Towards the end of the year they created the following REMIXED version!
Isn't it fantastic?!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Trigonometry Song Remixed!
Last year Grade 11 M&E girls made up a song called Trigonometry is Just So Easy while away on camp. I filmed them singing this song and shared it on this post, Sing for Your Supper.
Towards the end of the year they created the following REMIXED version!
Isn't it fantastic?!
Towards the end of the year they created the following REMIXED version!
Isn't it fantastic?!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Feedback: Inkanyezi Seminar at Gateway ScienCentre
Session 1: Connect, by Arthur Preston
@artpreston
blog
"For centuries we've been declaring our independence, and perhaps it's time for us to declare our interdependence." ~ Tiffany Shlain, director/producer of the film Connected.
Arthur looked at three different tools we can use to stay connected with other teachers, as well as to gather and share information:
The basic info for those who don't know:
- tweets (messages less than 140 characters) are public
- you can follow anyone without them having to follow you back (not like Facebook)
- the tweets of all the people you follow will come up on your Twitter home page
- it can get pretty confusing when you follow lots of people!
How to follow specific conversations:
Hashtags are a way of "tagging" a tweet to show it belongs to a certain topic. For example, yesterday anyone who was tweeting during and about the seminar used the tag #inkanyezi. When you're on Twitter, if you click on any hashtag you see, Twitter will bring up only those tweets that have that hashtag.
Arthur introduced us to #edchatsa. This is a Twitter chat for the South African education community that takes place every Monday evening from 20h30 to 21h30:
"Imagine a weekly gathering of dynamic, innovative and inspiring teachers who engage in lively debate, share resources, offer assistance, challenge paradigms and support each other. Imagine having the opportunity to engage with these teachers in their conversation or simply stop to listen and learn.
Imagine no longer! This gathering happens every Monday evening from 20h30 to 21h30 on Twitter in the form of what is known as a TweetChat. Started in the first week of March 2012, this community of tweeting teachers continues to meet in a virtual setting every week to discuss issues which affect education in South Africa."
To find out more about #edchatsa and how you can take part or just "listen and learn", visit the #edchatsa website.
I shall certainly be checking it out tomorrow night!
According to Wikipedia, an RSS reader is a website that "aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and video blogs (vlogs) in one location for easy viewing."
I use Google Reader to organize all the blogs and websites I follow. It's pretty easy to use. When you find a blog you like and know you'll want to keep following what they have to say, you copy the website url, go to Google Reader, click the red Subscribe button, paste the url and click Add. Whenever there are new posts (articles) available on these blogs, they will show up on your Google Reader home page.
Diigo is a powerful social bookmarking tool. What this means is that while you are surfing the web, you can collect and organise just about any information you want to be able to look at again later: bookmarks, highlighted portions of webpages, sticky notes, screenshots, pictures etc. You can then access all your saved information on any computer just by signing into your Diigo account.
Click here to learn more about Diigo.
Session 2: Techno-Class, by Robyn Clark
@clarkformaths
We started off this session with a Do Now! "Take out your cell phones and play a song. Stand up and dance to it." Can you imagine if we did this in our classrooms?! The members would love it ;-)
This session was all about practical ways to use cell phones in the classroom. Here are some ideas:
Maths: A photo hunt. Get students to find patterns in real life and take photos on their phones
Maths Lit: Get students to photograph the price of a certain product in different stores (well, that wouldn't work so well in a boarding school, but it could be done over a mid-term break) and then use the information to work out percentage increase/decrease
English: Write a short story on Twitter. Use one tweet (140 characters only) for the beginning, another for the middle and another for the end.
Online textbooks: members can access the Siyavula textbooks on their phone browsers during class, or later in the day when they're doing homework/research and aren't able to use the computers. Tell them to go to the following websites:
http://everythingmaths.co.za
http://everythingscience.co.za
Some hashtags to follow/use on Twitter:
#mathchat
#edchat
#twoogle (instead of Googling something, go to Twitter, type you question and add #twoogle to the end of it. Most likely someone will answer you!)
Some people to follow on Twitter:
Maths: @clarkformaths
English: @tejude @arjunbasu @FunDzaClub
History: @realtimeWWII (Livetweeting the 2nd World War, as it happens on this date & time in 1940, & for 6 years to come. <--- So cool!)
@artpreston
blog
"For centuries we've been declaring our independence, and perhaps it's time for us to declare our interdependence." ~ Tiffany Shlain, director/producer of the film Connected.
Arthur looked at three different tools we can use to stay connected with other teachers, as well as to gather and share information:
The basic info for those who don't know:
- tweets (messages less than 140 characters) are public
- you can follow anyone without them having to follow you back (not like Facebook)
- the tweets of all the people you follow will come up on your Twitter home page
- it can get pretty confusing when you follow lots of people!
How to follow specific conversations:
Hashtags are a way of "tagging" a tweet to show it belongs to a certain topic. For example, yesterday anyone who was tweeting during and about the seminar used the tag #inkanyezi. When you're on Twitter, if you click on any hashtag you see, Twitter will bring up only those tweets that have that hashtag.
Arthur introduced us to #edchatsa. This is a Twitter chat for the South African education community that takes place every Monday evening from 20h30 to 21h30:
"Imagine a weekly gathering of dynamic, innovative and inspiring teachers who engage in lively debate, share resources, offer assistance, challenge paradigms and support each other. Imagine having the opportunity to engage with these teachers in their conversation or simply stop to listen and learn.
Imagine no longer! This gathering happens every Monday evening from 20h30 to 21h30 on Twitter in the form of what is known as a TweetChat. Started in the first week of March 2012, this community of tweeting teachers continues to meet in a virtual setting every week to discuss issues which affect education in South Africa."
To find out more about #edchatsa and how you can take part or just "listen and learn", visit the #edchatsa website.
I shall certainly be checking it out tomorrow night!
- RSS Readers
According to Wikipedia, an RSS reader is a website that "aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and video blogs (vlogs) in one location for easy viewing."
I use Google Reader to organize all the blogs and websites I follow. It's pretty easy to use. When you find a blog you like and know you'll want to keep following what they have to say, you copy the website url, go to Google Reader, click the red Subscribe button, paste the url and click Add. Whenever there are new posts (articles) available on these blogs, they will show up on your Google Reader home page.
- Diigo
Diigo is a powerful social bookmarking tool. What this means is that while you are surfing the web, you can collect and organise just about any information you want to be able to look at again later: bookmarks, highlighted portions of webpages, sticky notes, screenshots, pictures etc. You can then access all your saved information on any computer just by signing into your Diigo account.
Click here to learn more about Diigo.
Important take-home message from this session:
The internet isn't just for looking stuff up, it's for interacting.
And don't forget the Barney principle: sharing is caring!
And don't forget the Barney principle: sharing is caring!
(ie. share your ideas with your colleagues!)
Session 2: Techno-Class, by Robyn Clark
@clarkformaths
We started off this session with a Do Now! "Take out your cell phones and play a song. Stand up and dance to it." Can you imagine if we did this in our classrooms?! The members would love it ;-)
This session was all about practical ways to use cell phones in the classroom. Here are some ideas:
Maths: A photo hunt. Get students to find patterns in real life and take photos on their phones
Maths Lit: Get students to photograph the price of a certain product in different stores (well, that wouldn't work so well in a boarding school, but it could be done over a mid-term break) and then use the information to work out percentage increase/decrease
English: Write a short story on Twitter. Use one tweet (140 characters only) for the beginning, another for the middle and another for the end.
Online textbooks: members can access the Siyavula textbooks on their phone browsers during class, or later in the day when they're doing homework/research and aren't able to use the computers. Tell them to go to the following websites:
http://everythingmaths.co.za
http://everythingscience.co.za
Some hashtags to follow/use on Twitter:
#mathchat
#edchat
#twoogle (instead of Googling something, go to Twitter, type you question and add #twoogle to the end of it. Most likely someone will answer you!)
Some people to follow on Twitter:
Maths: @clarkformaths
English: @tejude @arjunbasu @FunDzaClub
History: @realtimeWWII (Livetweeting the 2nd World War, as it happens on this date & time in 1940, & for 6 years to come. <--- So cool!)
Important take-home message from this session:
Twitter is the way forward!
Seriously. It is the quickest way to share information.
I just went to twitter, searched for #mathchat, and from the tweets that came up, I've already found a really fun lesson idea, a site with maths videos, a website sharing worksheets/teaching resources, and some maths jokes (because everyone needs a laugh sometimes!).
Seriously. It is the quickest way to share information.
I just went to twitter, searched for #mathchat, and from the tweets that came up, I've already found a really fun lesson idea, a site with maths videos, a website sharing worksheets/teaching resources, and some maths jokes (because everyone needs a laugh sometimes!).
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Back to Life
It's time to resuscitate this blog!
Do you know how many blogs there are out there that start off with a few posts and then just fizzle into nothing? You don't? Well, me neither, but I know it's A LOT! And right now our blog looks like one of those "failed blogs"...
But we can bring it back to life! And what better way than by sharing some feedback from a seminar on using social media in the classroom?
That'll be up in the next blog post!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Sing for your Supper...
... or in this case, to remember Maths!
While they were away at the M&E camp over the weekend, five Grade 11 girls made up a song about trigonometry. When you think of how easy it is to remember lyrics from a song -- and how much our girls love singing! -- it seems almost obvious that we should be using song lyrics as a way to remember facts. The facts in this song are very simple, but I can tell you that the girls singing it will NEVER forget trig ratios now! (I know I can't get the song out of my head!)
The girls who were left behind while their classmates went off to camp played Maths 24 during their lessons. Did you ever play this game when you were younger? Each card has four numbers and the aim is to get 24 from those numbers by using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It's quite a simple game but it gets the students to practise basic arithmetic (a skill they are OFTEN lacking in!). And by making it a competition they are eager to try and get the answers faster than their classmates -- and they have FUN!
While they were away at the M&E camp over the weekend, five Grade 11 girls made up a song about trigonometry. When you think of how easy it is to remember lyrics from a song -- and how much our girls love singing! -- it seems almost obvious that we should be using song lyrics as a way to remember facts. The facts in this song are very simple, but I can tell you that the girls singing it will NEVER forget trig ratios now! (I know I can't get the song out of my head!)
The girls who were left behind while their classmates went off to camp played Maths 24 during their lessons. Did you ever play this game when you were younger? Each card has four numbers and the aim is to get 24 from those numbers by using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It's quite a simple game but it gets the students to practise basic arithmetic (a skill they are OFTEN lacking in!). And by making it a competition they are eager to try and get the answers faster than their classmates -- and they have FUN!
Do you have any games related to your subject that help the girls to learn while they're having fun?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
This Week's Guest Blogger: Sue Fred
The Math Lit students reacted very enthusiastically to the practical assignment which involved walking about the campus taking pictures of shapes and prisms and physically measuring them. They then had to create a chart which included pictures, representative sketches (with accurate measurements) and calculations involving Perimeter and Total Surface Area.
They committed to the task in groups or pairs and displayed great teamwork as different skills amongst the girls became evident.
The concept of two- and three-dimensional figures is traditionally difficult for students to grasp due to its abstract nature, but I'm certain this practical exercise is going to change that.
I'm not sure who enjoyed this more: the students... or the teacher?!
They committed to the task in groups or pairs and displayed great teamwork as different skills amongst the girls became evident.
The concept of two- and three-dimensional figures is traditionally difficult for students to grasp due to its abstract nature, but I'm certain this practical exercise is going to change that.
I'm not sure who enjoyed this more: the students... or the teacher?!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Engaging our students.
What is it we want to be doing in our classrooms? Are we just replacing the chalkboard or white board with powerpoint presentations or are we really trying to engage our students with technology? Are they sitting back passively as we perform using all the gadgetry at our disposal?
We as teachers are constantly being told that we have to move with the times and engage our students using 21st century skills. I think we all know this but the question is - how? We have to change our mindsets or make a paradigm shift, to quote an overused cliche'. Again the question is how.
I think we have to start with small steps and try and change just one thing in our teaching practice at a time. We become overwhelmed too easily with all this talk about ICT. When you are preparing your next lesson try to think of a way that you can get your students to really be engaged in the learning . Obviously including technology in this learning is what want, but getting them actively involved in the learning process is the first step.
So how about this for a start? Let's hear from you!
We as teachers are constantly being told that we have to move with the times and engage our students using 21st century skills. I think we all know this but the question is - how? We have to change our mindsets or make a paradigm shift, to quote an overused cliche'. Again the question is how.
I think we have to start with small steps and try and change just one thing in our teaching practice at a time. We become overwhelmed too easily with all this talk about ICT. When you are preparing your next lesson try to think of a way that you can get your students to really be engaged in the learning . Obviously including technology in this learning is what want, but getting them actively involved in the learning process is the first step.
So how about this for a start? Let's hear from you!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Feedback: Staff Development 17 Feb 2011
Today's staff developmement was the beginning, I hope, for our Inanda staff community really to share and collaborate on how to implement 'best practice' in our classrooms.
We are fortunate at our school because we have so much more than just the minimum required to deliver our lessons every day. We have to keep in mind that it is not always just 'more stuff' that is needed in our classrooms BUT rather a constant reflection on our practice to make sure we are not always delivering more of 'the same'. As one BUZZ group so aptly put it - our lessons need to be stimulating, interesting and fun.
We had a taste of some practices that Susan, Rachel and Val have implemented in their classrooms. Each one was very different but something that we could try out. Invite colleagues to your classes, join forces with people in your department and do some team teaching. Students love variation and anything differerent and exciting.
What have YOU done in your classroom that you've found to be successful?
We are fortunate at our school because we have so much more than just the minimum required to deliver our lessons every day. We have to keep in mind that it is not always just 'more stuff' that is needed in our classrooms BUT rather a constant reflection on our practice to make sure we are not always delivering more of 'the same'. As one BUZZ group so aptly put it - our lessons need to be stimulating, interesting and fun.
We had a taste of some practices that Susan, Rachel and Val have implemented in their classrooms. Each one was very different but something that we could try out. Invite colleagues to your classes, join forces with people in your department and do some team teaching. Students love variation and anything differerent and exciting.
What have YOU done in your classroom that you've found to be successful?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)