Disappointed!!!

I am sad to say that ICT in my class room (in all class rooms in the school) has come to a stand still due to thieves!!! :(

However, the lack of computers in my room has made me realise how far the implementation of ICT has come since the beginning of the year. Computers have become such a big part of our daily routine and learning that the children and I really miss them and have had to make big changes to our daily routines and learning tasks.

Kid Pix

I have been using kid pix in my class as a writing tool. One writing group a day does their writing on the computers. The children just love using kid pix to create a picture plan and share their written ideas. The children can play back what they have written (rereading) this allows them to pick up on incorrect letter sounds that they can fix. The children are getting better and better at typing and using kid pix to create a picture. Using the computers for a writing group each day also works a treat for management. The children on the computers are completely engaged and on task. I think that the rereading tool has a lot to do with this as the children can confidently check their work by them selves. It makes group teaching much easier and manageable with younger children.

Voice thread

Voice thread has been a great way publish and share the children's learning. This took a lot of time to set up. However, now that it is set, it is good to go and the children have become familiar with using it. We have been using voice thread to share our inquiry learning on our class blog. It works well because all the children can have a say in one post. It is also a good oral language tool. The children need to think about how they can best get their new knowledge across in a few sentences. We have had very positive feed back from parents who have enjoyed listening to our voice thread posts.

This was our first attempt at a voice thread post.

Goal 3

Use online tools and class blog to share children's learning.

Audacity Success

Audacity has become a useful tool for teaching and encouraging reading in my class room. It is used individually and in groups. It is so easy for the children to operate and now that they know how, I can send them away with a WALT and a book and they are totally focused and engaged!

An example of a WALT would be: WALT read with fluency: WALT read punctuation correctly: WALT read with expression: WALT stretch tricky words. These are all WALT's that the children can self assess against when they listen back to their reading. It has been awesome to hear some of the conversations going on as the children are listening to their reading. The children are so motivated to read again and improve on the WALT.

I don't use it in my reading programme all that time but when I do It is very successful. I use it according the the WALTs of my reading group. I believe that this has played a big role in the students reading achievement to date.

It's been a while...

I happily blame the lack of posts on the success that I have been having in my class room in relation to ICT. The children and I Have been so busy learning and using different ICT that I have neglected this space. Let me fill you in on some of these successes...