dougbelshaw.com/blog

Welcome back!
#uppingyourgame: an educator's guide to productivity is now up to v0.4!
(I'm looking for people to translate it into other languages when finished - if you're interested get in touch!)

I once aspired to be a great writer. Work experience at a newspaper in Newcastle and reading of the hand-to-mouth existence of many famous writers in history soon cured me of that. I do, however, greatly enjoy passages of books which express something that has been latent within me. The following passage from Gunnar Kopperud’s Longing (I’ve a pre-publication copy from my days working part-time at Waterstone’s) is masterful, in my opinion…

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Posted: January 31st, 2008
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: books, context, quotation
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A couple of linked BBC News reports caught my eye today. The first, that schools are seeing an increase in the amount of spare capacity they have and the second that there have been demonstrations in Shropshire about proposed school closures and amalgamations. Here’s my thoughts…

 

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Posted: January 31st, 2008
Categories: Education
Tags: BBC News, community, learning, schools, students, teaching
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I came back this afternoon to the scene depicted to the left. It made me feel a bit strange actually, but then things that go from being theoretical to ‘real’ usually do. We’re selling up and renting for a bit. Why? Well, many reasons (volatility of the housing market included) but mainly due to my uncertain position for next academic year. Although the Head at my current school is making all the right noises, I don’t have a permanent position and my contract ends in the summer.

Offers, house-related or job-related are welcome!

Posted: January 30th, 2008
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: future, house, job, school
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Apple always manage to improve on the interface for their products with each incarnation. It leaves those who have bought previous models lusting after the newest model. However, there’s always custom firmware! Here’s how to pimp your 5g iPod Video to look very special…

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Posted: January 27th, 2008
Categories: Technology
Tags: firmware, hack, iPod, iPodWizard, Mac, modding, Windows
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I watched School of Rock a couple of nights ago. Unbelievably, given that I absolutely love High Fidelity – which stars Jack Black in a somewhat similar role – I’d never seen it before. The film was great and I really enjoyed it; I also thought it gave some pointers as to what real learning experiences should look like.

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Posted: January 27th, 2008
Categories: Education
Tags: blogs, creativity, Education2, film, learning, School of Rock, students, talents, teachers, YouTube
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Please note that this script is NOT my own work! As I have stated below, I am simply making it available here in case it is taken down elsewhere. I have no idea on how to modify it. Sorry.

If you’re reading this on the blog rather than via the RSS feed, you’ll probably have already noticed the new addition in the top right-hand corner. The way in which the page ‘peels back’ to reveal a link to my educational consultancy business was inspired by a number of sites I’ve seen recently who use it for advertising. It’s remarkably easy to accomplish. Here’s how…

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Posted: January 26th, 2008
Categories: Technology
Tags: advertising, adverts, dougbelshaw.com, download, page peel, script, webmaster, zip
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I was informed via a pingback of a post by a Chinese educator who had picked up on EdTechRoundup’s upcoming interview with the Google Apps team. He was impressed by the questions on EdTechRoundup’s wiki page that many different educators have submitted, agreeing with at least 10 of them. Two parts of his post stood out for me…

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Posted: January 25th, 2008
Categories: Education
Tags: China, EdTechRoundup, Google, Google Apps, interview, Jeff Utecht, questions
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I’m fairly productive. Not outstandingly so, but reasonably. I try to pick up tips for improving my outputs from websites such as Lifehacker, amongst others. What follows is a brief rundown of seven tips for being more productive as a teacher.

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Posted: January 23rd, 2008
Categories: Productivity
Tags: Google Calendar, Google Docs, historyshareforum.com, learning, lessons, OpenOffice.org, pedagogy, planning, Productivity, Remember The Milk, schoolhistory.co.uk, teaching, Twitter, wiki, Zoho
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When I started my teaching career I worked myself into the ground. Determined not to just use textbooks as a prop, I did ‘proper’ lesson plans for every single lesson and didn’t use more than a single page of a textbook (tops!) per lesson. I’ve come to realise that textbooks can be your friend. Here’s some suggestions to make lessons based around them more interesting…

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Posted: January 22nd, 2008
Categories: Education
Tags: ClassTools.net, Google Earth, History, historyshareforum, lessons, mindmap, resources, Russel Tarr, students, teaching, textbook
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EdTechRoundup, the fledgling educational technology podcast show with which I’m involved wants YOUR help! We’re going to be interviewing the Google Apps team in the UK soon.

If you could ask the Google Apps UK team anything, what would it be?

Responses either in the comments section below, or on the ETR wiki here please!

Posted: January 20th, 2008
Categories: Education
Tags: collaboration, EdTechRoundup, Google Apps, podcast, questions, show, UK, wiki
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