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Thursday - The big teach!

Today was back to back teaching with just enough time to pick-up digiblues, run down the corridor to the next class and plug in the equipment in front of expectant children. What had started off on Tuesday morning as a butterfly fluttering it's wings had turned in to a Category 5 Digiblue hurricane by the time Ken and I were able to get in to classes and teach the children.

Parents were already asking what were these 'Digiblues' and where could they buy them as christmas presents and children were asking when it was going to be their turn to use them.

I started in Year 1, moved on to Nursery, followed in quick succession by Year 6, Year 2 and finally Year 4. With a few changes of batteries in between, all went remarkably smoothly and the Digiblues worked perfectly - so it can be done!

The local news station had been forecasting all week that the weather would turn very cold today. They were not wrong. At 8:30am, just as the children were getting ready to come in to school, the skies darkened and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 15 minutes! Those who were standing outside could feel the warm air blow away to be instantly replaced by the freezing winds from the North West. The windy conditions had exactly the same effect on the children as in the UK! Needless to stay your stalwart ITASS advisors did not come prepared for such weather conditions and the previously gentle strolls between Upper School and Lower School buildings became a quick dash.

So the plan for Nursery to film their outside play area was very rapidly changed to filming indoors. Which turned in to a major treasure hunt as children watched their downloaded video clips and tried to guess where in the Nursery unit their friends had been videoing. They had no problem downloading their clips, playing back and pausing the shots to try to make it as hard as they could for each other. Great discussion ensued and there was huge excitement from Josh when he worked out that the 'pink stripy thing' that Leanne had videoed was the fish shaped floor mat!

Year 1's Blue Peter style "How to make a party hat" proved a great success as we were lucky enough to have an adult supporting each group. We had enough time for the children to have a practice, watch their first video and then try to improve on the second attempt. It amazed me that the most vocal children in the class became the quietist in front of the camera! But how fantastic for the quiet ones to be given a voice - even if it was because of an amplifier - they were so thrilled with their achievements.

Year 2 were interviewing each other in role as characters involved in the Great Fire of London. They had plenty to say and loved being on camera. They had no problem adopting their characters and the Cameramen, Directors and Executive Director put Stephen Spielberg to shame.

Year 4 were filming different habitats around the school and had planned their locations and researched their information in their Science lesson on Wednesday. Despite freezing temperatures and howling gales they talked to camera at various locations around the school grounds. Luckily, my group had chosen to research Human habitats and had chosen the Gold Gym as their location, so all we had to do was make a quick dash between buildings, avoiding as many puddles as possible on the way. Unknown to me, the film that I chose to show at the end of the lesson was from Anne whose first language is Dutch and this time last year could speak no English. She was so eloquent and confident in front of the camera. Her class mates cheered and she was beaming from ear to ear. Who says that ICT can't make a difference?

Year 6 spent their session familiarising themselves with the software so that they could begin to think about how they can incorporate video in to their topic on mountains and in literacy looking at descriptive language. They decided to create a 'Wish you were here' style of program. This was an opportunity for them to play around with video clips, recording sound and editing shots together. Great fun was had by all, including the teachers who, not to be outdone, created their own clip.

As with all work that Ken and I do - it's now up to the teachers to make the opportunities for the children to follow up this work during the rest of the term. We're really looking forward to seeing the finished results.

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