Dyslexia Awareness Week
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: November 3, 2009
Just a short note to let everyone know that this week (1st-7th Nov) is Dyslexia Awareness Week. If you’re out on placement in a school this week, maybe you can highlight awareness of dyslexia by holding a special assembly using one of the recommended presentations, or simply by putting up some of the posters around the school. You could incorporate it into one of your lessons to hold a discussion on dyslexia (there’s plenty of information on the British Dyslexia Association website).
Is your school doing anything special for Dyslexia Awareness Week?
Cambridge Primary Review
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: October 30, 2009
- In: Curriculum| Primary
- 2 Comments
So, the Cambridge Primary Review was published last week – any initial thoughts?
I haven’t had chance to take a good look at it myself yet, but there’s an excellent summary booklet which I thought I’d share in case you haven’t yet seen it. We’ll also be ordering some copies of the full report for the Learning Centre.
Fantastic Mr Fox activities
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: October 28, 2009
Has anyone seen the new Fantastic Mr Fox film? It’s getting some really good reviews and I imagine cinemas are busy this half term week with both this and Up! currently screening.
I’ve just been on the Puffin website and noticed they had a classroom activities section for teachers including an activity sheet for Fantastic Mr Fox (covering phonics and roleplay activities). Could be a good opportunity to demonstrate alliteration with a topical film that some children may have seen (or even a potential class trip!).
There’s other Roald Dahl worksheets on there too, including some of the other Dahl books we’ve just got new copies of – available in Teaching Practice on the back wall (in fiction) at TP 829.3/DAH.
New books – No Fuss Photocopiables
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: October 23, 2009
The No Fuss photocopiable books I ordered have now arrived and are available to borrow at 001/NOB.
These cover all subjects (there is a table at the beginning which demonstrates where they fit into the primary curriculum), and there is a book for each year group 1-6.
Of course, you can photocopy these using the MFD in the Teaching Practice room, but the books are also available to borrow if you wish.
Remember, please contact me if you have any suggestions for new stock. 
A level Mathematics for Edexcel
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: October 9, 2009
I’ve had a number of requests for more Maths A level material (thanks very much to those who gave suggestions, always welcome). I have now ordered a copy of each of the student textbooks supporting AS and A2 level Maths for Edexcel including Core 1-4, Decision 1 and 2, Statistics 1 and 2, Mechanics 1 and 2, and Further Pure 1 and 2.You can see more details and view sample chapters here.
The orders were placed this week so the books aren’t available to borrow yet but you should see them on the shelves soon.
Welcome to 2009-10 Academic Year
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: September 19, 2009
A warm welcome to all new students to University of Wolverhampton, and welcome back all returning students. I hope you all had a good summer and are raring to go for the new academic year.
As the previous post explained, the Teaching Practice room has had a re-vamp over summer and it’s been great to be able to hold some of the induction sessions in there (although apologies to the large groups – we weren’t expecting so many at once!). Hopefully you’ll be able to use the room more for lesson planning now there’s space to work and I think you should find the stock easier to locate too.
I’ve been experimenting with some layout software to better illustrate the new layout:
New Teaching Practice layout (click for larger version)
The best way to see the changes is to pay a visit; next time you’re on campus come and let me know what you think.
I’ve been busy ordering new stock too (some of which has already arrived) and some new online resources, so look out for new updates here on the blog. You can subscribe by RSS feed or email to get automatic updates when there is a new post. As always, if you have any suggestions for new stock, please let me know.
Here’s to 2009-2010!
New layout in Teaching Practice room
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: August 24, 2009
Learning Centre staff have been busy working in the Teaching Practice room for most of this week, and it now looks like a different place!
The stock has all moved across to the left hand side of the room, freeing up the right hand side for lots of study space. There’s plenty of room now to spread out your materials and work on planning your teaching sessions or work on group projects.
Cabinets and area for group study
Due to the removal of old and unused stock, resources are also easier to find and are nowhere near as crammed as before so it’s easier to find new and current resources for all subjects. The fiction (including picture books and older childrens stories) are along the wall at the end of the sequence (where the cabinets used to be – cabinets have moved to the other side). The chart packs and large books have also been reorganised and any old or tatty stock has been removed so you can get to the nice stuff!
Shelving and chart packs
I’ve already had some verbal feedback from students using the room this week, who like the changes. I hope you do too – please contact me to let me know what you think.
I’ll create a new layout plan document soon and will also be sharing some exciting news about online resources in September! Looking forward to seeing you all at the start of next term.
Beware – falling books!!!
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: August 14, 2009
From hellochris at Flickr
OK, so maybe I was exaggerating a little with the title. However, there is a lot of work going on in the Teaching Practice room at the moment.
The majority of the weeding has been done so the remaining stock is now up-to-date and heavily used resources. We are now rearranging the room to make it easier to use, as well as creating some much needed study space so that you can plan your lessons and spread out your materials (posters and chart packs take up a lot of room!), or work in groups on a project. I’ll post the new layout on the blog when it is finalised, please try it out in September and let me know what you think.
In the meantime, we apologise for the state of the room – but hopefully in a short time it will be much improved!
BBC Motion Gallery
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: July 2, 2009
We now have full access to the BBC Motion Gallery JISC Service.
The Gallery is the BBC’s archive film clip service and allows you to access a large collection of clips for use in presentations, lectures, coursework and media.
Topics include: current affairs, sport, natural history, medicine, geography, arts and more. You can browse the material available by selecting the Inspiration button.
The Gallery will include additional footage from other content partners such as CBS News, NHK and RipCurl.
New Books – Oxford Reading Tree Comprehension
Posted by: Jo Alcock on: June 24, 2009
Oxford Reading Tree
This morning I received the Oxford Reading Tree Comprehension Photocopy Masters which I ordered last month. We have copies of each of the guides (Stages 1-2, Stages 3-5, and Stages 6-9). The activities help teach the five key comprehension strategies (prediction, questioning, summarising, visualising and clarifying), including photocopy activities both focusing on each of the Oxford Reading Tree stories, as well as general comprehension pages to be used with any story and teaching hints on the bottom of each page. You can see a sample page from the Oxford Reading Tree website.
The books are available to borrow at TP 428.6/PAG.
You may have noticed the blog has been quiet lately but fortunately that’s due to lots of work being done around Teaching Practice. I’ve ordered new books, withdrawn some of the old books that are out of date, and have begun to tidy up the shelves to make it easier to find things. The process may take a while but hopefully you should start to see an improvement to the collection.
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