Primary Teacher UK

Easy-Teach Resources

I've come across another site today selling resources - Easy-Teach.  I've not actually seen any of these resources so can't vouch for them but it looks like they could be very useful for early-year or SEN teachers.  According to Christine who runs the company:

Our products are new and although lots of teachers have seen them and have said that they are great, we have only just put them on the market. My own planning and teaching in school was always praised by Ofsted inspectors when I was observed, and I have based the planning on what I used to do, so I know this product is good!

At the moment we have sent letters to special schools as they have even fewer products available in the way of planning, because it is more specialised and individual. It was specifically for this group that the planning was first going to be done, but as you know things take off and progress.

There is nothing on the market to compare to ours - planning for every subject for a whole year (or half term as preferred) as no-one has done this sort of planning before.

Resources which can be put on paper, sounds, songs, music etc are all within the planning package and the PowerPoint presentation engrosses everyone (very young, old, teachers, classroom assistants, children with little concentration, NQT's, even the local children around here where we are based in France.  They have all seen it and sit totally absorbed watching and anticipating the next slide). This Presentation is used throughout the topic where appropriate in the planning.

7 Tips to stop bad behaviour

Mr Belshaw has written a great post giving 5 tips to stop bad behaviour - I totally agree with everything that's been written, but I'd like to add two other points that I think help with behaviour management in school:

• Make sure that every day is a fresh start for the children.  I know that this sounds obvious, but I've seen it many times when a child comes in and is instantly told / reminded about his poor behaviour the day before.  With any child that is in trouble try to deal with it as much as possible on the day it happens (I know this is easier in primary than secondary).  I try to make phone calls and give punishments the evening of the incident.  The next day I make a point of welcoming the pupil that was in trouble back into my class and telling them some of the things we'll be getting upto during the day before the others.
• Aplogise to the class about any disturbance.  I'm sorry everyone, Andrew is just stopping the learning for a moment.   Speak to the person, and then ask for the children's attention again - "Right everyone, eyes back on me, let's continue the learning!"  The other children respect it and the child that is in trouble realises that it's their peers that are also losing out.

I've put up a few bits on behaviour on my blog before.  Anyone else got any tips? 

Resources on EBay + a free resource!

There are lots of resources available for teachers on EBay, some which don't even belong to the person selling them!  However every now and then you come across someone who is genuinely trying to help teachers save time.

Now I not in any way suggesting that you go out and buy resources from EBay - you could make a lot of them yourself if you have the time.  But if you need a list of adverbs, or vocabulary to go with micro-organisms then this may be one way of getting hold of them quickly and easily.  One such seller you could buy them from is Craig Smith (who has very positive feedback) with his KS2 Teaching and Display Vocabulary. 

I've been lucky enough to see some of these resources (Micro-organisms vocab, 8 steps to solving a problem, Adverbs and Literacy vocab) and they are nicely presented.  Each is sent as a PDF which means that it'll print out the same whichever computer you use.  They are brightly coloured and use a clear font making reading easy from a distance.  They are great to hang on those washing lines that criss-cross our classrooms.  Yes I could have made them myself, but why not buy them ready made for the price of PJ Strawberry Drink!?!

Craig is kindly giving away a free copy of one of his resources here on Primary-Teacher-UK, so download his Reversible and Irreversible vocabulary now. Note that this is part of the Science Vocabulary pack. Don't forget to see what else is available from Craig's website.

Atoms Website

Atoms, a new website, has just been launched with support from the Scottish Executive.  The aim of site is to get children interested in science through games, cartoons, experiments and competitions.    Four characters, Eco, Maximo, Spook and Jet help the children through the activities available. They also take part in science lessons which link in to their own personalities.  Joining the Atoms club gives you full access to the flash stories, experiments, FAQ's and competitions.

Atoms - http://www.atomsclub.co.uk/

Violent child ordered back to school

According to the BBC and Independent the mother of a seven-year-old boy with a history of attacking teachers and pupils has withdrawn her application to send him to a small village school.

The Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered the school to take the child accused of violent behaviour, against the wishes of its headteacher and governors.  Her intervention angered the school which claims it flies in the face of her view that there should be "zero tolerance" of bad behaviour.  Some parents at the school, Cummersdale in Carlisle, Cumbria, have warned they will keep their children at home if the boy starts at the school after the Easter break on 19 April.

Staff at the child's previous school, Great Orton Primary School, near Carlisle, kept a diary cataloguing his bad behaviour including assaults on teachers and intimidation of other pupils.

Once again we are left with our hands tied.  You exclude children for bad behaviour and an independent panel overrules it.  What sort of example does this set for the children who are behaving and the child that has got away with it?

UK School Games Website

After announcing that there would be a annual UK School Olympics in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics the website, as well as the event was launched today by Tessa Jowell.  The first event is to be staged between 7th–10th September 2006 in Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena, Glasgow.

This year's events will consist of:

• Athletics: Twelve teams will represent all regions of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in an U17 event taking place over two days of competition. A comprehensive timetable will include disability events and the majority of Olympic events in both track and field.
• Fencing: The epee, sabre and foil weapons will all feature in two days of competition which will include both individual and team events for fencers in the U17 age group. The format of the competition will pit the top U17 fencers from each of the Home Countries against each other in both individual and team competition.
• Swimming: A comprehensive timetable will include disability events and all 32 events in the Olympic programme. Eight regional teams will be selected to compete in the Games and will come from the U16 age group.
• Gymnastics: One team from each home country namely England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales will compete in men's artistic (U16) and women's artistic (U19) gymnastic events.
• Table tennis: Eight regional teams will be selected from the U16 age group. Players will compete in both individual and team competition over two days at the UK School Games.

More information on the events and the setup can be gained from visiting the UK School Games website (http://www.ukschoolgames.com/index.htm)

Let the YHA organise your residential

Daniel Russell from the YHA has contacted me to ask if I can let everyone know about a new site that has just gone live - Learn4real (www.learn4real.co.uk).  Here is a copy of the press release that explains what the site is about:

YHA has just launched an exciting new product for teachers designed to eliminate the hassle of arranging school residential visits.  Learn 4 real incorporates a revised programme of packages for pupils of all ages plus a brand new website to guide schools through the process of finding and booking a school trip.

"We know a teacher's time is precious so learn 4 real aims to cure all the headaches of arranging a school residential trip," said YHA Head of Market Development Sarah Fussey.  "We have put together a comprehensive range of packages - all linked to the National Curriculum - while the easy-to-use website ensures schools find exactly what they need.  "YHA has developed an unrivalled reputation with schools for providing quality accommodation and food at prices pupils can afford.  "And while we're delighted to continue to be the first place teachers look to when planning trips, we can now offer so much more by providing a great range of formal, structured activities with learn 4 real." 

Schools can choose from more than 80 excellent YHA locations - all popular with school parties and where staff are highly experienced in dealing with youngsters.  Activity packages and excursions covering all Key Stages and curriculum areas can be added as 'bolt-on' extras at 57 of these sites.  Sarah added: "Schools can choose just to stay and eat with YHA but can now also select an excellent off-the-shelf trip or devise a bespoke visit of their own and let us deal with the arrangements.  "Our courses provide fun-filled adventures that build confidence and team building skills while meeting the demands of the National Curriculum.  "And because all activities and excursions are arranged by YHA it is easy to work out the cost per pupil - with no hidden extras."

The new website is now live and can be found at www.learn4real.co.uk  It will be possible to search by subject, Key Stage, price and location to find the perfect match for each school's requirements. Call 0870 770 8868 for more details.

For more information on this release contact Paul Fearn, YHA Communications Officer on 01629 592775.

This is the type of site that we need to encourage more residential and activity trips in school.  Well done the YHA.

Reading Blogs

Reading this site as well as many other blogs (including the new Sparklebox blog: http://sparklebox.blogspot.com) can be very time consuming and with time management an issue for all teachers (be glad you're not this person!), visiting each site, scrolling though which are new posts and which you have read before seems a bit wasteful. 

Wouldn't it be great if there was a program that could put all the sites together into one program or page, highlighting which posts are new, which you have read and which are relevant to you?  The Good news - There are numerous programs that can do this for you - some which you don't have to pay a penny for!

I've discussed how the software works (in simple terms!) before so I'm just going to list a few programs which you might want to try out to make the time reading these blogs much more productive and quicker for you.

 FeedDemon (new version 2 released yesterday!)– This is by far my favourite newsreader, and the one that I use all the time. This feature rich program easily beats any other program currently available in my personal opinion. Some of the features include: Easy-to-read newspaper displays the latest news from dozens of sites, built-in podcast receiver downloads audio to your iPod or other media player, Watches alert you to items of interest so you don't have to look for them and News bins store your favourite items for future reference.  Note there is a small cost for this program although you can download a trial for free.

Lektora – A newsreader extension that works in Firefox and Internet Explorer.  Lektora is the FREE RSS feed aggregator that integrates seamlessly with Firefox and Internet Explorer to enable easy reading of news feeds within the web browser. Offering an intuitive user interface and highly polished aesthetic, Lektora simplifies subscribing to, reading and managing web site news feeds, without sacrificing performance.

Google Reader - Google have launched a free feed reader that looks very nice. If you have a gmail account (or don't mind setting one up) just pop over to reader.google.com and have a look. The advantage with this software is that you can access all your information from any computer in the world.

Pluck - Gareth from Primary Resources is a strong supporter of Pluck. Pluck is another newsreader that integrates with your web browser and gives you a new button on the bar at the top of the screen. When you click it all your feeds appear on the left of the screen and you can click on each one to read them. Again it's free.

Which do I recommend?  For me I like the features available in Feed Demon, especially the new version, and didn't mind paying the $40.00 (about £30) price - it's certainly worth trying out as a free trial.  Out of the free options Pluck or Lektora have little to choose between them feature wise.

Schools closed because of strikes

We were open today but thousands of schools have been closed as members of UNISON and supporting unions staged a 24-hour strike over pension rights, the biggest stoppage since the General Strike in 1926 according to the news. 

According to the BBC 739 schools across Wales and 120 in the city of Liverpool alone have been closed.  The strike has affected school office staff, caretakers, cooks and cleaners.  One school that wasn't closed though was Parkinson Lane Community Primary school in Halifax.  Here the headteacher, Gugsy Ahmed, reached an agreement with staff to abandon strike plans today in exchange for a day of teaching children about activists and reformers.  He dismissed claims he was trying to politicise his pupils though.  Mr Ahmed said the focus of the day was on "people who have reformed the world ".  More information on the Guardian Website.

 

Feeling bad after a course?

As part of the Intensifying Support Programme that our school is involved in we spent tonight's staff meeting visiting different schools.  Each year group visited a different school to discuss with the other teachers of the same year how the target setting etc was going.  This was great, and the Year 6 teacher that I spoke to had loads of really great ideas and seemed to be doing really well.  Her class was stunning and I was generally impressed with everything she has / had done.  I came away with lots of ideas to integrate into my class.

My point though is how people feel when they've been to meetings or courses like this?  I came away thinking that I just so far behind, and generally pretty naff.  I was driving back thinking my classroom didn't look as good, I didn't feel like I was managing my targets as well, etc.  Is it just me or do other teachers (unintentionally) feel like this after some courses?