Update and the lowdown on using Skitch to give your teacher a 'stache.

It's been a long time between posts.

So, an update...

I am really pleased to write that our Home Learning experiment seems to be over its initial hump and is now definitely on the improve. Children in my class are inquiring into baking Sacher Torte, 'doing the splits', creating their own video games, the life of Anne Frank, skydiving and so many more cool things. Just for me, their teacher, it is so much more interesting than the old 'standard' homework. It is really exciting to see their faces light up when they talk about the progress they've made and what they want to work on or find out more about next. They are keen and excited and want to share. This is what learning should be. I love it.

My students are definitely a lot more comfortable using computers for learning now. They have developed some skills and now get excited (instead of nervous!) about trying out new apps and programs. We spent a blissful couple of periods last week learning to use Google Draw and Skitch and I am looking forward to having the children use them in context.

For those not in the know, Skitch is a photo/image annotation app (great for iPads and laptops) that I'm hoping will be very useful for our digital portfolios this year. It was very much worth the couple of lessons we spent in just experimenting with how these apps work - the children learned so much more when they were free to explore on their own than I could ever have 'taught' them. Can you imagine? 'Right then, click here, and then click there and then - no! Stop that! No drawing boogers hanging out of someone's nose!'

As a very wise and respected colleague once told me - the very best way to make sure that children learn how to use technology is to give them time to play with it on their own. 9 and 10-year-olds have a much more intuitive understanding of 21st century tech than I do. It is inevitable that in the course of these 'play' lessons, at least one of my students will discover and teach me how to do something that I wasn't able to before. It is exciting to have the locus of control shift from me to the students.

To end on a high note:
Here is my own piece of Skitch awesomeness, for your viewing pleasure.
This is the quick demo I did to introduce Skitch to my students. And yes, the teeth and moustache were at their request. Ah, the sacrifices we make for learning.