This week we’re going to discuss one of the most powerful parts of the Learn VLE, and one which can reduce your workload and bring a lot more things online. Everything I’ll be doing today will cover setting up and administrating the homework – next week we’ll be showing you how to “set and forget” a whole term’s worth of it!
To start with, go to the Learnsite you want to embed the homework on – whether this is a dedicated page or part of another one is up to you. Enter Edit mode and click Insert > Exercise.

Once you’ve chosen where to put it, the following dialog will pop up:

Give it a descriptive title and explain the exercise in the two free-text boxes. The checkboxes below let you customise how you’d like it to present. The due date will stop accepting responses after a set time and date, while enabling feedback will let you give more detailed responses to students’ work.
Now you can save and publish the page, because as far as the editing is concerned, you’re all done – School Jotter will take care of the rest. Here’s what an exercise will look like – your students’ version will be identical but without the “See the results” link in the top right.

When your students access the page they’ll be invited to upload and submit files – alternatively, if you have Office 365 integration, they can be imported directly from OneDrive, and once done will see this page:

Now let’s go back to you as a teacher/administrator. Clicking on “See the results” at the top of your document will bring you here:

I’ve already graded the submissions of pupils 1 and 2, so let’s take a look at pupil 3 and grade their work. Click a student’s username and you’ll see this screen:

Through the boxes at the bottom you can assign a grade and score (make sure to click the “Save grade” and “Save score” buttons!). Additionally, the “Add new feedback” button will bring up a free text box, allowing you to give more detailed feedback. Once this is all filled out, the student will receive a notification when visiting their version of the page informing them that they have feedback – they can also respond to this as a comment, and so can you.

As you saw earlier on the results screen, you’re able to view the grades of the whole class as a handy list, as well as seeing who’s submitted their work! Even after the time has expired, pupils (and teachers) can of course go back in and see results.
Want to try this out for yourself? Check out the Learn app in the app store, you can get a 30-day trial for free!
Don’t miss next week’s tip, where I’ll be showing you how to use timed content objects to let you create an entire term’s worth of homework in one go!
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We’ve just pushed the latest update to School Jotter live. You might have noticed these are coming more frequently now – we’re aiming for smaller, more frequent, more agile releases every two weeks, rather than a big one every few months.

Site

• A new Files Download element has been added that allows you to share files and folders to your school website.
• Pinterest has been added to the social networks list (compatible bespoke themes only.)
• Extra security has been added to blogs that have been embedded on the website.
• An issue that broke pagination of embedded blogs has been resolved.
• An issue where CSV results were exported incorrectly from Forms has been resolved.
• An issue where images could not be removed from News stories has been resolved.

Continue reading →

Whether you are doing your homework, preparing for an assignment or studying for an exam, it is very easy to lose motivation to study if you do not feel organised, you are distracted or just feeling tired. Sounds familiar? These simple study tips will help you get in the right mindset.

Create the perfect studying environment

The first step to smarter studying at home is creating the perfect studying environment. Make sure your study area is quiet, comfortable and free from distractions. Try to experiment with different study areas. For example, if you get too distracted when you are at home, try studying in the school library or in any other quiet area. If you are not required to use technologies for your studying, try switching off all of your devices.

Stay organised

Use an academic planner to keep track of your assignments, homework and deadlines.You can use a traditional paper based planner or use the resources available on your school website or online. Always organise your learning materials. Keep all materials for different subjects in different folders, use colour coding or labelling to make your studying more effective. Most importantly, not all organisational systems work for all students, so make sure you develop a system that works for you.

Manage your time

Effective time management is one of the most useful skills that you can learn while at school. This is a lifelong skill that will benefit you in many ways. Plan how much time you want to spend studying a specific subject every day and set yourself realistic deadlines. Do not forget about any extracurricular activities that you might have and make sure you have enough time for studying.

Communicate with your peers and teachers

Engage with your peers on social media for asking questions, sharing your thoughts and resources or collaborating on different projects. What is more, teachers are always more than happy to answer your questions and to help you with your studying. This also shows that you care about your academic performance which can eventually lead to improved grades!

Turn your notes into flashcards

Turning your notes into flashcards is very useful when you are studying for an assignment or an exam. For instance, if you are studying geometry formulas, write the name of the formula on one side and the formula itself on the other side of the card. Use paper index cards or try some online resources and mobile apps for creating flash cards.

Take a break

Your brain can only take a certain amount of information at a time. If you do not take regular breaks, you will most likely find it difficult to memorise information and you will end up feeling stressed and frustrated. For every hour that you study, you should take at least a 15 minute break to do something that takes your mind away from studying. For example, go for a walk, listen to some music, play a game, chat with your friends or even take a nap.

Reward yourself

Positive reinforcement is a great tool for staying motivated. Reward yourself in small ways after completing tasks. Treat yourself to having your favourite snack, watching a movie or playing a computer game. Find whatever keeps you going!

Study all the time

Finally, try your best to study all the time instead of studying a day before your test or exam. Reviewing your notes daily and learning in smaller chunks will help you stay organised and will lead to better knowledge retention. This will definitely lead to achieving better academic results.

Studying does not have to be very stressful and time-consuming all the time. It is all about taking a different approach and finding what works for your. Hopefully, you found these tips useful.

Check out our infographic on the pros and cons of homework in primary schools. Teachers should take them into consideration when deciding whether homework is beneficial for their students.

Script:
Homework: Beneficial or Harmful for pupils?
No homework policy has been implemented in several countries, however, some experts still argue on its benefits for student learning.
The Pros

• Homework helps students consolidate what was taught during the school day.
• It lets parents learn what their kids are doing at school.
• Development of self-discipline, time management and research skills.
• Homework facilitates rote learning

The Cons

• Homework can be very stressful for students.
• It drains pupils’ free time for playing, sports and hobbies.
• Students feel their family time is reduced.
• Hatred for a subject can be developed due to the workload.

There in no doubt that homework in primary schools should be as light as possible. Teachers should always try and make it fun by using learning apps like the ones on School Jotter to increase pupils engagement.

Many educators argue that homework can have negative effects to students such as causing unnecessary stress, frustration and exhaustion. Especially for primary schools, there is no evidence that homework can help pupils with academic success. Sometimes, it can contribute to loss of interest in learning instead.
From the other side, many think that homework is absolutely necessary for students’ learning as it prepares them for bigger end exams and it lets pupils work closer with their teachers and classmates.
We have created an infographic with some of the pros and cons of homework in primary schools to help teachers decide whether homework is necessary for their pupils.
We hope you enjoy it…

There is no doubt homework in primary school should be as light as possible. Teachers should always try and make it fun by using learning apps like the ones on School Jotter to increase pupils’ engagement in the classroom.

The importance of spelling

Learning how to spell words is one of the most useful lifelong skills and it builds the basic foundation that all children will need throughout their education and life in general. Learning how to spell is very important for other basic skills, including writing and reading. These skills support children in achieving good results and progressing through various grades. What is more, being good at spelling may have an impact on the future careers of students.

One of the hot topics surrounding the education sector also relates to learning spelling in schools. The introduction of compulsory spelling tests for all key stage 2 pupils in England is expected to improve the literacy of students.

The new spelling tests are justified by making sure the students are prepared for the secondary school. This is expected to eventually improve the standards of learning and to raise England’s position in reading and writing. However, it has caused a number of negative responses in terms of being unnecessary and putting too much pressure on pupils, causing stress or even discriminating against students who might have special learning requirements caused my mental health.

Another point that some people make against spelling tests or even against teaching spelling in school is based on the irrelevance of learning how to spell in the age of technologies.

How technologies affect the way students learn to spell?

The rise of different learning technologies causes discussions on how they could be used to support education in schools. Some people see endless opportunities in how modern technologies could benefit education, while others only see the negatives associated with technologies or even believe that technology should be banned in schools. Talking about the relationship between spelling and modern technologies, most of us are familiar with ‘autocorrect’ on our smartphones or other online resources for checking spelling. Does that mean that that it is less important for students to learn spelling at school?

Having good spelling skills is just as important as it was before different technologies were available. Although technologies provide great alternative ways for practicing spelling, it should not be assumed that learning how to spell is less relevant nowadays. Mobile phones correct our spelling and if we are not sure how to spell something, it is easy to check it online. However, different learning technologies should be seen as opportunities for learning and practising spelling and we should not encourage students to view technology as a replacement for their own thinking as there will always be situations where technology might not be available.

It is clear that it is very important to learn how to spell and it should not be considered less important in the age of technology. However, it might be worth focusing more on teaching spelling in many different ways and helping students achieve high standards without causing unnecessary stress by making them take complicated tests for spelling.

We’ve created a handy infographic to help explain some of the more confusing aspects of website creation, click on the image for a higher resolution version!

How do you imagine a modern 21st century classroom? The reality is that the school environment in which most students learn remains old-fashioned in terms of how the classroom is designed and how the students learn. There are many things that could help modernise the classroom as well as to improve teaching and learning. The improvements you can make for your classroom range from simply changing seating arrangements to integrating latest technologies into the classroom. There is no right answer and every school should choose what works for their classrooms. Here are some characteristics of a modern 21st century classroom.

Technology integration

This is probably the most obvious solution for creating a modern classroom. Integrating technology into the classroom can make learning more fun and engaging and it can help to provide students with essential skills that will prepare them for the environment they will enter as modern day workers.

For instance, there is a number of easily accessible online learning resources that could be used for learning languages, practicing spelling or learning maths. You can also experiment with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where you allow your students to use their own devices for learning. This is a great way to encourage independent learning as well as for creating personalised learning plans. Not to mention the enthusiasm and excitement created by letting students use their own devices! Gamification is another amazing tool for creating a fun atmosphere in the classroom and for encouraging collaborative learning.

Flexible learning environment

Consider experimenting with seating arrangements and see what works best for your students. Think about whether your classroom layout and seating arrangements have a positive impact on learning. For instance, a traditional arrangement of the classroom where teacher is at the front and students are in rows facing the same direction, might not be the best solution for encouraging collaboration.

What is more, learning can take place anywhere and should not be limited to staying in the classroom all the time. Use other school facilities or other locations to make learning more engaging. Remember that a change to physical environment is believed to encourage creativity and collaborative work.

Teacher as facilitator

Most classrooms consist of tables and chairs, usually arranged so that children face a teacher and the teacher is considered as the source of all knowledge. However, the role of educators in the 21st century has evolved. That does not mean that the role of a teacher is less important. What it means is that teachers are expected to become facilitators in terms of inspiring students to take ownership in their own learning by providing them with opportunities to learn key concepts and to discover the tools they need for learning.

Collaborative learning

Learning through collaboration is one of the most effective forms of learning. As mentioned before, there are many ways for encouraging collaboration in the classroom. It can be done by integrating technology and using tools like gamification or engaging in discussions on social media. Other collaborative learning activities include group projects, debates or peer reviews. All these different activities are great for developing collaboration as well as for improving other useful skills like problem solving, creativity and critical thinking.

Characteristics of a 21st century classroom

Although, there are many different ways in which any classroom can be changed to meet the needs of modern learners, technology plays a big role in developing most of these characteristics for modern classrooms. If you are interested in learning about the evolution of technology in schools, check our infographic here.

Before we start, don’t forget to check out our new helpsite and knowledgebase at education.webanywhere.co.uk.
It’s running our custom-built Promatum software for distributed training, meaning it’s easy to use, lean and you can get it on any device you like. Give it a spin and let us know what you think – the same resources are there, they’re just now in a much easier, more accessible format!
Today we’re looking at sitemaps. Before we begin though, a bit of background on what a sitemap is. First of all, it’s a tool for search engines to use, not for end-users! It tells Google and others how your site is laid out so it can assign you the proper relative rankings in its results pages.

Luckily, they’re really easy to make in School Jotter. First of all, we recommend creating a dedicated page for it. Start by creating a new page by clicking Manage then Pages when in the Site. Click Add Page at the top of the box, then set up the page like this:

Make sure “Show in menu” is not checked, then click Add Page. Navigate to your new page (it should be located at yourwebsite.sites.schooljotter2.com/sitemap). Enter Edit mode and remove the “Coming soon…” text from the text box. Now Insert Item > Sitemap.

Put it below the text box, but it doesn’t really matter. This will automatically generate a list of pages on your website in a hierarchical format. It’ll look something like this.

Now just save and publish your page and you’re all done! Note that if you add more pages to your website, you might have to update the sitemap – to do this, click on it in Edit mode then click on the Update button that will appear at the top of the page.

If you logged into School Jotter this morning, you might have noticed a few changes. Or perhaps not, a lot of what we’re doing is behind the scenes and designed to make School Jotter run better than ever.

System Changes

• The way we display graphs has improved in our Surveys, Spellings, MIS Portal, and Merits apps.
• Stability, performance and security changes.

Dashboard

• The School Jotter app store can now be accessed via the blue + at the bottom right of the dashboard.

Why not try a new app to enhance the functionality of School Jotter? Many are available on a 30 day, no-obligation FREE trial!

Office 365 Integration

• Synchronisation has been improved when using multiple Office 365 calendars.
• Word, Excel and Powerpoint shortcut tiles display when that user has logged in with an Office 365 account.

Does your school use Office 365? Ask your account manager about our School Jotter / Office 365 integration.

Site App

• Slideshow captions can contain special characters and there is no limit to their length. (If your school’s website doesn’t support customisable header slideshows then call us to discuss getting a theme redesign. We can refresh, update, and modernise your school’s image at the same time!)
• Improvements to site search security and performance.
• Changes have been made to help improve SEO.
• An issue that prevented some of February’s webstat data from loading has been resolved.
• An issue that affected private page permissions has been resolved.
• An issue where apostrophes were occasionally shown incorrectly in emails that were sent out has been resolved.
• An issue where accordions could have an incorrect layout has been addressed.

Have you tried inserting an accordion to your website? It’s great for FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions.)

Broadcast App

• Reliability of sending SMS text messages has been improved.
• A character count has been added when composing SMS text messages.

Learn App

• Admin users can view and manage all learning sites.
• An issue with the styling of Wiki Resources has been resolved.
• An issue with the display of Animated Sequence Resources has been resolved.
• An issue with saving Link Resources in the resource manager has been resolved.

SIMS Integration

• Users that are disabled in SIMS will now also be disabled in School Jotter upon the next sync.
• Admins can now choose not to sync email addresses from SIMS for certain user roles. This is really useful if you store parent emails against student records in SIMS.

Purple Mash Integration

• Single Sign On (SSO) will now work for users that do not have their firstname and surname saved in their School Jotter profile.

Picture Logins

• An issue where incorrect picture login passwords could be generated has been resolved.

Address Book

• The address book will now show a count of how many contacts have been selected.

Don’t forget to press the ? icon to the right of your username at any time to bring the help sheets and videos up in an adjacent tab, this is especially useful for the All Apps Help section!