• Events which could be used as a starting point for a range of classroom activities.
• Conferences, exhibitions and shows which teachers can attend for their own professional development.

www.teachingevents.co.uk

Followers of Teaching Ideas on Twitter and Facebook have already had a sneak preview of the site and the response so far has been extremely positive. I would love to hear your feedback if you are able to look at the site. I would also like to hear about any events that you already use in your classroom:

• Special days, birthdays and anniversaries which you already use as a starting point for school / class activities,
• Charity events which schools can get involved with,
• Professional development events which other teachers might be interested in.

Please email me with the details of any events or use the form on the site. Thank you!

I am planning to add new events as I discover them and build the site into a useful calendar of educational events for schools and teachers. I hope that you like it!

There will still be occasional updates over the next few weeks, but regular posts will not resume until September.

Have a wonderful summer break!

Mark

Image – Some Day My Prints Will Come

• Adding atmosphere to lessons,
• Assemblies,
• School performances,
• Adding sound to children’s ICT / multimedia work,
• Addition to a school website / VLE.

www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/dramasoundeffects.htm

I’ve also recently discovered www.freesfx.co.uk which has lots of free sound effects which you can also use.

www.freesfx.co.uk

What are your favourite sound effect resources? How do you use them in the classroom?

• Make sure iwb is accessible-installed at a proper height or w/adjust mount. Tennis ball helps students with challenges touch screen (from EdTechieGeek).
• PLAY with your whiteboard, do not be afraid to explore and experiment (from psycho65).
• Take 5 mins every day to learn how to use an iwb tool and use it with your class, use 5 in one lesson at the end of the week (from Kevin McLaughlin).
• Ensure groups use the IWB for independent working bits in lessons; brainstorm, designing, google earth, presentations, etc (from Mark Robinson).
• Tchrs must remember that iwbs r about the kids not the teachers. Gr8 for group work/indep tasks.Avoid stand and deliver lessons (from Ann McDonald).

Image – IMG_0724

Stuart is planning to compile all of these tips into an e-book and I’ll post another update when news about this has been revealed. Why not share your own #iwbtips and have then added to the e-book?

www.bristolzoo.org.uk/education

Education sessions take place in themed classrooms in the Zoo’s Conservation Education Centre. Teachers can arrange a free pre-visit of the Zoo’s facilities, after making a provisional booking with the Zoo. For more information, visit the website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk/education. Schools who are not based around Bristol or the surrounding areas can still download some of the useful educational resources on their site.

Where is your favourite place to go on school trips?

The YOUNGDESIGNCLUB is free to UK primary and secondary schools, to run in lunch breaks or as an after-school activity. Each meeting will focus on a piece of design from any discipline, providing a growing menu of over 100 design stories. They will be structured around presentations and supported by flexible resources, including print, film and audio materials and PowerPoint slides (available as downloads). This will be followed by a discussion, and the pupil members will have the opportunity to produce their own crit in response, the best of which will be published by the YOUNGDESIGNCLUB. There will also be an annual awards ceremony at Somerset House, London.

www.thesorrellfoundation.com/young_design_club.php

Are you a teacher interested in running the YOUNGDESIGNCLUB? To register your interest, please complete the online registration form. The club will begin in January 2011 and the Sorrell Foundation will contact you in September with detailed information.

http://bit.ly/curriculumtopics

The second is a list of  activities that children can try online during their summer breaks.

http://bit.ly/onlinesummeractivities

Take a look at the lists and add some of your own ideas too!

www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=node/297

There are two entry categories; ages 7–11 years (Key Stage 2 or equivalent) and ages 11–14 years (Key Stage 3 or equivalent). Groups of up to 10 children should submit a short video, no longer than two and a half minutes, reporting on a local biodiversity project. Entries can be uploaded and viewed on the competition website and the closing date is 31 August 2010. Good luck!

• SATs for 11 year olds have too high a margin of error to be used to compare schools in league tables, according to the NUT and ATL, who have urged the government to scrap the tests for Year 6 pupils. The leader of the NUT has given hints that there could be another boycott of the SATs next year, although more notice would be given this time around.
• Trade Unions were outraged by the £200,000 pay package of a primary headteacher in south London. Michael Gove has written to the School Teachers’ Review Body to say that he wanted no headteacher to earn more than the prime minister. The TES have published a related article which explains that rocketing headteacher salaries are justified by the ‘mammoth pay packets of singers and footballing megastars’.

Image – Decus Et Tutamen

• Michael Gove has also published the Department for Education’s key policy commitments and invited the public to hold them to account on delivery.
• The chairman of Ofsted has explained that it is not ‘an absolute disaster’ if schools contain bad teachers.
• The scrapping of school building plans has cost education authorities at least £160m, according to the Local Government Association.
• Empty shops could be converted into schools, saving a third of the cost of starting a new building. Meanwhile, a report from the Auditor General for Wales has said that that school buildings in Wales are in a poor state and there is a long way to go before all of them will be ‘fit for purpose’.
• Reforms that will allow every school to become an academy will be rushed through at a pace usually reserved for emergencies such as anti-terror legislation. However, the Director of Education at Civitas has explained that academies are failing to teach traditional subjects in favour of less challenging qualifications in an effort to drive up results.
• Students will have to pay more for university, possibly through a graduate tax, according to the Business Secretary Vince Cable. University students will also be able to take low-cost two-year degree courses in order to save time and money before entering the world of work.
• Thousands of people could miss out on a university place in the UK this year after 660,953 people applied to start full-time undergraduate courses. The Lecturers Union fears that up to 170,000 people could be disappointed.

Image – Graduation Cake Guy

• The debate about school lunches continues as the chairman of the School Food Trust has criticised parents for filling children’s packed lunches with junk food.
• A Scottish government pledge that all school children receive two hours of physical education a week is not being met, according to new figures.
• A group of primary school children have been honoured by the Royal Society of Chemistry for disproving the theory that spiders are afraid of conkers.
• Do you want to get your children more interested in Maths? Why not find out more about the maths buskers who want to communicate the wonder of maths to people in the street!

www.edtechroundup.com

You can find the links to future meetings on the Edtechroundup wiki. You can also watch / listen to the previous conversations there if you have missed any. There is also a Twitter page which allows you to keep up to date with the latest meetings and events. Why not take a look and get involved in the meetings yourself?