Ever since being part of what I believe to be the greatest network for teachers, Partners in Learning has introduced me to some of the most inspirational educators. Being in touch with these educators via twitter and the Partners in Learning Network website I regularly showcase ideas to the staff at my school; recently I demonstrated the use of Edmodo, a private micro-blogging platform built for use by teachers and students for use in the classroom. Many teachers in school are now using it. One teacher, Dave Thomas who teachers maths really has embraced the idea of using technology to help his students.
All posts by Gareth
I few months back I had a chat with Ray Chambers and asked him if he could design a Kinect game to test the knowledge of the Instruments of the Orchestra. Ray kindly made the game and the pupils have enjoyed using it.
What an amazing experience the Partner in Learning global Forum has been. I arrived late on Sunday 13th November, On the Monday all delegates were put into groups and we worked collaboratively using the latest technology available. I felt so very lucky to have visited Washington in the company so many of the world’s finest educators.The first keynote speaker was Will Richardson, this really was an eye opening presentation showing that you really need to educate our youngsters for the 21st century and we must get away from the current teaching methods that have been in place for the last 200 years.
The disadvantage of being a music teacher and not an ICT teacher is that I only have a basic knowledge of coding. As you have seen in previous posts I am really enjoying using the Kinect in my classroom. It really has a major impact in the classroom and I would encourage anyone to give it a try and guess what it’s not even that difficult with so many resources already out there.
I was really chuffed to learn that one of my blog posts had bben used on the Coding4fun Channel 9 web site. Please visit http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/kinect/Using-the-Kinect-in-the-classroom to find out more information.
The disadvantage of being a music teacher and not an ICT teacher is that I only have a basic knowledge of coding. As you have seen in previous posts I am really enjoying using the Kinect in my classroom. It really has a major impact in the classroom and I would encourage anyone to give it a try and guess what it’s not even that difficult with so many resources already out there.
Recently I have been playing about with the XBOX Kinect plugged into my laptop. It really has opened my eyes to the potential of the kinect in the classroom. How often do our students say “oh sir not another PowerPoint”. By using the kinect it gives presenting information a new dimention for our students. For those teachers out there that are saying under their breath “why not just use a mouse”. You really have no idea. Not everyone teaches in a private school where the students are switched on all the time. Students in my classes now want to create presentations because they know once they have completed their work they can present it in a way that reflects a science fiction film (Minority Report for those who don’t watch films).
Two pupils from Willows High School have received over 5000 hits of their tutorial on YouTube showing how to connect a midi keyboard to an Ipad.
Please take a look and feel free to leave a comment. For more great resources and videos made by pupils for pupils check out the tutorial section.
Last week Year Six visited the school to get experience of what it will be like in September when they joibecome our new Year Seven. We were all very impressed with this year group. It’s been a great five years with my reg class but as they’ve just done their GCSEs they will be moving on to bigger and exciting things at college or whatever they decide to do. So it’s come round again that I will be a Year Seven Reg teacher, having spent about two hours with my new registration class I can honestly say I’m looking forward to working with them in September.
