Little Fish

Find of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:33:00 +0000

Psykopaint is a great online art creator that is fun for the kids to use. They can upload their own photos, use photo URLs or sample photos from the website to base their artwork on. Then, using various brush styles (based on famous artists like Van Gogh, Monet, etc.), they can transform their photo into an abstract work of art.

I used it as an optional blog task and also as an in-class computer task and the kids really got into it! They loved playing around with different styles and mixing them together. It would be a great site to work into an artist appreciation lesson sequence.

This one took just 5 minutes to put together:

BEFORE

AFTER

To read more on how to use Psykopaint in the classroom, click here. Definitely a resource worth using!

Quick Ideas Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:46:00 +0000

This week, I've used Wallwisher as an optional blog task. On Wallwisher, students can share short pieces of information on 'sticky notes' that can be viewed as a wall. When used in the right way, this could be a great source for students to quickly collaborate. A great place to jot down ideas!

Below is my class' efforts so far. Their stimulus was 'What is your favourite book and why?'

Blogging across classes

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:33:00 +0000

I'm in a pickle.

At my school, all Year 5 and Year 6 students are split up into four 5/6 composite classes. It is a great way for students to socialise with a wider circle of friends and interact with syllabus content through rich, in-depth learning experiences. By presenting content over two years instead of one, teachers do not unnecessarily repeat certain areas of the syllabus. In many ways, students are given the opportunity to really immerse themselves in topics. This is particularly true for subjects like HSIE, where the same skills are taught each year, but students are given a longer period of time to learn about their topic (this year, it's gold and natural disasters) and in a more in-depth way (student-centred research tasks following Bloom's Taxonomy).

The pickle comes as a result of all teachers teaching the same content across the four classes. In most ways, it is fantastic and I prefer it. It means we all share the programming, homework tasks and resource searching, there are four heads, not one, and we all have our own interests which provide richer teaching in the various KLAs. But in one way, it has been difficult.. how do you run a class blog when all classes are doing the same thing?

I couldn't pass up the opportunity of finally having my own class and not running a blog for my students to be involved with. At the same time, I couldn't ask the other three teachers to all of a sudden learn about blogging and run their own class blog (one teacher is in their last year of teaching and another one arrived late in the term). As a result, I have started up a 5/6 blog so that no classes miss out. This means that there are over 100 students commenting each week (majority of my team are eager to learn how to moderate their own class' comments as of this week which will be a load off).

Here is my problem: I am itching to use web 2.0 tools in the classroom and use them as part of the class blog. But the pickle is that I cannot ask the three other class teachers to teach their students how to use any tool that I teach my class when they most likely aren't interested in it. They all have enough on their plate already.

Right now, I am setting a homework task each week which all students must complete. It is working well, but it only allows for them to comment based on stimulus.

So, do I set homework tasks where students are asked to use web 2.0 tools on their own, do I keep my blog running as is or do I go ahead with my own class lessons and post my class' efforts online anyway?

Suggestions would be very welcome!

Kindy's (Technological) A-Z

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Our librarian emailed Kindy's new A-Z. Hooray for technology!

(Click on the image for a closer look)

Exposition Writing Link - Graphic Organiser

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:58:00 +0000

With NAPLAN looming in the not-too-distant future, I'm trying to get my students to have a firm grasp of the concept of supporting their exposition (persuasive writing) arguments with at least two or three supporting statements per paragraph. I've come across aMap which I will be setting as optional homework this week. It's a great way for students to organise their arguments and will hopefully help them to remember to add more than just a topic sentence for each paragraph! Students will be emailing me their finished result. I can't wait to get computers up and running in my classroom!!!

Click here to see my example aMap.

(I love their slogan - 'causing arguments since 2008')

Image from http://degreedirectory.org/cimages/multimages/2/writing_tablet.jpg

Find of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:44:00 +0000

Yesterday, I was quickly looking for some algorithms practice sheets for revision and I came across WorksheetWorks.com. While I don't agree with relying on worksheets too much in the classroom, there are a lot of great resources that you can generate to suit your lessons (e.g. choosing the size of the numbers, type of working out to be done, variety of questions asked etc.). There are sheets for most KLAs and each comes with an answer key, including the working out that students will need to do. And it's free! A great site to keep in your bookmarks.

Introducing the new 5/6 Teacher!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:41:00 +0000

It was extreme excitement this week that I accepted a position as a Year 5/6 teacher at a local school. This year, I will be teaching alongside three other teachers, all of us on 5/6 composite classes. And if getting a position first year out of university in my local area wasn't enough, on top of that, I've also moved into a brand new classroom!

While there are still a few things that need to be organised (ie. getting an IWB, bins for the room, any shelving, a clock, tote trays, computers etc.), I'm so excited to start creating a classroom that is tailored to my teaching style and the learning styles of students. I really want to make it a space where the students feel comfortable, and are immersed in their learning experiences. This means that, among other things, I'm trying to decide what types of areas/wall displays/desk arrangements to have in my room that will help my students to do their absolute best this year.

What have you done in your classroom to cater for your students' learning styles?

Image from http://lifehackery.com/qimages/5/pencil-holder.jpg

Starting With a Clean (and Very Bare) Slate!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:37:00 +0000

My routine holiday sleep-in was interrupted yesterday with a call telling me that one of our local schools might have positions vacant. After three borderline harassment phone calls and an email stating my case, I received a return call from the principal offering the possibility of a block of teaching on either a Year 4 or 5-6 composite class. I was to go in on Monday to start on the Year 4 class (who will still be in their class groups from the previous year) for the first few days and by the end of the week, the principal will have decided where to put me (and I assume that's if they feel that I'm right for the school).

After the happy dance was thrown, however, a little twinge in my stomach started niggling away. First of all, in my moment of excitement on the phone, I forgot to ask how long the blocks would be for - meaning I forgot to establish whether I should quit my second job. Secondly, in my eagerness to say 'YES' to anything I was being asked, I forgot to clarify whether that meant I would definitely be getting a position at the end of the week - meaning planning will be a little tricky. And thirdly, the classes are the same from the year before while the school waits for the numbers to settle - meaning I could have a different class at the end of next week (or at least I think that's what would happen?!). More clarification is definitely needed.

All this aside, the first thing I have done is establish what to do on my first day. @davidwees led me to whatedsaid's post on 10 things to do on the first day of school, which was a great starting point, reminding me that I want to keep my classroom student-centred. This means I will have the students come to an agreement on appropriate/inappropriate behaviour in the classroom on their own, I will share my expectations with them and listen to what they expect in return, I will foster a friendly environment, listen to their stories, and have them work in groups to start off with.

In the classroom, I will be fine on the first day. But what is unsettling me is the organisation - do I use workbooks if classes might change by the end of the week? Do I set up a classroom and start decorating with artwork if I may not even be in it next week? Do I establish the rules system thoroughly if I may have to do it all again next Monday? What about homework, spelling words, letters to parents, planning? I literally have no idea what is planned this year, and won't find out until that morning what is planned for them, while I won't know what is planned for me until the end of the week. It's a tough one!

I think my main concern is not being able to tell the students and parents exactly where I will be by the end of the week. Ideally, I'd love to have information ready to hand out to the parents on the first day telling them what is in store for their children this year. But not knowing that, I'm worried that I will come across as having no idea what is happening (and while that may be the truth, I'd like to at least make the first impression that I am on the ball with such matters). Hopefully, I will be able to squeeze enough time before school out of one of the other grade teachers to establish what is happening with the Year 4 classes at the end of the week so that I can at least tell the students what they will be doing.

I think it will be a very interesting first day!

Image from http://makemeasaint.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-really-happened-first-day-of.html

The Future of Mathematics Education

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:19:00 +0000

Just another reason to focus on presenting mathematics in real-life contexts. Applicability, applicability, applicability!

Arthur Benjamin's view of mathematics education:

Writing Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:28:00 +0000

I was introduced to Writing Fun while on one of my teaching pracs and found it a great source in the classroom. Writing Fun is an interactive website to use with all primary stages. Teachers can use it to teach and review the various text types typically covered in the classroom.

Each text type is described in detail based on their characteristics. Students can then go on to view an example associated with their year group, running their cursor over different writing characteristics (i.e. tense, style, word focus etc.).

I've found this a useful link to use on the IWB to introduce a text type to students. Click on the picture below to have a look!

Encouraging New Language

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:52:00 +0000

Stephen Fry gives a poignant argument about the demise of the use of exciting language in society. As teachers I think we need to breed in our students a sense of joy and excitement about putting new phrases together, using words in different ways and using our knowledge of language in all areas of public and private life. I agree that language will always evolve and change, and we need to spur that on from within our own classrooms.

Stick out the video to the end - a very nice visual conclusion!

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Qwiki - a new way to experience information

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Qwiki is a new source of information on the web. It is still under construction but it's definitely worth the time to check out the website and have a look at the introductory video as well as the sample searches. It is as search engine which is based on the belief that information does not have to be presented in a machine-readable way; that instead, it should be an experience which is both visual and auditory, where the most important pieces of information related to your search are given first, before the detail.

Just watching the examples, I can see the enormous benefit a site like this could have in the classroom. Just think about the ease of access to information it provides through verbalising information for students and providing them with visual cues, not to mention helping them sift through a wealth of sites to find the core information that they're after. It'll be a great go-to source on the IWB for those little questions in class that sometimes need to be Googled.

Check it out and draw your own conclusions. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this site until it will be up and running in my classroom!

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

A Funny Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:04:00 +0000

I wonder how many students have read this one (from my casual teaching experience I'm thinking almost all). Lucky for them, so have I!

From one of my old poetry books, Please Mrs. Butler, by Allan Ahlberg:

The Supply Teacher

Here's the rule for what to do

If ever your teacher has the flu

Or for some other reason takes to her bed

And a different teacher comes instead.

When the visiting teacher hangs up her hat

Writes the date on the board, does this or that

Always remember, you have to say this,

OUR teacher never does that, Miss!

When you want to change places or wander about

Or feel like getting the guinea pig out

Never forget, the message is this,

OUR teacher always lets us, Miss!

Then, when your teacher returns next day

And complains about the paint or clay

Remember these words, you just say this:

That OTHER teacher told us to, Miss!

Helping Children to say 'I Can'!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Kiran Bir Sethi has spread belief in children all over India through emphasising the value that children have within society when they are given the right tools and recognition. A great reminder that creating an environment where students feel valued and encouraged is a must. Children can do amazing things when given the stage and voice to do it!

Beginning Teachers...

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 06:13:00 +0000

Starting at another new school today, I was surrounded by a substantially younger staff who were eager to give me tips - which I just as eagerly took on board! One of the girls is currently in her first year out of uni on kindergarten. She's already supplied me with a lot of 'what to do's' for my first year and showed me around the DET portal. It's great to find out that yes, there are teachers who are almost as fresh as me still learning and settling in into their new career!

For any teachers out there who might be interested, I recommend checking out the DET website for Professional Learning and Leadership Development Directorate. It has a lot of information for new teachers including a First Time Teacher Tool Kit, induction information and other things that new NSW teachers should know about.

It's time to embrace my green-ness and get cracking on preparing myself for my first year of teaching in 2011!

No Nonsense Teacher!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:34:00 +0000

One thing I've found hard so far with discipline as a casual teacher is finding consequences for bad behaviour that work! I've had the few nice classes where no consequences are needed - they already know how to do the right thing and need no more than a few prompts to stay on track. But then there are the other classes who, for some reason (perhaps general class dynamics), need constant attention to maintain their behaviour. I have 'Miss Thomson's special bell' which remains sleeping unless the class are too noisy, and generally once it rings the students respond and alter their behaviour. Today was not one of those days. For the first time, my bell did nothing! I had a very chatty kindy class today who would chat through instructions and news if I let them - and, to my dismay, kept chatting after the bell had rung! I was a little stumped unfortunately.. a strong reminder that I need to get quite a few more behaviour management strategies under my belt.

One of the other older casuals today gave me very good advice: she reminded me to be stern. Looking around the halls today I saw teachers doing exactly that, putting their stern face on and getting down to business. So that's exactly what I did after recess. I pulled them into line, made a few of them walk into the classroom 2-3 times before they could do it quietly and explained a warning system which, if they failed to obey, would lead to them missing some of their lunchtime. I don't know why it's never occurred to me to do that before - I think as a casual I'm still unsure about where my place is in terms of disciplining students, but wherever I stand, my new strategy has worked! From now on that's exactly the line I'm going to take - no nonsense!

If you have any strategies that work for you, I'd love to hear about them!

Starting at a New School

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:12:00 +0000

Being the new fresh-faced teacher in the staffroom this week has been a little daunting! I've just started casual teaching at a local school in my area, having spent one day with them last term. For the most part, the staff have been helpful in letting me know how things work but I'm still a little insecure about how capable they think I might be in the classroom, especially when the teacher I was relieving on the first day came back to a frazzled new casual teacher trying to get through the marking in time and muttering about the hellish afternoon she'd just spent with her students.

I'd love to eventually come up with my own technique to maintain the class like these teachers have - I can't wait for the day to try and succeed at using visual cues like one of these teachers has done - very clever! Thank you to my prac teacher who sent me this link earlier in the year.

More on Grooveshark

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:59:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I mentioned Grooveshark. It's a website that streams songs online. I've had a play with it this week and am very excited to use it in the classroom! Grooveshark allows you to search and create your own playlists which you can access from any computer. It's free to sign up, too!

So far, I've created playlists for Disney, relaxation, movie soundtracks (including a wealth of Shrek songs), musicals, Christmas songs and K-2 and 3-6. I think it will be a good go-to source for background music in the classroom, particularly while I'm doing casual work.

Click on the links below for access to my playlists (some of them need a few more added):

Disney
Relaxation
K-2
Xmas
Shrek Soundtracks

Image from http://wanderr.com/jay/

The Amazing Initiative of One Man

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:10:00 +0000

Watching this TED talk with someone else who isn't a teacher, we were both amazed when we came across it while browsing TED.com (definitely worth a long browse). Sugata Mitra reminded me of the importance of never underestimating the drive and capability of students, regardless of their backgrounds and the context in which they learn. The will to learn is something that can drive students to excel in many challenging areas. Just amazing!

Clike here to visit this TED talk's TED.com page.

Video from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

Using Glogster

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:42:00 +0000

I'm feeling a bit behind the times with this one, but I've just started to play around with Glogster. For those who haven't come across it yet, it is a website where you can create a poster with text, images, graphics, audio, video and more and share it. My dad (another primary teacher) mentioned that he was going to have a play with it to see if it would work well for his Year 6 students to present a book report. Having nothing else to do this afternoon, I thought I would also have a go to see how easy it is to use. Answer: very!

Click on the screenshot of my own book review for a look at the final product, which took me all of half an hour. If my house were more quiet, I would have tried to add some audio, but assuming it is the same as streaming from your webcam, it is very easy to use.

I think the kids would really enjoy Glogster. It's fun, colourful and has wacky themes, offering lots of choice. On looking over the site before writing this post, I also found a link to Glogster edu. I assume this is a more student-friendly version which would be better suited for educational purposes. If anyone has used Glogster edu I'd love to hear how it's gone!

Bringing Music into the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 02:12:00 +0000

I think I've become a big believer in the positive effect that music can have on students in the classroom. It's a great way to calm the mood of the class down and allow them to focus, particularly during art activities which can turn a bit chatty. In the past, I've also incorporated music into art activities, using songs as stimuli for artwork - the kids absolutely love it - I've tried it with both Year 1 and Year 5 classes and they've all equally enjoyed the lesson.

I've spent a little time today downloading some music to play in the background of other lessons to relax them. I've previously streamed popular radio stations through the SMARTBoard, such as Nova 96.9 and Today FM, but I find they sometimes have quite a few ads during the day. The best part of playing popular music is that the kids love singing along, in turn relaxing themselves. It's surprising that their singing doesn't distract them but I've found that with the classes I've tried it out on, they seem to be more focused on what they're doing as they sing.

Here are a few sources I've come across:

Kidz Bop - plenty of albums to choose from - only down side for me is that they are recordings of kids singing the songs, not the artists themselves. The site also has a streaming site of various songs from their albums.

So Fresh - all the top hits. I have had to delete some, as there are usually one or two songs that aren't entirely appropriate for the classroom, but the majority are perfect.

Grooveshark - select any popular music song from the list to play. A great way for kids to choose the next song.

It's also great to use YouTube, if it's not blocked at your school. The only negative of using YouTube is that you have to constantly change the music at the end of each song.

Creating Meaningful Excursions

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:10:00 +0000

Today was my very first day as a casual teacher. It was actually a lot of fun - I didn't even set foot in the classroom! As it's end of term, there were parades, sausage sizzles and then an excursion to the city, where we did some sketching and visited the museum.

At the museum, we saw the amazing work of Jeannie Baker - an author who uniquely illustrates her own books through the technique of miniature collage. You might have heard of some of her popular books like Belonging or Mirrors. Mirrors is her latest book, and it follows the lives of two families side by side from a Western location and Morocco. The exhibition was terrific, and the actual miniature collages from each page of the book were on the walls for display. What fascinated me even more than the exhibition itself was the response from the kids. Half of the group shared my enthusiasm for the intricacy and overall impression of the collages, but the other half did a quick (and I mean quick) scan of the room and then settled down to flip through the collection of books in the middle of the room! I couldn't believe they were choosing the 2D versions over the 3D ones around them. After I explained that the pictures from the books were actually just photographs of the originals on the wall, a few more took an interest but it was amazing to me how some of the students weren't interested in what we had come to the museum to see!

I think that shows the power of preparing students for what they will see on an excursion. The teachers seem to have all read through the books with the students, but I think the best way that I could get them enthusiastic about their excursion would be to have them experiment with collaging so that they could perhaps understand why the exhibition was so special, and give them more knowledge to be able to appreciate what they were seeing. In all, they all seemed to have a great day, and I guess that's what counts, but I also think we should start to think about how much we want meaningful learning to count on days like today, too. By preparing in the right way, I think teachers can get a lot more out of some of the less learning-based excursions, and this is something that I'm definitely going to keep in mind when I have my own class.

Click here for the link to Jeannie Baker's website.

Image from http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/h3/h17218.jpg

Delicious

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:21:00 +0000

I have recently spent some time organising my bookmarks in Delicious. For those who have heard of Delicious but aren't too sure what it is, it's a social bookmarking sight that you use instead of adding sites to your browser favourites. Each time you bookmark a site, you add a description and tags (eg. tags for this blog site could be 'blog', 'resources', 'little', 'fish') so that when you wish to search for any sites you've tagged say for 'English' lessons, any site that you have bookmarked with the tag 'English' will pop up. If that sounds confusing, don't be alarmed, it's actually really simple! The point of the site is that you can share bookmarks with people. Next to each tag, your page will display the number of other people who have bookmarked that same site. You are able to view their entire bookmark collection and gain great resources from them without doing all the work! If you're interested, you need a yahoo email account (which literally takes two minutes to set up) and away you go! Click on the screenshot to view my collection of Delicious bookmarks.

Preparing for Life as a Substitute

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:55:00 +0000

While waiting for my paperwork to go through before I can get into the classroom, I've been spending some time putting together resource folders and looking online for any tips and tricks that I can take into the classroom as a sub. While most sites I came across were mostly for classroom teachers to help out subs (fingers crossed some have seen them), here are a few that I found helpful:

Super Substitute Teachers! - Loads of management strategies and activities for all grade levels.

Substitute Teaching (Tricks of the Trade) - Intended for high school subs but there are still some good points and handy tricks about how to conduct yourself as a sub before and during the school day.

Time Fillers - a list of short activities to fill in time.

JC School Time Fillers - more of the above.

Mr T's Page for Substitute Teachers - a variety of links for substitute teachers.

Feel free to add some more helpful sites to the list!

Image from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/01/10/opinion/10letters_ready/popup.jpg

Online Music Creators

noreply@blogger.com (Little Fish) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:17:00 +0000

I've recently become addicted to a website called StumbleUpon. The idea is you enter all your interests (ie. reading, education, music etc.) and it will bring up websites that you might be interested in. So far, I've put in far too many hours stumbling through various websites, from Einstein's famous quotes, to fantastic world photos. As you 'like' different pages, the pages that it brings up become more refined to your choices. Sound interesting? You'd be right. Sound highly addictive? Definitely!

Here are a few music simulators that I've come across that I thought would be great for the kids to use. They allow the kids to explore sound, pitch, beat and vocals all in one to create their own musical masterpieces!

Incredibox (my personal favourite - uses beat boxing to explore percussion, vocals, effects etc.)
Jam Studio
Querty Beats
inudge

Enjoy!

Image from computer music photo test 01.JPG