Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Using Facebook groups in schools

In my experience, students have never been brilliant at checking their school emails, especially the older kids. This makes communicating with them quite difficult when they are not sat in your class. A great way to improve this is to use Facebook groups. Now, this presents a problem. The main one being schools tend to be terrified of social networks. Possibly because they do not understand them? However, if you ...

The truth about teaching in America

When I was asked to write a piece about teaching last week, I knew I could write fluff about the feel-good nature of working with children, or the high of enlightening a child's cerebral world. In fact, that would be true, but if you're reading this article because you're pondering a position as a teacher, you already know that. What you want to know is: Is it worth it? Five ...

The iPad and student use

Students aren’t daunted by the iPad interface. They may take time to experiment and understand steps required to produce an outcome, but they will persevere. Having observed students at different stages of learning, across many subjects, it has become clear that students aren’t a barrier to learning with the iPad. If a process doesn’t work for a student, they will try something different. They collaborate with peers ...

Apps for children with Special Educational Needs

ArtiKix - Full: £20.99 An engaging articulation app with flashcard and matching activities for children with speech sound delays. The highly requested group scoring feature is available for collecting scores in flashcards on up to 4 children at a time. A group of students can now collect data as they practice sounds in words and sentences with a speech-language pathologist, their parents, or independently.

[Case Study] Adapted Cycling at Ravenscliffe High School

Cycling has long been a passion of many staff at Ravenscliffe, a secondary special school in Calderdale that educates children with complex, severe or moderate learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder, and physical disabilities. Unfortunately, a lack of local facilities had meant that there was little chance of the school's pupils developing a similar passion - or even getting the opportunity to cycle at all. In 2004, a group of staff members ...

Why schools must teach social networking

Following my response to Sir Michael Wilshaw’s call to ban mobile phones from the classroom, further questions need to be asked about the direction we are taking regarding the way our students communicate and the means they use to do so. Drawing from previous posts and subsequent comments, I’ll set out below why I think schools need to deal with the real reason why smartphones have become ubiquitous ...

Student workflow on iPads - compiling and creation apps

It has been obvious to me for some time now that any learning that is based around use of an iPad should really not be hung on one particular app. That it is about a flow of work, be it individual, or collaborative. Yes, there are some powerful productivity apps that will assist with note taking and organising oneself. There are also amazing apps with content, but actually – in an ...

Finding the #digitalstudies curriculum

I was originally thinking of calling this post 'Dude, where's my curriculum?' in honour of that seminal stoner movie starring Ashton Kutcher and the guy from American Pie; however I came up with two immediate problems: One I wouldn't be able to find any CC images related to the movie, and two, it would imply that anyone coming to #digitalstudies and not finding a traditional curriculum is on the ...

10 practical ways to use apps in primary mathematics teaching

With a keen interest in ICT and maths, I have been exploring ways in which iPad apps (other than the “I can do maths…. 2+2” type) can enhance pupil progress and motivation. I believe that, when done the right way, gaming can play a huge role in learning. If you are going to try any of these ideas in class, it's best to be quite familiar with the apps and how ...

Evolve student communication with web-based tools

My school is an IB school. We follow the philosophy that to educate students requires an international understanding of the world, people and ideas. Part of the curriculum requires fifth graders to participate in an Exhibition where they use knowledge accumulated over six years of education to communicate their ideas on a global issue such as displacement, global warming, lack of education, pollution, world hunger, and limited access to fresh, ...

Why iPad?

If you want to enhance learning for students then use an iPad. There, I’ve said it. Colours to the mast and no doubt scrutiny abounds. Whenever I find an issue there is a solution. Whenever a question is posed, there is an answer – for students and staff. It’s a tool – another weapon in an educator's arsenal. The iPad is not the answer, the be all and end all, ...

A sound investment – transformational silent sitting

Silent sitting is an important part of a values education programme. It is an opportunity for children to quieten the mind and body and to be peaceful for a few minutes. It draws out the inner virtue from even the most aggressive children, allowing them to contact their inner source of wisdom. Many young people are growing up without ever discovering an inner peace or finding this essential quality in ...