See The Gruffalo Story Sack in TP at 428.6

This White Paper outlines the steps necessary to enact such whole-system reform in England. It encompasses both profound structural change and rigorous attention to standards. It includes a plan for attracting and training even better teachers. It outlines a direction of travel on the curriculum and qualifications which allows us to learn from, and outpace, the world’s best.

Visit the TSO website to order a hard copy for £19.75

To access these resources, visit http://education.scholastic.co.uk/ and login with the following details: 

Username: electronicresources@wlv.ac.uk

Password: education

Selection of some of the new books

Owing to the big sort out of all the fiction stock I mentioned earlier, I noticed we could do with some more variety in the fiction section.

Recent additions to the collection have therefore focused on developing this area and include picture books, early readers, phonics books, junior fiction and teenage fiction (including the popular book The Hunger Games which I donated myself after reading it – unusual topic but gripping story!). There’s a combination of fiction books to use for teachers/teaching assistants to read in the classroom, as well as books for children to read themselves ranging right from beginners to accomplished readers. They are all available to borrow from TP FICTION (on the back wall).

I’ve also ordered copies of all the children’s books on the shortlists for the 2010 CILIP Carnegie Medal (for young adult fiction) and the 2010 CILIP Kate Greenaway medal (for picture books) – they should hopefully be arriving soon.

Just a short post to keep you up-to-date with activity in the Teaching Practice room. As you may have noticed, the fiction books along the back wall are being changed to a new classification. They will now all be shelved together (picture books and junior fiction) under the TP FICTION classification with the first three letter of the author as the suffix, so for example TP FICTION DAH for the books by Roald Dahl. Hopefully this will make them easier to find, but please bear with us whilst we are changing them as some will be on the new scheme and some on the old. We hope to have them all sorted in the next few weeks. If you’re struggling to find any, come to the information helpdesk and we’ll give you a hand.

Great to see so many of you in there recently taking advantage of the extra study space for assignments and lesson planning!

Hope you all enjoy the vacation!

Shaun the shy shark storysack

Some of you eagle-eyed may have noticed some brand spanking new storysacks in Teaching Practice. Seeing as they continue to be so popular, I’ve bought some new ones, most of which we’ve now received. Although the focus of the Storysacks is primarily to develop literacy skills, they also include non-fiction books and activities focused around similar issues as the story book. New storysacks we’ve already received include:

• Little Moon which includes a playmat to follow along with the story, photocopiable space related activities, and a game
• Messy Martin which includes art activities and a matching game
• Shaun the Shy Shark which includes a book about bullying and a fishing game (as well as lots of soft toys!)
• Teddy Takes a Tumble which is about road safety and includes a soft car seat, a CD and a game
• Precious Waste about recycling which includes a card game, a CD and soft toys
• No Room for a Baby Roo which includes a book about Kangaroos, a games and soft toys

There are all available to borrow (unless someone gets there first!) from the TP/Cabinets on the right hand side at 428.6.

World Book Day display

Tomorrow (4th March) is World Book Day, you may have resources in your schools or have seen the special offer books in bookstores. In honour of the day we have produced a display in Teaching Practice, featuring some of our fiction books and lots of book-related resources (see above). There are loads of resources available on the World Book Day website, or you can borrow some resources from the Teaching Practice Collection which include a range of fiction books for all ages (now shelved together on the far wall), as well as some Read and Respond sets to engage in activities, and of course the Storysacks (which we have more of arriving soon!).

Is anyone involved in any interesting World Book Day activities?

P.S. Don’t forget – the Education Show begins tomorrow at the NEC.