UKED Magazine Mar 2014

Subscribe for free March 2014 Issue 3

Discussion

Skills

Pedagogy

Guide

Exploring and learning in the great outdoors

Getting the best out of your whiteboard

Designing lessons with game mechanics

Embedded 3D printing into the curriculum

Issue 3: February 2014 Discussion & Guides

Pedagogy & Skills

8 Let’s get Growing Schools Exploring and learning in the great outdoors by Beth Summers

4 IWBs - Ideas to Keep it Simple Getting the best out of your whiteboard by Danny Nicholson

14 Designing a Better Learning Experience An exploration of 3D printing in education by Martin Burrett

18 Teaching French to a Diverse Classroom Ideas about bringing a creative element into your classroom by Natasha E. Feghali

31 Leading the Way on Digital Tech Andy Knill explains the value of ‘employing’ student Digital Leaders in schools.

Regular Features

28 Maths Through Stories Read about how Rachel PreeceDawson has adapted a time-honoured writing approach to deliver maths

13 StickMen without Arms Great teaching ideas from StickMen without arms by David Moody

32 Level-Up Lessons with Game Mechanics A guide to perfect pixelated pedagogy and game based learning by Dr Martin Saunders

22 Pedagogy in Pictures Sharing classroom tips & pics from Jennifer Ludgate, Tina Watson & Emma Watford

Contributors

37 Educational Events 39 Bookshelf Unhomework review 40 ICTmagic Edtech Resources The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

Cover Photo Credit: Created and supplied by Matthew Harding at GoPrint3. See http://www.goprint3d.co.uk

Danny Nicholson @Dannynic Beth Summers @ntrlconnections David Moody @teacherbubble Natasha E. Feghali @NEFeghali Jennifer Ludgate @MissJLud Tina Watson @tinawatsonteach Emma Watford @MissWatford Rachel Preece-Dawson @rpd1972 Andy Knill @aknill Martin Saunders @martingsaunders William Portman

From the Editor Welcome to the March issue of UKED Magazine from UKedchat. This edition is packed with practical tips and tricks to use in your classroom.

Danny Nicholson gives us a master class in getting the best from your interactive whiteboard.

Beth Summers from Natural Connections explores ideas for improving learning opportunities in the great outdoors.

I discuss the potential pedagogical advantages of using 3D printing in schools to tailor objects to a pupils learning requirements.

Natasha E. Feghali showcases how she brings creative and fun elements to her MFL lessons.

Our UKedchat feature article guides you through the educational interview process to help you get

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your dream job and further your career with practical advice and tips.

Rachel Preece-Dawson discusses how she uses stories to explore, illustrate and learn maths concepts with her class.

Andy Knill tells us about Digital Leaders and the many advantages having them brings to a school and the boost it gives to the Digital Leaders themselves.

Finally, Dr Martin Saunders looks at how using game mechanics and ideas can enrich the curriculum, both online and off.

Martin Burrett Editor @ICTmagic @UKedmag editor@ukedchat.com

Interactive Whiteboards Ideas to Keep it Simple

By Danny Nicholson I am very much aware that for a new user, the average piece of IWB software can be a little overwhelming. Invariably, it has a lot of buttons and tools that can be quite confusing.

In addition, while the majority of schools are using either SMART Notebook or Promethean Activ software there is a lot of other software out there that teachers are using in schools. It can be frustrating to see activities that are reliant on a very specific tool in one piece of software, only to find that you can’t do that in the software you have in school.

Whiteboard software often contains additional tools such as tables, handwriting recognition, interactive resources, maths tools, timers and suchlike. All are fun, but not always essential.

Too many tools can overwhelm the beginner, and if you are just getting started it is better to slim things down and focus on the important features. With this in mind, in this article I am going to concentrate on the 5 most basic tools that any piece of interactive whiteboard software should have, and how you can create a lot of really useful activities for your lessons.

Those 5 tools are: • Freehand Pen • Text • Shapes • Eraser • Inserting images

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With just these tools, there are so many things you can do. It is also good to know how to group shapes together and to lock some objects on the page so they can’t be moved by accident.

1. Rub and Reveal This is a very simple technique that relies on the fact that the eraser tool rubs out anything drawn with the pen tool, but does not rub out typed text. If you change the pen tool to have a thick line, and change the colour so that it matches the background of the page, then you can quickly make text disappear by simply drawing over it. This is a very quick way to make cloze activities (fill in the gaps) or to hide labels to a diagram such as in the example below.

To make the text appear, switch to the eraser tool and then rub out the pen. The words will appear as if by magic. It’s a simple technique, but very effective.

2. Anagram Keyword Games At its most simple level, all this activity is made from are two blocks of text – one is an anagram of a keyword, and one is the correct answer. I have then drawn two rectangles and filled them in. These are then used to cover the two words.

In this example I have added text to the two boxes so I can remember which is the anagram and which is the answer.

3. Drag and Drop 1 – matching A very simple activity to use at different times in a lesson to check on understanding, these are simply text boxes which then need to be matched.

To speed things up, I created one blue box and one yellow box using the shapes tool and then added text. I then cloned these boxes several times (or copy/paste) to get many identical boxes. Then change the text in each one.

The boxes could contain words and their definitions, beginnings and ends of sentences, dates and events, words in one language and their corresponding word in English.

The boxes can be dragged together to match up. Or lines can be drawn to pair them up.

As an extension – have a whole load of different words in boxes for sentence rearranging or fridge magnet poetry.

4. Drag and Drop 2 – Sequencing This is the same as the example above, only that the boxes are larger and contain a sentence or phrase. The activity could be to put these sentences into the correct order either based on a story or a set of events. These could also be statements that the pupils need to rank into order of importance, or strongly agree and strongly disagree where there may not be correct answer as such, but acts as a stimulus for discussion.

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5. Drag and Drop 3- sorting This activity relies on the screen being split into two (or three) columns with text boxes placed at the bottom. The words can be dragged into the correct columns. The example in the image is more complicated that it needs to be as I have made a table out of several boxes. But you could just put a line down the middle of the screen. The obvious alternative is to use circles to create a Venn diagram.

6. Drag and Drop 4 – matching words and pictures If you can get pictures onto your IWB page then you could adapt the earlier matching example to include images. In the example below images were copied and pasted from the internet, or found in the clipart gallery, and then text boxes were made with words in.

7. Drag and Drop 5 – Plenary Circles A simple idea for summarising what pupils have learnt at the end of a lesson. It consists simply of a large circle, with text arranged around the outside. All pupils get thinking time to come up with several sentences that start “I know that….” and then use two of the words to finish the sentence. So “I know that Metal is a Conductor” for example.

Some pupils can then come to the board to pull the two words in and make their sentence to share with the rest of the class.

See a video about plenary circles here.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27291024@N02/4095013733/ by Josh Allen used under Commercial Creative Commons License All other images were provided by Danny Nicholson Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

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8. Fishing Rods / Balloons I’ll combine these two ideas as they’re basically the same.

Attach questions, words or phrases to other objects so that you can reveal them at random by pulling them out from behind an object or pulling them from off-screen.

The fishing rod is just made from several lines using the line tool, and then grouped together. The “sea” is just a big blue rectangle that’s been put in front to hide the objects on the end of the rod.

The balloons are simply made from a few shapes and a line grouped together. The sky and ground art simply made from two rectangles that have been filled with a gradient fill, sent to the back and then locked in place.

Pupils would come to the board, grab a string and pull down the balloon. They then have to answer the sum that’s been grouped to the balloon.

The balloons and fishing rods are making things more complicated than they need to be, but they look fun. At the most basic level I have done this by typing a word or phrase, drawing a squiggly line and grouping the two together. The word can then be pushed off the screen leaving the line visible so it can be pulled back on when needed. The balloons look nicer, but again it’s just extra fluff.

All of the ideas given above make use of the most basic tools that any interactive whiteboard software worth owning should have. As long as you can write with the pen, type text, make simple shapes and insert images then you can make these. As an added plus, being able to group boxes and text, or add text quickly to a box will also help.

With all these activities, remember that you don’t need to use all the whistles and bells of your IWB software to make engaging activities. It doesn’t need a degree in computer science to move away from using your IWB as just a screen to show videos or PowerPoint.

Remember that most interactive whiteboard firms will let you install their software at home so that you can create resources away from the board to then bring into the class on a USB stick etc. It’s actually much easier to pre-prepare a lot of this stuff away from the board with a mouse/keyboard.

Danny Nicholson is an independent trainer and consultant. He is a former science teacher and now delivers Computing and Science training to teachers all over the UK as well as overseas.

He is a PGCE Science lecturer for Billericay Educational Consortium on their Primary SCITT teacher training course, and also delivers science and ICT sessions on several other PGCE and B.Ed. courses. He is one of the authors of Switched on Science for Rising Stars.

He regularly blogs about educational technology at whiteboardblog.co.uk and can be found on Twitter as @dannynic

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Natural Connections Growing Schools is supported by the Natural Connections Demonstration Project, the largest outdoor learning programme in England. The project is working with more than 200 schools in the most deprived areas of the South West, to significantly increase the number of school-aged children experiencing the full range of benefits that come from learning in natural environments. To find out more about the project and keep up to date with our news you can sign up for our newsletter by emailing naturalconnections@plymouth.ac.uk or follow us on twitter @ntrlconnections.

Image Credit: https://openclipart.org/detail/165374/albero-byemilie.rollandin-165374 by Emilie Rollandin used under Commercial Creative Commons License https://openclipart.org/detail/166208/tree-with-flowersby-baditaflorin by baditaflorin used under Commercial Creative Commons License http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenera/252449343/ by Serena used under Commercial Creative Commons License All other images have been provided by Beth Summers and Martin Burrett

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QR codes for Paired Reading @jobadge

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StickMen without Arms Art & ideas by David Moody See more @teacherbubble

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Designing a Better Learning Experience

By Martin Burrett For too long something has been amiss in schools across the UK. A yearning to be emancipated from tyranny. The struggle against the unrivalled power of a small group of individuals has caused misery and envy for educators for many years. No threat, bribe or persuasion can waiver their resolve. I speak, of course, of the holder of the stock cupboard key.

But their supremacy may soon be coming to an end. For there is a transformative technology just beginning to appear which is set to change education and even society itself. Rapid prototyping, or 3D printing as it has become know, is still in its infancy, but the impact of producing objects that can be customised, or even fully designed by educators or students in the blink of an eye, is breathtaking. In years to come we will be able to create anything - pens, footballs, PE

kits, and even school dinners - at the press of a button.

We may not yet be at a stage where we can ask for, “Tea… Earl Grey…

Hot,” and see it whirl into being, but the technology has already made inroads into the classroom and 3D printing technology is developing very quickly.

Most 3D printers use spools of thin plastic strands, which are feed into the unit, heated, melted and pushed through a nozzle across a surface that builds up layer-by-layer, where it then cools and hardens. Some experimental 3D printers have used more exotic materials, including food, wax, and even bone for medical use. You can buy a 3D scanner is quickly copy existing objects and render them onto your computer to simply replicate or to use as a starting point for your design.

I first saw a 3D printer at the 2011 BETT Show in London. Over the past three years I have notice visible improvements to the quality and speed of the products printed. On the GoPrint3D stand at this year’s event, I was captivated by the elegance of the printer’s movements as it danced across the uppermost layer of near molten plastic. After just a short time, a plastic miniature hand was build, complete with exquisitely detailed fingerprints and finger nails. Consumer 3D printers are surprisingly inexpensive, at around £1000. Easily in budget of most primary and secondary schools. ◄ Printing breakfast? — An egg cup may seem a simple object, but the geometry is complex.

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◄ That’s handy—With a 3D printer and scanner you can produce detailed copies of real things and adapt them to your needs.

This is all very impressive, but what are the practical uses in the classroom? Design and Technology is a logical place to start and there are limitless applications.

Designing detailed, unique objects using a computer can take a lot of skill and a great deal of trial and error. Most design skills that individuals already possess are transferable to designing a virtual object. Designing components is just the start and fitting the objects together into working, functioning machines can be still a practical, hands-on activity.

So what is the advantage? Refining ideas is much easier when designing and manufacturing using a 3D printer and standardising a product is as easy as pressing the ‘Go’ button twice.

Artists are already experimenting with 3D printing and the web is awash with images of beautifully designed structures that would be difficult to produce any other way. Traditional sculpture relies on the artist removing material from their medium. Rapid prototyping is the opposite and the machine adds material to an empty space. You can make objects inside a solid outer structure and print fully assembled mechanisms and complex, jointed pieced.

There are lots of practical applications in subjects such as maths. Aside from the mathematical skills needed to design intricate objects, the pedagogical value of seeing mathematical concepts made solid can bring new insights for pupils. Teachers and students could design and print objects which utilise non-Euclidean geometry or fashion architectural wonders that stretch the imagination. ► This vessel was made using a 3Doodler, a pen with produces a thin layer of plastic with hardens instantly, meaning that you can write in the air.

Scientific concepts can be difficult to understand, especially for younger pupils, and visualising ideas is important. 3D printing offers you the opportunity to explain ideas clearly with objects that the children can hold in their hands.

Better yet, children can use this technology to demonstrate their understanding by designing models based on their ideas. Imagine exploring aerodynamics by refining a miniature aircraft design, learning about the cardiovascular system by examining a blood capillary that is printed to 100 times it’s real size, or creating a working volcano that can simulate eruptions under different conditions.

At first glance, 3D modelling has little to offer the humanities. But language is a reflection on the world and an object as a stimulus can be very useful. As the technology develops, the ability to have almost any object you wish in your classroom will open up many new possibilities. The feel the texture of the ancient elvish working engaged on ‘the One Ring’ or the visualising the imagine horrific scene of Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, the 3D quality and the ability to handle and touch can bring a new understanding to learners and a new way for students to interpret literature.

▲ What a relief?—This 3D relief map give a better impression of where mountainous areas of the British Isles are located.

There is huge advantages to using 3D printing in the special education, where bespoke produced for unique needs is common place.

Such customised items, such as easy access computer keyboards, communication screens and sensory items, can be costly from traditional manufacturers, but teachers could design, share, tweak and then print all of these objects.

From creating 3D relief maps of your study site in geography, designing unique instruments in music or creating a hoard of treasures from antiquity, 3D printing is bring a new dimension to classrooms around the world and enriching the education of our young people with a new way of looking at things and a new way to express themselves and show their understanding.

We may still be a long way from producing the everyday equipment in schools on 3D printers and the stock cupboard key holders will not be vanquished in the near future. We will continue to make the like books, pencils, tables, projectors and school dinners in the traditional way for a while yet. But I have little doubt that, in time, all of these things will be easy to produce with just a few strokes on a tablet’s screen. Once the technology matures and 3D printers can use a multitude of materials, colours and consistencies, it will change the world far beyond education. ► Red hot educational potential—This 3D ‘diagram’ was created with a 3Doodler and la lot of patience.

▲ A 3D scanner will let a teacher copy objects in a similar way to a 2D scanner. The pattern could then be tweaked or share over the web.

These are exciting times. There are still so many unknowns about how we will use 3D printing in the future and how it will be used in everyday life. But one thing is for certain schools will insist on storing their 3D printer spools in a stock cupboard.

Many people are very excited about the possibilities that customised, tailored, rapidly and locally produced objects brings to industry, electronics, medical care and research, and retail. Educators are only just realising the advantages and educational potential of the technology. Design a better learning experience for your students.

▲ A live demonstration at this year’s BETT Show. Selecting the file was easy and this bowl was produced surprisingly quickly

Image Credit: All images were either kindly donated by GoPrint3D or supplied by Martin Burrett

Teaching French to a Diverse Classroom

By Natasha E. Feghali Imagine the excitement with which students greet the opportunity to take part in a French language school treasure hunt for objects that stimulate the five senses. How about the fun of reading the daily announcements in French two to three times a week to the whole school or creating a multicultural marketplace where students and community members participate in oral comprehension? These are some of the ways in which I have engaged once reluctant learners of French as a second language (FSL).

I’ve been teaching French second language classes at Eastwood Public School in Windsor, Ontario for two years, incorporating different aspects of French language and culture into my classroom. At Eastwood, we have a multicultural community of students from Canadian-born and newcomer families. Many at times loathed learning a second language.

For my English language learner (ELL) students especially, vocabulary and reading acquisition can be extra hard work as they are learning English at the same time.

Creating a safe space where everyone is working at their own pace doing concrete activities has helped circumvent some of the barriers that ELL students might otherwise face in a core French class. Providing opportunities for students to bring their home culture into the classroom, reinforcing curriculum in from other subjects with French language activities, celebrating everyone’s creativity have all led to increased engagement and comprehension among my students and increased success for ELL students in particular.

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On a recent Monday, my grade four FSL students spent their French class preparing for our Marché Français, which took place over a two week period. Students decorated the classroom like a market and made kiosks out of boxes. I encouraged students not only to think about what they might find in a traditional French market, but to also think about foods or other items that represented their own cultures. In this way, we integrated a host of different foods, artefacts and experiences into our learning of vocabulary and represented students’ experiences here in Canada and in their countries of origin. A Macedonian student brought in woodwork traditional to his village. A Korean student brought in a jade stone while a Jamaican student filled her stall with fruits and vegetables you would traditionally find in Jamaican cuisine.

Continued on page 12 ▼ Putting the ‘yee ha’ into language learning — Making the extraordinary happen everyday

▲ Using your head—Students show off their French work about themselves by including themselves in it

▼ Standing up for themselves—Students enthusiastically exchange there language skills.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3392222230 by Quinn Dombrowski used under Commercial Creative Commons License http://www.flickr.com/photos/45818813@N05/4785640636/ by Gagneet Parmar used under Commercial Creative Commons License All other images were provided by Natasha E. Feghali Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

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▲ Modelling language by making models— students use practical skills to help them learn

A student who recently arrived from Iraq in the Middle East, brought parsley, tomato and eggplant for his stall and was excited to talk about how you could incorporate those ingredients into cooking. This created an environment where students not only learned the French words associated with the foods and artefacts that they brought into the class, but they were able to share something about themselves and their cultures with other students. We talked about creating a market unlike any of the markets that we have in Windsor, reflecting the diversity of our school community. Each student then prepared a presentation in French about what they had brought into the market.

In the second week, we invited parents to the Marché and a potluck. Students introduced themselves, their school, and what they had brought to the Marché to the people who had joined us. For those parents who were also learning English, students translated the presentations into their native languages. The potluck ended the exercise as we shared some of the wonderful food students and teachers had brought in.

Making creative connections to the curriculum is one of the ways I try to ensure that students don’t experience FSL fatigue. In the market that we created, students learned that French can exciting and engaging. The students engaged in oral communication, visual and kinaesthetic learning while touching on all 3 curriculum strands of writing, reading and oral communication in FSL. Not only was the market authentic, the student had the opportunity to showcase their learning artefacts independently which promotes the gradual release of responsibility. The students were motivated yet they had a sense of pride as they owned their learning from thought to creation.

We also use technology, such as a Pintèrréssant board on-line, we have the occasional Foire Français where my intermediate students invite the primary classes' in to play games in French, or even learn about artists by having my students recreate a famous artwork and writing texts or performing short skits in French about what they learned. We sometimes video these skits on a tablet and then watch them together to complete follow up activities that meet listening, writing and media curriculum expectations. Another activity we have done as a class is to have the students each personify a famous Frenchspeaking person, research that person and create a short monologue about them. We then, as a

A drop of imaginat makes all th

select students to sit in another area and Skype in as their characters. Again, follow-up activities connect to the curriculum through small-group discussions, creating and telling a story in logical sequence, creating short media works, and so on. On a sunny day, my students and I go outside and plant some flowers or learn about nature and the gardens of Versailles. I help them discover the language by finding ways to make French applicable to their daily lives.

All of these hands-on, student-driven and inquiry based activities facilitate differentiated learning for the diversity of students in my classroom. Recently my grade five FSL students learned about the five senses in French. This lesson is generally attached to a science class so reinforcing it and translating the senses into French provide some nice parallels. I began by having the students learn vocabulary and write descriptive sentences, while I outlined the learning goal and success criteria. I then had the students begin the hands-on portion by bringing in different objects such as fruit for scent, textiles for touch and so forth to visualize what the 5 senses are and what they may look like; especially on products when written in French (more vocabulary for them). We then went on a "scientific adventure" up and around the school grounds to find as many things

tion and creativity he difference

Natasha E. Feghali is an artistic French Second Language/French Immersion educator, DELF/DALF instructor and an AIM educator for the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) in Windsor, Ontario. Melle Feghali has been teaching for 6 years, including one year at the Ministère de l'Education National de France. She has created workshops entitled "The French Connection" and "Classroom FSL". Find her on Twitter at @NEFeghali. as we could classify into the five senses. The students were asked to bring in oversized button down shirts as lab coats, and I prepared anchor charts with important vocabulary. Not only did the students enjoy being out and about, the fact that they could explore on their own, be responsible to translate and find the information needed in French either on-line, through the use of dictionaries or conferencing with a peer and myself meant that they were able to learn through discovery.

Learning a second language through handson activity has yielded encouraging results for my students and has been especially stimulating for my ELL students. These lessons allow them to learn in a healthy, happy and whole environment that embraces the Frenchspeaking world as well as strengthens crosscurricular learning. My goal is help students pursue their interests in French and work to enhance what they are already learning in their other classes and embrace what they have learned at home. By giving our FSL students the opportunity to be creative, we allow them to take the lead in their thinking, create an individualized space for language acquisition as well as promote the discovery of language through art and or any other subject that is of interest to them.

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Pedagogy in Pictures ► Students used blackout poetry as a fun way in to a new topic on poetry. It aims to get students to immediately consider poetry at word level and is based on the work of the artist Austen Kleon.

Blackout poetry started out as a simple idea but you can extend to ensure real engagement with the language. Students should watch the Austen Kleon video to understand the process of selecting words and then drawing around them.

Students can simply colour in the white space remaining (blacking it out) or use the pens to create patterns which hide the other words. They created a poem or two that they would have never been inclined to do normally and began to realise that it didn't matter what article they were drawing on because words are adaptable and flexible. They turned articles about football players into poems on loss. One turned a film review into a poem about grief. See more on my blog at littlemisslud.wordpress.com @MissJLud ◄ Collaborative EdTech writing in practise! Range of pupils age 6 to 13 working on a Twitter Fiction story via their iPads for World Book Day. I frequently use Twitter with my tutees individually for quick punctuation and grammar tasks and wanted to explore how to get them working collaboratively for World Book Day. I had previously set up an alphabet based game for them called The Parson's Cat in which they had to individually Tweet a name and adjective to describe The Parson's Cat. This culminated with 26 cats and so I came up with the idea to get them all together to write a story that featured all of their 26 cats!. They met up and used their iPads to create a Twitter Fiction Story. I also then typed the full version up and shared it via GoogleDocs. If Philip Pullman can write a Twitter Fiction story about a house fly then we can write one about cats! Follow their story via #twtstory. See more ideas on my blog at tinawatsonteach.blogspot.co.uk @tinawatsonteach ► I use Play-doh a lot in lessons for modelling in Science across all key stages. It’s great for states of matter, atomic structure and is really helpful when teaching pupils to balance equations. It makes seeing the atoms on each side of the equation very visible and easy to spot gaps. The icing on the cake is then letting the pupils annotate by drawing on the table, be it labelling sub-atomic particles or writing symbol equations. Their reaction to this freedom is priceless! @MissWatford

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Following the path to your

Dream Job UKED Magazine / UKEDchat Exclusive Feature The thought of moving school as a child can be traumatic! This is also true as a teacher, wishing to pursue career aspirations at a new setting - it can be a daunting thought. Time can move pretty fast, and before you know you realise you’ve been in your current school for longer than you wish to remember. Are you really going to be in the same school all your teaching career? For some people, this is their choice, and they are happy with it.

Others would like to move school, but it may have been years since you applied for a job and a fearful of upsetting the apple-cart by showing some desire to move schools – indeed, some leaders may see this as an insult to their style, but their insecurities should not prevent anyone wanting to further their career. Through the UKEdChat communities, we have compiled these tips in helping you pursue a job in a different school…

▲ Swapping lanes — Getting your dream jobs will mean changing your direction

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1. Do your homework…

Don’t rely on traditional forms of job advertising. Many schools/colleges/ universities are now advertising positions online, completely missing out on the expensive national newspaper options, so explore online postings; social media; and websites.

2. Visit the school…

Most schools will invite people to ‘look around’, which can be a challenge for practising teachers. Schools will be flexible, so ask to visit after-school or, if you have the luxury, go during your PPA time, so you can see the school in action. These visits are crucial, and you can get various clues about the position you are considering, such as: could you work with the leaders of the school; the feel you get about the school (listen to your gut feeling…it’s important and mostly reliable); is it a genuine position? One teacher told UKEdChat, “I was fed up applying for jobs which were clearly intended for internal applicants, but the school went through the process for ‘equal opportunity’ reasons.

Visiting schools helped me, as you would usually pick up a clue whether there was an internal applicant likely to apply, and how the head-teacher spoke about them”.

Find out basic information about the school you are visiting, so you can discuss various aspects of the school during the tour. For example, “I noticed on your website you mentioned that you have a vibrant afterschool activity list…what do you currently offer?” and so on.

Although not part of the formal application process, considerations are being made even at this stage, so be your normal charming self so you will stick in the mind when all the applications drop onto the desks of the selection committee.

▲ Paper work — The best way to write an amazing Curriculum vitae is to do lots of amazing things

▲ Recycled — You will get rejections along the way, but it’s important not to feel like rubbish.

3. The Application GROAN! It’s not the most exciting prospect, but the application will mainly compile of two elements: the application form; and the letter of application. Be very careful with your spelling and get a close friend / family member to closely read through your final version, checking for grammatical or daft errors. It’s no good applying for a primary teacher, or English Teaching job if you get these basics wrong. The Letter of Application supports your form, and is your chance to demonstrate why they should interview you.

These need personalising for each position you go for, so it is best to start off with a blank sheet of paper, rather than copy/ pasting from previous applications.

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Read, re-read, and re-visit the job specifications, and tailor your letter of application to what the school is looking for. You could write the letter of application in the same order of the requirements they are looking for, therefore making it easier for the reader to confirm that you meet the requirements in the order listed. Make your story interesting, sharing real-life examples of your amazing teaching; how you have supported pupils learning and development; the innovations evident in your teaching; how well you are a team player; personalising education for all the students under your care; and so on.

Glenn Malcolm suggests starting sentences with adverbs or adverbial phrases - gets your meaning moving!

4. The Interview Well done for getting this far. No matter what, use this as an experience to behold. You may suddenly find out there are internal applicants for the position, but don’t let this put you off.

You need to shine and get your message across about how you can make the school even better than it currently is. Consider these questions before you attend: Who will you be meeting? Will it be a small group interview, or are all the governors going to attend?

Knowing this will help you prepare and consider how you will deal with the audience; Is there anything you should know about the format of the interview? (Will you be asked to

demonstrate your teaching? Will there be an in-box tray exercise?); How long will it last? Do you need to take a day off work (you may need to let your boss know by now!); Do you need to take anything? (Some people like to take a portfolio of evidence, but keep it small and concise); Clothes (Suit up…nothing else will be acceptable, not even those amazing flip flops you love!).

Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mortarboard.svg by Stannered used under Commercial Creative Commons License. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7477245@N05/7965228774/ by Luiz Fernando Reis used under Commercial Creative Commons License. http://www.flickr.com/photos/waponigirl/5621810815/ by Kathryn Decker used under Commercial Creative Commons License. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bisgovuk/6285375747/ by bisgovuk used under Commercial Creative Commons License. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilestreetlife/6922749580 by David Blackwell used under Commercial Creative Commons License. http://www.flickr.com/photos/86530412@N02/8226451812/ by Stockmonkeys used under Commercial Creative Commons License.

▲ Making an impression—Do your homework, plan and prepare well.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistant by Jeff Johnstone used under Commercial Creative Commons License.

Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/2.0

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By Rachel Preece-Dawson It seems obvious to plan primary English work around stories and texts.

Whether we use short stories, picture books, animated films, novels, oral tales or any other form of story to engage children and give them a focus for their writing, the results speak for themselves. We can use the Talk for Writing model of imitate; innovate; invent and children are guided through the writing process, supported by the wonderful world of stories.

Why then, do we not think in the same way for maths? We know that stories engage and capture children’s imaginations, but it seems a less obvious “hook” into learning to use a picture book, story or animation when planning maths.

There are some great examples of books written specifically for maths teaching. For example, Spaghetti and Meatballs for all by Marilyn Burns is an amusing, engaging tale of a family party.

The logistics of seating all the guests around a certain number of tables leads to plenty of rich maths talk and problem solving, and of course lends itself to role play. Actually moving tables around the classroom and working out how one table

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can be used to seat different numbers of people makes the maths accessible to different abilities and gives the teacher plenty of opportunity to question and assess understanding.

Even the most reluctant of mathematicians cannot fail to be hooked into discussions about place value, multiplying and dividing by How Many Jellybeans? (Yancey Labat). Children are fascinated by very large numbers and, in this “Giant book of Giant numbers” they can actually unfold the pages and see what one million jelly beans look like!

However, there are also the less obvious books: books not written to address mathematical concepts but which engage children and start them off on mathematical adventures.

Who wouldn’t enjoy following a recipe for George’s Marvellous Medicine using a variety of foulcoloured gloopy liquids? If children learn about capacity, converting

between standard units of measure and adding two or three digit numbers as they go, all the better.

Similarly, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Jon Scieszka) can be used to begin an exploration of mass. Just how much sugar will a cup hold? And how much would the wolf need to make his dear old granny a birthday cake?

Nothing by Mick Inkpen is a heartwarming story of an abandoned little cloth tabby cat. Although the story is written for young children, it can successfully be used with older primary pupils to explore the concept of zero.

Why is zero so important? What would happen if zero was abandoned in the attic and forgotten about? What would happen to our numbers and calculations?

Learning about time and distance can also be explored through stories. The World Came to My Place Today by Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts is a well-known story often used in geography and PSHE. George explores how small the world is by thinking about where his orange juice comes from,

where the tomatoes for his soup grew and where the rope for his swing was made, amongst many other ideas.

Upper Key Stage 2 children could use the story as an introduction to calculating food miles and time differences, using the ruler function on Google Earth to map long distances.

There are also opportunities for using positional and directional language, currency conversion, population‌ the possibilities are endless.

As part of a recent focus on measuring length in my mixed Y2/3 class, I used Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs to give the children a fun way to practise measuring accurately. Jim is asked by the giant to visit the oculist and order a giant-sized pair of spectacles. We started off by thinking about how much bigger than an average adult would a human be. This involved measuring me, and recording the result in metres and centimetres, in centimetres and, for my more able Year 3s, in metres. Knowledge of the children told me that many of them also needed practice rounding and doubling. The Y2 task was set: could they work in small groups and use art straws to make spectacles double real-sized spectacles? I provided a couple of old pairs of glasses for them to measure and off they set. The first

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step was to think about how to use a ruler to measure accurately. We discussed the “spare bit” at the end of many rulers before 0; choosing the “centimetre” side of the ruler and rounding to the nearest whole cm. Once initial measurements were taken, we discussed how we could double these measurements. Every child was engaged and every child could access the activity. Differentiation for my Y2s came through careful questioning, and support was provided by a TA and mixed-ability pairs.

My Y3s need a bit of a push, mathematically, at the moment. They were set the task of making a pair of glasses 10x the size of ordinary glasses, whilst only being allowed to record measurements in metres. We had a few minutes of very focused teaching on decimal notation, and converting cm to m. They were also asked to measure accurately to the nearest mm rather than round to the nearest whole cm. The room buzzed with mathematical talk and the Y3 team worked as a wellorganised unit to produce the biggest pair of glasses we had ever seen!

Finally, we compared our glasses to the real-sized version and discussed what maths skills the children had used. We drew straws to determine who would take each group’s pair of glasses home at the end of the day, and the children ran out clutching their glasses and excitedly talking to parents about the maths they had done that day.

There was a rueful raised eyebrow from the grandparent of the lucky 10x glasses winner, but the child’s excited account of the skills they had use to make them, and whether or not they would fit into the car could be heard all across the playground.

I’ve started looking at the children’s books I love so much in a new light. As well as seeing opportunities for different genres of writing, role play and art, I’m also beginning to see them as springboards into exciting mathematical problem-solving and journeys into a whole range of mathematical concepts. The possibilities really are endless.

Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_book.jpg by Lionel Allorge used under Commercial Creative Commons License http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings by Jim Belk used under Commercial Creative Commons License https://openclipart.org/detail/33127/tango-list-add-by-warszawianka by warszawianka used under Commercial Creative Commons License

Rachel Preece-Dawson is a Y2/3 teacher, English and ICT co-ordinator at a small, rural school. See her blog at rpd1972@wordpress.com or find her on Twitter @rpd1972

https://openclipart.org/detail/33133/tango-list-remove-by-warszawianka by warszawianka used under Commercial Creative Commons License https://openclipart.org/detail/33655/tango-style-multiply-bywarszawianka by warszawianka used under Commercial Creative Commons License https://openclipart.org/detail/33661/tango-style-equals-by-warszawianka by warszawianka used under Commercial Creative Commons License Other images have been provided by Rachel Preece-Dawson & Martin Burrett Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

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Leading the Way on Digital Tech

By Andy Knill If you search Google for Digital Leader Network there are two UK examples that are given- a government initiative for adults or digitalleadernetwork.co.uk which is aimed at pupils in all schools.

This article is an introduction to the second which is relevant to readers of UKEdMag. Does your school have student /pupil leaders? Do the pupils adapt better to changes in technology than the teaching Staff?

Pre-2012 SSAT offered opportunities for schools to link up and develop the role of the pupil digital leader, for some schools the cost of joining the network was an issue. In. 2012 a primary teacher from Norfolk, Sheli Blackburn alongside Mark Anderson who was at Clevedon School at the time, Avon looked at a network for schools that had no cost basis. Schools or teachers linked through Twitter and a group started to form, the collaborative blog linked above was established and a regular slot was established at 9pm GMT on a Thursday evening for #DLchat where ideas could be shared.

The idea was spread through contacts and presentations at Teachmeets and other educational meetings. In February 2013 the BETT Show at Excel featured a number of presentations from primary and secondary digital leaders accompanied by teachers or teachers presenting as part of the Teachmeet-Takeover talks.

The blogs influence has grown and shares great examples of activities undertaken. At BETT14 there was more evidence of pupils presenting and groups visiting the show.

My own experience stemmed from a keen Year 8 top set geography group with several members who liked to present homework in a diverse range of methods from GoAnimate cartoons to YouTube films. They were keen to help others and to use our school Fronter MLE. We set up our own recruitment programme where a digital application could be made, some of these were very tenuous but certainly entertaining and demonstrated their breadth of skills.

Tasks included designing a badge and they became the first student leaders in the school to have ID, apart from the Student Leadership team. They learnt IWB skills to assist teachers in class. They surveyed pupil perception of IT use by teachers.

Suggestions were logged on how the school could develop its digital programme in future years. A second phase brought new members to the. team, as the first group became involved heavily in fast track drama which dominated their extra curriculum time. The current team filmed a new product for Promethean who I work with as a Teacher Advocate. They are now split into project teams run by pupils and I have an overall advisory / coordinator role.

Many other network colleagues have taken the concept much further – visit digitalleadernetwork.co.uk to read about their adventures and / or say hi during. #DLchat on Thursdays on Twitter.

Andy Knill is a Secondary Geography teacher in Essex. You can find him on Twitter @aknill. He blogs at mishmashlearning.wordpress.com

With the advent of the new national curriculum and its new emphasis on computing there has never been so much focus on technology in the classroom. In particular there has been a huge surge in tools to teach coding. These include a variety of visual programming products, of which Scratch from MIT is the granddaddy. A number of other providers have developed tools that are more focussed on learning the broader curriculum and these generally use game mechanics of some form to accomplish this.

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The first thing that I think is really interesting about many of the computer based teaching and learning tools out there is that they consistently improve pupil progress. A number of studies have been carried out with varying degrees of rigour but the impact is seen across age, gender, pupil-premium status and for all subjects and ages. A lot of this can be ascribed to the various facets of the products, and certainly there are differences between the various tools, but to some extent just playing a digital game has an impact on a learner’s engagement, attention and ultimately the amount of learning achieved. Across all sorts of games, digital or not, there are a number of features that stand out. These game mechanics can be harnessed in the classroom either using these kinds of digital products or in the way regular lesson activities are planned.

Not to easy, not too hard For a game to be engaging is has to present the correct degree of challenge. Casual games including various avian flight plans have this perfected. Good casual games are very simple to start to play but devilishly difficult to master. People don’t like to fail so in order to get someone to even try something you have to remove the fear of failure they may have.

Once they have started though they will very quickly get bored if a game is too easy or if it gets too difficult too quickly so pace is important. Equally, as a game player gains more experience they will start to learn how to beat the game so incremental challenge is important for player retention.

This translates to a generally simple process that is either open ended or steadily increases in difficulty over time or progress. In a lesson activity it is important to set the level and gradient of challenge effectively or you will lose less confident individuals at the start and more able individuals as they “beat the game�.

A great classroom example I saw recently was a KS2 lesson on complex sentences where a simple sentence was progressively improved by rolling a die to select a change to be made such as adding an adverb or improving an adjective. The simple mechanic was easily accessible by all pupils but the more-able could really stretch themselves and ended up with some fantastic results.

A sense of achievement An almost ubiquitous feature of games is a reward system where overcoming the challenges of the game results in a tangible bonus, badge, level or similar. As we go about our everyday business a sense of purpose is important to motivate us. In a game situation this is absolutely distilled and getting one more level or aiming for the highest score yet can be very compelling.

Rewards are used very thoroughly in classrooms and many behaviour management systems for example use this concept to great effect. At my school we use a levelled wall chart where pupils start on green each day and go up or down depending on behaviour. Getting to gold gains a physical reward, getting to red gets a reprimand or whatever is appropriate. This simple process is amazingly effective and you can almost feel the pride radiating from the children when they give a good answer or show good behaviour and are asked to move their star / rocket / rock-star up. Taking the behaviour management a step further there are a couple of digital reward systems which do exactly this but in a more central and coordinated fashion.

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The will to win Another mechanic that is seen in virtually all games is the ability to win somehow. Winning implies some form of adversary and this is sometimes the case literally but often it is the game that will be beaten. There is nothing like the scent of victory to motivate someone and the satisfaction that comes with overcoming an obstacle or difficulty is lasting and meaningful.

One of my favourite examples of an activity where pupils try to beat the game is the Jam Sandwich Robot activity I learned of from a teacher names Phil Bagge. This activity teaches the idea that computers simply follow instructions, AKA algorithms, as given and challenges pupils to write instructions for a jam sandwich-making robot to follow.

Inevitably pupils miss vital steps and jamcovered hilarity ensues. Over a few iterations though it is the desire to beat the robot and actually end up with a jam sandwich that brings focus to the detail needed by a dumb machine.

To see direct competition in action in a classroom all you need to do is utter the immortal words, “Boys vs Girls”, or maybe “This Side vs That Side”, and see the scramble to compete and the desire to win.

Unfortunately when there is direct competition between people someone winning means someone loses so this obviously has to be handled carefully so as to not demotivate the non-winners (lets not call them losers). One way to do this is to makes sure that everyone “wins” often enough to feel a sense of achievement enough that the losses are forgotten.

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Closing loops As human beings we like there to be a certain sense of order to the world. This is maybe the thing that gets taken too far by individuals suffering from OCD but in all of us there is a desire to control our environment and remove unfinished business or “open loops”. In game speak this is completing the game and in modern console games you will often have a primary story with a much larger open-ended game that can take hundreds of hours to collect all the stars, characters, areas, challenges or whatever and complete the game.

A non-game example of this is the percentage completion shown on LinkedIn profiles and now everywhere else. Every time you look at a page it tells you that you have 80% completed your profile. That is REALLY annoying so you add your city and ask someone for a recommendation just to get to 100%. Admit it, you did that too didn’t you?

A simple school example of this is a word search where the desire to find the whole list of words focuses a pupil on the words at hand.

Alternatively, in a classroom a pupil might have to complete all of a set of activities on a certain topic in order to complete a challenge.

You make it, you own it Minecraft. That’s all I really need to say here really but this relatively simple game has an addictiveness of around a million out of ten.

One of the many things that contributes to this addictiveness is the ownership players feel when they have crafted a structure in a Minecraft world. Add to this that you can share this with others and even 3D print your Minecraft constructions and the sense of ownership swells further. Minecraft itself can be used in a number of classroom situations such as model making for topics or more directly in computing lessons via scripting.

Another common game feature is a player customisable avatar and this gives the player a real sense of ownership over their identity within a game. This sense of ownership brings a player back again and again and gives a degree of purpose beyond simply playing a game. The created digital persona also allows the individual to express themselves freely, which again encourages them to return to the game.

This mechanic is evident anywhere a pupil makes anything. I remember covering my exercise books in wrapping paper when I was at school and even this simple act raised the importance of my books and motivated me to take good care of them. Anything crafty where things are made will give pupils a sense of possession over their own learning.

Get personal Often games will cast the player in a certain role. This has the effect of giving a specific perspective and helps players to identify with the given situation. The player will strive for the character as if it were themselves but the fact that it is only a game gives the player the ability to try things that would not be possible, or that would be too risky in the real world, without the fear of failure. This enables repeated rehearsing of situations and a far greater willingness to participate than a literal situation would.

In a lesson a simple device might be to create a theoretical situation where invented characters have to solve a problem. Because it is the characters’ problem rather than the pupils’ directly the risk of failure is diminished and pupils will feel much more free to try and solve the problem.

The element of surprise If you always knew exactly what was going to happen, life would be very boring. It is the sense of anticipation and the occasional surprise that makes life interesting and it is the same with games. Most successful games will continually twist and turn to keep you guessing and retain your attention. It is the same with a good novel; you would be very disappointed if the secrets were all revealed on the first page and nothing new occurred through the rest of the book.

It is very easy to introduce a level of unpredictability into lessons and most already have them. Lolly-pop sticks, love them or hate them, are a great example of this as are surprise changes in rules that introduce a new concept or make pupils think in a new way.

A computing example is the Stompy Zombie Robot game or variants thereof. In this game pupils must direct one pupil as the team robot in turns to either take steps, turn or fire a tissue and try to hit the opposing robot. This is another activity looking at algorithms but it is when pupils are invited to create their own additional rule that the ideas are really cemented. There is

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an element of synthesis and ownership here also but this simple tweak to an already effective game makes a powerful difference.

A word of warning In saying all this I hope I have given some ideas that help to enrich lessons either through the multitude of technology products available or by applying some game mechanics to more traditional lessons. If used correctly game mechanics can enhance engagement, focus, attention, motivation and context. It is very easy however to add a game that simply does not connect a pupil with the learning. To ensure that learning is improved it is vital that the focus of the game is on the subject matter rather than simply providing a distraction, albeit a fun one.

With that word of warning given – have fun!

Martin Saunders is founder and CEO of Zammer (see zammer.co and @zammerapp), a competitive learning and revision game for schools and individuals.

Martin is also a director of a mobile app agency and holds a doctorate in NMR. Martin undertook a PGCE in secondary science before moving into industry and is a governor of Bewdley Primary School. Find him on Twitter at @martingsaunders

Image Credit: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable by Matt D used under Commercial Creative Commons License All other images were created by Martin Burrett Commercial Creative Commons License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Would you like to write for the magazine?

If you are an educator and would like to share what works in your school or classroom, we would like to hear from you.

Email editor@ukedchat.com 36

If you have a CPD event to share, tweet @UKedmag or email editor@ukedchat.com for more details.

Events

TeachMeet Denton

TeachMeet Leicester

18th March at 5:30pm Russell Scott Primary Manchester

18th March at 6:00pm Crown Hill Community College Leicester, Leicestershire

TeachMeet Never Stop Learning

TeachMeet Stoke-on-Trent

20th March at 5:00pm Bristol Brunel Academy Bristol

24th March at 4:30pm The Co-Operative Academy Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

TeachMeet Bradford

TM Monday See, Monkey Do

26th March at 4:30pm Bradford University's re:centre Bradford, West Yorkshire

2nd April at 5:00pm Monkseaton Middle School Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear

TeachMeet Halesowen

TeachMeet UCL Academy

3rd April at 5:30pm Halesowen College Halesowen, Worcestershire

3rd April at 5:30pm UCL Academy London

TeachMeet Dorset

Red House TeachMeet

19th June at 6:00pm The Badger Brewery Blandford St. Mary, Dorset

15th May at 5:00pm Red House School Norton, Teesside

The One to Watch TeachMeet Education Show Friday 21st March at 5.30pm Click here to get more information Click here to sign up to attend or offer to present.

Twitter hashtag: #TMEdShow Note that you must have free tickets to The Education Show to attend the Teachmeet Image Credit: Logo created by @HelenCaldwel

Your staffroom guide to

How do I join the discussion? d e K U #

t a ch

UKedchat is open to everyone with a Twitter account, which you can set up for free.

You just need to follow the #UKedchat hashtag, a label which helps users find what they are looking for.

You need to include #UKedchat in your tweets so others can find your posts.

The official chat time is on Thursday evenings at 8-9pm, but there are always discussions happening on the hashtag and on our forums.

A TeachTweet is a special session where educators submit short video presentations to watch and discuss.

Check out the UKedchat discussion forums and much more on our website at

ukedchat.com Vote for the Thursday night topic by going to ukedchat.com/poll Sign up to our email bulletin to stay up to date with the discussions topics, polls and the best posts on #UKedchat from all over the UK.

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Bookshelf Bookshelf

UnHomework

Author: Mark Creasy Review by: William Portman Homework, homework, homework. As a teacher it can sometimes feel that you’re damned if you do, or damned if you don’t set enough.

Some parents complain that you are setting far too much – others complain that their child needs more!

Setting a ‘creative’ project for homework will get many parents scrambling for cereal boxes as they make a model in the same vein as Blue Peter’s Tracy Island model back in the 1990’s – usually the night before the project is due; whereas other parents leave their children to it – you can generally tell the disparity.

We have discussed the purpose of homework previous on UKEdChat when we explored the question, “Is homework a vital learning tool or an outdated educational throwback?” concluding that if children are asked to work at home, the activity should be useful and relevant to their school work, allowing pupils to follow their interests and passions to instil a love of learning and it should indulge their curiosity using their creativity to push their learning forward. Fire up your class with stimulating collaborative projects which will be enjoyed by both child and parent. Let ‘will this light them up?’ be our mantra.

There usually are two schools of thought regarding homework: On one hand, let children be children.

They spend enough hours sat down motionless in school. Let them play and explore the world; On the other hand, homework should extend the learning children do at school, reinforcing concepts explored.

Schools will have homework policies, which vary wildly in the amount of homework teachers are expected to assign, however there will be very few schools that have an ‘UnHomework’ policy – the philosophy advocated by teacher Mark Creasy, which ensures that the work students complete outside the classroom is relevant, purposeful and engaging for them, no matter the age of the pupils. The main assumption with the ‘unhomework’ philosophy is that children are inspired to complete without being told to do so. It is always pleasurable when pupils come into school sharing a project that they have done, as they are inspired by their learning / topic – with no homework task set.

The philosophy works at all stages of school education, with Creasy stating that he has taught children from aged 8-18 with his approach being no different, although does concede that secondary pupils need more support and encouragement as it is a different approach to what they are used to.

The book supports teachers in developing this philosophy- which many primary colleagues already pursue – introducing the DAD Model, which is essentially a more discussion or collaborative based formula for home tasks, including: tips on getting parents on-board with the philosophy; convincing colleagues; developing the concept as a whole-school project; plus a collection of ideas and tips to create ideas and put them into action.

This book is a great supporter for how homework should be – a pleasurable experience for pupils, parents and teachers. It should not be a chore, but an activity that consolidates, extends or enthuses pupils further in the learning experience.

Unhomework by Mark Creasy is published by Independent Thinking Press – RRP £12.99, available from Amazon (Kindle version £7.79)*.

Browse many more book reviews at http://ukedchat.com/category/book/ *Prices correct at time of article publication.

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The best sites from

View thousand more at ictmagic.wikispaces.com keezy.net This is a child-friendly sound sampler for Apple devices. Users can record sounds and play them back to make interesting music and games. Record voices and mix it up with ambient sounds to make some unique effects. Supply your own earplugs!

qrwild.com This site lets you create QR Code scavenger hunts quickly and easily. The basic account is free and all you need is a smart phone, any QR code reader and a login for the site. Make clues with pictures or link to other websites.

google.com/maps/views Create your own 'Street Map' like tour by uploading photo spheres to the web, where users can navigate between your captured locations. Making 3D school tours and virtual field trips just got a lot easier!

babadum.com This is a fab HTML5 language learning site which tests your language skills through a series of games with 1500 words. The site collects stats on your performance.

Languages include English, Spanish, German, French, Japan, Italian, Russian and Polish.

sumdog.com A great site for learning maths with competitive flash games against the computer, the class or the world. Signing up is quick, ease and free. I've just signed up over 200 children in 15 minutes! A must have for Primary Schools.

oneocean.cbc.ca/biosphere/game An amazing set of resources to explore the world's oceans in a 3D virtual environment. Swim with killer whales or drift along and watch sea turtles cruise by. You can even complete missions, including exploring the deepest place in the oceans.

Check out the UKedchat Educational Apps directory for the best apps for teaching and learning.

Go to

ukedchat.com/eduapps 40