Sing, sing a song...

Class 20 had a great day today! As reading was winding up Deborah and Nature began singing a story we had co-constructed a few weeks ago. They not only videoed each other singing but made sure they used each others device---aware that by doing this meant they were capturing and saving themselves on their own device. They then shared on the TV asking politely if they could go first. It was a real joy seeing them take charge and experiment with their prior learning. Interestingly, Natures first attempt had her forgetting her lines half way through. She stood back in class so she could see the story and followed along reading 'some' of the words as she sung and completed the song. By saying 'some' I am summising she was picking up on the words she knew and was able to continue by filling in the gaps of the song using her memory.

Nature 27 Feb from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Deborah 27 Feb from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Today Ilaisaane asked if she could do the EE activity with the numbers to 5 AND record it. Ilaisaane presented on her first day of school as extremely shy and every day would cry as soon as mum left. Her oral language is very soft and in most cases unclear. Her recycling of language is usually incomplete with only the major or easier words being verbalised. For her to ask today was a very big step... not only for her learning but also her confidence!

Ilaisane to 5 from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Explain Everything + More!

Today we took another step into 'Explain Everything.' Using the above pictorials we had the children access their Google Drive to retrieve and work on a pre-formed EE sheet. By using the strip the children easily accessed their work, completed the task and after using voice recognition saved their work as a video to share on Air Play. Tipene was able to continue his counting on his own, after initial prompting, once he realised he had pressed the record button!!

Tipene from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Kahurangi was able to go away and work on his own- recording and then sharing his learning.

Maths Kahurangi from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

New App: 'Explain Everything'

Today we used 'Explain Everything' (EE) for the first time. Karen and I discussed how we wanted it to work within a lesson, what features were the priority and how we planned to roll it out. As photography has been our focal point we decided to go with that feature first. Our old template was used to build a new pictorial showing the learners each step they needed to; take a photo, draw on that photo, voice record the process and play it back. Maths was chosen as the area of focus using a micro group at the table to introduce the app. The intention was to work on numbers that come before and after. Following the pictorials, the learners took a photo of a number, selected the pencil, wrote the numbers on either-side, voice recorded their (with prompting where necessary)and played the process back. The children really enjoyed the process and when the first DLO was played back the look on their faces was priceless as they heard their voice and watched their picture evolve! Karen and I both marvelled at how well it went, both agreeing that we, so far, feel very comfortable with the introduction of Apps slowly and using only those that link and build to support others further down the line, e.g. the camera and understanding of what makes a good photo!!

Next step: Google drive has been enabled on all the student iPads so we can share pre made projects on the iPads. This will open up a whole other line of learning!

Let's share and build on those ideas!

Todays story was built around an oral brainstorm motivated by a picture of Pt England kids playing in the sand. Words and ideas were gifted and meanings explained to begin the thinking process and also at odd times throughout the sharing time. Each learner was given the opportunity to 'think and prepare' before they 'shared.' As the stories were shared they were recycled continuously so everyones story was memorised. Interestingly, each child added on something a little different to their own idea/story by using what they had heard from the learners preceding them on the mat. It's easy to see which sentence was the first one shared!

Today we designed a story around a picture from last years picnic. I gifted ideas and words to the children and we went with a basic story. As we sung the children added in more bits and pieces to make their story more interesting. Listen to this wonderful story from a group of children who had difficulty holding a sentence 2 weeks ago!

Picnic Time from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Atlanta shines

Atlanta 17/2/14 from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Atlanta shared her story today both on the mat with her friend and on the iPad. A real break through!