My presentation - volunteers and the social web

I am currently undertaking a course at Voluntary Action Sheffield, a NOCN Level 3 award in Managing Volunteers, as part of this I am giving a presentation about using web services such as this blog to keep in touch with volunteers. Here are my notes from the presentation, with links to other examples and ideas: volunteers and the social web

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slides blogging Volunteering

Offer for Reading Connects schools

If you work for a school that is a member of Reading Connects you can save £150 on Reading Matters Reading Leaders courses for Key Stage 4/5 students.

Students will be provided with the skills, confidence and resources to mentor younger pupils and achieve an accredited qualification, valuable life skills and volunteering experience as part of the process.

If you book a Reading Leaders training programme before March 31st 2009, the cost of the course for a maximum of 15 participants with this discount will be £750. A saving of £150 on the normal cost.

Book your Reading Leaders course by emailing us at info@readingmatters.org.uk or by calling us on 01274 692219 and quoting NLT/RM.

Rotherham United players visit Maltby Manor Primary School

The players from Rotherham United, trained by Reading Matters, visited their first school, Maltby Manor, on Thursday (12/3/09). They read with six pupils each in a series of reading partnerships. The last sessions parents of the pupils sat in as well.

It was a huge success. The pupils were brilliantly excited, not only about meeting the players, but also about their choice of books. The players were excellent too. I think some were a bit nervous, especially when the parents joined them, but they all took it in their stride and really got stuck in. There was a lovely sound of concentrated reading in the school hall, library and corridors as the players and their partners focused on their books.

As one of the first key activities under the Inspire Rotherham banners the visit created quite a buzz. There were all sorts of people there including Paul Douglas (RUFC Chief Operating Officer) , Joyce Thacker (RMBC Strategic Director Children and Young People's Services) and Ruth Adams (Yorkshire Forward). The press were also in attendance and the day was captured nicely by a report on Look North, look out for the Reading Matters worksheets, which I hope to be able to share online soon!

World Book Day £1 Books

On World Book Day last Thursday 5 March, Reading Matters staff were busy training Rotherham United players to be Reading Mentors, but lots of activities were going on elsewhere for people to get involved with and many are still taking place.

I have just been sent a set of the World Book Day £1 Books, they would be perfect for our reading mentors to use with their partners. My favourite is Mr Gum and the Hound of Lamonic Bibber by Andy Stanton it is absolutely hilarious and I will be checking out other Mr Gum books. The Mr Gum website has had an upgrade for world book day and is well worth checking out.

Training Rotherham United!

We have just completed two days of training with Rotherham United, safe to say I wasn't giving them tips on playing the offside trap, rather they are going to be Reading Matters Reading Mentors as part of the Inspire Rotherham project. It is exciting stuff, and yesterday, 5 March, was especially fun because it was World Book Day.



Next week the players begin attending schools in Maltby as part of the pilot for Inspire Rotherham. We anticipate extending this to other schools in Rotherham after the official launch of Inspire Rotherham on Saturday 21st March.

Reading Matters and Rotherham United will be working together for the launch in Rotherham town centre and at Don Valley Stadium where they will be playing against Chesterfield. We are planing all sorts of activities and resources to engage people to read, should be fun.

We have got a bit of coverage in the press, and hopefully there will be more to come. We were in The Rotherham Advertiser on Friday 6 March and you can read articles in The Star, Press Association and Rotherham Web online.

Sustainable Communities Act

Sheffield County Council are inviting proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act.

"This allows councils, after taking advice from local people, to put forward proposals for government action that will help local communities to be more sustainable and offer better quality of life."

You might consider a reading based proposal, what about some reading focused schools in Sheffield, as Michael Rosen has been promoting recently. Reading Matters would love to be involved in a project along these lines.

I cannot see a similar scheme in Rotherham, but a Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel is in place who you could contact.

Half Term Cartoons

If you have tried emailing or phoning me recently you will know I am way for half-term. I have been using my time wisely, yesterday we visited the hub in Sleaford to have a mooch round and check out the How Manga Took Over the World exhibition. It was very good much of material was produced in the UK including a lot by Tado based right here in Sheffield, most of it was very visual but with a good section on Manga Shakespeare which looked excellent, a dude in Macbeth had four arms!

As a quick follow-up I spotted this wonderful Monster Alphabet by Joey Ellis, the pdf version presents each letter on a page, perfect for printing out and using.

Why Reading Matters

We are a few days into Reading Week on BBC4. The items I have seen so far have been excellent, and it is worth tuning in if only to catch the repeats of the Picture Book series which I loved.

Michael Rosen presented a programme called Just Read, where he converted a nice normal school into a real reading factory, he didn't mention this when I met Michael a few weeks ago, must have been under an embargo! I don't watch a lot of these sorts of programmes, a few weeks ago I did see Gordon Ramsey use a record number of expletives to renovate a local Sheffield eatery. Michael Rosen's programme was in contrast, a joy to watch. The school staff were very receptive to ideas and parents and children really got stuck in, creating a real community of readers. We obviously don't have the dramatic time-period or celebrity drive, but Reading Matters is very much about instituting the sort of changes Michael was advocating.

Last night was a programme called Why Reading Matters (great title!) This was a scientific insight into how and why we read. The main message for me was that reading is not a 'hard-wired' instinctive behaviour, but one we must all must learn for ourselves. For me this indicated why we must let no child struggle with their reading, and in fact because our brains actually physically grow as we read you could argue a non-reading child's development will be severely inhibited.

[picture credit - kennymatic]

Getting Linking 2: Printable worksheets and other resources

[Update: I have gathered all posts like together under the title Getting Linking]

A little while ago I posted a list of some websites to use when thinking about activities to do with reading partners, well I have some more to share with you. These are mainly websites where you can print-off fun-sheets to use in reading sessions.

Time for Kids - The US based magazine has a wealth of worksheets, quizzes and more to print and use, organised by theme so you can find something of interest to your reading partner.

A to Z Teacher Stuff - Thousands of resources including tools to create your own worksheets such as word searches and word shapes (similar to the Wellington Square, trampoline exercise Reading Matters uses in it's training).

School Express - Even more worksheets, including some you can customise yourself.

Speakaboos - A small collection of very nicely presented worksheets, aimed at younger children, that can be used with videos that can be played online.

SEN Teacher - Printables - A good collection of worksheets and activities including some you can customise yourself.

Kid Printables - Lots of ads but use the menu to kind games and worksheets.

Get Worksheets - Loads of reading based worksheets, to access all the sheets a membership fee is needed.

[photo credit - Gaetan Lee]

Letter to Reading Matters Volunteers in Sheffield and Rotherham

I've recently written to all our volunteers with some news about future plans for our termly newsletter and new staff, you can read the letter online. but the main thing is that the Volunteer meeting for scheduled for 12 February 2009 has been postponed until after half term (March/April 2009).