Schools across the UK are currently getting to grips with the new performance management framework that is being introduced nationwide this school year. I’m a ‘Main Scale’ teacher at the moment, and one of the benefits of the new system appears to be how ‘Threshold’ will be tackled. Previously you had to apply to pass…
So says the title of another BBC article on the cyber-bullying YouTube problem. This worries and saddens me as I can see the quick result of this will be even more aggressive and restrictive censoring of the internet by school network managers. There is so much excellent material available on YouTube and other similar sites…
Having settled in at my new school, plans are afoot… …it looks like I should be taking a role in expanding the use of ICT across the curriculum. I’m going to do this in conjunction with a member of the IT teaching department. I plan to focus on collecting together good practice that already takes…
Following on from my previous post about GapMinder, Hans Rosling has made another inspiring talk at a TED conference. His use of data continues to inspire me and pushes my thoughts on using this software in the classroom. With the abolition of data handling coursework next year more time will be freed up to look…
At the end of an ordinary Year 9 lesson on scatter graphs I had a flash of inspiration and remembered the fantastic Gapminder World tool courtesy of Google and Gapminder. For the uninitiated this is a dynamic graphing package populated with a range of data about countries covering the last 30 years. You choose two…
Now this is what ICT in the classroom dreams are made of! Microsoft have announced a new coffee table styled computer that is a giant multi-touch screen. This and the new iPhone seem to be bringing multi-touch displays to the masses at last. Obviously having this technology on our IWBs would be fantastic but imagine…
I’m a little gob smacked and a little jealous at the news from the BBC that Knowsley council on Merseyside plan to abolish the classroom and timetable as we know it and turn all 7 of their secondary schools into learning centers personalised to each pupil. It seems that this sort of revolution in how…
I’m still alive, settling in to the new school has killed of blogging temporarily, I have a mountain of ideas that I intend to implement over the coming months and no-doubt blog about here. The first of which is an updated Scheme of Work for 11-14 Maths. To see my thoughts and a plea for…
Well tomorrow is the first day at my new school and I’m really looking forward to it. Things have been a little quiet on the blogging front as the last term wound up and a well earned rest was had over Easter. Hopefully once settled in my new school I will throw myself back into…
Wow! Now this is an online tool with a wealth of uses for teaching maths and using in general rather than excel / windows calculator. Instacalc is an online calculator / spreadsheet mashup. It supports sharing, and blog embedding, and intelligently interprets what you type in. Check out the blog for a walk though of…