Back to the Your Turn page
The first thing to say is that we do not write our projects to any specific curriculum nor, really,
to any specific age. I do not believe in being prescriptive with the material I create as I do not know your pupils, their likes and
dislikes as to the way they learn or your particular schemes of work.
However, I do know from almost 40 years of developing, writing and using this type of material, that it will cover many parts
of a curriculum and, more importantly, many different aspects of learning. I also know, and I repeat
here the link to the comments a teacher
and her pupils made about the work they did, that both the resources we have uploaded and the suggestion we make for putting them on a
part of your school site to which our site will link, provides incredible motivation for young people. They feel that their work, their
learning, has a purpose and an audience and that sense of purpose is an important aspect of developing learning material. As I quoted
elsewhere on the site, as one teacher involved in the development said to me, if you can't find parts to both motivate your pupils and
make their learning more fun and also more meaningful, you may be in the wrong profession.
I have also always believed that the personality of the teacher plays a major role in how the learning process is perceived
by the learners. The very best teachers bring a massive amount of themselves into their lessons. With this website, we are giving those
teachers a resource which also has a personality. It's not a text book or a worksheet, lying on the desk for them to read. It's being
produced by a living (just) human being and, for younger ones, a lovable little puppet to whom they can relate.
As explained elsewhere on the site, there are several parts to the resource, several areas of a curriculum where it can be
used and a myriad number of ways in which it can be used too. Two sections reached from the lower banner explain this is more detail,
i.e. How The Site Is Growing and Ideas On Using The Site.
In this little piece I want to concentrate on the "Your Turn" section and the projects we have written for your
pupils to try. The projects are in four groups with an additional 3 stand-alone projects. Each project has its own set of instructions, teachers'
notes and outcomes that can be achieved. Between you and me, I don't see the need to list outcomes because, like the late Sir Ken Robinson,
I believe that you cannot standardise education or learning in any way. Sir Ken said that "The answer is to personalise and customise
education to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative. There never has been". Therefore, in my view, the outcomes
from any learning resource depend on the individual using the resource. Nevertheless, I was asked to list some, so I have.
There is, as there should be, one exception to this and that is for the drawing projects. Here I have given an overall set of
teacher's notes. I have also produced some parts of the resources in PDF format to make it easier to copy and distribute.
Can you also note that all projects have been written for a global audience and, excluding the Group or Class Projects, have
also been written to be done in a home environment.
To conclude, I strongly believe that creativity is an important part of learning. The projects in the "Your Turn"
section allow pupils to make use of their natural creativity and curiosity and the projects, by not being too prescriptive, allow you,
the teacher or, as I prefer to call you, the facilitator of young people's learning, to be creative too. To finish with one more quote
from Sir Ken Robinson; "I believe this passionately: that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated
out if it". Please don't be part of that latter process. Let creativity thrive and prosper and we will all be amazed by the results. I promise.
