Game Show Maths - out now!
Bring a spot of sparkiness to your Inbox! Find out more >>
There are plenty of websites out there with links to worksheets and lesson plans. These links have got an extra spark.
August 2012: This page is being updated. Bear with us - nearly done... If you still see this message in September, you have permission to send us an anonymous rant from 'Annoyed of Bognor'.
To inspire you >>
Independent Thinking are the people behind some of the most inspiring books you'll read and INSET you'll er... sit through. As well as their website, they also have a blog here.
Sir Ken Robinson is well-worth listening to. Try these three for starters: 'Schools kill creativity', 'Bring on the learning revolution!' and this rather cool video.
Did you know? (YouTube video). We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems that we don't even know are problems yet.
We Are The People We've Been Waiting For gets Sir Richard Branson, Sir Ken Robinson and the Fonz (!!) on board to ask "Is the current way of doing things, the right way?" (see our blog article). You can also download an MP4 version from here (right-click and save, 768MB).
Bobby McFerrin's Pentatonic Scale is brilliant. Try it out as a singing warm-up.
TES Lesson Plans is a one-stop shop for Primary and Secondary lesson plans and inspiration for how to plan your own lessons.
To inspire your class >>
Caine's Arcade - a great 9 year-old with a fantastic imagination. Never say "I'm bored!" again.
Never Seconds - from one primary school pupil's school dinner plate to a worldwide blog.
Class blogs >>
To add your blog here, use the contact form to send us your link details or tweet us @SparkyTeaching
Class One at Norbridge Academy - being the best they can be (Worksop, Notts, UK).
A Grade 1 blog by pupils in Ms Lirenman's Room (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada)
Year One's blog at Craigburn Primary School, Adelaide, South Australia.
This is the blog for Miss Tripp's Science and Math classes (USA).
Creative literacy links >>
The Literacy Shed - an excellent collection of animation, film and photos and linked literacy teaching ideas.
Polly Dunbar's PDF Ideas Everywhere is great for discussing story structure and dealing with writer's block! You can download it here (right-click and save, 2MB).
Creative maths links >>
Mathszone is a massive collection of online maths games and activities ordered by topic. Really, really useful.
101 Questions - Displays a photo / video clip and users submit (usually) maths-related questions. Will give you ideas for real-life maths investigations.
Cool stuff we use / like the look of >>
Makey Makey - these look so much fun for getting children playing with programming. Raspberry Pi? What Raspberry Pi?!
Pocket is a nice little app. We use it to save websites to read later.
If you are on Twitter, you might like Buffer, It's a useful app we use to plan tweets through the day. Set them up and let it tweet away.
Links >>
Education eye