ICTeachers  - The Independent Voice of Teachers

ICTeachers Magazine November (including all months since June!) 2003 

Probably the best and least monthly educational newsletter in the world!
Circulation 9000+  including Educational Organisations World-wide!

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What is ICTeachers?

ICTeachers is another name for the game teachers play on holiday when they try to spot other teachers on the Ferry to France or in the caravan park at Skegness depending where you are on the teacher food chain.

Message from the Editor

I don't know what it is about starting a new term but for some reason I find it soothing to thing of options other than teaching.

I was giving a lift to my friend Terry, an Iraqi, when we got to talking about how he could get a job.  You see he's a chef and has recently had to leave his job to look after an ill relative.  Anyway, we were on our way to Heathrow when I hit on a wonderful idea that we could open a restaurant together and make our fortunes!!  Not to be deterred, when I got back home I began to scour the local papers for suitable premises and sure enough there was one, fairly locally for £47k..a bargain!

Well, for some reason, when I explained my plan to the good lady of the house she didn't seem to share my vision for a culinary future!  So, crest fallen, I went upstairs and thought about it.  Then it came to me....mobile vans!!  What could be better than driving across the country stopping at the odd lay-by offering tea and scones to a gasping hungry public.  Oh yes!!

So, a bit of research later I find out that a second hand, kitted out van costs about £7500 and a static van that you drive to a location comes in at about £2500 + depending how many gadgets it has.  I have the details and I have a dream!  

Now, on those dark days just before parents evenings, harvest or SATS, I have a happy place where I can hide away until it's all over.  My very own mobile catering van. : )  

The Editor
md@icteachers.co.uk

The comments of the Editor in no way reflect the views of ICTeachers Ltd and do not claim to be either well researched or even vaguely coherent.

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What's New on the Website

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The Power of Your School Website

“If you don’t have a web presence, you don’t exist”

Many small businesses – and large ones – have understood this for years. Their websites provide a worldwide presence, twenty four hours a day. Information can be obtained about their structure, their products and their personnel anytime and anywhere. Those who sell their products online have frequently benefited financially by increasing sales exponentially.

Fine, you say, but businesses and schools are different beasts – I’m not selling a product and it’s of no benefit that someone in, say, Australia can read about my school.

Wrong!

The first school website I designed was for my own school – and over the past five years I know of at least three instances when the school gained new pupils simply because we had a worldwide web presence. These people had been living and working abroad and they and their families were returning to the UK to live in our area. They “toured” the school via the virtual tour on our website,  learned about our way of doing things from the documents they were able to read, understood something of the standards we encourage by viewing children’s work and got the answers to any other questions from me via e-mail. Ok, it’s not actually the same as visiting and feeling the atmosphere first-hand (they did that when they eventually did return), but it was the next best thing for them.

These, of course, are exceptional circumstances. They aren’t everyday examples and many schools will never find themselves in such a position. However, the same benefits can be felt nearer to home.

Like me, do you get inundated with requests for visits as soon as the admissions booklets and forms go out each year? I’m sure you do, and while it is an important part of the head’s job to show prospective families around, the tour becomes pretty jaded by the thirtieth time! In recent years an increasing number of people have looked at our website in advance of the visit and are very clued-up about the school. This makes the job of showing them around and selling the school much easier and the questions they ask are often much sharper and precise.

The website has also improved communications with our existing families, too. They know that the latest event will be featured on the site and that they can keep up to date with  the latest projects and work from their child’s class (I’m told this is particularly useful if the usual response to the question “What did you do at school today?” is “Not much; can I have something to eat”!!!!). The fortnightly school newsletter is also published on the website and I know of several split families who are grateful for this, as both households can access the information about the school.

These are just some of the benefits that we have gained from our website in recent years and at ICTeachers, we use this experience to provide you with a unique service. As teachers ourselves, we understand schools and the problems they face: as authors of over fifty websites, we also understand what school’s need on the web and how their presence on the internet can benefit them.

Each school is different and each school needs to promote it’s special character – visit some of the sites we have built and see how we have helped to promote this.

So – if you don’t have a website at present, or yours is looking tired, or you never find time to update it, why not drop us an e-mail? We can design a new site from scratch, or re-build an existing one; but the real power of the ICTeachers approach is that we will update the site regularly for you – all you need to do is send us the words and pictures (usually by e-mail) and we will do the rest. Yes, it’s that simple!

Haven’t you contacted us yet? Do it now!

Bob Hopcraft is ICTeachers’ Technical Director and Webmaster. In his spare time he is Headteacher of St Nicholas CofE (VA) Primary School, Letchworth Garden City.

The ICT Co-ordinators' National Network

http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/thenetwork

Becta's ICT Advice has now opened a new online community area for ICT co-ordinators and others interested in implementing ICT in teaching and learning.

The Network is a web-based discussion forum and is open for anyone to join. Discussions are supported by a team of facilitators who have backgrounds in ICT co-ordination.

New members need to complete a free one-off registration. If you already have a user name and password for Becta's online communities system (for example, from previous online Insets), there's no need to re-register.

The aims of the Network are:

*to provide a platform for ICT co-ordinators' to discuss the issues that affect them

*to encourage and support the sharing of ideas, experience and good practice

*to provide a channel for ICT co-ordinators to communicate with Becta and other key organisations.

The Network will develop with it's membership. New discussion areas and background information will be added and updated according to the suggestions and needs of the members.

Take a look at the Network and share your views, comments and ideas with colleagues from across the UK.

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"Bob gives wonderful follow up service and uploads the stuff I send him without fail. He gives me tips and advice and I really feel that I am an honoured customer. Nothing is too much trouble and he never makes me feel dumb or ICT illiterate." Headteacher

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Daisy's Dream - Dealing with Children's Bereavement  

• telephone advice and support
• support in the home or at school for children
• residential weekends and follow up events
• advice and support for professionals working with bereaved children.

http://www.daisysdream.org.uk

BOOK LIST

Adults

Children - 6 - 8 Years

Children - 6 - 10 Years

Children - 9 - 12 Years

Children - 8+

Teenagers

Poems Suitable for Funerals

From " The Prophet" by K Gibran.

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day
Cannot unveil the mystery of life.
If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide to the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lie your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of Spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and melt into the sun?
And what is it to stop breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
When the earth claims your limbs, then you shall truly dance.

I am standing on the sea shore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze
And starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty
And I stand watching her
Until at last she fades on the horizon.
And someone at my side says
" She is gone".
Gone where?
Gone from my sight that is all
The total loss of sight is in me not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says
" She is gone"
There are others who are watching her coming
And other voices take up the glad shout
"Here she comes".
And that is dying.

Bishop Brent.

Death Is Nothing At All

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I. You are You. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the same easy way which you always used to, put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow, laugh as we always laughed at little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without trace of shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight, I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near just around the corner.

All is well.

Henry Scott Holland
Canon of St Pauls
1847 --- 1918

Remember 

Remember me when I am gone away.
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of the future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be too late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti

Also try..

http://www.uk-funerals.co.uk/funeral-poems.htm

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New2Computers - Chat Room and Advice

Whether you are old or new to computers this site is a mine of information run by teachers for teachers.  I would especially encourage you to use the email service and the chat rooms!  Like most things from BECTa it's free to us but paid for by the DfES! 

The Chat Rooms can be found at http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/new2computers/chat

It is staffed by specialist teachers every Sunday and Wednesday from 8pm to 10pm but the room is open for anyone to use between those times.  Word is they are soon going to be doing lectures/lessons there about various ICT issues.  Nice one!