A Journey into Learning

In February of last year I visited Ghana. One of the SEN schools I worked with was New Horizon School in Accra, who we now have an international link with. This film really encapsulates the spirit of the school. It’s in 3 parts.

A heart-warming start to the new term.

Haringey’s schools are short changed because the government gives them less money to teach each child than councils with similiar costs.

Hackney – £6170
Camden – £6161
Islington – £5812

Haringey – £4987

Support the campaign. Read more here, and sign the petition here!

I’ve just read on the BBC website that the Numeracy and Literacy strategies are to be abandoned. This is big news indeed for educators. I hope that this will clear the way for schools and teachers to tackle the issues surrounding raising standards in more creative and localised ways.

Nintendo has unveiled the Nintendo DS Classroom. Looks like an interesting classroom application for the cheap, massproduced Nintendo DS. It enables 50 DS’s to connect wirelessly to a single PC.

Spotted here.

My mum, who is also a teacher in Haringey, recently returned from a trip to Accra in Ghana where she had been setting up a link between Haringey Sixth Form Centre and La Presbitarian in Ghana. With a little coaching she put together this movie (using iMovie). It really demonstrates the power of digital media to disseminate information.

Checkout the healthy eating games my key stage 4 students created using 2simple’s 2DIY here.

I love this software.

Project Natal is a device announced today for the Xbox360. It’s a motion sensing device that allows you to control video games and Xbox 360 menus with your body instead of a peripheral controller. Natal gives you voice and full-body motion control over your on-screen avatar using an RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone.

I’ve written before about our use of the Wii Fit in our curriculum. It has been a fantastically motivating tool to help children develop their balance and coordination. Project Natal looks really exciting. This kind of technology be incredibly useful in the classroom.

Take a look at the preview video.

I’ve been using 2Simple DIY to platform games with a Healthy Eating theme. We had great fun! The children downloaded pictures of “bad foods” from the internet, designed the level’s, created their characters, recorded the sounds and playtested each others games. Best of all – the games can be saved as a SWF file and can be easily uploaded to the internet which has got the kids more motivated than I have seen them in a long time. The project has reminded me of the power of ICT to enhance creativity and empower children. It rather reminds me of something I read recently:

For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life.

Gus Tuberville, President, William Penn College

Take a look here  (KS3 GLD classes)! Also here (KS2 mixed GLD and ASD).

If, like me, you often have the children look for images then you may find the Pictopus image library useful. E-safety is a always a hot topic in our school. As all the images are vetted by the Pictopus team you can be sure that there is no inappropriate material on the site and that all the images are copyright-free.

Thanks to Sharing Good Pratice for ictopus for this.