Just for fun, and why the devil not? I've switched the website's design or theme as we like to call it, to the multi Valentines.

It's pretty, and I was bored with the old one.

Which of the 'CSS fun' designs do you like the best?
# Posted by steve hooker at 5/1/09; 9:38:47 PM to the Walsall Schools business dept.
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Gone Valentines

More updates from the Beatrix Potter blog. Doing nicely, without much help from poor old underemployed me.

Lesson two for the email to blog.

Add the news department to the subject line of the email. Here's how...

First email your secret address with the subject line: departments. You'll get an email back with instructions and a list of all your departments. Keep this handy somewhere it'll always be useful.

Second, add the department you want the item to go to between square braces to the subject line like this: Arti Parti at BP [[School Events]] [nc]. Nc is no captions.

BTW: love the sticky glue pictures. :-) # Posted by steve hooker at 5/1/09; 9:27:32 PM to the How tos dept.
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Emailing sticky glue

The Guardian:

"Ofsted is to launch a crackdown on "boring" teaching in response to concerns that children's behaviour is deteriorating because they are not being stimulated enough in class."

Phil Beadle: A good teacher is an entertainer as well as an educator: "The teacher who is not able to induce open mouths expressing awe and wonder within the first 10 minutes of a lesson is likely to witness the jaws of those mouths slacken as one, when class behaviour heads quickly in the direction of "off-task"."

# Posted by steve hooker at 5/1/09; 2:06:09 PM to the Education news dept.
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Ofsted's new mission - to get rid of boring teachers

Now and again I go mad with the tips and advice. Here's a mail that others may find useful.

I asked Robert to liaise with you. He's a temporary teacher working with
us, a good lad, seems to know his onions and I feel he could do a good
job of promoting the website and getting lots of others involved. I hope
the two of you get on well and are able to realise the potential of an
active and growing website that starts to become much more than an
add-on. It becomes a vital part of what we are about, communicating to
all the stakeholders at various levels....not least to inform parents
about teachers' planning and in the near future maybe to begin to
address ehomework including more self assessed tasks. Is this latter
website material? Certainly, I would like the website to have info on it
but not overloaded with photos. I would like it to be organic, dynamic,
challenging, growing, with items often being changed.
Any thoughts on these items would be most helpful.
Ian

Looking forward to working with Robert. It will be vital, if he is temporary, to get him to share with others there. I'd worry that when he left... And, to give the site authority, make sure you, as the Head, add some wise words now and again.

Sure, it will be more than an add-on. To achieve this, start posting frequently. Everyday will be brill. Though I know everyday will be hard. Perhaps if there's several of you posting, you may just make 'everyday.' Initially, it'll be a chore. After a while, it'll be second nature, even addictive!

See it as a dumping ground. Whack lots of pictures, word docs, videos... The more, the merrier. I know Bodnant Infants is stacked out with pictures. It looks overwhelming. But it isn't! Parents love it. And complain when they're late adding pictures of events. (For infants a trip across the road to the park, is a big event, and is documented, and loved by doting parents, relatives :-)

Parents will see it as a fire hose of information. And indeed it will become vital as a comms channel to parents (and everyone and anyone else interested). They'll learn to visit often, weekly will be fine if you update daily. Encourage pupils to visit at home too, with peer generated news items (playground journalists, blog clubs, prizes for spot the location of a picture from the school corridors). Start writing news for your neighbours too. I've seen the local bobby add stuff to one site. And don't think that because the school's closed during holidays that you won't get traffic. You will! Bored kids, mainly. I think.

eHomework... I'll do whatever you want. I've no preferred ideas. Only to say that in England the UK Gov has wasted £10m on this. I'm very angry about it. Teachers have been asked to re write whole text books into web pages. Sent on training courses that had no chance of becoming workable as the systems are so turgid — no fun at all. Children can smell fake a mile off. I've seen some good stuff, but they're one offs. The time taken to create a few such pages makes it too much of a burden.

I'd favour links to pages on the BBC schools and BBC learning as homework. For two reasons: it's easy for a teacher to do (seconds) and they're really good fun pages for children—when there's a world of fun a click away, kids just ain't going to stick with dull homework pages. Sure, this type of stuff can be collated over time, and of course some will 'link-rot' and lose it's worth over time, but still, that just the nature of the web. Stand on the shoulders of giants. Till they move away, then stand on some one else's shoulders.

But, you maybe thinking of kids filling in questions, those questions collated and databased? (How would you prove their older brother didn't do it?)

What had you in mind? Let's talk about this more.
# Posted by steve hooker at 5/1/09; 1:09:50 PM to the How tos dept.
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Advice to new school blog

I've updated my personal blog with some icy pictures and videos from a few days ago and some Christmas snaps of opening pressies.

The videos are from my mobile phone, as are the pictures. It's a tip! Nearly everyone has a mobile capable of video these days. Keep them small, under 5-7 MB and email them to the site.
# Posted by steve hooker at 5/1/09; 11:03:33 AM to the Off topic dept.
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Steve @ Service