August 15th, 2011

The Land of Me at Port Ellen PS: Parental Involvement 4/5

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: cfe, curriculum for excellence, game based learning, Land of Me, parental involvement
 : Categories Argyll & Bute, Curriculum for Excellence, Parents, writing

When I first chatted with Janice McRae about her plans for using The Land of Me one of the first things she made reference to was her desire to encourage parental involvement in the project. Having a strong belief that parents should be as good a partner as possible in helping children learn she was very keen to create ways in which this could happen. A letter of information was sent out to all parents asking for help with building some of the class scenes as well as telling them about the opportunity to come and in to the classroom to support some learning activities.. This desire is very much in concert with that of Scottish Government’s views on parental involvement:

Parents who take on a supportive role in their child’s learning make a difference in improving achievement and behaviour. The active involvement of parents in the life of the school can help promote a learning community in which pupils can engage positively with school staff and their peers.

I was keen to get an overview from some parents about what their perception of this project had been and what impact, if any, they felt that it had had on their children. One mother I spoke to talked of her delight at being asked in to the classroom to help in the first place but also of her sense of amazement at the spread and range of
curricular activity that was happening. She also commented on the information letter that went home from the school being something that immediately captivated her attention and at her delight of how the project helped make relevant learning about her daughters own community and environment.

On the day that I visited the class a writing activity had been planned that involved parents coming in to help the children with a story about the characters in The Land of Me. There were quite a number of parents in the room that day and the atmosphere was focused and industrious. Following on from the stories that can be read when the player/learner visits Granny Olive in The Land of Me the guidance given to the children and the teacher was
that their story would be in three parts, would contain one of the main characters from The Land of Me and that it would have either a happy, sad or funny ending. The parents acted as scribes where appropriate and worked with their child to encourage the telling, drawing and writing of their own Land of Me story.

I also took time to interview some of the parents that took part in this writing session. The parents were hugely impressed with the open and visual nature of the learning environment and they were delighted to be playing such an active part in their children’s learning in school as well as out of school.

Parent Interview 1

Some of the points of made by this parent about this experience included:

“This approach to learning is completely different, it really leaves it open to their imagination.”

“The reading, the writing and the arithmetic is all in here..the kids are making it all themselves.”

“It’s been great getting in here and seeing them working…the classroom is so vibrant and busy!”

Parent Interview 2

Some of the points of made by this parent about this experience included:

“This is fantastic, lovely…I like that we’re involved in it all.”

“It’s fantastic because they can get so involved in it. It’s not like just picking up a book and putting it away-they are part of it every day.”

“My husband and I coming to help has been significant for us…we know what she is talking about when she comes home because we have been involved.”

Port Ellen PS clearly view the parents of their children as a valuable resource and as allies in helping to take children forward. It was clear from my discussions with the parents that such willing encouragement for them to be part of the life of learning really made them feel god about being a partner in their child’s development. What I saw in my time there is testament to this approach-happy children and happy parents working together with thoughtful and committed teachers in a vibrant and inquisitive learning space.

August 10th, 2011

Land of Me at Port Ellen PS: Planning for good learning 1/5

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: game based learning, games based learning, GBL, The Land of Me
 : Categories Argyll & Bute, Parents, cross-curricular

This year we worked with the people at The Land of Me to pilot their software in schools in Dundee, West Lothian and Argyll & Bute. We have already seen some great work in the use of this software to support and enhance learning in Pre-5 and P.1 & P2 classes in Dundee and West Lothian and were also made aware of work ongoing in some of the Argyll and Bute schools via a class blog and a Made in Me’s Facebook page.

Janice McRae from Port Ellen PS on Islay was one of the teachers who came along to the Land of Me introductory session in Inveraray earlier in the year. As a result of her experience on the day and following on from subsequent discussions with colleagues and her own thinking about the needs of her learners she has put together the most inspiring learning experience set in The Land of Me, one that has encouraged parental involvement in so many ways and that has created a space in which her pupils can suspend their disbelief and embark on a learning adventure!

“We had three weeks of learning before we even looked at the software!”

I managed to get out to visit Janice and her class just before the summer break to see just what had been happening. You can listen to my chat with her about how she planned to use the Land of Me and how things progress from then on…

Planning for learning

What was interesting about how Janice McRae planned to use the Land of Me resource was that in the first instance she did not share it with her children for three whole weeks. During this time so much was done in terms of asking questions and initiating discussions in order to create the context for enquiry and curiosity that could then be further developed when the resource was introduced. Some of the questions that were discussed included: Who lives in the Land of Me?; What is a map?; How would we get to the Land of Me? As a result of these discussions some of the children suggested that they make the Land of Me in the classroom!

“Let’s turn the classroom into The Land of Me!”

The Land of Me is made up of a number of chapters that are set in different geographical scenarios. We meet the main characters Buddy Boo, Eric and Willow in the desert, on clifftops, by the riverside, in the arctic and other places too. With the help of her partner and many of the parents Janice went about transforming the classroom into The Land of Me with all the scenes represented in the software physically incorporated into the classroom. Parents helped make camels for the desert, brought in trees for Bramble Wood, built the cave where Granny Olive reads her stories and even made wooden cutouts of the main characters from the story.

With things in place both contextually and physically it was now time to go on a learning adventure…

August 3rd, 2011

1st Class Kidz Digital: The Radio station in the teacher’s cupboard 1/5

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Aberdeenshire, cfe, cross-curricular
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, Curriculum for Excellence, Glow, Parents

One of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of teaching is being able to bring your own talents and interests to the fore to help drive learning. Chris Mier from Hatton Cruden PS in Aberdeesnhire has done just that this year when he decided to bring the skills and experience he had honed in working in radio and DJing on the internet to the life and learning of his P.7 class. This interest of his was the catalyst for a project that crossed all curricular boundaries and made so many connections across learning. This series of 5 posts will hopefully give you a flavour of this exciting project and yet another illustration of the standards that children can achieve when the bar of aspiration and expectation is raised.

In the teacher’s cupboard in Mr Mier’s room is a cupboard. You know the type - the ones where books, paints, resources etc are kept. However, this cupboard is a little bit different from most. Have a look to see what is inside this one:

This range of resources that includes the cutting edge DJ equipment Tracktor was the resource that enabled Mr Mier to establish a whole class enterprise project based on a radio broadcasting business. 1st Class Kidz Digital radio company became a real enterprise over the course of the second half of last year in this P.7 class. My discussion with Mr Mier about this project can be heard here:

Getting started

Mr Mier created 25 jobs in 1st Class Kidz Digital that needed to filled. This meant that the perfect opportunity to teach the children about letter writing, CVs, interview techniques within a purposeful and relevant context was established. The children then had to apply for the jobs and were then interviewed for these jobs by some of the parents of the children. Their decisions were then fed back to Mr Mier who posted the newly filled positions on the class Glow site. Once the elation and disappointment of success or other wise had settled it was down to work and to start getting the radio shows produced!

The range of jobs

A radio station needs DJs of course but what else does it require? Well, a station manager was appointed and she was in essence the boss. She held weekly whole class meetings where she was given updates on progress from the DJs, scriptwriters, jingle creators, news reporters, weather reporters, sport reporters, advertising team, art & design team and the class blogger. Each ‘employee’ had to ensure that they were on task and that all necessary work was completed by an agreed due date.

Impact on learning

Mr Mier talked about the success that this enterprising approach to learning had had on his pupils and in particular he talked about his perceptions of:

• how the confidence levels had grown in the children over the course of the project. He attributed this to the ownership and responsibility that was afforded to the children and the way in which they embraced this. He also talked of the reality of the learning experience and how it was relevant, purposeful and important to the children
• how his pupils had engaged with and completed tasks to a very high standard and at times way beyond what was expected of them. This was particularly evident in areas such as writing and music making.
• how the social dynamic of the class was enhanced as a result of the project and the way in which the children took responsibility for their individual and collective tasks. The programme and the business was run with minimal input by Mr Mier with the children really owning 1st Class Kidz Digital.

Having spent an afternoon with the team at 1st Class Kidz Digital I have to say how impressed I was with their industry, creativity and maturity. I think that this shows how Curriculum for Excellence can work so well when a teacher uses specific skills that they have to create purposeful learning experiences for children; experiences that make them want to come to school, to learn, to achieve and to show us just what they can do.

Thank you to all at Hatton Cruden PS and 1st Class Kidz Digital for making me so welcome.

May 27th, 2011

2/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: The buzz of learning

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: game based learning, games based learning, gaming, GBL, Mario Kart, Nintendo
 : Categories Early Years, Parents, Renfrewshire

Parental involvement in the life and learning of a school can be an incredibly valuable asset. This is particularly true when parent/carers are active agents in understanding and supporting what is going in their child’s classroom. As we heard in the first of this series of posts the teachers involved had kept parents fully informed in relation to the rationale of the Mario Kart project. To further cement this relationship both classes planned a Mario Kart afternoon to share the learning that had been happening with their Mario Kart topic. Here is a short clip of parents coming in to the classroom. Also look out for the examples of the children sharing their learning with adults. They are so keen to show off what they have been doing. As you watch the clip do you get a sense that there is a real buzz about learning here? as the children excitedly share what they have been doing? A great thing to see in a classroom.

There was so much learning linked with this topic for the parent s to have a look a through. Literacy was something that was addressed quite heavily through this topic and one task that had the children creating their own Driving Licences was very eye-catching and had proved to be very popular with the children. (Unable to share due to children’s details included on their mock licences). Another popular writing activity involved the children coming with a basic character bible for a new Mario Kart character. Have a look at some of their work:

Have a closer look at some of them:

New Mario Kart Character: Holly Zoom Zoom

New Mario Kart Character: Queen Niamh

New Mario Kart Character: Queen Lola

New Mario Kart Character: Transform

I’m sure that the parents who came along to the Mario Kart Open Afternoon were very impressed with the range and quality of work that had been going on. The wall displays around the classroom drew many admiring glances and inquisitive comments from the mums, dads, grannies & granddads.

June 16th, 2010

Falkirk Guitar Heroes

bmclaren

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: cfe, concert, Falkirk, Guitar Hero, maddiston, shieldhill, whitecross
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Falkirk, Games we have, Parents, animation, cross-curricular, game based learning

I had a most enjoyable and very interesting day touring 4 schools in Falkirk who are all undertaking a transition project with Guitar Hero. The teacher leading this within Falkirk, Stacey Collier-West, had planned a full timetable and we set off from Maddiston Primary where she is based and travelled to see Avonbridge Primary, Whitecross Primary and Shieldhill Primary as well as stopping off back at Maddiston to see the pupils working on this topic.

The first thing that was absolutely apparent from all the schools I visited was the engagement shown from all teachers and pupils involved, but what I found more interesting was the range of approaches across the schools but all within the same context. Every teacher involved had been part of the inital planning and were in regular contact with each other but each one was very firmly focussed on what the children in their schools needed. Seeing this so clearly reinforced with me the fact that this fact should remain at the forefront of the mind of any school undertaking a GBL topic.

Have a look and a listen to some of the work we saw on our quick journey around Falkirk starting with writing in Whitecross Primary. Click on Mr Horne below to hear him chat about writing in his class.

mr horne whitecross

In the video clip below we can see how the classes are building towards their concert. We can see them making stop frame animations with a simple digital camera and windows moviemaker software, which is a free part of most, if not all, winows pc s. I love seeing everyday things used in an imaginative way like this, we then have a chat with a couple of groups of children who talk about what kinds of learning they are undertaking in order to get themselves ready for the show including writing lyrics, choreography and animation. Next we meet another band getting their moves ready for the concert and chatting about how they have undertaken the work and finally we meet two of the teachers who have been running the theme in their class and hear them discuss the impact on the children.

As mentioned previously, all the schools were working toward a final showcase event where they would perform the songs they had written, show their choreographed moves and have their animations playing in the background. As you could probably see from the slideshow above all the bands had also designed their own tshirts which they then sold and each school made a cd of the tracks they had produce and offered them for sale at the concert also. Brian Clark, Ollie Bray and myself got ourselves invited to the final concert and we had a wonderful time watching as all the children performed in front of their peers, parents and friends. Every child successful, confident, responsible and effective. Watch highlights of the show below.

May 27th, 2010

EyePet as CfE

bmclaren

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: andrea reid, cathkin, cfe, eyepet, hmie, liz mercer, nursery, South Lanarkshire
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Consolarium visits, Games we have, Literacy, Multi-player games, Numeracy, Parents, South Lanarkshire, cross-curricular, game based learning, rich tasks

For a number of months I have been doing some work in and around South Lanarkshire authority, first of all with Aubrey Taylor from the Advisory Service running staff development and latterly with the support of Andrea Reid QIO in a number of primary and nursery schools. It’s really great seeing so many forward thinking folks in education in such close proximity to each other. A good number of schools are running their own GBL topics with and really staring to get great results from their work.

Cathkin Community Nursery

In particular I enjoyed visiting Cathkin Community Nursery which , with the support of Andrea Reid, has been undertaking a topic on pets which has included input from a special pet called “Eyepet” which comes as software on the PS3. Check the video below for a wee flavour of the kinds of things he can do..

The steps shown in the video are only a small part of how the nursery went about planning and implementing a project with Eyepet, but a case study exemplification will be produced and shared over the next couple of months.

I had never seen a GBL topic wholly undertaken in the nursery setting so I was intrigued to find out how they had gone about it. Liz Mercer the Head of Nursery was delighted with the way the project worked and how well it involved the children and their families.

“We are thoroughly enjoying our eyepets. They are part of our family now and the children have taken to them so well. Each group had adopted an eyepet, where they nurture and care for him/her. Some children have also created their own eyepet using a variety of materials. They are fab and on display in the room where eyepet lives and breathes.”

Open Doors Event

Cathkin Community Nursery then took the expertise they had gained from running Eyepet as part of their project and held an open doors event where the Early Years workers shared their experience of using Eyepet and how it tied to the curriculum with colleagues from South Lanarkshire. There were also a number of other brilliant presentations on involving parents and involving children in the planning process and digital learning books. The evaluations from this event were wholly positive and it was great to see CPD opportunities like this being provided by practitioners for practitioners. Liz and the team are real advocates of CfE, and you can see from the slideshow below how that looks in practice when undertaking the Eyepet project.

HMIE

You may also be interested in reading the thoughts of HMIE about this nursery. Their report was published today and all areas of their work were graded as Excellent and HMIE thought their work with Eyepet was wonderful.

“Staff provide a very well-balanced curriculum firmly based on play, active learning and enjoyment. High quality staff interaction, a stimulating environment and very well planned use of resources support children’s progress most effectively”

We currently have a number of Eyepets out on loan across Scotland at the moment, some as transition projects and some as literacy focus work and the pictures below are of some of the reactions of children watching their Eyepet hatch and some of the work that has come out of looking after their Eyepet.

Home School Partnership

As a follow on to that I attended a couple of parent workshops run by Colin Venters from South Lanarkshire’s Home School Partnership, encouraging parents to see the potential of their child’s use of gaming consoles as a positive chance for meaningful interaction between themselves and their child. Hear below what Colin and some of the parents who visited had to say about these sessions.

January 26th, 2010

Involving Parents

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags: Tags: games, Parents
 : Categories Consolarium, Parents, cross-curricular, game based learning

I was invited to a couple of Parent Council meetings this week, asked in to explain the role of Games Based Learning within A Curriculum for Excellence and to showcase some of the projects the Consolarium already has underway and potentially what parents could do to support it in their own child’s school.

Many families will already be familiar with the range of consoles and software available and most of the folks I spoke to at the meetings had more stuff in their houses than I had; yet very few had ever played with them and almost none had played them with their children. (Derek Robertson writes a brilliant blog post “Cod Liver Oil and Effective Learning..”on his personal site at HotMilkyDrink which is well worth a read, from a parent’s perspective)

One of the best things about the job is seeing the sparks of enthusiasm and creativity created by the GBL approach and this was evident again as a room full of parents and carers were excitedly discussing the kinds of things their children could be learning. One of the meetings ended with the Parent Council pretty much demanding (in a good way!) that the school take money from them and get out and buy consoles and implement them in their children’s learning straight away.

A positive partnership between parents and school is really important and ACfE provides a perfect backdrop against which these relationships can be strengthened; and the games based learning approach augments this beautifully.

All of these consoles in homes and all of these learning opportunities. A germ of an idea is beginning to form…………

In the meantime check out the Trailer for Parent Toolkit below