Just to let our regulars know that from this Sunday (14th June) until 1st July the SparkleBox office will be closed due to staff holidays. It means we are running the site with minimal staffing.
The Foundation/KS1 site will still continue to function as usual and will be updated with new resources most days (though less resources than normal), but unfortunately we will not be able to respond to emails until the office reopens fully on 2nd July.
We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused. Even the SparkleBox elves need time-out occasionally to keep the sparkle magic flowing!
Samuel and Team.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Relocation of servers
Some of our products will be inaccessible on Saturday 16th May due to a couple of our dedicated serves being relocated to a new data centre.
The site itself will still be viewable and it wont affect all resources, but it will mean that some of our products will not be downloadable between 6:00am and 4:00pm GMT on 16/05/2009.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this causes. We recommend you do some extra downloading the day before!
We will post updates back here.
UPDATE: 18:00: All seems to have gone to plan and products should now be accessible again. Do let us know if you have any problems. Thank you for bearing with us!
Regards,
The SparkleBox Team.
The site itself will still be viewable and it wont affect all resources, but it will mean that some of our products will not be downloadable between 6:00am and 4:00pm GMT on 16/05/2009.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this causes. We recommend you do some extra downloading the day before!
We will post updates back here.
UPDATE: 18:00: All seems to have gone to plan and products should now be accessible again. Do let us know if you have any problems. Thank you for bearing with us!
Regards,
The SparkleBox Team.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Technology in Teaching podcast
Chris Best at www.technologyinteaching.co.uk produces regular podcasts with information about using information technlology in your teaching. Recent podcast topics have included 'YouTube in the Classroom', 'Digital Photography' and 'Hyperlinks'.
In his most recent episode, about resource websites, Chris kindly reviewed SparkleBox as part of the podcast. Visit his website and listen to Episode 7 to see his recommendations of websites providing good quality and, importantly, FREE resources.
Episode 7, 'Resource Websites' can be downloaded from his site at http://www.technologyinteaching.co.uk/episode7.htm
The SparkleBox Team.
In his most recent episode, about resource websites, Chris kindly reviewed SparkleBox as part of the podcast. Visit his website and listen to Episode 7 to see his recommendations of websites providing good quality and, importantly, FREE resources.
Episode 7, 'Resource Websites' can be downloaded from his site at http://www.technologyinteaching.co.uk/episode7.htm
The SparkleBox Team.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Reorganisation of Welsh resource section
We have made some improvements to the Welsh Resources area of the site at www.sparklebox.co.uk/welsh
The Welsh area now includes a listing of all the resources that have been translated into Welsh, split into sections for Literacy, Numeracy, Topics, Signs and Labels and Miscellaneous resources.
We also have a listing for the newly translated Welsh resources at http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/welsh/new.html
Of course, the Welsh versions can still also be downloaded in their relevant sections throughout the main site.
We hope that this change will make it easier for those who teach in the medium of Welsh to find products more quickly - please do let us know what you think.
As always, we rely entirely on your help to translate resources and would like to say a massive 'thank you' to those who have helped translate products so far. It is greatly appreciated. We have hundreds of requests and a backlog of several months, so we appreciate your patience whilst we work to translate our products.
Check out the new-improved Welsh area at www.sparklebox.co.uk/welsh
The SparkleBox Team.
The Welsh area now includes a listing of all the resources that have been translated into Welsh, split into sections for Literacy, Numeracy, Topics, Signs and Labels and Miscellaneous resources.
We also have a listing for the newly translated Welsh resources at http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/welsh/new.html
Of course, the Welsh versions can still also be downloaded in their relevant sections throughout the main site.
We hope that this change will make it easier for those who teach in the medium of Welsh to find products more quickly - please do let us know what you think.
As always, we rely entirely on your help to translate resources and would like to say a massive 'thank you' to those who have helped translate products so far. It is greatly appreciated. We have hundreds of requests and a backlog of several months, so we appreciate your patience whilst we work to translate our products.
Check out the new-improved Welsh area at www.sparklebox.co.uk/welsh
The SparkleBox Team.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Add SparkleBox to your website or blog
We've created some new 'widgets' that allow you to easily integrate SparkleBox into your website or blog. This is ideal for use on your school website or teaching blog as it allows your visitors to quickly search and access our database of 1000s of free resources.
It's simply a case of copying the HTML code and pasting it into the relevant part of your webpage.
To see our current selection of widgets, go to:
www.sparklebox.co.uk/about/widgets.html
If you have any problems integrating them onto your website, please don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help.
We hope they are of use!
The SparkleBox Web Team.
It's simply a case of copying the HTML code and pasting it into the relevant part of your webpage.
To see our current selection of widgets, go to:
www.sparklebox.co.uk/about/widgets.html
If you have any problems integrating them onto your website, please don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help.
We hope they are of use!
The SparkleBox Web Team.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Update to our toolbars
Over 55,000 of you now use our toolbars, with 2 new users downloading it every 5 minutes!
We have now updated our toolbar with a slight change in design, and several new features. (You don't need to reinstall - your toolbar should update automatically).
Easier access to Exclusive Resources
We have been aware that the process for accessing the Exclusive Toolbar Resources has not been the easiest, and for a long time we have been on the lookout for a way to improve this.
Today we have introduced a new menu system that allows much easier access to our Toolbar Exclusives. Simply click the new 'Exclusives' button and a menu will appear. You can browse by section or view the full list, and simply download a resource by clicking on its name.
Users of both our Foundation/KS1 Toolbar and our KS2 Toolbar can now access exclusives from either site direct from either toolbar.
The resources are all listed in order of their reference number which should make finding them easy... but we do value your feedback as ever!
Quick search
We've introduced a search button which allows you to quickly search SparkleBox regardless of which web page you're viewing. Click the magnifying glass, enter your search, and a new window will open to display the results.
Web 2.0
We know many of you use popular social sites, and we have now included quick links direct to Twitter, Facebook and Delicious right on the toolbar. Don't forget that you can also follow SparkleBox on Twitter here!
Work avoidance
We know the deal: it's Sunday evening, and you've just had enough of planning. Well, click the clock icon on our toolbar and waste some time as a distraction from your work! There's loads of games and other pointless activities to try out... but they're all worthwhile if you're trying to avoid work!
If you don't yet use our toolbar, why not download it now for FREE, and get access to even more SparkleBox goodies!
The Team @ SparkleBox
We have now updated our toolbar with a slight change in design, and several new features. (You don't need to reinstall - your toolbar should update automatically).
Easier access to Exclusive Resources
We have been aware that the process for accessing the Exclusive Toolbar Resources has not been the easiest, and for a long time we have been on the lookout for a way to improve this.
Today we have introduced a new menu system that allows much easier access to our Toolbar Exclusives. Simply click the new 'Exclusives' button and a menu will appear. You can browse by section or view the full list, and simply download a resource by clicking on its name.
Users of both our Foundation/KS1 Toolbar and our KS2 Toolbar can now access exclusives from either site direct from either toolbar.
The resources are all listed in order of their reference number which should make finding them easy... but we do value your feedback as ever!
Quick search
We've introduced a search button which allows you to quickly search SparkleBox regardless of which web page you're viewing. Click the magnifying glass, enter your search, and a new window will open to display the results.
Web 2.0
We know many of you use popular social sites, and we have now included quick links direct to Twitter, Facebook and Delicious right on the toolbar. Don't forget that you can also follow SparkleBox on Twitter here!
Work avoidance
We know the deal: it's Sunday evening, and you've just had enough of planning. Well, click the clock icon on our toolbar and waste some time as a distraction from your work! There's loads of games and other pointless activities to try out... but they're all worthwhile if you're trying to avoid work!
If you don't yet use our toolbar, why not download it now for FREE, and get access to even more SparkleBox goodies!
The Team @ SparkleBox
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Key Stage 2 Sharing Zone
Following the success of the Sharing Zone on our Foundation/Key Stage 1 website, we have today launched a Sharing Zone for Key Stage 2 resources.
It can be accessed at www.sparklebox2.co.uk/share
We review all submissions, and those that we think are particularly good will even be featured alongside regular SparkleBox products!
So if you're in Key Stage Two and have some fab resource creations, why not share them with 1000s of other teachers via our brand new KS2 Sharing Zone!
It can be accessed at www.sparklebox2.co.uk/share
We review all submissions, and those that we think are particularly good will even be featured alongside regular SparkleBox products!
So if you're in Key Stage Two and have some fab resource creations, why not share them with 1000s of other teachers via our brand new KS2 Sharing Zone!
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