise the profile of reading in our school by using it to recommend books to the children.
3. We can use it to guide our purchasing of books - if a type of book becomes popular we could then decide whether to buy more (or less) similar books.
4. We can discover the books that are most commonly read by boys or by girls.
5. We could use it to raise standards of writing by introducing a book review system.

We purchased Junior Librarian.net as this is hosted online, meaning it can be accessed over the internet anywhere in school and out.

One of the problems I had with setting this up is that I wanted pupils to be able to use the barcode reader to borrow and return books whilst in school. But out of school I want the children to be able to access the system to reserve and review books, and of course this can't be done without a barcode reader. So I asked if it would be possible to generate usernames and passwords for the pupils. I felt like this would be a perfectly reasonably request, and I'm sure I', not the only person who was ever asked for this facility. In the end it took absolutely ages to set this up. I had to download a file from SIMs, manipulate it in Excel and Access and then upload it. For somebody quite unfamiliar with this process this proved to be very difficult. I was virtually making phone calls every day trying to figure out why the file I had created just wasn't working. Luckily the helpdesk staff were really helpful and I finally got this sorted. But Microlib - you've got to invent an easier way to do this!

Year Six pupils loved scanning and labelling all of the books. It was really simple to do and they were really proud of their work.

The next part of the process (after half-term) is to introduce the usernames and passwords so that pupils can make full use of the site. I also want to train the staff to use the facilities of the site so that they can find out the most commonly read books in their class.

Long term, there is an option to upgrade to allow Learning Platform integration. This sounds really interesting - we'll see how we get on with the basic version first though.

Does anyone else have experience of Junior Librarian.net?

Polydron

Whilst I don't want to sound like a salesman for Polydron, I had to share very briefly how delighted I have been with the apparatus, which the class have used to explore components.

Polydron Revolution is a system which allows children to explore gears and pulleys to make moving models.

We began by spending some time looking at pulleys and gears. We considered the directions of the turns and explored the ratio of the different sizes. Then we moved on to bevel gears which will turn horizontal movement into vertical movement.

Next we explored the use of these in simple models. We added wheels and struts to make our designs more complex.

For the following two weeks we explored the models available. We made the models on the instructions and then we added our own modifications.

The children were then allowed to let their imagination run wild and make their own models!!

As well as being lots of fun, the children were really creative in their work. They learned many of the principles of using components.

Here are some videos of our work:

Gears and Pulleys Polydron Revolution 2010 Part One from Wistaston Church Lane on Vimeo.

Polydron Revolution 2010 Part Two from Wistaston Church Lane on Vimeo.

Polydron Fairground Rides from Wistaston Church Lane on Vimeo.

More Fairground Rides from Wistaston Church Lane on Vimeo.

Fairgrounds 3 from Wistaston Church Lane on Vimeo.

The Internet is huge...

I saw this on @2sparkley's blog and thought it was fascinating.

Sharing links with Sqworl

I heard about Linkbunch after reading about BETT on various blogs. Linkbunch allows you to share multiple websites by simple sharing links on just one page. I thought it was a brilliant idea. It would be great for sharing links with children for a research project or for parents when sharing some of the sites we use when studying a particular topic.





I later discovered Sqworl which I think has the potential to be even better.
Sqworl is incredibly easy to use. To create an account you'll need an email address and then create a username and password.

Then you can add links and give a description to each one. A unique page is created which includes the links and a screenshot.

The end result is very friendly-looking. I've created a page to share SATs revision websites at
http://sqworl.com/38hj5n.

The children could design their own pages to share websites that they like, or websites that they have used during topic work.

Tutpup

Since the start of the year I and my pupils have been getting into Tutpup. I read a blog post about it and thought I would give it a try.

Tutpup is a free website where children can play maths games (and a spelling game) against people from around the world. Owned by Mind Candy, the site is advert free and doesn't require any personal information about the children. The only thing asked for is an email address for mum or dad - unless you have set up a class, in which case the children don't even need this!

I asked on Twitter whether Tutpup is suitable for Year Six. The response was a resounding "Yes!" In fact it was recommended that all the children in the school are signed up. I think I'll sort this for the next school year. But in the mean time I set up two classes - one for each class.

The process for setting up a class as a teacher is very easy and quick. In no time at all, all the information was entered and then I just had to wait to use it with my class... In order to join my class, the children had to enter a class code which I had given them. Setting up all the children's accounts took around 10 minutes altogether. This is because it is hard to find a username that hasn't been taken yet. You have to select a colour, an animal and a number. Finding a combination of all three that hasn't been selected already can be frustrated. This one aspect of Tutpup is my only complaint.

Once logged in the children can start playing games! They can join in a game against someone else or create a game to play against another user. One of the things my children love is that you can see which country your competitor is from. "I've just beaten someone from Kenya!" was one of the early shouts from the class.

At the moment, the classes are given around 20 minutes each week in school to use Tutpup (as well as using it as often as they want at home). For the first couple of weeks the children could use it as they wished - try any game at any level. This was just to become familiar with the layout and functions of the site. After that we've been more specific.

Class teachers can print out a report of how the children are doing overall in a particular time table, or in a particular maths game. After two weeks I discovered that the children weren't doing so well at their 6, 7 and 8 times tables. So in week three they could only play these times tables. Later, I discovered that their division results weren't as good as the other operations, so the next week division games were the only ones allowed.

Then we started to push ourselves on to higher difficulty levels.

The children can win awards by using the site regularly and being successful. You can win an award by starting and winning five games, for example. You can also graduate from a level so that they can try games more appropriate to their ability. A win wall displays the names of the users you have beaten.

We have a list of usernames on display so that the children can see the usernames of their friends.

I love the fact that you can print out their results. I love the fact that the site is ad-free. I love the way the children don't need to enter personal details or an email address. I love the way you can freeze the games for five minutes in case you want to talk to the class.

I would highly recommend Tutpup to pupils of all ages.

Some comments from the children:

"I think Tutpup will help me with my 12 times table."

"It is one of the best maths websites in the world."

"It is improving my mental maths speed."

"The compeition elements is a good thing - it gives motivation." (A level 5A writer)

"It is fun going against people from other countries."

"It helps me to build confidence."

"There are loads of different maths games to go on."

"It makes you do better because you want to win."