Education Show 2010

I attended my second ever Education Show yesterday. I really enjoyed it and acquired a tonne of information and ideas. It was great to meet some interesting people too.

When I got back, it took me a while to work through all of the free mugs, free pens, chocolates, flyers and brochures that I collected, but I believe I have various things that I will try to explore when I get the chance over the next few months.

Whilst I'm not endorsing any of these resources, I thought I would mention the ones that I plan to investigate further or those that I purchased at the event.

Software:

• I acquired a copy of 2Simple's 2DIY for evaluation. I have heard such a lot about this on Twitter, finding the 2Simple stand was a priority for me. I will enjoy exploring this and hopefully the school will be able to afford to purchase a site licence at the end of the trial.

Websites:

• www.peplanning.org.uk - this interesting looking planning resource is in its testing phase. It's something I will pass to our PE subject leader.
• www.millionaireforschools.co.uk offers eduational quizzes for the children. I like the look of this, but I'm not sure we can afford it yet.
• www.asthma.org.uk/educate
• www.thepuncs.com
• www.iamlearning.co.uk - whilst I'm not necessarily a fan of revision, I was really impressed by the learning through games at this site.
• I renewed our subscription to Education City.

Learning Platforms:

• After spending nearly three years establishing our Uniservity learning platform in school I am reluctant to move to a different LP provider. Having said that, I was very impressed by the simplicity of the service offered by www.dbeducation.co.uk.

Resources:

• I'm a big fan of Polydron resources. I bumped into a director of the company who asked a while ago if he could include some of the videos from our Polydron work onto their website. I told him that I had quite a few more so he should be expecting an email with details soon! (You can see them at our vimeo channel at www.vimeo.com/churchlane.) The Polydron Engineer sets look really promising.
• Classical Comics: I love their version of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet and so I was pleased to purchase copies of the teacher booklets for these plays.
• We purchased some PDF ebooks for excellent prices which were produced by www.topical-resources.co.uk
• Filmclub sounds simple fantastic! The school will certainly be looking into this!
• We found some brilliant lino cutting materials which will be great for our William Morris art project in the summer. www.educationalart.co.uk
• I loved Rory's Story Cubes and I will definitely purchase the iPhone app!
• www.GoodMorningChildren.com seems like pretty good value and seems a pretty good way to start each day.
• www.memory4teachers.co.uk - After signing up for a free memory stick last year I was annoyed that I never received it. The salesman explained that there had been supply issues last year. Yesterday the memory sticks were given out at the show!
• www.lightningeducation.com - APP Assessment Angel looks like really good value and a great idea for a manageable solution to recording APP information.
• I'd love to get a Support Your School initiative started at our school.

Money & Careers topic:

• The Primary Enterprise Game produced by Halton Education Business Partnership looks amazing but very expensive. I'm not sure we'll be able to afford this just yet.
• www.credit4life.co.uk is a pfeg approved board game which encourages discussion about credit cards. I would love to buy these, but the cost may prove to be a barrier for a while.
• Raising Aspirations looks like a good resource for promoting higher education to pupils in the primary school.

Residentials:

• We chatted to a salesman from Manor Adventure who gave use some really good ideas for how we could further improve our visit to France next year.

As you can imagine, a lottery win would only just cover the cost of buying all of these resources. But it's great to know what is available, and, if finances allow, what could be bought to help to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools.

Let's Grow and Box Tops

Believe me, as an ex-employee of Morrisons I know how tight they can be. Therefore I was very surprised that they are actually giving something away! The Let's Grow voucher scheme is the latest voucher scheme to hit the supermarkets, specifically aimed at squeezing every last penny out of their customers whilst making themselves look generous!

I sound a bit cynical but actually I'm all for these voucher schemes. I realise that it's a way to get free marketing and that the amount they actually give away compared to the amount they take in during the scheme doesn't sound particularly grand. But at least they are giving away something! It allows schools to get their hands on some useful freebies and it gives our Year Sixes some responsibilities (counting the vouchers). As a reward for their hard work counting the vouchers they help me to choose what we spend the money on. The lads love this role and they take great pride in telling others, "I chose that!"

Let's Grow from Morrisons allows schools to collect vouchers towards gardening tools and plants. I have also finally registered for Nestle's Box Tops for Books scheme. I don't mind giving a little free publicity if it means we get a few free donations!

Sparklebox KS2 is free!

Sparklebox has announced the brilliant news that all its resources are now free! Fantastic! This includes the KS2, KS1 and Foundation Stage sites! If you've never used their resources before, now there is no excuse!

Sparkle Box 2

Sparkle Box has had such a wonderful reaction from everyone in the TES forums and other blogs. Some of my colleagues have also used the KS1 version. So I guess I am late in highlighting Sparkle Box for KS2. But this is a fabulous site with lots of free resources and some high quality items available to buy. There are some good deals at the moment for resource disks.

Zamzar

Zamzar is site which you can use to convert files or download videos from YouTube without having to buy software.

Visual Lessons.com

Visual Lessons.com site has PowerPoint presentations for various subjects for sale. they are reasonably priced and of good quality. They are always useful for a starting point in lessons. Maths, English, History, Geography, RE and Science are the subjects available. A selection of free resources have recently been added with more to follow later in the year.

Trinity Educational

Trinity Educational is a fab site with lots of reasonably priced resources available to purchase and some free resources are included.

Teachers Toolbox

Teachers' Toolbox has a range of motivational resources for primary schools. There are some really original display borders and some good reward pencils. I really like this site.

Teachers-Take-Away

Teachers-Take-Away has a range of colourful well-produced resources in many curriculum areas, some of which are available to buy on CD, some as PDFs. If you register to become a member there are some free resources.

Memorabilia Pack Company

The Memorabilia Pack Company produces history packs full of paper replicas which are ideal for use as primary sources for history projects. Ideally suited to Britain since 1948 and the 1st and 2nd World War projects, the packs are quite reasonable. Packs include Victorian housefolds, 1960s childhood, World War 1, the Blitz, Home Front, Home Guard, the RAF at War, 1950s household, British seaside holidays, golden age of steam trains, golden age of cruise liners and suggragettes.

Concentrate

Another brilliant Dragon's Den and another teaching resource business - only this week's was good! What original designs for products Concentrate had available. I think the bottlecoolerpenholder could really catch on and I'm going to recommend that our school supplies these - I believe that school logos can be printed onto the holders. A practical way to get the children to drink water, concentrate and to remember their pens!!

They Didn't Teach Me That

Here is a link to a series of Teachers TV programmes which I recommended to a trainee teacher I have working with me at the moment. Titled 'They Didn't Teach Me That', the programmes are all about classroom management, observation, health, form tutor, communicating, voice, classroom environment, time management, induction and marking. Some of them are perhaps not suitable for primary teachers but they all have good advice.

Pupils should supervise lunches

A recent reports suggests that older pupils should become paid dinner supervisors in school canteens and lunchtimes should be made longer not shorter. The School Food Trust suggests that lengthening the daily lunch break would allow pupils to relax, eat properly and recuperate for the afternoon's lessons. It also says that teachers should sit among pupils and communicate using coloured cards to avoid having to shout.

The booklet 'A Fresh Look at the School Meal Experience' is really interesting and it has lots of practical ideas for making lunch times a positive experience for everyone!

"Could I Do Better" by Phil Beadle

Today the Daily Telegraph published the first of three extracts from Phil Beadle's book, 'Could I Do Better?' The featured article includes inspiration for how to develop the learning of children of differing intelligences - the mover, the talker, the thinker, the dreamer, the musical child, the mathematician and the wordsmith. It makes for interesting reading. The whole article is online at the newspaper's website.

Cracking ICT

We were sent an approval copy of Darkfire Education's 'Cracking ICT' CD.

Cracking ICT is a series of CD-ROMs containing narrated video lessons covering Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, Email and the Internet. They are intended for use with children and adults, so you can use them in the classroom and for staff training.

I was really surprised by how good the tutorials were. The disc we had demonstrated PowerPoint. It has three skill levels so beginners and more advanced users can learn. The best thing is that they are not American, but the narrators have an English accent. I can easily see how they can be used with the children, but are ideal for use with staff, particularly anyone who is not very confident with using ICT.

The resources are £19.99 each, but there are discounts for multiple purposes. Also available at the website is a disc for ideas for developing economic well-being.

You've Got The Power

Judging by the date on the back (July 2006) perhaps I am a little late in posting info about this pack. However, 'You've Got The Power', an educational resource for 7-11 year-olds about Parliament and Government, arrived in our school last week.

It includes a DVD featuring an overview of Parliament and also a film about participation and democracy. There is also a resource booklet including teachers' notes, curriculum links, lesson plans, information sheets and worksheets. There is also a parliament website for children to explore.

Free copies can be requested from the publications site.

It looks really interesting and would perhaps make a good resource to use after SATs in the Summer. I plan to use it in September when we relaunch our school council.

MPMA Resouces

The Metal Packaging Manufacturers' Association website has KS1 and KS2 resources that support the literacy and numeracy strategies. They explore uses of metal in packaging, and environmental and sustainability issues.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home are holding a competition for children to design a picture for the animal home. It must show why they love dogs and cats.

There is also a teaching resource pack titled '3R's for 4R's' for Primary school children.

Science Virtual Experiments

Another resource I use to plan Science, and one that is especially effective in SATs revision is Collins' Science Virtual Experiments.

Virtual Experiments is a whole-class, interactive teaching tool that contains simulations of key QCA Scheme of Work experiments. Available for Years 1 to 6, it is ideal for helping to explain scientific concepts that are difficult to demonstrate in the classroom, such as the movement of the earth around the sun, and for helping to deliver science in a simple, time-effective way, with no mess and no fuss.

I have found it works brilliantly as a plenary activity and also to revise various topics in the build up to SATs. Recommended.

Exploring Science

I have just finished planning a short unit of Science using a resource I purchased for school with E-Learning credits earlier this year. Peason Longman's Exploring Science series is absolutely to be absolutely invaluable when it comes to planning for science. There is an interactive CD-ROM, and a children's book (although we didn't buy this). We also purchased the Copymaster CD-ROM which is fantastic for getting ideas for lessons. The best buy of all is the Teacher's Guide which covers everything you need to plan a unit of science. It was background information (very helpful!), practical activities, KS3 extensions, assessment and cross-curricular activities.

We purchased a copy for each year group, but of course I use the Year 6 book. There are resources available for Years 3 to Year 9!

It is a superb resource, and I would recommend it.