Supporting Gearies book week

The video conferencing was held on Wednesday this week.

A lot of new children were taking part from Gearies this time. This would be the first time they had experienced video conferencing. The class were still arriving when Dan connected to us,the children became very focused on the board on arriving to the suite really not knowing what to expect. I felt this lead to a little confusion on what was to happen next.

Hatton school also changed format this week, with just a few children taking part.

Gearies started by singing a hello song to welcome Hatton, something we wanted to do as Hatton in previous weeks had always warmly welcomed us.

Our objective this week was just to share a small amount of time thinking of the animals that live in the jungle using toys, picture and children making the sounds.

We sang a song for the children then to choose which animals they would like to meet.

Our children became very excited, with several children standing up at once to share their toys and sounds.

The children from Hatton had work very hard, producing some fantastic pictures and mask. Well done! The children and staff from Gearies really enjoyed you sharing them with us.

We had decided to sing Down in the jungle as our closing song, but lots of us had forgot the words, but Hatton sang along to help us out.

Lots of our children continued to talk about their experience for the rest of the afternoon, and we all felt that it had added additonal excitement to our safari book week.

Thank you Hatton, once again.

High Expectations For Week 2 (from the kids!)

Last week I found that it was all a bit hectic to set up in time, but managed it ok! This week however, I thought I'd be more prepared and set up further in advance. However, this meant I didn't check everything properly, probably through over confidence. More on that later!

Class 3 were the first to arrive and, pleasingly, they instantly recognised the equipment. They knew what was coming! This was, of course, terribly exciting and the anticipation grew as the numbers in the hall increased. It was clear that the bulk of the children clearly remembered the previous week and had obviously enjoyed it. This, I thought, would be an excellent session.

Our head teacher arrived to see what the session involved, intrigued, I imagine, by the glowing reports of the previous week. I joked that this would mean everything would go wrong...

At 1.40 I dialled Gearies and nothing! After several attempts I realised that in my casual preparation so far ahead of time, I hadn't plugged the network cable in! So as I scrambled to reroute the cable from the hall computer to the VC equipment, Jan, the teacher leading the singing, wisely began to sing "Hello" to keep the children occupied. They had waited a long time and this is not a strong point for many of our children. They were clearly restless and growing increasingly impatient. The song distracted them somewhat, but it took me a little longer to reset the equipment and redial Gearies. At last, they appeared on our screen.

We sang "Hello" to them and, finally, began our session. While I don't recall who chose first or which songs were sung, (It is all a bit of a blur!) I do remember when one of our children chose the song "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow". I'm really pleased that Gearies' Pupils enjoyed this song and I'm not surprised they enjoyed watching us, as many of our children like to lie on the floor and jump as the scarecrow does in the song. It's normally quite raucous, but during this session, with the added excitement of the VC and the long wait beforehand, it must have looked like a riot!

The children did eventually settle and the session continued much as it had the previous week. The children still thoroughly enjoyed the meet up and like before, several children stayed settled throughout the session, where as they would normally struggle. This is an extra achievement, given the levels of noise and activity this week.

Staff were a little more worn out after this session than previously, so well done them! But everyone did still enjoy it and we're all looking forward to sharing some Animal work next week. I must also thank Jan, who led the singing this week.

We meet again.

Today we re-joined Hatton's singing assembly. Just like last week we were warmly welcomed.

Most of our children really enjoyed the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow song. Lots of our children did not know the song or the actions. So after we said goodbye. Our children asked if they could sing and try the actions out. So that is what we did.

Mrs Ryan really enjoyed meeting up with Hatton again. "You always give us a warm welcome and it would be really good if Gearies could have a welcome song as well".

"I've never been involved with video conferencing before and I've found its such fun!"

Our children really enjoy singing with Hatton school and watching themselves on the big screen.

Serveral of our children that often don't say that much, have started to interact with questions and answers.

A Great start to our project.

Yesterday Gearies and Hatton Schools meet up for the first time using Video conferencing.Gearies children join in with Hatton's singing assembly. They welcomed us by singing hello and it was then that I think the children from Gearies started to realise that they were not watching a television.Hatton had kindly sent us a board with symbols of songs that we knew and could share with one another.The interaction between the two school was fantastic. Children taking it in turns to choose different songs. Children sharing actions together, both schools singing and rowing to Row Row Row your boat.Some of our children were sitting on the carpet and signing to the songs.When one of our children choose Old MacDonald had a farm we shared which animals were on the farm and one of Hatton's children showed their soft toy of a chicken.Our staff thought it was really good to share with Hatton School and some very positive learning took place. We had all been a little apprehensive to how the children would react from both schools, but we no needed to have worried as the children enjoyed every moment of it and can't wait to sing together next week.
On reflection I really should have taken some photo's of this link up, but I was so involved with the conference.

Week 1 Review: Hatton's Point of View

At 1.40pm, after some hectic connection to our whiteboard, we fired up the VC equipment and dialed Gearies. As easy as that, there they were, and our singing session had increased in numbers.

I wasn't sure how readily our pupils would accept that they could interact with the children on screen, I suspected that being used to seeing people on screens that don't react to what you do and say, on TV etc, that most, if not all the children wouldn't expect any interaction. But of course, they proved me wrong.

Certainly most of our pupils happily waved and cheered at the other group and those who didn't immediately catch on, soon did. A few pupils were very interested in seeing themselves too, up in the corner of the screen. The excitement was too much for some kids, who just had to be on the screen as close as possible, but they soon settled down and we began our singing session.

KS1 singing assemblies are always begun by singing hello to each class, this week, we added "Hello to Gearies" at the end, the children completely accepted this and I think it helped to cement the idea that the children on screen were actually part of the group. Children took turns to choose a song from our choice board and we made sure to show the symbol to the camera so that the Gearies pupils could sing along.

The delay over the VC did mean that at our end, when we started the song Gearies were a second behind, but it didn't cause any major problems, just a few adults struggling to keep time! I'm sure the effect was the same at Gearies end when we were following them.

Gearies pupils also took turns to choose a song and show us the symbol from their choice board and our kids immediately recognised the song and were prepared to sing it.

Staff were really pleased with the outcome and initial fears about appearing on screen were soon taken over by excitement and enjoyment. One teacher noted that her class had sat all through the singing, which, for one child especially, has not happened before, and that that pupil was particularly fascinated by the goings on.

Special thanks to Monica, who led the session very well and adapted to the new technology perfectly!

Everyone, staff and pupils, really enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to the rest of the project.

Outline of Activities

Week 1
Introduce ourselves and sharing singing songs:-
· Intro to welcome Gearies and Hatton.
· Hatton to show us their singing choosing board.
· Hatton to choose song for us all to sing
· Gearies to choose song from Hatton’s choosing board for us all to sing
Outcome:-
· Familiarity with VC equipment
· Interacting together

Week 2

Reinforcing learning from week before:-
· Gearies to share their singing board and choose a song for all to sing.
· Hatton to choose a song from our singing board for us all to sing.
Outcome:-
· Adults and children experiencing different communication techniques
· Turn taking

Week 3
Sharing work related to Jungle themed Book Week
· Children to show animal pictures
· Children to share pictures/actions and sounds
· Children to make choices using the photos of one another from
Gearies/Hatton
Outcome:-
· Interacting purposefully with one another
· Purposeful use of ICT in the real world.

Week 4
Cook Along Live with Gearies

· Hatton Pupils to follow instructions from Gearies Pupils to make fruit salad.
· Children to demonstrate how to prepare their fruit for the other children to follow. ie. “If you have an apple, you cut it like this…”
Outcome:-
· Developing presenting to audience skills
· Encouraging and engaging children’s speaking and listening skills

Week 5
Cook Along Live with Hatton

· Gearies Pupils to follow instructions from Hatton Pupils to decorate biscuits.
· Children to demonstrate how to ice their biscuits for the other children to follow. ie. “Find the red icing…”
Outcome:-
· Developing presenting to audience skills
· Encouraging and engaging children’s speaking and listening skills


Week 6
End of project party!

· Gearies pupils and staff visit Hatton to meet up face to face and reflect on the project.
Outcome:-
· Possible ideas from staff for future uses of video conferencing.
· New experiences for Hatton pupils and a new environment for Gearies pupils to visit.
· A positive finish to the projectEveryone has an enjoyable time