First few weeks..

The children in my class are very much engaged in using the voting systems. The LA children are able to access this technology easy as they only have to generally press one button for a response.

So far, I have used them in Science (e.g. to label the human skeleton), numeracy (to enter answers to calculations entered on a calculator; the pick a correct response for addition and subtraction), literacy (for word level work such as to, too and two, deciding which homophone fits correctly into a sentence).

The staff have also used them to fill in our annual staff questionnaire, as responses can be truly annonymous. The children sign in with their own ID, although some of them do forget it so i have had to get them to write their ID's down... Also I have found that the receiver doesnt take kindly to being set up long before you use it, i have had to just plug it into the USB at the moment I need to use it.

First go

Had a go at using with it my class before half term, had a few technical hitches...kept not recognised handsets but i managed to sort it out - had to switch them all off and then back on again and start the whole set of questions again...the usual thing with technology - switching on and off usually does the trick!!
Planning to experiment more this half term

Storywriting

Kathy and I brainstormed a number of ideas for how a voting system might be used, firstly linking to Literacy. We looked at one example of literacy week planning, and chatted for ages about how voting 'opportunities' could be integrated. I don't want to steal her thunder, so just one idea...
Use voting for children to choose the direction and context for their storywriting. Offer selections of possible settings, characters, key event etc with options for 'other', so that pupils ideas can be included too. If a good 'other' is suggested, you could always re-vote. If this is repeated in future writing sessions, the aspect chosen in the last writing session could then be omitted, so that particular groups can't dominate by always choosing the same option!

First contact

Hi, this is my first post.....
Just been trained on the software, all very exciting. Planning to do a quick quiz with my class this afternoon (they've all spotted the equipment and are desperate to have a go so i have no choice, honest).
Will let you know how it goes!

Kathy :)

Welcome

Welcome.
This blog is for teachers from Derbyshire schools, who are involved in voting projects. Hopefully it will be a place to share ideas, thoughts, successes, curriculum links...