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Resident Education Today ed tech columnist Charlotte Beckhurst this month casts her eye over some of the software available to aid literacy in the classroom.
T
his month I am writing in response to a request from one our readers for an overview of Literacy Software aids. It’s
that time of year where new devices and software are being looked at for the upcoming year and perhaps you are in a position where you have the devices but now you need to think about what to put on them which will enhance and scaffold the learning. Well, look no further. Here is a quick overview of what is available in the market right now. First of all, Audible is a great one to check out. An online audio
book store which contains more than 150,000 books to download and listen to. Sign up as a school and you get a number of books a month to download and you can share them with the children. Assign stories for homework and they can read exciting books in their own time, promoting that strong passion for reading which is so vital in a child’s development. Clicker 6 is an online word processing tool which is great at
supporting children to form and write sentences. Children start writing in the program and its brilliant built-in tools and child- friendly interface promote independence. The program supports a range of abilities and enables children to translate their thoughts into writing. As children complete a sentence, Clicker’s voice reads it out and encourages them to review what they have written and correct any errors. Children can supplement their writing with their own photos or with the paint tool within the program. There are also writing frames and grids for teachers to download to scaffold children’s learning where required. You should definitely look up the
www.thinkalink.co.uk website.
With its focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar in the new curriculum, this is a great website which contains thousands of links for words to support children with spelling those words which are just too tricky to remember. Currently a website but soon to be an app, children can use the site to look up words they are unsure of and then get a link, whether it be a rhyme or a visual connection, to help them remember how to spell the word. Sir Linkalot, aka Andy Salmon, has got thousands of links which range from EYFS all the way through to secondary and beyond. His work has even been endorsed by the British Dyslexia Association. The last one I want to mention is Reading Eggs. Another great
reading software available to both Key Stage One and Two children which supports their reading development, Reading Eggs allows children to have an avatar which travels on the Reading Eggspress to a floating island. Children have comprehension challenges to complete in order to collect points and golden eggs. Children love reading the books and collecting points. There is also additional material for teachers and it shows the progress each child has made according to the stories read, spelling, quizzes and much more. If you would like any further information on literacy software
aids do tweet me or send me an email at
beckhursteducation@gmail.com Charlotte Beckhurst is a Microsoft Educator Expert. She is an
Assistant Head at a primary school in Tottenham and runs training courses on using technology in the classroom. She blogs and shares resources at @CharBeckhurst and
www.chicmeek.blogspot.com
uwww.chicmeek.blogspot.com
Unqualified vs. Qualified Teachers
T
his month, regular columnist Kirsty Bertenshaw looks beyond STEM at
the debate surrounding the use in schools of unqualified teachers. In April this year, the BBC published an
article entitled “should we worry about unqualified teachers?” stating that 400,000 children are being taught by unqualified teachers ending with opposing thoughts: is this forming a diverse workforce or missing essential skills for the profession? Are unqualified teachers providing the education parents expect for their children? And are they pricing more qualified teachers out of jobs? Normally, some sort of formal training has to take place in order to get
Kirsty Bertenshaw
qualified teacher status (QTS), before going into a school and successfully completing a year as a newly qualified teacher (NQT). Unqualified teachers do not need any formal training before they begin, and this is reflected in their pay, which can be up to £6,000 less than an NQT. Obviously, the salary difference is an incentive for cash- strapped state
schools to choose unqualified candidates during interviews rather than expensive experienced teachers. It used to be common for NQT’s to be employed over experienced teachers to lower the expenditure on staff, with later career moves being limited for teachers that did not wish to be in a management role who were often told they were overqualified for the post. The only consideration with NQT’s is the support required while they continue their professional development, provided by the more experienced staff, which is of course an even more important requirement to unqualified teachers which do lack experience and training. “Unqualified” is a broad term to use for teachers, not differentiating
between those with experience and those with no training in education whatsoever, making this a more complicated issue than it first appears to be. Unqualified doesn’t necessarily mean inexperienced in terms of teaching. Higher level teaching assistants may make have many years experience and certainly have training in behaviour management and effective teaching strategies, making them ideal unqualified teachers for areas struggling to recruit permanent staff.
Fullfact.org explains how the rules around employing teachers have
changed over the years, with independent schools always having the freedom to employ unqualified teachers based on their specialist knowledge rather than their qualifications to teach. Interestingly, they report that unqualified does not always translate to a lack of experience and Ofsted have observed teaching by those less experienced to be weaker than those more experienced without regard to qualification. The other end of the scale is where I would advise caution; many people
are attracted to teaching as a career change, seeing it as a simple way to earn an income and not understanding the skills required to teach successfully. With all due respect, it is easy to spot an unqualified supply teacher by observing them in classroom for just a few minutes. These individuals have not had behaviour management, child protection or any basic teacher training. I have witnessed unqualified teachers pleading with students to listen, or complete some of the work set by their normal teacher. A senior colleague even told of an unqualified supply teacher (who had actually applied for a post at the school) arguing with her about the genetic inheritance of identical twins in front of a class. There are a lot of reasons to favour qualified teachers in terms of
professionalism and training, but not all candidates should be discounted based on the label “unqualified” without determining just how unqualified they are.
For more information:
uwww.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32160792 u
https://fullfact.org/education/how_many_unqualified_teachers_ free _schools_academies-39812
uwww.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/09/free-school-head-no-teaching- qualifications-leaves-job u
http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/consum/groups/public/ @salariespensionsconditions/documents/nas_download/nasuwt_012874.pdf
uwww.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/10/rise-number-unqualified- teachers-state-funded-schools-england
July 2015
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