Soft Technology

It has been another incredible year for my social media platforms. The opportunities, feedback and love I have received has been amazing! I want to thank every single person who has followed, shared or liked anything I've posted. It has been humbling to have my social media platforms recognised as I received the Social Media Saviour award this year: I have also had the opportunity to create an exclusive CPD support part to my Facebook page. For £3.50 a month, you have access to video tutorials, CPD videos, discounts and a whole lot more. Tap the picture for more information. I thought I would share a list of my top ten most popular videos of the year. You can rewatch and enjoy my Top Ten Videos of 2017 here.   Mr P's TOP TEN VIDEO of 2018 10 - Me as a Teacher vs Me as a Parent 9 - The Struggles of a Teacher Administering a Test 8 - Now That's What I Call Being A Teacher Vol. 16 - Back to the 90s again! Watch every Volume of Now That's What I Call Being a Teacher here:

Montana teachers! Register for this FREE online course at the OPI Learning Hub. Course begins January 7th and runs through February 3rd. We will use Seesaw as our tool to explore using digital portfolios in your classrooms. 15 OPI renewal units, plus step - up for Billings Schools teachers. Register at bit.ly/OPILearningHub.

Click the image to view larger.

As much as I love technology, I will always talk about the importance of reading on my CPD sessions. It really annoys me when people like to blame technology as a reason why children don't read as much. We like to blame technology for a number of things but for me, it comes down to choices. I hope through this blog and my social media pages, I demonstrate how, when used effectively, it can transform teaching and learning. Unfortunately, I think too many of us make the wrong choices with technology. When pictures like this appear on my social feeds, it does wind me up because they both can be valuable and certainly enhance each other: For me, technology can enhance the reading experience allowing pupils to explore texts in more creative ways. This is something I wanted to promote in my yearly Christmas video. For the past 9 years, I always treat my pupils to a silly video at the end of our annual talent show. To see what I have produced previously - CLICK HERE. This year, I decided

I am a little obsessed with these amazing monthly calendars Epic! creates and shares. Each colorful calendar has TONS of activities kids can do at school or with their families. They can visit epic.com or use the Epic! app to help them complete the activities. Check out December's calendar below.

Click the image above to view larger.

I love using Christmas as a way to engage children in their learning. They are excited, inquisitive and generally really interested in anything Christmas. Recently, I worked with Year 2 where they created their own Interactive Christmas scene using Chatterpix Kids and Thinglink. Here is an example of what they created: I have posted a step-by-step guide for how to do this activity on the supporter part of my Facebook page. Sign up by tapping the picture below: This idea can easily be adapted to other areas of the curriculum, such as: Read more about this idea here. Read more about this idea here. Read more about this idea here

Happy Computer Science Education Week! Hope this gives you some ideas to try Hour of Code with your students!

Click the image to view larger.