International Students learning with iPads

Head of ESOL teacher Mr Owen Shrimpton has been using iPads for teaching and learning with his international students. Owen recently gave some of his students an iPad with the only instruction to "show me how you can use the device to help your learning at school."

"They are finding their own apps like Baidu Translate to help with their English across their classes. With this app my Chinese students take a picture of an object, circle it, and can get the English translation aloud and in written form."

 This type of learning has been very valuable to his students.

"This is much more powerful personalised learning as when the international students arrive they are the ones who have the greatest understanding of what they need."

Given the large number of apps and resources available in many different languages, Owen has been able to integrate specific apps and web links to tailor a learning plan for the CBHS international students.

Video submissions and Year 12 Physical Education.

 

Mr Phil Watson (Physical Education teacher) recently marked a Year 12 Physical Education Achievement Standard assignment where students had the opportunity to submit their assessment via video recording. The Achievement Standard titled “Demonstrate understanding of how and why biophysical principles relate to the learning of physical skills” lends itself particularly well to this type of submission.

 

“The ability for students to demonstrate their understanding using their own bodies while talking is very powerful.”

Many students who took this approach felt it was much easier to explain theoretical concepts. The ability to demonstrate their understanding in a practical sense also seemed to appeal to boys. Some boys were very well prepared for their presentations often reading from prepared notes to aid their physical explanations.

While not all boys chose to present their answers using the video recording technique, Phil found it easier on his workload:    

“It’s much easier to mark as well … I can pause his video clip at any time to make notes in my marking schedule.”

Twitter: Our most valuable form of Professional Development?

Teacher with Library Responsibilities and English teacher,  Ms Jo Pearson, has just begun to use Twitter for professional learning and development. Twitter is a micro blogging services where people ‘tweet’ short messages to their ‘followers’.  

“Initially I was quite sceptical about the value that Twitter could offer but it has enabled me to create my own personal learning network.  It keeps me up-to-date with what is happening in education and it connects me with like-minded individuals. ”  

 

Following the ‘right’ people is the key for using twitter. Many organisations such as ‘edchatnz’ and ‘daily genius’ provide valuable teaching resources and ideas.  

“Twitter’s potential for teachers is amazing. I love the fact that there are people who are ready and  willing to share resources.  The curriculum specific  organisations, such as EngChatNZ, offer some valuable links to discussions, resources and online professional development.” 

Learn more about using Twitter for professional development here. 

Using Prezi in Year 12 Physical Education

Mr Dave Ralston (Teacher of Physical Education) has been using an innovative approach to assessment of a senior Physical Education achievement standard. The achievement standard requires students to demonstrate an understanding of how and why biophysical principles relate to the learning of physical skills. The assessment opportunities for this topic are broad:

“For this Achievement Standard, students can present their assessment in any way they choose. Some boys in the class are doing presentations on PowerPoint or Prezi, some are doing essays, and some are doing a speech.”

Using a range of different assessment opportunities caters for the needs of different learning and work preferences.

“Many boys like using technology and computers so the majority of the students are using Prezi or PowerPoint. Prezi is particularly good for an assessment such as this one as it allows students to 'zoom in' on important parts of their presentation. 

Watch this video clip below to find out more about using Prezi, or go to the Prezi.com website. 

Using OneDrive in Social Studies

Mr Richard Meikle recently used OneDrive with his Year Ten Social Studies class to allow multiple students to work on the same PowerPoint file at the same time.

Students worked in groups of four to create a PowerPoint presentation about South Africa. One group member saved the PowerPoint file to the School's OneDrive and shared this file with his other group members.

"Using OneDrive to store the file was great as it allowed all students to work on the same file at any time. They could even access it from home."

As OneDrive files save to the cloud/internet, there were no issues with students saving work to their own computers or using a memory stick. Mr Meikle was impressed with the simplicity of using OneDrive.

"Using OneDrive was surprisingly simple and I asked all groups to also share their PowerPoint with me too so I could easily see their progress."

Here is a short video clip about how to use OneDrive with your classes.

Kahoot and Te Reo Maori

Mr Afoa Patiole (Te Reo Māori teacher) uses Kahoot as an engaging online response tool. Mr Patiole creates a quiz for his students at getkahoot.com and students enter a unique game code at kahoot.it which allows them to take part in the quiz. Students respond using their own internet capable device.

"Kahoot is a wonderful teaching tool which is really engaging for the students. I use it at the start of the lesson to get the students focused on the topic."

Any device which connects to the internet can be used to take part in the quiz.

"Some students use their smartphones, some use their tablets, some use the classroom desktop computers, anything which can connect to the internet can be used for the quiz."

Kahoot ranks student responses and this competition is great for boys learning:

"The boys love the competitive nature of Kahoot and how it ranks the student responses. As soon as they hear the music they’re fully engaged and keen to learn!”

Watch this video clip to see how to use Kahoot with your class.

Padlet.com and Year Ten Commerce

Mr McKay (Year Ten Commerce teacher) and using Padlet.com

Padlet.com is a virtual wall that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online sheet of paper where students can contribute their thoughts and ideas. Mr Phil McKay has been using Padlet.com with his Year Ten Commerce class.

“Padlet is great because the boys can submit their homework straight to a website, which is much better than me collecting in books or pieces to paper to mark."

Students enjoy the collaborative nature of padlet and Mr McKay believes more quality learning may be evident:

“We usually use the data projector to look through everyone’s contribution to the padlet page so boys generally do a better job of their homework if they know it’s not just me seeing their work.”

When designing your padlet page there are privacy options to select where people can only contribute to the padlet page if they have the password set by the page owner. There is also the option to “moderate posts” before they appear on the website. Setting up and using a padlet page is very straightforward. Watch this video clip on how to use Padlet.com in your classroom: 

Using links in email

When using Microsoft 365 outlook (email) there is a useful tool which links directly to a file/website of your choice. The link tool is circled in red:

When highlighting (click hold and drag) any text in an email the link icon lights up. If you left click the link icon you can paste the long link you want to link to into the link icon. For eg:

Take a look at this image here

As opposed to

Take a look at this image here:

http://www.kiwihyde.com/wp-content/themes/tma/images/interests-christchurch/2008-03-24-interests-christchurch-boys-and-avonside-high-schools.jpg

Here is a short step by step video clip: