Each day, whilst the school is closed, I have been sending daily tips and advice to our staff to support with their online learning provision. Sometimes it is in response to common questions, and sometimes it is just great tips and tools. I’ve decided to share them in light of the ongoing global impact of Covid-19.
Hello and Good Morning,
Great practice
In my unremitting quest to improve interaction and teacher instruction during school closure, It is only fair to pause and praise the outstanding work that is already being done to achieve these goals. I’ve heard from a number of secondary teachers who are using screencasts and google meets and Zoom to provide live learning. I’ve most enjoyed the videos I’ve seen though, and not just the ‘hello it’s good to see you’ videos, but the recorded screencasts that teachers have used to explain, demonstrate and teach, enabling the students to pause when needed, reflect, tell siblings to be quiet, make a brew, etc.. Allowing them to flourish in the best way that they can. This is leveraging technology in such an impactful way, and allows them to be saved and reused for revision and practice later in the year. Thanks to those of you for pushing yourself a little from your normal routine and possible comfort zone, because the kids love hearing from you a million times more than a random American math tutor, for example. This is fully in line with the vision for us to align with the ISTE standards for educators and students.
On the back of that – I’m looking for teachers who are happy to share a particularly concise and clear lesson they’ve created in order to inspire others. If you don’t mind that and are particularly proud of one – please send it across!
More Screencasting Support
Since we now have temporary unlimited access to screencastify, I challenged the Year 5 and Year 6 group to make their own screencast guides. Just a day in so far and boy have they delivered. One girl in particular, Sadie in Y5, created this incredible tips video using google slides, including using gradient colours and making words look 3D with a simple trick. She let me share this and it’s worth a watch if you have 8 minutes to spare. The confidence in these kids creating these teaching tutorials is brilliant. I’ve already learnt loads from them including a cool gimmick for when you google ‘wizard of oz’ and then click on the red slippers on the right! The best will be available next week on our LT website for all kids and teachers to use.
To help them I created a tutorial video on using screencastify (for children) feel free to share it with anyone who may want to create you a screencast.
Seesaw Activities
Please, if you create a great activity on seesaw, (and you may not know how great it is till after the students have attempted it!), please share it to the Discovery Bay School section. In your activities dashboard, select the activity you want to share, click share, then click on the school. Set the grades and subjects and then all shared. This then will build a fantastic library of activities for us all to use. If you are in Secondary and are interested in using Seesaw – please get in touch too.
Mr Hill's Slice of Education 