Student Centred Learning - Minecraft

Putting students at the centre of the learning process and allowing them to learn through areas that they are passionate about is the most important thing.

Listening to the level of talk, discussion, conversation around Minecraft you would be silly not to allow students to explore their learning or have a chance to learn through this media. The skills that they use and explore are amazing from problem solving to collaboration, instinct to imagination.

Teach for tomorrow, learn for today. Lets the kids be the reason we get up and come to school each day.

This is a 45 min collaborative learning time on Minecraft, driven by the students. They are amazing.

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

App Harvest - KPS 2013

Monday 11th March - KPS hosts our first App harvest. A chance for iPad, iPod and Mac users to share and collaborate on Apps that they find useful and Apps that we can't do without. All harvested Apps from tonights Harvest will be posted here.

Summed Up - Awesome Math app that teachers groups or numbers up to 20. NZ made too !

Screen Chomp - When you want to show and record something on screen this is the perfect little app for this. Easy and kid friendly.

Puzzle Maker - The only App that I know of that allows the user to create, publish and share Word searchers. Easy to use and a brilliant little activity for spelling, lang development etc. Well worth the money. 

Blogsy - Allows you to post pics, video etc from the net and your iPad straight onto your blog in 1 easy step. Visual and easy to use for kids. Tried and Tested by Room 8 at KPS. 

Toon Camera - Turn pictures or take pictures into Cartoons and pencil sketches. 

vDictation - Speech to Text app. 

Foldify - A great way to show nets and create your own net structure.

Word Salad - Just like wordle for the iPad.

Google Forms - Check This Out as a way to create omline forms that the child can survey. You can post the link, email, or set who can see it. Then the results can be graphed and are completely instant. 

Momentsia - Picture collage, easy create and easy to share. 

Sling Note - This is a must check out App. Best note taking app I have seen for a while. Move between 2 pages, copy, cut, paste and manipulate with ease.

Pic Collage - Pic Collage app with plenty of bells and whistles. Stickers, drawings, and text. 

Sonic Pics - Put photos in and they are can be transformed into an audio visual story. Digital story telling. 

Scribble Press - Cloze activity book or story creator with heaps of functions. Beginner to Advanced Writers. 

AR Apps - 

My Story - E Book creator. 

Video Star - 

Mad Pad - 

Maths Slide - 

Motion Maths - 

Multi Touch Maths -

Spellosaur - 

A+ Test - Spelling List Creator.

Bugs and Buttons - 

If you feel the need to push your more able kids a bit further then get into Game design and App development. Try these 2 websites out. Both are very easy to navigate and both have the ability to be played on any portable device. 

GameFroot - http://gamefroot.com

Game Salad - http://gamesalad.com/download

Techquest 2012

What happens when 14 Whangarei schools send their most creative and talented students in ICT to meet some talented presenters and teacher in ICT. Techquest 2012. 2 Fantastisc days of workshops aimed at inspiring, introducing and educating students from all over Whangarei in the lastest and greatest ICT programs and technologies.


Techquest 2012 is over for another year. Without doubt some of the best kids that we have ever had. Quiet, hard working, keen, and very creative. The presenters were fantastic too. Great to have some new blood in the mix with new ideas and inspiration i.e. Manga drawing, Music making with Audacity. It is great to be part of a team that is able to offer such a wide range of ICT experiences to the awesome kids of Whangarei. The kids were just buzzing so well done presenters.


Techquest just seems to keep getting better each year. Check out the Techquest website for what the kids got up to.

iPad/iPod Help Desk

These are useful hints and tips when using iPads and iPods. 

Notifications  - Swipe finger down from the middle of your screen at the very top (where the clock is) to reveal any notifications i.e. emails, messages or in app notifications. It is a lot easier than having to open multiple apps etc to check. 

Screenshots - You can take a screenshot at anytime using the iPad. You simply just need to press the Home button (The only button on the Front Face) and the Sleep/Power button which is located on the top TOGETHER. The image below shows the 2 buttons. All screen shots are saved straight into your camera roll. Brilliant and easy. 

Keyboards - The keyboard on the iPad is designed for all user types from 1 finger touch typist to thumb typists. Not only does the keyboard spin to fit either landscape or portrait mode but it can be split and undocked to suit your needs and speed. 

There are two ways to change the keyboard display. 1st simply hold down the Keyboard button (shown below) and you can select your option or you can pinch and un-pinch your thumb and first finger over the keyboard to see it split automatically. The Thumb typing mode is brilliant when you are having to hold the iPad and type at the same time. 

When the keyboard has been undocked, you can then hold the Keyboard button and move the keyboard anywhere you like on the screen : )

iPad & iPod Curriculum Integration

Had a great bunch of teacher visit from Maunu Primary School in Whangarei. They are at the start of the same journey that we went on as a school in trying to implement iDevices into the classroom. This is how I use the devices in my Reading and Writing Task-boards. These task-boards have been created using Prometheans Activ Inspire software. 

This a screenshot of my task-board for Reading and the activities that I use.

And my Maths task-board.

The flp charts look slightly different when being used,  the icons below the task-board are hidden. If anyone wants a copy of the flp chart just drop me an e-mail and I will send them through.