‘making homework count’ engaging parents authorsbarry corrigan, millennium integrated primary...

‘Making Homework Count’Engaging Parents

Authors Barry Corrigan, Millennium Integrated Primary School, Saintfield, Co Down

Enthuse ChildrenEngage ParentsMake Homework Count

Objectives

Microsoft Community Clips, Microsoft Movie Player, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, Learning NI environment, Internet Explorer, Encarta Encyclopedia, Adobe Reader, ACTIVprimary.

Software

Description Pupils access materials used in the classroom to support their learning. The resources are placed in the Learning NI environment provided by C2kNI and they are then supported as they complete homework.

There is email support from the class teacher as well as online discussion forums for the children to participate in.

Learning Areas Homework – Numeracy and Literacy, Thinking Skills, Online Collaboration, Community Forums, Virtual Learning Environment

Class Primary 7 (AGES 10 AND 11)

Parental Engagement and Collaboration;

Homework Support;

Family Learning;

Social Inclusion;

Lifelong Learning.

Keywords

Project Overview


Project Objectives

Children – Set the Cycle

Can’t understand the

school work!

Find the

homework

difficult!

Don’t

want to

learnNo support or help

Children



school work!

Find the

homework

difficult!

Frustrated

Can’t support or help

Parents!

Project Objectives

Parents – Want to Break the Cycle


Make the school

work accessibleSet

interactive

activities

Create

Interested

Learners Offer online support

with resources and

email

Teacher

Project Objectives

Teacher - Breaking the Cycle!


Teacher Planning and Management

Come on – get involved!

Background & Planning:

Video – Classroom Practice and Homework Follow Up

(See how the classroom is extended into the home environment)

•My pupils love using ICT resources in class.

•If they enjoy it – why not use it?

•Parents see their children using the computer for educational purposes.

•The new Curriculum in Northern Ireland is placing an increased importance on ICT in learning – both in school and at home.

I want that to be a point of contact between the children’s learning and their parents.

Classroom Images:Look at how I build the link between school and home.

DocumentsThe Online Classroom

Background and Planning

Discussion Forums


Teaching Resources

Student Project Overview:

LearningNI is the virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that the children access for their homework.

Community Clips Video showing some of the areas within LNI

Due to Child Protection live LEARNINGNI access will be available on the floor in Berlin

Student Project Overview:

LearningNI is the virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that the children access for their homework.

Community Clips Video showing some of the areas within LNI

Due to Child Protection live LEARNINGNI access will be available on the floor in Berlin


Assessment and Standards

So – have we seen the end of the school bell?

Is the school day effectively extended into the home?

Am I meeting my objectives?

Parent Evaluation: What do the parents think?

VIDEO – Parent discussing the benefit for her child who has specific needs

VIDEO – Excellent video of a parent, who is also a teacher, discussing how she sees LNI working for her child.

Classroom Assistant: Looking in from the outside

(Superbly entertaining video demonstrating the excitement of my ‘mature’ Classroom Assistant about the work going on in class and at home)

VIDEO

Parent Evaluation


Assessment and Standards - Continued

Teacher Evaluation: What do I think?

Assessment and Pupil Tracking: See how the learning is tracked.

COMMUNITY CLIPS VIDEO

(Showing the data screens within LNI)

assessment

Pupil Evaluation: What do the children think?

PUPIL A VIDEO - How homework has changed for him

PUPIL B VIDEO - Discussion Boards

PUPIL C VIDEO - Using the Library Resources

Children's Evaluation

Teacher Evaluation


Assessment and Standards – Meeting the Objectives

Children – The Cycle is Changed!

Find the class work

interesting

Access

resources to

extend

learning

Can’t wait to

learn

Email support if

needed

Children


school work!

Find the

homework

difficult!

No support or help

Don’t

want to

learn


Can see the classroom

activities

Understand the

homework

activities

Interested!

Can see the resources to

offer help

Parents!

Assessment and Standards – Meeting the Objectives

Parents – See the Cycle Broken


school work!

Find the

homework

difficult!Can’t support or help

Frustrated


Why an Integrated School?

Windows Live MovieMaker film I composed about

Integrated Education in Northern Ireland

Our education system separates children according to their religion!

Integrated schools were started as a means of addressing the violence in Northern Ireland..

Religious differences were at the heart of the violence

If the children could be educated together, then we could make progress on improving the lives of everyone

by breaking down suspicions and sectarianism.

Integrated schools break these religious barriers, bringing children together for a

common purpose – understanding each other, building bridges and to giving an

innovative education!

An Integrated Primary School gives parents the chance to leave the ‘old ways’ of Northern Ireland behind and

make a new beginning!


Millennium Integrated Primary School (School Website)

Barry Corrigan

Who are we? (Link to school prospectus)

Millennium Integrated Primary School opened in September 2000 with just 10 pupils in a house in Newtownbreda Park, Belfast. Five years later it opened its building on the present site on the Belfast Road, Saintfield. The school now has 226 pupils, including a Nursery Unit which opened in September 2008.

Our kids made this excellent video about the school’s history in 2007

PART 1

PART 2

We like to feel that we develop independent, creative and interested pupils.

Who am I?

I am the Vice-Principal, Primary 7 (age 10-11years) teacher and

ICT Co-ordinator.

Why do I do it?I have a keen interest in computers, especially gaming, and have ambitions of having this medium accepted more into mainstream interest through the use of the Nintendo ’Wii’ for Dyspraxic children; incorporation of Nintendo DS into maths classes and future use of Sony’s PS3 game ’Little Big Planet’ for collaborative game design.

Have a look at some of the regional television coverage we have received highlighting our

innovative use of technology - VIDEO