BBC MicroBit

So... I have been absent from Blogging for sometime now, mainly because I have been settling into a new role and trying to make sure I have all of that under control.

The other reason is that I felt I was in touch with what I wanted to teach and had made no further steps forward... This is to change this week with the delivery of the BBC Microbit.

Now... firstly it has been frustrating that we have had to wait so long for these devices but now that they are here, I plan to make hay whilst the sun shines. The test devices that I have had for sometime have been brilliant and I plan to share a few projects on here.

Here is the MicroBit in all it's glory. It has an array of 25 (5x5) LED lights already on it and unlike the Arduino devices that I inherited in my role, it needs no wiring to have fun with.

Coming in my future posts will, hopefully be a good deal more information and project ideas, not just ones I try with my classes but new ideas I play around with as I go.

Object Based Programming Language For Humans

I am working on the idea that my Year 8 pupils could consider developing their own, object based programming language for a human.


The initial ideas, put into slides are below. The first stage will be to have a very generic language which we mentally fill in the gaps. Slowly building in variables, loops and possibly classes which we can call from a bank of ideas.


The slides are uploaded to my dropbox page...


https://www.dropbox.com/s/oefdry3maq3upr9/Creating%20A%20Human%20Robot%20Demo.pptx?dl=0


or for the empty slides


https://www.dropbox.com/s/3lwpc2tkb5f3ke0/Creating%20A%20Human%20Robot.pptx?dl=0








Lesson plan (Rough and work in progress as always...)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iu8z4ykra5slbyd/CS%20Programming%20A%20Human%20Robot.docx?dl=0

New CS Lessons

I have taken a term or so to settle into my new role as Head Of Computer Science/ICT at Chafyn Grove School Salisbury.


I am now working to devise a number of programming lessons which can support my student through the new curriculum. I will use resources such as CSUnplugged, Code4Life and many others, but enjoy trying to find new ideas myself.


One of my very good friends has contributed a session on search engines already, which went down brilliantly with Year 8... although I imagine may be moved to Year 7 or even Year 6 as time goes by.


The report on this is here; http://www.stewh.com/2014/12/how-does-a-search-engine-work-a-30-minute-talk-with-activities-for-11-13-year-olds/


Stewart is a PhD Computing student at Glasgow University.

Completion of my syllabus

After a long absence from posting, due to the busy schedule I have had at work and the work that I have been doing on my syllabus, I have new updates to make.

I have completed my work on my syllabus... My aim for the end of this academic year was to have a complete scheme of work, which largely meets the aims and requirements if the 2014 curriculum. I wanted to write a single a4 page for each of the units of work that stated a rough teaching sequence and my expectations about what that pupils will get from the lessons.

I have done this and am very pleased with what I have created. It is stored online at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c3l5yb2vh758se6/AABK8Wj-eohEQNeUDt3nczMxa.

The next step is to prepare for a new job and new requirements from my teaching. I have to now extend my planning to include years 7&8 which I have not taught for a while and for whom the changes to the curriculum are considerable.

Curriculum Leaflets

I have finished my curriculum overview for ICT within KS1 and KS2. This has become two separate leaflets that, I hope, show a progression of skills accross the two areas. I still need to add the area for suggested software and links but this is an ever changing list.

I have uploaded the KS2 leaflet in the past but will include them both here for neatness.

KS1 Leaflet -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlRHdDeE1kMXhScUk/edit?usp=sharing

KS2 Leaflet -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlbmJMQXJOdHAyZUk/edit?usp=sharing

It is my aim that all of my curriculum documents will have the same colour coding system to show the key strands of work within ICT. Mobile ICT, Researching and Communicating, Combining Text and Images, Multimedia and Programming / Computing.

Creating A Scheme Of Work That All Can Take Part In

Recently I was asked to present to our governors on ICT within my school. This was an excellent opportunity to show off a little and present to them what we actually do in lessons.

As part of the process of creating this process, however, I was needed to create recommendations about where we should take ICT next. At this point I realised a lot about how my current scheme of work stands separate from much of the ICT going on around the school. This may not be a huge issue, but there are some cross-overs of knowledge and there are certainly tasks that other staff members would, I hope, love to use in order to enhance their topic work.

As such, combined with the curriculum leaflets I have been creating as an overview of ICT and what it means, I have begun to make an A4 page for each unit of work. This will hopefully make a small folder that other staff members can look at and gain ideas from, or at the very least, easily digest the extent of the skills possessed by our children.

I will upload some examples, the aim is to have a very brief page that highlights why I am teaching each skills and also possible applications for it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHldFU0Z2oxcFdLcjg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlQnZhSWQzTmNVbTQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlc1Y0MHlkT0ZYQTQ/edit?usp=sharing

These will hopefully be working documents that could include a second page to show where they begin to be taught throughout the school.

Below is the blank form, to save anybody that likes the idea, the work.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlQmstTVUxWUd0TUE/edit?usp=sharing

Computing Curriculum

I have been looking to begin my preparation for the new computing curriculum requirements and have come across a most interesting question.

Should the development of a Computing scheme be 'top down' or 'bottom up'?

I have been looking at the Computing for Schools Curriculum  - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s7hMWhfvHlTnZtZ0FmRVczeEk/edit?usp=sharing
For those that have not accessed it.

Whilst we know what we wish to reach at the end of KS4, it is surely a self defeating process to continually work backwards from here?

Over the past 4 years, I have found that I have been shuffling certain elements of programming down through the year groups. Year 4 are perfectly able to understand and use Scratch independently, with this comes an understanding of the processes required to provide a computer with instructions. This begins to sound much like the requirements for the end of KS2/KS3.

When I set out to plan my computing element for the new year (this is not to say that we do not already teach much of the concepts) I am going to look at what my youngest CAN do, what they NEED to do and what they COULD do. My annual review of computing is going to have to stem from this, taking work that we can from higher age groups and then creating new projects higher up the school. Otherwise I fear that a hole will be created where harder concepts are achieved by the top, without necessarily ensuring that the work at the lower level progresses to meet these levels.

With much to do, I want to continue to look for free software that the pupils can download at home to extend knowledge, but my head is continually turned by physical objects such as Lego mindstorms that could bring a whole new level to our programming.