Character work

Today we moved onto introducing the main character of the story. The children had a visual of the robot from Tuesday's work and had some descriptive language in a mind map. We looked at techniques for character description such as direct description, through dialogue, through thoughts and using imagery.
The children were all keen to be 'blogged' but particularly want me to continue with Paddy's story, so I have got Paddy's and three new children's work. We all hope you enjoy what you read!

'How did I get into this mess? How did I even get here? I've not become smaller than a child. I've got some pale, white, enormous eyes. I wish I had my normal human eyes again. Bzzzt. Why on earth Bzzzt am I Bzzzt making Bzzzt weird noises. Wow! I've got a microwave for a body. At least I won't be hungry anymore; and it says X-12. Maybe there's even other robots like B-7 and F-10, woah!'

Paddy

"I know I'm a rusty old can, but I still have feelings." Robe moaned to his friends. Robe wandered away with his head down and a rattle and bang, as his noisy, rusty feet walked slowly away. 
"I wish I was not a rusty, tin can but a shiny can with silver lines on my tummy," he said to himself. As Robe was walking he did not see the old tumble dryer on the floor and he tripped over it.
"BANG!" went his metal feet and arms on the ground as he fell.

Erin M

As cold as ice I sat on the grave yard; I was shimmering with frost.
 I shouted in rage, "Help!" but no one answered. There were hardly any trees or no oxygen, my heart beat was slowly beating three seconds at a time. I drifted over the rubbish as I thought I was going to die. I was old, rusty, metal and hard but I had to survive.

Jack

Dear Diary,
I was gazing up at the stars, until suddenly I saw a huge explosion on the ground... It was an explosion filled with metal objects. I was being transformed into a robot, with a rusty golden body as if a huge pile of mango juice was being poured all over me.

Nimmy

Responses to our work

We are so excited to see our number of visitors going up and up, and to be receiving such encouraging comments.  We have even been mentioned on another site - scroll down and see.


http://paper.li/macnmug/1344492563

First day of Machinarium English work.

The children were so excited when I explained the task ahead. Today we just looked at the first couple of pages before the game even started, took screen shots and annotated them using Skitch. The children then put together some scene setting moments. Great discussion took place involving where the story was set, what they could see, hear, feel, smell, what era it was set in, what had happened. Some brilliant writing from today, and I am very excited about what they will produce in the next couple of weeks. Here are some snippets:

After the apocalypse, I thought that I was dead, but I was wrong. The place was now a wasteland, the sun was sunless, the trees were leafless. The land was as rusty as pipes, and the rest of the terrain was decayed. I headed to the ancient city that looked familiar.

 

Paddy

 

In a dark gloomy realm where a dead empire lies in war I keep peace between war and harmony. So far war has not struck us but, one hundred years ago our mechanical warriors fought hard to protect our kingdom. I search for the great wizard sword with a magic that not even the most powerful wizard can hold.

 

Jacob

 

As rusty as metal, the tower of tins near a mysterious pile of waste felt dry and unusual. The smoky sand floated through the air. Suddenly, a mysterious metal thing drifted across the sky and into the deserted mechanical waste of junk. The universe felt magical through the sandy air.

 

Lexiss

 

I've been captured by a few hostile robots in the middle of a war. Their ship crashed on a far away planet. On this planet it's like a vast wasteland and a huge pile of junk, with armoured robots with guns in the palm of their hands.

 

Harvey

 

I know the children would be very pleased to hear some comments that I can pass on so feel free!

 

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Pre- iPad English lessons.

So after lots of research and playing around I am starting a short unit of work using the iPads as a basis for generating story telling. I will be using the app 'Machinarium' by Amanita design. I wanted to find ways of engaging a very boy-heavy and Maths able class in quality writing. I also was determined to use the iPads, new tools for us this year. Having used Myst in the past, I felt that gaming through digital literacy was an interesting and exciting way to go. I read blogs on sites, these two particularly I found helpful - Bill Boyd and Mr.Andrews and devised a few lessons based around this reading and my own knowledge of my class and their capabilities.

Tomorrow we begin, I will be explaining the process, and we will start slowly, looking at the 'front cover' of the game, using Skitch for note taking on the setting, and beginning the process of character development. We will use paper and pens alongside stylus and tapping; we will, I hope merge the old and the new.

We will see!

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Coaching and Ofsted

Last night I completed my short coaching course. I feel reenergised and ready to get back to school. I have set myself a couple of targets linked with the course. Get some performance management under my belt and then plan some coaching with those members of staff. I am also really keen to try a bit if coaching with my class. I have a good cohort this year and u reckon we can use some of the skills to help direct and inform our planning.

Today, first day back, ofsted inset with a very nice chap who ended up being a bit scary! New ofsted framework is tough but made me focus and plan. Was thrilled to see literacy so high on the agenda, and special needs. It was also good to see performance management there and all my coaching thoughts and ideas seemed to fit in well. Need to be really organised about everything this year though!!
Hoping this will be an amazing year for me professionally!

Only one more day ...

Sad isn't it, that us teachers get so depressed about going back to school when we've had six weeks off. I actually do love my job, and always look forward to getting my teeth into something new each year, but I never manage to get all those pesky jobs done that I plan to at the end of July!

This term I am planning to put my new-found, or maybe newly invigorated knowledge of coaching (after my NCSL course) into practise. I do want to use it to support others I work with, but I particularly want to use it with my class. I have a strong, bright bunch of 10-11 year olds coming to me this year, and I want to challenge them and myself in different ways. We will plan together, talk through our next steps, our weekly, monthly and termly aims as a class and as individuals. We will blog on our Edmodo page, and tweet in class about how we are getting on, become more reflective as learners - all of us. I am stealing the tweet idea from this fantastic lady, she has some brilliant ideas!
 Mrs White's 5th grade class


I am getting myself ready for school, PE kit bags filling up, shoes polished, blouses ironed. It still feels like I need another week, please?!

Being lazy

I do love holidays.I've had a great couple of weeks doing exciting things with my lovely kids, and still have another few weeks of fun. I am avoiding work as much as I can but still check emails, still keep updated on twitter, have started reading Will Ryan's inspirational book, and have signed myself up for a free online course in coaching! My plan is to jot down ideas, here, so that if only I read them at least I will remind myself what I was thinking about!

I want to really inspire my class to be independent learners this year. Last term I set the children up to do group projects about the Olympics. They were amazing. They created music, presentations, displays, designed artwork, so many different things. I plan to do this again, push them to learn what they want to learn, guide them to build skills and creativity.
They are keen to learn science through gadgets, let's see what they come up with.