Blog No. 3

I recently discovered a fantastic painting program for primary school children during my PGCE BSE 1 placement whilst planning an ICT lesson on 7.11.16 for my Year 2 Class. The software called 2Paint A Picture enables children to experiment with a variety of brush styles and patterns allowing them to make both simple and intricate digital images using numerous painting tools and special effects. Our literacy topic/theme for the week was “fireworks” and this inspired me to create an ICT lesson centered around images of fireworks as this enabled the children to make cross curricular links.

The lesson was split in two. I asked the children to spend half of the lesson copying and pasting pictures of fireworks in to a Ms Word document as I wanted to assess what the children remembered from their last ICT lesson (during which their class teacher demonstrated how to copy and paste from the Internet in to a Ms Word document). The remainder of the lesson involved using the 2Paint A Picture software to create images of fireworks . Children explored a variety of shapes, colours, sizes and patterns using their brush strokes to depict different kinds of fireworks and background scenes displaying night and day. The “splash” digital filter was particularly popular as children independently discovered the likeness of this filter to “fireworks exploding in the sky”. The “spinner” digital filter also proved popular and children were excited abut creating quite intricate and complex circular images that they described as looking like “Catherine Wheels”.

During the plenary, I asked the children to peer review their art using the IWB. Children were confident and expressed their views clearly giving each child 2 Stars and a Wish.

In short, I would highly recommend this software as the possibilities are endless! It can be used to with both younger children and older children and teaches them to manipulate and explore colours, shapes, textures, sizes and creative painting styles. The children in my class certainly enjoyed playing with different filters and creating beautiful firework themed artwork.

“Teachers should be celebrated for the wonderful work they do

Teachers should be praised for all the children they inspire, motivate and support

Teachers should be commemorated for all the passion they ignite

Teacher’s should be rewarded simply because they are kind of a big deal.”

A poem by Hafsa Ahmad

Blog no. 1

I found the PGCE Group A computing lecture on Friday on Online Safety fascinating, informative and controversial! I thoroughly enjoyed the class debate that ensued! And loved hearing Yasemin’s personal stories and lived experiences first hand. It got me thinking about professional boundaries and specifically with regards to social media. I recall when I was 17 (a decade ago!) there was a social media site called Bebo (I think!) and I remember half way in to the academic year my newly qualified AS level History teacher somehow found me on the site and sent me a friend request. He was a young chap from Australia, about 23/24 years old. I was surprised to see a request from him so I browsed his profile for a moment and found it very odd to say the least to see his personal life and somewhat intimate pictures on his profile . I rejected his friend request and blocked him from finding me on the site. For the first couple of weeks it was very odd and frankly quite awkward seeing him during my History lessons but as time went on the awkwardness as it were eased. I suppose he may have thought that as there was only a 5/6 year age gap, and I was no longer in compulsory education that it would be okay to be “friends” outside of school. Perhaps the teacher/student culture and practice in Australia is culpable. Nevertheless, even in hindsight I think his actions were wrong, it really does not matter how blurred the boundaries may seem because of age or any other factors; teachers must remember they are in a very privileged position of trust and they must adhere to professional guidelines and standards at all times. At a time when society’s use of social media and technological advances are at an all time high, we as NQT’s need to ensure we are well-read in our understanding of Online Safety so that we can protect both the children we teach and ourselves.