Lots of primary schools in the UK use software by 2Simple. They offer a wide range of ICT tools which are incredibly simple and easy to use, whilst offering lots of creative opportunities. The company have just set up a blog which is worth following if you use their software.

http://2simpleblog.wordpress.com/

The blog has examples of the programs being used by children, ideas for activities to try, as well as sneaky peeks at up and coming developments.

Here are links to the most popular ‘Teaching News‘ posts for November 2009 in case you missed some of them the first time around:

1. Fireworks – Ideas and links to help celebrate Fireworks night.
2. Remembrance Sunday – Useful links for activities related to Remembrance Sunday
3. Competition – Win DK Books – This competition has now closed. The winner will be announced shortly!
4. Blank Top Trumps – Unfortunately, these Top Trumps files are no longer available on the site. I’ve contacted the creator but he no longer has copies either. If you have a copy of the file, please email me and I’ll upload them so that others can use them too. They’re obviously very popular!
5. Communication 4 All – Have you explored this wonderful site yet?
6. Competition – Where do you like to learn? – Did you enter Dell’s competition to win a tablet PC / netbook?
7. Creative Curriculum – Information and links about creative curriculum ideas.
8. Fruit and Vegetable Colouring Pictures – A set of free downloadable resources for work related to food / healthy eating / plants.
9. Numeracy Helper – A useful site with free Numeracy resources.
10. Skoolio – PSHE and Classroom Powerpoints – Have you downloaded any of these fantastic Powerpoint presentations yet?

Here are links to the most popular ‘Teaching News‘ posts for October 2009. Which ones were most useful for you?

1. Top 10 Teaching Ideas (Sep ‘09) – A list of the most popular ideas on Teaching Ideas.
2. Free Stuff for Teachers – A fantastic site with free resources for teachers to use.
3. Superclubs Plus Free Trial – Sign up to Superclubs with our offer, now extended until 30th November 2009.
4. 100 Best Open Source Apps for Education – How many of these apps do you use?
5. Communication for All – Download lots of top quality resources on this great site.
6. The Potato Story – A wonderful site to support work in Science lessons.
7. New Ideas to Inspire – Have you discovered the new presentations on Ideas to Inspire?
8. Staying Organised – How do you manage all of the jobs that teachers have to do?
9. The Art Classroom – Visit this wonderful blog and discover lots of art ideas and student work.
10. Cool Tools for Schools – An amazing directory of tools that schools can take advantage of.

The Art Classroom is a wonderful blog about art and design in secondary schools. It is run by David Dunlop and shows the day to day workings of an art classroom.

There are lots of examples of student work, as well as unit plans and ideas for other schools to try. Take a look and leave some comments about the work that is shared.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Twitter is a fantastic way of discovering new ideas and resources from people with similar interests. Here is a random selection of sites that I’ve discovered from my friends and followers on Twitter recently:

• Fun Science Games (from @dannynic) - This blog post from Sciencebase shares a number of fun and educational Science games which can be used with pupils.
• Keyboard Climber (from @2sparkley) – An entertaining game, in which you have to help a monkey climb a tree by typing letters. Great for improving children’s keyboard skills.
  
  
• Free copy of Songsmith for UK teachers (from @simonhaughton) – Registered members of the UK Innovative Teachers Network can download a free copy of Microsoft’s Songsmith software.
• 2Assess (from @skinnyboyevans) – Anthony Evans gives a first look at new ICT assessment software from 2Simple Software.
• Storybird (from @tombarrett) – An online tool that allows friends and families to make short, visual stories. How could this be used in the classroom?
• Cartoonster (from @olliebray) – Fun, interactive tutorials which teach children how to draw and animate.
• Get Signed Up! (from @simonhaughton) – A list of free tools that can be used for educational purposes in the classroom.

This is just a small selection of the tools that I’ve discovered via my Twitter network. Have you found any new and useful sites recently?

Hi everyone,

I’m Mark Warner… I’m a primary teacher and I’ve been running a number of websites to support teachers for many years. I was very sad to read Andrew’s recent post about the end of this blog, as I’ve always found the site to be an extremely useful source of education news and information.

Andrew has kindly allowed me to take over the running of Primary Teacher UK, which I’m very excited about. The site has obviously been a huge amount of work for him, and I’m keen to ensure that all of the information that he (and his guest contributors) have previously posted stays online. I’m also looking forward to posting more news, links and information.

I recently started another blog for teachers, over at www.teachingblog.co.uk, where I’ve been posting teaching news and links to some great educational sites. I’m thinking about merging these two blogs at some point, so that all of the content is in one place. However, I probably won’t be able to organise this for a while as I’m getting married next week!

I hope you’re as pleased as I am that Primary Teacher UK will be continuing… and I hope I do as good a job as Andrew did.

Have a fantastic summer… I’ll post another message soon.

As a teacher in Kent, here in the UK, I’m very lucky to be able to call upon support of a fantastic team of advisors. The ICT team, in particular, are incredibly active and produce lots of wonderful resources to make things easier for those who work in schools. These materials are freely accessible to educators, whether you work in Kent or not.

Their Kent NGFL site is an amazing resource, and is definitely worth checking out if you have an interest in using ICT in the classroom. Don’t forget to read their blog too.

Danny Nicholson knows everything there is to know about interactive whiteboards. If you have one in your own classroom, it’s well worth visiting his fantastic Whiteboard Blog.

He regularly posts links to new and useful sites which are perfect for use on the interactive whiteboard. He also gives updates about new software / hardware. It’s well worth a look!