02.26.10
Bolton ICT Leaders Conference – How Y6 At Heathfield Helped!
“We need to prepare students for THEIR future not OUR past”
Ian Jukes, educator and Futurist
I was very pleased and proud when our Deputy Headteacher, David Mitchell was asked to contribute to the Bolton ICT leaders’ conference this week. David organised a “coveritlive” session with twelve of our Year 6 students who were shown an audiovideo and some photos with sound. This was possible because we can now access certain “safe” and “vetted” films from YouTube.
The focus of the task was to develop descriptive writing skills based upon the devastation of World War II, with an emphasis on the effective use of “wow” words, alliteration, personification, metaphors and similes.
Excitingly, another class “nabby 3″ at Holmfirth Junior, Infant and Nursery School, http://nabbyear3.primaryblogger.co.uk/ who have been working closely with Heathfield on various ICT ideas had been invited to join in the conversation and both sets of pupils were able to collaborate and bounce ideas off each other. All this in full view of the ICT conference.
As the first audiovideo illustrated and described the horrific devastation of the blitzing of London the pupils were asked to quickly type into “coveritlive” their immediate responses and feelings. This work was then quickly checked by Mr Mitchell and then posted for public viewing. Within moments of the pupils typing their thoughts the ICT leaders at the conference were able to view the posts, and more importantly, as the posts were made public the children could magpie ideas from each other initiating a flurry of creative responses from both schools.
Next the pupils were given a short quiz which was immediately transformed into a chart for discussion. Once again the collaboration between the pupils was apparent in the following posts and typed dialogue.
The final task was to look at some photos of the mass graves in France whilst listening to “The Last Post.” This was an extremely emotive and powerful moment, the children had moved from the excitement of the task to the gravity of the situation. Their maturity and empathy for the soldiers and the families of the soldiers who died was highly evident and deeply moving in the descriptive ideas, some of which I have copied below.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the ICT leaders who attended the conference were hugely impressed by the ICT capacity of Heathfield Primary School, by the willingness of the pupils to try out new tasks and finally by the thoughtful, sensitive and mature responses from our pupils who never cease to make us proud. And a big thank you to Miss Stables and nabby 3″ at Holmfirth Junior, Infant and Nursery School http://nabbyear3.primaryblogger.co.uk/ for their support and help at the event.
| Shannon: Soldiers that have died during the war will never be forgotten as people all over the world will remember them. | |
| Gita: As the music goes slower and quieter, it makes me feel as though the souls of the soldiers are drifting away. |
| Hazra: Numerous amounts of crosses are lined up in the never ending field. |
| Ellie: The music starts slow, gets a bit faster and then slows down at the end. The end part, I think is meant to make you feel sorry for the people who died! |
I can’t remember who first published the phrase below; if you can let me know and I will willingly acknowledge them:
When you learn something, don’t keep it inside. Do something with it. Publish it! Blog it! Tweet it! Discussion Forum it!
