The PGCE Survival Guide is a new free e-book created to support those who are about to start PGCE teacher-training courses. However, it is such a fantastic resource that it could be useful for all teachers.

The PGCE guide site explains more about the book:

“It’s full of useful and practical, hints, tips and advice from recent PGCE graduates and more experienced teachers covering every element of teacher training, from your first day at university, through the hectic world of placements (with lots of valuable teaching tips) to finding a job- we have it all covered!

You won’t find countless chapters about educational theory – just real tips and advice from real teachers that have been selected to help you during your teacher training.”

I mentioned the #pgcetips Twitter tag on Teaching News a few weeks ago. The contributions to this tag have been collated and added to the book too. In fact, the book has over 250 super useful hints and tips from the education community on twitter!

I wish that there was a book like this when I started my teacher training course many years ago! Tim Handley (and the many other contributors) have done a wonderful job of creating an extremely valuable resource for all teachers, so download a free copy of the book or buy a paper copy!

Here are some of the interesting education-related things that I’ve found during my summer break so far:

Google Teacher Academy UK

The first Google Teacher Academy UK event took place this week and it sounded like an amazing experience for those who were able to attend. Even if you couldn’t make it, lots of people have been sharing what happened via their blogs and Twitter accounts. Here are some ways to follow the event it you couldn’t go:

• About the Google Teacher Academy (from Google’s site)
• GTA Posterous Blog – A special blog was set up allowing the attendees to write about what happened. This is a very interesting and useful resource.
• ICTSteps – Kevin McLaughlin has been writing blog posts about his experiences.
• Ian Addison has also describe his feelings about the event on his blog.
• Tom Barrett has created a collection of all of the blog posts about GTAUK which you can subscribe to if you use Google Reader.
• You can also follow the #gtauk hashtag on Twitter.

PGCE Tips:

Tom Henzley is aiming to create a free e-book containing tips for students starting a PGCE course. The book will contain contributions from people who post messages on Twitter using the hashtag #pgcetips. Here are some of the contributions so far:

• Be organised. Listen to and observe everything. Keep all bits of paper! (from @adambutterworth)
• Listen to advice, offer to help, don’t expect to be perfect – your mentor won’t expect you to be! (from @zaragozalass)
• Innovate… learn from school placements and write out your idea of what makes a good teacher… pick the best bits from others (from @dan_bowen)

Take a look at the other contributions by searching Twitter for #pgcetips and add some ideas of your own too. Lots of the ideas will be useful for practising teachers… not just PGCE students!

Other useful sites I’ve found:

• 20 websites no teacher should start the year without – A collection of sites which should be very useful for teachers (suggested by @colport).
• Fuzzwich – A simple online tool which lets you build animations. Shared by Mark Fox.

• Educational Jargon Generator – Create your own educational jargon which this clever site! Shared by @russeltarr.
• Secure Passwords Video – Here’s another fantastic video from Commoncraft which explains why it’s important to have strong passwords. Very useful for ICT / esafety lessons. Suggested by Lee Kolbert.
• Phil Bagge has updated his ICT videos with some new tutorials about using Google Docs for collaborative work.

Have you discovered any useful news / resources during the past few weeks?

Image – Underneath a Star

I have now started my summer break from school so I will also be taking a break from the daily postings on Teaching News.

There will still be occasional updates over the next few weeks, but regular posts will not resume until September.

Have a wonderful summer break!

Mark

Image – Some Day My Prints Will Come

Alan McKinney from SoundScalpel has kindly contributed a large collection of sound effects to Teaching Ideas. You can download these sounds and use them in your classroom for:

• Adding atmosphere to lessons,
• Assemblies,
• School performances,
• Adding sound to children’s ICT / multimedia work,
• Addition to a school website / VLE.

www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/dramasoundeffects.htm

I’ve also recently discovered www.freesfx.co.uk which has lots of free sound effects which you can also use.

www.freesfx.co.uk

What are your favourite sound effect resources? How do you use them in the classroom?

Stuart Ridout has started a useful collection of tips for teachers with interactive whiteboards in their classroom. The tips are all contributed by teachers using Twitter. Simply search for #iwbtips on Twitter to see the latest tips. Here are a small collection of the contributions so far:

• Make sure iwb is accessible-installed at a proper height or w/adjust mount. Tennis ball helps students with challenges touch screen (from EdTechieGeek).
• PLAY with your whiteboard, do not be afraid to explore and experiment (from psycho65).
• Take 5 mins every day to learn how to use an iwb tool and use it with your class, use 5 in one lesson at the end of the week (from Kevin McLaughlin).
• Ensure groups use the IWB for independent working bits in lessons; brainstorm, designing, google earth, presentations, etc (from Mark Robinson).
• Tchrs must remember that iwbs r about the kids not the teachers. Gr8 for group work/indep tasks.Avoid stand and deliver lessons (from Ann McDonald).

Image – IMG_0724

Stuart is planning to compile all of these tips into an e-book and I’ll post another update when news about this has been revealed. Why not share your own #iwbtips and have then added to the e-book?

The Sorrell Foundation is launching the YOUNGDESIGNCLUB to give pupils and their teachers an exciting new resource to inform and stimulate knowledge and debate about design.

The YOUNGDESIGNCLUB is free to UK primary and secondary schools, to run in lunch breaks or as an after-school activity. Each meeting will focus on a piece of design from any discipline, providing a growing menu of over 100 design stories. They will be structured around presentations and supported by flexible resources, including print, film and audio materials and PowerPoint slides (available as downloads). This will be followed by a discussion, and the pupil members will have the opportunity to produce their own crit in response, the best of which will be published by the YOUNGDESIGNCLUB. There will also be an annual awards ceremony at Somerset House, London.

www.thesorrellfoundation.com/young_design_club.php

Are you a teacher interested in running the YOUNGDESIGNCLUB? To register your interest, please complete the online registration form. The club will begin in January 2011 and the Sorrell Foundation will contact you in September with detailed information.

If your school or community group is doing something practical to conserve biodiversity, why not make a short news report about it and enter a competition from the Natural History Museum? The first prize is £500 for the winning group in each age category to visit to a local biodiversity site of special interest and class copies of a biodiversity book. Winners will be invited to a VIP event at the Natural History Museum to collect their prize and present their film. They will also go on a behind-the-scenes tour and meet a Museum scientist. Second prizes are class copies of a biodiversity book, free exhibition tickets and the opportunity to meet a Museum scientist.

www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=node/297

There are two entry categories; ages 7–11 years (Key Stage 2 or equivalent) and ages 11–14 years (Key Stage 3 or equivalent). Groups of up to 10 children should submit a short video, no longer than two and a half minutes, reporting on a local biodiversity project. Entries can be uploaded and viewed on the competition website and the closing date is 31 August 2010. Good luck!

Here is another collection of links to the latest education news stories:

• SATs for 11 year olds have too high a margin of error to be used to compare schools in league tables, according to the NUT and ATL, who have urged the government to scrap the tests for Year 6 pupils. The leader of the NUT has given hints that there could be another boycott of the SATs next year, although more notice would be given this time around.
• Trade Unions were outraged by the £200,000 pay package of a primary headteacher in south London. Michael Gove has written to the School Teachers’ Review Body to say that he wanted no headteacher to earn more than the prime minister. The TES have published a related article which explains that rocketing headteacher salaries are justified by the ‘mammoth pay packets of singers and footballing megastars’.

Image – Decus Et Tutamen

• Michael Gove has also published the Department for Education’s key policy commitments and invited the public to hold them to account on delivery.
• The chairman of Ofsted has explained that it is not ‘an absolute disaster’ if schools contain bad teachers.
• The scrapping of school building plans has cost education authorities at least £160m, according to the Local Government Association.
• Empty shops could be converted into schools, saving a third of the cost of starting a new building. Meanwhile, a report from the Auditor General for Wales has said that that school buildings in Wales are in a poor state and there is a long way to go before all of them will be ‘fit for purpose’.
• Reforms that will allow every school to become an academy will be rushed through at a pace usually reserved for emergencies such as anti-terror legislation. However, the Director of Education at Civitas has explained that academies are failing to teach traditional subjects in favour of less challenging qualifications in an effort to drive up results.
• Students will have to pay more for university, possibly through a graduate tax, according to the Business Secretary Vince Cable. University students will also be able to take low-cost two-year degree courses in order to save time and money before entering the world of work.
• Thousands of people could miss out on a university place in the UK this year after 660,953 people applied to start full-time undergraduate courses. The Lecturers Union fears that up to 170,000 people could be disappointed.

Image – Graduation Cake Guy

• The debate about school lunches continues as the chairman of the School Food Trust has criticised parents for filling children’s packed lunches with junk food.
• A Scottish government pledge that all school children receive two hours of physical education a week is not being met, according to new figures.
• A group of primary school children have been honoured by the Royal Society of Chemistry for disproving the theory that spiders are afraid of conkers.
• Do you want to get your children more interested in Maths? Why not find out more about the maths buskers who want to communicate the wonder of maths to people in the street!

Edtechroundup is a weekly online meeting between teachers and educators. It is open to all and the conversations take place via Flashmeeting. The discussions are about education and teaching with a particular focus on the use of ICT.

www.edtechroundup.com

You can find the links to future meetings on the Edtechroundup wiki. You can also watch / listen to the previous conversations there if you have missed any. There is also a Twitter page which allows you to keep up to date with the latest meetings and events. Why not take a look and get involved in the meetings yourself?

A free giveaway of the History Channel’s documentary ‘Inside the Body of Henry VIII’ is available for teachers. The DVD explores life in Tudor Times and is aimed at upper KS2 children, although it also works well with secondary students.

Image – Henry VIII miniature

To receive your free copy, please email thepeoplespeak@iamtomorrow.co.uk by 17th July with ‘DVD King Henry Order’ in the subject line. Also include your name, school, school address, postcode and telephone number. Only 1000 copies are available and postage is free.