[Aileen Hooper]

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSyiGTREBQ7_Dls0_c5-efcTWCaKM5vyUtSZEORfY3XcaCEI7Tja7uSYPirNq1S0OrAaf311LCqiTbB/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=3000

A newcomer to Google slides so this was virgin territory for me. Children with dyslexia can become overwhelmed with wordy texts so I added in a visual for each slide. The reason I picked the pangolin was because I’d never heard of this creature up to 2 years ago.  They’re really cute to look at and I think children would find them intriguing.

It would be a good introduction for the children as well to create their own simple slide of their favourite animal / pet/ game/ place/ food.

Google slides would be really useful as well for social stories / visual timetables so that children who experience difficulty with written timetables could easily understand what’s going to happen during the day.

[Aileen Hooper]

https://forms.gle/WRyCZz697fEKunAUA  

I am using my own personal Google because I’m a bit of a Luddite with regard to this type of teaching.
As previously stated, I teach dyslexic children who are given a 2 year placement in the school .The programme we use is quite intensive and can be monotonous to be honest. I usually try to  make it more interesting by using oral activities, games etc. to test their grasp of phonics, welds, exceptions et al.

However, using Google forms would give another dimension in that I can create quizzes, word games , dictionary meanings etc. to  test their understanding of  concepts taught. I created a short quiz to test their understanding of words and incorporated it with weldes.

[Aileen Hooper]

I found the paper ‘Redesigning Education : Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century ‘ interesting but a little patronising about those who went before us. Our ancestors had unbelievable challenges to face : the youngest participant in WWW1 was a 12 year old from Cork. I think that beats any challenge faced by contemporaneous 12 year olds. I’ve had pupils in 6th class who couldn’t make a cup of tea and looked at the kettle as though it were a UFO. Yet same individuals were experts  on the computer.
We rise to the challenges that face us and the challenge I see is one whereby we marry the best of what has gone before with modern technology. The latter needs to be tailored to optimise the learning experience ; we need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.

There are a number of skills I hope to use ; collaborative learning, reflective practice, digital literacy and critical thinking.  It does sound like an overload but I think that a balanced curriculum integrates several skills to ensure a holistic education. We tend to be so busy covering the curriculum areas that we rarely reflect either  verbally or digitally as to our perceptions of what we’ve experienced.

The app I’d use would depend on the particular skill I wanted to highlight ie Jamboard could be useful for collaboration, Google forms for reflection on task completed ( with an accompanying rubric for clear guidelines)..

[Aileen Hooper]

Google classroom was a bit of an eye opener for me because I initially thought it would be like The Third Secret of Fatima. I’ll obviously need to spend away more time working on it so that I become more confident and proficient at using it on a daily basis.

It’ll be really useful for setting assignments and allocating work in that there’ll be no more excuses about the dog/ cat/ hamster ,whatever eating the homework journal. I think it’ll give the pupils a great deal more ownership of their work and subsequent responsibility for same.

Clarifying the rubric will really help to hone their skills as well , a great asset for secondary school.

I feel that the possibility of the children being able to comment online  could prove really interesting in that it gives them an opportunity to articulate their opinions which often doesn’t happen in the classroom due to time constraints. https://classroom.google.com/c/NjE3OTM2Nzg0OTA4

[Aileen Hooper]

Phew, I’m doing the course because I’m such a Luddite and I have to upskill myself because we’re going to be making much more use of technology in the next few years.

I work with children with dyslexia and they tend to find any form of technology so much more engaging than regular books. They can become really frustrated at times so having another approach to teaching would be of great benefit. Quite a number of them will be eligible for assistive technology in secondary school so it’ll be helpful for my pupils to become au fait with same before then. Even more helpful for me ,if truth be told .

The one I particularly liked was https://edu.google.com/for-educators/product-guides/jamboard/?modal_active=video-modal https://edu.google.com/for-educators/product-guides/jamboard/?modal_active=video-modal .
It would give my pupils another means for creating posters, brainstorming ideas, making labels…… What was really great was the fact that they could clear every and start all over again. How wonderful is that !

[Author]

Posts