Quick, Free, Online Tools (NQT Presentation)

I recently was asked to present to some NQTs the quick, free, online tools which I use to enhance teaching and learning in my classroom.  I've embedded the presentation below and will try and add a commentary after.  Some of the slides link to sites which I demonstrated and the NQTs could try on our Chromebooks.  The Kahoot link won't work as it requires more than one player & a teacher! 

S2: The link will take you to the Kahoot I demonstrated but will require you to sign in.
S3: You can click and use this link. Explore by adding the X-Ray Goggles.
S4: The link will take you straight to our Year 4 Wibki page as an example.
S5: The link and QR code will take you to a Lino canvas which you can practise using the post-it notes and posting your answer.  Write your name as the "tag".  You can click a tag to view all post-its by that person.
S6: The link will show you my Pinterest so you can see how I've organised it. 

Primary Roll Call - Classroom Ideas

As part of a joint venture with Michael Tidd, I am collating some of the primary tweeters, bloggers and pinners who share exceptional practical ideas for the classroom.  This collection of educators, through their tweets, blogs and Pinterest boards, have had a direct impact on my teaching; their ideas are sound and they are certainly worth a "follow".

So, here goes, as Dermot says, "in no particular order":

Claire (OhLottie)
As the inventor of Graffiti Maths and an all-round inspirational primary teacher, Claire's ideas are always tried and tested and come with her own evaluation on their use.
She tweets, blogs and pins.

Sam (SAiston)
Sam provides a no-nonsense commentary on Education with lesson ideas and common sense theories for the primary classroom.
He tweets.

Rob (RedgieRob)
Famous for being the creator of The Literacy Shed, Rob also (somehow) manages to simultaneously be a fantastic primary teacher.  His twitter feed is full of good practice and useful resources.
He tweets.

Alison (AliMattWells)
This lady is a fount of practical classroom ideas; whether displays, English, maths, topic - she's got it covered!
She tweets.

Michelle (FootieFanMiss)
With extensive Pinterest boards covering a range of education themes, Michelle is well-worth following.  She is an advocate of Working Walls and has some brilliant examples on her blog and Pinterest boards.
She tweets, blogs and pins.

Ian (IanAddison)
As a former ICT advisor for Hampshire, Ian's posts about technology are really useful.  However, since moving back to the classroom, he provides useful ideas and resources to be used throughout primary lessons.
He tweets, blogs and pins.

Rachel (rpd1972)
Rachel's blog posts, tweets and articles focus on simple ideas which have made a difference in her primary classes.
She tweets and blogs.

Sarah (Sarah__wright1)
In the important job of training primary teachers, Sarah shares brilliant ideas for KS1 and 2 classrooms along with inspirational books and quotes from the training programme at Edge Hill University.
She tweets and pins.

Sway (SwayGrantham)
Sway is an important UK educator to follow if you are interested in the changes being made to technology in learning.  She has some specific advice relevant to BYOD and Rasperry Pi in primary education.
She tweets and blogs.

Lisa (TishlyLishly)
As Early Years queen, Lisa regularly shares early reading and maths ideas, impressive display photos and ways to enhance themed areas.
She tweets and pins.

BONUS - There are a few secondary bloggers, tweeters and pinners who give superb ideas which are easily transferable to the primary classroom.  However, Rachel Jones' fount of inspirational blog posts, tweets and pins stands out from the rest so I feel she deserves to be an honourary primary teacher for the sake of this list!

Michael has published a similar list of Primary leaders and thinkers here.  You can follow him on Twitter or his blog.  I collect and share ideas on Twitter, Pinterest and this blog.

The Wonderful World of Pinterest

Until I got an account, Pinterest was the complete unknown to me.  I had no idea what it did, how it worked or why people used it.  Having now gone through the Pinterest-addict phase, I now feel I know how to use it and how to be efficient on it, especially with regards to finding effective educational ideas.

Pinterest is, simply put, an online pinboard.  You can pin images from websites, photo feeds and uploads to your own themed pinboards.  You can also pin photos from other members' boards to your own pinboards.  For a feel of what this looks like, take a look around my pinboards (you do not need to login to do this).  Pinterest also has some generic categories of pins, including "Education", which you can browse at your leisure - beware: this is where you can become a pedagogic procrastinator!

I decided to organise my pinboards by curriculum subjects, although I could have had separate Reading, Writing and SPAG boards instead of Literacy.  This makes it really easy for me to find things I have pinned previously.  I also chose to have boards for Displays, Classroom Organisation ideas and First Day activities.  Some people decide to organise pins by the type of idea in the image, for example Post It Ideas, Outside Activities.

Pinterest Profile Page

Once you've set up your account and have made some pinboards there are three ways of finding and pinning ideas:

1) Browse the Education category.  This is the most time-wasting of the 3 options but it is probably the most fun.  You end up finding and pinning ideas that you'd never imagine you could do.  You'll discover ideas from around the world and in classrooms of many age groups.  There will be ideas you can adapt, ideas that need certain resources, links to lists and activities which you can try tomorrow in your classroom.  You will also pass by bad ideas, worksheets and things that could not work in your classroom - this is where you end up losing time.

2) Search for certain ideas.  For example, this week I am planning some maths lessons on adding fractions.  I simply typed "adding fractions" into the search box on my Pinterest homepage and it filtered to all the relevant pins to me.  I was then able to search through much quicker and save time.  I found some great pins and planned quickly.  This is the most efficient and effective way of using Pinterest to help you plan.

3) Pin from websites/blogs.  This is something you will find yourself doing once you've been on Pinterest a while.  You may read something or see an image and wish to "save" it.  Pinterest is your means of doing this.  Using a Pin It button on the page or, if there isn't one, the one you installed to your browser, you can pin the page to a board of your choice ready to find when you need it.

To pin images onto your own pinboards, you need to find the "Pin It" button.  If you are browsing on Pinterest itself, this is easy and is very visible from every pin.  However if you are on a website, it becomes a bit tricky.  Some "pin-friendly" websites install a "Pin It" button on each page or image so just require a simple click.  If you want to pin something from a website which doesn't have clear "Pin It" buttons, you need to install a "Pin It" link to your bookmarks.  I have managed to do this in both Google Chrome and Safari and found it quite straight-forward by following instructions here.

As well as for educational ideas, Pinterest is also a great place for if you're planning a wedding, doing DIY or cooking.  There are also some inspirational quotes and many hilarious internet memes on there! To see how I've used Pinterest ideas in my classroom, please see these posts.

Inspired By Pinterest 3 - First Day

I've been collecting ideas for starting a new year with a new class on this Pinterest board.  I've had the chance to try some of them out and here's how I got on!

1 - How do we treat books
Inspired by this pin and with a brand new book corner, I really wanted to put a focus on the treatment of books.  The children had great ideas which I will display in the reading corner and remind them of if things aren't looked after.




2 - Post-It Questions
This activity has been flying around Pinterest and Twitter for a while and I've always liked the look of it.  I never expected children to come out with the things they did or to be so engaged with it.  There are 6 things they must write on post it notes:
School is important because...
Our classroom should be ______ everyday.
What are your goals for this year?
What do you need to do to achieve your goals?
What does Mrs P need to do to help you this year?
How can we make sure our classroom runs smoothly?

The original pin (from my boards anyway) can be found here.

3 - Class Headed Paper
I loved the idea from this pin and so adapted it for my movie-themed classroom.  The children drew their face, I wrote their names and we stuck it all together and photocopied it many times. We now have personalised paper for them to write any free-writing or letters on. 

Inspired By Pinterest 2 - Displays

1 - Starring Board

I thought this pin showed a really great board for introducing my movie theme. Each child is holding a clapper board and, soon to be displayed is a book with information about the "cast"! (I've blanked out faces for anonymity).

2 - Reading Display

There are many of these on Pinterest so I took inspiration from this pin and this pin to create a reading display complete with question prompts and links to the reading AFs.  I learned to make the spotlights using this pin. There is a section of books on the bookshelf that are books of movies or books that have been made into movies.  The children asked if they could bring their own in if they had them.

3 - Movie Jobs

Finally, this display shows the jobs for the class set out as a cast and crew board.  Inspiration came from this pin and this pin.

Inspired By Pinterest 1 - Classroom Organisation

I've admitted my addiction to Pinterest and I don't feel so bad about it anymore! Setting up a new classroom in a new school has been a great opportunity to try out some of the things I pinned on my boards a long time ago. I'll put them up in a few separate posts, this one will focus on general classroom organisation ideas.

1 - Teacher Toolbox.

You can read all about this one and see step-by-step instructions in my previous post.

2 - Class journals.  

I saw this pin and immediately liked the idea.  I bought the notepads and sponge letters from The Range and decided these were the 4 topics.  The books will basically be free writing journals for kids to write about a sports event (like a report), a dream, a holiday or a wish. It's a really simple idea which, I hope, will encourage writing.  My job is to make sure children have time to use them.

3 - Assessment In-Trays

My husband and I bought a couple of sets of these each as an easy way of understanding how children felt the lesson went.  These used in the wrong way can be awful. However, with the right classroom ethos and understanding they can help teachers judge where to pitch the next lesson, who needs help on the next day and who is ready to move on.  The in-trays can be bought here. 

Creating My Teacher Toolbox

I have an addiction to Pinterest. There. I said it. I love it and I can't get enough of it. I will be satisfied to browse for half an hour without any luck if I just find one good idea.

In the few months that I've had a Pinterest account, something has caught my eye again and again: the beautiful Teacher Toolboxes that people create and post. So, having created a board full of Toolboxes I liked, I was inspired enough to create one myself.  Again inspired by Pinterest, I have chosen a black and white theme for my room, so I followed this when creating my Toolbox.

So here are the instructions.

You will need:

A tool accessory box, mine is this one from Amazon.

A laptop.

Some washi tape, like this.

Some double sided sticky tape.

Lots of stationary items to fill the toolbox with.

Spray paint that can go on plastic, I used Direct To Plastic.

A large area and lots of time, preferably with movies or a TV series, I chose One Tree Hill.

I collected my pieces and was ready to go.

First, choose a colour scheme that matches your washi tape then load up your laptop and create a table in word. I measured the fronts of each drawer and made the boxes of the table the same size (right click, table properties, adjust row width and column height). Then insert your words and a pattern image to the box of the table.

The next job is to put the patterned tape on the handles of the drawer. This is an easy job, just cut it, place it on, secure it down and tuck in the edges, like wrapping a present.

Hopefully you'll see that things are coming together! Next job: back to labels. This is where the double sided sticky tape comes into its own.  Cut tiny bits and attach one bit on each side of the front of each label, peel the backing off and you're good to go. Stick it to the inside of the drawer and, voila! 

Once you've done all your drawers, you're almost there.

The final job is to remove all the trays and spray paint the frames. Unfortunately my spray paint hasn't arrived yet so that job will have to wait! 

UPDATE: The boxes have been spray painted and I added some white sponge letters like these to the top.

I hope this helps those wanting to make one of these, particularly if you're in the UK as I couldn't find any information online about where to buy things! 

Let me know if you try one of these, I'd love to see how it turned out!