We play a great game in Year 6 called Bing Bong Zong. This is a great game for developing mental recall of multiplication facts in a fun way that the children love!
Here are the rules:
You need 2 players.
Face each other and tap your legs with both hands say ‘”Bing Bong Zong.”
After you have said “Zong” display a number with your hands from 1 to 10. (You are not allowed to display 0).
As both children will have displayed a number each, you must multiply the two numbers and call out the number.
The person who calls out the correct number first gets one point.
To simplify, you can just display a number on one hand so the highest calculation will be 5 x 5.
Below is a video of pupils in Year 6 playing Bing Bong Zong. We hope you enjoy playing this game as much as we do!
“Trust me! In three years time, people will be coming to HeathfieldCPS from all over the country to see what we have done to improve!”
These are the words I am desperate to convey to the staff at Heathfield Primary School. I have been Deputy Head Teacher at Heathfield since September 2009 and have loved every minute of it. The question I need to answer is: Have I earned the trust of ALL staff to say the above statement and ensure people not only believe me, but will support the school on the journey it must take to reach its potential.
I was lucky enough to attend the Bolton Leadership Symposium on 25th -26th February 2010. I tweeted updates from the event (these can be found using the hashtag: #boltonsymposium) or you can view this link). To use the analogy of Chris Pickup who spoke during the first morning…
HeathfieldCPS is on a journey, there is a destination sign on the front of the bus which says very clearly where we are going. My Headteacher is driving the bus with our staff are sat in certain seats working extremely hard but where is my seat?
Are all the people sat next to the window happy with their window seats or would they prefer an aisle seat?
Have they ever tried an aisle seat or a window seat?
Have the staff that sit near the back ever sat near the front?
A good leader will ensure the right people are on the bus! A great leader will not only ensure the right people are on the bus but in addition, ensure that each person is sat in the right seat!
I believe we have the right people on the Heathfield bus, my challenge has been and continues to be – How I gain the trust and respect, to lead and share the driving of the bus with the Headteacher?
We have begun the journey of making ICT the vehicle to drive change at HeathfieldCPS. If you have been following our progress, you will know that we are using Web 2.0/3.0 technologies to assist learning and Year 6, 5, 4, 1 and Reception are now showcasing their learning though class blogs. Within a few weeks, Year 3 and Year 2 will launch their blogs. I can not convey enough how much blogging and the use of Web 2.0/3.0 technologies has enthused the pupils in Year 6. You only have to visit their blog to see what fantastic things are taking place. Just listen to their most recent Voicethread on why blogging is so great:
We have only been blogging and using Web 2.0/3.0 technologies for 8 weeks now. In that time, Heathfield have already developed a strong reputation in the world of ICT and our blog is rising up the ranks of search engines. Teachers that are searching for Literacy resources are being directed to our blogs from all over the world. We have over 500 comments in 8 weeks from all over the world too! Things are definitely happening here!
I predict, that in three years: the name of Heathfield will be displayed at the top of many Google searches, ICT will be woven through a new creative curriculum, children will be even more enthused and switch onto their learning right from the 1st day in Reception up until their last day in Year 6, visitors will be coming from all over the country to see first hand what changes have taken place at Heathfield to bring such success and most important of all, children leaving HeathfieldCPS will be prepared for the challenges that they will face in the future.
Mrs Spencer and I were able to spend a significant amount of time talking during our 2 days at the Bolton Leadership Symposium and we both agreed, Awards and high SATs results were not the driving force of future developments, but the need to prepare our pupils for a future that we can’t comprehend. If awards and high status come our way, of course that will be enjoyed by the pupils and staff , however, these are not being sought!
My Headteacher knows where the bus is going! We have the right people on the bus! Me? Well, that’s easy! My aim is to give my Headteacher every opportunity to drive the bus, I’m sat with Mrs Spencer but I can keep my seatbelt off! I can nip back and check if people are in the right places and enjoying their seat, I am able to sit at the front and at the back, at the window and in the aisle!
So, I return to my original statement at the top of this blog post… When is the right time to look staff in the eye, place my hand on their shoulder and say, “Trust me”?
I don’t think I have ever been as proud in my professional career as I am now. Year 6 have only been blogging since the last week in December and after teaching them the basics and after watching me making a fool of myself at the front of the classroom most days, the energy has shifted from the Teacher to the Student! I receive on average about 4 posts per night at the minute. Not all of them are worthy of the blog but many are!
We recently embarked on using PrimaryPad resources to write collaborative to produce two non-chronological reports, one on Haiti and the other on Earthquakes. This fitted in beautifully with our Literacy projects and the pupils produced something that they are very proud of! You can see these here and here.
So…my Year 6’s are motoring along with just a little guidance from me. We would still like more comments from people who view the blog as this really is the key to maintaining enthusiasm. Whilst I can now leave the Year 6’s to embark on their own blogging experience, I am turning my concentration to another year group (Year 4).
Our Year 4 teacher is energetic and has just clicked with what blogging is all about! She has been keen to meet during lunchtimes, after school and informally in the corridor. Her class blog is now really beginning to take shape. you can see her blog by clicking here.
Something very exciting could be about to happen this weekend. The pupils in Year 4 have been following the progress of Andy Murray in the Australian Open this week, as a result, we have set up a PrimaryPad on Y4 class blog for a collaborative match report to be comepleted on Sunday. Nicola, Myself and Mrs Spencer will be on-line during the match to take a look at what is happening on the blog. The children in Year 4 are REALLY excited and we are hoping that this excitement transfers to their learning in the class with the blog propping up the learning giving the children a real purpose for their writing.
With Year 4, Year 6 and Reception now running successful blogs, 2 further r Teachers have signed up for some training! Watch this space for Year 2 and Year 5 blogs taking shape! Both of which will be a HUGE success!
These are not just exciting times for me but more importantly really exciting times for the school and the pupils!
For many years I have been one of YouTube’s biggest fans. I had contacted Bolton LA on numerous occasions over the years to try and get it unblocked or to ask what their future plans could be with regards staff use. It was only recently that Bolton LA asked me if I wanted to have full control over Heathfield’s internet filtering to which I immediately boiled the kettle and asked what time they could get here! The ICT Dept. at Bolton have been fantastic, they have supported everything I have requested and sent people up to school to ensure changes have been made as quickly as possible!
The first thing I did was unblock YouTube for staff. I had dreamed of being able to share some of YouTube’s little gems for years with my class. I just find that Year 6 children really respond to visual learning. I just love the results after showing the pupils a video of a setting and then asking them to describe what they saw. I also use adverts to show the children persuasion in its full glory! The CentreParcs adverts are classic for this! Persuasive language, lighting, gestures, music, camera angles and expressions. The pupils just ‘get it’ when they see it!
Bolton LA have been working very closely with Bloxx to create a filtering video hosting site over the last 6 months. I was shown this last Thursday and I think it is brilliant. It is totally reliant on teachers submitting video links from YouTube that they think would be useful to other teachers. These are tagged and categorised and when another trusted teacher watches and approves it, the video is available to watch. It is very much still ‘work in progress’ but the feel of the site is good! I know there are many other ways of downloading videos from YouTube but to many teachers they will not bother doing that and opportunities to inspire our learners could be lost. The way I look at it is that whenever I find a gem of a video that tick my boxes for my lessons then it is instantly available for any other teacher to view and use too!
I was asked by Bloxx to be interviewed by The Times about why I was so passionate about the use of YouTube in classrooms. I obliged and here is their article that was printed today:
The discussion this article prompts is valid and needs to take place, however, their article is grossly inaccurate! The price structure will not be any where near the prices listed in the article (So I’m told from the horse’s mouth) and this service requires teachers to submit their favourite videos and categorise them to help future use. I for one will be a contributor to Bloxx hoping that people will share the videos they find too.
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