A Memory Story to Aid Learning

I saw Jonathan Hancock on Newsround this week. He is a World Memory Champion. He has been teaching his Year 6 pupils to learn through memory stories. They learn facts, names, words etc through a story; the example they showed was of saying something in Japanese. To remember something quite challenging they make a story out of the segments that make up the word or sentences, the example was of Sam was visiting someone, but knocked his knee etc (where Sam and knee were parts of the word), and they performed actions to help as well. This not only appeals to children but is also an easy way to remember things. Sometime he uses pictures.

This has been so successful that other schools are being encouraged to follow his lead. There are many memory methods for example mnemonics are often used, especially in science (MRS GREN). For example when doing MRS GREN with a Year 4 class I knew I wasn’t missing out any of the 7 features of living organisms because I filled out all of MRS GREN. Obviously you need to know what the features are but the first letter of each word gives you a prompt and is much easier than remembering all 7 individually and together.

When I was at school the army visited and tried the memory game with us. They put several items out on a table, you have 1 minute to look at them and then you have to remember all of the things that are there. They let us try it first and then they showed us if you make it into a story you can remember it easily. E.g. I left the house and remembered my KEYS, walking down the street I saw some GUM on the floor, avoiding it I stepped on a 10p which I put in my pocket when I found a LIST of food shopping I had to get etc….

I think they are some great ways to learn things, but as a teacher you could spend all your time thinking up these games and end up never teaching them anything. I think it would be more beneficial to teach them how to devise these memory methods and so they could use them when revising etc especially later in life when they are doing GCSE’s etc.

Read the article here

(Picture is from newsround's website of Mr Hancock telling the children a story about the order the playing cards come in to help them remember....although one may ask why they need to know such a thing?!!)

Misused and Misunderstood

I think Word is misunderstood and misused by many.

So I looked up what the official definition for Microsoft Word is, it is a word processing program. Suggesting that Word is used for typing, writing, communicating through words, hence why it is called Word.

Why is it then, that on countless occasions I have come across people trying to make menus, complex tables and more importantly diagrams and posters in Word? I could be wrong but I don’t think that Word should be used in this way; I don’t think this is what it was made to do. If you want to type a letter, or keep a diary, or write a list, or even make a mock newspaper etc then Word is for you. However the people at Microsoft have crated a combination of programs and have collectively called them Microsoft Office. They have not given you one program and said do everything; they have tailored programs to suite specific needs and therefore making our lives, as the customers, easier. So why is it that we insist on misusing the programs they provide us with? Today my Science lesson was to create a poster about MRSGREN, using pictures from clip art, using WordArt to make the text more exciting and this is to be done in Word. I am confident with the general tasks on a computer, for example making posters. Word is the last program that I would use for creating a poster. Most people would use publisher or something, at home I don’t have publisher and for creative projects I would use PowerPoint as it allows text and pictures to be easily inserted and moved around the pages, if you wanted to share many of the children’s posters that are on PowerPoint, you could create a slide show etc. In my lesson the children were having to put pictures into text boxes in order to move them around. Many children had a large box inserted that moved around their other work, so I was having to go round 30 children, insert the large text box, undo the large text box and then draw a small text box. I found it easier to move some children onto PowerPoint to overcome this problem. Yes you can not just type in PowerPoint, unlike in Word. But, when doing a poster most of the text the children insert is in WordArt and so they aren’t just typing anyway and so I can see no benefit of using Word.

Word, I remember being told, is linear, it responds to information being displayed in lines etc. PowerPoint however is not restricted in this way and so objects can easily be moved around, in Word they follow a strict alignment and so when inserting pictures etc they must follow the rules.

(The MRSGREN poster is my PowerPoint effort!)

Computers causing...chaos!

Why are children so crazy when it comes to computers?! There seems to be some sort of radar between the children and the computers, they send out some sort of beam that makes them act CRAZY! Having a computer suite all to ourselves is brilliant, and means that we have access at any time on any day. Due to the large class it can sometimes be preferable to have half in the computer room, practising maths skills or typing skills etc, whilst having a more intimate teaching lesson with the other half. Today however was “CRAZY”! The children couldn’t wait to get on the computers, but some, when they did failed to stay on task. The Nickelodeon website is proving to be too much of a temptation, the ranger remote control is not entirely up and running yet and so stopping them is impossible. The good quality wheelie chairs provide them with much entertainment….daily, and even though most do not have access to computers at home they lack the appreciation of the expensive equipment that they have regular use of.

The school has a range of quality games available on all topics that the teacher allows the children to play on. But it just doesn’t seem enough. At this time it seems computers seem to have the same effect as several hundred E-numbers!

(Photo from google images - http://www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk/kids
/images/news/news_pics/sweets.jpg)

My First Lesson...

Today I taught my first lesson. English with ICT. The children were re-capping work they had done on writing a formal thank you letter. The letters were to be typed. I had the children in the classroom. I drew a page on the board and the children told me what the features of a letter were and where they went on the page. I asked them about indenting a paragraph and how they would do this on a computer. I got the expected response of either they wouldn’t or they would press the space bar until it was indented enough. I explained that there was a key that they should use for indenting and that it would always indent the same amount. Using a keyboard and a “glamorous” assistant I showed them where to find it.

The lesson went well as I sent two groups into the computer room with the LSA’s and I stayed with a group to do a guided write before they typed up their letter. However, what I failed to take into account is the children’s lack of knowledge of the capabilities of Word. Although they knew and understood the layout of the letter I had neglected to factor in the need for right and left alignment for the address and date and then to write the letter. The LSA’s did an excellent job of advising the children but was an issue that in hindsight I would have addressed in an IT lesson prior to this English work. When using a non-interactive whiteboard in the classroom it was not possible to instruct the children on formatting settings. However if the lesson had been carried out in the computer room I could have instructed using the board and circling and showing them what to use and where to find them. However, this would have taken longer, the children tend to be distracted when in the computer room and many don’t follow the lessons. The school’s current aim is to reduce the amount of “teacher talk time”.

All in all the lesson was a good start and I was pleased to be able to include computers right at the beginning. I will have to in future think more about the children’s prior learning and not take for granted the knowledge that I have and project it onto them.

(Picture taken from Google images: http://www.bankier.falkirk.sch.uk/images%5Ccomp2.jpg)

Ranger Remote Control

Thursday 03.01.08, the first day of SBT1…an INSET day. We were treated to a “talk” from the head of the IT department…

Other than the actual teachers IT has the biggest budget within the school. With devices such as digital blue cameras, microscopes, interactive whiteboards (the ones that are whiteboards and have a device that makes them interactive) and webcams to name but a few of their current supplies, suggests they are clearly in touch with current IT. However as the day progressed it became clear that such equipment has been sat collecting dust in cupboards for a while. Due to issues with fitting it in to the constrained time frame that the National Curriculum allows, and the clear lack of confidence that some of the teachers have, the expensive equipment just isn’t being used and instead is making the teachers feel increased pressure and inadequate.

The staff are advised when new equipment comes into the school and are given a demonstration in how to use them. However as they said, if they don’t use them they forget how they work and so using them becomes a mission, as they have to find time in advance of the lesson to be re-taught and sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth it.

The webcams were brought in so that children from this school could communicate with children at a partner school in Cardiff. However, a good idea that would have benefited children in two schools with a simple project has not been developed. Again this seems to be due to time constraints and lack of confidence. No one has taken a lead for their colleagues to follow.

Why is it that a majority of the teachers one comes across always seem defensive about their knowledge always saying they are “rubbish” at maths and IT? Maths is the same, it has always been the same, and there is normally one right answer, unlike English for example where it can be more open to interpretation. IT is something we all come across on a daily basis and without realising it; we are always improving our skills. However, sometimes we do need more active learning and involvement. The advances in IT have opened up so many opportunities to all, especially in the use of teaching. At my current placement few children have the opportunity to progress with computer skills out side of the classroom, it is times like this when as a teacher you are the child’s only window to improving their IT knowledge and skills, so they won’t be left behind in the future and don’t experience the anxiety and inadequacies experienced by some teachers today. It is so important to embrace the new technology even if it is difficult as much for the children’s benefit as for themselves.

The newest addition to the school’s IT department is a software package called Ranger Remote Control. I was excited to be introduced to this software at the same time as the teachers, to see the learning curve and to encourage my teacher to use it. This software will be linked to all computers and is for the LSA’s and the teachers to be able to monitor the children when the computer suite. All the computers can be viewed from the teacher’s computer. This allows them to track those computers, which have been left on, and so can easily conserve energy. It allows them to track the children’s work, by taking snap shots of the screen. Children’s work can be brought up on the projector and so work can be enlarged and easily shared for all the class to view. An important aspect of it is that individual computers can have restrictions placed upon it for Internet access. As with a situation that occurred today a child refused to do typing practice and wanted to spend his time on the Nickelodeon website, that they had been allowed to go on before the Christmas holiday. The children have assigned computers and these can be set so only certain websites can be accessed, the ones you want them to look at. If the children try to go on any other websites it informs them that they are unable to view the website and provides a list of the websites that the teacher has cleared for their computer.

I hope to use Ranger Remote Control to share the children’s work and monitor them when they are on the computers. I think it is great to see what school’s have available and are trying out with the possibility of taking the knowledge and skills to other schools.