Mystery Skype

Just reading through our Week 9 module on this rainy afternoon (perfect study weather). We are looking at digital photography and the many exciting things you can use it for within the classroom. I’ve just come across an outstanding resource we are to explore and it is enough to make me shiver with excitement!

MYSTERY SKYPE– https://education.skype.com/mysteryskype  

You simply have to see this. Maybe even do it when you can!

Basically, a teacher logs on to this Mystery Skype and can connect with another class from around the world..

Yeah, we all know those possibilities are endless! I’d love to try this in my upcoming prac. Oh, the classroom is an entirely different place these days.

 

Time Constraints within Australian Classrooms

 Have you ever heard a teacher mention the time constraints school curriculum brings? I can almost guarantee you have, many times. When on prac I found the aspect of time constraints within a school week quite stressful. This led me to think, how do the students feel about this? The table below from the Department of Education, Training and Employment (2013), is a guideline for schools in relation to how many hours per week should be spent on various subjects.

 

Picture Source: http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/framework/p-12/docs/time-allocations.pdf

 

Let’s do some maths now…

Year 3 Amount of work per week

English – 7 hours

Maths – 5 hours

Science- 1.75 hours

History- 1 hour

= 14.75 hours per week for just four subjects

A school week (at a guess) usually involves 6 hours

1.5 hours of lunch break, leaving 4.5 hours a day or 22.5 hours of class time per week

1 hour of parade per week.. 21.5 hours left per week

Interruptions due to school matters, messages, fire drills, guest speakers etc approximately two hours, maybe more per week. 19.5 hours left per week.

Sport.. 2.5 hours a week.. Down to 17 hours a week.

RE lesson 30 mins.. 16.5 hours

Music lessons 1 hour per week.. 15.5 lessons

Library visit 30 mins 15 hours

That’s 15 minutes left to work with…… Too bad if there’s a four day week!

I can see the problem, can you??

 

Samantha Dunster

Nutrition and behaviour

Nutrition and physical activity have always been a big focus in my life. Growing up with a nutritionally clued up mother I was always taught right from wrong when it came to food. School holiday time for me means big working days at a very large vacation care centre. Here I deal with a majority of the behavioural incidences we experience at the centre especially from the repeat offenders. I also give out the appropriate medications to children (mainly Ritalin). There is one thing I find a lot of these children (who either demonstrate poor/ repetitive behaviours or are on medication) have in common.

UNHEALTHY LUNCHBOXES!

A lot of processed, prepacked foods high in sugar! Concentration problems?

A lack of fibrous foods! Reasons for all the tummy aches?

An abundance of unnaturally coloured food! A reason for the hyperactivity in some children?

The following attachment is a lengthy but interesting one. Check out pages 23, 30 and 36 in particular.

www.foodforthebrain.org/media/229766/FHF.pdf

SOS from the land of Assignment 2

After a weekend of sport I’m now facing hours of assignment time. I am just now completing Stage 1- Desired Results. Looking at the Essential Questions, I haven chosen to utilise the 5E’s Model for this task. I’ve layed a base track and come up with the text below however I don’t feel like it’s perfect and am a little worried about the Elaborate Phase..

YEAR 4 SCIENCE– Content Descriptors

• Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and the environment to survive (ACSSU073)
• Suggest ways to plan and conduct investigations to find answers to questions (ACSIS065)
• Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment to make and record observations, using formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS066)
• Represent and communicate ideas and findings in a variety of ways such as diagrams, physical representations and simple reports (ACSIS071)

5E’s Initial thoughts..

1. ENGAGE- What does my circle of life/life cycle look like?

 

2. EXPLORE- Do other living things have the same life cycle?

 

3. EXPLAIN- What affects the life cycle of a living thing?

 

4. ELABORATE- Can I represent the life cycle of a plant or animal? ******

 

5. EVALUATE- Why are life cycles of plants and animals crucial to our environment?

Looking at the Essential Question examples on page 2 of this website provided to us on StudyDesk http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/essential.pdf makes me think mine are way too boring.

I invite any input and suggestions (even if I’m entirely off course!)

Please and thank you’s 🙂

Next…. Looking deeply into Assignment 2

Bring on yet another assignment. I have been fortunate enough to be granted an extension for Assignment 2 in EDC 3100. Yippee!

Our Study Desk Task for the module I’m up to right now (and yes I am behind but surely I’m not the only one??) is to share our Assignments context, learning objectives and the assessment criteria I’ll be using. So here goes, keeping in mind this is the first time I have properly sat down to it.

Year 4 Science

Context:  (Text from my assignment so far)

“The students at Beachside Primary School are from a mostly medium socio-economic background as with a majority of the medium sized school. This class is comprised of 24 students with an even amount of male and females. There are two Indigenous students within the class who are leaders within their school and community.

One of the school’s main focus points is on technology. Each and every student is supplied with their own laptop and intranet access (internet made available when appropriate). Students also have easy access to other digital technologies such as iPads, MP3 devices, cameras and recorders and are mostly confident with basic computer and internet skills due to recent personal development and training during school. Interactive whiteboards are set up in each class and teachers are all confident in this technology due to Personal Development and training courses.”

Special Events: ** yet to be tweaked* “Clean up Australia Day, Cyber Awareness Week, Excursion to the beach?*”

.

Staff: “Team of three year 4 teachers: Miss D, Mrs T and Mr J each with different strengths and interests: ICT & Mathematics, English & Art, Science & Sport. The three teachers sometimes work together to team teach. There are also two teacher aides to assist groups of students who are struggling with the work.”

Learning Objectives:

• Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)
• Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and the environment to survive (ACSSU073)
• Suggest ways to plan and conduct investigations to find answers to questions (ACSIS065)

• Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment to make and record observations, using formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS066)

Assessment Criteria:

Still a little fuzzy on this..

I’ve managed to locate this lot of information and narrowed some down. I will check back over this soon as I don’t think I’ve got it right.

By the end of Year 4, students:

 Can describe relationships that assist the survival of living things and sequence key stages in the life cycle of a plant or animal.

Identify when science is used to ask questions and make predictions.

Follow instructions to identify investigable questions about familiar contexts and predict likely outcomes from investigations.

 

 

Use provided tables and simple column graphs to organise their data and identify patterns in data.

 

Suggest explanations for observations and compare their findings with their predictions.

 

Complete simple reports to communicate their methods and findings.

 

Websites:

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/science/Curriculum/F-10#level4

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/ac_sci_yr4_se.pdf

 

Teacher’s Spending

I’ve been doing some online surfing today (wish it was real surfing). I came across an amazing teacher named Kylie who runs a blog called Down Under Teacher. Check it out http://bit.ly/1njuSst. One of her posts showed a whole heap of equipment she ordered. This left me thinking how often I’ve heard teachers complain about how much they are spending on their class. This is a common worry amongst teachers I do believe. So where is the line? Are we expected to spend money on the resources we want? If so, just how much? I began starting my resources collection a couple of weeks ago when I purchased a few workbooks around mathematics and puzzles. It’s already started! Below I’ve shared a couple of trusty looking resources that make me want to empty my bank account.

http://bit.ly/1njvnTn

http://ab.co/PlUBlh

http://www.scholastic.com.au/

What age is appropriate to buy your child an IPad?

A few years back I was so against small children having all this wonderful technology. But with all the fantastic educational resources like books and games that have been produced, it has almost become a necessity (well..). I often see friends kids with iPads and iPods and the things they play on them are mostly sneakily educational without them even realising. However I do think we really need to do a few things.
1. Limit the amount of time spent on these devices to a certain amount each day.
2. Ensure there are mostly educational resources on them and restrict small children from social networking
3. Monitor the use of the devices by watching what the child is doing/playing.
4. Ensuring children know about cyber bullying etc and set out clear rules to be abided by.
5. Engage in the games with your children and set them challenges.
6. Ensure the equipment is given utmost respect and looked after properly.
7. Have children also engage in games and text from other sources such as board games and books.

When I have children I will be all for the purchase and use of this technology but will be closely monitoring their actions. Hooray for technology!

Composite Classes

As we wait eagerly to find out the school and grade of this semesters prac, I am reflecting on my previous ones. My first prac was a Year 6/7 class. I was never in a composite class as a child and always dredded being put in one for some reason or another. I’m trying to imagine how a teacher deals with a composite class and I still don’t have a full understanding of it. The 6/7 teacher I was with had a fairly laissez-faire approach to most class work. I didn’t witness too much planning going on in that time. When I questioned how the composite class works, the mentor explained that they would simply choose the unit to teach, then swap it around the next year so they learn all units. But does this mean the Year 7’s missed Year 7 work then went off to highschool? And the new class of Year 6 walk straight into Year 7 work? What if students were to leave schools or swap classes?

I see positives and negatives in this situation.

Positives:

• Students are exposed to a variety of different topics
• Students who either excell or struggle have access to their level of work and may have the opportunity to work at their own pace
• Younger students get to experience what the oldest students in school are working towards and see school leaders working within their own class
• Students may assist others who are struggling

Negatives:

• Some students may miss units or important lessons
• Having very young students with very mature students may not be appreciated by the students or parents.
• More planning is required by the teacher?
• Events that involve only one year level such as camps may require extra assistance with staffing and cause many interruptions

Can you add anymore?

I recently found an article online that explains how the National Curriculum is forcing composite classes to be drowned out. See it here.

http://bit.ly/1lrGZzN

What are your thoughts on composite classes?

Thoughts about prac

I have been thinking about the approaching prac today. Reflecting back to my pre-prac feelings from the previous prac’s I’m finding myself a lot more excited than usual. I really feel connected and excited for the ICT component of prac this time. I assume this will probably come hand in hand with a lot of time consuming activities and preparation but it is all part of the learning process. Last prac I literally went in with no technology knowledge other than basic Word, Internet and Power Point skills. My mentor was very ICT orientated and I found myself having to learn how to work with the laptop connected to the projector. It was a fantastic experience and I can only assume that this prac will have us aligned with another ICT appreciative mentor. Bring in on I say.

Have a look at this site

http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/enabling-learners/digital-classroom.html

Scootle is fantastic!

I have just completed the Scootle activity within my uni work. Scootle is fantastic!! Technology is ensuring things are improving for Australian education. To think in just a few short years there will be a direct resource for everything is very exciting.

Here’s a resource I came across (for those who didn’t read through every part of discussion post)

Scootle Resource   School Canteen: Two traders- Level 1

Year Level 5-7

Description

In this game students are engaged and challenged by the task of running their school canteen for the week (not for real). This is a comparative type of game requiring the students to recognise the cheapest deal between to two traders.

Reason

This game looks like a real online shopping website and has a real world task tied to it. This is engaging for students as they see meaning for the activity. Problem solving skills are required in order to figure out the best option and within this, students will be relying heavily upon their mathematics skills.

See it at: http://bit.ly/1qDbNAw