I often receive emails from developers of education apps, so I thought that it might be useful to share some of the fantastic applications that are being created to support learning:

1) Happi Spells - ”Happi Spells” is a crossword spelling game where children can practice spelling by dragging letter tiles on to 48 different mini crossword puzzles. Compete for “snails” and try to improve your own high score!

2) I Learn With – Languages! - A fun educational game to help children aged from 3 to 7 years old  to learn their first words and short sentences in a foreign language. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) DK The Human Body App – An amazing application with clear information and incredible illustrations which helps you to learn about the human body.

4) Sing your times tables with Percy Parker – I’ve used this app in school a number of times and the children love singing along and learning their multiplication tables with Percy!

5) Healthy Star - The Healthy Star is a short introduction for young children, to the world of affirmations and enriches them with positive thoughts. The story includes simple relaxation exercises.

6) Edmodo – Teachers and students can stay connected to the fantastic Edmodo system using this iPhone and iPad app.

7) How to Make Origami – This app includes step by step instructions with 3D animations of paper folding to help you learn how to create amazing origami!

8 ) Eggs on Legs – Primary Games make lots of great interactive whiteboard software which I use at school regularly. They are also now developing iOS apps which look great!

9) Jungle Time – Learning how to tell the time can be a difficult concept for some children. This app helps children with their understanding and it can test them too!

10) Formative Feedback for Learning – An app that allows students to receive feedback on their performances in a wide range of curriculum areas. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

11) Story Builder – Can your children finish these story starter ideas?

12) Math Formulas – A guide to Maths formulae with information and examples. The topics covered include algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, probability and statistics.

13) Britannica Kids (Ancient Rome) – Explore the history of Ancient Rome with the images, games and activities in this iPhone / iPod / iPad app.

14) GeoGame World Series - An educational geography game with lots of different options and challenges. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

15) TED – The TED talks are always enjoyable and inspirational… they cover a wide range of topics and you can access all of them through this great iOS app.

16) Fishy Numbers – A fun game which is designed to help primary school children with their mental addition skills. Find more educational apps by this developer at www.primaryapps.co.uk.

Which iOS apps do you use in your classroom?

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

Schools:

• The Coalition Government’s Education Bill has been granted Royal Assent. This completes the legislative framework for the Government’s key education reforms, and paves the way for important changes in schools in England. These changes have been reported in The Telegraph and on the BBC News site.
• Britain is facing a “hidden crisis” because schools in prosperous areas are failing to push middle-class children to reach their full potential, David Cameron has warned.
• Plans to alter education funding could boost the budgets of some schools, while others see theirs reduced, the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests.
• Wales’ largest teaching union has accused Education Minister Leighton Andrews of political interference which is having a detrimental impact on teachers’ ability to do their jobs.
• Thousands of private school teachers could shift to the state sector under Government plans to cut them out of a public pensions scheme, a study suggests.
• Children risk being left with a poor understanding of key subjects because of failures in the way teachers are trained, according to a leading headmistress.
• Hundreds of thousands of pupils in England could be missing out on extra cash for their schools according to the Department for Education.
• Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have made remarkable progress in attainment, behaviour and attendance under a Government-funded pilot, according to a new report published this week.
• Heads are “out of date” and their old-fashioned attitudes are preventing thousands of talented women from working at the chalkface, according to the chief executive of the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
• Ofsted have released a new report entitled ‘Good practice in primary mathematics: evidence from 20 successful schools’, which looks at how 20 schools successfully taught arithmetic, a key component of mathematics.

Universities:

• The new chairman of a group of leading research universities has warned against treating students as “consumers purchasing degree certificates”.
• The Business Secretary Vince Cable says he is hearing reports that some universities are blocking colleges’ attempts to offer cheaper degrees.
• More than 850 university students entered a competition to design mobile phone applications to pass on information on everything from education league tables to finding a school.

Other News:

• Education unions are urging the government to put the issue of youth unemployment at the centre of the political agenda.
• The government has confirmed that there are now 124 fewer Sure Start centres for children than there were when the coalition formed last year.
• A charity is calling on more local councils in England to send vulnerable children to boarding school rather than into care.
• One in three of the children around the world who do not have access to primary education have a disability, suggests research from the charity Sightsavers.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 14th to 25th November - Anti-Bullying Week
• 14th to 20th November - Global Entrepreneurship Week
• 19th November - World Toilet Day
• 19th November - International Men’s Day
• 20th November - Universal Children’s Day
• 21st November - World Television Day
• 21st November - World Hello Day
• 21st to 27th November - Road Safety Week

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

Teaching:

• Quality feedback from teachers is more effective in raising grades than homework, uniforms and smaller classes, a Durham University study says.
• Poor teachers could be ousted from England’s schools within a term, under government plans to make it easier for heads to get rid of under-performing staff. Read the official report here.
• A rise in the number of support staff in the classroom has had “no impact” on standards, said a report published by the Sutton Trust charity. The study suggests that assistants can “positively affect” pupils’ attitudes towards education but may undermine lessons when used as a substitute for proper teachers.
• A cricket “dream school”, where luminaries of the sport take cricket-related lessons in a range of subjects, is being set up in London for a day.
• It could become “impossible” for young people in England to study music GCSE, if the English Baccalaureate is kept in its current form, a professional body for musicians says.

Admissions:

• Academies and free schools in England could be allowed to give priority to students from the poorest backgrounds when allocating places, under a new admissions code being published. Read the official information on the DFE site.
• A group of principals has called on schools to stop academic selection.
• Schools in Oldham are largely polarised along racial lines, research has found.

Behaviour / Attendance:

• Teenagers’ classroom behaviour is getting better rather than worse, according to a global study that places Japan at the top of the league.
• This report in the Telegraph examines corporal punishment in the US and around the world.
• The autumn-term truancy rate in England’s state schools in 2010 reached a five-year high, although overall absences continued to decrease.

Image - iStockphoto / ThinkStock

Exams:

• A new hi-tech weapon against those who cheat their way to exam success has been unveiled. The new computerised screening device flags up where candidates get the same scores in written answers.
• GCSEs and A-levels are in decline as more teenagers turn to practical courses in subjects such as food safety, sports coaching and health, official figures show.
• Exam boards could be fined for offering second-rate qualifications, the government’s exam standards regulator for England has warned.

Universities:

• Universities are recruiting overseas students in greater numbers – and not just to boost funds, they say, but to ensure a diverse student body.

Technology:

• Open University researchers say they have created an app which can help parents teach their children to read.
• Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wants young children to be allowed to use the social networking site.

Other News:

• US First Lady Michelle Obama has been reunited with a group of British schoolgirls she met during a previous visit to the UK.
• Parents looking for a more inclusive education for their child are opting for smaller prep schools.
• A reel of forgotten film has given an insight into life at a school for children with disabilities in North Yorkshire in the 1950s.
• A Devon girl is celebrating after her campaign to raise the age limit for mixed-sex teams from 11 to 13 was accepted by the Football Association.
• Almost one in three internships on a government website for graduate job-hunters this year has been unpaid, a Freedom of Information request shows.
• A quarter of the 1,600 children held in young offenders’ institutions (YOIs) in England and Wales have been in care, a report by prison inspectors has found.

I am currently working on a new version of the Teaching Events site and hope to have this online over the next few weeks.

Teachable.net provide over 3,000 teaching resources which are all adaptable and easy to use. The site requires registration and offers hundreds of free resources. Although the other content requires payment, all of the resources are checked for quality by a group of editors and moderators.

www.teachable.net

You can also contribute to the site. Contributors are given credits which allow them to download other resources for free. Alternatively, you can opt to receive cash payments, receiving 50% of all download income for your contributed files.

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

• Children need to leave school with the skills required for the workplace as well as knowledge, believes a head teachers’ leader.
• The government has released data for England’s state schools, showing funding and expenditure per pupil, and how the money is spent. This is all analysed in this BBC report.
• Data published by Ofsted showed 23 per cent of state schools visited over a four month period last year were given a lower overall grade than in previous inspections. Read the official Ofsted report here.
• One in five children in schools in England are classified as having special needs but the government is announcing changes which it hopes will reduce that figure.
• Parents of children in England with special educational needs could get a personal budget to spend on support for their education.
• Just one in six pupils in England has achieved the new English Baccalaureate introduced by the government, England’s league tables show.
• Michael Gove is accused of trying to bring back grammar schools by back door.
• Schoolchildren should be taught how to turn up on time, talk to colleagues and make presentations as part of compulsory lessons in “employability skills”, according to a leading head teacher.
• Parents will get powers to rank local schools using a series of new-style measures under Government plans to stop schools massaging their results.
• The world’s leading thinkers regard the UK as having better universities than any other country apart from the US, a league table shows.

Image – Oxford

• Millions of workers in the public sector should work longer for lower pensions, a major report has said. As a result of this, teachers could take industrial action as soon as this summer, leaving England’s schools facing mass disruption.
• Local authorities have made more than 1,000 school improvement staff redundant since last autumn, prompting fears that more schools could end up in special measures as a result.
• Reforms of the NHS in England are putting the healthcare of children at risk, according to an article in the British Medical Journal.
• England’s schools adjudicator Ian Craig is to leave his post early, months after warning over plans to slim down the rules over fair admissions.
• Nearly half of mothers think the 1970s and 1980s were an easier age for raising children, a report suggests.
• Teachers have given their verdict on the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s new ‘Dream School’ venture, getting accomplished public figures to teach young people who have given up on education. This report from the Telegraph explores how the experience has affected some of the pupils.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 1st to 31st March - Tenner 2011
• 11th to 20th March - National Science and Engineering Week
• 14th March - Pi Day
• 14th March - International Day of Action for Rivers
• 14th to 20th March - Brain Awareness Week
• 14th to 27th March - Cambridge Science Festival
• 15th March - Teaching about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• 17th March - St. Patrick’s Day
• 17th to 19th March - Education Show
• 18th March - Red Nose Day

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

• The first free school has been given the green light to open in September.
• A third of families in London did not get their first choice secondary school for this autumn, statistics show.
• Working-class children are no more likely to move up the social ladder and hold a middle-class job if they attend a grammar school, rather than a comprehensive, a study has found.
• Teenagers in England should be forced to study maths and English until they have a good standard in both subjects, a key government education adviser has said.
• Tens of thousands of pupils will be sent to colleges and a new breed of technical schools from the age of 14, where they will work “business hours” and attend classes for an extra two weeks a year.
• Hundreds of thousands of young people are doing vocational courses which do not lead to university or a job, a report says.
• Ex-servicemen will be drafted into schools under Government plans to crack down on bad behaviour in the classroom.
• More universities in England could be put at risk of bankruptcy as a result of cuts and changes to funding, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.
• Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline says it will pay off tuition fee debt of its graduate trainees when university fees rise in England.
• Some of Britain’s most deprived areas will have budgets for key services such as Sure Start cut by £100 a child next year – more than three times that suffered in richer parts of the country, analysis shows.
• Reading standards among children are in sharp decline as pupils increasingly opt for easy books in school and the home, according to a report.

Image – Child Reading

• A charity that gives free books to children in England has been told it will have a 50% cut in funding, two months after fears over its future sparked a political “U-turn” row.
• Actress Joanna Lumley has claimed that British children are being brought up with “slack” morals.
• A third of young adults in the UK think buying something on a credit card does not count as spending money, a survey suggests.
• Despite exam stress, a long stint in education is good for people’s blood pressure, according to researchers in the US.
• This BBC report explores the issue of plagiarism after revelations of famous people who have copied chunks of other people’s work in their own.
• Historian David Starkey sparked chaos in the classroom as part of Jamie Oliver’s new Dream School series by branding a pupil “fat”.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 28th February to 13th March - Fairtrade Fortnight 2011
• 1st to 3rd March - Tenner 2011
• 8th March - International Women’s Day
• 8th March - Shrove Tuesday
• 9th March - World Read Aloud Day
• 9th March - No Smoking Day
• 9th March - Ash Wednesday

This week was a busy week for education-related news! Here are some of the major headlines:

• The government produced a White Paper which reflects the changing ways that governments will support schools. Watch Michael Gove explain about it in this Youtube video:

• According to the DfE site, this reform programme ‘puts teachers at the heart of school improvement and frees schools from central government direction.’ It also sets out: powers for teachers to improve discipline in the classroom; a vision for a transformed school curriculum; the reform of school performance tables; a pupil premium to channel more money to the most deprived children; and plans to develop a fairer and more transparent funding system.’
• General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has explained that the new White Paper ‘represents a major step towards the dismantling of the state education system.’ You can download the White Paper for yourself. The BBC has summarised the plans of the White Paper here and provided further analysis here. The Guardian has also provided their own review of the document and so have the Telegraph. This website allows teachers who disagree with the proposals to take out some of their frustrations on Mr. Gove!
• Other impacts of the White Paper might include millions of pounds being cut from school sixth forms in England, the training of former members of the armed services for work in the classroom, compulsory studying of foreign languages up to the age of 16 and an increase of ‘on the job’ teacher training. However, twice as many academic courses have been rated outstanding, placing doubt on these plans to shift more teacher training into schools.
• Ministers have given more details of plans to bring in reading tests for six-year-olds in England.

Image – Reading in the Morning

• Teachers will be given new powers to discipline pupils as part of a government plan to restore order in classrooms.
• Schoolchildren are increasingly ignorant of British history as teachers scrap traditional lessons in favour of trendy “skills-based” courses, according to academics.
• Many of England’s schools will struggle to maintain the services they now offer in the wake of spending cuts, council leaders have warned.
• Leading sports doctors have strongly criticised the way PE is being taught in English schools. In related news, the British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine wants all schools to use short exercise routines like the ones shown in this video.
• GCSEs should be taken at the age of 14 – after which pupils could specialise in academic or vocational courses, says a report for an education charity.
• The Telgraph reports that academies are performing worse than other state schools, despite Government plans for a huge expansion of the flagship education programme. In contrast, the DfE site claims that more academies than ever are rated as outstanding.
• Students staged another day of action in protest against proposed increases in university tuition fees.
• This Telegraph article suggests ways that parents can teachers can help their pupils to learn the times tables.
• Head teachers have warned that the timing of the royal wedding could cause problems in schools because it falls just days before the national Sats tests.
• The annual report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education was published.
• Ofsted have warned that tens of thousands of pupils are being subjected to ‘dull and uninspiring’ lessons.
• McDonald’s is introducing its own degree course in business management for its restaurant bosses in the UK.

Visit Teaching Events to find educational events to use in your classroom.

Teaching in the UK may have its difficulties, but fortunately Maoist strikes are not one of them. For volunteer teachers from UK charity Our Sansar, teaching in Nepal has thrown up considerable challenges, not least of which has been the closure of the schools by a countrywide shutdown. But with the schools now open again, they have been experiencing the challenges and rewards of teaching in one of the world’s poorest countries.

For the next year, Bethan Pink from Richmond and John Buckley from Twickenham will be teaching and organising interschool activities for disadvantaged students in and around Hetauda, a city in Nepal’s green but impoverished south. They will also be working with the local schools to establish education programs for street children.

‘The scenery is very beautiful and the family [we’re staying with] has been lovely to us,’ says Bethan, who previously taught at Lancasterian Primary School, London. ‘There are so many ideas I have for improving the running of the school, such as trying to change the attitude to time keeping; trying to make the classrooms nicer places to be by sweeping the floors, putting up cheerful displays and removing dangerous obstacles; trying to influence the teachers to use more interactive approaches to teaching…We’ll see what can be done with all these ideas.’

Bethan and John arrived in Nepal in late April and are currently based at Shree Kamala Lower Secondary School. Both are experienced professionals who will bring valuable skills to a school that currently has just 9 teachers for over 330 pupils.

The school day has 7 periods and the teachers swap between classrooms to teach their specialist subject. ‘Lessons are quite dull to be honest,’ adds Bethan. ‘[They] rely heavily on call and repeat. I would like to try and have an impact on this.

Adapting to the severe lack of resources, Bethan says that she has been making simple things at home and improvising with whatever is around her.
‘The school has a small library that looks quite cheery,’ she continues. ‘Otherwise classrooms are very bare with only desks and a chalkboard. The library has a copy of an EKTA scheme of learning for English, called Harmony, but they have only 1 copy of each book and with no photocopier, it’s pretty hard to use for the classes. Other text books which are quite inadequate are being used.’

Our Sansar will be sending another experienced teacher to Kathmandu in June and hopes to be able to send a further 7 to schools in Janakpur, Kathmandu and Hetauda before the end of the year. The project will help 50 street children and over 3000 school children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Would you like to be involved in future projects? To find out more, visit www.oursansar.org.

Following part 1, part 2 and part 3, here is another collection of wonderful teacher blogs which you might enjoy exploring:

• Tales from a Trainee Teacher – An extremely interesting blog from a Tom Henzley, who is currently a PGCE student. This is well worth a read.

• Living Geography – A really useful blog with lots of links and ideas for Geography teachers. There is also a list of Geography blogs on the Geographical Association site.
• Chris Leach – ICT teacher, Chris Leach, shares his suggestions for how technology can engage children and inspire learning.
• Teacher Reboot Camp – A place to discuss strategies for engaging all students through effective instructional methods and technology. Created by @ShellTerrell and recommended by Steph Westwood.
• Ideas for Teachers – Shares lots of wonderful ideas and resources that you can use in the classroom.

• Teaching, Learning, Technology – The thoughts of newly qualified teacher, Oliver Quinlan.
• Year Six Teacher – The thoughts of a Year six teacher… but useful for teachers of all age groups.
• Ruminations and Cogitations – A relatively new blog, with a focus on the use of technology in the classroom. Created by Anthony W.
• Box of Tricks – A wonderful blog about MFL and technology, by José Picardo.

ESL-Library has also suggested some good education blogs:

• Burcu Akyol’s Blog - Impressions, reflections, reviews, tips and resources from an English teacher.
• Nik’s Learning Technology Blog – Tips, resources and teaching materials to help EFL and ESL teachers use ICT and new technology.
• Six Things – Regular collections of ‘six things’ which might be useful for English teaching.

Do you have any favourite teaching blogs? Share them in the comments and I’ll add them to the next part in this series.

Image – 43/365

Travelling to Teach is an exciting summer travel programme aimed specifically at teachers interested in volunteering and teaching abroad. The project is currently looking for dedicated teachers who would like to use the opportunity to volunteer abroad to really change lives teaching English, Maths, Science, Art or Drama.

What’s involved?

The Travelling to Teach programme works with a number of charity/community schools in India, Nepal and Tanzania which provide education to children from some of the poorest backgrounds.

This is a three week long trip which will see selected volunteer teachers visit and work in a school in India, Nepal or Tanzania educating the local children and working with the existing teaching staff. The aim of the volunteering programme is to provide interactive and interesting lessons to the children, bringing amusement to their classes.

Here is a video where teachers share their experiences from previous trips.