Planning the year ahead

Here are some web sources to help you include topical resources in you planning.


Adult Basic Skills Resource Centre - Topical Links


from Skills Workshop. Links to basic skills resources


British Life and Culture from Woodlands Junior school, Kent

Each date links to further information

WHERE CAN WE GO
Britain's What's On Event Guide
thanks for the link from Citizenship a blog from Mr Copper at Maplewell Hall School


Book Clubs
from Scholastic has links to resources - a mix of items to buy and links to other websites . Resources are aimed at lower age and are not SEN specific. A subscription is required to access these resources.


Resources from the U.S

The Teachers corner
Has links to free resources .

Teacher vision

A calendar of dates. A mix of historic dates e.g. Great Fire of London, and current U.S dates e.g Labor Day.
All dates are linked to resources but these are aimed at a school age market and are U.S based . You can view three resources for free before subscribing for $40.

Events, Lessons, and Resources for Teachable Moments
from Scholatic.com

Time to declare your CPD

Only a few days left to declare your CPD - deadline 31 August 2009

The deadline for declaring your continuing professional development (CPD) to IfL is fast approaching. CPD declarations should be completed by 31 August 2009.

You'll need your password and user name:
( you'll have a certificate/letter /email ...somewhere with your log in details )

1. REfLECT users – should send their completed CPD Record to IfL, using the REfLECT system.
2. If not using the on line declaration ( REfLECT) complete the CPD Declaration form available via My Pages .

If having trouble phone Institute for Learning:

0844 815 3202

Tips on the IFL web site

Get a colleague to show you -It is so much quicker than working it all out for yourself!

Information on setting up an Autistic classroom

Here are some links from the web which may be useful if you are setting up a new classroom for students with autism. I have tried to find links which maybe relevant to 16+.

Cindy's Autistic Support

has lots of links including

Structure in Classroom

About our classroom

Pictures of our classroom

Autism classroom.com has picture of classrooms including a classroom for teenagers


Podcasts on setting up an effective classroom has two podcasts on an effective autism classroom (introduction and schedules)

Structured Teaching: Strategies for Supporting Students with Autism?
Is a paper by Susan Stokes

covering :
What is structured teaching?

Physical structure

Visual schedules

Work systems and schedules



Autism4teachers has many pages incuding Classsroom structure which has lots of photos of classrooms.

Asperger's Syndrome in the news

The Guardian magazine recently had an article on the struggles of a sixth form student with Asperger's syndrome to gain a place at school.

The curious incident of the straight-A student

can be read at The Guardian website

Better,faster..and no office politics:the company with autistic specialists

is an article about employing people with Autism from The Independent .
You can also read about it on the blog Webcredible

BBC Ouch! Blog has an a good article with lots of links about the plight of Gary Mckinon who is facing extradition to the U.S.

Hacker Gary McKinnon's asperger review

Washing Bingo

I have made a washing bingo game which I shall be using for my Entry 1 Life skills course. It can be downloaded from Box net -I've moved it from  My4shared space which is now very muddling and difficult to use. If you have any problems - email or leave a comment.

Laundry Bingo PDF

Enterprise Organics

Here is another idea for an enterprise project. This one is from Lewisham College .The team of students with learning difficulties are making organic soaps and lotions.

A free song to download from Action Aid

I'm Every Woman (cover of Chaka Khan classic) is a free music track to download at Action Aid website.
Action Aid is a UK charity that fights the causes of poverty and this song is part of a 6 degree campaign connecting women in the UK with women living in poverty around the world.

Woman symbol from Axelia pictograms

Mouse Skills

Some first step activities to improve mouse skills:

Thanks to Teaching Learners with multiple needs for the list

Please check that you have Flash or Java script before using in the classroom.

Singing Horses

Help Kids Learn

Infinite wheel

Bubble Wrap

Fireworks (java script)

Functional Skills

Teachers TV has a 20 minute film explaining the new Functional Skills(Numeracy,Literacy and ICT) which will be with us by 2010.The programme is an introduction rather than a detailed analysis.




The Teachers TV page also has suggested links for further information.

Boardmaker Basics

The Adapted Learning website has a very good introduction to using Boardmaker. The recorded web broadcast is 45 minutes.

There are also advanced tutorials. The tutorial can be found in the News and Views section and then by selecting the Getting started.