Chalkface Blog

The best teaching materials in the most practical format.

recent posts

about

  • My first computer

    The first computer I ever had was an Osborne 1 with a 5″ screen framed by two whopping great floppy disk drives. I didn’t actually own it; I blagged it from Osborne on the promise of including an illustration of it in a Chalkface pack. By the time it was due for return, they’d gone bust.

    One of the reasons Chalkface used the two-column layout for our worksheets was that we could fit a column into that tiny screen. Not WYSIWYG of course; we specified all the layout in a typesetting language called CORA 5, which I got quite good at in the end.

    And the reason for this nostalgia? I came across a photo of the Osborne on Tech Republic, and got all sentimental.

    Osborn 1

  • 17 new courses on Yacapaca during April

    It looks like a few authors were busy over the Easter holiday, because we have another good haul of new courses this month. I am particularly pleased to see Sociology making an appearance, and I’ve now added a Sociology list to the New Assignments page.

    If you use any of these resources with one of your classes, please remember etiquette: give feedback when asked. The authors have put a lot of time and thought into what they have written. They need both encouragement and and guidance in how to improve.

    • Business GCSE Business
      (no further information)
    • Chemistry David Wicks
      KS3 Physics and Chemistry
    • Chemistry Year 8 Chemistry
      A selection of quizzes based around National Curriculum chemistry topics (8E, 8F, 8G, 8H)
    • Chemistry, Physics, Science KS3 Science
      Two long Chemistry quizzes and a shorter Physics one.
    • D&T KS3 Technology
      Moving Toys quiz for Year 8
    • Engineering Year 9 Engineering
      Quizzes and short text tests on Engineering themes.
    • English, Literature English Lan and lit
      GCSE English and Literature AQA
    • Geography, Geology, Science Earth Science
      Quizzes and an excellent set of short-text tests for an Earth Science course.
    • History History GCSE
      Quizzes on Medicine through Time, and the Home Front, plus a free-text pupil perception survey.
    • ICT Public information
      8.1 Sensors and traffic reporting
    • ICT ITQ
      ITQ is the National Vocational Qualification for IT Users
    • ICT KS2 Basic Skills
      ICT basic skills assessments suitable for KS2
    • Inset Inset
      Designed to show staff some of the features of Yacapaca.
    • Maths maths
      Some times table quizzes with lots of randomisation.
    • RE Worship and celebration
      Overview of the ideas behind worship and some examples of the motivation for celebrations and festivals.
    • Science BASD-8
      …for the review of released Pennsylvania state assessment items.
    • Sociology Year 11 Sociology
      Practice exam question technique

  • Stolen exam papers

    Robbery

    Several years ago, I presented my ideas about the benefits of online assessment to one of the major exam boards. I’d better not say which. They told me bluntly “we won’t switch to online exams until the risk of a scandal is lower than it is with paper-based exams.”

    Gentlemen, that day has come.

  • Interview with Gill Chesney-Green

    Gill is a prolific author on Yacapaca, but she’s not what you might expect of an e-learning user: she’s just short of retirement age, and teaching a decidedly non-technical subject: drama. So, why does she use Yacapaca? Gill very kindly agreed to let me interview her yesterday; her answers were quite surprising.

  • Diplomas overview

    Feeling on top of the upcoming diplomas? No, me neither. That’s why I was so pleased when Doug wrote this excellent(ly-brief) one-page Diplomas overview.