Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Have Your Say. April 2009
Free resources, opportunities and competitions for schools, teachers and learners available this month.
New resources to help schools in envisioning work with teachers and learners have been developed by Teachers TV in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council and are free for all schools from the Teachers TV website. The aim of the Tomorrow's Teacher project is to inspire teachers and learners to imagine the future and consider the potential for schools and education. These resources are valuable for schools in engaging all members of the school community in transforming aspects of their school. There are also two competitions for schools to enter. Visit the Teachers TV website for more information
Celebrate achievement of young people by joining a national scheme.
UK Youth runs the largest group of informal learning organisations for young people in the UK. It also runs a Youth Award scheme to celebrate youth achievement. The Chief Executive of UK Youth, John Bateman has called for all educational contexts , both formal and informal, to focus a new set of 3Rs when working with young people. They are:
Raising Aspirations;
Realising Potential and
Recognising all Achivement. To find out about the scheme.
Youth Net is a charity set up to provide support and information for young people. Its website Thesite.org is designed as a one-stop site for information, contacts and resources on all aspects of life for young people. The site is comprehensive, broken into sections by areas of life and offers up to date facts as well as discussion forums for all areas. There is a great page on Mentoring with links to other sites with Mentoring opportunities. There is also the odd competition for site visitors - there is currently a chance to win an Ipod.
Get a month's free use of a new educational webtool which creates videos out of a set of your photos or still images. It is quick and easy to use; the site gives guidance and examples. The offer is to coincide with the launch of the new Animoto website for education. http://education.animoto.com/ The ordinary Animoto site http://animoto.com/ allows you to make videos from your own music collection and photos, free of charge.
Raw Deal or Truth Told? is a new competition launched by The House of Lords in partnership with The Hansard Society for young people aged 11-16 to express how they feel about media portrayals of their generation. Entrants must be in groups of 2 or more and can enter a submission in any format they feel expresses their views. The winners will be presented with their cash prize at the Houses of Parliament where they will also be invited to discuss their submission with Members of the Lords Communications Committee. Closing date is May 15th. Visit the website for more details. www.parliament.uk/holcompetition
The Y Vote website is part of The Hansard Society's Citizenship Programme. The site provides all materials, guidance and resources needed for schools to run Mock Elections to coincide with the European elections on the 4th June. Schools who run mock elections submit their results to the website and the national results are announced on 15th June. Everything on the site is free. Y Vote website
The Look and Learn Art Gallery is an online gallery where children from all over the world can upload and display their art for free. Children can create their own gallery space and add as many pictures as they wish. (up to 1,000) The site also enables children to send e –greetings cards of their artwork free of charge. Children under 12 need to be registered by an adult, those over 12 can register themselves. The site also runs an art competition every month on a different theme with cash prizes. To see the art, more details and the current competition themes, visit the website. The Look and Learn site site also has free access to thousands of drawings and paintings from the archive of Look and Learn magazines and copies of the children newspaper from the last 150 years.
EuroTalk Junior Language Challenge is a competition for children aged ten years and under to learn new languages. Each school entering the challenge is sent free CDs in the chosen language, this year Greek. Children use the activities and tasks on the CDs to build up points, those with most points qualify for Round Two of the competiition: to learn another new language and are then sent a second new set of resources. There are three rounds ending with a grand final and Prize Giving ceremony. Closing date for first round is June 19th. Finals take place at Olympia, London in October and the winner receives a holiday to Africa with their family as well as many other prizes for their school. To find out more.
Contributions are being sought for a book written by children for children who have experienced a bereavement. The Bad Time Rhymes poetry competition 2009 is asking for children aged 7-18 to share their poems describing how they felt when someone died. A book of poetry by children for children will be produced from the entries to help and support children during grief and bereavement. Closing date is May 15th, with winners announced in September. For more information.
A new research project looking at the Early Lessons from the delivery of the 11-19 new secondary curriculum in England is looking for school leaders to take part. All costs are covered by NCSL for nine research associates for the project. Applications are sought from current school leaders interested in researching issues relating to the leadership of the 11-19 new secondary curriculum. NCSL will fund up to 30 days release from school and provide research training. The closing date is May 15th and the project will run from June 2009 to February 2010. For more details: download an application form