A blog for students on the FDLT and BALT courses at the University of Northampton

at Leicester and UN

Blog Archives

May 12, 2021
by Jean
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Drawing to learn anything: no drawing skills required.

Here’s a great opportunity to hear art educator Paul Carney introduce his book ‘Drawing to Learn Anything’. As he says “Do not be put off using this book if you can’t draw. If you can write your name you will be able to use the simple drawing techniques outlined.” Being able to represent information visually for yourself and to your learners can be such a useful skills when you work in education. There are many opportunities for you to use drawing as one of your teaching approaches when supporting learning in all subjects in the curriculum. You can also use drawing to help you take useful notes and collect information as part of your university course. 

Book a free place here.

Drawing to Learn booking page

February 24, 2021
by Jean
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Adding sound to art!

This week I gave an online talk at the Primary Art Craft Design Network Meeting for County Durham Art Co-ordinators. It was based around using audio and images together in viewing and making art.

Here is the digital book used to support the talk. It includes details of how to use the BBC Sound Effects website; how to make a Google Slide with added audio; how to ‘hide’ sound effects in a BookCreator image and using ThingLink to add sound to images along with other ideas about being creative with sound and images.

 

 

February 13, 2021
by Jean
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Mathematics resources and ideas!

Some useful resources to support learning in mathematics:

The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) have put together a collection of resources to support mathematics away from the screen. You can access it here. It is huge collection of useful recommendations from members of the ATM/MA joint primary group and well worth exploring. 

maths bitmoji classroomOne of my colleagues here at the University of Northampton, Lucy Westley, made this mathematics digital classroom using GoogleSlides. It gives you the opportunity to explore the range of mathematics resources available to support learning. Have a look at it here.

 

Another interesting resource is this from Mathigon. It gives you access to a wide range of mathematics manipulatives to use in digital learning, along with puzzles, games and information to use in supporting learning.

maths digital books online image

 

 

February 5, 2021
by Jean
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Children’s Mental Health Week

This week (1st to 7th February) is Children’s Mental Health Week in the UK. This year’s theme is Express Yourself. The website that supports the week’s activities can be accessed here. 

There are supporting resources to use with primary and secondary pupils and free training for adults through Place2be’s Mental Health Champions Programme available here.

You can find a fantastic series of video virtual sessions called “I express myself through…” that explore ways for children to express themselves creatively. These include: art, dance, creating content, writing and acting. These resources can be viewed here and are on the YouTube playlist below.

January 29, 2021
by Jean
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Creating with BBC sound effects!

BBC sound effects web pageBBC Sound Effects is a useful site that can be used to create resources. It can be accessed here.

It can be searched to find a huge variety of sounds that can be downloaded or linked to for educational purposes. Read more about the terms of use here.

As can be seen on the screenshot there is a ‘mixer mode’ where sounds can be chosen and played together to create a soundscape. Have a go at this here.

Combining sounds with images can be an interesting and creative activity. Here’s an example I have made, adding environmental sound to Georges Seurat’s painting ‘A Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’. I have used a Google Slide. I’ve chosen and downloaded the sounds to Google Drive and then used ‘insert / audio’ to add them to the slide.

It would be possible to do this in Powerpoint, BookCreator and ThingLink.

January 26, 2021
by Jean
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Using Mote to add your voice to google docs and slides

Mote logoWhat is Mote?

Mote is a  Chrome extension. It allows you to add voice feedback within Google Classroom, Docs, Slides etc. The free version allows you to record for 30 seconds and the various subscriptions allow for 90 seconds of recording at a time.

How do I add it?

Here is a short video to show you how to add it.

How do I use it?

There are more videos about how to use it here including this one below about using Mote.

I’ve added a Mote comment to this document.

If you want to listen to the comments you also need to have installed the Mote chrome extension. 

 

January 14, 2021
by Jean
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WindowSwap in the classroom

screenshot of window swap websiteYou will probably have come across the site WindowSwap this week. It can be accessed here.

It is a simple series of video views through windows around the world and as such has so much potential for use in learning. 

Each window lasts ten minutes and includes sound, which can be switched on or off. You can move on to another random window by clicking the bar at the bottom of the screen and the name of the place where the window is appears in the top right of the screen. The one you can see here is in Hazelbrook, New South Wales, Australia. 

screenshot of a jam board

Here’s a Jamboard with some ideas for using WindowSwap and you can see it as a Jamboard here. I’m sure you will have lots of other ideas too – why not add them as comments below?

January 9, 2021
by Jean
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Supporting remote learning

Many of you will be planning and delivering learning remotely since the recent changes in school opening.

Oak National Academy opening pageThe Oak National Academy is providing a wide range of plans and resources to support schools and these are for all key stages and subjects.

You can explore these here. 

 

In addition from week beginning January 11th 2021 the BBC is broadcasting a range of educational programmes. 

BBC schools timetable

Here is the timetable for primary schools and you can see the secondary timetable here.

There is more information about what the BBC is offering here.