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.

Making mistakes

Taking risks and making mistakes which you learn from is a big part of my classroom. Creating an atmosphere where children are prepared to participate and make mistakes is the bread and butter of the job.

This article clearly displays why we should let children learn from their mistakes.

Changing Education Paradigms

Ken Robinson talks as the fabulous RSA graphic is drawn. I'd love to be able to do this, what a skill.

Ken's topics range from ADHD to SATs, to the Factory model of education and standardisation and it is great food for thought.

LucidChart

As anyone who knows me will agree, I am rather partial to a visual.

Lucidchart allows you to make flow charts and other visuals in a quick and easy way.

Here's a great demo video using Hey Jude lyrics...I love this way of showing lyrics.





k-12 Educators can apply for a free licence and that is just what I did here.

Interview and portfolio

Yes!
Having returned from teaching in Asia to living in Devon, I have an interview date.
Thoughts bubble rapidly to my consciousness...thoughts of portfolios, interview questions, my choice of 20 minute teaching activity, my knowledge of current issues in teaching.

Here is Edge Hill's very helpful guide to interview questions: http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/careers/DownloadZone/materials_pdfs/CC_11.pdf

This is a good discussion of the pros and cons of portfolios, hosted by TES: http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/1083.aspx?PageIndex=1 (N.B. I think you need to be a member of TES to see this discussion...easy to do and it allows you to access lots of great resources)

Total teaching, gives advice for teachers seeking positions, including a detailed breakdown of the ideal contents of a portfolio. http://www.total-teaching.co.uk/promotioninteaching.shtml

It is interesting that it is still not current practice to use a blog as a portfolio of work. Maybe there is too much to usefully sift through within the time constraints of an interview. Maybe there is still a place for paper in the context of interview portfolios.

Prospects.ac gives a number of sites which provide relevant and up to date educational issues. Again, it is not rocket science but it was good to find these sources all in the same place.
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/teacher_training_hot_topics.htm