3rd SESSION ICT 2017

Hi everyone, I'm Gemma!

Last session was quite different so we went through the smart board. Maribel, our ICT teacher, presented us this useful tool and gave us some clues about how to get it and so on. Then, as the most practice, the better knowledge, we had the chance to interact with the smart board. She provided us a list with all the possibilities that you can perform with the tool and invited us to touch and try everything. We divided the class into two groups and we're filling the grid regarding our practice from the smart board and then from our laptops.
After the break, the teacher told us what would be the final assessment about and we also had some time to develop part of it.

Thanks for reading it!

IWB: The Solar System

Hello teachers!

In this entry Tania Grijalba, Laia López and José Luis Rodriguez are going to talk about Interactive Whiteboards in classroom, specifically about the Smart Notebook application. With Smart notebook you can easily create engaging interactive learning experiences in minutes while providing the flexibility to respond to the needs of learners on the fly. Among the large variety of applications that this resource can offer today we will focus on the Activity Toolkid. This part of the app enables to create present games and we are going to introduce one of them, the ‘multiple choice’ activity.

Target audience

The activity created is thought to be developed with second key stage (3rd - 4th grade).

Aims:

- To revise the unit we have been learning about the last sessions, the solar system.

- To create a game in a collaborative way.

- To identify the most important content and include it in the game.

Competences:

• Linguistic and audiovisual: The students have to create the material in English and meanwhile use the English to communicate their ideas.

• Management of information and digital: Because the students use the computer and the IWB.

• Knowledge and interaction with the world: Due to it is a CLIL (science) session.

• Social and civic:  In groups they have to cooperate and talk with their partners.

Classroom Management

After  having worked in previous sessions the Solar System topic, we will use a program of the IWB to review what they have learned.

The teacher will make six groups of four people and explain how to create an activity with the Smart Notebook program, in this case a multiple choice activity because we want to simulate the game Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Then children will begin to work in groups and, using notes and books about the solar system must create and think among all five questions with four answers and one of them is correct. They will have 30 minutes to create them.

Video. How to create in Smart Notebook an activity of multiple choice.

The teacher will pass from group to group reviewing that the questions are not too difficult, and especially that are not repeated with another group, very important!

When the students have finished, a person in the group will go to the computer, and with the help of the teacher will insert the five questions in the program of the IWB. When all the questions are inserted, we will make a competition by groups. 

Video. How to insert the questions on the program.       

Video. We have already prepared the questions!

                                                                  

Each group will go in front of the class to read their questions out loud while they are projected on the screen.  Before answering any question, each group will write down on paper what they think is the correct answer. They have 30 seconds to discuss, give an answer, and put the paper with the answer on the centre of their table.

Video. Now, we can play!

Each question will be answered on the IWB by different students, and all students in the class must answer a question. Finally, when we know which is  the correct answer, each group will show the paper with the answer that they believed were the correct ones. For each question that the group answered correctly, they will receive two points.  Besides, if the student who is answering responds well individually, will give one more point to his group.

Video. In this video is explained how to save activity on the computer. 

Assesment

The teacher will consider the process of creation of the activity by the groups, not only the final result of the competition. The teacher also will observe if all  participate actively in their groups, if they create the questions in English correctly, if they need much help or not and if they treated properly the computer.

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

This activity is a HOT activity because the students have to, first analyse which content is more relevant in order to create the questions and then create a game it self.

Four English skills

The creation of this game involves reading, writing, listening and  speaking. In order to create the questions first of all they have to read the unit again to revise it and decide which parts are the ones that are worth questioning. Secondly, the students have to write the questions and the answers in a paper and afterwards in the computer. Finally, the students will have to listen to each other and decide which questions and answers create for the rest of the class and also the read and speak the questions out loud.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages: The program is intuitive and it is really fast to create and edit the questions. You can save the game for another moment. It is motivational and helps the students to revise the content and use the language.

Disadvantages: Sometimes the program gets stuck and you can’t use it properly and it needs to be closed and opened again. The visuals are not very attractive. We wish there was more interaction between children and IWB.

I hope you will find interesting and you may use in the future.

Regards!

Powerful interactive whiteboards

Hi everybody! We are Amaranta and Marta and today we start this adventure in the Cister Pearls Blog! Have you ever heard about the power of Interactive Whiteboards? In this post we will share with you the things that we have learnt about this amazing tool and its effective features during the last ICT session. 

It's widely known that old blackboards are exponentially getting obsolete so new motivating ways of teaching are showing up. Over the last few years, schools are realizing about the added value contributed by Interactive Whiteboards to learn, teach and collaborate at classroom. However, it's true that some teachers still find difficulties when it comes to use it for some reasons such as the lack of confidence and training, the belief that it's time consuming or because it implies getting away from their comfort zone. 

That's why keeping up-to-date and continuous training it's essential for educators to be competent at the current technological needs. This resource offers several advantages over traditional blackboards such as the ability to attend all different learning styles (visual, auditive, kinesthetic...) or the chance to design activities taking into account Bloom's Taxonomy (HOTS and LOTS).

Before presenting our activity, we think it's interesting to explain briefly some actions that Interactive Whiteboards can offer you. Some examples would be: adding, copying, pasting, editing text, images, gifs, graphics, shapes, videos; using templates about different kind of activities classified in different topics, creating new ones, searching on the Internet. In short, different kind of dynamic activities that involve children, promote participation and cooperative work. 

Activity: Let's know our body! 

Having said all that, we are going to present our activity about the parts of the body, aimed to review the content vocabulary: eyes, ears, mouth, nose, head, hair, arms, legs, shoulders, knees, toes, lips, fingers... This task is divided into two parts: the first one consists on identifying the parts of the body, matching the written words with the image (whole body of someone). The second part is more difficult because students are only provided with the image of the body and they will have to write it down the words. 

Description and organization of the activity

The class will be divided into three groups of four students small group). 

First part 

Students will see on the screen the body of a girl and some words written next to her. Each group will be in charge of matching six words. They will take turns to associate text-image. Teacher will ask them to participate in a sensible order to avoid classroom management issues. If any student doesn't know the answer, his/her group will help him/her. This will take about 15 minutes.

Second part

The groups will be the same. The picture of the body will be a boy. Students will have to write it down using the interactive markers the word that matches with the image. Each group will write four words. Because of this activity requires a higher level, students will have to cooperate and reach an agreement before the final answer (they need to be aware of the spelling). If the answer is right, they will get one point for their team. The team who get more points, will be the winner! This will take about 20 minutes. 

There are no specific roles because all the members are responsible for the same task. Everybody will participate (rotating each turn).


Picture of the activity:

Added value contributed by ICT

• Visual support
• Cooperative task
• Provides feedback: Well done, try again!
• Motivating

Session 3 (10/03/2016)

By Laia López Mullor

In session 3 we have been learning about smart boards. First, we reflected about the use of technologies in class. We contemplated whether they can be used by the students, the teacher or both while also considering the pros and cons that they come along with. Secondly, we learnt some practical things about smart boards in groups from questionnaires. Following a list of instructions, we learnt in a practical way how to use the smart board one by one in groups of four. We started with easier taste to the most difficult ones.
Then, Maribel told us about "ExperTics", a very interesting role that student's play at her school. The main idea is for teachers to ask for some volunteers, from students in different grades, in order to teach them some tips about how to solve common problems that can came up in the classroom. For example, when the internet doesn't work or when the smart board has problems. After taking this masterclass, the students should become experts in technology and be able to help the teacher as well as the rest of the pupils.
Finally, we learned in a practical way, following a list of instructions, how to use the smart board one by one and from the easier tasks to the most difficult ones.

(Expertics video)

During this session we have been learing a lot of things. Here you have the sum up of this session and the files we have been looking at:






This is the end of my entry, if you have any doubts let me know and I do my best in order to help you.

Goldilocks and the three bears

In this blog entry I am presenting one of the activities I created in this subject related to one of my favourite stories: Goldilocks and the three bears. 

As you all know, the subject has been divided into two different parts with two different teachers. Yolanda Scott-Tennent was the teacher the first part of the term and Maribel Benito has been the teacher the last part of the term.

One of the activities I created with Yolanda in the first part of the term was related to HOTS (creating) and LOTS (understanding and identifying) and it was adapted to Primary 1.

The activities I created are focused on a story and the development of different skills from the story, specially writing and speaking through descriptions of the characters, ordering the parts of the story and revision of the main vocabulary.

The story chosen was Goldilocks and the three bears because children really enjoy that story and because it is easy to work on the structures, vocabulary and sequences. 

All the activities in the planning are in a powerpoint and the unit is introduced by telling the story in two different formats (story with pictures and a video).

Story with pictures (http://www.education.com/games/goldilock-three-bears/) 

Video (http://wn.com/goldilocks_the_three_bears).

Later on, other type of activities are introduced. If you clic on the following image, you will be directly linked to TES IBOARD, a website where you can find several resources related to any topic. In that case, the activity is related to the story we were working on (Goldilocks and the three bears) and it gives you the opportunity to create different scenes from the story and talk about them using the same structures and vocabulary that are used in the original story. So the main objective is the learning of the structures and vocabulary through repetition with visual support and through ICT resources.

In this slide, you will also find a variety of activities (flashcards, matching activities, revision of vocabulary...).

Once all the activities are done, it is time to create a story. The main idea is to create the story Goldilocks and the three bears but remembering the sequence, the vocabulary and the structres. Although it is a repetition of the story, children are allowed to make it personal by choosing the background, adding pictures and audio files.  

When I discovered this website, my first thought was related to Primary 6 because of the competences and authonomy, but checking the reality in our classrooms nowadays I am definitely sure that our Primary 1 students will be able to use this website. Maybe they will need more help and time but the final result will be great.

Finally, in the last slide of the ppt, there are different activities related to drama. You can find one song, one script of the story and some examples of masks of the different characters. I found them in the British Council website and I would like to highlight that this website is full of useful resources and they are adapted to the interests of the children.

  

Hope you find the activity interesting and that it is adapted to the needs of your groups. 

IWB, making the best of them!

Children are in contact with many technological devices nowadays; their parents’ mobile phone or their own (depending on the age), tablets, computers, laptops... Schools’ contexts are not different and our students are in contact as well with all these devices but also with something quite different which are Interactive whiteboards.

In my opinion they are very interesting and dynamic resources to take advantage of. They allow us to use a large amount of tools, programmes and resources or even create ours, which depending on the case might be more meaningful and adapted to our students. They are also attractive due to the fact that students can actively participate and interact when doing activities in the class with these devices. By contrast, digital whiteboards only allow teachers to project different materials but this is not as much motivating as having the chance to “play” with the interactive ones.

My experience with Interactive Whiteboards is quite limited. I’ve used them in different occasions but nobody has properly taught me how to make the most of them; therefore the use I could have done was not appropriate by a long shot.

Our last session helped me to learn more about Interactive Whiteboards as well as learn about Notebook and how to use it to design a varied sort of activities to develop English (or other content) in our class. I’ve created two activities in which we can develop both LOTS and HOTS of Bloom’s Taxonomy, specifically, understanding in the first one and creating in the second one.

The first activity consists of finding the hidden word. The students will need to choose a letter, click on it and see if the hidden word contains the letter they have chosen. They will be able as well to check the clue which will give them a description of the hidden word. This kind of game can be adapted to any topic we decide to work on; I focused it on describing adjectives and personal features including the names of all of us; the idea is to do it with the names of our students so that it becomes something interesting for them and customized. 

The second activity allows us to work on creativity as well as on personal features and parts of the face. The students will create a new classmate by making a compilation using different parts of their faces. They can create different classmates so that everybody can participate using a part of his/her face: eyes, nose, mouth, hair.... Once they will have created the new classmate they will record themselves introducing this new character. It is important to mention here, that this activity can be adapted according to any topic, for instance animals. Another possible option is to create a new character/pet using different objects: food, toys, etc.

Hope you find them interesting!

Cheers