Completely innocent but dodgy children's drawings Vol. 1

  October 30, 2018            No comments


Over a week ago, I was sent a message on Instagram from a teacher who had a pupil create a rather amusing card for the local librarian who had been stung by a wasp. I shared the post:



Once published, I was then inundated with other messages from teachers who wanted to share pictures their pupils had drawn that were completely innocent but looked rather dodgy. Here are a selection of some of the favourites I have shared:




A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on





A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on









A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on







A post shared by Lee Parkinson (@ict_mrp) on







If you do have a picture you would like to share, please message:

Make sure you follow on Mr P on:







Support Rang-Tan by Downloading my Pupil's eBook

  October 25, 2018            No comments


You will have seen over the past half term I have been working on a very important topic with Year 4 inspired by the Greenpeace "There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom" advert.

This has since been used by Iceland Foods as their Christmas advert but has been banned from TV.


This has culminated in a very special project where my class have all become published authors.


To read what we have done so far, click the pictures:



The first link looks at the advert in more detail and the work my class produced writing in role as an Orangutan seeing their home destroyed. 




The next post looks at the letters my class have written to all the companies with links to dirty palm oil and the responses we have received.




Over the past couple of weeks, we have been learning more about Orangutans. We started by generating questions we wanted to find the answers to and then looked at researching on the internet to find the answers to the questions. This gave me the opportunity to discuss and teach the children about researching and how to do it effectively. 

The children used their research to create interviews with the Orangutan using the app Animate Anything:


Every pair was then given a question to answer and using the app Book Creator, they designed a page sharing the knowledge and understanding linked to the question. The finished pages were then combined to make a class eBook. What we decided to do with this eBook is publish it onto the iBooks store. Click here to learn how we did this. 



We decided to sell it for 49p with all the proceeds going to help the Orangutans. You can download the eBook by clicking the picture:


Since its release, I have been astounded by the response! Over the weekend, I watched it shoot up the iBooks store chart, eventually peaking at number 8! That's 8 out of every eBook on the iBooks store. Yes, not only have my class become published authors with a book that has a proper ISBN number but at one point over the weekend they were the author of the 8th best selling eBook in the UK! 

So the next time you hear a teacher question how technology is a waste of time, a gimmick or adds little to learning, show them this blog post. 


Here are my class with the money they have raised so far:


They will be splitting the money between the WWF and Greenpeace. They have already used some of this money to adopt an Orangutan. 







Social Media Saviour Award!

  October 25, 2018            No comments
I was so made up to receive an email recently by the team from @TeachPrimary and @TeachWire letting me know that I had won their first SOCIAL MEDIA SAVIOUR award:


I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted. The competition was based purely on whoever received the most votes which means so much. It is wonderful to be recognised for something I put a lot of time and effort into. 

People often ask me how I do it: be a Dad, lead training all over the UK, teach, run the social media platforms, and I have to be honest it is hard. I sometimes don't prioritise my time properly and can struggle to switch off. However to know the impact my training and social media channels is having on teachers and classrooms all over the world is something very special. To receive messages from teachers saying that using ideas from my blog or training has produced the best writing or work they've seen, makes all the the hard work worth it. To now be recognised by winning this award means so much - again thank you.

I would also like to thank the team at Teach Primary magazine. Here's the announcement in this month's issue. Please read my comments on the right-hand side, it really sums up what motivates me to continue to share and inspire:


Continuing our Journey with the #StopDirtyPalmOil campaign

  October 09, 2018            No comments
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a project my Year 4 class had started, inspired by the recent Greenpeace advert - There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom. To read that blog post, which includes original questions linked to the advert, please click the picture:


The response we received from the video the class created where they wrote in role as a helpless Orangutan, seeing their home destroyed was so positive and empowering.  Again you can read more about this by clicking the picture above. If you haven't yet seen the video, here it is:


From the reaction to the video, my class were inspired to go further and investigate the issue more. We discovered this from Greenpeace, which identifies companies with links to Dirty Palm Oil:


According to Greenpeace, these companies made a promise to be clean of dirty palm oil by 2020. My pupils decided to write to these companies to provide a polite reminder and ensure they are on target to keep their promise. 

After drafting their letters, I gave quality oral feedback through our iPads, this is something I cover on all my CPD sessions and will also be demonstrating on my subscription page on facebook.


The pupils were then given the opportunity to transform their writing into a video using Adobe Spark Video. This is another example of the READWRITEPERFORM approach in action. These videos were then tweeted and emailed to all the companies identified in the above image. Here is an example from our pupils:


Please let my class know what you think by leaving a comment on this video on facebook.

So far, we've received a lot of replies from the companies. I can't wait to share them with my class as they'll see how their writing is making a difference:







We will keep you updated with this project as we continue to learn about it in class. 

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