Soft Technology

Apple Clips is quickly becoming one of my favourite creative apps to use in class. Recently with Year 4, we have been using it to explore our teeth and how they differ to other animals. I love how creative my pupils are with it and how it helps them demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in a fun and engaging way. Check out some of their work here: For step-by-step tutorials for how to do this with your class, make sure you sign up and subscribe to MrPICT.com

Last half term, Year 4 were looking at Digestion. As always, I wanted to explore how technology can be used to enhance learning and allow them to creatively share what they have learnt. There are some fantastic consumer apps that can help with this including the fantastic Curiscope Virtuali-tee app I have previously blogged about here. For a more in-depth tutorial for this tool, including an exclusive discount code to subscribers, click here. There is also a fantastic Google Expedition that links to the Digestive System which allowed the learners to jump inside the body to learn about each part of the digestive system and the job it does. Again, you can access an in-depth tutorial through MrPICT.com here. Once we had used these consumer apps to acquire knowledge, I wanted my students to use the technology to create content to show what they have learnt. This is what my pupils created using a range of apps such as Doink Greenscreen, Apple Clips and Shadow Puppets Edu. I have posted excl...

I am a huge fan of technology that can not only enhance learning but save me time. Over the past year or so, the one tool that has stood out has to be Learning By Questions. There is a paid element to the tool, which I think is well worth the money. I will explore these features in more detail in the near future. In this blog post, I just want to explore what you can access through Learning By Questions for FREE by simply signing up. I posted this video exploring the thousands of questions you can access to support learning in English, Maths and Science: For more information on the exclusive CPD content you can access as a supporter of my facebook page, watch this: View this post on Instagram Head over to MrPICT.com and sign up through Facebook so you can enjoy Mr P’s CPD from the comfort of your own couch 🛋 👍✅ A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on Feb 15, 2019 at 10:51am PST

With Lego Movie 2 hitting cinemas this week, I decided to embrace the children's enthusiasm to introduce stop motion animation. Stop Motion Animation is a brilliant and creative way for students to tell stories, explore ideas and explain different concepts. There are plenty of different stop motion animation apps. My go-to app is I Can Animate. There are so many possibilities with this app as you can link it with greenscreen to add an animated background before editing further in iMovie. Here is an example of something we created: I have posted a step-by-step tutorial video for how to create something like this exclusive to the supporters of my facebook page. Click here to sign up.

As I recently discussed in a previous blog post (click here to read)  I really think, when used effectively, technology can enhance and support a student's love of reading. In most classrooms, once a child finishes a book they will be asked to then fill out a book review worksheet. Something along the lines of this... I don't want to sound like I am having a go at any teachers who do these types of worksheets. I just believe with technology so easily accessible in schools, it should be used to enhance this task to add more purpose and engagement. Using an app like Apple Clips, children can turn their book review into a VLOG (video blog.) Not only does this add more purpose to the writing (children have to write the script of their book review first), you will be developing key oral speaking objectives and ICT skills. In my experience, these worksheet type activities are rarely done to the best of children's ability as they are used as a time filler or carousel activity. If ...

Tonight, I did a Facebook Live Video discussing a few thoughts around the proposed new Ofsted Framework, please give it a watch and let me know what you think. For more CPD support, visit - 

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

A couple of months ago, we released this eBook: The feedback from the eBook has been fantastic! You can get a taste of what is included in the eBook by clicking here. Building on this, I have now written and released another ebook, this time looking at Disney Villain Songs.  Click the picture to download a copy. This eBook is exclusive to the supporters of my Facebook page.  This video explains all about the Facebook supporter page.  Here is a taste of what is included in the Disney Villain Comprehension eBook: Tangled - Mother Knows Best You want to go outside? Why, Rapunzel...! Look at you, as fragile as a flower Still a little sapling, just a sprout You know why we stay up in this tower Rapunzel: I know but... That's right, to keep you safe and sound, dear What does Gothel compare Rapunzel to? A flower What is a sapling? A young tree What is a sprout? It can either be the shoot of a plant or describe a young plant growing. Which word shows Gothel thinks Rapunzel i...

You will have seen over the past half term I have been working on a very important topic with Year 4 inspired by the Greenpeace "There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom" advert. This has since been used by Iceland Foods as their Christmas advert but has been banned from TV. This has culminated in a very special project where my class have all become published authors. To read what we have done so far, click the pictures: The first link looks at the advert in more detail and the work my class produced writing in role as an Orangutan seeing their home destroyed.  The next post looks at the letters my class have written to all the companies with links to dirty palm oil and the responses we have received. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been learning more about Orangutans. We started by generating questions we wanted to find the answers to and then looked at researching on the internet to find the answers to the questions. This gave me the opportunity to discuss and teach th...

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a project my Year 4 class had started, inspired by the recent Greenpeace advert - There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom. To read that blog post, which includes original questions linked to the advert, please click the picture: The response we received from the video the class created where they wrote in role as a helpless Orangutan, seeing their home destroyed was so positive and empowering.  Again you can read more about this by clicking the picture above. If you haven't yet seen the video, here it is: From the reaction to the video, my class were inspired to go further and investigate the issue more. We discovered this from Greenpeace, which identifies companies with links to Dirty Palm Oil: According to Greenpeace, these companies made a promise to be clean of dirty palm oil by 2020. My pupils decided to write to these companies to provide a polite reminder and ensure they are on target to keep their promise.  After drafting their letters, I gave...

I think music is one of the most powerful yet underused tools in the classroom. If you've joined me on my training, you will know how I use it in class to support different areas of the curriculum. There are plenty of examples on this blog which demonstrates the power of music. You can see them here.  BBC Teach  Supermovers is a brilliant and FREE resource which gets your pupils moving, singing and remembering! This video explores the Supermovers resource: I was very excited when they asked me to get involved and make a video for their website. You can watch it here - 

In Year 4, we have been inspired by the latest Greenpeace Advert - There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom. The advert tells the story of Rang-Tan, a young Indonesian orangutan that has been forced out of her home by humans. It is a beautifully animated video with a very powerful message: We decided to look at the text used in the advert in more detail: There's a Rang-tan in my bedroom and I don't know what to do. She plays with all my teddies and keeps borrowing my shoe. She destroys all of my house plants and she keeps on shouting 'oo'. She throws away my chocolate and she howls at my shampoo. There's a Rang-tan in my bedroom and I don't want her to stay, So I told the naughty Rang-tan that she had to go away. Oh, Rang-tan in my bedroom, just before you go, Why were you in my bedroom? I really want to know. There's a human in my forest and I don't know what to do. He destroyed all of our trees for your food and your shampoo. There's a human in my for...

Since the update Keynote received over the summer, which unleashed a wealth of creative possibilities, I have been desperate to give it a go in class. In Year 4, we decided to create our own self-portraits to get used to the drawing tools. Although we had an issue updating a few of the iPads (Keynote is a big app) we had a good go and I was really impressed with some of their efforts: I've created a step by step guide for how to do this activity with your class. You can watch it here: This will be an app I will be exploring a lot more this year in my school so stay tuned!

I've just seen the new Nike advert and was blown away. It has such a powerful message. The advert has been in the news and faced a backlash because of the narrator - Colin Kaepernick. The NFL star was the first athlete to kneel during pre-game anthems to protest against social and racial inequality in the US. I was, however, impressed with the advert as I believe it has a very powerful message. See what you think: Here is the text from the ad: If people say your dreams are crazy If they laugh at what you think you can do Good Stay that way Because what non-believers fail to understand is that calling a dream crazy is not an insult It's a compliment Don't try to be the fastest runner in your school Or the fastest in the world Be the fastest ever Don't picture yourself wearing OBJ's jersey Picture OBJ wearing yours Don't settle for homecoming queen or linebacker Do both Lose 120 pounds and become an Ironman after beating a brain tumor Don't believe you have t...

#EveryoneCanCreate  is a hashtag I have very much enjoyed following since the ADE summit in Texas this month. From some of the ideas I had seen, my son created this before his school trip to the zoo: Click here for a more detailed description of what we did to create this video. It was this tweet from Matthew Pullen  which inspired this latest idea: It’s been a labour of love but I wanted to share how I created it. Shout out to all those that shared the original concept, @BenMountz @WesMolyneaux et al. I never thought I could draw but now I have the right tools in #iWork #ade2018 #appleeduchat #everyonecancreate @AppleEDU pic.twitter.com/DXQWq1Cwyy — Mathew Pullen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Mat6453) July 22, 2018 Following the thread, @JoeDale then suggested an app which might make the Video to still image stage a little easier: Great job. With the Video 2 Photo app you can export multiple frames to the camera roll in one tap which may make this rotoscope workflow quicker htt...

I am not going to lie, I am very jealous of all the amazing teachers attending the Global ADE 2018 summit in Texas. I have been closely following the hashtag #WWADE2018 and #EveryoneCanCreate and enjoying some of the amazing content being created and shared. It has reminded me of all the brilliant new additions to the Keynote app and inspired me to try some with a project with my children. They are going on a school trip tomorrow to the zoo and so created this animated quiz about animals: Keynote has been an app that I have used personally in my CPD and training sessions for years. Essentially, it is Apple's version of Powerpoint. At the UK ADE summit last year I was very fortunate to get a one to one tutorial with a Keynote expert, Alan Rosenfield , who really opened my eyes to creating engaging content to support my training sessions. More recently, Apple have announced a number of new updates to Keynote which take the app beyond a simple presentation app to an incredibly powerfu...