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.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete my recent survey about Teaching News. The responses were extremely interesting and they will certainly inform my planning and writing of posts on the site in the future.. I receive a considerable number of emails and press releases each week asking me to promote certain sites, resources, competitions, special offers and other things for teachers, so it is sometimes difficult to choose which ones to mention here. Your feedback will definitely help me with these choices in the future.

76% of those who completed the survey work in primary education and 24% in secondary… this is probably due to the types of posts that I feature here, as well as my own area of interest as I am a primary teacher myself. If you would like to see a greater emphasis on secondary education, please let me know.

The most popular types of posts were those which shared links to resources (e.g. my ‘Discoveries’ series) or posts with lists of resources linked to particular topics (e.g. the Royal Wedding). Information about competitions and special offers weren’t quite as popular although lots of teachers still valued their inclusion.

I was surprised to see so many responses from international visitors. My main focus for the posts here is to support UK teachers, but lots of the content seems to be of use to other teachers around the world too which is great. The UK news posts (e.g. the ‘Teaching News and Events’ series) won’t be as useful to those teachers, but hopefully the other types of posts will be.

Congratulations to the five winners of the £10 Amazon.co.uk gift certificates who were chosen at random from the responses provided. I hope that Gayle, Emma, Jennifer, Hayley and Linda have all enjoyed spending their vouchers!

Thanks again to everyone who completed the survey. If you have any further feedback about Teaching News, please do leave a comment here, or send me an email with your suggestions. Thanks!

Mark

Here’s a copy of my recent mailing list message for those who don’t subscribe:

Hi,

I’m now on my summer break, so I’ve been able to add lots of new additions to Teaching Ideas. Over the past few days, I’ve uploaded more than 60 new ideas, activities and resources which you can try in your classrooms. Many of these include some wonderful Display Photos. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, particularly to Claire Jones, Bev Evans and Simon Haughton who sent many wonderful contributions.

Survey Feedback

I recently added a survey to Teaching Ideas, asking visitors for their feedback. I received lots of wonderful comments and some useful suggestions, so thank you to everyone who responded. Some of the comments included:

• Request for a dance / drama section… at the moment, there are very few ideas of this type. If anyone reading this has any good ideas to share, please get in touch and I’ll add them as soon as I can.
• Ways to use particular children’s books… I’m going to think about some of the Literacy ideas I’ve tried in my own classroom and add these in the near future. Again, if anyone else has ideas of this type, please share them!
• More pictures of classroom displays… Over the past few days, Display Photos has had its biggest update ever… browse around the wonderful pictures that have been added recently.
• Publicise the site more… Despite being online for over 10 years, it was suggested that some people still don’t know about Teaching Ideas. If you have a friend or colleague who you think might find the site useful, please forward this email to them or let them know about the site. Remember, all of the ideas and resources are completely free… and they always have been!

Starting in September, I will be only be teaching four days per week. Whilst I’m a bit sad about this, it will mean that I will then have one full day each week to add lots of new ideas and resources to Teaching Ideas and my other sites. I’ll also try and promote the site a little more, so that others can benefit from the wonderful teaching ideas that people have shared through the site.

I’m getting married in a few weeks, so I may not be able to send another email update until after then. If you’re on a break, like teachers here in the UK, have a wonderful time. If you’re teaching at the moment, I hope that my sites make your planning and teaching a little easier.

Best wishes,

Mark Warner

I’ve been on my Easter break recently, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time adding more ideas and resources. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. If you would like to share some ideas or resources of your own, please click here.

Welcome to the Web

I have been working on a new version of my internet tutorial site over the past week and it is almost finished. A number of teachers have already been testing things for me and I have received lots of valuable feedback, allowing me to make it even better. If have used the original version of Welcome to the Web and you are interested in providing feedback about the new site, please get in touch.

Wrong Trousers Day

Wallace & Gromit’s Wrong Trousers Day is fast approaching. Wear your favourite colour on Friday 26th June and join thousands of children in schools and nurseries across the UK to raise money to help sick children in hospitals and hospices across the UK. You decide what to wear, just be bright and colourful and most importantly have fun! All they ask is that everyone who takes part donates £1 to Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation.

To take part simply log on to www.wrongtrousersday.org or call 0845 600 1924 and you will be sent our fantastic free Wallace and Gromit fundraising pack filled with great ideas to celebrate Wrong Trousers Day.

Competition:

Register today to enter our free prize draw to a fantastic Wallace & Gromit Goodie bag and some fantastic art materials for your school!

Thank you for continuing to support my sites. If you have any contributions for Teaching Ideas, or Ideas to Inspire, I’d love to be able to share them.

Best wishes,

Mark