Mr P's ICT blog - Tech to raise standards!

The question is always asked - "How should we use the iPad to cover the coding and programming aspects of the new Computing curriculum?" I usually answer by listing a range of apps that will challenge children to write and debug different programs and algorithms. I recommend websites like primarycomputing.co.uk  from  @DrChips_  or  @SimonHaughton 's fantastic websites - SimonHaughton.co.uk  and computing.parkfieldprimary.com . I then normally advise not to spend hundreds of pounds on different schemes of work to teach it but simply use twitter and find lessons usually better that what can be found in certain schemes. I have never ran training focusing specifically on programming or coding as for me I don't feel it is a strength of mine. I was never really taught it at school myself and honestly am not blown away with enthusiasm about it. My use of technology focuses more on using it as a cross curricular tool and showing how embedding it can impact on lear...

It has been an incredible and amazing year for me! The support from all the teachers and schools around the world who have followed my blog, invited me to run training and attended my conferences has been unbelievable and I want to thank everyone for all the help and support. As a thank you, I am sharing the latest Christmas video created for this year's talent show. For the past number of years we have made a christmas dance video to top off the annual talent show we have at school. All in the name of entertainment, the children loved every second of each video!  (Click here to see previous efforts)  Unfortunately, my dancing partner is no longer at the school and so felt it would be wrong to dance without him! Instead, I decided to do something different. I apologise now for the awful singing and acting, but the children seemed to really enjoy it and had a huge smiles on their faces, so was worth it just for that! Here it is, the teacher parody of Frozen's 'Do you wan...

I had a wonderful day sharing some ideas and strategies to enhance the new curriculum using technology on Monday in London. Around 38 teachers attended and there was a great buzz in the room! An amazing and truly inspiring course yesterday by @ICT_MrP has given me the drive to change the way we use technology in our school. — MissGW (@missgw_) December 9, 2014 Thanks to @ICT_MrP for an inspiring and practical training yesterday! — Lainey Franks (@lcfranks) December 9, 2014 @ICT_MrP inspirational course yesterday left with loads of ideas. Thanks! — Grow (@Grow_Education) December 9, 2014 A massive thank you to everyone who came and for all your useful and valued feedback, very much appreciated. 37 Feedback forms 31 rated the content of the training as excellent 5 rated the content as good 1 rated the the content satisfactory 32 rated the delivery of the training as excellent 5 rated the delivery as good Some comments - "Funny, informative, ins...

I woke this morning in a cold sweat after having the most peculiar dream. In my dream, I was abducted by aliens, taken on their spaceship and talked to in a language I didn't understand. When I went to get ready for work, I noticed something strange on my arm - At first, I thought it was a wash on tattoo, so tried to wash it off in the shower. But no matter how hard I scrubbed, it wouldn't wash away. I panicked! Desperately, I searched the internet trying to find an explanation. I stumbled across an app, that told me to scan the unusual symbol and it would tell me if it was real! Well, something happened. Something strange, something amazing and something that told me it was VERY real! Post by ICT with Mr P . I shared this story with a Year 3 group of children I worked with today. I showed them my arm, demonstrated what happened when it was scanned by the special app and they couldn't believe their eyes. They then wrote some fantastic newspaper arti...

I am very excited to see my first printed book co-written with  @alanpeat  is finally going into print! It is the first in a series of books that will support teachers in the use of mobile tech to teach and improve writing. You can read more about the book here . You can now PRE ORDER the book and make sure you are the first to receive a copy. All you need to do is fill out the following form. We cannot confirm an exact date when the book will be ready to be sent out but we will update as soon as we know. I cannot tell you how excited and proud I am that this book is nearly ready. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and the blog and making this happen. Loading...

I was flattered when my blog was nominated in the UK Blog awards! This has been followed with my blog being recognised in the Edublog awards 2014 in the Best Individual Blog category and the Best ed tech/resource sharing category! Voting is now open so I would love as many people to vote for my blog! A massive thank you to everyone who have voted for me! You can vote here, all you need to do is press the thumbs up button, you will need to log in via facebook or twitter and then press the thumbs up button again - See full list on Listly See full list on Listly You can also vote for Alan Peat's Pocket app of Exciting Sentences in the best Mobile app category - See full list on Listly Also vote for the Literacy Shed, which I regularly contribute to, in the best educational use of media - See full list on Listly Please take a second and vote for  @GazNeedle  who is voted in the New Blog category - See full list on Listly And of course, for the Lifetime...

Any followers of this blog will know my answer to this question, however as a stimulus for children, I knew it would be something they would want to write about and I was not disappointed! Even though, the children didn't touch or play Minecraft in anyway, just discussing the game had them completely enthralled and focused throughout the day. Over the past few days I have been asking teachers all around the world to give me their opinions on using Minecraft in the classroom and I want to thank everyone for contributing, (especially if you purposely gave the opposing reason just to help us!) This is a link to the form - Should Minecraft be used in School? The response in only a couple of days was overwhelming - Feel free to use this form and all the reasons suggested. The children looked through all the data and picked three for and three arguments against. They then wrote a discussion text. As always, we couldn't just leave it in the book. Using an app I first...

We started today's lesson looking at feedback from the previous writing session. I decided to do a little experiment and mark half the children's work using written feedback with my green pen and highlighters but then used Explain Everything with the other half to record myself annotating and giving verbal feedback. I then asked the group to use the feedback to correct their writing. I often question the impact of written feedback with particular children and wanted to see whether watching and listening back to my feedback would have more of an impact? From this session, it certainly seemed to. Comparing the corrections children made, there was significantly more with those who had iPads. After a discussion with the children, they seem to prefer it too, it was clearer, easier to understand and made them realise where they could improve. Obviously, I am not saying that from this one session, we should get rid of written feedback but it was certainly eye opening. This i...