The creators of the popular resource site Edgalaxy have recently created a number of new sites that teachers can use:

• Ultimate Titanic has appeared just in time for the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  It contains great content for teachers and students to learn about the most famous maritime disaster of all time. There are a number of amazing images, videos and text based content that will definitely appeal to teachers and students without overwhelming them with irrelevant information on Titanic. Best of all Ultimate Titanic must have one of the biggest collections of lesson plans and teaching resources based around the Titanic covering all key learning areas and ages. The Titanic is one of the most amazing industrial feats of all time wrapped up in a story that Shakespeare himself could not have scripted and still appeals to students and learners of all ages. There is something here for everyone.

• Scribbled.com.au is a highly creative site for those who want to learn about innovative art and craft ideas. Scribbled is packed with activities to suit all abilities but best of all everything is laid in step-by-step directions with photographs to support them.  There are a number of themed ideas for all major events of the year with new crafts and activities being added each week. Teachers will also love the video tutorials and printables to jazz up their classrooms.  There are also  activities and games particularly aimed at younger children. Take a look at scribbled today and release some of your creative energy.

Feb29th.net is a global blogging project that aims to cross all age groups and continents. As soon as Feb 29th 2012 begins in Tonga, the Feb29th.net will open up for posts for one day only. The blog will capture posts from all over our planet until midnight in the Western Pacific. The result will not only be a celebration of technology, but a celebration of audience and purpose… who will be the youngest author? Who will be the oldest? Which country will top the most posts? Will there be any marriage proposals?

The aim is to allow any visitor on 29th Feb to post on the special blog at www.feb29th.net; posts will be moderated on the day, as this will also be open to pupils in educational establishments across the globe. Get involved in this exciting blogging project by visiting the site and following things on Twitter and Facebook too.

The creators of the popular Blitz School site (previously featured on Teaching News here) are now running Victorian Invention Workshops for primary schools. The new workshops aim to ‘provide a valuable insight into the groundbreaking Victorian age of invention and innovation with a full five hours of interactive activities designed to maximise the learning of your pupils and take them to the heart of this wondrous era.’ The workshops sound like great fun, with opportunities to handle artefacts, investigate steam power, dress up in the Victorian photographer’s studio and take part in and end of day quiz.

Their site offers full details about the workshop and the objectives that it covers. There are also information about Victorian inventions and lots of free resources that all schools can use. Take a look!

Wallace & Gromit are calling on people across the UK join The BIG Breakfast from the 20th -27th April to raise thousands of pounds for sick children in hospitals and hospices by enjoying a BIG Breakfast.

Research suggests that breakfast eaters have lower stress levels and better concentration than breakfast skippers yet 1 in 4 adults in the UK admit to regularly skipping breakfast, so Wallace & Gromit’s BIG Breakfast calls on the nation to wake up to a BIG Breakfast which not only helps everyone who takes part have a brighter day but also helps raise vital funds for sick children across the UK.

Could you hold a BIG breakfast for pupils and families at your school? For more information and to register to take part, call 0845 600 1924 or visit www.wallaceandgromitsbigbreakfast.org.

Don’t forget that you can find other educational events to take part in by browsing our Teaching Events site.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. My wife and I have just had our first child, Joseph Warner, so he has been taking up lots of my time

Here are links to the latest teaching news and events:

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• Gordon Brown is making an impassioned call for the international community to make education a higher priority – and to make a co-ordinated plan to achieve universal primary education by 2015.
• One in three of the children around the world who do not have access to primary education have a disability, says a report from the charity Sightsavers.
• The equivalent of more than 3,200 new primary schools will be needed by the end of the decade as the pupil population soars to a 50-year high, it emerged today.
• The public have responded enthusiastically to a Twitter appeal for questions for MPs to ask the Education Secretary, Michael Gove.
• Just one in 15 (6.5%) pupils starting secondary school in England “behind” for their age goes on to get five good GCSEs including English and maths, official data shows. In response to this, Brian Lightman, the General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders disagrees with the charge that schools are not helping some of their pupils.
• Two grammar schools are at the top of this year’s secondary school league tables for England. The BBC has also written this article about the academy finding itself at the bottom of the league tables and the difficult job that the head teacher and staff face. However, schools minister Nick Gibb has said he wants to stop schools prioritising their rankings in exam league tables over ensuring a good education for all their pupils.
• Almost eight-in-10 teenagers are being steered away from tough academic GCSEs amid fresh warnings that schools across England are “wasting talent”.
• Teachers at a primary school in Birmingham have gone on strike for a second time over plans to turn it into an academy.
• Primary school pupils at a Leeds school are being given anger management classes to curb bad behaviour, an Ofsted report has revealed.
• Teachers are having sleepless nights about whether to report suspected victims of child neglect, a report for a charity says.
• More than one in 10 school teachers accused of misconduct last year had used social networking sites and email to forge inappropriate relationships with their pupils, an analysis of disciplinary cases has found.
• More than 1,000 private schools are to be subjected to tough new inspections after Ofsted warned that teaching was “seldom inspiring”.
• Pupils at a south London secondary school were surprised when Bill Gates turned up to give a special talk.
• The anti-monarchy group Republic is warning schools they may break the law if they take part in a cooking contest to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Universities:

• Universities are increasingly axing courses in traditional academic disciplines such as science in favour of the performing arts, media studies and photography, according to research.
• Universities are being ordered to effectively cut 15,000 student places, it has emerged, prompting claims that many well-qualified applicants will miss out.
• Almost a third of major companies are struggling to fill vacancies, despite record numbers of graduates searching for jobs, according to research.

Other News:

• It may be possible to detect autism at a much earlier age than previously thought, according to an international team of researchers.
• Apple aims to drive the use of electronic textbooks in the classroom by making it easier for publishers to create interactive titles.
• Digital literacy must be extended to adults too, says Martha Lane Fox, to improve employment prospects. Children would be the best teachers.
• Rio’s gearing up for the 2016 Olympics and Schools World Service have been to see how life is changing for young people living in the favelas.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 16th to 30th January - RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch
• 23rd to 29th January - Food Allergy and Intolerance Week
• 28th January - Data Privacy Day
• 31st January - Up Helly Aa
• 31st January - National Bug Busting Day
• 1st to 29th February - National Heart Month
• 4th February - World Cancer Day
• 4th February - National Libraries Day
• 4th February - Unicef Day for Change

As the Chancellor what economic decisions would you make? What would your Budget for the country be? Which taxes will you levy on society? Where would you choose to spend the money you’ve raised? Here is a chance for the young people in your school to have their say. Watch this video to find out more:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chance to be Chancellor is a competition that is open to all 14-18 year olds across the UK and their decisions will form the Youth Budget 2012. For a chance to win the national competition, visit the Paying for It site.

The Fun Food Company runs nutritional shows to KS3 students during PHSE sessions (or just for fun learning), in the form of a 2 part show (1 hour long). The sessions explore the importance of a healthy breakfast and how to balance the eat well plate, as well as recognising which foods contain carbs, protein, vitamins and minerals etc. The second half of the show is a competition loosely based on the television programme ‘Ready Steady Cook’, where 2 celebrity chefs (teachers) and their 2 team mates (pupils) battle for 15 minutes to cook a balanced meal, red team (red chillies) verses the green team (green peas).

Each team has a fully functional stage kitchen with 2 electric woks, a steamer, chopping boards, knife sets and cooking utensils. Once the competition has ended, the teams present the finished food onto the centre presentation table, where 10 audience volunteers come and taste the food and give their opinion. The winner is then voted for by the audience (50 – 300 pupils).

The show sounds like a great way for pupils to learn about healthy eating and the importance of it, whilst having a fun and interactive hour. You can find contact details for The Fun Food Company on their site.

Get ready for the Big Schools’ Birdwatch! Schools can take part in the upcoming Big Schools’ Birdwatch from 16-30 January 2012, helping the RSPB to monitor UK bird numbers.

Run every year, the Birdwatch is a free activity for all UK schools and youth groups (brownies, scouts etc). There are different resource packs for each age group:

• Little Schools’ Birdwatch is for 3-5 year olds
• Big Schools’ Birdwatch is for 6-11 year olds
• Really Big Schools’ Birdwatch is for 12-14 year olds.

This simple activity is for all ages and abilities; it only takes an hour to complete and is rich in curriculum links. It’s also a great way to get to know more about the wildlife visiting your school grounds. If you don’t have school grounds, don’t worry! You can still take part by visiting a local park. Teachers and group leaders can find out more at www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch and to register for their free resource pack. The website also has lots of other activities to accompany the Birdwatch to download, including child (and teacher) friendly bird ID pages.

Don’t forget to explore other educational events that you can can get involved in at Teaching Events.

On Monday, the Telegraph published an education wish list for 2012. This includes the hopes and dreams of different people involved in education. Some of their ideas include:

• The abolition of school exams,
• Trusting teachers more, especially with the teaching of reading to younger children,
• Changes to teachers’ contracts and requiring them to show how they had improved things each year,
• More outreach and work experience opportunities for students,
• Month-long sabbaticals for teachers in leadership roles every seven years.

What is your wish for this year? How would you like to change things in your own classroom or school, or even for education across the country in 2012? Share your thoughts in the comments below…

Happy New Year!

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• The education secretary is being urged to ditch regulations limiting infant class sizes to 30 pupils, in order to save money.
• Education Secretary Michael Gove has accused those who oppose his academies programme of being “happy with failure”.
• The Education Secretary loses the concentration of his young audience shortly after beginning his defence of academies.
• Dozens of teachers facing allegations of incompetence and misconduct will escape official hearings owing to the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England, new figures suggest.
• A third of parents are so unhappy with their child’s school they would advise other families not to send their children there, new figures from Ofsted have revealed.
• Schools are routinely cheating Ofsted inspections by bribing pupils, sending troublemakers home and rehearsing lessons, teachers have warned. Read the response from Ofsted here.
• The school day should be lengthened to prepare pupils for work, says Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg.
• Too many exams are ruining children’s enjoyment of their time at school, a former schools adviser has said.
• How well children perform in the classroom could be linked to how physically active they are, suggests a Dutch review of previous studies.
• Children who grow up without a daily routine of set bedtimes and mealtimes do worse at school, a report suggests.
• The Commission on School Reform has urged Scottish schools to abandon what it called the “bog standard” model of comprehensive education.
• Schools are being encouraged by the UK’s top scientific body to bring cutting edge science into the classroom.

Universities:

• University application numbers could be making a sharp recovery – according to figures from a university.
• A new type of privately-funded science and technology university has been announced by the universities minister.

Other News:

• Children’s access to smartphones and computers should be limited to stop them becoming “addicted” to electronic gadgets, according to a schools’ leader.