I feel there any many benefits to blogs in schools, both from the teacher and the pupils perspective. As a trainee teacher, i feel the benefits of this blog is that can take notes of useful ICT information that you can access very easily in the future. For instance, helpful web links for lesson planning or tips for how to to use the interactive board effectively.

As for students, using a blog could facilitated as an assessment tool, whereby children log their feelings about how they feel about subject and their own progression. Alternatively, it could be used to have an online project for almost any subject. For instance, literacy could be used to write poems, stories or any english work for a term time project. The possibilties are endless. In conclusion, i feel there any limitless benefits to the introduction of ICT in schools, and the use of a blog is an good example of one of these benefits.

Placement One ICT tips

After spending 6 weeks in school i realise how valuable modern technology has become in this day and age. There very few lessons i taught that didn't invole the interactive whiteboard or other electrical gadgets such as ladybug robots. In particular, for the core subjects i will name some software programs that i used a lot. For numeracy, i used a program called INTERACTIVE ESSENTIALS which covered a vairety of mathematical problems from counting numbers to measurements.

For literacy, i used a variety of powerpoint and word documents displayed on the smartboard as part of my teaching. As part of the smartboard software, i could manipulate certain texts by covering certain parts for example. Another program i used was a handwriting program which came with the smartboard which enbaled a repeated demonstration of how to write effectively.

For science i felt there was a whole wealth or programs, which could be found on the internet, on the smartboard software or additional programs. Below is a list of the software that i used in the school during my time there.


Fizzy's First Numbers Adding and Taking Away Fizzy's Number Skills
Primary Maths KS1 Shearston Maths All About Number
All About Shape and Space Number Train ORT Maths Zone Y2
Abacus Year 2 It's About Time It's About Length 2
Number Plane Measure up with Ellie and Ollie Money Mice
Bucket and Spades Educcity Numeracy Interactive Essentials
Maths Base Abacus Evolve


I also found the following websites particularly useful for research and resources when planning lessons.

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk
http://www.buzzin.net
http://www.schoolworkout.co.uk
http://www.primaryinteractive.co.uk
http://www.teacher.tv/primary
http://curriculum.qca.org.uk