Twitter, Facebook and RSS are great ways to discover new educational resources. Here are five new things that I’ve discovered using them this week:

1) Aurasma – This app works with smart phone and tablets to, in real time, turn static images or even objects into videos, games and interactive experiences. You just point your phone at something and you can then see additional content about it. David Mitchell, Dughall McCormick and Simon Widdowson have been exploring ideas for using this in the classroom this week. Watch the Youtube video below to see it in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Nasa Images – Bill Gibbon tweeted this link to the ‘Astronomy Picture of the Day‘, which has some amazing images that you could use in your classrooms.

3) Wiki Races – Kristian Still mentioned this game which involves racing from one Wikipedia page to another unrelated one by clicking on links throughout the site. It could be played by groups of pupils at their own computers or as a whole class game with the students suggesting which links would be best to click on. Of course, the idea could also be played without a computer at all… can your pupils explain how to get from ‘Dinosaurs’ to ‘Cardboard’ by listing other related topics?

4) Great Plant Hunt – Simon Cobb mentioned a great new site which claims to be ‘the UK’s biggest school science project’. The site develops children’s understanding of the natural world and has a huge collection of linked resources for teachers.

5) Sites4Primary – This relatively new blog has a huge list of great (free) resources for primary teachers already. Visit it at www.sites4primary.com.

Have you discovered anything exciting this week?

Fearless is part of the UK charity, Crimestoppers. Crimestoppers runs the 0800 555 111 telephone number, which you can call to give information about crime anonymously. The Fearless site is aimed at young people, allowing them to give information about crime online, and offering workshops about crime that affects them.

The Fearless team have created resources for primary and secondary teachers which you can download from their site. The resources are also embedded below:

Primary:

Secondary:

CILT, the National Centre for Languages is running a Primary Teachers’ Project, which gives teachers a chance to spend two weeks in France, Germany or Spain next spring topping up on their language skills and picking up new teaching ideas.

Image – Arc de Triomphe

Teachers spend one week in intensive language and methodology workshops and one week on a work shadowing placement in a primary school. Funding worth up to 2,500 euros is available from the British Council and the deadline for funding applications is Friday 5th November. To find out more, visit CILT’s Primary Teachers’ Project webpage.

Have you see Primary School Teaching? It is a social networking and resource sharing site made for primary school teachers and other members of staff working in primary schools.

www.primaryschoolteaching.co.uk

The site is a platform for sharing and ranking teaching resources and ideas. All of the content is organised by subject / age range and it is easy to browse and download resources. You can also register with the site and upload your own ideas.

Primary School Teaching is part of Primary Technology, who offer a number of other services including Primary Email, PrimaryPad and Primary Games Arena.

Tony Poulter has created a wonderful resource called the Primary Teacher’s Toolbox. According to Tony, it has ‘more useful links than you can shake a stick at’.

www.btinternet.com/~tony.poulter

There are links to:

• useful sites for teachers,
• child-safe websites suitable for foundation, KS1 and KS2 children,
• cyberhunts which encourage children to use the Internet,
• interactive quizzes and more…

Tony has also added useful information and documents for teachers and trainees. The site is well worth exploring.

The new primary curriculum, which becomes statutory from September 2011, is now online. Its aims are to enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve,
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives,
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

Through the curriculum, children should develop the skills, attitudes and dispositions that they need to become well-rounded individuals and lifelong learners. These include literacy, numeracy and ICT capability, learning and thinking skills, and personal, social and emotional skills. There are also six areas of learning:

• Understanding the arts
• Understanding English, communication and languages
• Historical, geographical and social understanding
• Mathematical understanding
• Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing
• Scientific and technological understanding

Religious education is also a statutory subject, as it is in the current curriculum. However, there will also be a statutory requirement for all children to learn a modern foreign language. Dance, drama and citizenship also become part of the statutory curriculum through the new areas of learning.

Find out more at the New Primary Curriculum site.

Succeeding with Science is an extremely useful site for primary and secondary Science teachers with lots of free downloadable resources and online magazines.

www.succeedingwithscience.com

The latest edition of the primary magazine, For Teachers By Teachers, is a twice yearly, free online magazine which encourages and supports science teaching in the primary classroom. Building on our previous online resource, Once Upon a Time in Cumbria, the current edition focuses on a local research project that helps Year 6 pupils to identify the events and innovations that can cause communities to change.

Along with a PowerPoint Presentation describing how Cumbria has changed over time, FTBT provides comprehensive notes and lesson plans enabling teachers to undertake projects about their own local area with their classes.