Scientific investigation
What food do birds prefer? If you have a classroom that looks out onto a green patch, flower bed or hedge why not help your children to do a scientific investigation into what types of food each type of bird prefers? The children can help to plan a fair experiment but at the simplest level […]
iPad, Mathletics and Lexia
It’s good to hear that both Mathletics and Lexia are developing apps for the iPad, even though they cannot give a time scale. Are there other educational software writers out there like these two who are developing their apps for the iPad? Let me know if you know!
Building Relationships
I remember a colleague once saying that education was all about relationships. Relationships with pupils, with colleagues, with parents and of course with your own family. Since I started reading more about sustainability and well being I have realised that another relationship that is very important is the one with your school building and grounds. […]
The International Children’s Digital Library
The International Children’s Digital Library is described as “A Library for the World’s Children”. In it’s mission statement it says: “The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed […]
Storybird
Storybird is a brilliant collaborative story telling tool. The site has loads of artwork which you can use to tell stories and make a book. The book can then be published online and embedded into your website (see Captain Peregrine’s Big Discovery below). There are already loads of stories on the Storybird website and there […]
Green Doctor – helping to tackle fuel poverty
Fuel poverty is on the increase. Fuel poverty is said to occur when in order to heat a home to an adequate standard of warmth a household needs to spend more than 10% of its income on heating. Many pupils in Leeds come from homes that are experiencing fuel poverty and often there are quick […]
AnswerGarden
AnswerGarden is a feedback tool that is very easy to use for online brainstorming or for gaining feedback from visitors to your website. At it’s simplest level you enter a question like “What did you think of my lesson?” and publish it, then invite students to visit the site and respond. You can set it […]
Art Resources – Logotype Maker
Logotype Maker is a free web tool that you can use for making logos for printing, web pages, videos, etc. It is very easy to use, you enter some text and it randomly generates some logos. If you don’t like the ones you see hit the refresh button and you get some more. If you […]
Where does all our food waste go?
I’ve always been shocked at the amount of food that is wasted and the huge environmental impact food production has. We grow food and transport it all over the world, often flying it thousands of miles and then transporting it by road for hundreds of miles only to throw half of it away because it […]
Storyline Online – a site to encourage reading
Yesterday I was introduced to Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program starring members of the Screen Actors Guild reading children’s books aloud. Each book has beautiful animations and has ideas for lesson activities. I don’t recognise a lot of the names of the actors – I’m not a particularly star struck sort of person […]
Solar power
We have just had solar panels fitted to our home (see my personal blog for more information). This week I have also come across an organisation called Solar Schools who want people to chip in to buy a solar roof for their local school. It’s a fund raising site run by 10:10, an organisation that […]
Autumn leaves
The winds of the last few days are causing the leaves to start falling and even though it is only September it feels like Autumn is on its way. As I walk around my local patch the hawes are ripe on the hawthorn trees, beech mast litters the ground and rowan berries are a brilliant […]
Art Resources – Aviary
I’ve been meaning to search out some good online art tools for some time and then, today, a fellow blogger has produced a blog with some examples of art tools that can be used effectively with Interactive Whiteboards. My particular interest was in finding art tools that pupils could use from home as well as […]
Half-farmer, half-x 半农半X
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 […]
Noggin the Nog
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 […]
Bike Week
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. […]
Green Transport Week
On your bikes, use public transport, walk or maybe more car sharing. Oh, don’t forget swimming or using the boat!
bMobLe–Keynote 1–Andy Hutt
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 […]
bMobLe 2011
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 […]