ADE institute 2015 – ‘Do you get it now?’

August 19, 2015August 27, 2015 danoakes1Leave a comment

It was a strange feeling to wake up on the morning of the 23rd of April 2015 and open an email congratulating me on my successful application to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. It was an accolade that I had been desparate to achieve for a long time and finally here it was.

Over the next few hours as twitter exploded with messages of delight and excitement but also understandably of disappointment, I couldn’t help but think to myself – ‘what difference is being an ADE actually going to make?’

Fast forward three months and having attended my first ADE institute I can honestly say I have been fortunate enough (in both a personal and professional way) to attend the most challenging, rewarding, inspiring and exhausting CPD event ever!Read More »

The long road to Apple Distinguished Educator

May 12, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes13 Comments

In 2013 I applied to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. After a lengthy wait I received the following e-mail.

I was gutted.Read More »

How a 1:1 iPad deployment can enhance pupil collaboration

March 30, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes11 Comment

When our school made the decision to go 1:1 in year 6, we had several parents who expressed concerns as to whether or not the children would become too isolated. Would they begin to prefer working by themselves and avoid collaborating with their peers? If they have their own device – why would they need to interact with each other?Read More »

Digital movies to engage pupils in maths

March 8, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes11 Comment

I recently happened across the following TED talk by Dan Meyer, discussing the role of digital media in his maths classes. I was pretty inspired by how he uses film to motivate pupils and improve their problem solving skills.

It got me thinking about how I could use digital media with my own pupils to enthuse them about problem solving.Read More »

QRafty maths!

March 4, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes1Leave a comment

QR codes, or Quick Response codes.

For a long time I’ve struggled to see their relevance in a classroom. However I’m slowly becoming a convert!

Apart from the obvious ease of being able to guide pupils to websites without having to get them to correctly type in a huge long web address I’ve recently been using them quite a lot in maths. I just want to share a very quick activity that is easy to set up, but that instantly gets everyone on their feet problem solving!Read More »

Don’t leave anyone behind!

February 12, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes1Leave a comment

toughmudderil3 There are some truly incredible advocates of technology out there at the moment. Twitter, for example, is a phenomenal resource of people who are creating the most incredible and inspiring ways of using technology to enthuse, engage and energise children and indeed adults.

However, it’s important to realise that there are still many practitioners out there who are still finding this technological path before them quite challenging and treacherous. Even more so, there are people that have invested in the iPad as a tool to use in their classrooms, without the time or indeed the support network around them to truly use them for anything beyond the basic uses of their existing class PC.Read More »

iPads in sport – four of my favourite apps!

January 28, 2015May 12, 2015 danoakes1Leave a comment

They seem polar opposites don’t they? Technology and sport.

If you draw your conclusions based upon stereotypes – people that enjoy technology don’t do much sport, and people that are incredibly sporty shy away from sitting in front of a computer.

Furthermore, those of us from the 80s vividly remember Ivan Drago – who had all the technology money could buy, and he got soundly beaten by Rocky, who had nothing but his drive, passion and ambition – and a sledge full of stones, to help him train.Read More »

Foldr to the rescue!

December 17, 2014May 12, 2015 danoakes1Leave a comment

Saving and accessing your work – anywhere, anytime and on any device!

When we first implemented the iPad scheme there were many issues that, at the time, there didn’t appear to be many answers for, or at least many robust answers; printing was always a problem, deploying apps in a quick and cost effective manner, allowing pupils to have the freedom of their own device, whilst at the same time monitoring what they were doing with it, etc!Read More »