For those who are interested I thought I might expand a little on this concept. I first came across it in the Resurgence magazine in a Letter from Japan. The author was reporting on a change in attitude by a number of young Japanese who were moving away from consumerism. Now I am not so […]
The other day I was reminiscing with a young teacher about children’s TV of bygone eras. I was surprised how many of the old programmes were admired by a younger generation. I then remembered Oliver Postgate’s amazing Smallfilms especially Noggin the Nog. There is a lovely tribute to Oliver and his films on the Dragon […]
Besides being Green Transport Week it is also Bike Week. I think we all agree that it is a “good thing” for our young people to take more exercise, that it is good to be fitter, less overweight and that the exercise boosts our sense of wellbeing as well as our physical and mental performance. […]
On your bikes, use public transport, walk or maybe more car sharing. Oh, don’t forget swimming or using the boat!
What a lovely card from my daughter!
Andy is an ex-teacher (not that he has ever stopped teaching) and works directly with schools and educational providers to support a more creative, efficient and effective use of ICT. He spoke on Creating Creativity and gave us “Reasons to be Cheerful”. He asked “Is Creativity a good thing?” and “Are you a Creator […]
Yesterday was the third bMobLe conference in Bradford. bMobLe stands for Bradford Mobile Learning and focuses on “the effective use of new and existing mobile technologies to engage learners, accelerate achievement and stimulate creativity.” This theme this year was “Creating Creativity” and although at one or two times speakers seemed to be focussing on creativity […]
What will life be like in 2027? The New Economics Foundation (nef) have produced a pack of four newspapers all set in 2027, each from a different climate change scenario. The aim of the newspapers is to help us to think about how climate change will affect our communities, organisations and families, and what we […]
I’ve just read that Windows Live Writer (part of the Windows Live package) can be used to write blogs and publish them into almost any blog package whilst providing a much friendlier interface (it even spell checks!) So this is my first blog entry using it. Below is a picture of the toolbar (captured using […]
Two important weeks are coming up to encourage us to think about our carbon footprints and how we use transport. They are: Walk to Work Week – 9th to 13th May Walk to School Week – 16th to 20th May Lucky teachers can choose to walk to work for two weeks running! Living Streets who […]
It’s nesting time. The birds are looking for suitable nesting materials. One nice and easy way to attract birds to an easy to view location is to put some nesting materials into a container and hang it up for the birds. I recently put some sheeps wool in a fat ball feeder (yes a […]
Well it’s the Easter holidays in Leeds (rather early and very confusing) so I thought I would try and catch up with emails, read a few blogs and play with a few tools. As a result I have just found Google’s Wonder Wheel. It’s an additional tool available from the Google search page – if […]
There are about 750,000 teachers in the UK. Apparently, whenever the government do a survey about 1200 respond. After years of being told what to do teachers are suddenly being given an opportunity to decide what they think should be in the National Curriculum. It’s not the easiest of surveys but that shouldn’t put us off participating. Our […]
Today is World Meteorological Day which is run by the World Meteorological Organisation. This year the theme is “Climate for You”. They have their own VLE running on a Moodle server with lots of resources and activities. You have to register to use it but otherwise it is free. Some of it is very advanced […]
Climate Week is from the 21st to 27th March. What will you be doing to make a difference? How about: encourage staff and pupils to walk to school. if it’s too far to walk try public transport or cycle (the weather should be better by then!) if you have to drive why not try car […]
If you have loads of data to analyse then PowerPivot may be of use to you. It is a plugin for Excel 2010 and allows you to analyse very large sets of data, very rapidly, in real-time. The documenation suggests that you think of it as Excel PivotTables on steroids! The main advantage that it […]
Flat Stanley is taking a trip around the world visiting schools – virtually! If you want to know more see his website. At the time of writing he is visiting a school in the UK. There is huge potential for lots of creative work here so have a look and see if you can invite […]
Jon Farley and I are organising a TeachMeet in Leeds on May 12th at 6pm at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the Congreve Room. A TeachMeet gives teachers the opportunity to share the inspirational ideas that they have tried out in the classroom and found to have helped their children learn. They are usually fun events […]
This week has been National Nestbox Week! Now is the time to put up nestboxes so that you can hopefully have the pleasure of helping birds raise a family. I know it’s half term for most schools but why not put some bird boxes up around the school site when you get back. There is some advice […]