Obama, lesson plans and schools – how to make change in the world.

Well, a change has finally come – but as the man himself said – it’s going to require work from all corners of society to make it happen. Surprisingly little mention is made of our kids ability to take part in the political process and effect change through their own political system.

Ask your kids: Are you unhappy with the way that six form prefects discharge their powers in the school corridors? How about the menu selection at lunch? Do you wish you had a mixed-sex softball team instead of just football for boys and netball for girls? Do you want to stop top-up fees for university courses? How do you feel about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, China?

The point we’re making is that the process is the same – it’s about the active understanding and use of whatever the political system you are in to effect change. It’s what democracy is about, it’s more than posting your opinion in a weblog – it’s getting your opinion heard in the forum where it is able to affect change.

Politics isn’t for everyone, but it is our role as citizens to ensure that the country overall is heading in a way we believe in – or at least that we’re trying to move things in the right way.

Now is a great time to talk about politics in Citizenship classes, and there are some fantastic ways to galvanise people’s enthusiasm for creating change in the world. Take a look at some of the Citizenship resources shown here for all key stages.

And if you have seen any other areas you are particularly interested in do please feel free to comment on our blog.

Teacher crisis in Maths and Science.

Who will inspire the next generation of Maths teachers? Could we see a modern day Jonny Ball? More likely, it’s the kids sitting in class right now who if inspired by great teachers could become the teachers of tomorrow.

The fun seems to have been squeezed out of mathematics – and it can be a genuinely fun and challenging area for kids. We need high quality training, high quality teaching materials, deep engagement with the subject matter and teachers who care about what they are doing – and really it has to be up to the individual schools to work out how to achieve this.

If a school needs to bring in an outsider from a local engineering firm to bring the topic to life and show its relevance, use online tools and puzzles to capture the imagination or something else, something new and different– this subject area is too important for the country’s future for it to be left to fall to chance.

There are some materials listed here and organized by key stage which might help.

Social mobility, inspiring belief and good lesson planning.

It’s good that the government is able to show some improvement -however small - in social mobility. We all know that the assembly hall can effect as much change as anything from Whitehall.

- If you can teach every child in the classroom as though he is the only child in the world

- If you can give her the passion for knowledge that will help her grow every day for the rest of her life.

- If you can shift the inertia of defeatism with the sense of personal achievement with small but significant victories in the classroom.

- If you can inspire the personal belief that he has much chance as anyone else in the world...

Then you as a teacher can do more for the social mobility of your group than any government initiative you care to mention.

Take a look at some inspiring lesson plans to keep you moving in the right direction…

Teaching resources to prepare kids for life as it is, not as we would like it to be.

We all need it, we all worry about it incessantly, but we don’t talk about it even with our closest friends. Talk of “numbers” makes our heads spin, even simple calculations important for the wellbeing of a typical family such as APR and compound interest are beyond the comfort zone for many, and potentially life changing concepts such as hedging, IRR and P/E ratios leave most people, teachers included, blinking open mouthed.

If we are going to prepare the next generation of school kids for a successful life, these topics need to be an integral part of the curriculum - alongside more popular and conversation friendly topics such as English and History.

Does it make sense to work all day every day for your whole life, squirreling away a little at a time – and then dumping it in into a pension fund or a bank which you don’t understand and have no control over? Shouldn’t you and your students at least understand it a little? How come even in this current financial crisis, people with good working financial understanding are rubbing their hands with joy? Could your kids be one of them in the future?

Here are some wonderful teaching resources from the AA and RBS which can help your kids get their arms around their finances now and for ever more.

Teaching materials help us soar.

People are always looking for something to inspire them. Today you need look no further than the winning entries of the Teacher of the Year awards. It is a timely reminder that the teaching profession provides us with the opportunity to live at the edge of our abilities: part psychologist, part performance artist, part interrogator - we can re-invent reality every day for fertile and flexible minds.

Reading these accounts it is easy to be intimidated by what seems to be unattainable levels of teaching performance. Just as Eric Clapton’s once unfathomable guitar sounds are now executed by 15 year olds, and Archimedes’ “Eureka!” moment can be replicated by a breathless eight year old with a measuring jug; with the right tools, a little talent and the desire to succeed, the impossible can become the everyday – and that has got to be our aim.

That’s why top quality teaching materials such as this from the British Red Cross, worksheets, technology and content is important – it’s not just to impart learning, it’s to raise the standard of education for kids into something inspirational – and that can change lives forever...

...What have you got planned for tomorrow?

The practical use of teaching technology.

Sometimes using technology can help you save time – you might use a teaching resource, such as this great lesson plan material on slavery. Sometimes technology itself engages kids, sometimes it helps you do things in class you couldn’t have otherwise done – like use video stimulus or conduct polling on a particular topic. Sometimes something altogether different happens, and it makes us into better teachers.

Today we are inspired by this post from Dan Meyer, we can see from a pretty simple couple of photos, a whole teaching community starts buzzing with ideas.

Radicalism in schools plan is so vague as to be completely pointless

The guide which the government has published to target radicalism in schools is so vague it amounts to little more than a statement of the blindingly obvious.

As teachers we use many wonderful, subtle and engaging ways to bring out the views of kids as well as help moderate the more extreme ones – whether through personal expression in poetry and the arts, a broader understanding of various other religious or scientific perspectives.

There’s plenty of help out there to help teachers keep kids in the boundaries of a healthy society, and aside from a media headline or two, we’re not sure what this 47 page bore-a-thon has to offer.