As someone who has filled in countless internet forms I accept my email address is probably known to half the world’s spammers, and so I’m used to dubious emails turning up from across the globe. But nothing could prepare me for the missive this morning from a budding Indian entrepreneur.

“i am komal prasadplease inves ment in this enterprises 009310336633 in india read this file stevi product”

Now i’m sorry, but if I get a link request to a new educational website with an errant apostrophe I generally judge them unworthy. To get an appeal for serious investment from someone who’s never heard of punctuation is more than laughable. I love the spirit of someone trying to start a Stevia (natural sweetener) cultivation by appealing to Western wallets, but it took me three reads to work out that the sentence had meaning at all. So no, Komal, I can’t investment in your enterprises.

But then he has got my attention..

The release of Sir Alan Steer’s report into behaviour in schools has sparked debate on two counts.

Firstly, many teachers really do not agree that behavioural standards in school are improving. It’s probably impossible to generalise, but at least in some schools behaviour has got worse.

Secondly, there has been some derision at the idea of improving behaviour using ‘quiz show’ style games, such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire lessons. At Teachable we believe this is already a popular strategy with teachers across the country, judging from our lesson downloads, and could be extended to liven up lessons everywhere.

The most disruptive children will always need some (metaphorical) ’stick’, but we believe that engaging lessons are a crucial ‘carrot’ the encourage better behaviour.

Many of the examples Sir Alan uses in his report have already been put into practice by Teachable contributors:

Class Bingo

Students play ‘word bingo’. Words in English
are numbered on the board. Students have
a grid of random numbers on paper. The
teacher speaks the words in French and the
students mark them off on their grids. The
winner is the first with a ‘full house’.

Blockbusters

pupils travel across a grid containing initial letters to answers.

And our favourite idea, demonstrated with science concepts, doesn’t need digital resources at all – just post-it notes!

Students are studying ‘refraction and colour’.
Each student sticks an unseen word onto their
forehead, for example dispersion, spectrum,
dye, filter, optical fibre. They have to ask a
partner questions in order to work out what
the word is.

We hope teachers everywhere can boost enthusiasm for their subjects by using these simple, adaptable resources. Teachable.net already has over 200 teachers who have downloaded Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and nearly 1,000 teachers who have made use of our free and exclusive Bubblesplat resource.

Our most recent contribution was a series of whiteboard quizzes based on Battleships, Frogger and that classic 80s quiz show, Bullseye. We encourage teachers to contribute their best examples of fun and interactive lessons, and our collection of 3,000+ files is growing daily.

It is also quite possible to miss, within the 200 page tome of Sir Alan’s report (where ‘achievement’ and ‘development’ are mentioned over 60 times each), that there are some good and practical ideas for starters – both subject specific and general. You can download the 5 page excerpt by clicking on the icon.

It’s the ethical conundrum of our times – do you keep you social and work lives separate on social networks? For teachers, there’s the added problem of getting too close to pupils and letting down your guard. Everyone needs a some kind of work-life separation, and Facebook can seriously erode that.

We’ve been reading about one US teacher who was tracked down by the Washington Post:

Erin Jane Webster, 22, a long-term substitute teacher in Prince William, keeps a page similar to other teachers’. Portions are professional … but click “View Photos of Erin,” and you can see her lying on her back, eyes closed, with a bottle of tequila between her head and shoulder. Or click on her “summertime” photo album and see a close-up of two young men flashing serious-looking middle fingers.

Like several other teachers interviewed, Webster said she thought her page could be seen only by people she accepted as “friends.” But like those of many teachers on Facebook, Webster’s profile was accessible by the more than 525,000 members of the Washington, D.C., network. Anyone can join any geographic network.

The simple motto here is don’t join the open networks on Facebook – but even friends-of-friends can amount to a lot of people.

It gets worse: teachers get fired for derogatory comments on Facebook:

Superintendent Peter Gorman has recommended firing a teacher who listed “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte” as one of her activities and drinking as one of her hobbies.

But, as an article in Teacher magazine in the US illustrates, there can be great reasons to link up with former pupils. Locking down all the security settings may be too restrictive for some.

My teaching friends seem to take two different approaches. They can both work, but don’t mix them. Personally, I would go with the first option.

1. Keep Facebook for your personal life
One of the most positive uses of Facebook is to share the fun stuff that goes on in your life, even if it does involve some riske jokes or slightly embarrassing images. If you’re sharing it with your friends, they’ll see it for what it is. So this only works if you change the privacy settings so that only your friends can see any of the photos or messages, and that you can only invite former pupils who are over 18.

• Don’t join any networks
• Lock down your security settings
• Think carefully about including anyone with links to your school / employer in your ‘friends’ list (parents, friends of parents, governors etc)

2. Use Facebook in a limited, controlled way in school
It is possible to run a completely sanitised Facebook page, without links to the rest of your life, that you can allow your older pupils to link to. However, there are two big risks are: you may find out more than you really want to know about our class, and visa versa. Most teenagers are over-relaxed about what they chat publicly about on Facebook, and reading about their dabbling in drink, drugs or sex could open up a whole can of worms. That said, like in real live, it is possible to filter out what you want to hear.

The caveat is that your friends can post photos / comments about you that you can’t control – so opening your Facebook account up to your school depends upon the respectability of your friends as well.

In the long term, the theory goes that we’ll all become so used to personal revelations online, that it won’t cause a problem any more. But for now, you’re much safer being careful with what people see about you online.

We want to introduce you to Eric. He’s the newest member of the Teachable.net team. We realise there is no such thing as a typical teacher … but then Eric is imaginary. He epitomises the struggle teachers often have trying to keep teaching materials fresh and engaging.

Eric faces the same dilemma over and over again. He is sitting in front of his computer late on another Sunday evening. He is no stranger to the internet and often finds himself spending hours searching endless pages looking for ideas and fresh interactive resources to help with his lesson preparation for the coming week. His latest class are proving a nightmare. Nothing seems to get them engaged.

As the hours tick by Eric looks through resource site after resource site and tries to filter out the dross. The solution was just one click away. It is the only resource site that has the quality and range of resources that is needed to get his class back on track: Teachable.net.

Eric can rest assured that the resources that he downloaded were quality-checked, teacher-developed and can be easily adapted. What he can offer his students is a creative set of materials that other teachers have used successfully in their own schools. Perfect.

Teachable.net has had a bit if a re-vamp to ensure that our teacher Eric is at the centre of everything we do. His presence symbolises that we put our members first and give you what you want. Eric loves to hear Teachable.net members comments and suggestions. Feel free to drop him a line, eric @ teachable.net.

I’m finding this story about the insurance giant AIG and its bonus payments hard to believe. It’s similar to the Sir Fred Goodwin pay scandal only bigger and more puzzling. For most of us it is astounding how such bonus payments can be ‘guaranteed’, but i’m especially concerned about the lack of care shown by government investors.

The facts of the matter are:
1. AIG makes some stupendously stupid better on the credit markets, using its once great credit rating to take on huge risks.

2. Falling markets and huge derivative losses make AIG totally bust. Bankrupt, not just slightly into the red.

3. US government agrees to bail out AIG, because the alternative seemed to be global financial meltdown.

4. Even though every man, woman and child in America is in effect investing $600 into AIG, no-one bothers to check the employment contracts…

My question is, if it was your $600 (let alone $170bn) going to save the world wouldn’t you want to make sure that no-one was profiting from this kind of failure? For professional investors this is just the most obvious thing to check – that the management team isn’t taking all the cream.

And it looks like the UK government repeated the mistake with RBS. Just what is so tricky about inserting a clause saying that due to ‘change of ownership’ the bonuses will all be cut?? It’s not as if they’re all going to leave to become teachers…

While we’re on the subject, I can assure you that there are no rewards for failure at Teachable. As Managing Director I won’t be taking a salary (let alone bonus) until we are established as the most useful download site for teachers. If we get it right, and everyone benefits, then I will certainly get paid… but then there is no way I can mess up like those boys from AIG.

It’s not all bad news for those stuck at home today in the UK today.  Extra snowball fights for pupils means extra lie-ins for teachers.  If your school’s not closed, there’s still a chance it will be by the end of the week.

Why not get out and enjoy it?  Think of all the savings you’re making by having the snow come to you rather than jetting off skiing this year. With a coffee costing £12 in the alps currently (and a chalet in Portes du Soleil even more!), you can get a bargain version by pouring yourself a cup, gazing out the window and imagining the Alpine air!

And if you do want to save up for that bonanza ski trip, you can boost your teacher earnings by contributing to Teachable…

Teaching environmental issues (if you’re not a geographer) can be difficult and many of the sites that you find yourself visiting seem a little dry and preachy. So rather that lecturing to you about the virtues of recycling we have done a bit of research and have been looking for some helpful tips for you to use in the classroom.

Have a look at the green Christmas article published in the Guardian that makes you think about a more ethical approach to buying a real tree every year rather than buying plastic Christmas trees. It would appear that bringing out your plastic tree year after year seems to be the most eco friendly but… when you need to get rid of it you may find that the materials it is made from are far from great for the environment.

We know Christmas is busy time of year for everyone so we have decided to become Santa’s little helper and find you a few eco friendly sites so you can do your bit too.
Visit Nigel’s eco store for some great green Christmas tips including some fabulous links to designer recycled wrapping paper and Christmas decorations.
Or have a look at this great article about ethical shopping for a thrifty Christmas explains why the Charity shops that used to be great for thrifty shoppers ar now on the decline. She also draws the reader to a great recession-themed video on YouTube entitled ‘Cash in My Pocket’ which may make an impact on your class.

The Teachable.net team has decided to lead by example and have produced their own wrapping paper, made from recycled paper of course (well, as recycled as having printing on the back can be) and want to send you a festive gift of warm wishes for Christmas and a prosperous 2009.

If you’re just looking for a fun Christmas quiz, check out our two ways to get Xmas on a whiteboard.

We’re all facing a financial meltdown. You can’t open a paper or listen to a news report that doesn’t describe the panic over the economic downturn in our country, with banks needing to be bailed out with billions of pounds because the markets are in chaos. The supermarkets have price wars every week, house prices have dropped and there are ‘for sale’ signs on houses and businesses alike, in every town in the country.

But for one college in Stoke-on-Trent the economic downturn didn’t stop them from preparing to go on a 4 star, £18,000 trip to Marbella for their teacher training course. Or so they thought. I am sure you have heard the story about the proposed trip to the Adalucia Plaza Hotel in Marbella for 80 teachers from Edensor Technology College being grounded when parents got wind of it and complained. The Headteacher from Edensor Technology College, Richard Mercer, commented on the trip saying the function of the trip ‘was to produce materials that would be of benefit to the youngsters’. Finally, sanity prevailed when he cancelled the trip at the 11th hour but maybe he should have looked closer to home for great teaching materials and saved himself the grief!

Budget flights might be cheap, but Teachable’s autumn training courses are FREE and our direct-to-your computer resources now start from just £15 for a pack of 10. Beat that, Easyjet!

We all had a good laugh today reading through a collection of excuse notes (supposedly) written by American parents, with their spelling errors preserved:

1. “My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.”
2. “Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.”
3. “John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.”
   
4. “Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.”
5. “Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his boots leak.”
6. “Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.”
7. “Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father’s fault.”
8. “Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.”
9. “Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.”
10. “Dear School: Excuses
    Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.”
11. “Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating.”
12. “Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.”
13. “I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don’t know what size she wear.”
    
14. “My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the Marines.”
15. “Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.”
16. “Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.”
    

As recorded by http://madtbone.tripod.com/school.htm.

Hopefully you haven’t seen any off-school notes quite as concerning as number 9, or quite as dumb as number 10.  But if you’d like to share any funny ones you have seen (or used), then you can reply to this post.

Well, here it goes – me in a Welsh bog! As you can see, it is really a pond within a bog, but I certainly didn’t have time to look for pond-skaters or frogs.

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