Don't you just love it when things go well....?

Well, the reading club is going well.  Much better than I expected. The kids are loving the Dick King-Smith story of the Hodgeheg, and I've been able to use my Smart Board presentation to bring the sessions to life!  Here is  a picture of one of the children using the activities on the Smart Board.

The actual Smartboard presentation has been submitted now and is awaiting grading, so fingers crossed! It certainly has the seal of approval from my Year 2's who have really enjoyed getting interactive and involved with the whiteboard. One child told me that my 'games' were so much better than her teacher's! I find it really helps the visual learners and helps to reinforce the points you are making verbally.
 

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I used the excuse of good weather to go outside in the playground with some Year 3s during a maths lesson to help illustrate Venn Sorting diagrams. We were looking at some 2D shapes with the LO of deciding if they had parallel or perpendicular sides (or both!) The children loved being outside and the kinaesthetic/visual learning styles were addressed, as was my tan top-up!

Here is a picture of one of the hula hoop Venn Diagrams....

Who says maths isn't fun?

Halcyon days of Half-Term

Here's an artistic picture of the gravel...

 

It was very interesting trying to get ourselves understood at the depot and we ended up with "petit, blanc pierre pour le chemin avant la maison". Which literally translates as small, white stones for in front of house. I was very apprehensive as to what might be delivered and imagined pieces of chalk stockpiled in the doorway, but we seem to have got away with it.

Today there has been some sad news about the death of the Maya Angelou the civil rights activist author and poet. The title of my blog, adventure before dementia owes a little to her philosophy on life and one of her regularly quoted comments is very apt.

"I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it." More wise words can be found at http://www.mayaangelou.com

India Project

  

We're doing a topic about India with our Year 3's at the moment and it's really been fun. We've been making Naan bread and a lentil dahl.  Recipes below. Also we've been learning how to wear a sari and have painted henna onto our hands.







 

Henna painted hands

 

 

Learning how to wear a sari

 

Links to Recipes

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14107/lentil+dhal

 

 

 

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/29657/naan+bread

 

 

 



Here is a clip of Indian Dancing for you to enjoy

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/classical-indian-dance-kathak/9597.html   Here is a link to Indian Kathak Dancing too.

 






Smart Bored?

I've been working on my Smart board  (sorry Interactive Whiteboard) presentation. (Other IWB's are available!) I found it really useful that I could try it out on my Year 2's in a reading group that I do after school. 

As I said in the last post, the group are doing 'The Hodgeheg' by Dick King-Smith and my IWB presentation relates mostly to this.

It's really been fun thinking of different ways to take my 'hodgeheg' on journeys through the whiteboard. There are lots of kid-friendly activities using the 'rub and reveal' and 'drag and drop' functions.  I also found out how to use the 'activity builder' key.  When the IWB presentation is done, I'll post a copy on here so you can have a play!


Dick King-Smith is a very popular children's author who writes mostly about animals. Here is a you-tube video of another of his stories - Lady Lollipop.

The SATs tests for our Year 6's are over with now, phew! I'm glad that I work with the younger children, (Years 2 & 3) where there is not so much test-related stress. (although, our poor Year 1 and  2's have their phonics test next month!)

 http://www.education.gov.uk/sta/keystage1/a00198702/ks1assessment

Oooh la, la!
On a personal note, my latest stimulus of the grey matter (apart from this course, of course!) has been to take up not one, but two French language courses.  The first, on a Monday evening, is a small conversation group with 3 other people in a front room in Heptonstall. The second, on a Wednesday evening, is a much more formal affair with 10 others in a swish office in Manchester with L' Institut Francais.  The latter deals mostly with conjugation of French verbs, and as I cannot even conjugate an English verb, I am finding this tres difficile! 

Post-Presentation Traumatic Stress Disorder...

Well, I think most of us on the course are reeling from our presentations last week. Not only did we have to create Power Points using sound, video and animation - but we had to present it to our fellow students!

There were some really good examples of presentations about subjects we had already covered such as 'Learning Styles', 'Behaviour Management' and 'Specific Learning Difficulties'.

Here's a snippet of mine:-     

                                                                                          


I uploaded a video from 'Nessy' about how it feels being dyslexic. You can view it here.

 

 

 

 

Next week on the course we are covering the Interactive Whiteboard application. I am using the opportunity to learn about how to make the most of this equipment which up to now I have tried to avoid.  I hope to create a IWB presentation relating to a reading group that I am taking as an after school club.

 

We are covering 'The Hodgeheg' by Dick King-Smith, so all the activities will be 'hedgehog' based.  Let's hope it's not too 'prickly' a subject! Thankfully, there is no actual 'presentation' to the other students, so no need for me to roll up into a ball and hibernate!

Welcome. Bienvenue!

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

My name is Janet Rooney and I have started this blog as an assignment for my module 'Applications of ICT in Teaching and Learning' as part of my Foundation Degree in Supporting Managing and Learning in Education. Quite a title, but FdSMLE  will do for short!

In the blog, I hope to give you a flavour of what I'm up to on the course, but also a bit about me and my goals and philosophies.   Don't be put off by the title, I'm not quite there yet, but I hope to do so much before the inevitable limitations of age start holding me back!