Work experience

Our year 10 pupils are undertaking their work experience this week. This is a really important week for them and I am sure they will make the positive impression that our pupils always do on this week.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if all of our pupils were equipped with an ipad as they completed this week? For example, they would be able to record observations from their experience, interview work colleagues, upload and send information back to school, keep a diary and so on. Often, on return to school, pupils tend to forget much of the detail from the experiences of the week - using a iPad would help to to ensure their experiences are recorded in one place and will be also easily shared with others on their return.

One of our problems as teachers, is ensuring that we visit all of the pupils when they are on placement - with iPads we could FaceTime or Skype pupils and their supervisors as they complete the week (as well as trying to visit them all).

What do you think?

Creative pupils

One thing that continues to amaze me is the way in which our pupils use social networking in such a fluent and creative way. What is annoying is the fact that the negative issues surrounding social networking sites are often the only ones which are reported. There has been (and still is) innappopriate use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. Those that do behave in this way are wrong and need to accept that they can often do a great deal of harm. On the other hand, there are so many outstanding examples of pupils using social networking in a way which is making a phenomenal impact on their learning.

This half term, I have noticed just how many of our pupils have accessed our school Twitter account, often asking questions to ensure that they are ready for learning. During the last week many of our pupils and staff have used Edmodo - it has been so exciting to see learning taking place using this platform.

Let's not ignore the obvious resource that is our pupils. They often have the solutions to the communication problems we are puzzling over!

Finally, just to emphasise how much talent is out there, take a look at the following Ted video in which 12-year-old Thomas Suarez talks about the apps he has made and how he is now using his skills to help other app developers. This just goes to prove that we need to encourage such talent and not put up barriers.

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_suarez_a_12_year_old_app_developer.html

Half term - or not......

That went quickly! This is our last day as we break up for half term and we all return to school on Monday 18th February.

For many of our pupils, there will not be a half term break as they will be involved in various activities including extra coursework sessions in school supported by our wonderful LSAs and teaching staff. Some of our pupils will be taking part in the Technocamps Enterprise Bootcamp at the university.

It just goes to prove that the traditional model of learning only taking place in the classroom during 'normal' timetabled lessons is rapidly disappearing.

Mobile learning

It is quite simply amazing to see the growth in the use of personal technology in school. We allow pupils to bring phones/tablets and so on into school as we all recognise the impact these can have on learning.

I remember 5 years ago, some of our pupils were not behaving in a responsible way when using technology which was causing a number of problems. This resulted in us trying to enforce a complete ban on mobile technology - which lasted only a few days! It quite quickly became apparent that pupils would continue to use their mobile regardless of any school policy - attempting to ban them was futile. More importantly, recognising the impact on learning that could be made by integrating this technology into teaching was an important step for us as a school. in addition to this, it was recognised that the school could play a role in teaching pupils how to use these responsibly.

Now we are in the position where pupils are using their iPads, Smartphones, Galaxy tablets and so on in the canteen, on the fields, in corridors and, of course, in classes. It is wonderful to see the major impact this is having on learning now - and look forward to enhancing this further by giving pupils access to iPads provided by the school. Exciting times are ahead!