Primary Teacher UK

Want a new 1gb Memory Stick?

Memory 4 Teachers is a project that has been developed, in association with LEAs and Teacher Unions, to support teachers and educators in addressing their ever-increasing workloads by funding the provision of 750,000 USB memory sticks across the UK

The memory sticks have a capacity of 1 GB and include free educational resources for teachers to utilise, through a user-friendly embedded interface that appears on screen immediately as the memory stick is plugged in. These free resources cover all major subject areas and include lesson plans and ideas, worksheets and much more.

Link: http://www.memory4teachers.co.uk/teachers_registration.asp

Dig for the future

Rocket Gardens is aiming to get one million children growing their own vegetables over the next two years by offering organic plant packs to more than 5,000 schools across the country.  The move is part of Rocket Garden’s “Dig For Their Future” campaign, which aims to teach children about the benefits of growing their own food and how it can help to save money, improve their health and the environment.

A Rocket Garden is a box brimming full of baby vegetable plants packed in golden straw and delivered direct to the school. All children have to do is pop the baby plants into the ground to begin growing their own school’s organic vegetable garden.

Rocket Gardens makes it easy for any school and teacher to implement this initiative - even those with no gardening experience as we provide full growing guides and lesson plans, which are linked to key stages of the National Curriculum.

The plants, which are delivered from late April onwards, have been carefully selected so that they are harvestable within term time. After the summer holidays, schools can obtain a further autumn / winter garden, which helps children to produce food which they can even cook and eat as part of their Christmas dinner.

Michael Kitchen, founder of Rocket Gardens, said:

“We aim to supply Rocket Gardens to 5,000 schools across the country this year, from inner city to rural locations.  Everyone accepts that it is really important that our children reconnect with the seasons and nature, but in this era of instant gratification we cannot expect children to wait months for seeds to grow.  The beauty of growing a Rocket Garden is that children can see the results quickly and their enthusiasm grows along with their vegetables.”

Duncan Ratcliffe, headmaster at Cornwall’s Porthleven School - which was one of the first gardens to take part in the campaign - said: “Our school’s Rocket Garden has been extremely successful. The children have been picking food from the garden which they have learnt how to cook, and produce is now being sold at our local farmers market - they are becoming little environmental entrepreneurs.”

Visit the Rocket Gardens website www.rocketgardens.co.uk for further information.

High quality, copyright free images for use in publications

Sometimes you need a picture that you can use in published materials.  There are lots of free sites available but if you are struggling have a look at Alamy.

This  valuable new picture resource for teachers, lecturers and academics has been launched by Alamy, the largest stock photo site on the web.  Its Limited Use scheme offers access to the world’s largest online collection of photographs from as little as 60p per image and without the worry of copyright problems.

Alamy currently has millions of images ready for use under the scheme and the choice will keep growing as its encyclopaedic collection continues to increase in size.  File sizes range from a thumbnail to print quality sizes.

And, unlike many of the images taken from reference sites such as Google, the photos on Alamy are all copyright safe and high quality.  Rachel Wakefield, Head of Sales:

“The beauty of this scheme is that it gives the education community an affordable and safe way of using photographs without compromising on choice.  They can be used for all sorts of classroom projects, presentations, lessons and lectures, dissertations and theses.

“Many teachers use images free from the internet but, all too often, they are not aware of the copyright implications. Alamy is offering a large, top quality pool of images that are legally covered and cost from only 60p per photograph.”

Please note that the collection is not edited for children and is aimed for teaching staff only.

To find out more visit: http://www.alamy.com/help/stock-photography-limited-use.asp

British Red Cross

The British Red Cross, along with many other charities, provides educational resources and assembly kits created in response to teachers' need for imaginative and informed assemblies on topical subjects, particularly in response to major news events.

It's important to check the resources carefully, particularly the assemblies, as some of the topics covered are, in my opinion, not suitable for the majority of primary school.

You can view all the resources at www.redcross.org.uk/education

TESConnect

If you haven't already had your email from the TES yet, check out the new TESConnect website.  The new site, which is becoming more of a social networking site, allows you to share resources and ideas, connect to other other teachers and find jobs and news.

You can view an introduction to the new site at the following link: http://www.tes.co.uk/tesassets/images/aquaduct_flash/index.html

Link: www.tes.co.uk

Word Searches

For those of you still at school (I broke up on Friday!) have a look at this free Word Search software. You can alter just about every possible option and it produces some great looking word searches. You can also search for previously created word searches by keystage and subject.

Link: http://www.teachers-direct.co.uk/resources/wordsearches/index.aspx

Stuff 4 Teaching

Sarah, a KS1 primary teacher in London, has been busy building a website over the last couple of months called Stuff 4 Teaching.

It is a subscription website, but it works out at less than 5p a day. The basic concept is just to make life easier and quicker for teachers, to save us all that time wasted when sorting through irrelevant pages during a search engine search.

Stuff for Teachers have catalogued and sorted thousands of internet resources, currently 1115 for Early Years, 3020 for KS1 and 2678 for KS2, which is being added to daily.

You choose your key stage, your subject, then topic, then the type of resource you are looking for, e.g for interactive whiteboard, PC, worksheet etc. Or you can just use the search button. Sarah has also started a blog, and in time, we would like to introduce forums too.

Have a look at the free tour for more information.

Link: www.stuff4teaching.com

RSPCA Lessons and resources

The RSPCA have a large collection of links and resources for the KS1/2 curriculum including role plays and debates. Their interactive whiteboard resources called Animals and Us is fun and in Welsh as well as English. There is also advice on how the Animal Welfare Act 2006 affects classroom pets, visitors with animals and school trips.

Thanks to ICT Teachers for pointing out this link to me.

Link: http://www.rspca.org.uk/

Arts on the Move

Arts on the move has a collections of playscripts, drama resource books, drama workshops online and on CD ROM, a primary School drama policy and a wide range of FREE information, including drama games, monologues, ideas for building character, drama methods - and much more!

There is also a very useful directory of Suppliers, Services and Specialists - from face painters to costume suppliers - a one-stop-shop for all your creative needs. The site is run by teachers for teachers so have a look and see if there is anything relevant for you.

Link: http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/index.php

www.just-teaching.com

www.just-teaching.com has now been running for a few years - recently however the site has been redesigned and is adding (almost daily) new free resources to download. You can find out more information about the author of the site on the blog, what he does and why I just-teaching.com is running from the website.

Link: www.just-teaching.com