OllieBray.com

Microsoft Peer Coaching

Last week I took part in the Microsoft UK Peer Coaching course led by Stuart Ball and Walter Patterson.

It was good to take part in some CPD over a couple of days and have the opportunity to meet some more enthusiastic teachers from around the UK. I was also good to see that Microsoft UK have named a meeting room after me in building 2! (this is a joke by the way!).

I’m not new to coaching and have been coached myself during my initial few months at Musselburgh Grammar School and I also took part in the East Lothian Internal Coaching progrmme a few years ago. I think it remains a powerful form of professional development.

The Microsoft Peer coaching resource materials are free on the Innovative Teachers Network. Although they are slightly written in US English (eg: using the word ‘instruction’ rather than ‘teaching’) I feel the resources are very good. Particularly considering they are aimed at and have been translated for an international audience.

The resources are free for anyone who is a member of the Innovative Teachers Network (ITN). I am mentioning this because the ITN is free to join and it would save any local education authority from re-creating their own programme. Many of the resources are written in Microsoft Office, which means I'm sure they could be adapted for local need.

The other thing that I found particularly appealing about the MS peer coaching programme is that participants on the pogramme can gain masters level accreditation at the University of Warwick. Again this is one thing that local versions of coaching scheme lack and would provide an extra insentive for those wishing to partisipate.

I’m just wondering now if it would be possible to build an internal peer coaching network – using the MS (or other peer coaching resources) within Glow?

Would this be a form of accredited CPD that Scottish teachers would find useful?

Direct link to the peer coaching resources here (registation required).

Digital Games in Schools: a handbook for teachers

European Schoolnet has recently undertaking a major study sponsored by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe on the use of games in schools in Europe. The study included the use of computer games and any online games that run on consoles, computers, handhelds or mobile phones.

As part of the project a book by Dr Patrick Felicia, a researcher at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland has also been bublished.

You can find out more about the book here and also download a copy as a .pdf.

Its full of lots of pictures from Scottish Schools using computer games in the classroom.

Sand drawing used to give WWII History Lesson

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "Britain's Got Talent" in August 2009.

She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. Apparently Kseniya started drawing with sand after her business collapsed because of the credit crunch and she had been drawing for less than a year when she entered Ukraine's Got Talent in August.

The video is very impressive and strangely hypnotizing.

As well as it being inspirational to watch it would also make an interesting lesson starter.

(You Tube video below)

More classroom comic creators

I’ve had lots of good feedback on my original post about Crating Comics in the classroom with tools like Comic Brush, Pixton and PowerPoint. As a result I have been sent a couple more links to some great on-line comic creators.

The first link was from Alessio Bernardelli (@asober on Twitter) – Alessio also write an excellent education blog which gives his perspective on education as an Italian working in the Welsh Valleys.

Alessio told me about the Read, Write and Think Comic Creator.

The Read, Write and Think Comic Creator is quite a good little flash based tool that allows you to change backgrounds, add characters, speech bubbles and props. You can make 1, 2, 3 or 6 section comics that appear hand drawn.

The disadvantage of the creator is that you can’t save the comics to come back to them at a later date or export them as a picture file. The website does allow you to print the comics off.

Anyone tried using this particular generator with children?

The second comic generators that I was told about came from Jonathon Wylie who writes the Education Technology Blog. Jonathon pointed out the Marvel Superhero Create your own Comic Generator. Its fantastic, you can create 1-3 panel comic strips or books up to 21 pages. You can choose from a variety of Marvel characters to enhance the feel of your very own superhero comic.

The Marvel Superhero comic generator is very intuitive to use – its just a shame that you can’t add your own pictures.

Again, anyone tried using this particular generator with children?

Finally, I was reminded by David Muir that this year is Asterix’s 50th Birthday. There are lots of great resources over on the Official Asterix Website that could be used to help deliver a variety of curriculum areas for example art and design, literacy and modern languages.

Japanese Scientists Create Touchable Holograms

Just when I think I’m starting to get on top of the latest developments in technology from around the world – I come across something amazing like touchable holograms that takes things to a whole new level!

According to the video (embedded below) and Reuters the system uses wii remotes to detect the position of the users hands. The video refers to this technologies possible use in hospitals to prevent the spread of infection - but I can’t help think that it will really be the computer gaming industry that takes this on first.

What do you think?

2009 UK Innovative Teachers Forum and Awards (plus FREE CPD)

 
Microsoft has announced the 6th Microsoft UK Innovative Teachers Forum, which is to be held on 1 December 2009 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Birmingham.

This one-day conference is free of charge for all teachers and educators who wish to attend and will look to address the theme of ‘Connecting Learners, Connecting Teachers’.

Keynote speakers include John Davitt and practical workshops will explore the above theme, along with ‘real life’ examples of some of the most innovative use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. If you attend you also get a free copy of John's book.

Registration for the conference is free and is now open.

Innovative Teachers Forum awards

Entries are also now also open for the UK Innovative Teachers Forum Awards. I was a UK innovative Teacher award winner earlier in the year and my success at the UK awards led to my attendance at the European Innovative Teacher Awards in Vienna and on Sunday I fly to Brazil for the world finals. All because I submitted a Virtual classroom tour about this time last year.

So if you you have a learning project that utilises technology and has made a difference in the classroom then why don't you consider entering for an award?

You could be one of the top educators in the UK invited to share your work with delegates at this conference in Birmingham on the 1st December 2009.

This year Innovative Teachers Forum awards will be given in three categories:

1. Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award – sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning

2. Innovative Teaching and Learning through a Learning Platform Award – sponsored by Shireland Learning

3. Impact and Improvement Award– sponsored by Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Full details of how to enter can be found at www.uk.innovativeteachers.com

The closing date for entries is 15 November 2009.

If you want some help and advice with your Virtual Classroom Tour then please get in touch with me and I will be happy to give you a hand.

It would be really good to see more Scottish teachers involved in these awards. We have some fantastic practice in Scotland and a Glow related project is crying out to win an award in the Learning Platform Category. Last year I was the only entry from Scotland in the UK finals and there were four from Wales and five from England.

Again, please get in touch if you want any tips, support or help.

Smart pens for schools?

Mark Pentleton (of Radio Lingua fame) came to visit me for a coffee the other day. Its always great to have a chat with Mark, swap news and catch up on any gossip.

Mark’s showed me his latest gadget - a smart pen. I was so impressed by it I have ordered one of my own (I must be a marketers dream!).

But on a serious note I believe that its gadgets like this that could completely revolutionize traditional note taking particularly in lectures for Higher Education students.

Here is a quick video of the product below and you can make up your own mind if you think it will be useful or not?

The Tempest from Classical Comics

I have spoken before about my passion for graphic novels and how I think they are so engaging for encouraging literacy and creativity within young people. There are lots of types of graphic novels that are available for teachers and Learning and Teaching Scotland has published a great graphic novels resource for professionals who might be interested in this subject.

For schools wanting to get into graphic novels you can’t beat the work from Classical Comics. I've written about their Macbeth and Henry V work before and also how it is available electronically for you to use with your class or even add your own speech bubbles!

Anyway, Classical Comics have also just recently released The Tempest as a graphic novel. It is written by William Shakespeare, scripted by John McDonald, penciled by Jon Haward and inked by Gary Erskine. 

As before with all the Classical Comics releases there are three editions:

1. Original text version: Ideal for purists, students and readers who will appreciate the unaltered text.

2. Plain text: The full text made more accessible by the translation into modern English.

3. Quick text: The full play in comic book form, translated into modern English and with less dialogue for a faster paced read.

There are PDFs  available on the Classical Comics website that explain all three available formats in more detail.

According to Gary Erskine’s blog, 'there are more books planned and the future brings other classic authors to the graphic novel treatment soon'. Great Stuff - I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Learn Geography for the Nintendo DS

Dreamcatcher Interactive has recently announced ‘Learn Geography’ an educational title for the Nintendo DS. According to the press release it aimed at students between 3rd and 4th Grade in the USA – it doesn’t look like there is a UK version of the game yet?

The game includes the following features:

• Jigsaws - piece together parts of a world map and learn to identify the countries within each continent. There are a number of jigsaw puzzles available for each region.

• Lessons – to help you learn about world geography.

• Timed quizzes and mini games – to test your geographical knowledge.

• Training Mode - to help you practice identifying country names and locations on a world map.

Apparently you work through the lessons as a little green vampire. I think I’ll need to see it before I really pass comment!

(Thanks to the future making serious games blog for the heads up)

School design: opening up a window on learning

I’m not a huge fan of traditonal classrooms – but I still think they have a place in schools.

I was recently going around one of the new Building Schools of the Future Schools in Birmingham. Although I didn’t think the school was particularly futuristic in design I did like the fact that there were large windows looking into all of their classrooms. There was also a large windows looking into the staff room - great stuff!

The windows opened up the school corridors giving areal feeling of space. It also felt that the teachers were taking more ownership over their classroom displays as they were open for all to see. It was quite nice to see one of my Boardworks resources being used in the school geography department!

I was reminded of the school recently during my visit to Edinburgh University and the Department of Informatics. From the outside you can look into the whole ground floor of the informatics department and see the learning and teaching that it going on.

Not only does this break down traditional classroom walls but what a great advertising strategy for the University!

We need more transparency in our schools and learning spaces – and I’m not just talking about windows!