Here are our attempts using the books we had to hand. They’re a little random (you’ll have to imagine Grandad squinting through his bifocals, racing to choose from all the saveloys and pies on offer in poem 4!), but that’s the beauty of Book Spine Poetry — anything goes!

Things That Go Bump In The Night

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night by Janet & Allan Ahlberg

Out Of Our Minds by Sir Ken Robinson

Monsters Under The Bed by Andrew Melrose

The Unsure Artist

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds

Colours by Pantone

Can You Tell What It Is Yet? by Rolf Harris

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

An Inspector Calls On A Sparky Class

Outside The Box by Molly Potter

Revolution In The Head by Ian MacDonald

A Smile In The Mind by Beryl McAlhone

Made To Stick by Dan & Chip Heath

The Perfect Ofsted Inspection by Jackie Beere

So Many Pies, So Little Time

A World Of Food by Carl Warner

Race Against Time by Ellen MacArthur

Who Left Grandad At The Chip Shop? by Steward Henderson

We’d love to hear your attempts at Book Spine Poetry. Either type in your poems (including authors) here or send in your pics to contact(at)sparkyteaching(dot)com and we’ll put them on the site!

And when you’ve exhausted all possibilities, we’re pretty sure there’s a future in CD Spine Poetry too!

What does it take to be a champion?

We’ve already looked at how Gwen Christie’s whimsical ‘The Champion Hare’ answers this question for KS1 pupils. Now it’s the turn of Michael Finnigan’s ‘They Did You Can’ which draws heavily on the advice of sporting personalities to make its points. Although these are very different types of book, interestingly the answer is the same. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a fictional hare or a real-life sportsperson, success is all about attitude.

‘They Did You Can’ is a workbook (although the activities could easily be copied and used with a whole class or team) about you, your dreams and how, with the right attitude, you can go about trying to achieve them. Despite the fact it takes much from the sporting sphere, this is not a book about sport (as the back cover says : “this book is as much about sport as Baywatch was about lifeguard techniques and Britain’s Got Talent is about British people having talent”). Sports coaches, teachers and parents all deal with children who fail every day. This book is about how to show them that success can come from that failure. What matters is how we deal with it when things go wrong, as they inevitably will do along the way. One day we’re going to write a set of resources all about making mistakes. Too many children have such a fear of getting things wrong that they won’t suggest answers or try new ideas.

As teachers, we’re in a privileged position — not only able to nurture young people, but to influence them too. It’s a big responsibility. One misjudged comment or harsh criticism from us can lead to dreams being forgotten and confidence squashed. With this in mind, ‘They Did You Can’ should be required reading for anyone in the business of influencing young people. It should be sub-titled ‘How Not To Stomp All Over Their Dreams’!

‘They Did You Can’ is packed with quotes, anecdotes and advice from many of the successful sports-people Michael Finnigan has worked with and interviewed (people like Clive Woodward, Gordon Banks, Martin Johnson, Phil Neville and Darren Clarke) as well as other greats in their field.

It is interesting to note that in the list of famous names that crop up, several are not just known for their achievements, but are just as well-known for having a great attitude. David Moyes springs to mind. As Everton manager he hasn’t won any silverware, but has been at the club over 10 years, achieving consistently on a tight budget and is regarded throughout the game as a good man as well as manager.

Last year, as part of our 365 Things To Make You Go “Hmmm…” we asked pupils who they most admired and wanted to emulate. Sports people featured highly on the list. Who better, then, to use to inspire our pupils to achieve their dreams?

In ‘They Did You Can’, Mike Finnigan plays the role of performance coach (something he does for elite sportsmen and women) and takes the reader through a series of activities to guide you to success. As usual we like to show you how a book could be used in your classroom, so here are three ways it could

- CHANGE HOW YOUR PUPILS RESPOND TO FAILURE:

When they ask “Why did I just mess that up?”, guide them away from wrong why answers (like “Because that’s what I always do!”), towards right why answers (like “Because I’m learning and you have to make mistakes to learn”).

- REMIND THEM OF THE BIGGER PICTURE:

Mike Finnigan provides a whole chapter on ‘The Reminder’, with activities asking questions like “Why am I doing this?”, “Who inspires me?” and “Who is in my corner?” These all serve as memory joggers when things get tough.

- TEACH THEM ‘SNAP OUT OF IT’ PHRASES:

Instead of getting bogged down with a task or losing their cool, teach your pupils phrases they can use to snap out of the negative mindset — words like “Pull yourself together!” “Move on; it’s over!” or “Forget it!”

- SHOW THEM THEIR GOALS ARE ACHIEVABLE:

One nice activity Mike Finnigan suggests is to write a letter to yourself from the future. Get your pupils to write a letter to themselves now from 10 years time, after they have achieved their dreams. Then, get them to write a similar message from 5 years time. It becomes easier to see how those dreams can be broken up into achievable chunks. Great for a PSHE lesson.

- TELL YOUR PUPILS HOW GREAT THEY ARE:

Attitude is everything and by believing in your pupils, you are giving them something to live up to. The author cites a particularly powerful story of Ben Carson, a troubled youth whose mother took to praising his school work and marking it daily. His grades improved and slowly he started to believe he was bright. One day he asked his mother to help him with some school work and she revealed that she couldn’t read. “All that time, his mother had been setting him work, marking it and praising him for how good it was and how clever he was proving he could be, and all the time he was faking it!” (taken from TDYC p32). Once Ben had the self-belief, he left his aggressive behaviour behind and started to achieve. Benjamin Carson is now 60 and is the world’s leading paediatric neurosurgeon. A little praise can go a long long way.

It doesn’t matter whether you are involved with sport or what subject you teach, do read ‘They Did You Can’. Read it for yourself. Read it for the future vets, artists, writers and paediatric neurosurgeons in your care. Don’t stomp on their dreams.

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What does it take to be a champion?

In answer to that question and as a nod to the 2012 Olympics on the way, we’ll be reviewing two sporty books over the next week or so. ‘The Champion Hare’ is the first.

Before we start, it’s only fair to mention that we’ve got a vested interest in Gwen Christie’s book. We illustrated it! Having said that, we don’t benefit from sales of the book (unless you buy it via our own links) and we promise not to mention the ‘i’ word again.

Written entirely in rhyming couplets, ‘The Champion Hare’ tells the story of the animal sports contest which is held every few years. Despite a jeering hyena doing his best to persuade him otherwise, the hare decides to take part.

Over the next 22 pages, Hare tries his paw (see what we did there?!) at the sprint, long jump, shot putt, high jump, hurdles, javelin, discus, pole vault and the quarter-mile and long distance races. He is out-thrown, out-jumped and out-sprinted in them all, but he never gives up…

It shouldn’t be a spoiler (the title gives it away!) to reveal that the hare is the victor in the end. By persevering with each of the ten events, he wins the decathlon. It’s a charming tale of how a positive attitude and the desire to keep at it can bring success, sometimes without you even realising.

‘The Champion Hare’ was written with KS1 (Lower Elementary) children in mind and Gwen Christie has put in a lot of time to ensure that it is well-supported by suitable KS1 classroom resources.

Just visit the Champion Hare website (www.championhare.com) and go to the ‘Resources’ tab. There, you’ll be able to download a ‘Become a Champion’ motivational pack, printable number and alphabet lines and Powerpoint activities. They’re all linked to the story and they’re all completely free.

In this Olympic year, ‘The Champion Hare’ throws up some interesting questions you might want to discuss with your class…

The hare doesn’t win any of the events he tries. Does this make him less of a success?

Is finishing first the most important thing?

What if the hare hadn’t won the medal? From what you know of him, do you think he’d be disappointed?

This is a well-written story suitable for KS1 children and the rhythm of the couplets ensures that your pupils will remember little snippets long after you (or they) have put the book down.

Ask your pupils what sort of character a hare might be. More often than not, they’ll have him down as an over-confident, cocky individual who gets shown up by a tortoise. Aesop has got a lot to answer for. In ‘The Champion Hare’, we’re pleased to report there’s not a tortoise in sight and Gwen Christie redresses the balance for hares everywhere.

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At Sparky Teaching, we love anything that’s a bit out of the ordinary… Anything that makes us smile is good too. Hervé Tullet’s new book, ‘Press Here’ fits both categories and so, when we were invited to interview M. Tullet for the ‘Press Here’ blog tour, we jumped at the chance. We’ve also themed today’s 365 Things question in his honour. In fact, even the current Art Clokey Google doodle has a kind of ‘Press Here’ look to it!

If you’re a regular visitor to the site, you’ll know we also have a vested interest in design and children’s illustration too, so the chance to interview one of the most creative children’s authors and illustrators around was too good to pass up on.

In ‘Press Here’, Hervé Tullet starts with a yellow painted dot, alone on a blank page. The reader is encouraged to press it and turn over. Magically, the single dot becomes two!

Over the course of the book, there are no pictures other than coloured dots and only a couple of lines of text per page. And yet, whatever your age, it’s impossible to resist shaking, tapping, tilting and even blowing the book. This is infectiously interactive stuff.

Hervé Tullet’s handwritten text is full of positive affirmation (WELL DONE! EXCELLENT! NOT BAD! PERFECT!) and we particularly enjoyed its informality. It’s as if the author is sitting alongside us, chatting away, as the magic of the dots does its work.

The real beauty of the book is its simplicity. Is it fair to say that the most beautifully designed objects are often the simplest? Probably. ‘Press Here’ is a swan gliding along a lake — looks simple enough, but we know there’s a lot of effort going on under the surface to get the right effect. It takes a very clever author to take a blue dot, a red dot and a yellow dot and make them page-turningly interesting…

We have a theory which we’d love to test out. We’d like to leave a copy of ‘Press Here’ on a busy commuter train. The first businessman to sit at the table would probably take a casual peek over his Financial Times. But, after a few shifty glances left and right to check no one was looking, we’re pretty confident he’d soon be pressing, tilting, blowing and, most importantly, smiling.

No Sparky Teaching book review is worth its salt without a handful of pointers for use in the classroom, so try these for size:

- use ‘Press Here’ to inspire pupils to create their own fun cause and effect scenarios. What happens if I press this red block? Can you paint your own ‘Press Here’ story?

- act out the story both using the book (practising fine motor skills) and using their whole bodies in dance / PE lessons (e.g. “You three are the red, yellow and blue dots. Can you act out what happens if we press the yellow one?”)

- use with older pupils to consider the development of the written word, from cave paintings to apps and ebooks. Where does ‘Press Here’ fit in? How is it similar to electronic means of communication? How is it different?

- use with older pupils to explore what makes an effective interactive text for younger children. If readers know what’s on the other side of the page, why do they still want to read it over and over? Get them to write their own texts, remembering to explore the positive language used in the book.

…we’re sure you’ll come up with better suggestions.

Without further ado, here’s what the author himself had to say about his creation (our questions are in red, Hervé’s answers in blue, links added by us)…

A simple question to start with for a beautifully simple book — for those who don’t know, what is Press Here?

A simple question? Perhaps it’s the most difficult… Press Here is a variation on three dots. A blue, a yellow and a red one. Press Here is the pinacle of what I ever dreamed to make — the simplest form of book possible which can create so many different sensations and surprises!

Since I discovered Little Blue and Little Yellow it became my model and inspiration. In this book that was published at the end of the 1950s, Leo Leoni succeeded to create a magical experience with only a few sheets of paper. It opened my mind about what a book could be and it was a great inspiration. I tried (60 books so far) before finding this particular idea — to press a dot and discover what will happen; press a dot and look how a book could be magical just with the power of the imagination.

Every adult I have passed the review copy of Press Here to has done every action the book asks them to do! In an interview on your website, you say “When you’re talking to the youngest child, you’re talking to everyone in a way.” Who is Press Here aimed at?

A children’s book is a book that is going to be read by an adult and a child. My idea is that the book is in the middle where everyone can play, talk, touch and so on… It’s a moment of reading. Press Here will play (I hope) with those who know how to read (the adult) and also those who do not know (the child). It’s a device to inspire and create a moment of sharing… I always try to conceive my books in this way — as another kind of story… a story made by the readers. In this case each reader will have a unique reading experience.

As part of that unique experience, Press Here seems to be all about getting the reader intrigued, thinking “what’s going to happen when the page is turned?” Do all of your books have this sort of aim?

Absolutely! I try to make open books with sensations for the eyes, for the fingers; made of gesture (reading in the dark) made of touch , made of surprise , made of sounds and, I hope, most of all made for the brain / the thinking …
You need to react / to play / to perform / you need to be active to ” read ” them.

Brain fodder… I guess it’s multi-sensory books like this that we teachers are often on the look-out for. As I read your book, I tried to come up with ways in which it could be used in the classroom. Practising basic actions and developing motor skills sprung to mind immediately. How do you think Press Here should be used with a classful of children?

In a way it’s the most classical book I have ever created: it’s just reading! Some of my other books are maybe more easier and accessible to work with in a classroom than Press Here, but the reading is quite fun and I have had some wonderful experiences while touring the book.

One time a few teachers invited me to their school and when I arrived there was a trail made of dots. I had to press the right dot to open a door and at the end of the trail I found myself in a room full of blue yellow and red balloons! I read some books there… it was amazing … I love to go into schools and discover what the teachers and children have done with my books. They have such elaborate and endearing imaginations!

Great stuff! I love the dotty trail idea. Continuing with the theme of creativity, I’ve taken a look at your website. Activities such as the Colouring Book on there are great interactive tools to have fun, but also to encourage children to click things, simply to see what they do. How do you encourage this experimental, hands-on attitude with your books?

At the beginning I didn’t want to make a drawing book for children. I felt it was a failure (too easy just to say let’s draw!) I wanted them to think, to find ideas with me then I would discover how to play with scribbles. The material is very simple: a scribble, a dot, a stain, a splotch, but it’s what we dream up with the material that I find most interesting. I like to stimulate the brain rather than escape in a story with bears that are talking to rabbits, it is just my preference to play with real life.

There are some books I’ve read that I wish I’d written myself. Press Here is one of them. It’s such a simply illustrated book, but absolutely brilliant in concept. Did it take you long to come up with the idea behind the dots?

It took one second to find the idea — the incredible second when you feel you have something in your mind. You do not know all the details but you KNOW that there is something worth striving for! After this moment you need to work, to spend time to flesh it all out. The technical part of creating!
In the same instance it took me 18 years thinking of children books where I only had one objective: it had to be interactive and I wanted to surprise! I can say that all of my books have this element to them and thinking of this retrospectively I find it’ s strange because at the beginning I did not realise what I was doing. Now I understand more and more!

At Sparky Teaching, we try to encourage creativity in the classroom. There is an innate creativity children have that seems to diminish as they get older. It’s like that Picasso quote — “every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist”. How do you think we can keep children creative?

I’m not sure. I just know that books can be very important for the whole life. “Does / can a book change a life?” I believe that discovering books at 18 years old changed my life. Perhaps that is why I try to make books innovative – to shake the brain into action.

The original title of Press Here in French is un livre (a book). All my work centres around the idea of what a book is and what will happen when you turn the page. I hope that children will keep their creativity as they grow and while they are here on earth try to change something. Usually great artists express this idea — they must be innovative! I like the artists who try to give a new light to our world (Picasso, Melies, Tati, Chaplin, Frangelico, Miles Davis and so on). I do hope that children go on thinking in a creative way their whole life. (That is my ideal utopia!)

Books like Press Here are an inspiration to illustrators such as myself. It makes me smile every time I pick it up. What inspires you?

Music! Music! Music! And everything else! Being in a tube, being in Japan, walking on a beach, or in my home. Looking at the walls or the windows, silent movies and let’s not forget museums of course. Schools (where I visit a lot), child-care centres, jails, BOOKS and Miles Davis always!

Thank you for taking the time to pay us a visit at Sparky Teaching. What’s next for Hervé Tullet?!

Books, books, books! I’ve also created apps based on Press Here. If you do take a look I hope you find it is innovative. It is not a duplication of the book, it’s more a variation with the three dots.

With grateful thanks to Hervé Tullet for his time and inspiration and the good folks of Abrams & Chronicle Books for setting up the blog tour…

Incidentally, it’s interesting that M. Tullet has developed an app based on the book, as ‘Press Here’ almost flies in the face of the barrage of ‘CLICK HERE’ commands we receive every day. But for all the apps, websites and even electronic children’s toys encouraging us to click things, drag things and drop things, they’re not half as fun as pressing a yellow painted dot and turning the page of a book! Why on earth has no one thought of it before?

The last page asks the reader “Want to do it all over again?” and you just know that’s exactly what they’ll do.

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Did you know you can see more recommended food for thought on our Bookshelf?

Twenty or so teenagers have been invited to take part in Dream School. They have all left school for one reason or another and are disillusioned with education in general. One boy mentioned how he was “kicked out of school in Year 4″ — these kids have deep-seated feelings about school.

As teachers in Dream School, Jamie Oliver has picked celebrities and people who are at the top of their field. Robert Winston teaches Science, David Starkey attempts to teach History, the English teacher is Simon Callow and so on.

It has to be said, the concept makes for a fascinating watch. Seeing ‘celebrities’ in the classroom is always interesting. Just because someone is the best in their field and an inspiration to adults, doesn’t mean they will automatically be able to teach well or inspire a classful of pupils (see David Starkey, who struggled in last night’s episode). It seemed most of their problems were with crowd control.

The programme throws up so many questions about how best to motivate the demotivated and inspire the disillusioned, but one of the main things we took away was to do with the personal touch…

During the episode there was a moment where Rolf Harris was explaining to camera how he felt the class was too large. For a split second he looked quite upset that he hadn’t been able to spend enough time with two of the pupils.

Ellen MacArthur had that much-desired small class size as she took four pupils out sailing. After learning to sail, they sat drinking tea and she was able to talk to them individually.

The reason David Starkey failed so miserably in episode 1 seems to be that there was no initial bridge-building between himself and these pupils. He spoke condescendingly and ended up being exceptionally rude to one of them. It looked like (and perhaps this is just good film-making) he didn’t care. No doubt things will improve as the series goes on.

You don’t have to be a celebrity to inspire young minds. You just have to be able to relate to your pupils, teach subjects that are relevant (are you listening, Mr Gove?), be excited about that subject and, most importantly, care about who these kids are, what makes them tick and what they go home to each night.

Or, of course, you could be Tinchy Stryder — that helps too.

Take a look at Jamie’s Dream School if you get a chance — it’s on Channel 4, Wednesday nights. And if you’re interested in a “hands-on” approach for those who school isn’t working out for (or if you’re the Education Secretary) take a look at this.

The World Book Day activity encourages your class (and yourself!) to think of the books that mean something to you… Anything to you. The only two rules we have are that each explanation must begin with the words “This is the book that…” and must include the word “because” somewhere in it!

Right-click the following links to save the Powerpoint presentation and the PDF worksheet.

We’ve also set up this Wallwisher wall for your pupils to record their most original ideas. We’ll be using the best on our website. Now, much as we love Wallwisher, it can be a little tricky to load sometimes so if you are experiencing trouble just type your “This is the book that…” in the Comments below.

We hope you like our World Book Day resources…

Keep on reading!

If you liked Dave Eggers’ Pirate Supply Store, you’ll love the concept behind the Ministry of Stories. Nick Hornby is behind the project and the linked Hoxton Monster Supplies store. Not sure how it could be used by schools not in the vicinity, but you’ve got to love the concept.

Ever wondered what George Lucas got up to after Star Wars? Edutopia is a website run by the George Lucas Educational Foundation with the aim of promoting innovation in schools. There are plenty of interesting articles, resources and a weekly e-mail newsletter we subscribe to and heartily recommend. Good stuff.

Google’s bid to conquer the online world continues with the fascinating Google Art Project, a chance to wander round some of the world’s best art galleries online. Features of this tool are the abilities to zoom, view more details and, particularly cleverly, to save your own collection of works of art. Art lessons will never be the same.

We’ve recently done some work in conjunction with Gwen Christie, the author of ‘Bakari and the Balloonana’. The resulting free 22-page thinking skills pack is available on this page at the TES website or on the official Bakari site. The resources are linked to the UN’s Year of the Forest (2011, don’t you know?!). You don’t have to have read the book to make use of the resources — but, should you want to, it’s available at a very reasonable price here.

‘Three Chairs, a Table and a Lamp’ is a unique DVD. In many ways it does what it says on the box. Three chairs, a table and a lamp are filmed on location in North Wales. Sitting on the chairs are three men and it’s the role each one plays in the conversation that follows that makes the film so interesting. It also has a sub-title, but in the interests of keeping things simple we’ll ignore that for now.

Imagine a zoo keeper who wants to do a better job. He wanders around his zoo with a notepad, making notes and collating together all the interesting animal behaviours he sees (the gorilla who throws away his bananas, you know the sort of thing). He then sits down with two people — a zoologist (who is able to clarify why, biologically speaking, the gorilla behaves this way) and an expert in zoo-keeping, a zoo ‘guru’ if you will (who explains what can be done to help the poor gorilla with the banana-rejection issues).

This analogy, roughly speaking, is what goes on in ‘Three Chairs’. The ‘zoo keeper’ is Michael Supple, an ex-teacher who visited various zoos secondary schools in Northampton, making notes and collating together all the interesting animal pupil behaviours he found there. The ‘zoologist’ is Dr Andrew Curran (a consultant paediatric neurologist), whose job it is to explain these behaviours in terms of what is going on in the pupils’ brains. Finally, the ‘zoo-guru’ is Ian Gilbert (educational innovator, author and speaker) who gives valuable tips to understand and make the most of these behaviours.

Put simply, ‘Three Chairs’ is about:

- what your pupils do;

- why they do what they do;

- what you should do about it.

We’ve all faced the situations that crop up in the film. For example, pupils who want to rest their heads on desks, give inappropriate responses to questions and teacher/pupil confrontations. Most of the time, if we’re honest, the way we deal with them is to see the students as badly behaved, get cross and generally make matters worse.

‘Three Chairs, a Table and a Lamp’ shows us that our reactions to everyday classroom situations and pupil behaviours are often misguided. For instance…

Shouting out in class, at inappropriate times was something I witnessed by both boys and girls. Why does it happen and how can it be effectively managed?

Michael Supple

Now, our instant reaction to that would be to crack down on it. No one wants a classful of pupils shouting out. But, do we know neurologically why pupils shout out? What is going on inside their brains to cause it? Many teachers will just put it down to bad behaviour, a catch-all term… “They’re just naughty…” But don’t you want to know more? If we can find out why pupils behave like this isn’t it our professional duty to do so?

For each question posed, Andrew Curran provides the explanation of what is going on ‘behind the scenes’ and then Ian Gilbert follows up with ways to deal with the behaviour and use it to everyone’s advantage. It’s a discussion starter of a film, a catalyst to help you and your school change the way you deal with confrontation, pupil behaviour, the learning environment, motivation and your own teaching. In this respect, ‘Three Chairs’ is worth investing in as a training tool — to watch in a staff meeting and spend time discussing its implications with colleagues. It’ll certainly ruffle one or two ‘old-school’ feathers along the way. An open mind and willingness to try new ideas is a must, so teacher training students and NQTs would benefit hugely from watching.

Inside the DVD cover is a booklet containing an extended transcription of the ‘Three Chairs’ conversations which is especially useful if, like me, you struggle with the workings of the human brain. It also provides a handy referral tool if you need to look up one of the strategies Ian Gilbert provides, which are always straightforward, effective and brain-centred.

In case you were wondering, the sub-title to ‘Three Chairs, a Table and a Lamp’ is ‘How insights from neuroscience can improve the quality of learning in your school’. If you want to sell the idea to your colleagues, best stick with ‘Three Chairs…’ It might go down better.

So there you have it. Three men with designer sunglasses sitting on Llandudno seafront has never been more interesting.

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Did you know you can see more recommended food for thought on our Bookshelf?

Education Eye is a collection of hundreds of exciting and innovative educational websites, blogs and resources — updated daily. Our Sites for sore eyes free sample was rated as a ‘Futurelab favourite’ on here, so we’re big fans! Check out our Education Eye widget in the left-hand column of Sparky Teaching website pages too. Needs a good browse.

Animoto for Education allows you make your own videos and slideshows for use in class and download them with a free Educators account. Animoto is one of the web tools featured in our guide to sparking up your lessons, Sites for sore eyes. To see what Animoto can do, take a look here.

Use Answer Garden to set open-ended questions for your students to answer on your blog, class webpage or via the Answer Garden site. Useful as a brainstorming tool (e.g. give your class a spelling rule and create an Answer Garden to brainstorm as many words as they can come up with), to gather feedback (e.g. gather answers from pupils prior to a data-handling Maths lesson) or to develop a sense of class community (e.g. everyone contributes a positive adjective to describe the class or a pupil).

Save the Words takes words long-gone from common circulation and offers them up for adoption in a bid to save them from extinction. A great idea and a brilliant homepage where each word cries out to be adopted. Adopt a word as a class and see if you can single-handedly keep it going!

Wordia is a site where users (including many celebrities) have uploaded videos defining a word. An interesting way to explore word meanings. Contains a section specifically for educators to use with their class, exploring topic key words via the Wordia Word Banks.

Worldometers takes a simple idea and makes it riveting. If we described it as realtime world statistics, it would sound mind-numbingly dull. It isn’t.

Why Did We Become Teachers? : excellent excellent stuff. Print this article out and put it on your staffroom noticeboard.

Transformative or just flashy educational tools? : are we using educational tools for the purpose they were intended?

Teaching that Sticks : sign up with your e-mail to get a free PDF explaining how teachers can make ideas stick. Right-click here to download.

NB. These are all external sites so, although we never knowingly recommend something unsuitable for classroom use, we don’t take responsibility for any life-changing events that may occur as a result of clicking that mouse button…

Here are several other powerful illustrations we’ve come across recently. We won’t comment them, just let the pen do the talking (picture, thousand words, etc).

© Phi Delta Kappan

© 2010 David Horsey

© unknown

A spoonful of humour helps the medicine go down.