Schrock tactics

Kathy Schrock has a wonderful website as part of Dicovery Channel Education (US). There are links to all school subjects, sites of the school days (web 2.0 ideas), and even awards for excellent web sources for schools. Always up to date and fast changing.

See http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide for details.

Bling my Grade

North Tyneside Learning Platform has come up with a wonderfully pupil-friendly site, covering maths, english, science and PE, plus exam and revision tips. Rapping animated characters will help pupils remember facts in an unusual way. See www.blingmygrade.org.uk for details.

Vital Knowledge?

This US site includes links for many subjects, and you can search for Middle, High or Middle/High grades. Many have been chosen to include lesson plans or webquests. See www.vitalknowledge.com/teachers/resources/home.asp for details.

TTRB Site Update

The TTRB site I mentioned last July has had a redesign, and now supports the saving and rating of resources and better searching. See www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?contentId=12086 for a look.

Yahoo Groups Education

Yahoo Groups has an Education Resources group, compiled in Australia, with almost 900 links, many topical. You may find resources by alphabetical topic, from abbreviations to zoology, with brand new items at the top.
You have to have a Yahoo account, and become a member of the group itself first, but neither are complicated. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Education_Resources/links for details by topic, or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Education_Resources/messages to enable you to search for text in titles or descriptions.

Librarians' Internet Index & Internet Public Library

LII is a 20,000+ weblink collection maintained by California's librarians, organised under 14 headings. Each is reviewed, and placed into one or more of 300 topic headings. The LII will be merging with the Internet Public Library (IPL) from October 2008.

See www.lii.org for details, and www.ipl.org/div/subject for the IPL.

Open Educational Resources

OER includes 6,000+ secondary resources with abstract summaries, and these may be selected via a filter, user tags, subject areas or type of resource.
See www.oercommons.org/oer for details. Primary and Post-Secondary resources are also offered.

Curriki shared resources

Curriki contains more than 19,000 resources submitted by users under 11 categories. Although it has a US bias, it is designed specifically for educational use.
See www.curriki.org for the homepage and ww.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Browse for the subject search, which can filter by type of resource, level and file type.
Some resources have been reviewed for quality, having been selected as excellent by users. Resource titles are often not helpful, but rest your mouse on them and a full description should appear.

Oracle Education Library

Oracle, a database software company, have backed an educational library of 7000 suitable websites for education, arranged by subject and topic, with a review of each. See www.thinkquest.org/library for details.

Poetry corner

A large range of poets reading their own work, from Tennyson to Heaney, plus background interviews. You can search by theme or form. A children's section includes Spike Milligan and Roald Dahl reading their own poems.
See www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive for details and lesson ideas for English and History teachers.

An excellent general English site is www.universalteacher.org.uk. It covers KS3 and 4, and has a section on poets from different cultures (www.universalteacher.org.uk/anthology/differentcultures.htm)

BBC Resources

You should all know BBC Bitesize by now, especially at revision time, or when you want some quick GCSE class ideas. The huge BBC site has many other relevant links for secondary teachers, however.

Try www.bbc.co.uk/schools for details, then follow the links for your subject, and don't forget www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips for short films from TV arranged by subject. www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16 shows the complete range of pages for 11-16s.

Inclusion resources

Inclusion, an offshoot of the Becta website, enables browsing of resources by subject. You can choose just free or free and commercial sites in your results. Access to search results is via the gold 'View site' box, and hits can be limited by resource type, including publications, software, equipment and online information.

See http://inclusion.ngfl.gov.uk for details, and http://inclusion.ngfl.gov.uk/index.php?brsSect=2&i=113 for the subject search.

Learning & Teaching Scotland resources

Scotland has revised the secondary curriculum around 8 core subjects - expressive arts, health & wellbeing, languages, maths, religious & moral education, sciences, social sciences and technologies.

Support for these are found at www.ltscotland.org.uk/resources/secondary/index.asp.

Subject Resource Networks

TTRB, the teacher training resource bank, has links to a number of sites to help Initial Teacher Training courses show trainees how to learn their craft. See www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?contentId=12086 for details.

ISTE resources

ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, has a range of resources on their site, including lesson plans.
See www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Lesson_Plans&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=23&ContentID=3359 for plans, and www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=K_121&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=38&ContentID=3827 for general resources. US based.

Teachernet resources

Teachernet is a good source of links for all secondary subjects, but links are scattered across a large site.

See www.teachernet.gov.uk/usefulsites and enter either secondary or your subject from the list on the page or www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/subjects to choose a subject.

www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/secondary/teachingresources has a further list of resources, and searches 3 different collections, including lesson plans.

KS3 & 4 Mathematics

Today it's maths links I have been researching:
Welsh grid: www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home, then select the key stage + Maths
Homework High (Channel 4): www.channel4learning.net/apps/homeworkhigh/maths including games
S-Cool!: www.s-cool.co.uk/topic_index.asp?subject_id=15&d=0 comprehensive GCSE help

Sky Learning Explorer

Even if you don't have access to Sky TV, this link will help you find relevant content, over the next 7 days, for a range of GCSE courses including Art, English, Geography, History, RE and Science. The recommendations are based on Sky programmes, but non-Sky content is also included.

See http://explorer.jointhebiggerpicture.com for details of the service, plus general study and revision help.

Learning Grid Secondary Resources 6

Almost there, not many more links to complete the list of grids with KS3 & 4 resources:

Telford & Wrekin (demo only) www.taw.org.uk/demo
Thurrock www.tgfl.org.uk/tgfl/index.cfm?s=1&m=62&p=44,index&zs=n (resources)
Thurrock www.tgfl.org.uk/index.cfm?s=1&p=47,index&zs=n (links)
Torbay http://tgfl.torbay.gov.uk/resources.htm
Tower Hamlets www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/tower-hamlets/accounts/THe%20Grid/keystage3
Wales www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home
Warrington www.school-portal.co.uk/Grouphomepage.asp?GroupId=153255
West London www.westlondongrid.co.uk/resources/links
West Midlands www.wmnet.org.uk/index.cfm?s=1&m=372&p=6,index
West Sussex http://wsgfl.westsussex.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/curriculum
Wirral www.wirral-mbc.gov.uk/resources.asp
Worcestershire www.edulink.networcs.net/sites/teachlearn/Pages
Yorkshire Humber www.yhgfl.net/resources

Learning Grid Secondary Resources 5

Yet more learning grid links to help you find suitable resources:
Rotherham www.rgfl.org
Scotland www.webreviews4teachers.org.uk/index.asp and www.ltscotland.org.uk/nq/resources/weblinksdirectory/index.asp (weblinks)
www.ltscotland.org.uk/nq/resources/nq_library/index.asp (resources)
South East www.segfl.org.uk/links
South West www.swgfl.org.uk/learning
Staffordshire http://education.staffordshire.gov.uk/Curriculum/Subjectareas
Stockton on Tees www.train.stockton.gov.uk/curriculum
Stoke on Trent www.sgfl.org.uk/groupMenu.aspx?id=111