All posts tagged: hottopics

Mark Sparvell: School Dinners, Ancient buildings and Innovation

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by Mark Sparvell Microsoft in Education Showcase Schools Program Hello fellow education adventurers! Date: January 2015 Location: Broadclyst Community Primary School Exeter, UK, EX5 3JG Distance from home:  Redmond, USA to Devon, UK is 4732.589 miles Continuing my journey across the globe , capturing the voices, images and insights from some of our amazing Microsoft Innovative Expert Educators and the leaders of the inspiring Showcase Schools. If you haven’t been following my journey on twitter, might like to add @sparvell to your follows. In its latest Ofsted Report, Broadclyst Primary School was rated as grade 1 (outstanding) . With an international reputation for the use of ICT….but what is it really like? I decided to take a plane from London City Airport and taxi ride along the narrow lanes to see for myself.

Nam Ngo Thanh: Limitless Creativity with Animation Project

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by Nam Ngo Thanh Expert Educator Columnist, Vietnam What do your students think about History and Literature? Do they like it or not? Those subjects are really important in education, but how would you make it interesting to students? According to my survey, the group of student was not really interested in History and Literature. They claimed that both History and Literature are not attractive enough for them.  In my opinion, these subjects are very important for their lives. Teachers should find different ways to teach these subjects. I would like to share with you some good ways we are using in my school “VIETNAM AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL” about making those two subjects much more interesting. If your students just listening your talk, they will be boring fast. But, if you allow them to involve in discussion, and ask them to do some practice work, it will help them remember knowledge easily and learning will become fun. Thus, we conducted for our student to do cartoon animation project related to the History, Literature, Arts and Information Technology subjects.  Two projects we have conducted successfully were “When the ocean was the confronted by an olive tree” – the story about the birth of Athens in Greek mythology – …

Padma: Introducing My Column

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by Padma S. Expert Educator Columnist, India “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”—Benjamin Franklin I am a psychologist and an educator. I teach kids aged 8 years to 11 years in India. Young, curious children teach me new things every day. As an educator, I encourage kids to question, inquire and do independent or group research. As a psychologist, I engage children with learning disabilities. In a classroom full of young minds, that one child unable to tune in just because it’s wired differently draws me in. I simply want to make a difference to that child’s life. I employ specific learning strategies consisting of systematic desensitization, tripod grip writing, behaviour therapy, neurologic impress, meditation, lazy-eight, coordination exercises, neuro linguistic programming and Brain Gym for difficult learners.

Bridget Crooks: Creating a Student Technical Team

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by Bridget Crooks Expert Educator Columnist, New Zealand I am a great believer in collaboration and co-construction. As a teacher I am only one part of the education equation. So, when our school was undertaking the change to WiFi and byod, it seemed axiomatic that we should share some of the leadership with the students. It took a bit of searching to find out what form this would take – but we settled on a team of student experts – who would bridge the gap between the staff and the student body. I was looking for a group of I.T Ninjas. Students who were users of technology, students who were able to work with others and students who were keen to give something back to the school. These students would be part of the communication in regards to the technical direction of the school – the student voice that is so important in 21st century education. The Application Process and Selection I started the process six months before the roll out of the WiFi and …

Dai Nguyen Thi: My Story with Microsoft

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by Dai Nguyen Thi Expert Educator Columnist, Vietnam I am a teacher of Physics and Chemistry at a small junior high school in Vietnam. I have experienced many changes relating to my home country’s education over twenty years of teaching. And honestly, Microsoft has paved a new way for me to reach the destination that I am badly longing for. More than 10 years ago, I started knowing Microsoft through Power-point and Word Apps. Actually I have utilized these Apps very effectively in teaching for preparing the lectures requiring presentation. I have altered my teaching methodology by combining traditional way of teaching using the blackboard and chalk with the ICT application. Thanks to those alterations, I have made many remarkable achievements in education. And many colleagues of mine have also got the same results. Along with the development of science, technology and information technology, I have discovered more useful soft-wares and information which make my lectures more interesting and vivid. As the result, my students have been so excited with my lectures, which has given …

Angels Soriano: Creativity & OneNote- Tracking the Creative Process

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by Angels Soriano Expert Educator Columnist, Spain Many of us use OneNote to encourage collaboration, teamwork, and self-regulation when it comes to projects, or even to promote creativity in students learning. The most beautiful word is creativity… Creativity at school that Sir Ken Robinson tells us about (which envy who has been able to listen to him live, must be pure energy!). During these last two months (December and January) in my language and literature class, we have been evaluating the reading process: We could have made an oral presentation, or a small essay on the opinion that they expressed their book, but why not go one step further and encourage them to make a video overview (book trailer) as an element of creating content from reading?. In this way we could develop different skills such as creativity, collaborative work and the use of ICTs; offering them the possibility to demonstrate their participation and the empowerment of their learning. Sharing OneNote through Office365 platform enables students to work autonomously through different phases of the project …