Future News – 2027

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 […]

Windows Live Writer

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 […]

Travelling lightly

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 […]

Nesting time

  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 […]

ToonDo

Google enhancements – Wonderwheel

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 […]

Department for Education National Curriculum Review

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 […]

Happy World Meteorological Day

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 […]

What will you be doing during Climate Week?

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 […]

Analysing data with Excel

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’s International Adventure

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 […]

TeachMeet Leeds 2011

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 […]

Give a bird a home

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 […]

Cameron ‘to abandon plans to change forest ownership’

It looks as though the government may be about to do a u-turn on the sell off of forests. See “Cameron ‘to abandon plans to change forest ownership’” Hug a tree to celebrate!

Pupils as teachers – Digital Leaders

An exciting way of teaching teachers how to “do” ICT is underway in Bradford at Bowling Park Primary. Chris Mayoh with help from James Langley (Education Bradford’s Curriculum ICT team) have started a “Digital Leaders” programme. This involves the pupils showing the teachers what resources are available, what can be done with them and how […]

UK Digital Skills Gap – some musings

That good old question has come up again – Are schools teaching the wrong things, as far as information technology is concerned? Terry Freedman has written an article in his blog on this topic and concludes with some useful questions. I agree with him that schools should not be about providing “fodder for industry” and […]

Bus Lanes and car sharing

Terry Wogan always used to rant about bus lanes that had no buses in them whereas cyclists are always cursing the cars that use the bus lanes illegally. Leeds City Council have just announced that they are going to put cameras on bus lanes to catch and fine bus lane abusers. This may help with […]

English as an Additional Language

About one in ten pupils in England are learning English as an additional language. They may be immigrants, refugees or the children of overseas students or professionals working in this country. I have been in primary schools where there are over 26 different first languages spoken and I have heard of schools with even more! The […]

Chemistry Add-in for Word

For all you science teachers out there – a new add-in for Word has just been released that makes it easier to insert and modify chemical information, such as labels, formulas and 2-D depictions, within Microsoft Office Word. You will need to read the documentation to get the best out of it but it looks […]

Using Film in Education

Using Film in Education – Yorkshire Seminar Friday, March 18, 2011 from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM (GMT) Bradford, United Kingdom A seminar for professionals working with young people in schools and communities demonstrating how film can radically improve how you engage with young people and impact on their learning. Location: National Media Museum, Pictureville, […]