As we move with increasing momentum into the new academic year, we will be hearing more stories and gaining greater insight into the activity of our Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIEEs) and Teacher Ambassadors. Anyone reading the blog over the last few week should be familiar with Natalie Burgess (TA), through her pieces about the Microsoft Educator Community, and reports the recent West College Scotland IT Symposium and CoderDojo events.
Today we’re pleased to share a fantastic Sway from Sarah Clark, another of our MIEEs based in Scotland. In her Sway, she provides a number of different examples of how her biology students have used Sways to demonstrate their understanding of a wide range of topics, and put a more creative twist on experiment write-ups. But before we get into the Sway (further below), here’s a little more about Sarah, in her own words:
“I am a Biology and Science teacher at Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline Fife. I have been teaching for 16 years and this is my second year on the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert programme. In school I am part of the Digital Working Group, Teaching and Learning Working Group and the STEAM working group (this keeps me very busy) as well as teaching all classes from S2 to Advanced Higher. I am passionate about outdoor education and active learning and have been using technology in my class to help facilitate and enhance these aspects of learning and teaching.
I have been looking at ways to integrate technologies into my classroom in innovative ways and love sharing these ideas with other staff and seeing them in action being used by the pupils. Digital skills are fundamental nowadays for pupils. As an SQA marker we now mark exam scripts online and results are recorded digitally – Jobs require people to have these skills not only in the future but now. It is part of everyday life and as teachers we have a responsibility to provide opportunity for pupils to improve their digital skills. As a mum of two I want to see children confident about using technology for productivity and communication.
I have been using Sway with the pupils in my Biology and Science classes now for about 1 year. Pupils like using the technology as it gives them a professional way of presenting their information without spending a long time on format and layout. They felt it was intuitive and once up and running they were keen to use it as an alternative to PowerPoint. I use it to mainly for pupils to create online digital reports. Sways can be easily embedded into websites or OneNote notebook. This sway has others sways added so can be used to collate a whole class set of presentations!”
View Sarah’s Sway below, or click here to view it in its own browser window. To start creating you own Sways, simply visit Sway.com