Still Studying

Keeping up with the kids

It pays to keep up to date with the latest tv trends for kids in school as it helps you when your trying to look cool talking abouth the project they are making and they think you at least know something when you can relate to them about it. Take today two girls were making a snakes and ladders type game with a twist, instead of the snakes and ladders it was the words "reem" and "jel" thankfully I knew that this terminology had come from a program they seem to like called The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE for short though this seemed to get their attention when I just said that rather than the whole program name). However they were a really co-operative pair who worked very hard and you could see the great communication skills between them discussing how they thought things should be done in their game and how the design should go.

Now that i've been in the class for 4 lessons I can feel a big difference in giving ICT lessons in a classroom compared to a computer suite. I can't quite explain it but their is a definite different more positive feeling in the classroom than from the computer suite.

In the Classroom

Lesson 2 making a simple maze game with Scratch today and it was great though I felt very overdressed today as no one told me it was pyjama day in school.  The kids are really into it, even before I got to class I was told by the head that one of the boys had said to her “Miss are we doing that gaming thing again this week” and he was very happy when he was told he was.  Always a good sign when the kids are asking for Scratch before I get there.  Unlike other schools I have undertaken research in, this school has no ICT suite and instead we are working in class with the 2 class pcs and the teachers laptops from the school.  No battery problems this week, just a couple of logon issues but we had enough for them to work together with a few groups of 3.  I spent 5 minutes at the beginning of the lesson going over the work card for today – based on previous feedback from children I have worked with they found the Scratch cards a very easy format and rather than have worksheets they wanted cards to work from.  This has worked well with classes I’ve been in.   Then the children get into their pairs/3’s to make a start, it’s interesting to see how each group start off.  Most get straight into doing what’s on the card while some have a little play about with Scratch, which I don’t mind and they soon get into what they are doing.  The main thing I noticed today was how comfortable children were going to other groups to help them or see what they were doing and when one group discovered how to listen to the sounds that come with Scratch it wasn’t long before we had a class full of baby crying noises and other sounds.   However this in itself led to one group adding sound to their project which I don’t normally see until halfway through my work in classes.  I have mentioned this phenomenon before about how things spread round the class and wonder now as well if it has anything to do with how the class is set up – teachers feel free to elaborate on this point if I’m right or wrong.   In the ICT suites kids were less likely to get up and move around to see what others were doing instead they would see what their neighbours were doing.  Whereas in the class they were happy to move around helping and having a look at other projects.  By the end of the lesson though all groups had managed their game and  some even added sounds or elaborated on the initial maze they had made to complicate their game more. Looking over the evaluations of the lesson the children seem to think Scratch is fun and they are enjoying it so far.  I’ll see if that still holds in 6 weeks when we finish.

Miss our battery went!

Still Scratching and still studying.  I have worked with quite a few classes over the past few months and each class has been a different experience all in a positive way and I will write up more about my experiences soon. Today I started in a new school with a class of primary 7’s. Over the course of the 8 lessons we are going to make some games with Scratch. However even today before they looked at Scratch some children were already forming ideas of what games they could make and they also discussed appropriate games to make within school.  When going into school for the first time there is a certain trepidation, will the kids like Scratch, how will the teacher like it, but more important will the technology work for me to see how everyone likes it and today was no exception. The best thing about Scratch is you can run it from a USB I knew when coming to the school there was no computer suite – however the class did have 2 PC’s and we had teacher laptops to work with.  A different set up to what I have been used to but at the end of the day I will do my best to work with the tools the school has as I have seen the positive affect it has had on children I have worked with.  Today was an introduction to Scratch and I always use Scratch cards (http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/scratch-cards) to give the children this introduction and they pick it up very easily without me having to show them all the features at them at the start of the lesson.  The children only took one or two cards during the lesson however they all seemed very keen on experimenting themselves with Scratch and were trying out different effects/sprites and backgrounds for themselves. In fact the only problem was the laptops running out of battery.    

Overall the general feeling about the lesson was that the children enjoyed the lesson and had fun while experimenting with Scratch.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens over the course of the next 7 lessons and how they progress with their game making.

Did we get to the panto? Oh yes we did!!!!!

Well what can I say everyone at the school was overwhelmed by your support.  they could not believe the generosity of people who didnt even know them but were touched by their story. Words cant say how grateful we all are.   

Anyway thanks to all the kind tweeps out there and our local councillor the kids got to their panto and they had a ball seeing Aladdin @ the Clyde audtitorium with the amazing John Barrowman and the "fan-dabi-dozi" Krankees.

Sorry for taking so long to update you all and as soon as I get my scanner working i've got letters to email to all who donated from the school head teacher with many many thanks.

On behalf of  the school I wish you all a merry xmas and a happy new year.  

 

x

Stealing from a school :(

As everyone knows my kids school was broken into and the cruel thieves stole a sum of money that was meant to pay for the kids panto this year.  They go every year to it and are always excited its a whole school outing(school has less than 150 pupils).   As it is we are in an area which has a time paying for the trip let alone could afford to repay any money for the kids to go (yes we would for our kids but lets face it with xmas round the corner things are tight for us all).  

As a whole the school & parent council really dont want the kids to miss out, who would?  So the kids will get to the panto - lets face it the kids have known about it for long enough could you really turn to them and say sorry your not going! would you want to mop up all those tears:(  The school will be picking up the bill for this but and i mean BUT it means the school has less to spend from their budget and quite frankly school budgets are tight enough without having to pay for something like this, which families have already paid towards(and while £10 may not be a lot per child I am a student who has 2 kids at the school it is a lot of money to me)

I know there is questions about the money being banked but its one of those things school short on staff and we are not blaming anyone.  All the teachers and staff are feeling very low at this moment in time as Im sure you will understand.

I would like to thank everyone on twitter for your support it means a lot to me and the school.

I really hope the person who did this is happy with themselves robbing from a school in a poor area which can ill afford it. You might have a nice xmas but we wont as a school we are a small family and it does affect us ALL.  

On behalf of the parents & school thanks

Amanda

Royston Primary School, 102 Royston Road, Glasgow , G21 2NU

How I got involved in CompSci!!!!

How I got involved? How did I get involved in computer science I still ask myself that question?  

At school I did'nt get to use a computer until I did my standard grade computing(14yrs), which I have to say i didnt do well in.   I was a geek yes - but a severe maths geek until I left school when I decided to take a break from education and concentrate on family and work life.    I used to spend time as a child pretending to play schools and doing maths when I could even making up my own sums to do. Didnt actually realise I was a geed though till a conference I went to last year when Dr Sue Black mentioned that she was a maths geek as a child too.  

During my work life I found that as I was the youngest in the office I was soon relied upon for my computer skills? It seemed then that younger = more knowledge of pcs.   Ageism maybe in  a different sense?

The company I worked for did have an ICT guy and a company who came out as well to fix things when they went wrong, i have to say I owe a lot to these guys for sparking my interest again in computing, I would watch intently and ask lots of questions when they were around, which in turn meant that when the ICT guy left and budget was low i was the one everyone looked to for help when it went wrong.   Something I didnt plan for = Cheap ICT/Computing labour = me.   Especially when I heard the last ICT guy was being paid twice as much as me and ICT wasnt even in my remit.   

Anyway leaving this job to have my last child gave me a lot to consider and thats when the computing science came to me. I thought that well if that guy who did the job in my old work got paid lots then why cant I.  

I went into my first year undergrad computing thinking that I wanted a job that paid lots of money but have to say that by the time I got to 3rd year had really changed my mind and wanted to work with others and educate them about computing.

I did get this chance in 4th year with my honours project to educated children about computing and also took part in a new module which gave us the chance to communicate computing to others(in our case we worked with secondary school children).   I feel that this year made me in the way that I want to continue computing but moreso I want to make sure the next generation enjoy computing and want to take it up as a subject and not jsut see computers as something they use for facebook and music etc.  

Im now moving on to undertake my PhD, however one of the schools I worked with last year really enjoyed working with Scratch and so I am going back to work with them and give this years P4/5 class (8/9 years) a new take on their computing lessons hopefully. 

 

Role-models?

Ok so talkiing to my 3 girls today on way home from swimming.  We were talkiing about programs we had watched as I had left tv on come dine with me and I mentioned one about the WAGs - my 10yr old asked what a WAG was so i explained about the footballer wife/girlfriend thing.  While my eldest(13) then said is being a WAG a profession?  I was bemused at this before I told her no and tried to explain other professions to her - she does have ideas of her own about what she wants to be after leaving school (artist, scientist being two) , however its really got me thinking where are the female role models to inspire girls to want to become something more than "an acessory" or "dippy blonde".   We need more positive female role models to show girls that theres more to life than being blond/big chested/being with a footballer. 

I've just graduated with a 2.1 in computing and now moving on to my PhD and hope that my daughters will see me as a positive role model.  

For myself I can say that one person who is a definite role model for me is Dr Sue Black, i've seen what she has acheived and think that no one could ask for a greater role model.

So Im now trying to show my girls that there is more to life than being a WAG  and.i'd like you to give me some female role models whom I can show my daughter(s) and say this is what you can achieve.  

Some tips for prospective honours students

Ok now that im nearly finished at uni only 1 exam and 1 poster presentation to go!!!! Time to pass on those wonderful pearls of wisdom (or at least let you know about them).

• Firstly believe it when you are told honours year is not like any other year - they are not kidding, its a great experience if you make the most of it. Lots of hard work and this time you are responsible for a large part of it!!!!!
• Your honours project is a very important part of your last year so choose sometthing that will keep you going - im now looking at building on the work I have done for my honours project.
• Your Supervisor is there to guide you and your project - not to do the work for you.
• When it comes to choosing your honours project/supervisor there are things you should think about - pick a topic you are really interested in. You need to show your supervisor that you are interested in the topic/their chosen area and want to take on a project.
• Take advantage of social networking sites such as twitter or facebook. I have made a lot of contacts whom I have sought advice from at one point or another during my honours year.
• Start your own blog - good way to show others what you are working on.
• Find others with a similar interest as you. Joining google/yahoo groups or other group sites may help find you some contacts who are able to give advice or point you in the right direction if you need help.
• Make the most of the time you have with your supverisor in meetings. Take in questions you have and take notes. I probably drove my supvervisor mad as I was not one for taking notes during meetings. its not that I wasnt interested but instead, just my own way of learning I suppose I found it easier to have a meeting then go write up about it.
• Oh and finally incase you didnt see the last blog., ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK. I have to be the unluckiest computing student about at the moment; though I am learning now :)

Finished Scratch-ing

Well today was the day i've been dreading/wating for for ages.  It been almost 11 months since I embarked on my honours project journey(I took up the chance given to start my project early) and its been a great experience(honestly).  I did actually say at one point to my supervisor that it was like having another child - the sleepless nights, the worry, then suddenly its time for them to leave home. Well that was it for me today my "baby" left home.  Yes its been a lot of hard work and there have been some difficult times. None more so than my laptop dying on me the week before my report was due in eeeek.   However being the responsible student I am (yes well im a mature student or so they tell me) I had about three gazillion back ups of work. Well more down to fact I had a bad experience in my 3rd year where I lost my groups degree project work.  Though after 3 hours of crying and plucking up the courage to tell the others what had happened, I was told a back up had been taken and everythin was ok - lesson for everyone always back up your work but im sure you do anyway. 

My project means a lot to me and the fact that the schools I was working with want to continue working with Scratch has made it even more worthwhile. Im still getting kids coming up to me talking to me now in the street from both classes (my fifteen mins of fame).  Though according to teachers you havent made it until you have been spotted shopping in the nearby tesco - which funnily enough I had been. Went into the school for the lesson and the first thing I hear is "didnt i see you in tesco at the weekend".   Kids have this impression that teachers/anyone who works in school lives in the school(my own kids thought this as well at one point or another). 

Other good things to come out of my project was that I got to go to Cardiff for the BCS Womens Lovelace colloquium with a poster about my project and i'll hopefully be going to MIT in August to give a presentation about my project at the Scratch @MIT conference. 

One thing I can say has helped me during the project(apart from my supervisor of couse goes without saying really) is the connections I have made through various soical networking sites and also joining groups such as Computing at School. I would like to say thanks to you all on twitter/facebook/MIT scratch group and the CAS group for advice given.

:)

After the project?

Now that my time in schools is over, its time to consider what next with Scratch.  Both my schools are now wanting to use Scratch in school which is great news. While some of the kids have downloaded it at home. So it looks like im still going to be helping out at the schools for a while yet, which is great I have really enjoyed being in the schools and the kids were brilliant to work with(as were the teachers). When I spoke to the classes for my last visit the only complaint from every child was that they did not have enough time with Scratch and that they had to work in pairs(again more to do with time on Scratch). I was really pleased that they enjoyed it so much and didnt expect the response that it had got, especially with both schools going to keep Scratch.   I'll be working closely with the teachers to help their work with scratch and see what we can do in the class with it.

Im now in the process of finishing writing up my project report,which is due in soon hence the short blog.  Better get back to work!!!!!