Teaching typing

Not actually a battle between handwriting and typing

This post was inspired by a Twitter discussion this week between, amongst others, @oliverquinlan, @APrimaryNQT, @tomhenzley and @KnikiDavies on the merits of handwriting and word processing.

Despite the humble word processor being one of the ICT tools that has been in use in schools the longest, it can often be one of the most poorly used opportunities; and at the heart of this lies pupils’ lack of speed when typing.

Over the course of last year, I made a concerted effort to rectify this with the Y5s I had the pleasure of teaching every Thursday.  I introduced them to a few websites that would enable them to improve their keyboard skills, then at the start of our weekly ICT lesson in the suite they would practise.  This had the added advantage of enabling me to solve the inevitable technical glitches that we would encounter at log on.

As the year went on, I gradually added more web sites to give them variety.  Some of these (like the BBC Dance mat typing) were designed to teach children to touch type, but most of them were just focusing on improving speed of letter finding. 

I’m sure there are many people who feel that children should be taught to touch type and I’m not disagreeing with that, but I firmly believe that children will find the way that works best for them.  Some of the children would try the touch typing, not get on with it and revert to the keyboard skill sites.  Others would be desperate to try to master the ‘proper’ way of doing it.  Some changed their approach over the course of the year - but all of them wanted to do the typing practice; all year.  They never got bored of it.

The links were stored on a page of our Learning Platform that didn’t require logging in to: this meant that they could access them even if they had forgotten their password, and also that they could practise in their own time too.

I didn’t really notice the children’s typing speed improve over the course of the year, but towards the end of the summer term, when we were working on a collaborative project, I was suddenly amazed at the speed of all the children.  Also, in their review of the year, many of them mentioned how pleased they were that they could type quickly.

From a battle point of view, I’m sure there are champions for both sides of the handwriting/typing skills debate.  Personally, I believe they are both life skills we should be developing (at least for the time being!); but more importantly, I feel we should be encouraging children to make a choice as to which they prefer, and which is best in any given situation. 

Sites encouraging touch typing

Dance Mat Typing

Big Keyboard Game

Chameleon Games

Sites to improve keyboard familiarisation:

Super Hyper Spider

Key Man

Bubbles

Falling Letters

Monkey Climber

Barracuda

Beat the Goalie

Typing of the Ghosts

Air Typer

Magic Library

Parachuting Sheep

Work-life balance

Am I the only one battling to switch off?

My ten days with Twitter has inspired me and reminded me that teaching is far more than a job as far as I'm concerned.  Which is a good thing.  I think...

But I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a problem with all this educational enthusiasm that I have been treating myself to recently.

Nicola Stables' recent blog post, Switching Off, made a lot of sense to me;  the importance of going off for a week or so and not thinking about school or education.  And a couple of days ago I tried it - for a few hours.  I went and had a relaxing time in my local spa, which I enjoyed thoroughly.  But as I packed my bag to leave, I needed to decide on the book to take with me, and I nearly chose one of the education related titles I've treated myself to over the past few months and haven't had the chance to read yet.

Now what's that about?  I knew I was off to relax and to forget about work, but even so my first thought was not the novel by the side of my bed, but a book about learning.  I'm not saying that I think wanting to read a book about learning is a bad thing, far from it, but I do think that the difficulty to consciously try to step away from the job is a worry.

And then I thought about the fact that, as much as I love the time that the holidays offer, I never quite settle.  I had always assumed it was the difficulty with suddenly having so much freedom of choice and no one to demand anything of me (you may guess at this point that I have no family at home!) but I'm not so sure.   Is the actual problem that I can't switch off because that would be like switching off a part of me?

A few days ago I posted:  

#Iamateacherbecause I am a teacher: it's not a job, it's who I am. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

and I think this is the issue.  I don't feel a little lost in the holidays because I have too much time on my hands or because I  miss the company  of my colleagues (although both those things are the case); I feel lost in the holidays because I feel I should stop being a teacher and focusing on learning and education - and I've just realised that I don't want to.

Does this sound really weird to everyone else, or are there others out there who share my dilemma?  I'd love to know (and don't worry, I can cope with being weird!).

Twitter one week on

The battle between alleys and valleys

So I’ve now been using Twitter for a whole week.  I’ve heard lots about it in the past – generally from people I considered quite ‘techy’ and often about using it in the classroom.  Nothing that I’d heard ever made me consider it was an avenue I was that desperate to wander down – more a slightly suspect alley that didn’t look at all appealing, even for a tentative stroll.

And then there was Life.  As a member of the Teacher Design Group for Life I was sat in a very exciting meeting where half the people in the room were tweeting about what we doing – as we were doing it – it was adding to the conversation in the room, and people from outside of the room were joining in the discussion.  I have to admit my first reaction was a tiny bit of panic.  This was the alley that had often looked a little suspect – too much litter and not enough light.

But I’m brave.  Sometimes.  I knew that these people were coping with it, excited by it even.  So it couldn’t be that bad, surely?  And besides which, they all had such interesting things to say and if these conversations were going to keep going on out of this room that was DEFINITELY something I wanted to be a part of.  And I was fairly sure that once upon a time I had set up a Twitter account.

So I peered cautiously down the alley.  Luckily a few friendly faces from that meeting were there already – it’s always easier when you’re welcomed in.  I started to look at what they had posted; and explored a few links.  And actually followed them.  I was getting further into this alley and realised that, if you had someone to guide you a little, there wasn’t much litter – and there was so much light!  Not at all scary – in fact fascinating and exciting (and not a little overwhelming.)

Then I remembered a few friends who I was almost certain would be around somewhere – and they were: more posts to read, links to explore and more following. And people were following me!  And not just my friends…

Now if I really was in the dodgy alley I had thought I was venturing into this would have been an issue, but by this time I had realised it was no alley – more an ever-growing, ever-changing landscape.  (I’d have quite like to use valley at this point in my rather over the top metaphor but I can’t cope with the alley/valley rhyme so I thought I’d leave it!)

And now I’m hooked.

I’m hooked because this is one of the best CPD opportunities I’ve ever had – and it’s only just started.
I’m hooked because people have been so welcoming that I feel I belong here and I’m not expected to some how bide my time, pay my dues, work my way up.
I’m hooked because I’ve found somewhere where the people who I am listening to and talking with are people who I get: I understand their ideas and their issues and their passion and I can relate to it all.
I’m hooked because this is such a positive place to communicate and collaborate and create.

And I’m hooked because this is not the strange buildings I once explored called uk.education.teachers and uk.education.chat where people were generally friendly, but there was often a sense of negativity and too often people would feed the trolls! (Look it up in the history books if this means nothing to you.)

So thank you to everyone I’ve met so far on Twitter, I look forward to learning and sharing lots more with you all, and thank you particularly to @FionaAS because she was definitely the one who inspired me to overcome my fears.

(And by the way, I do know that there are downsides: I am beginning to think in tweets, time just disappears, I would need to be superhuman to follow up every interesting link, and if you get involved in #edchat then when you try to go to sleep at 12.30am all you can see are at symbols and hashtags!)

Decisions, decisions

This isn't the first time I've thought about starting a blog. Indeed this isn't the first blog I've started; but this time it feels different. It feels like I need to do it. In my head I've been having so many monologues that sound like they should be written down, including one on whether I should blog or not.

So today I've done it. I've made the decision. And I really hope that it was the right one; otherwise here's just one more one post blog out there littering the virtual communication universe.