SMARTBoard Tip – Round the World

Hi Tom

I’m Lesley, a Year Six teacher in Auckland, New Zealand. You left a comment on our classroom blog about our Myst writing. The students were really excited when they realised that a teacher in the UK had been reading/viewing their work. We have only been blogging for 2 months and it was the first international comment we have had!

I was at a conference here in Auckland about 8 weeks ago and Ewan McIntosh was one of the keynote speakers. I went to one of his breakouts on using gaming to stimulate creative writing.

I have been playing Myst III with the whole class for about 45 minutes at a time. We didn’t start the writing until we had played about 3-4 times. The students also looked at Tim Ryland’s video clips of children reciting their writing. It was hard work at first because they all wanted to be ‘on the controls’. It has been a learning curve for all of us. Slowly they have learnt to play cooperatively and recognise each others areas of skill.

At our school we have had some good PD on developing childen’s writing over the last two years and using Myst III just fitted perfectly into the model. I have been amazed at the resonse of some of my boys.

Some of the children were quite keen to write back to you. Since you also teach year5/6 would you be interested in skyping so my kids can chat to yours? Would be a bit of a challenge with the timing, but if you are interested could be fun.

I will be in UK over Christmas and New year visiting family and friends – also going to BETT in London.

Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know.

cheers
Lesley Harrison