Tuesday February 05 2013
 

Blogging is a great way to motivate children to write, share ideas and improve their literacy, but most commercial blogging software is unsuitable for an educational environment.

ShareIT was developed by YHGfL specifically for member schools, teachers and pupils. With a ShareIT blog you can post photographs, videos, animations and podcasts, so it is the perfect way for your students to showcase their individual talents.

This FREE 45 minute on-line session will introduce you to the basics of blogging, from creating your first post through to adding an image customising the look and feel of your blog site. This session is aimed at users new to the YHGfL blog or anyone looking for refresher training. Experienced users may be interested in Blogging for experienced users.

Starting at 4:00 the session will last approximately 45 minutes and be conducted through Adobe Connect. All you will need is access to a PC and a set of headphones

For further and booking information click HERE

500 words  short story competition 2013

The BBC are ready to receive your super-duper, simply spectacular short stories from children aged 13 or under.

Children can get inspired by watching the brand new 500 WORDS film on the BBC website, which includes top tips from Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Tulisa, Conor Maynard, Helen Skelton, Wretch 32 and Harry Judd!

Students could win themselves a pile of books as tall as Chris Evans, and 500 books for the school library!

 For further information see the BBC website HERE

You have until 7:00pm on 22nd February to submit your entry.

UK’s founding father of interactive entertainment to open videogame festival

The co-author of the Livingstone-Hope Next Gen report in 2011, which prompted the government to address ICT in schools, will officially open the Games Britannia videogames education and careers festival in July.

Ian Livingstone OBE, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of interactive adventure books, has given the festival organisers the go-ahead to run a Fighting Fantasy themed workshop. The session, which Ian will help facilitate, will show children how interactive fiction can bring the art of story-telling to videogames.

Ian said: “Interactive fiction is becoming more prevalent in games as players look for deeper, more engaging story-telling and increased scope for decision-making.

“The Games Britannia festival will give children a real look at how videogames involve writing skills and story-telling to create interactive fiction. I hope the Fighting Fantasy workshops will promote a passion for literature and encourage sometimes reluctant readers and writers to …read and write!”

The Fighting Fantasy series of workshops will showcase a new interactive fiction tool, created with writers and schools in mind and completely free of charge, by new creative start-up company inkle

Created by a pair of former videogame developers, Jon Ingold and Joseph Humfrey, inklewriter requires no set-up, no programming and no drawing diagrams – and it enables young people to write and share interactive literature.

Co-creator Jon Ingold said: “Before founding inkle, Joe and I both worked in the videogame industry and we know first-hand the importance of events like Games Britannia, to get kids thinking about how games work and how they’re made.

“It’s a real treat for us to be involved, especially in collaboration with Ian and Fighting Fantasy. We can’t wait to see what the students make with our inklewriter tool!”

Ian Livingstone will also be showcasing his brand new Fighting Fantasy title at the festival, called Blood of the Zombies.

The videogames education and careers festival will take place from 2 to 8 July at the MAGNA Science Adventure Centre, and will celebrate the strength of the UK industry and inspire the next generation of British videogame talent. The festival includes Games Britannia: REPLAYED, which opens the Games Britannia doors to the public for a weekend of games-based learning and entertainment.

Games Britannia, incorporating Games Britannia: REPLAYED, is organised by a partnership including Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Sheffield Hallam University, Brinsworth Comprehensive School Academy Trust, Replay Events and UK Interactive Entertainment, and is backed by industry companies including Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

To find out more about the festival, visit  www.gamesbritannia.com/2012/

Tuesday 7th June 2011: Hull – Wednesday 8th June 2011: Scunthorpe – Friday 10th June 2011: Huddersfield

Time 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm

Do you have reluctant writers? Do you want explore how to use ICT to stimulate literacy?

If so, then this workshop is for you! YHGfL, in association with Espresso Education, is hosting a FREE Motivating Writers Workshop – ideal for ICT and Literacy Coordinators that work with Foundation to Key Stage 2 pupils.

ICT has been recognised as a powerful tool that encourages pupils to put pen to paper. By attending this half-day workshop, you will learn how to use digital resources creatively to engage and motivate your reluctant writers, and to support your literacy teaching.

This ‘hands-on’ workshop will cover:

• using video to enthuse pupils in creative writing
• using Windows Movie Maker* together with videos, to produce news reports and inspire poetry writing
• using Photo Story3* together with photos or video screen grabs, to create sequencing activities and author stories
• producing podcasts as a stimuli for writing for a purpose.

*Free software available over the internet.

Not an Espresso school? No need to worry, this workshop is designed for everyone. All the skills and ideas involved can be used with any video content.

However, if you are not a subscribing school, you will have the opportunity to sign-up for a free, four week trial of the Espresso service at this workshop.

Please use this link your book your place

http://www.yhgfl.net/News-and-events/eLearning-Events

On March 27th 2011 the great census was taken and schools connected to the National Education Network are invited to join a project where they can compare the present with the census of 1911, undertaking their own research with online support and guidance. This is a great opportunity for schools to take advantage of broadband provision and join in this census based research project, that encourages schools to look not just at the census for 1911 but at their own communities in 2011. Free access for schools to the 1911 census online database is kindly provided by findmypast.co.uk until the 31st July, 2011.

The census 2011 project is a History / Literacy project where access to census data will enable pupils to explore changes linked to a range of topics including employment, transport, families and the role of women. It is an exciting opportunity for pupils to investigate and discover how their local area has changed over the past 100 years.  It is also an opportunity for pupils to develop their literacy skills with a nationally recognized team of tutors and authors. Pupils taking part in the project are invited to use their local area to explore the characteristic features of Edwardian times. The children will be challenged to write effectively and make links between past and recent events. To support their written presentation, pupils will also have the opportunity to take part in “themed” web conferences and work with the famous author Stewart Ross.

Schools will be able to put together an online project researching not just the census for their locality, but also the broader history of the Edwardian years. Our other partners include, English Heritage, the British Film Institute (BFI) and The National Archives. The National Monuments Record at English Heritage is providing a collection of over 8,000 images for Edwardian England and also has made available photographs for the South East Region through Pastscape.org.uk. The British Film Institute is providing 80 selected films from the period around 1911 and this is complemented by resources from The National Archives too numerous to mention, such as, ‘What was life like in Edwardian Britain?’

Download the census 2011 Training Guide for an introduction to the 1911 census and lots of ideas how to use the project within and outside the classroom.

The census 2011 website http://census.segfl.org.uk provides guidance, links and ideas about how to investigate this wealth of online historical material. Schools cannot only research, but also record, share and discuss their findings with others, using a selection of online tools including:

Not a week goes by without a story in the news mentioning social networking in some shape or form. Whether we love, hate or are indifferent to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. there is no getting away from the fact that it is one of the many ways that young people communicate with each other.

Within days of the 2008 Writing Task for Year 6 mentioning Pip Davenport it seems that the 19^th century fairground ride inventor suddenly found himself with a whole host of Facebook pages celebrating his life, an activity that shows creativity and a degree of literacy skills.

Creating a Facebook page can be an incredibly useful activity for students and adds a fantastic dimension to their research. Instead of asking students to write a report or description of Henry VIII why not create a Facebook profile for him?  When developing characters in Literacy create their profile or tell a story through a Facebook wall. Ask your students to think about what the status update would be for various characters at key points in a text, perhaps “Hamlet is annoyed with his Mum” or “Romeo is missing his best friend.” This kind of activity also creates opportunities for discussing eSafety and privacy when online in a meaningful way.

Whilst Facebook is blocked in most schools it doesn’t mean that you can’t still take advantage of it. Technology for schools have produced an incredibly useful guide on writing a report using Facebook, it also includes a powerpoint template that can be used to create a profile. All of this can be done without ever having to visit the actual site.

http://techtoolsforschools.blogspot.com/p/facebook-project.html

The TES resource bank also has a Facebook template in both word and pdf format for you to use.

http://www.tes.co.uk/SEOHandler.ashx?storycode=6025935&pageType=ResourceDetail&title=Twitter+Template

Chinese New Year, also known as the spring festival, is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. This year, Thursday 3rd February marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. It’s a great opportunity to develop the multicultural element of the curriculum and highlight some of the traditions and customs associated with Chinese New Year.

Teachernet have a whole school assembly for primary schools that can be found here
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/assemblies/index.cfm?mode=searchdisplay&id=58

Starfall have produced a number of short Chinese Fables that can be played on an Interactive whiteboard
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/chinese-fables/load.htm?f

Topmarks have links to craft ideas, songs and short film clips illustrating some of the traditions surrounding Chinese New Year.
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/chinesenewyear/

The NEN gallery has a range of images that can be used to stimulate writing. Why not load them in to Photostory and produce a short film?
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/gallery1437-.html

The quality of freely available drawing tools on the web never fails to astound me and Odosketch is no exception. The site offers users the chance to create a sketch using watercolour like pencils on a simulated sketchbook background.
Once started you will be provided with a set of brushes that vary in thickness and colour, simply select one you like and start drawing. As with real watercolour the colour gets darker as you add more strokes. If you have registered to use the site you can then save your image and share it with others. The image is then played back to you from start to finish. Each piece of work comes with an embed code, this means you can put the video of your work being produced on a website or blog.
How can I use Odosketch to enhance teaching and learning?
Browsing the art created on Odosketch is a great way to introduce your pupils to discussion around digital art. Ask your pupils to find their favourite image and then share it with the rest of the class. Replay some images and discuss how the artist has built up the sketch. Why not set pupils the task of comparing with other online graphics tools and commercial packages to compare and contrast. You could also use this tool to create quick animationsto tell a story.

One more monkey by Mopoke on Storybird
Storybird

The internet has a wealth of amazing websites that can be used to support Literacy teaching with more new sites appearing every day. The explosion of online publishing websites has given pupils a genuine audience and purpose for writing that in the past was sometimes lacking.  Storybird is one such site and should be on your list of top websites to use this year!

The site is packed full of high quality art work that can be used as inspiration for writing a story either alone or with a partner or group. Teachers can register a class and then set up individual student accounts. The teacher tools are incredibly well thought out, as a teacher you are in control of the passwords and you can easily reset or change them. You can also decide whether work is published publicly or privately- just to the pupils in your class. Once your students are registered you can set assignments for them and set up discussion questions again allowing public or private.

How can I use Storybird to enhance teaching and learning?

The artwork on the Storybird website is a perfect springboard for imaginative writing either online of offline. The main idea of the site is related to collaborating so why not get your pupils to select some artwork and collaborate on creating a story for a specific audience or purpose e.g. a mystery story or a story for boys.  You could also use the site for extended homework or as inspiration for creating your own artwork. Another great way to use the site is to focus on a cross curricular approach and ask the children to write stories related to their topic work.

http://storybird.com

Don’t miss out on this fabulous opportunity to celebrate National Poetry Day with Wes Magee

Celebrate National Poetry Day with a workshop from Wes Magee.

Wes Magee will be bringing his poems to life, via videoconference, for our member schools to celebrate National Poetry Day. Wes, a former teacher who has become one of the UK’s most popular children’s poets, is renowned for writing rhythmic poems, with lots of different sounds and great potential for performance. His workshops are always fun and very interactive, and keep children and teachers enthralled.

Wes will be running either Action Rhymes or Poetry Shows via videoconference for YHGfL, and the sessions can be tailored towards your students.

We only have 4 places left on Friday 8th October for this incredibly popular session. To book click here.