A Lightbulb Moment

This is just a short post to say what I’ve been up to recently.

I’ve decided that if this is really going to be a CPD blog, then I need to post more frequently in order to reflect on what I’ve been doing. I really want to keep this blog going – but I’m starting to struggle.

This morning, however, I had one of those ‘lightbulb’ moments when checking my weekly calendar.

I realised that since starting my secondment, I tend to put my energy in to planning for the week ahead rather than reflecting on the week that’s just passed.

… So from now on, I’m going to use this blog to try to truly reflect – (and try to learn from my experiences). I’ll include the highlights from each week (don’t think for one minute that I’m not working like a dog for the rest of the week – ‘cause I am!)

Last Week’s Highlights:

Monday – I had planned to visit a school to help staff to become familiar with the new Think Quest website. I’ve used Think.com in the past with pupils but after stumbling upon the new web 2.0 tools, this resource lost most of its appeal for me …. and for the pupils in my class. As it’s part of my remit, however, I felt obliged to ‘sell it’ as best I could. Prior to my visit, it transpired that there was a problem with the school’s new account with Think Quest, so I thought it best to have something else up my sleeve . I amended the presentation to include the benefits of introducing children to Blogs, wikis and all the new cooltoolsforschools stuff. The staff were blown away by what I had to share, and by the end of the session, everyone of them had set up a new class blog – I’ll keep you posted about the eventual outcome of this (will they keep them going?)

Thursday – On Thursday I went back to visit Carronshore Primary School. Class teacher, Cassie, had agreed to work with the children on the GoAnimate program after I told her that I was giving an in-service delivery on its benefits. I love this website and the potential it holds for improving literacy skills. I’d played about with it prior to visiting Carronshore and I completed this effort on Saturday …. andthis one earlier this evening ?. The children in Cassie’s class know (like me) that it makes work feel like fun! I helped them make the first scene. They chose friendship groups to work in (2, 3 – 4 children at most in each group). Each group was supplied with an A3 piece of paper divided into 6 sections. After some think/discussion time, they illustrated each scene. I then showed them how to bring their scene one to life using the GoAnimate program. They loved it – I can’t wait to see if they manage to complete scenes 2 to 6 the same way – I’ll let you know! The plan is that they then create a piece of writing based on their group effort – time will tell 🙂

More Lightbulb moments to follow 🙂

This entry was posted on November 17, 2008, in Welcome. Bookmark the permalink.