Using iPads in Education

Here are a couple of great documents about using ipads in the classroom.  They have some great ideas for maths and numeracy.

iPads for Learning Getting Started

Slide to Learn - Educators Guide to the iPad, iPod and iPhone

5 Quick Maths Activities about your Classroom

For numeracy week we are going to be looking at the following questions related to our classroom.  They are simple activities that have a great deal of maths to them and are pretty much suitable to any age group. 

Remember some activities can be measured informally then using formal units of measurement. There is lots of estimation involved and students really need time to ponder this. Can you imagine a prep answering, how high is the ceiling? ‘Well about the height of a giraffe!’

Enjoy

How many students (an arm’s width apart) fit around the inside edge (perimeter)of your classroom?

What is the perimeter of your classroom to the nearest metre?

How many students could stand on the classroom floor if the space was clear?

What is the area of your classroom to the nearest square metre?

How many years old is your classroom?

 What is the main view from your classroom?

What is special about your classroom?

Spelling Posters for your classroom

Feel free to use this interactively on your whiteboard or print them out and display them around your room.  They are targeted at younger spellers.  You can download the Powerpoint directly here

Spelling posters

View more presentations from Kevin Cummins.

How to keeep kids engaged in class

I came across this article from Edutopia.org.  It is worth a look

Have you ever plunked yourself down in a staff meeting where some of your colleagues were, for lack of a better phrase, not paying attention? Grading homework? Having private conversations? Texting?

As we know all too well, kids aren't a whole lot different than adults: If they aren't absorbed by what's going on, they'll find something else that interests them.

Getting all your students focused, eager, and on task at the beginning of class is challenging enough. Equally problematic, once you have them locked in to the lesson, is watching them zone out. There's nothing unusual about that. After all, anyone who has to sit through a long routine -- including a teacher's presentation -- is bound to drift off at some point.

Still, unless you manage to capture and keep students' focus, whether at the beginning of or midway through class, the engine of student learning that you are trying to drive simply isn't even in gear.

From Dead Time to Active Learning

I call this lack of engagement dead time. Dead time interferes with students' learning, and it is contagious. It lures those who are on task into wondering, "Why should I pay attention if others aren't?"

I have come to feel that dead time is so pernicious that I will do everything I can to prevent even the hint of an outbreak. If you strive for maximum learning for all your students, then allowing kids to be stuck in dead time feels like a small betrayal -- to yourself and to them.

Active learning and active listening -- in which students are thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged with each other or the teacher -- represents the opposite of dead time. In their book Inspiring Active Learning, Merrill Harmon and Melanie Toth present a ladder that describes four levels of student motivation.

They call students at Level 4, the lowest level, the work avoiders, and on level 3 are the halfhearted workers. Near the top are responsible students, and, finally, come the fully active learners.

Click here to read more

Great Collection of ICT Tips posters for your classroom

Mark Warner.  A great contributor to the online teaching resources space hs put together some great ICT posters to spice up your computer lab or classroom.  You can download the lot for free and do as you wish with them here.  Enjoy.

Is this the replacement for the Interactive Whiteboard?

Yesterday, Microsoft released the development kit for Kinect on Windows.  For the uninitiated Kinect is a bodily controlled gaming platform that has been around on the X-box for around a year now.  As a gaming tool Kinect is innovative but not entirely brilliant attempt to revolutionize gaming.

If you look at the video below you will see Kinect running on Windows and get an idea of the possibilities that lay ahead of us.  Surely this would supersede the potential of what current IWB's offer us.

I'd Love to hear what you think after you have had a look.

Must Have Maths Problem Solving Toolbox Posters for your classroom

We have been using a resource known at my school as the maths toolbox to show students strategies to deal with unknown and difficult math problems for a number of years.  There are 12 in all and in the next few days I will be adding a presentation explaining how and when to use each of these.

I have just put together some posters for you to download in an A3 and A4 format that I would strongly recommend sticking in your classroom and your students workbooks to quickly refer to when unsure of how to attack a difficult problem.

These concepts can be pitched at any age and are a must have for all teachers to add to their own tool kit.  I'd love to hear of any other great resources that you have to share also.

How to use document cameras in the classroom

We are looking at buying a few document cameras  for our library and junior classrooms next year and came acrosss this article by Jonathon Wylie at Brighthub.

He has some really great ideas about using them effectively in schools.  Hope you Enjoy it.

Document cameras are a great tool to use in the classroom because of their versatility. These top tips will give you some great ideas on how to use yours. 

Engaging students with document cameras is not difficult, but it does require a little imagination. With that in mind, the following ideas are designed to help you learn how to use classroom document cameras in unique and innovative ways at school. You might be surprised at just how versatile these great teaching tools really are!

Top Tips for How to Use Document Cameras

1. Big Book – Every book is a big book with a document camera. Just place a book under the camera and you will have an instant magnification of text and images via the projector. Zoom in on images, or even words you want to discuss. Project the image onto a whiteboard and you can highlight or underline text by drawing on the board.

2. Show and Tell –...  Read More here