Useful teaching ideas...

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/nov/21/best-english-lesson-descriptive-writing

Reviewing a blog that might be useful in your teaching:

I took quite a while researching blogs for this task. I was trying to find something that would really inspire myself and others who would hopefully read it.
I finally found this post in the 'Teaching Network' of The Guardian. The words really struck home with me personally because lots of young pupils in my teaching environment (boys in particular),
struggle with descriptive writing. In this particular post English teacher Matt James uses rugby and the stadium environment as an example of how an individual can put their feelings down on paper. I think this is really a fantastic way of linking together boys underachievement, that he touches upon in this blog, and out of school interests such as rugby in this case. For me personally, I live in a country and work in a school where rugby, in a sense, could be part of the curriculum!

Matt uses this to his advantage for a teaching idea, which he realises may not suit every boy/girl in his class, however after the first lesson he does learn to adapt to his surroundings. Realising he cannot take his entire class to experience the magic of the national stadium which he describes vividly as being part of his childhood memories, just like myself. Matt brings the stadium to the classroom through music and television, hoping the children can try to envisage and get that magical feeling that every proud Welshman gets as soon as he takes a step through those Millennium gates....

A great blog, and teaching idea that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Oliver

Mobile Technology

Friday 15th November 2013

During this lecture we talked about our personal experiences with mobile technology and how it effects our daily lives. We also put our knoweldge (or maybe lack of!), into practice by having a play around with some iPads provided. Over the last year I suppose you could say that I have caught up with the technological world in terms of my involvement with mobile technology. I have had an iPhone now for a while, and in school I use our department iPad on a regular basis. I don't know if anyone else has ever had the stubborn attitude I used to hold towards mobile technology? I used to hold my old simple Samsung phone very dear to me, as long as it let me call/message people and have a half decent camera I was happy! That was until it finally packed in on me and I thought lets join this iPhone cult! I have never looked back... My phone now literally runs my life! I use it for the obvious like phone calls/messaging/camera/videos, however now I use it for e-mails, phone banking, ebay, Facebook, Twitter, tuning my guitar, recording myself on the guitar, and just everyday planning in and outside work. My experience with the ipad isn't quite as up to date as the iPhone, however I am slowly getting more familiar with it through the pupils in school giving me crash some course lessons, it is though I find, very similar to the iPhone. So to summarise I think I was rather foolish to hold back and not self evolve with technology as it became more developed! Cheers, Oliver

Microsoft Office

Over the last few years my use of any of the Microsoft Office packages has gone from being to 'once in a blue moon', to now being more of an everyday need. I returned to college as a mature student a few years back and found myself thrown straight in to the deep end in terms of using the computer to complete work. Up until that time my use of any computer or laptop was based entirely around Facebook or You Tube. Since returning to full-time education and being taught on a regular basis how to use these different programs like Excel, Word and Power-Point, I quite quickly got over the initial panic of 'I can't do this' and actually found that there was nothing really to worry about. Throughout my degree I constantly worked with Microsoft Word and Power-Point in particular to complete assignments and presentations. At first I found Power-Point quite frustrating and difficult to work with, however like any other task the more presententations that I completed, the more familiar with it I became. After successfully completing my degree and obtainging a great job in a comprehensive school. I find myself on a daily basis using Microsoft Office programs in lessons with the pupils and for my own needs on this PCET course. However, during ICT lessons I quite reguarly get shown up by the pupils, as children today are far more knowledgable than older generations in the wide world of computer technology!! Cheers, Oliver

Inspirarational post

http://lifeboatscrapbook.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/inspiration.html This post contains a review of my choice for the 'inspirational blog'. I have chosen a section of a blog/scrapbook posted by LIFEBOATJOHN from March 2007. Just by basically searching through Google I stumbled by pure luck upon this fantastic blog by a crewman from one of Britain's busiest lifeboat stations - Swanage. There are a number of reasons why I chose this particular blog. Firstly, being a crewman with the RNLI I find it very interesting at how other stations across Britain perform in their roles, while secondly, I find myself comparing callouts to our own down in Burry Port, in number and in severity. As soon as I read the first paragraph of this post I knew that I could relate with the author in terms of his love for the ocean, the outdoors and being part of this 'Band of Brothers', a term that he labels his fellow crewmen in a post that follows this one. Very much like John, when I tell people that I am a crewmember with the Lifeboat the reply is usually either one of two - "Oh well done" or "Why"? In regard to the first, it is obviously nice to receive praise for being a volunteer, and I do get a sense of achievement when commended for it. However, when asked 'why', which I actually have a number of times, I find myself wondering to myself 'why' I would be asked such a question! My response is always the truth, and that is that I thoroughly enjoy it! This particular post of mine is quite difficult to write because it is not so much a review of the content, because the post is basically part of a scrapbook about a year in Swanage, but more of a reflection on the performance and history of the RNLI and the admiration that I hold for my fellow colleagues. I am extremely embarrassed to admit, especially being a historian and crewmember, that my knowledge of possibly the most famous rescue the RNLI has ever carried out, was very limited until I read this blog! The post is of course based on the 100th anniversary of the unbelievable heroics of the crewmen of The Lizard, Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven who all launched to aid the stricken vessel - S.S. Suevic. As mentioned I had a very limited knowledge of the incident, but had NO idea of the amount of lives saved on that day. So I'm sure anyone who didn't know of the facts and reads this blog by John will be like me be absolutely astonished as to how these crewmen managed to successfully rescue all 456 souls on board without there being a single loss of life in such atrocious conditions is beyond belief! I literally found myself after reading the blog searching through Google for accounts, facts and written stories of the rescue. I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this blog and having the opportunity to share it with others, while also, and quite embarrassingly, educating myself on the story! Cheers, Oliver

The Mind Map...

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My first attempt at creating a mind map on bubble.us.com. I based the map on motivation...

The next step...

I used the Google search engine to set up the blog. The search engine had to be changed to Yahoo, I have used this search engine before for emailing and video sharing so navigating around the page proved to be pretty straight forward.  To aid in the design of the Blog, I will be uploading pictures and video clips via Google images, Yahoo and You Tube. I am confident this design task will make the Blog interactive and improve my ICT skills. I will be using Hyperlinks to various sites in order to provide additional information.

Cheers,
Oliver

An Introduction

Welcome to my first ever blog! I'm somewhat playing catch up and am very unfamiliar with this form of web communication, however I am very keen to develop my ICT skills and hopefully as I progress through this task I will reach some form of amateur status!

Cheers,
Oliver