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I don't often talk about it, but I own a little house in Sydney bay. It's not much, but I'm proud of it. The problem is that it is only virtual and made out of Lego. This wonderful site allows you to design houses, or anything else, with virtual Lego on a virtual plot in Australia or New Zealand. It's like a simplified version of SketchUp, great for younger children. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Interesting article in Journal of Higher Ed with Many Great Points "The real obstacle in education remains student motivation. Especially in an age of informational abundance, getting access to knowledge isn't the bottleneck, mustering the will to master it is. And there, for good or ill, the main carrot of a college education is the certified degree and transcript, and the main stick is social pressure. Most students are seeking credentials that graduate schools and employers will take seriously and an environment in which they're prodded to do the work. But neither of these things is cheaply available online. Arizona State University's recent partnership with edX to offer MOOCs is an attempt to do this, but if its student assessments fall short (or aren't tied to verified identities), other universities and employers won't accept them. And if the program doesn't establish genuine rapport with students, then it won't have the standing to issue credible nudges. (Automated text-message reminders to study will quickly become so much spam.) For technological amplification to lower the costs of higher education, it has to build on student motivation, and that motivation is tied not to content availability but to credentialing and social encouragement. The Law of Amplification's least appreciated consequence, however, is that technology on its own amplifies underlying socioeconomic inequalities.

From September, I am starting a new role. I am going to be a year group leader for year 5. This has come about relatively quickly since my return from mainstream and so I have spent some time over the summer reflecting on my practice and how I am going to develop and inspire the people I work with. One of those people is an NQT. My sister is also starting her first post as an NQT in another school. After speaking on the phone for half an hour this morning, I realised that some of the stuff that I was saying to her is probably some of the stuff that I will be saying to the NQT I will be working with...

Following on from the results of our online poll, #UKEdChat this week will focus on Good Behaviour Strategies used in schools. Whether in the Early Years, Primary, Secondary or beyond, the behaviour of students can positively or negatively impact the rest of the class as well as interfere with teaching and learning. The session will release six questions (see below), so join the session on Twitter from 8pm via the #UKEdChat hash-tag. Questions: What student behaviours to you find to be the most annoying when teaching? Where do you go for support when you are finding student behaviour a problem? What has been the most positive intervention made in helping build a positive classroom behaviour? What are the foundations in ensuring positive pupils behaviour in any classroom? What are the most effective consequences used when dealing with disruptive behaviour? Think back to when you were a school pupil. What was the worst behaviour you displayed?

"As teachers, one of the biggest challenges that we face in the classroom is students who give up. 'I can't do it', 'It's too hard', 'I dunno'. We spend hours planning a lesson that could stretch and challenge our students, only to find that they don't want to be stretched and challenged because it's too much like hard work. Where do we go from here? How do we make sure that we are molding our learners to be Hobnobs rather than Rich Teas?"

A flipped classroom is one where the lectures become the homework and the traditional homework tasks take place in the lesson time. This enables students to attend sessions with an understanding of the subject and to conceptualise and build upon it through doing exercises in class, with you, as the tutor, on hand to answer questions and explore the topic in more detail. This moves the tutor from the "sage on the stage, to the guide on the side" (King, 1993).

Civilization is a popular series of strategy games where players must build empires, trade and wage war. It is also a personal favourite of mine. This is a fab free downloadable version which could be useful in many areas of the curriculum, including money and area in maths and learning about cultures from the past. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/History

As I'm reading on inquiry based learning, I came across another article, I'd like to share. In this article, it discusses how inquiry-based learning projects are driven by students. This very much aligns with the questions we ask on the Flat Classroom and other projects. The one point of meaning that I'm working to understand (and finding different answers depending upon the site) is that some differentiate that students should develop the questions rather than teachers "handing them" the questions. I have a lesson plan I sent through Diigo where the instructor designed a lesson around the question "Can there be giants?" and called in inquiry based. Under this article, it may not be called true inquiry based, and yet, I'm wondering if the question is intriguing and of interest and can be used in a way to teach if it really matters where the question originates.  My class is a mix of student-created inquiries (Freshman project) and project-generated inquiries (Digiteen, Flat Classroom). Interesting. Look forward to reading and understanding more (and sharing with you.) This is another nice article on the topic. Feel free to share yours. "Inquiry-based learning" is one of many terms used to describe educational approaches that are driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons. It is inspired by what is sometimes called a constructivist approach to education, which posits that there are many ways of constructing meaning from the building blocks of knowledge and that imparting the skills of "how to learn" is more important than any particular information being presented. Not all inquiry-based learning is constructivist, nor are all constructivist approaches inquiry-based, but the two have similarities and grow from similar philosophies.

There is no better way of learning about circuits than to get out the wires and play. But this is a good resource that helps you teach about circuits and how to build them. Good as an introduction to the topic. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

This is a superb 3D designing site. Make your designs with cubes and other basic shapes. Pan around, change colours and use templates. Get building now! http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Colonization is a strategy game where players take on the role of settles and build towns in a new land. A useful game for history lessons. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/History

This site allows you to save sentences and lists of activities and projects to easily customise your school reports. Build your own comment back to avoid careless errors and save it until next year. Easily change between he/she him/her and more by using hashtags. It not a comment bank, it's just a smarter way to use your own words in an organised way. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment

A great site for finding Music videos online. Just enter the artist to build a playlist. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts

a how-to

Build a snowman with this easy to use, drag and drop site. You can print your design or use Print Screen to post online or use as a Christmas card. Quick! Before the snow melts. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Winter+%26+Christmas

A nice 'build a snowman' resource. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Winter+%26+Christmas

A good music streaming site. Use the latest tunes in your classroom. Search for an artist to build a playlist. But don't dance in front of your students. No one wants to see that! http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts

A nice science resource where you can build your own bug and learn about minibeasts. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

This is ADORABLE! Two frogs fall into a hole and surprise everyone. "They can because they think they can." Must see for students when building community in their classrooms.