Thursday, February 19, 2009
Have your say. February 2009
Opportunities and consultations for teachers and learners open in February 2009.
The Big Read has been organised by The Global Campaign for Education, a coalition calling for world leaders to keep their promise for every child in the world to complete a quality education by 2015. There are still over 70 million children who do not go to school. Last year their school campaign was the successful Send my Friend to school.org. This year has seen the launch of the Big Read campaign taking place on 22nd April 2009. Famous writers, thinkers and others in the public eye have been asked to write their own thoughts about the importance of school including fiction and non-fiction to inspire young people to read and then write their own thoughts and ideas about school to send to the Prime Minister and other world leaders to remind them of their promise to make sure every child in the world receives quality education by 2015. Click on the link to get involved in the Big Read.
Becta’s Red Nose Day competition gives schools the chance to showcase the events they have organised for this year’s theme, "Do something funny for money". In collaboration with Comic Relief Becta are running a competition to find the best comic talent in British schools. Every school can upload one video or other media of their learners meeting the competition challenge of "Perform something Funny". All uploaded pieces are displayed on the Red Nose Day Schools Showcase. Each participating school is in with a chance of winning £5000 worth of ICT equipment for their school. The competition hopes children and teachers will embrace technology in the classroom, showcasing both humour and the innovative use of computing facilities. Entries can be anything from singing to dancing to stand-up comedy and will be judged by a panel from Comic Relief and Becta, following online voting by visitors on the Red Nose Day website. All entries must be unique, creative and most importantly, funny to be in with a chance of winning. Comic Relief website Becta Comic relief competition
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is running a competition for young people aged 11-25 living in Britain. The theme is to create a piece of art expressing their views on identity and how it feels to live in Britain today. The art needs be 2 dimensional and not bigger than A2 but apart from that can be in any medium or style. Winners will have their art exhibited in London later in the year. Closing date 26th March. For more details.
The Hansard Society are running a series of free one-day conferences for teachers to support the teaching about the EU as part of the citizenship curriculum. Called EU - and all that! the conferences are designed to provide practical ideas and resources and to facilitate discussion. They are run in conjunction with the English division of the Office of the European Parliament. Confirmed dates are: Newcastle — 11 March, Exeter — 22 April and Central London — 20 May. To book a place (which is essential), read the Programme for the day and find out more information, go to the Hansard society website.
It doesn’t have to happen. Is a website, funded by the Home Office to promote and support the anti-knife crime message. The site has discussion forums, profiles of young people who have achieved positive change in their community as well as comprehensive further reading and resources. There are a series of awards to recognise achievements towards reducing knife crime in the UK.
New development on Teachers TV. Teachers TV is a great free resources for all staff in schools and education services. The website is a good place to start if you are looking for a programme on a specific topic or a schedule of future programmes. The channel usually has a weekly themes and features interviews and detailed case-studies. Past programmes and short videos are featured on the website too. One welcome development on Teachers TV is the videos made by learners about their experiences of teaching and learning. Visit the website
How long will the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice cover remain a permanent feature of our planet? This is one of the biggest questions in climate change study and the task of the latest task for polar explorer, Pen Haddow. The Catlin Artic Survey will begin in six days and there is a very detailed website with many resources useful for learners and teachers. The site has up to date pictures from the artic and blogs from Pen and the other explorers. Take a look
A group of nine leading national Museums in the UK have joined together to create a new website which enables visitors to access collections from all the museums in one search. The site allows users to create "scrapbooks" of material about a subject from their own searches and then to share them in online groups and communities. The site has social networking tools to allow users to create online groups around creative interests. The £1.5 m government funded National Museums Online Learning project involves the National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Gallery, the Tate, the Wallace Collection, Royal Armouries, Sir John Soane’s Museum and Imperial War Museum. The site will go live "late February". visit