Hi Skwirkers,
A few people have asked me recently how I’m finding my new
job here as Education Content Manager. My response has always been “I had no
idea how much stuff there was on the site, now I manage the site I can see
EVERYTHING – it’s amazing!”.
Finding out how many videos, animations, worksheets, podcasts and
quizzes we have has been a real eye-opener. I hope that in the coming weeks and
months you take a few minutes to have a look at everything Skwirk has on offer.
Access to English secondary content
Previously on Skwirk we’ve kept the English content for
Years 7-10 in two separate groups based on age level. However, with more and
more teachers and parents wanting the flexibility to compare texts or extend
their more able students, the new Skwirk site will make all of our English text
resources available to all year levels. We’ll also be linking our three
Shakespeare text studies to our great overview of Shakespeare’s world which
examines everything from the fashions and law of the time to the language and
themes that helped make the Bard’s work so timeless.
New rewards in the Skwirk Store
Skwirk is delighted to announce a new partnership with Professor Plum’s. Based in
Sydney’s Lower North Shore, this AMAZING store has a huge range of toys, games
and gadgets that are ideal for the young scientist (or anyone who enjoys
explosions!). They also run great workshops for
primary-aged children during the school holiday periods, covering everything from
electricity to medieval warfare. We are celebrating this great new relationship
with two new rewards in the Skwirk Store:
Primary students reward – Heebie Jeebie’s Construct-a-Clock
This great activity can be put together in as little as ten
minutes, with the finished product being a working clock complete with swinging
pendulum! The clock is spring-driven so it requires no batteries. A great
project and the perfect way to teach children basic mechanics.
Secondary students reward – Liquifly water-powered
rocket
ROCKETS! We need someone to claim these quickly before our
office manager Alice starts firing them off inside Skwirk HQ. This is a
complete DIY rocket kit that only requires water and air to send it flying – it
can reach heights of over 30 metres! If there’s a more fun way to combine a day
in the park with some basic lessons about water pressure, I can’t think of it.
Website of the week - National Geographic’s new “Found”
tumblr
Everyone in Skwirk HQ is a sucker for some great National
Geographic photography. As part of their 125th anniversary
celebrations, the Nat Geo team have launched their “Found” photo page via the
microblogging site Tumblr. This site showcases some of the fascinating images
from the National Geographic image archives, most of which have never been
published. Needless to say, any teacher looking for stimulus material for
English or primary sources for History should check this out. Just be warned,
they’ve put the “purchase prints” button in easy reach.
App of the week – ‘Explain
Everything’ for iPad
Sometimes a tablet app comes out that blows my mind,
something that glues together several different basic functions to make
something genuinely different.
Explain Everything is a screencasting
tool that allows you to import just about any kind of file from a host of local
and cloud-based sources, and then tie them together into a presentation that
you can record for later playback, complete with audio. You can also pre-plan a
presentation and edit it together as a short movie. The app is currently $2.99
in the App Store. I’d suggest an iPad 3 or later to take full advantage of
everything it can do - there’s obviously some heavy-duty processing going on.
