A little about me...


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 was too much work. Some teachers also find topics like coding and programming far too scary to even comprehend, and so I found teachers were ignoring my curriculum expectations and instead, use their time in the ICT suite for research or online maths games.

I know I am not speaking about all teachers here, I know there are plenty who embrace ICT/Computing in their ICT lessons and into other lessons, but I wanted to A) post fun and engaging ideas and good lessons which I have taught to maybe inspire some teachers to say - "That looks quite cool, I'd love to try that!" and B) I wanted to celebrate the work that the children at Elsley Primary School achieve in lessons.  I feel I have already made a huge difference to the children's knowledge and skills in Computing with the curriculum, planning and resources I have put in place. Children enjoy the lessons are are always being exposed to new skills and technologies.

As the school's computing specialist, I teach every class from Reception to Year 6, once a week while the class teachers have their PPA time. This means that I have a broad range of ICT requirements for every year group from EYFS to KS2 and have a clear progression of skills and resources throughout the school.

In this blog, I will share lessons and resources as well as raise discussion points such as, which is the best mobile technology to have in schools? and Should schools keep their ICT suites?

Please comment, like and share with other teachers you may think may be interested in reading this blog and contact me if you have any questions... eat.sleep.ict.repeat@gmail.com

Have a good day!

James Fraser.





Comments

  1. Mr. Tamblyn12 February 2018 at 12:46

    Hi James,

    I am an eLearning/Computing Coordinator and Year 6 teacher at a British school in Madrid. I too am passionate about using technology in the classroom. I would be happy to share some ideas with you.

    First of all, you say you like using the green screen, with Doink, is great. Have you tried using a pizza box, painted green? Really effective so small focus work with models etc.

    Don´t suppose you have any assessment booklets or anything for Computing for Y1-6?

    Thanks, Luke Tamblyn

    luke.tamblyn@kings.education

    ReplyDelete

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