Oh, Brazil, about what good things will you make me tell?

November 3, 2016January 13, 2019 @MarcWithersey Collaboration, Leadership and Managemant Brazil, Collaboration, global, global learning, leadership

fullsizerender-6 Our time in Brazil wrapped up with a visit at the Mayor’s Office and a meeting with University of Pernambuco at the British Consulate. At both of these meetings planning for the future took place. Great progress has been made with local schools and partners here over the last 13 days and moving forwards with the onebillion maths intervention seems likely. On my final visit to ABA Global school I was presented with a gift from peace linguist, and President of the Board at ABA Global Education, Francisco Gomes de Matos:

“Oh, Brazil, about you what can I foresee well? You will be internationally admired. You will be educationally developed. You will be scientifically and technologically advanced. You will be interculturally comprehended.”

This resonates with me and our trip here. This articulates the aims we have for working with Brazil and assures me that Brazil makes a perfect partner in our projects and research.

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Learning Gains in Brazil

October 31, 2016January 13, 2019 @MarcWithersey Collaboration, Leadership and Managemant, Maths Brazil, Collaboration, global, global learning, leadership

It was a successful first week in Recife and the agenda took new directions each day. As so much time was dedicated to observation and knowledge exchange, our time was flexible. Because of this we were able to follow the lead of our local partners which maximised the opportunities for this scoping visit.

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Face to Face with the Experts

October 14, 2016January 13, 2019 @MarcWithersey Collaboration, e-Safety, early years, Social Media Collaboration, communication, FaceTime, skype, social media

Introducing video conferencing software as a way of connecting my class and extending our reach is my one best thing. FaceTime calls are the back bone to the Connecting Classes Across Continents project that I collaborate on with a group of early learning Apple Distinguished Educators. We use the software to share learning and exchange knowledge between our classes.

I’ve been using FaceTime beyond this project though. Video conferencing can bring many more experts in to our classrooms. Those days when the fire engine visits schools and the police officers join us for question and answer are so valuable. There are many more experts that we can learn from who aren’t in our local area though. That’s where softwares like FaceTime extend our reach for knowledge exchange.

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Making Our Mark on the World

September 18, 2016January 13, 2019 @MarcWithersey art, Collaboration, early years, Social Media, Understanding the World Collaboration, communication, dot day, global, global learning, international dot day, the dot, writing

International Dot Day falls perfectly at the beginning of the school year. September 15th. We have been in school for just over a week and we are getting to know each other and our school routines. Dot Day is a festival which extends the message of the brilliant book, The Dot. In this story, Vashti doesn’t like art class. She has an encouraging teacher who tells her to sign her name and she frames Vashti’s art work. This gives Vashti a beginners mindset and she starts to explore other ways of making her mark in art class. The story ends with a showcase of Vashti’s dots and a chat with another unconfident young learner. She helps him make his mark and tells him to sign it. And the story begins again!

International Dot Day takes the idea of dot art work and how through art work you can show how unique you are. Children make their own art work to represent themselves. In group and class discussions we unpick what it means to be you. What are you proud of? What makes your unique? How will you make your mark?

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Introducing Jason Milner: A visit from an Australian Teacher!

July 12, 2016August 28, 2016 @MarcWithersey Apps, Collaboration, early years, Social Media Australia, Collaboration, Community, Connected, international, Jason Milner, Sydney, Visit, Working Together

Over the years I have developed a network with fellow Apple Distinguished Educators which brings the world to my early years classroom. I regularly receive positive feedback from parents who are amazed at the way their young ones connect with other children around
the world using software like FaceTime.

Monday 4th July marked another one of those moments in my career where my classroom became an international hub for collaboration between the children that I teach and classrooms around the world. It was such a pleasure to welcome Jason Milner from Sydney, Australia to Burton Joyce Primary School, Nottingham!

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MakerSpaces: Foundation Stage Best Practice in Key Stage 2

July 12, 2016August 28, 2016 @MarcWithersey Child Initiated Learning, Coding, Collaboration, Computing, Design, early years, iPads, Leadership and Managemant, Technology Australia, Challenge, coding, Collaboration, Community, computing, Connected, Cross-Curricular, Europe, geography, international, Jason Milner, Key Stage 2, MakerSpace, play, Sydney, Visit, Working Together

What is a MakerSpace.

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I was interested in MakerSpaces because of their strong links to Foundation Stage best practise. It’s a place in school where children use sets of resources to work on projects related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic skills. Children design on their own projects or respond to challenges. I wanted to see how best practises and resources from Foundation can be extended to support learning further up school. For the Year 4 teachers, they wanted to see how our new range of iPad compatible robots can be used in their coding curriculum.

For this MakerSpace I was joined by Jason Milner. Jason is an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) from Sydney, Australia. Throughout July he visited other ADE schools across Europe and today we collaborated on this project at my school. Jason wanted to gain experience using iPad compatible robots and also observe the impact that wrapping code around the curriculum may improve the way in which children apply mathematic skills.

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The MakerSpace: A Foundation Stage Challenge

July 12, 2016August 28, 2016 @MarcWithersey Apps, Child Initiated Learning, Coding, Collaboration, Computing, Design, Early Years, Science, Technology, Understanding the World Australia, Challenge, coding, Collaboration, Community, computing, Connected, Cross-Curricular, early years, international, Jason Milner, MakerSpace, play, science, Space, Sydney, Visit, Working Together

Monday 4th July was the day I had been waiting for since February. Apple Distinguished Educator, Jason Milner a Year 4 teacher from Sydney, visited my school to work with me on a MakerSpace project we had been planning for months.

What is a MakerSpace?

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I was particularly interested in this concept of MakerSpaces because of the strong links to Foundation Stage style practice. It’s a place in your school or setting where children use open-ended resources or work on projects related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic skills. Children work on their own projects or respond to challenges set. I wanted to see how best practices and resources from Foundation can be extended to support learning in computing and programming skills. Jason also wanted to gain experience using our Dash robots with Foundation Stage children.

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Connecting Classes Across Continents… 2 years on!

June 30, 2016August 28, 2016 @MarcWithersey Assessment, Blogs, Collaboration, e-Safety, Leadership and Managemant, Social Media, Understanding the World Calls, Collaboration, Connected, connected classes, early years, FaceTime, global, Global Readiness, Impact, skype

Connecting Classes Across Continents is a collaboration I began with Apple Distinguished Educators who teach in the early years. We met in San Diego in July 2014 and began planning how we could use FaceTime and social media to build a personal learning network for our young learners, In the beginning we had classes connecting between South Carolina, Maine, Ireland and my class in England. The process is simple, we looked at what we taught throughout the year and found topics which overlapped or linked so that our classes could exchange knowledge over a video call.
Over the last two years my classes have made short video calls to these classes to talk about their place in the world, ask questions about the different places and share stories or festivals from their home country. We have shared Bonfire Night, Thanksgiving, Christmas food similarities and differences and Chinese New Year. Connecting with real children celebrating these festivals made the learning so much more real as we could have genuine discussions with real people involved in these celebrations.

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New Friendships

January 19, 2016January 20, 2016 @MarcWithersey Collaboration, iBooks Author, Leadership and Managemant, Technology Brazil, Collaboration, international, leadership, maths journals, onebillion, partnership, teacher authored texts, University of Nottingham

Over the years I have developed a network with fellow Apple Distinguished Educators that brings the world to our early years classrooms. I regularly receive positive feedback from parents who are amazed at the way their young ones connect with other early years children around the world by using iPads and Apple software.

Today, Tuesday 19th January, marked another one of those moments in my career where my classroom really does become an international hub for collaboration between early years settings and teachers.

It was such a pleasure to welcome Marie Neves and Flavia Nascimento from Recife, Brazil to Burton Joyce, Nottingham and my classroom.

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Introducing MakeyMakey to Early Years Children.

January 15, 2015March 31, 2015 @MarcWithersey Design, Early Years, Music, Science, Technology, Understanding the World child initiated learning, Collaboration, earlyyears, invention, MakeyMakey, science, understandingtheworld, UW

This week saw the arrival our MakeyMakey and the first time I got hands-on with the kit. Having followed the work of ADE Mark Shillitoe for 2 years, I thought it was about time I tried it out for myself. I ordered the MakeyMakey from Amazon, just over £40, and the kit comes complete with enough crocodile clips for simple projects. The instructions are clear, set up took about 5 minutes and we were up and running with a Banana Piano in a matter of minutes.

Wait a minute though, what is MakeyMakey?

MakeyMakey is an invention kit for everybody. It is a USB device that replaces keys on your keyboard. Continue reading →