Which has the most impact - home life or school life

12/07/11

This is a question posed by ukedchat during the poll this week and is one that I would really like to hear fellow teacher's opinions on. It is my view that a child's education thrives when home and school life work seamlessly together. It's becoming a great deal easier for teachers to inspire children to continue their learning at home through the use of educational technology. In this article I will discuss some practical ways teachers can do this.

Quad blogging - this is an amazing technique which ensures your class blog will receive a guaranteed audience. When students discover that other children are regularly viewing their work and commenting on it, it gives them an immense sense of pride and motivation to continue to contribute both at home and at school. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest an incredible rise in literacy levels when a class blog receives lots of engagement. A great example of this in action can be found at Mr Mitchell's blog.

Games based learning - a number of teachers I have met recently are advocating this approach to learning as they see it enhancing student engagement. Interactive games can be a very powerful tool if they are used correctly by teachers and can often inspire children to continue their learning at home. Teachers that adopt this approach use games as inspiration for projects in subjects across the curriculum, such as writing, mathematics and art. Children are now even able to invent their own online games through the use of programs like Zondle This encourages a greater depth of understanding from a student on a particular topic. It also fosters a sense of student-led learning whereby they inspire each other to drive their own learning both at home and at school. This is something we believe in strongly at Night Zookeeper as we move towards being a collaborative learning platform where children can teach and challenge one another on a daily basis.

In summary I believe that neither home or school has a larger impact on a child's education but together they can be a very powerful tool. As teachers we need to find as many ways as possible to encourage this link to happen. Please tweet me with any more ideas relating to this question, I am very interested to learn more.

Paul
nightzookeeper