Teachmeet Cheshire 2

In June I attended the second Teachmeet to take place in Cheshire. This time it was held in Macclesfield. I was able to take a colleague with me, and so I hope to run a Teachmeet-style staff meeting in the school next year.


To be honest, I wasn't as inspired this time as I had been in the first. Much of what was shared was geared towards secondary teachers. I did pick up lots of good ideas though. Here is a quick summary of what I learned:


Remember the beachball
Remembering that things can look different from a different point of view - like the colours on a beachball.
This is based on the principles of www.sumo4schools.com.

Voicethread
I need to explore Voicethread again. When I tried it a few years ago I was impressed by its simplicity. I think I just forgot about it!


Chair aerobics
A great way to get all children active!
Ribbon hero
Learn about how to use Microsoft Office by playing games.
One Note
I learned that OneNote can be used online now. I can see this being useful...
Voki
Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.
Marking
Possibly my favourite idea of the evening was about marking. A teacher designed a system to encourage his students to read his marking. He arranged for students to have improvement time at the start of a lesson based on his written feedback. However some students didn't understand what he had written. So he introduced "Rate my marking". The students gave a number to show how effective his marking had been:
1 I understand your comments and how I will improve my work
2 I think i understand you'd comments and I'll try to improve my work
3 Help I do not understand
This process provided evidence that your marking is being used and having an impact
Kodu
Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.