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

at Leicester and UON

June 18, 2021
by Jean
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A creative finish to FDLT Year 1!

making of stop motion animationsThis week our FDLT year 1 students reached the end of their first year at university. It was great to be able to welcome them back to Devonshire Place and the Waterside Campus, Northampton to work face to face making stop motion animations. As you can see from the animations on the Padlet below they worked creatively and co-operatively to explore this approach and produced some great results. For many of them it was the first time they had made animations.

We used the app StopMotionStudio and there is potential for the animations to be opened in iMovie so sound effects, dialogue and music could be added – most of us did not have time to do this in the session! 

As you can see from the photos here the students have great skills of making, measuring and improvising. This is what makes them such great supporters of learning back in school.

We wish them all a restful and enjoyable summer so that they will be ready for FDLT year 2 in September!

Made with Padlet

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

screenshot of vestival padlet

May 7, 2021
by Jean
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An international online event!

The Digital Learning Across Boundaries (DLAB) Erasmus Plus project is sharing a year of creative digital activity in the DLAB virtual festival #DLABVestival. Pupils, teachers, students and academics in Belgium, England, Denmark, Norway and Spain have been working together to devise and test out learning activities using digital technology and international collaboration. 

From 9am on Monday 28th May you will be able to enter the Vestival and explore tents of ideas, resources and examples focused on overcoming challenges and barriers and breaking boundaries. 

Book your free ticket here.

screenshot of vestival padlet

March 8, 2021
by Jean
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Educating Northants!

At the end of March the 2021 Educating Northants conference takes place. Those of you who attended last time will remember what a vibrant and inspiring event this was and Saturday March 27th 2021 promises to be just as exciting!

Educating Northants abut text and image(Educating Northants, 2021, lines 2-15)

Here’s what to expect in this year’s conference:

“A CPD feast of live chats and pre-recorded two-minute tips, seven-minute shares and ten-minute talks from those connected to and within education in Northamptonshire. Everyone is welcome to be part of the conversation during the conference and watch, learn from and share the grassroots content from our county.” (Educating Northants, 2021, lines 3 – 7). 

You can find out more about the programme for the day here, and the speakers when you register here.

Education Northants 2021 is a great opportunity to come together and celebrate education and since it is online this year those of you at a distance to Northants can join in too. Look out for some input from people you from the University of Northampton and some great sessions from people working in Northamptonshire.

References:

Education Northants (2021) About. web page. [online] Available from: https://educatingnorthants.co.uk/about/ [Accessed 08/03/2021].

Education Northants (2021) 2021 Conference. web page. [online] Available from: https://educatingnorthants.co.uk/conference-2021/ [Accessed 08/03/2021].

 

 

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.