EAT SLEEP ICT REPEAT

Since the 2014 Curriculum came into place, coding and programming became a hugely emphasised part of the Computing curriculum. I believe this is to encourage children to get into coding and to then pursue careers in web design, game design or to become computer programmers. I think coding is also the area of ICT that class teachers fear the most to teach due to the lack of subject knowledge and all the scary terminology. There are a lot of great resources out there was teaching coding in the classroom. For the majority of the coding I teach at Elsley, I use J2Code from Just2Easy; a resource that is free to anyone but you are able to save your work if you are a London Grid for Learning School and the children have MyUSO accounts set up. I will blog about J2E in a future post. This post, however, is about a website that was recommended me at a computing leaders cluster course called Hour of Code. www.hourofcode.com This website is produced by www.code.org. Hour of Code i...

It's never too early to start using technology! I should know, my 3 year old can't keep her hands off my smart phone and tablet! I don't teach Nursery but after a staff INSET I did on using technology in the classroom, I was approached by the Nursery teacher who explained the children were learning about Fairytale stories. Her original plan for one activity was to dress them up and get them to act out Fairytale plays, however after watching my INSET, she changed it from performing a play to creating a Green Screen movie! We set up a little studio in Nursery using two Green Screens for the floor and wall. You can buy a Green Screen from Amazon here. I then filmed the children using the app DoInk. This app is not free but I have downloaded other green screen apps and find this one is the best. I think the price has also reduced recently and is available for £2.99. This app is also only available on IOS app store for Apple devices. It is incredibly eas...

So I'm going to kick off with a lovely lesson I did with Year 2 but it is good for any age from Nursery to Year 6 and beyond! I love using augmented reality, which for those of you who aren't sure, is when you can see a computer generated image or layer on top of real life. Augmented Reality is a new technology being used in businesses and schools all over and has so much good potential. I always like to make my lessons link with what the children are studying in other subjects so they can use exciting technology like AR but for a purpose. The children at Elsley learn about Animal Habitats and had been studying how animals have adapted to live in their environment.  For example, the polar bear has thick fur to keep it warm, it's white to camouflage in the snow from predators and prey and has sharp claws for moving in it's harsh environment and attacking it's prey. A good activity I have seen before was children wearing cut out masks, pretending to be the anim...

This blog is created in association with Elsley Primary School where I teach as the Computing Leader. Elsley Primary is a fantastic, diverse and dynamic school close to the iconic Wembley Stadium. It is currently going through an expansion from 2 form to 4 form entry and a new building is in it's final stages of construction. The new building will house new classrooms for Reception, Year 1, 2, 5 & 6 as well as a music room, a SEN therapy room, a learning resource centre, a music room and for me, most excitingly, a brand new Computing suite, complete with 30 PC's. Since arriving at the school, I have mainly been relying on mobile technology such as laptops and only managed a couple of months in a temporary corridor ICT suite. The children at the school are wonderful. They are really keen to learn and try out new skills. Photos of Elsley children will appear in this blog but will be nameless. All opinions on this blog are my own from the professional position I hold ...

Hi! Welcome to my blog, this is my first post and it's just a little bit about who am I and why I wanted to create this blog. I'm James Fraser and currently I'm a Computing leader at at Elsley Primary School in Wembley, London. I am writing this blog in conjunction with my school, where I have teaching now for 2 years. Previous to this job, I worked as a class teacher for 8 years in KS1 and KS2. For 6 of those years, I was the ICT co-ordinator which I had a huge passion for. I love using technology in school and bringing new technologies into schools. I will be discussing the endless benefits in a future blog but I want to focus more now on why I am writing this blog. As an ICT co-ordinator in my previous schools, I would map out a whole school curriculum and provide resources and INSETS to year groups but found that so many teachers are afraid of using ICT to it's maximum potential and wouldn't even attempt fun and engaging topics like animation because it...