In the meantime, my sister is getting married this year and she wanted a website creating for potential guests. The site is a simple one-page affair, on which I thought I’d try my hand at Parallax Scrolling.
I used the guide from W3C as a starting point, then added in my Sister’s images, the raw HTML and a basic Google map.
One thing I did learn was that Apple mobile devices don’t like the background-attachment: fixed CSS rule, so I created a workaround with some Apple-specific CSS and replaced it with background-attachment: scroll.
The website can be viewed at callumandclaire.co.uk
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We have tasked some groups of Year 7 and Year 8 students with creating videos about the school.
Royds Hall has a really rich history, including being a mansion, a hospital during World War 1, and during its time as a Grammar School the school of former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
I have been having a play with the Google MAPS API and have created a very simple way using JSON data to overlay the HTML data onto a map.
Next step: Create a simple way for the students to input their findings….watch this space!
I have been listening to the audiobook ‘To Sell is Human’ by Daniel H Pink, the same author who wrote the very influential ‘Drive’, a book about human motivation.
His fundamental message throughout the book is that we are all in the ‘selling game’ regardless of whether we have a job in sales. Pink uses the example of teachers and other educators throughout the book. Educators, he maintains are always trying to sell our subjects and our classes to our students. If the students have bought into what we are doing, they are more likely to retain information, be less disruptive and work to the best of their ability.
Throughout the book, Pink offers nuggets of advice on how to sell yourself to others.
One of the ones that stuck with me is the idea of ‘Buoyancy’, the ability to pick yourself and be positive despite what has happened that day. I think that this is especially important when working in a school. As we all know, there are bad days, and good days! If you are positive, upbeat and optimistic it will rub off on the students that you teach.
Pink also talks about being ‘attuned’ to the people you are selling to, really taking the time to understand them and what they want. The better we know students, and the more time we take to understand them, the more time and attention they will have for us. How can we really get to know disruptive students? Can we find out what makes them tick? What really motivates and inspires those quiet, reserved students?
The author then talks about ‘Clarity’, are we communicating with our students in a clear, simple manner? Are we over complicating a lesson, or an idea? I think that there’s always room for this in our day to day lives.
Finally, the author offers some interesting ideas for ‘pitches’. You may have head of the ‘Elevator Pitch’, whereby employees have the duration of a ride in an elevator to sell an idea or introduce themselves to their boss (this probably doesn’t apply much to us in schools!). Pink offers many alternative pitches that can be used, the most interesting of which I found to be the ‘Pixar Pitch’. In fact, I found it so interesting that I used it as a plenary in one of my lessons. I’ve uploaded it to TES, ill let you take a look!
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I think I’ve taken it as far as I can, and it would be nice if sometime in the future, someone made it even better!
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My presentation for the Green Light Teaching Alliance student teachers on using ICT in school entitled ‘Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen’.
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Over the summer, I have been working on developing the software and video for a really exciting project called ‘The Aspire Award’. Although in it’s early days, the idea is to create an awards scheme whereby students are in the driving seat.
So, why undertake something like this?
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To increase student engagement in extra-curricular activities
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To increase student attainment, well-being and outcomes
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To reward students for their accomplishments
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To empower students to take control of their own successes
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To give students a record of achievement that they can take to employers, colleges and universities.
Details of the scheme and the video can me found here: http://www.aspireaward.co.uk/
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ve set a piece of work and your email fills up with three or four identical pieces of work. Usually copied from the opening paragraphs of the Wikipedia page on the topic. With great care taken to remove all of the formatting and links, but phrases such as ‘from the Late Latin tectonicus from the Greek, “pertaining to building’.
Now, either you have been doing your job wrong for months and that group of Year 7 should in fact be fast tracked to the GCSE course as soon as possible, or it’s a blatant copy and paste job!
So, how do we get away from this? We are all human after all, and just like Year 7 boys we all try to make things quicker and easier for ourselves (It’s why sliced bread took off in such a big way!).
The simple answer is to continually challenge students about their blatant disregard for learning, asking them “What does the word ‘pertaining’ actually mean?”.This tried and tested method works quite well I find.
Should you have a piece of blatant copy and paste grace your inbox on a Monday morning, you could give due sanction and perhaps make them do the research out of a textbook the old fashioned way.
However, the best way that I have found to combat ‘Copy and Paste disease†is to simply make students write in their books, instead of producing a glitzy Powerpoint, or a Word document. This approach is particularly useful for research tasks.
If a student is required to write down their findings on paper, they are much more likely to pick out useful information for their device. They are also much more likely to synthesise what they have read into a much more concise block of text (Bloom’s taxonomy anyone?).
Granted, there is still room for using Microsoft Office to create pieces of work, and getting to know these pieces of software is not a fundamental life skill. However, if you are just starting off a topic and you want students to do some good old-fashioned research: ICT, pen and paper are the way forward!
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ear 7 History scheme of work, students had to look at the school building and design a guide / tour of all the different parts, from the old to the new.
Instead of doing this in a more traditional manner, I wanted the students to ‘look again’ at the building that they walk through every day and create a ‘Virtual Tour’ that could be viewed by others. I stumbled across the Google App ‘Photosphere‘ which lets you create 360 Degree images of a place and upload them to Google Maps.
The results were great, the students really paid attention to the building and the features. From a Geography point of view, it further emphasised the ideas of ‘Space’ and ‘Place’.
After they were added to Google maps. I asked the students to write a script for an accompanying audio tour of the school using their Photo Spheres.
I think that it could really help with field trip write ups. If students could be virtually transported back to the moment that they undertook the work!
There are obvious disclaimers; from a safeguarding point of view, don’t have images of students on the Photospheres, and vet them all before anything is uploaded.
Some example Photospheres: The School Garden, Outside my classroom
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]]>Often, my inbox is full of Excel spreadsheets containing lists of the names, graphs, or schedules; all very nicely arranged. The question I always as myself when this happens is: How could this be done better? quicker? more efficiently?
The stock answer to many of these things is ‘yes’. The problem with Excel files is that they can’t be easily edited by others (without a costly subscription to Office 365). Would it not be better to create a Google Document that can be shared and viewed by others?
I am aware that many organisations and individuals prefer the Google Doc, but there is still a preference for bulky, non-collaborative Excel files shared as attachments to be sent around.
Perhaps this is due to Excel being seen as the ‘industry standard’, or the fact that many people are trained to use it throughout school, and on courses. It is also pushed very heavily by organisations as a ‘safe option’.
I think that part of the problem is that Google Docs is still seen as ‘unknown’. It hasn’t had as much time to embed into our tech psyche as Excel. It is still seen as quite a new product (it is relatively new) and will need time to bed in.
Don’t get me wrong Excel has its place, I wouldn’t dream of doing a large complex spreadsheet in Google Docs. But for day to day collaborative efforts, perhaps we should give Google a chance?
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