Year 7 Information Literacy lessons

I have now re-evaluated my Year 7 lessons for the Autumn term. There is a clear focus on how to read, reading techniques and decoding information texts. I have also included some exploration into the world of blogging and microblogging. Pupils will have the opportunity of examining how ideas and thoughts can be expressed using these formats.

Creating more brainstorms

Now I have learned to use the brainstorming function in MindView I am finding it to be really useful. I have just created one on Sources of Information that I can use with the Year 5 class. I will be introducing the concept that there are many different types of information that are available.

I wonder how many sources a Year 5 pupil actually uses?

Year 5 Independent Learning Unit

I am just researching all things current affairs for the new lesson that I will have with Year 5 pupils next term. The aim is to increase their awareness of the world around them by introducing them to different new reporting.

I am really interested to see which stories they pick up from the media and compare them with the main headlines.

I also wonder in which medium they will prefer to get their news - paper, online or broadcast.

The sessions are designed to develop some lively debate and questions about how and what is reported.

Assistant Librarian

Tomorrow I will be interviewing for a new Assistant. This is an exciting process and I am looking forward to seeing who will be joining me in September. It would also be nice if it were a sunny day!

MindView 4.0

I have been using this software to create some sample brainstorming diagrams for the Year 6 project. So far so good. After I had listened to the tutorial, things went a lot more smoothly! I really like the functionality offered by this tool and feel that it has got alot of potential especially with the links that you can add into the diagram. The exporting functions to Word and PowerPoint also look like they could be useful.

My next battle is to work out the Gantt chart features on the software. Unfortunately this has not been as intuitive as I would have liked.

Planning Year 6 Independent Learning Challenge

Have just spent the last few days reviewing the Year 6 Independent Learning challenge unit that starts again in September. I have now redone the sheets and planned out the whole year. It's a great project to work on and the pupils enjoy being able to make their own project choices. What they don't realise is all the planning that goes into running a sucessful project. With this in mind I have redonethe planning sheets to try and make them more user friendly. I have also built in some more review time so that pupils are able to evaluate their planning and time management skills. I'm please with the result and am hoping that they go down well in the Autumn term.

Film complete

I have finished making my film now!

Making another short film

In September I will be helping some of the lower school pupils to make short films about each other. For this I am now making a "How not to make your film" short film. The Assistant Librarian has just helped me with the film clips and I will be editing it together soon.  I am hoping that it will teach and amuse at the same time.

The Flip cameras we have are easy to use but can result in shaky-hands filming that can make the viewer quite sea-sick. I am hoping that the pupils can watch my film and avoid those common pitfalls.

They will plan, film and edit their film in just one day so it is a big task to get it right. I am hopeful though and I think that this practise session will enable them to learn some techiques that they can use later in the year for some of their projects and class work.

Display boards from Expressive Arts Week

The publicity team that was based in the library, ended up producing some fine displays around the school to promote the activities that were going on during the week (with some expert assistance from the Assistant Librarian).

Outside the Drama Centre

In the main corridor - including the wicker art objects

In the Drama Centre - assorted photos of the week

Mulan performance day

The end of the week has arrived and Mulan will be performed twice today. The publicity team have worked well and produced some display boards, programme, intranet adverts and pictures for the main screen at school. They have taken video and plenty of pictures of what has been going on during the week.

The videos are on the MSJ website :

http://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/senior-school/latest-news/expressive-arts-week-for-years-7-and-8

and showcase what has been going on in small bite-sized pieces.

The girls have had lots of fun and have been full of enthusiasm and excitement. Roll on this afternoon!

Expressive Arts week begins

Year 7 & 8 will be performing Mulan this Friday afternoon. They have a fun-packed, but busy, week ahead.

Tour of the library

A quick tour of the library using a flip camera and using Windows movie maker in preparation for Expressive Arts Week that starts on Monday.

Creating a new board

We are currently revamping a large notice board in the library. It is going to be a Challenge Me! board that has lists of current competitions that are on offer both inside and outside of the school and it's going to have more indepth articles on it for pupils to browse.

We have found that our media board that has a daily digest of news articles gets a lot of positive attention - so the idea is to ramp it up a level and put up longer stories for pupils to get their teeth into.

It's a pretty light blue colour at the moment - soon to be covered in interesting things.

It will be intersting to see if anyone notices!

Hello MSJ!

The front cover of the Yr 9 magazine

The girls managed to finish editing and constructing their magazine just in time for the Wednesday afternoon deadline. They worked so hard over the 3 days and the result is epic. It is a fun, interesting and well thought out production and the girls have learned so much about team work, organisation and deadlines.

Marvelous magazine!

The Yr 9 group have come up trumps and produced a fabulous magazine! They have worked incredibly hard for three days organising, writing and designing their publication.

They have definately learned a lot in the process including how to work as a team and how difficult it can be to work to a tight deadline.

The articles are a good mix of serious, fun, good -humoured and current interest. They have thought about style and design and tried to create a product that has themes running through. I will post a page or two soon.

But well done Yr 9!

Yr 9 Independent Learning - Hello MSJ!

A group of seven Year 9 students have been set a three day task to produce their own version of a Hello! type magazine aimed at everyone that is involved with the school. They have elected two editors and have planned their activities for the day.

They have had a couple of meetings to track progress and are working really well as a team. They have come up with some entertaining and orginal ideas. I am particularly interesting in the article called "What's in my locker?" which is going to reveal the truth about the things that they keep at school!

What will the cover of the Year 9 magazine look like?

They are finding that designing a magazine is quite a tricky process especially to get the look professional. At 3pm they will be coming together to review their draft pages and plan for tomorrow.

Carnegie/Greenaway Awards - results

So the results for the Carnegie/Greenaway books will be released later today. Some of the pupils here read the books and reviewed them on the official website. http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/grouphomepages/index.php?GroupID=322&pollresults=1

The award is a good way of introducing a different selection of books to a class and helps pupils experience a range of different writing styles in one session.

The Greenaway books allow pupils to evaluate the impact that pictures have on a reader and if the book works for them. Both fiction and non-fiction made it on to the list this time. I particularly like this one.

Library Thing

Have just started to use Library Thing to generate some suggestions for reading on a topic. It's an interesting way of doing things that throws up a list of reader reviewed books. It's based on a wide ranging readership base but it's a new place to start. You can check it out at www.librarything.com/ and try your own searches.

It also provides you with the most revewed and top 25 books. Good to see that The Hunger Games is in there!

Read it Loved it

I came across this site today Read it! Loved it! and thought that it was useful.

http://readitlovedit.com/home.html

Gives some ideas for what to read when you feel like picking up a book. The site has been designed for best use on an iphone/ipad.

Pratchett books

I have been catching up with my long forgotten list of Terry Prachett books recently - and reading them on my phone, which has been an interesting introduction to the world of ebooks.

Hace read and throughly enjoyed: Snuff, Unseen Academicals (who knew football could be such fun?) Going postal, Making money and the Firth Elephant.

London Olympics

The current display in the library is focused on the oylmpics and is matched up with some great reads on the games past and present, along with an excellent use of bunting on the board!