Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Have Your Say. November 2008
A selection of opportunities and resources to support innovative teaching and learning - all of which are free.
Free I Love Languages stickers and resources are available to the first 1,000 institutions signing up to the Routes Into Languages mailing list. Routes into Languages is a three year government funded programme to raise the profile and participation rates in language learning in the UK. There are regional teams who can visit schools and put schools in touch with people in their community who can help in supporting and encouraging language learning. To investigate click here.
The National Strategies website has undergone a significant overhaul. The new website makes use of web 2.0 technologies with many opportunities to record your view and give ratings to ideas and project developments. All documents are there and easy to navigate. Consultation is now built in to the updating of the site and materials.
Horses Mouth is a new online Mentoring Site. For all people over 16 the site uses the technology of social networking sites to match individuals who are new in a field or idea to someone more experienced or expert in the same area. The site has been set up by entrepreneur MT with the intention of providing inspiration and aspiration to individuals who may not have access to other Mentoring schemes Click here to view.
If you want to encourage young people to become members of a learning organisation outside of their individual school, take a look at Edge Learning Forums. There are 8 regional forums in the UK which act as consultancies for schools, local authorities and other educational organisations to advise on all areas of school life and learner voice. One of the regional forums have been recently commissioned to conduct an alternative Ofsted by a group of schools, another sent members to present at Futurelabs recent Learner Voice conference in Warwick. Young people of all ages can apply to join their local forum just click here.
Personalised Education - a practical guide, produced by the DCSF is now available free to download from the DCSF website. It breaks down the development of effective personalised learning into 9 steps or key areas.
The publication confirms personalisation is still central to the government criteria for successful schools. It sees personalisation as the wider agenda which initiatives such as AfL are part of. There is a commitment to £1.65 billion of funding to schools for personalisation. The guide emphasises that the personalisation agenda is widening beyond the classroom towards a way of explaining all that happens in schools using as an exemplar successful schools identified by Ofsted as having a personalised approach to developing their school improvement plan. The guide clearly places the expectation on schools that personalisation is not a classroom-only activity and should be integral to all roles and strategy in their institution. The booklet can be downloaded here.
Mindapples is a new website set up to boost well-being. Following the famous 5 a day fruit and vegetables principle it displays the five things a day people recommend to help mental well-being. To add your own tips or to read those of others, Visit the website.
The School of Everything is a website which puts those who want to learn a skill with those who would like to teach it in their area. Run like a social networking site, each member has a personal profile page where they describe themselves, their skills and ways of learning. Each teacher posts a five minute podcast so users can view their style and methods before they meet. Users can then contact other users and arrange teaching times, places and prices. The site is free and has 1,000s of members already. The site has recently won sponsorship from Channel Four. One of the founders of the site, Paul Miller explained the motivation behind the project was to support a new way of viewing teaching. Read more on the website including explanation such as: "The drive behind the Open University was that everyone should have the opportunity to be a learner. We are saying that everyone has something to teach too. We are trying to open up the notion of what it is to be a teacher."
Animate it. The 2009 competition "To cut a long story short", has been launched and is open to all children under 12 in the UK. The theme this year is to make a short animation of your favourite book. The closing date is April 2009. Visit the website for more details.
Children can Vote for their favourite film to win the Children's Bafta on the Filmstreet website. The winner will be announced at the Bafta Awards Ceremony next year. The award winning website also has features and reviews of films as well as free resources to make your own.
The Nasa website is really worth a look for those teachers and learners interested in space and photography. It has archives of amazing photos from previous missions as well as lots detail of how the spaceships and missions work. Lots of free resources to use in schools or at home. The site also carries the most up to date photographs from the Hubble Telescope. Click here:
The Dining Hall Disco competition has been launched by the Healthy Schools Trust as part of their partnership with Disney to raise the profile of healthy eating in schools. Children can film themselves performing a dance routine to music from High School Musical 3 and then upload their entry to the website. Winning entries in each of 9 regions will receive a flat screenTV for their school. The overall winner will win a High School Musical Prom for their school in February. Closing date is 12th December. Visit the website for more information.