Adventures in Teaching and Learning

We are finally moving internet suppliers. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but have eventually got round to making the call. Apparently we’ll lose our internet connection in a couple of days, and it could take 5-15 days before our new internet connection will be up and running. So this is advance notice that I could be down for a bit …

Another thing. Apparently when we get wireless broadband, only one of our computers will be able to access wireless internet at a time, unless we get some sort of router that means both laptops will be able to access it at once. So it’s a bit more complicated than I had thought. I’ll no doubt let you know how it’s going once it’s all up and running! But the whole point of wireless was so that we could both access the internet at the same time, instead of me asking Samson to let me have a go on his computer occasionally … (Emm, you’ll know that by that I mean more than occasionally, so I’m sure you’ll understand that Samson is keen that I can access the internet from my own computer without disturbing his work too much!)

Oh well. We’ll see what happens. Watch this space.

Reflection of a Blue Boat

Originally uploaded by skambalu.

I’ve been away for a while … so to mark my return to London, here’s another of my photos, this time taken in front of Canary Wharf. I liked the reflection of the boat with all its banners in the water. I plan to upload some of my holiday photos to Flickr at some point. I am glad we all got Flickr accounts as part of the TTP; I just need to work out how I can use it effectively with pupils! What are other people going to do? How have you used it so far?

Yellow flower

Originally uploaded by skambalu.

I just thought I’d share a flower with you all. The forecast doesn’t look so good for tomorrow … so here’s a bright flower to cheer us all up!

Well, I have started a new Flickr group, the Religious Education Teachers group. You don’t have to be an RE teacher to join (or to submit photos), but if you have any interesting photos that you would be willing to share with RE teachers (eg of baptisms, bar mitvahs, sacred thread ceremonies, weddings, Festivals, typically “religious” homes, special meals etc), then please join the group and submit those photos!

As an RE teacher, I do often worry about the ethics of using images from the internet etc. It’s really important to use visuals when teaching, and it would be great to have a place with a big selection … I hope any readers can join and help me out!

Religion: keep changing like a chameleon

Originally uploaded by lido_6006.

Lido_6006 posted this on Flickr. A very interesting image … quite a subversive comment on religion, really, although I’m not sure if it was meant that way or not!

I am thinking of starting a Flickr group aimed at RE teachers where we can share images that can be used in class materials. Does that mean those images would need to have a “Creative Commons” license or something? Can anyone advise? I’m not really sure about all the different copyright licenses. (Or licences? I’m not really sure about the spelling either!)

I’m sure all Geography teachers will already know about the very interesting Geograph site, but others might also be interested in it that haven’t come across it yet. This site aims to have photos for every ordnance survey square kilometre in the British Isles. Some very interesting photos! I’ve enjoyed looking up where I live now and where I used to live, to see what features have caught people’s eyes.

I received a link to a post about the top 30 educational blogs, which I thought you might find interesting if you haven’t already come across it. These are based on Technorati rankings. Might be a few good discoveries there!

This is a reminder for me as well as for letting any readers know – the Scottish Learning Festival is on from 19-20 September at the SECC in Glasgow. Should be interesting – there is a blog and there will be podcasts too, so those of us who can’t make it in person can still be inspired by what is going on. If you are on Facebook, then there is an event that you can sign up to, which will help you find out what is going on. And if you are not on Facebook, why not?! I am completely converted. We also have the HTTP group there as well – it would be great to have more members!

I know it’s a bit late, but I have just discovered the Edublog Awards, and since there are lots of links on there, I thought I would let you all know, to give you the opportunity of looking at prizewinning blogs. I came across it while visiting this Flickr group about classroom displays, which also has a blog. I came across this group while viewing Ewan McIntosh (aka Edublogger)’s Flickr page, which, as one would expect, has a load of really interesting and useful Flickr groups – thanks Ewan!

Just like to add – welcome back from your holidays, Lloyd – I’ll need to go and check out your blog now, I’m sure you will be updating it very soon with loads of stuff!