Now that the dust has settled……
Life as a Principal Teacher with responsibility for infants and Pre-5’s has certainly widened and changed this year. As I mentioned previously I would be doing McCrone cover in the infants and helping with the introduction of the new reading scheme. Working with the infant classes would also enable me to introduce and help embed ICT skills into the curriculum, as well as working with the Interactive whiteboards which are new in school.
My timetable is varied and interesting as I am actually providing McCrone cover for every class in the school as well as management cover for the P7 Principal Teacher where I am teaching music and PE! I am spending a couple of sessions introducing the whiteboard to the Pre-5’s each week and have bought a rucksack for my laptop and a pair of hiking boots for all the stair climbing !
At the moment I am using the computer suite which houses Macs and PC desktops with P1 to 4 classes. P5 to 7 and it is the PC laptops in a box. I am growing to tolerate a PC but they are still not my favourite. During the last couple of weeks I have gradually installed the ActivPrimary software onto the laptops which takes at least 20 minutes per machine. The children are really wowed by the software and the board in general andare highly motivated.
I now know the names of nearly all the 280+ children in the school which is a really nice part of the job. Having taught in a small school for so long I was used to knowing every child, so now I am getting to do the same in Dunoon Primary.
So far, so good. Today with the P7’s I hooked up the midi keyboard and did a Garageband demo. A couple of the children who play piano gave us a tune and tomorrow during ICT time we will have a closer look at this amazing software.
I also want to introduce an enterprise activity to raise funds for software. A couple of years ago at Tighnabruaich we used APFS to make individual Christmas cards to sell. The children produce a design which parents pre-order and which is then turned into a pack of Christmas cards with their own child’s exclusive design. Many art techniques can be used but I got my class to design it using a paint package on the computer. The results were lovely so I am going to give it a go!
I have also been busy with the Promethean online training, where I had to start over as they had revamped the initial training and all my previous results were gone. Having passed all the new assessments I have been unable to access my certificate to prove my skills. Hopefully it is just a system glitch and I don’t have to do them all again.
I am going to SETT, or the Scottish Learning Festival as it has now become. How frustrating it will be to see all those wonderful resources and not have any money to buy them………..ah well cest la vie!
September 5th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Hope you enjoy the festival Morag – even with no money to spend, just think how many recommendations you’ll come back with!
Can I also ask a question? You said that you’ll be providing ICT support in many classes – in many schools where I’ve seen this approach, there is a danger that the ‘visiting expert’ is the person that does the ICT (in much the same way as the PE specialist and not the class teacher is the one doing the PE?) – how will you ensure that ICT is done at other times in the class when you are not there? Just curious how it is being approached in your school.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I too was worried that this would happen but what we are trying to establish is the use of the recently installed Promethean whiteboards . Alongside my work with the children I will be providing CPD sessions for the staff in the use of the board and any other ICT training they would like that I am able to provide. . Classroom assistants and Pre-5 staff have all requested ICT training so I will try to provide this for them too. The PC laptops and computer suite are fully timetabled for use at other times with the support of one of the classroom assistants who works alongside the class teachers and has a keen interest in ICT.
Technical problems are the main drawback at the moment, installing the software, making sure we have the correct adaptors for Mac to projector so that each teacher is able to use the boards.
It is early days yet and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. 3 members of staff are already using their boards and the rest are keen to learn.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Thanks Morag – it is a difficult question. Hopefully we all seem to be moving towards ICT that is merely an integrated part of the curriculum, and just another option that teachers and students use. In order to do this though, staff have to be able, so it’s great to hear your plans for supporting staff development too.