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.

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!

The British Library site is a wonderful resource for teachers. It’s full of different activities and content which cover different areas of the curriculum.

Some of the resources include:

• Victorians – A huge collection of digital resources which children can use when learning about the Victorians.
• Playtimes – Explore 100 years of children’s songs, rhymes and games. The Kids’ Zone has some great video clips of children playing in the past… how do they compare with children playing on your school’s playground today?
• Sounds Familiar? – This area of the site shares sound recordings which highlight the different regional accents and dialects around the UK.
• Mapping History - A large assortment of digitised maps and information about mapping over hundreds of years. This also includes an exploration of how and why maps lie between fact and fiction.
• Visits and Workshops – The British Library also offer free workshops, tours and activities for groups.

Here are 15 sets of resources that you can use to help your children learn about Remembrance Day which takes places this week (on 11th November):

1. I recently made a number of Remembrance resources which are posted on Teaching Ideas. These include a display banner, lined and plain paper templates and an acrostic activity.
   
2. Learn about Remembrance Day at the Woodlands Junior school site. Simon Haughton’s excellent Infant Encyclopedia also has a section about Remembrance Day which younger children can use for research.
3. The Royal British Legion have a fantastic site that is full of useful information and resources for schools.
4. CBBC Newsround have produced a guide to Remembrance Day for children with key information and video content.
5. Primary Resources has a number of assembly and lesson ideas that you can use this week.
6. Purple Mash have an interactive tool which children can useto write their own report about the topic.
7. Mr. Donn’s site has links to a number of resources for those teaching children about Remembrance Day.
8. Primary Treasure Chest also have lots of free downloadable resources, including flashcards, posters, page templates and activity sheets.
   
9. Elaine’s Remembrance Day Poem page has a number of poems which can be read at the time of Remembrance. Could you also use them as inspiration for your own poems?
10. TES have collected all of the Remembrance resources and shared a list of them here.
11. The Twinkl team have produced some lovely Remembrance Day resources which you can print and use in your classroom.
    
12. Topic Box (one of my favourite sites) also has links to lots of great resources and interactive sites about Remembrance Day.
13. The BBC have a special site about Remembrance with a ‘Remembrance Wall’ which gives information about the soldiers who fought in World War 1.
14. This video shows the gathering of different groups of people at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day in 2010.
    

    Click here to view the embedded video.

15. The ‘Remember Me’ site (suitable for upper primary and secondary schools) has lots of information, resources and teachers’ notes from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The amazing Simon Haughton has completed his Primary School History Encyclopedia. The site is perfect for primary children, giving them a place to research different historical periods. Teachers can be confident that the information there is appropriate for young pupils to learn about history independently. Each period in history has pages about a number of related topics with easy-to-read text and photos / illustrations too. The site has taken over a year to create and you can read about its development here.

Simon has a number of other great resources for schools, including:

• The Infant Encyclopedia - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/infant/
• Primary School Geography Encyclopedia - http://geography.parkfieldict.co.uk
• ICT Club Activities and Games - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ictclub/
• Junior ICT Companion - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ictcompanion/

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

Schools:

• A head teachers’ union is to ballot members for what would be its first ever strike, in a dispute over reductions to their pensions.
• Schools in England which join together in federations improve teaching as well as pupils’ happiness, a watchdog says.
• The government faces a backlash from teachers for repeatedly talking down schools’ achievements, the leader of a headteachers’ union has warned.
• Children at boys or girls-only schools are more likely to end up sexist and are not necessarily better educated, psychologists have found.
• The total funding available for the Pupil Premium is set to double and will rise to £1.25bn in 2012-13.
• Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard has told a committee of MSPs that if more is not done to protect lesser taught languages now they will be gone forever.
• Summer schools for pupils at risk of “going off the rails” are being promised by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Read the announcement from the DFE here.
• The UK is falling behind international rivals because one-in-five children “learn nothing” throughout their secondary education, according to the head of Britain’s top private schools’ group.
• Children’s grasp of history is under threat as schools cut the amount of lesson time devoted to the subject, ministers were warned today.
• A landmark schools project that has been credited with helping children dramatically improve their literacy skills has been abandoned because of cutbacks, head teachers have claimed.

Higher Education:

• A survey suggests more than half of young people do not think higher education is good value and are choosing to study at home to save money.
• Enrolments for colleges in England have slowed in the wake of the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, principals say.
• The number of overseas students coming to the UK has risen dramatically in the past five years.
• The coalition government’s drive for a market in higher education could damage social mobility, universities say.
• The number of students awarded first-class degrees has soared by more than a third in just five years, figures show, prompting claims that the traditional university grading system is becoming “meaningless”.
• The National Union of Students Wales wants clarity on how universities are spending collected library fines.
• Scotland’s Labour leader Iain Gray has accused Education Secretary Mike Russell of having a “hit list” of college and university closures.

Teacher Recruitment:

• The Department for Education has launched a consultation on proposals to allow schools to more easily appoint talented and experienced teachers from other countries around the world.
• Up to 95% of new qualified teachers are unable to secure full time jobs according to a DUP assembly member.

Other News:

• Thousands of disadvantaged two year olds, and those living in care, stand to benefit from an extra year of free early education, under Government plans announced this week.
• The Government has announced a trial to offer vouchers for parenting classes to mothers and fathers of children under five.
• Private tutors are the latest group of professionals to be targeted in a crackdown on tax-dodging as HM Revenue & Customs said it was beginning to win the battle against avoidance, evasion and fraud.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 7th September to 23rd October - Rugby World Cup 2011
• 17th September to 2nd October - British Food Fortnight
• 25th September - International Rabbit Day
• 26th September - European Day of Languages
• 27th September - World Tourism Day
• 29th to 30th September - Rosh Hashanah
• 30th September - The Dahlicious Dress Up Day

Blitz School offer educational workshops with exciting activities to help children to learn about World War II. They are based in Greater Manchester and offer services to schools in the surrounding areas. For schools who are further afield, their site offers some valuable resources if you are teaching children about this topic.

If you look in the Free Resources section, you will find a fascinating video lesson, fact files about a number of objects from the period and lots of other teaching resources. The site appears to be updated regularly and new resources are promised. You can also follow Blitz School on Twitter.

Artifaqs provide a wide range of artifacts which can be used to teach ‘hand on history’. The resources come with descriptions, suggestions for use in the classroom and a photocopiable worksheet too.

As well as the items in the shop, the site also offers lots of other useful articles and resources for free. Their How 2 section gives instructions showing how you can make your own historical items. There are also free downloadable resources, facts pages, and a glossary.

Find out more in the video below and visit the website at www.artifaqs.co.uk.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My latest copy of the BBC Schools newsletter was emailed to me a few days ago and it reminded me of all of the fantastic resources that they have created for teachers. Here are some of the things that are available on their site:

• Class Clips – More than 8000 video clips from BBC programmes that you can play in your classroom. These are all clearly organised and easy to search for.
• News for Schools – News reports to support your lessons, along with lesson plans which give ideas for using them.
• CBBC Newsreader – An accessible newsreader which is suitable for primary children. It shares some of the latest news headlines, organised by topic, and the site reads the articles too!
• Teachers’ Packs – Whole sets of lesson plans and printable resources for all ages… I’m sure that the Doctor Who pack will be very popular!
• BBC Bitesize – Revision lessons and activities for all ages and curriculum areas.
• School Radio – Podcasts, downloads, audio and video clips covering Music, Dance, History, Literacy, PSHE, Maths and Collective Worship!
• Primary History – One of my favourite History resources… this site has lots of wonderful resources for children and teachers. The timeline is especially useful.
• Primary Languages – Lots of useful resources for teaching French, Spanish and Mandarin to primary pupils.

Here are five of the best teaching resources that I’ve discovered online this week:

1) Ready for Ten - This is ’a parent-powered website for mums and dads of 6-9 year olds. It’s a place to connect with other parents and share advice and support on the highs, lows, and uncharted territory of the years before ten.’ This is certainly something that can be shared with parents at school and there are also some useful ideas and resources for teachers too. Recommended by @GillDeCosemo.

2) Stencyl – This free software lets you create your own flash games. It’s ‘Kid Tested’ so it could certainly be used as a learning tool in the classroom. Recommended by Andrew Field.

3) How do snowflakes form? – This free video from Twig-it explains how snowflakes form… although this topic might not be relevant for readers in the UK at this time of year, the rest of the ‘Twig-it’ site looks very interesting as it offers Science videos which are accompanied by related learning activities. There is a selection of free videos on this page. Recommended by Carol Allen.

4) Time Toast – Here’s another great free online resource. This one has a wide range of timelines which can be used in different areas of the curriculum. The site also lets you make your own free timelines which could be used as the starting point for work in the classroom… or could you ask the pupils to make their own using the site? Recommended by sites4primary.

5) Howtoons – Howtoons provides ‘engaging content that teaches kids how to build things, combining instructions with storytelling.’ They have amazing sets of comic strips in the form of instructions which you could be used in the classroom. Could your pupils make their own comic strip instructions? Recommended by Tom Barrett.

Have you discovered any useful resources online this week?