Typing!

Many Key Stage One pupils have been having a go at Dance Mat Typing in recent weeks. This excellent resource is provided by the BBC and is thankfully available to all no matter where you live (unlike quite a lot of other BBC resources)!

Students can carry on the work they've started in school by clicking on the link here.

There are a number of different levels to work through, each one looking at various key combinations. Dance Mat Typing is an excellent way for younger pupils to build up keyboard fluency.

Congratulations...

Some belated congratulations...

Well done to Mr Lovell for landing first place in the Kellett Staff Fantasy Football League. Mr Lovell hit the front in January and never looked like being caught after that. Mrs Poole finished a valiant second with Mr Dawes claiming third place. Many thanks to Mr Ingram for organising the competition, hopefully he will finish ahead of his daughter next year!

Mr Lovell pictured receiving his prizes from Mr Ingram.

Well done also to those pupils who answered the recent Google Earth Quiz featured here. Fully correct answers were received from Albert, Freya and Andre, with most of the others getting 11 out of 12.

Here are the answers:

1. Kellett School (during building phase)

2. Hong Kong Convention Centre

3. Cyberport

4. Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen

5. The Dragon, Ocean Park

6. Peak Tower

7. Happy Valley Racetrack

8. Central Piers (inc. Star Ferry Pier)

9. Park View

10. Wong Nai Chung Gap Reservoir Park

11. Aberdeen Tunnel

12. Stanley Prison

Finally a big well done to the Kellett comunity for all they have done to raise money in support of relief work in Myanmar and Sichuan. It's impossible to imagine how the lives of those living in the two locations have been altered by the terrible events of recent weeks, but we all need to do our 'bit'. Over $160,000 has been raised for these two countries, some of it will be matched by HSBC to boost the amount.

Pivot Stickfigure

P3 have started to look at animation, investigating the excellent Pivot Stickfigure Animator, a free programme that allows students to work on basic animation through to the most complex of pieces.

We've started gently by just trying to animate a character walking naturally (not easy!) and we'll go on to look at writing names. Below is an example from last year.

If you want to download Pivot Stickfigure, you can get it for free here!

Climate Schools Project

P4-15 have begun work on a special project using a virtual learning environment to focus on climate change and pollution. Janice Dy from Uniservity visited earlier today to teach our students how to log in to the system, edit their own home pages, and respond to videos created by St Anselm's School in Brooklyn, New York.

The pupils responded really enthusiastically to the task and fed back to the US students, sharing their own thoughts on aspects of pollution here in Hong Kong.

P4-15 students can reach their VLE link by clicking here.

We'll be spending more time working on this project in the coming weeks and will update our progress here.

Scratch

Earlier this year Computer Club had a go at exploring Scratch, a control type programming language that extends upon work started earlier in LOGO and even earlier with Bee Bots.

Now Year 7 are beginning to investigate how the program works, using video tutorials to help them understand the different functions.

One of the great things about Scratch is that it's completely free to use. You can download a copy of the program here.

P5 Slideshows

A couple of slideshows for P5's recent trip to Beijing. Thanks to Annabelle and India.

Studywiz

Mark Yaxley from Studywiz visited this afternoon to talk about their Virtual Learning Environment. It was a useful session and he provided us with an overview of most of the functions.

We're still talking to Uniservity as well, so it will soon be time to make a decision! As always with ICT, it's how you use the tools that count and it will be good to focus on that aspect rather than the actual purchase and installation etc.

Digital Learners Today

Whilst at the HK 21st Century Learning Conference this weekend I was reminded of this video which has been around a while and I thought I'd share it here. It's important for us to remember as "mature" teachers that our "customer base" has changed somewhat in recent years.

Now, where's that seatbelt?!

Day Two

Didn't get to blog too much from Day Two... my battery ran out! So how was it? Well, after session one it was a chance to listen to Jamie McKenzie speak again about digital lessons. His session was simple yet completely captivating and showed easy ways for teachers to include digital media in their lessons with the minimum of fuss. He clearly understands that it's not the technology that matters, it's the learning and teaching that counts, not to forget the thinking!

A very pleasant lunch with staff fom Yew Chung International School who were there in force. We swap a few ideas and discuss the idea of visiting in the future.

A fascinating Q&A session followed with the two keynote speakers and Ed Wickins, Principal of hosts KGV. All endorsed the idea that schools should promote a culture of innovation, risk-taking and excitement. There was also broad agreement that our assessment system needs to change and adapt to the needs of the 21st Century.

Back to the Apple Classroom for the final session of the conference. Lots of great stuff from presenter Gilbert as he gave us a whirlwind tour of some of the extras packed in to Apple's iLife and Leopard platform. I left even more determined to explore some of these avenues.

Around 350 teachers attended the conference and there was a real buzz about the sorts of things schools in HK are doing to come to terms with teaching for the future. There is a clear determination to continue to network and swap ideas. The conference NING platform is a testament to that.

There are exciting times ahead, and as Mark Treadwell said in his keynote;

"If you think things are changing fast now, you'd better get a seatbelt. It's going to get a lot faster."

Day Two First Session

Looking at multimedia with Paul White. Most of the things he suggests we already do, but a few things to follow up, esp Inklearn which will hopefully interest our Language deaprtments.

Day Two - Saturday

Day Two of the HK 21st Century Learning Conference. A brief note on yesterday's final session which was in the Apple suite. It was a timely reminder of how beautifully simple Garageband can be when used alongside the other tools such as Photo Booth. Time to venture out of the ICT Suite and get up to the Library Study Centre.

Afternoon Keynote and Session 3

The afternoon keynote was delivered by Jamie McKenzie and was a fascinating insight into the role of questioning within schools. More later....

Session Three looked at the development of digital portfolios and gave plenty of foood for thought for us as we look to implement our virtual learning environment during the next academic year. These personal spaces will accompany our pupils throughout their school lives and will act as a record of their development.

We've got lots of work to do in this area, but this session was a grea help.t

The New ICT subject for Year 7's.

In ICT this term the Y7's are starting a new subject. This subject is called Flowol 3. This program was made to help with flow diagrams on the computer. The year 7 class started working on this project 2 weeks ago.

Session Two - Tales from the Digital Frontier

Some good stuff in the previous session; particularly enjoyed Matthew Bristow's reflections on mobile learning from a residential camp; there were some good ideas and great practice.

Now into session two and ESF Tech Adviser Peter Woodhead's session on Tales from the Digital Frontier. A good chance to reflect upon how to manage change to adapt to the new ways that young people learn. More from this session later.

Hong Kong 21st Century Learning Conference

I'll be updating as much as I can from this conference over the next two days.

The opening keynote today was delivered by New Zealander Mark Treadwell and it may take time to digest some of his remarks. He was able to verbalise much of what I think we are thinking and what we need to continue thinking about! If that makes sense!

His comment about how the pace of change will be in the next 12 years was certainly food for thought and reflects the need to consider how we teach. I'll expand upon this later.

Currently I am attending a workshop looking at mobile technologies.

Hopefully there will be more as the day progresses.