Friday 23rd January, my first ever visit to Bett 2015 I was expecting it to be like Crufts but for computing. I was more or less right! I didn't realise just what a huge event it was. On the journey there I was introduced to a company my school is connected with and I made connections with some really interesting people from other schools in my area. One of those people turned out to be my Bett buddy for the day she was lovely and we both have 'Techy' husbands. It was great to go around with her and bounce ideas from each other.
First things first we had a quick scan around the Bett primary area, as that's why we were there. My first experience of the marketing reps were from Tesco, a young lad with a basket full of apples, we felt like Snow White under the witches spell - straight off to the Tesco stall to discuss the interactive online field trips they offer, which actually sounded really interesting for the inquiry based learning my school uses.
The rest of the day was spent like magpies going from one mainstream colourful stall to the other sparkly stall. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my day and learnt a lot from the stalls I did visit, when I attend again I will definitely pay more attention to the smaller stalls as on my way out I was fascinated by some of the ideas they had on offer.
I attended 2 seminars, one by Miles Berry which I found really helpful when thinking about implementing the new curriculum. The other seminar I attended was the Astro Pi session in the Bett Arena, I was really glad I got to attend this and hear more about Raspberry Pi. I managed to catch up with Lance Howarth after the session and discuss how to use Raspberry Pi in a primary classroom which was really useful! We even managed to get a Balloon popper pack for a Raspberry Pi experiment to get me started. I can't wait to start using the ideas I've picked up at school and show the other teachers what's out there.
I've come away with two major CPD needs for me so that I can keep up with making my lessons as inspiring and engaging as possible. I need to learn a lot more about coding and start doing this myself, so that I can show others. Also I feel I definitely need to get to grips with Minecraft and Raspberry Pi as these seemed to be the main products which were buzzing around at Bett and wherever else I go since Bett.
First things first we had a quick scan around the Bett primary area, as that's why we were there. My first experience of the marketing reps were from Tesco, a young lad with a basket full of apples, we felt like Snow White under the witches spell - straight off to the Tesco stall to discuss the interactive online field trips they offer, which actually sounded really interesting for the inquiry based learning my school uses.
The rest of the day was spent like magpies going from one mainstream colourful stall to the other sparkly stall. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my day and learnt a lot from the stalls I did visit, when I attend again I will definitely pay more attention to the smaller stalls as on my way out I was fascinated by some of the ideas they had on offer.
I attended 2 seminars, one by Miles Berry which I found really helpful when thinking about implementing the new curriculum. The other seminar I attended was the Astro Pi session in the Bett Arena, I was really glad I got to attend this and hear more about Raspberry Pi. I managed to catch up with Lance Howarth after the session and discuss how to use Raspberry Pi in a primary classroom which was really useful! We even managed to get a Balloon popper pack for a Raspberry Pi experiment to get me started. I can't wait to start using the ideas I've picked up at school and show the other teachers what's out there.
I've come away with two major CPD needs for me so that I can keep up with making my lessons as inspiring and engaging as possible. I need to learn a lot more about coding and start doing this myself, so that I can show others. Also I feel I definitely need to get to grips with Minecraft and Raspberry Pi as these seemed to be the main products which were buzzing around at Bett and wherever else I go since Bett.