WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER! by Juanita

Don’t panic! We all know that teaching is hard work but as I progress as a trainee teacher I’ve come to realise that taking a few short cuts may not be that bad (especially when the only thing keeping my eyes open are the wonderful thoughts of educating the future leaders). I digress. On BSE1 placement as well as using smart notebook for almost all of my lessons (thanks for the heads up UoR) I also discovered an amazing software that is interactive as well as visually stimulating for children. 2Simple handwrite ticks all the boxes for me as an early years practitioner.  It allows to me to create text in script as well as joined up on the IWB and it records and plays back so that children can actually see the precise formation of the letters. Although nothing beats the old multi sensory way of learning to write I must say this software is very impressive as you have a wide choice of text size, text colour and also speed at which the words are replayed. I found this particularly useful to do first thing in the morning as the children sat down before the register was taken. I would pick words out from their english books that they had trouble with and would get them to practice writing it in their handwriting books. It allowed them to actually tune into how the letters were formed and children quickly moved away from copying to actually taking pride in their efforts at formulating the letters or words neatly.

I know it may sound like an abstract way of practicing writing skills and to be honest even I was taken aback by the amount of engagement there was. I sometimes gave children the option to choose the colour paper (yes thats an option!) as well as the colour pen and I would intentionally annoy the boys by getting the girls to choose pink!

Its a software that doesn’t require much effort and the children really do learn from it. It’s definitely worth exploring.