To type or not to type

My classroom is overflowing with intervention groups...but they seem to be working.
I'm not too sure about the touch typing group however.
This resource gives many possible typing tutor, including dance mat typing, all I need to do now is get one which sends me information about how my students are learning.

Maths resources - algebra and Utah interactives

Found these matchbox resources from my ME830 maths course - while reading Listening Counts.

They are a great way of introducing the unknown in a simple and unchallenging way.  Very clever.

Also stumbled onto these manipulatives - looks like a huge range of resources for interactive whiteboard use or class blogs.  would be great if they were easily embeddable.

Here's the classic towers of Hanoi puzzle.

Great link for web tools

Here are some brilliant tools for the web.

Would add lucidcharts though.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Poetry on Slideshare

Just finishing a 2 week unit on imagery in poems and the class have done a great job of using similes.

I like teaching poetry partly because you don't need to write so much so, in terms used on the MAST maths course, it is a lower threshold activity. They used to call this lower barriers to entry in my Degree Economics course. Again, similar to my MAST activities which were rich tasks, it is definitely a high threshold activity, allowing children to soar when they get the bug!

Our home learning in class this week is to write a poem. Last week 29 out of 33 children handed in their project home learning with an incredible range of presentation styles. Have extended the deadline again this week to just over 2 weeks to allow a slower, more thoughtful, and hopefully higher quality end product. I was reminded of the great slideshare site with its enormous range of slides.
Here is a great teacher resource if you want to save some time teaching a number of poetry styles:

Teaching Poetry

View more PowerPoint from mungo13

 Here is one I'll also post to the class blog.

Lucid Chart

This site allows you to create great free visuals.

Here's one which I made for my Year 5 class to learn about explorers.
I like the site because it allows a visual internet supported approach to research.

How to get over the problem of copy and paste though...any suggestions?  Just had a comment from Lucid Chart offering me help with cutting and pasting!  I meant the problem of children cutting and pasting into their presentations!  Thanks Lucid Chart for the quick response!

I also uploaded to TES - an increasingly useful site for finding a multitude of resources quickly.

Richer Tasks

It's been a long while since I last posted, oh notional reader.  But here's what I'm thinking about tonight.
As part of my Maths study I'm thinking about "Richer tasks":

• must be accessible to everyone at the start;
• needs to allow further challenges and be extendible;
• should invite children to make decisions;
• should involve children in speculating, hypothesis making and testing, proving or explaining, reflecting, interpreting;
• should not restrict pupils from searching in other directions;
• should promote discussion and communication;
• should encourage originality/invention;
• should encourage ‘what if’ and ‘what if not’ questions;
• should have an element of surprise;
• should be enjoyable.

Ahmed, 1987, p. 20.Better Mathematics, London, HMSO

Wouldn't it be great to have a bank of there?  NRICH is a good start.

The task centre kit site here seems another creative option for fun and inspiring maths challenges. 

Over protecting web access

Just found this on a Patana site...no real connection, but just quite amazing. I am finding it really difficult to get through the strict filtering at my current school and so find it really hard to share stimulating resources like this one.
There has to be a compromise between web safety and over protection.