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

Recently, Apple released iOS 11 and with the update are some great new features. I have put this video together of some of my favourite new features which I think teachers will find really useful. The downside with the new update is that there are now quite a few apps that will no longer work. @ICTEvangelist recently blogged about this and how to find out which ones are no longer compatible with iOS11. You can read it here.  On my iPad there are 810!!! Now some of them I have downloaded and never used in the classroom. There are however a number that I regularly use and am gutted they will no longer work. Tellagami, Thinking Blocks, Epic Citadel and some of the AR apps I had, are the ones that stand out the most. Luckily with iOS11 the ARKit will bring some impressive new apps into the classroom. Fingers crossed, most of the developers will be able to update the apps in the near future. Here is the list of apps on my iPad that will no longer work: ...

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working with Year 2. Their topic is "Something old, something new." This has been linked to the story - Granny's Quilt by Penny Ives . Last week, the students used the app Shadow Puppets Edu to record their thoughts on pictures of things from my youth which has now been replaced with modern technology. You can watch their efforts here. This week we used the same app for a different task. Now the children had read the story a few times in class, I challenged them to create a video retelling the story in their own words. The reason why Shadow Puppets Edu has become one of my go-to apps for KS1 is how versatile it is and how simple it is for pupils to use. Once they had selected a number of images from the book, they recorded themselves explaining that part of the story and then repeated the process for each image and then saved the finished video to their Seesaw portfolios. Here are a couple of their examples:

So a couple of weeks ago, I shared some medieval pictures from my Instagram account (@ICT_MrP) that depicted life as a teacher. You can read this blog post here.  Here are 10 more: 1) PPA Goals.... #medievalteachers #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #teacherlife A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 14, 2017 at 2:09pm PDT 2) When you've set off a load of photocopies but forget to turn off double sided printing! #medievalteacher #teachersofinstagram #teacher #teacherlife A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 16, 2017 at 5:17am PDT 3) Trying to decode a student’s writing! #medievalteacher #teachersofinstagram #teacher #teacherlife A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 23, 2017 at 10:39am PDT 4) Checking to see if your pupil has a brain when they ask you what to do after you’ve explained the instructions for the tenth time! #medievalteacher #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteache...

Today I worked with Year 2. Their new topic is "Something Old, Something New." I decided to challenge the pupils to record videos explaining some objects from my youth which have since become obsolete due to more developed technology. It was inspired after I saw this video online: After providing pictures of a variety of objects: The children used the app Shadow Puppets Edu to create short videos explaining what they thought these objects were and what they were used for. I have to admit I had a laugh at some of their innocent suggestions, which cheered me up after I realised how old I am!  Once we completed the first video, we spent time talking about the objects and what they actually did and how modern technology has replaced many of them. The children then created another video giving an explanation of what they had learnt about each object.  Using the app Shadow Puppets gave every child the opportunity to express their predictions and ideas...

1) When you have to write another incident in the behaviour book! #teacherlife #medievalteacher #teachersofinstagram A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:07pm PDT 2) Teachers posing for their lanyard picture... #medievalteacher #teacherlife #teachersofinstagram A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:08pm PDT 3) When you innocently ask a question at the end of a staff meeting! #medievalteacher #teacherlife #teachersofinstagram A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:09pm PDT 4) When you read children's work to realise they've not listened to a single thing! #medievalteacher #teacherlife #teachersofinstagram A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT 5) When you introduce yourself to your new class... #medievalteacher #teachersofinstagram #teacherlife A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Sep 11, 2...

I am so excited to announce that the latest Read Write Perform pack is now available. We hoped it would have been available a little bit earlier, so we can only apologise for this. We have been inundated with questions as so many people have been waiting for this one. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait. The year is 1066. William, Duke of Normandy, is livid: he thinks he should be king over Harold. He sets sail from neighbouring France with a great army - not just a thumbs up ‘great army’ but a ‘wow, that’s a rather large and intimidating ‘great army’. The Battle of Hastings, The War of the Roses,  the Roman invasion, these are just a few of the significant events which have shaped Great Britain. Let your pupils retell these events in the form of a humorous report, just like Bob Hale from Horrible Histories.  A Unit of Work aimed at Key Stage 2 & 3. Through reading, researching and then writing an explanation text about a significant historical event...