Adventures in Teaching and Learning

I have been intrigued by Robin Burkinshaw’s blog, Alice and Kev, which follows the life of two homeless characters in Sims 3. It is a very touching story, and as well as the storytelling itself, the comments left by those who are following the story make interesting reading. Many people are being drawn in to the story of good but clumsy Alice and her violent father. An unusual introduction to the topic of homelessness.

I’ve just found a new and interesting tool: Scribble Maps. Very geographical – but I am sure there are other uses too!

It’s the beginning of Advent, so I have just spent the past couple of hours researching Advent wreaths, calendars and Jesse Trees to share with my classes at school. I am not going to type them all out again, instead, here are the links to the relevant posts on my RE hub blog:

Jesse Tree

Advent Calendars

Advent Wreaths

Please do let me know if you find any of these links useful, and if you know of any other good sites that I can add, that would be brilliant!

Have a very happy Advent!

Thanks to Darren Walker, who sent a comment that directed me to his excellent Web 2.0 in Education (UK) website. This wiki seems to cover just about every useful Web 2.0 tool that a teacher might need! And I particularly like the fact that the examples given tend to be RE ones! This is because Darren is the Head of RE at Campbell College, which gives me another excuse to share another RE website with you – and me! Thank you, Darren!

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.

Just have to “big up” another website that I’ve just found – Bling My Grade. This site has some excellent downloadable revision notes in the style of 50 Cent, Andre 3000 and other hip hop artists. Very funny! Wish I’d heard of it before the exams. Hope it will still be there next year! Mean, Mode and Median has never been so cool before … With thanks to Terry Freedman’s free Web 2.0 book, which I found because I follow Terry on Twitter. Isn’t the internet useful!

I found a really good article about using Wordle in class … I look forward to having some time after our Review this week to work out some ways that I can use it in lessons. I already like the way they look!

Was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by an intro to the internet when I logged on to the BBC homepage this morning. Will need to go and investigate further now!

I’ve found an interesting blog called 23 Things: it contains 23 things that any teacher should (?) be able to do, relating to Web 2.0 – eg blogging, using a wiki, knowing about RSS, tagging, podcasts etc. How many can you do?

Thanks to jdobres who pointed me in this direction … NC pages for ICT in RE … although I’ve just seen the note that says that website will no longer work after 30 May 2008! So we better all head over to the new QCA pages …