March 2007 - Posts
I was asked today whether EIS have a blog. I am sure there are many more schools who would like to know too.
The EIS blog is called ICT Innovation from EIS
For other blogs have a look at the Cluster Blog homepage
http://clusterweb.org.uk/CS/
Come July we will have the worlds most famous cycle race dashing through Kent. Stage one on Sunday 8 July begins in central London and heads out through the south east of the capital to Dartford. The route then goes through Gravesend, Medway, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Tenterden and Ashford before finishing by Canterbury Cathedral.
The ASK team are busily preparing resource material to help schools deliver lessons on the theme of the Tour de France.
The Primary ICT will also be creating resources to support ICT work during the week of the race. This is a great oportunity for schools to work collaboratively together and to share ideas.
Janine Lambourne has already come up with some wonderful ideas for us to work towards:
Turn Beebots, Pixies and Roamers into cyclists and have races
Use Flash Meeting to talk to schools along the route - maybe even talk to some of the people involved.
Create a newspaper about the Tour de France in Kent!
Textease and Clicker 5 resources
Many schools are uploading their newsletters on to their websites as a Word document. A more secure way is to convert the documents into PDF and uploading the newsletter in PDF formatt. PDF files are less likely to be edited by the general public and so newsletters can not be changed and an 'altered' newsletter passed on.
A PDF creator I use is PrimoPDF. It contains no adverts and is very easy to use. PrimoPDF can be downloaded from http://www.primopdf.com/
To create a PDF file
Open up the document you want to convert eg a Word or Textease document.
Click on print under the 'File' menu.
Select PrimoPDF as the printer and click 'Print'.
A new PrimoPDF window will open. (it may take a while to open)
Select Print (default is screen)
Click on 'Document Properties' and type in Title (Newsletter) and Author (name of school)
Select the destination path by clicking on the rows of dots.
Click on OK
Superclubs Plus www.superclubsplus.com is the secure, mediated, website club where pupils can create their own web page, and explore communications with other pupils safely. They have a FREE Lite version for up to 30 users in your school. I tried this (no money in the kitty and want to check it out) with 15 pupils and have been over the moon at how they took to it. The enthusiasm was a delight to see. You need to contact Superclubs for free teacher log-ins and provide details of pupils on one of their forms. It took me a couple of hours to explore and create my own web page and one for the school, as a way to get my head round how it works. In a single 45 min lesson all my group Y3-Y6 had got something up there and were trying to earn stars.Membership lasts a year, but I think we're going to have a boot sale to raise the £3.50 each needed to let them access the full version for a year. - Carolyn
This website
http://www.symbolworld.org/index.htm is designed for symbol users as a free web resource for pupils with learning difficulties, but I think it is a great introduction for KS1 children to use for finding some news articles, as it is so simplified (necessarily).
Diana Marsden has found these resources on the internet:
"I found these sites quite bizarrely this evening!
http://www.exeter.gov.uk/timetrail/dress_the_soldier/roman_legionary.htm
Other dress soldiers activities http://www.exeter.gov.uk/timetrail/dress_the_soldier/civil_war.htm
Also found, along the way .....
http://www.molli.org.uk/burma/music.htm Burmese Interactive Music
http://www.molli.org.uk/bark/barkcloth_printing.htm Online Barkcloth printing (Africa/Americas)"
Thanks Diana.
Palmasola Elementary School in Bradenton, Florida have put together pages using words from the Dolch Noun List. Each page has a collection of pictures with drop-down menus underneath where pupils choose the correct word. On pressing “submit” the pupils score is show and any skipped questions cause a pop-up reminder to appear.
Click here to visit the site
A nifty printed record-keeping sheet in PDF format is also provided.
Wow! Did you see the total eclipse last night? Thanks to the clear sky it was possible to admire the red moon. This was caused by the Moon gliding through the heart of Earth’s shadow. It was a beautiful shade of sunset red.
You can see photographs of the lunar eclipse on the following website:
http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_03mar07.htm