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I choose the skill collaboration as I believe its an important skill for learning as well as a skill they will use for life. Before I would dive in to collaboration I would teach the skill and model it first. My Sway lesson would talk the children through collaboration and provide plenty opportunities for Think, Pair, Share! Children will be prompted to discuss what is collaboration, why is it important, what jobs use collaboration and how we could use it in the class. Small tasks of collaboration will be provided for them e.g. puzzles, to get them used to working collaboratively with others. I also believe it’s important to discuss the dos and don’ts of collaboration. E.g. What does good collaboration look like/ what does bad collaboration look like.
When the ground work is set I would begin lessons that are primarily about collaboration allowing them to use what they have been taught. One of my favorite lesson is a collaborative digital story lesson, children will collaborate in twos and threes to plan a narrative story. They must work together and when they have chosen a title, storyline, plot, setting and characters they will film the story using imovie or Stopmotion. They are always delighted with the result and it a great process to encourage collaboration. I also love collaborative story writing in pairs. It always produces some wonderful stories and the children enjoy the lesson.
Digital Technologies can be used in many ways to enhance student learning and it is very obvious in the age we are living in how well students respond to it. I enjoy using digital stores and games with my infants. Various apps for literacy and numeracy are engaging and help the children learn, an app station as part of team teaching is a great way to enforce student learning. Allowing children to create their own stories, projects give the children ownership of their work and a whole class screening of the latter engages children. Coding apps and software are a great ay to get children thinking mathematically and problem solving. Even our Gaeilge program ids digital.
We can apply SSE by reflecting on our teaching methods and effectiveness. Asking yourself daily Am I achieving the lesson objectives? Asking ourselves about our digital technology we use in our class.
I think developing an awareness of Digital technology can greatly benefit whole school and teaching as a whole. Lockdown has shown us that the use of digital technology is the way forward and it is important as teachers we continue to upskill ourselves in this area.
One Note allows all lessons, plans, policies etc. to be in one place for students/ teachers which instantly saves time and makes it hugely effective.
It helps creates wonderful lesson content that is very organised and visual for students. For lessons its format allows the learning objectives clear and easy to comprehend. It is also useful across all subjects from Gaeilge to science with various features to support cross curricular learning. Content that already exists on line can be added to the lesson easily including videos, links and audio. Lessons look well presented, engaging and organised. I also like that it has an e portfolio which would be handy for assessment, as students could store pieces of work there.
Immersive reader is a brilliant feature for children with SEN or reading difficulties. As a teacher in an ASD class and previously mainstream, I feel like it might be a game changer for me going forward teaching, especially in literacy and emerging literacy. It enables me to colour code words, break words into syllables, show words through symbols etc. all features which are extremely helpful when breaking down elements of literacy.
As mentioned by other course participants, I had heard of schools using Microsoft teams during lockdown teaching. Again, I was not aware of its potential in the classroom until this course. I loved the video platform, a valuable resource to share videos with pupils. The opportunities for collaboration between students are wonderful and not present in Seesaw, the platform we used during lockdown. Sharing of resources is an important part of teaching and possible between colleagues through Teams. It seems very suited to the older classes and a great way to assign work and measure progress.
I feel that a whole school CPH would be hugely beneficial to make other teachers aware of the benefits of Teams, as while my school uses Microsoft 365, I don’t believe it uses it to its full potential. It provides wonderful opportunities for collaboration and sharing of resources between staff, all in one place. I also like the idea of staff meeting through Teams as opposed to zoom which we use. The calendar is very useful too for staff .
My school uses Office 365, so I thought this course would be a great way to explore it further.
Sway was wonderful to use to create an interesting lesson about classroom rules and information for my pupils for back to school in September. It’s something I never used but I will definitely use it again. It has excellent visuals and text styles and I know my students will respond well to it. It can be used to make a number of vibrant lesson aids. I also think my students will enjoy creating their own stories, posters etc. from it. A nice alternative to imovie also.
My school regularly uses forms to gather information from staff for whole school planning and policies. I myself have never used in the class as I use mentimetre but I now see how it could be useful for assessment of learning and I will try it too on a whole class level. I also like the idea of using it for parents to gather information. I am in an ASD class so this will be very effective.
