This is me by the way  - I made it myself

The Minister of Education  has heard that there is a secondary level lesson plan on the web that uses the Mr Men to tell the story of the  Second World War  and the Holocaust. It has been used to denigrate secondary History teaching and give fuel to the arguments for the new more rigorous History National Curriculum. Someone did not tell the Minister of Education everything.

Today Russel Tarr the owner and user of the lesson plan returns from his spoilt holiday and  replies

My annual collation of digital advent calendars

I’ve an ever  growing collection of  tried and tested Early Years apps for iPad/iPhone and I’m often asked for  advice about what to get. This is what I’ve said recently….

Hi

Some  suggestions,  but as ever it depends what you want the iPads to do  for  you.

There are lots and lots of good ones but some you have to pay money for.. and you’ll see why if you give them a try. Some apps have ‘lite’ versions, reduced content or functions for free.  Free often means adverts, I’ve just been looking at art packages and so many of the free apps that call themselves art packages are actually  colouring books and often have popup adverts too. Tis may matter to you.

You might  like to look at ways of using an iPad  https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_721gdk5jtd8 is a crowd/cloud sourced resource, includes some management tips.

For foundation stage and KS1

Duck Duck Moose Start with the Wheels on the Bus, their first ( facility to change the language amongst many others) the others have all worked well but the most recent Draw and Tell is such a simple creative app. Choose background,make marks/pictures then record your story save ( and have evidence).

Nosy Crow publish interactive animated stories The Three Little Pigs ( blow into the microphone to help blow down the houses) Cinderella and more coming along

Land of Me already established as a computer based interactive learning game now has an app.

Me books also include Peppa Pig books and the original Ladybird  books. I’ve got The Zoo and The Old Woman and her Pig. In the 21st century  you can create hot spots with your added sound.

Apps in my Pocket have Pocket Phonics following/supporting Letters and Sounds (the creators wife is a TA)

Talking Carl repeats everything you say - child appropriate image (not all similar applications have this)

BeeBot app Scroll down the page to read about it. If you’re using BeeBots this free games app will be familiar to the older children

very popular- PuppetPals a way of creating your own animations that can include your own pictures. My grandson 6 was teaching his Great Grandma (aged old) how to make them . There was a lot of laughing. Look at the Porchester Junior website for examples of  children work.

Make a Scene – farmyard is free, others in the series cost

Our story from the OU - creating stories from your own images

There are more  I’ll suggest later when yo have  thought about these

Tricia

It is a mistake to think that books have come to stay.  The human race did without them for thousands of years and may decide to do without them again.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970)

I am trying  to concentrate. I’m trying to complete some writing. But the social networking, the news gathering and sharing going on around me is  distracting.  How to  Focus in an Age of Distraction? I take some of the advice and  disconnect from the  internet  (Turn off Airport on my machine. Others in the house are using the  wireless).

This is good , no popups from TweetDeck, no ping as the  mail comes in, no temptations.

But wait a minute… I need that quote, I need to add to my notes on Google Doc, I need to check this evidence and how to spell  Tchaikovsky and …  I’m back online. Without  support of  the internet and my Personal Learning  Network I can’t work. Well  at least on this  project.

I rest my case.

It’s  Towel Day , a celebration of  the life and works of Douglas Adams  and value of our towels.  So have you got yours? Adams extolled the value of the  towel in the Hitchhikers Guide

A multitalented man  he involved himself in many  things.  As well as his books I remember many  pithy quotations.  I’ve tried quoting  ” I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” at people to  jolly them along when I’m way past the deadline, like now!

And when talking to educators I lke to  remind them that

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty- five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt