Adventures in Teaching and Learning

I can hardly believe it has been over a month since I last blogged! It has certainly been a very busy time, both at work and at home.

However, over the past week I have come across two websites that I think will be useful for my students, so I thought I would share them here as well.

The first is a faith-based website, YFaith, aimed at young Catholic Christians aged 10-13, although open and useful to anyone. As an RE teacher in a Catholic school, this is a site that I will be directing my Key Stage 3 students to. This is a new site, based in the UK, and they have attempted to make the site interactive and safe. Therefore there are many opportunities for young people to vote on different issues, and they can upload their own questions and comments, which are moderated first before uploading. There is no need for students to use their email addresses or to reveal any information about themselves.

The second is the GCSEPod website. This site has a number of revision podcasts that can be downloaded and listened to on mp3 players. There is a small charge per unit, and the hope for the creators is that parents and grandparents might want to buy podcasts for their (grand)children to help them with their revision. So far there are podcasts for English Language, Geography, History and Religious Studies, with more to follow. GCSEPod are looking for more writers for this series, so perhaps you would like to be involved.

Finally, I have just seen a clip of David Cameron talking in Parliament, shouting about Haringey’s Children and Young People’s Services: “They have done nothing to help failing schools in Haringey.” I would first of all like to point out that the views expressed in my blog are 100% my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer (although I would hope that they are normally not that dissimilar!). I am proud to work in a school that has been recognised as being “Good” by Ofsted. And I am aware that is partly because of the support we, and other schools, have received from Sharon Shoesmith and her department. As Alex Atherton has been quoted as saying, there “are no schools in special measures in Haringey.” Whatever has happened with the social services side of the CYPS, I feel angry that David Cameron has chosen to make the statement I have quoted above. This seems to be a soundbite rather than evidence of any investigation he has done into our local school situation. The CPD for teachers in Haringey has been second to none.

I’m just back from a lovely dinner celebrating the work of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme so far. It’s always lovely to meet up with other teachers, and to share ideas and enthuse one another. There were a couple of informative talks, by John D’Abbro and Dr Baldev Singh. I was particularly struck by Dr Singh’s talk, partly because he began with a Wordle that I guessed must have come from our own information about the course. (Sorry if I got carried away at that point everyone!!) I have just realised that he got his PhD from a fantastic university: St Andrews. He describes himself as “just a teacher who is having fun“, which I think completely sums up my view of using Web 2.0 and new technologies in the classroom as well – a kindred spirit therefore!

The food was good too, and even though I lost my game of mindball, and could not manage to complete the Wii guitar thing, this was a very enjoyable event. Lovely to see so many people there!