I Should Be Marking

Clicky!

Phew! Well, it took two whole lessons to get right, but such is life.

My Year 8s spent half a lesson using the rubber stamp and lasso tools in Fireworks to create ‘Spot the Difference’ pictures. The plan was to spend half a lesson uploading them to the class blog for all the world to see. I’d spent quite a bit of time getting the permissions right on the blog to make sure the kids had access to the files area and had thought everything should be fine. Hmmm.

First of all, the file size limit was too small, so I opened it up.

Secondly, the files were still too big as we had saved the edited versions as PNG files. So do I stop and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of file sizes or rush through a quick export in order to get it done? Well, as I’m being observed I go for the latter in order to reach my objective.

Thirdly I find we can’t upload files with spaces or punctuation in the filename - which is about two thirds of them, so we have to fix that.

Fourthly the software is set up to allow one directory per blog rather than per student, so we need to get them to create their own folder within the files section - using their first name for example.

Three of them are called Michael. At this point I’ve managed to create a nice head-sized dent in the wall.

Brilliant! We’re all uploaded. Now simply write a post and use the ‘Files’ button to add the images in. Except that this opens a new window which doesn’t automagically close once you’ve added the files. And so, Year 8 pupils being Year 8 pupils, they simply click the ‘Add’ button until it realises what they mean and does it right, resulting in half a dozen entries consisting of 24 copies of an image set to 1280×960. Then the bell went.

The next lesson we started from the point where we had done the image editing. I talked a lot about file types, the export process (people kept complaining that when they exported their PNG as a JPG they still had a PNG file on their desktop. Aaarrgghh!!), the upload process, the adding of images to the blog post and the structure of a blog entry (Introduction, Description, Discussion - the last part always being the most difficult to tease out).

So a partial success and a lot of lessons learned. I don’t think blogs are cutting edge, although their use in lessons still is to a large degree - especially in secondary schools where lessons are shorter, classes change more frequently, etc. I certainly feel like I’m on the forefront, but maybe that’s just me!

Anybody out there heard of Creative Partnerships?

We have an ongoing relationship with them at school. They give us some money every year and we fund creativity in two ways. One is through one-off projects . This is what, apparently, most schools do with it. We also (and primarily) fund one year promoted posts. As previously mentioned, mine is related to getting pupils blogging, whilst others are promoting creativity in maths with low achievers, working on P4C (big questions), promoting competitive creativity online and encouraging creative writing.

Our big project for the year is the refugee bus. A trailer which aims to demonstrate to the pupils what it is like to arrive in a foreign country, not speaking the language and having to go through customs. The aim is for the kids to appreciate how traumatic the experience can be as well as learning about the difference between migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. We have a lot of prejudice bubbling under the surface I suspect, not helped by the national media.

My part in this was to take my Y8 bloggers who will be going through the experience next week and simply asking them “What is a refugee?”. The answers were fascinating. “Someone who travels around the world but has no identity”. “Someone who had to leave their country because of war”. “They’re a bit like a tramp, but the government gives them a house”.

I refused to tell them anything. Whether they were right in their assumptions, whether this person would be male or female, whether they would speak English, where they were from… Instead I told them to make up the details. They had to invent a refugee and describe who they were, and who they are now. As I said earlier, the results were fascinating.

One of the first pupils to name their refugee called him Mowglai. Another wanted to call her refugee Lloyd, because he didn’t have to be foreign. Two thirds went for male refugees, and two thirds went for non-European. One pupil had a refugee with a private jet who flies around the world staying in posh hotels. All very interesting.

Next week they’ll be posting about what they found out in the ‘bus’, with a further, conclusive post a week or two later. Fascinating stuff and it really makes me want to do more of this stuff where we challenge the way kids think rather than just teaching them how to make PowerPoints about theme parks.

To visit the blogs themselves (and PLEASE leave some comments), go to egglescliffeblogs.org.uk 

So, I’m now the resident blogging Tsar in school and as such I really ought to be getting pupils blogging. Just before we broke up for Christmas I got two of my Y7 classes to write an introductory blog post, having watched “Blogs in Plain English”. This week I also got a Year 8 class to do the same.

In order to help those with weaker literacy skills, and to improve the general structure of the blog entries I’ve come up with a very basic writing frame:

• What the post is about - a one sentence introduction
• What happened - a description of the events
• Why it mattered - how it made you feel, what it made you think, how your view/opinion/attitude changed

Has anyone come up with a better/more comprehensive guide or writing frame?

I’ve held everything in moderation for the time being so we can examine the quality and structure first, but the resulting posts will appear at the Blogs @ Egglescliffe site shortly and I hope you’ll offer comments and encouragement to the pupils.

Well, it made me laugh anyway…

As part of my new officially snactioned blogging spree I’ve created yet another blog - similar in ways to my Thunks blog but with a slightly different emphasis.

Where Thunks are about considering the world we live in and the ways in which we can ask questions, Deep Thought is more introspective and is aimed at investigating how we feel about the world we live in.

My first entry is a video about the Pale Blue Dot, a photograph of Earth taken from a distance of approximately 4 billion miles. Does it make us feel insignificant? Hopeful? Useless? Guilty?

Why?

To add your thoughts or to read the thoughts of others, follow this link. And please take part - as always.

I’ve been thinking a bit more about PDAs and thought I would share/reflect for a bit. Apologies if this rambles - I’m in that sort of a mood today.

Registers - At the moment I need to either ferry my laptop across the school twice a day for registration, or try and commit it to memory AND remember to submit the details electornically later. Suffice to say I’m not the most popular member of staff with the front office right now. A wifi enabled PDA would definitely help.

AfL - A colleague of mine makes quick notes in his planner during lessons (it could be a simple traffic light for effort or attainment in a specific area). I’ve tried taking a more batch-like approach at the end of each day but this takes up a minimum of 20-30 minutes and means I can’t grab those members of staff who slope off fairly quickly and it means I have to try and remember the events of the day for hours at a time. With a PDA would it be easier to make a quick note as I walk round? Easier than picking up my paper-based planner? Maybe…

Contact - I read one blog (which I now, of course, cannot find) which described the process of setting up a number of smartphones to be given to SMT/SLT which could be used to help them keep in contact throughout the day. This is far beyond the scope of what I can do with one handset but it’s an interesting idea

Style - If I was to go for this idea, then what style of PDA would I want? One that looks like a phone (e.g. Nokia N95), on that looks like a ‘traditional’ PDA (e.g. iPhone, XDA, MDA, iPaq, etc.) or more of a blackberry style? I have to say I’d prefer the ‘traditional’ look with a large slab of touchscreen and very little else.

Blogging - How could I use this device to aid my new blogging/creative teacher post? Well, I could blog from anywhere - but I’m very rarely away from a desktop or laptop anyway. I could prowl the corridors, looking for unsuspecting pupils to be coerced into writng something - but almost all rooms have a computer in them anyway and expecting a child to quickly formulate reflective, insightful thoughts AND get to grips with either an onscreen keyboard or handwriting recognition simultaneously would be pushing it I think. And getting somehting with a built in keyboard would mean either a blackberry styled device or somehting with a slideout/clip-on qwerty keyboard.

Would I want it to be a phone or is that unimportant? Well, originally it was the phone/PDA combination that kicked the whole idea off, and it would save on having to find another phone and carry another device. I don’t think I can justify making it a requirement though, especially if it’s not coming from my own budget. And SIM-free phones are much harder/more expensive to come by.

Lots of thoughts, but no decision as yet. On major sticking point is the price of these things. I’m too polite to ask for a budget but the £4-500 devices are surely well out of the question, especially as I’m due a new MacBook next year as well.

The contemplation continues…

I forget exactly how but I ended up with a sim-free XDA II PDA/phone about 4 years ago, and it’s spent about 3 years of that sat in a drawer. I dragged it back out about a month ago and have been using it to manage my increasingly complex diary, read the odd e-book and store a couple of amusing YouTube clips I’d collected. I’ve even just ordered a SIM card for it to replace my contract phone (which rarely sees more than a single text and phone call a day) and now I’ve gone and lost the bloody thing!

Asking around at work to see if it turns up (I suspect it fell out of my pocket as I was riding my bike home last night - in which case I’ve got no chance) my HoD offered some of the development budget to buy a new one.

Initially I said no as I didn’t think it right that the school should buy me a phone but then he got to talking about experimenting with something ‘more fancy’ to see if I can do something new with it.

Add to that my new post as Lead Creative Teacher in charge of blogging (and other Web2.0 stuff) and it got me thinking about actually using it as more than a gadget or simple calendar and being able to add something to the school.

So - what PDA/phones do you use? What for? How can I use a PDA effectively, innovatively and creatively? Any suggestions for specific models?

I have to say the N95 looks extremely tempting, but only if I can justify it (to myself even moreso than to the school).

Thoughts and opinions welcome…;

I applied for a promoted post recently and am now officially a ‘Lead Creative Teacher’. Today was the induction meeting and I am now employed to bring blogging to the masses - within the department, to at least one colleague outside the department and eventually to the whole school.

Other colleagues are looking at creative peer review using our VLE, creativity with G&T pupils in English, creativity with the lower sets in maths and P4C/Community of Enquiry.

I guess that means I’d better keep flexing my blogging muscles so expect regular updates and plugs over the coming months.

For the first time we’re running iMedia Level 2, and I’m currently in charge of putting 18 students through Unit 6 - Digital Video (with enormous help from the head of Drama and Media who is teaching me all sorts about framing, filming and timing).

Being me, I’ve set up a blog to showcase some of their work. And I think I’ll be adding to it pretty frequently as well.

I’m really impressed with the effort and enthusiasm they’ve shown. I was seriously concerned over the summer that the whole subject would be seen as an opportunity to mess around. I couldn’t have been more wrong and so I want to show what they’ve done to the world.

For this activity I gave them 2 hours, 5 pieces of music to choose from, a 60 second time limit and access to BBC Motion Gallery.

As always, please leave comments on their blog in the first instance - I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of it.

The full RL is http://egglescliffeblogs.org.uk/imedia 

Despite the potential for a potential (although unlikely) legal battle over the use of a registered trademark my plan to get a pupil-led Podcast up and running has finally made it to a live website.

The Egglescliffe School Podcast Network was going to be a 3-4 weekly 40/45 minute show featuring a range of 5-15 minute slots. However, due to the long-ish lead times (pesky coursework and modular science exams getting in the way) some of the shows we have prepared are fast running out of date and so I made an executive decision, spent a bit of time setting up a Wordpress/Podpress site and set the Podcast forth upon the world.

I’ve not configured the iTunes side of things just yet but we alreay have another 2 or 3 shows within sight (i.e. before the end of term). Of course that means we’ll be on hiatus for 6 weeks most likely but I’d rather get something out as soon as possible, especially since I’ve been battling setback after setback since Christmas trying to get the damn thing off the ground.

The scripting, recording and editing has been done entirely by the pupils (all in Years 9 & 10) and my only real physical input has been the website.

Check out the site (and the first show) at http://voyager.egglescliffe.org.uk/mwc/espn (easy to remember I know, a simple domain name redirect will follow in due course).

Please leave any comments there in the first instance, as the kids don’t know about this place and I’m sure they’d appreciate the feedback.