I’ve been a user of Memiary for a long time now. I use the site to record five things that I’ve done / achieved / want to remember each day. I also use the tool in my classroom… as a class, we spend a few minutes at the end of each day recording five things that we have learned or discovered during that day. It’s a great way of reflecting on the children’s achievements and helping them to remember each day’s events. Every now and again, we look back through the things that we have recorded and discuss what we wrote. I also use the service to make a display which shows our ‘memiaries’.

edu.memiary.com

I am now pleased to announce that there is a new version of Memiary, especially for education, which is supported by Teaching Ideas. The site has a number of additional features:

• Teachers can set up an account for themselves, as well as having individual accounts for pupils, allowing students to record their own list of five memories / achievements. Teachers can then see what their children have recorded.
• Teachers can change the question… so you could ask your pupils “What did you learn today?”, “What did you achieve today?”, “What were you proud of today?” or another question of your choice.
• You can jump back to previous ‘memiaries’ using a date picker or the random date tool. This is great for browsing around what you have achieved in the past.
• You can embed a widget on your school website / VLE which shows the ‘memiaries’ that you have recorded. Obviously, this makes your the content of your memiaries public, so ensure that pupils are aware of the e-safety issues.

Existing users of Memiary can import their memories into the new educational version. If you haven’t tried out the site before, now is the perfect time to explore. It’s quick, easy and free to register.

What did you learn today?

The site ‘What a Hullabaloo‘ is running a poetry competition for children under 11. To enter, pupils should finish a poem that has been started by the author Phillip Whittington.

To find out more about the competition, which closes on 8th January 2010, visit the site at www.whatahullabaloo.com.

Phillip has also contributed a set of plans and poems to Teaching Ideas which you can download here.

DK.com have kindly offered a set of fantastic DK children’s books as a competition prize for readers of Teaching News and visitors to Teaching Ideas. The books up for grabs are:

• Ask Me Anything – stuffed with trivia, facts, fun, and incredible info on just about everything you can think of. What’s the most dangerous spider? How much would you weigh if you lived on Venus? Where can you post letters underwater?
• Open Me Up – takes kids on a gutsy, cheeky, sick, hip, nosey and eye-catching tour of the human body!
• Train Your Brain to be a Genius – packed full with mind boggling puzzles, quizzes and games.

This competition has now closed. The winner will be announced soon!

Roy the Zebra is a wonderful site, containing interactive games, stories and resources that have been developed to help emerging readers learn to read. The site can be used at school or at home.

www.roythezebra.com

There are worksheets, lesson plans and interactive activities to help children with their understanding of capital letters, full stops, words that rhyme, high frequency words, alphabetical order, question marks… and much more!

A fantastic resource for teachers of younger pupils, or older pupils who need extra support with reading and Literacy work.

Dean Wilkinson, who works as a Teaching Assistant in secondary schools and S.E.N. Units throughout Teesside, has started writing a new series of books aimed at secondary pupils.

“21st Century Fairy Folktales is series of comedy and educational re-workings of traditional stories that can be enjoyed at home or in a school environment as each story has it’s own set of FREE lesson plans and lesson fillers for teachers online.”

Find out more, and download the free resources at Wilkinson Press.

Intuitive Media run a number of safe social learning networks for children (including Superclubs Plus and Goldstar Cafe). The children at my own school love using Superclubs Plus to send email, design their own webpages, chat in forums and meet other children in the moderated environment provided by the service.

Intuitive Media and Scholastic have just announced the launch of the first book written by the children of SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe. Thousands of children took part and submitted stories illustrating their talent and creativity. The children wrote their stories at school and at home.

The competition will run again later in the year, and Superclubs will be having ‘Hot Seats’ where children can ask questions to a number authors, receiving replies (almost) instantly via their messaging service. Amazing!