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This helpful page from the British Council explains the differences between the UK and US educational systems. They have had a national curriculum since 1992.

A beautifully made and wonderfully useful animated and interactive video site showing explained about a range of useful topics. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams

A great set of science and engineering animations to help you explain difficult concepts visually. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

I know Steve Spangler sells a lot of science things on his website, but I just enjoy him. I like how he explains things and how he uses colorful, attractive things in his science experiments. If you're a science teacher, I think you'll enjoy browsing the experiments on his website. Here is one on convection currents. He shares how to do all of the experiments, so you don't have to buy anything from him. This is a great example of how you can be helpful and people want to buy from you.

An article from Harvard Magazine on the Twilight of the lecture. There are measurable improvements when you move to interactive learning: "Interactive learning triples students' gains in knowledge as measured by the kinds of conceptual tests that had once deflated Mazur's spirits, and by many other assessments as well. It has other salutary effects, like erasing the gender gap between male and female undergraduates. "If you look at incoming scores for our male and female physics students at Harvard, there's a gap," Mazur explains. "If you teach a traditional course, the gap just translates up: men gain, women gain, but the gap remains the same. If you teach interactively, both gain more, but the women gain disproportionately more and close the gap." Though there isn't yet definitive research on what causes this, Mazur speculates that the verbal and collaborative/collegial nature of peer interactions may enhance the learning environment for women students."

A great interactive geography flash presentation explaining the terms and vocabulary of the water table. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/PSHE%2C+RE%2C+Citizenship%2C+Geography+%26+Environmental

If you want to take the NASA Challenge - they are scheduling a webcast that will explain more about the challenge and how to do the radiation activity on October 18th, 2013 starting at 3:00 pm CT. This is the channel where it can be seen, so mark your calendars now and plan to see it.

Tom Bigglestone, who explores the benefits of Philosophy for Children (P4C). Chris Healey, who write about homework in the digital Age. John Pearce, advocates that teachers pledge a pedagogical oath. James Abela gives us a global perspective, writing about his experience in Thailand. Andy Knill waves the flag for the SOLO Taxonomy. UKEdChat Exclusive feature asked teachers what jobs they do if quit the profession. Martin Burrett tells of various highlights observed at BETT this year. Sharon Jones debates how debating can benefit pupils. David Moody shares some Stickmen without Arms! Tina Watson explains how she supports pupils to fill the blank pages. Leon Cych gives tips on how to produce professional video and audio with pupils. We review the book "The Philosophy Shop", edited by Peter Worley.

A wonderful collaborative real-time drawing space which connects to your Google Plus account, allowing you to illustrate, explain and teach remotely across the world. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

This is a fabulous and fascinating YouTube channel where all sorts of science ideas are explored and explained in a friendly and engaging way. The topics range from near Earth Asteroid to dung beetles. The videos often cover science stories that are currently in the news. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

This is very true. Online tutorials can only get us so far. This is why I'm learning Scratch and brushing up on Java. I may even have to learn Python before I'm done. We need Computer Science but who will teach it? If we only rely on videos, it would be like asking kids to teach themselves math using Khan Academy without a teacher who knew how to work the problems. "The vast majority of my students do very well on their first hour or two of coding using structured lessons, but when they start to write code for a new problem, or hit the first set of bugs, they get frustrated and need help. Sometimes, all they need is a hint, a pointer to a similar problem, or my assurance that they can solve it. In some cases, they need someone to just re-explain it a little differently."

With 1.4 billion adults over age 20 who are obese, these are things we should educate everyone about. Great information for a health or biology class and also for teachers to read as we think about our own health in a very high pressure job. "High blood pressure, serum cholesterol and blood glucose explain approximately 50% of the increased risk of heart disease and three-quarters of the increased risk of stroke among overweight or obese individuals, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet."

Guidance counselors and principals should read this article - not to share and tout as a defense of bullying for there is no defending meanness ever - not among adults and definitely not among children. However, it is time to de-escalate the frantic misreporting and hysteria that some are causing on the topic of bullying and suicide. Suicide is horrible and often the person who commits suicide is bullied -- here's a quote from the article that I thought was telling. This would be worth discussing with those who can maturely see the balance that is called for here and again, not to use it to excuse atrocious behavior. "Reporters are often reacting to other misinformed authorities.  For example, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd explained to reporters that he arrested two girls (one 12, the other 14) in Sedwick's death, after seeing a callous social media post from one of the girls, "We can't leave her out there, who else is she going to torment? Who else is she going to harass? Who is the next person she verbally and mentally abuses and attacks?" While it's a great quote, it implies that this girl has the ability, through random meanness, to inspire others to commit suicide. "Everything we know about unsafe reporting is being done here - describing the method(s), the simplistic explanation (bullying = suicide), the narrative that bullies are the villains and the girl that died, the victim," Wylie Tene, the public relations manager for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, wrote in an email to me. "She (the victim) is almost portrayed as a hero. Her smiling pictures are now juxtaposed with the two girls' mug shots. Her parents are portrayed as doing everything right, and the other girls parents did everything wrong and are part of the problem. This may be all true, and it also may be more complicated.""

Viktor explains why it is important to search for meaning in our lives and overestimate what we can achieve, and be idealistic in a humorous four minute clip on Tel A Vision.

a good pedagogical site to explain what's a browser. Made by the Google staff.

A nice collection of videos to help explain Creative Commons to educators and students.

Contains links and an embedded video explaining fair use and copyright for educators and students from the Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University (CSMSC@AM?).

Love these guys-great way to explain feeds to staff.

history and literature explained in an interesting way

Great visual to explain UDL