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The Collaboration Rubric and decision tree are very beneficial when looking at, implementing and teaching the 21st century skills. This is a great learning experience for myself and an excellent resource, which I have saved, to look back on to promote greater teaching and learning outcomes in my classroom. As I have previously explained in earlier modules, I will be teaching Junior Infants in September, this will be my fourth consecutive year teaching them. The skill that really stood out for me is Collaboration, as in the early years this is a skill that is continuously modelled for the children and encouraged during the school day, particularly during child-led play (Aistear). Collaboration enables respectful, strong relationships where the children listen to each other and acknowledge their own emotions and those of their peers. For example, the children take on a new role in the socio-dramatic area and work together to engage in the play associated with the theme (shop, restaurant, home corner, etc.) . The children also need to take turns and work together to create this make believe scenario. If one child is unhappy with the role they are enacting, they work together to ensure they are taking turns and are all having a fair play experience, experiencing each role. They collaborate to steer the role play in various directions and listen to one another’s viewpoints. It enables them to become good problem solvers, make decisions as a group and work together as a team. The children become accustomed to sharing classroom responsibilities: tidying up, etc. and they are encouraged to work together, as a team; everyone must be involved. This is one example of collaboration in the Junior Infant classroom, however, it is prominent in all aspects and areas of the Aistear programme. Without collaboration, children would not be able to successfully play together and build long lasting relationships.
I have been using Seesaw and Padlet with my Junior Infants over the past number of years, and I will continue to do so in September. I will also look forward to recording story books on PowerPoint for children to enjoy during/after school hours. I will use Sway as I start a new topic with my JI’s as it is a ‘one-stop-shop’ that allows me to create lessons and gather relevant resources relating to the topic: pictures/videos/links/etc. I look forward to sharing my knowledge about Digital Technology with my school in September. We are very lucky to have two trolleys of iPads and we share them between classes using a timetable rota. As I have mentioned before, children love learning through technology and are always super engaged with lessons and this evidently encourages learning and self-enquiry. In order for a Digital Learning Plan to be incorporated and established at a whole school level, it is important to first establish a Digital Learning Team within the school. The Team will assess the use of ICT in our school by using the digital Learning Framework as a guide. We will then need to create a plan that is beneficial/attainable for both teaching and learning. I feel there could be some anxiety amongst staff who are not overly familiar with Digital learning, therefore CPD during Croke Park hours would hugely benefit and help to support anyone who may feel overwhelmed. It may even be an idea to have a buddy system in place, so teachers who are not overly confident with digital learning can look to another more confident member of staff for help, not solely depending on the DLT.
OneNote is a learning tool which I was not overly familiar with. Besides hearing the name, I had never used it before. It is great to have the opportunity and time to familiarise myself with this resource as I can now see how beneficial it is and I forward to using it in my classroom in September. it will help to improve my organisational skills and allow me to keep my plans in one, easy to access, place.
I think it would be a great teaching tool for primary teachers as it is easy to navigate and it would be an excellent tool for children in the senior end to use to record their work and collaborate to create and present their own projects on different topics. I have previously used PowerPoint presentations with fourth and fifth class and they loved creating and presenting with their classmates. This is a step up from that, as I know the children will enjoy exploring the different learning tools (Font, Size, Colour, Syllables, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Text to Speech, Pictionary) One Note has to offer and they can take pride when showcasing their projects with their peers. It will also encourage the children to explore and research topics which they find interesting as an Early Finisher Activity.
Before this module, I was not familiar with Microsoft Teams. I am definitely looking forward to using it next year and introducing it to my colleagues. Teams appears to be a great way to promote collaboration and communication amongst the teaching staff. I can also see it as a fantastic platform to share and store Policies/School Documentation and CM each month. This would further benefit the principal, Set, Substitute teachers, etc. as all of the monthly plans can be shared on the same platform, allowing all involved to be kept informed.
I am probably most familiar with PowerPoint as a teaching tool and always find myself going back to using it as I am familiar with how it works. I was not aware that I could make a recording for each slide, however. I can definitely see myself creating more ‘storybook’ PowerPoints and recording myself reading the story for the benefit of the children, both at home and in school. As a Junior Infant Teacher, it would also be great as a communication tool to liaise between school and home. This would prove effective when teaching phonics as I could record the letter sound for the parents to recap for homework, and there would be less confusion.
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the summer holidays!
I have found this module very beneficial thus far and have used the time to familiarise myself with applications on Word that I was unaware of, ie. Sway, forms, etc.
I particularly enjoyed exploring Sway. I find the lessons created here very visual/colourful/attractive and therefore believe it would be a great way to engage the children in my classroom. Also, from a teachers point of view, I love how it gathers relevant resources for the lesson you are creating: videos, pictures, etc. It is also a relief to know you are not infringing on any copyright laws.
I also think the children would have loved using Forms quizzes during lockdown; a great assessment tool for the teacher. I will, however, use forms quizzes as a fun assessment tool for a group quiz at the end of each topic (AOL). It would also be beneficial to gain prior knowledge of a subject you are about to teach, allowing the teacher to know what the children already know about the topic, and therefore, what is left to teach/fill in the gaps (AFL).
With regard to SSE: both Sway and forms are a great way to convey/gather evidence from teachers, parents, learners and school staff.
