Teachmeet Essex 2012 – Sign up now!
Teachmeet Essex 2012 is only a few weeks away now. It will take place in Wickford on the 7th February. There are still some tickets available so sign up quick! If you’ve never been to one before, a Teachmeet is some of the best free CPD you can get. Presentations are given by teachers sharing what works for them in the classroom. It’s like a massive show and tell session!
Head to the Teachmeet Essex Ticket Page if you want to sign up to attend.
In addition if you plan to give a short talk, then add your name to the Teachmeet Essex wiki here (username guest password teemhcaet). Talks can be 2 minute or 7 minute. They do not have to be about ICT, you can talk about anything you’ve tried with your class that you think other teachers would like to know about.
If you’d like to give a video presentation instead, that’s fine. Let me have the link to the presentation and we’ll show it on the night.
For more information,and to see the videos from the last TeachMeet Essex, visit www.teachmeetessex.co.uk
If you can’t attend, but would like to see what other Teachmeets are taking place this year, then the best place to go is the main TeachMeet Wiki here.
Read MoreTeachMeet Essex 2012 Announced
Following on from the successful first Teachmeet Essex in 2010, we’re putting on another free event to showcase the excellent teaching and learning that is taking place the schools in Essex as well as the breakaway people’s republics of Southend and Thurrock. Teachers and friends from other areas are obviously more than welcome too!
Please sign up to give a 2 minute talk, or a 7 minute talk, or just to attend and network. You can see video from the previous event here.
Teachmeet Essex 2012 will take place on Tuesday 7th February 2012 at Wickford CLC. 5pm – 7pm
How to attend:
Sign up for free tickets here / Add your name to the Wiki here
Or follow on Twitter at #tmessex
What is a TeachMeet?
TeachMeets are FREE, informal “unconferences”, all about creating opportunities for those interested in education to take the lead, share practice, discover new ideas, network and be inspired all during the course of one CPD fuelled evening! Anyone can get involved, share great ideas they’ve trialled in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations. All are welcome.
How can I sign up?
Please sign up to attend via our EventBrite site here. Please also Add your name to the Wiki here:
More information : www.teachmeetessex.co.uk
Read MoreNow Let’s Write It Up : A Teachmeet Presentation
Here’s a copy of a presentation I produced for TeachMeet Brighton and Teachmeet Moray House (TMMH11) as well as being shown at TeachMeet Dorset.
The theme was to demonstrate several alternatives to the Science write up (which are also applicable to other subjects too). Do we always have to go away and write it up in the usual manner – method, results, conclusion etc. Sometimes there’s a place for showing what you know in a different format – try telling the story digitally.
There are many ways to do this, in this presentation I show just a couple that you might find interesting.
The links to the sites/software demonstrated are :
Hope you liked the presentation – and if your students make any cool videos using these tools, please let me know!
Feel free to use at other TeachMeet events if you want to – just let me know if you do.
Photo Credit : Writing in the Journal by redcargurl
Read More
TeachMeet Bedford 2011 Presentation
Yesterday I attended TeachMeet Bedford at the University of Bedfordshire. As with all TeachMeets there were some wonderful talks and I came away with more ideas to work into my teaching, some of which I’ll share on the blog soon.
I gave a short presentation on my use of fingerpuppets and Liquorice allsorts for classification and keys. If you want to read more about that, I have blogged about it here: Keys and Classification with Finger Puppets
Hand these out so that every child has a different puppet. Give them a few minutes to get the “playing” out of their system
Then ask them to get into pairs. In their pair they have to think of one question that they could ask that would differentiate their puppet from their partners. Does it have wings? Does it swim? etc. Get them to write it down.
Once done, ask them to join up with another pair. Then they need to do the same thing – think of questions they could use to differentiate the four animals. Then maybe get into an 8, or just use a table group and repeat.
Basically, we’re getting across the idea of making keys. Which is something children (and pgce students!) often struggle with.
In their groups they can then draw out a key to identify the animals on their table. Give them a large sheet of paper to do this on. Take photographs of their finished keys.
The questions need to be Yes/No questions. So you can’t have “How many legs does it have?” Questions should be “Does it have 4 legs?” or similar.
Here’s my Presentation on Prezi
In addition, I also mentioned JellyCam, which is great for stop motion animation. And Hamstersoft who make a free video converter which you could use to convert the JellyCam video into a format that Windows Movie Maker can edit.
Visit the TM Bedford Wiki for other links to presentatons from the speakers.
Read MoreTeachMeet East : Norwich 5th Feb
A quick plug for another local TeachMeet event – TeachMeet East which will be taking place in Norwich on 5th Feb. It’s being organised by @tomhenzley @knikidavies @sarahbrownsword and @mrplume so please contact them if you want to learn more.
More information about TeachMeet East can be found here. If you want to promote the event in your school you can download a flyer here.
I’ll be giving a presentation. I’m thinking of doing something more sciency than whiteboard-related for a change. Watch this space
Essential Digital Resources – TMTakeover Talk
Thanks to Sarah at Iris Connect for posting the whole of my TeachMeet Takeover talk at BETT last week.
Here it is in all its glory
Danny Nicholson from Sarah Pinkerton on Vimeo.
Sounds a little flakey, we were fighting a very noisy stand next door and I broke the headset mic at one point and resorted to shouting.
The links for this presentation are at : http://www.delicious.com/dannynic/essentialmedia
Read MoreTeachMeet Takeover Talk pt1
Thanks to Kevin Mulryne for filming the first part of my TeachMeet Takeover talk at BETT 2011 yesterday.
The theme of the talk was – Essential Digital Media for your Interactive Whiteboard. The full list of links I mentioned (and a few that were left out because of time) can be found here: http://www.delicious.com/dannynic/essentialmedia
The whole presentation was filmed by Sarah at Iris Connect (thanks again for the use of your stand) so hopefully I’ll be able to post that here when it’s uploaded after the show.
Read MoreBETT 2011: Teachmeet Takeover
The main educational technology show of the year, BETT, is fast approaching. The two halls of Olympia in London will be full of an incredible array of educational suppliers, educational consultants, teachers and school ict technicians. If you get the chance to attend. And not just for the free pens.
Like last year, the Teachmeet movement is making it’s way onto the floor with another Teachmeet Takeover. Various companies are kindly giving up some space and time on their stands to teachers to talk about their passion. There are still slots available for speakers if you want to get involved, and still space for companies to get inolved too. If you want more information, go check out the TeachMeet Takeover wiki.
I was only an observer last year. But this year I am going to give a talk as part of the Teachmeet Takeover. IRIS Connect have very kindly given up half an hour on their stand on Thursday 13th Jan at 3pm. I’ll be talking about some of the best places to get (free) digital resources for use on your Interactive Whiteboard. So if you are at BETT on the Thursday, please make your way over to Stand K15 around 3pm and say Hello!
There’s some other great things taking place on the evening of BETT 2011 again, like last year. More about those to follow.
Read MoreLesson starter ideas for your IWB – talk
Here’s a different version of my Teachmeet talk with a better view of the resources being demonstrated:
Get the files for your IWB here – Smart Notebook, Promethean and Easiteach versions!
Read More
About Me
Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
Buy the book!
