Site Update (May 12th)

I have checked all links on the main activity pages, English, Maths, ESOL Grammar and End Tests, removing dead links as well as adding a few new ones.

I have also checked some of the general pages and will try to cover as many as possible in the coming weeks.

All this activity is in preparation for imminent retirement at the end of next month. I don't know what will happen to the site in the future; I expect it to remain available but not to be updated.

Site Address Change

The Skills for Life Website will soon change its address (url) to the following:
http://learning.themanchestercollege.ac.uk/basic_skills
Please change all your bookmarks accordingly.
This is part of the ongoing incorporation of what was City College Manchester into The Manchester College.
The old links will work for a few days or even weeks, but they will disappear.

Updated links (April 23rd)

I have updated as follows:

• Activities Maths - changed all links for NNS activities (Primary National Standards), and added some interesting Java based activities from NCTM Illuminations
• I have updated some of the links on the Background page (as websites change and evolve)

More details on the Maths activities on the Skills for Life Blog.

New Links, March 12th

I've added the following links:

• QIA New Interactive Tool for (all four) Core Curricula to Background and the related Embedded section to Embedded
• Bling It On - a downloadable program - To English and Maths
• NCETM Workplace Mathematics to Work-Based Learning
• Houghton Mifflin Reading Practice Tests (American) to End Tests and to English

ESL Bits (23rd Feb)

I've added a link to BITS Interactive Exercises on End Tests and Interactive English. These use British texts and can provide good practice for meaning and gist for Level 1 literacy tests, though the questions are on the easy side. Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this.

Online Dictionaries (Feb 5th)

I've reviewed and updated the dictionaries section on the General English page. New links include the Shahi page which links to Flickr photographs.

More thoughts on the Skills for Life Blog.

Dyscalculia Page (Jan 6th)

I have updated the dyscalculia page. Since I last did this - over three years ago - there are now useful information pages from The BDA and from SEN Teacher. I have also found a good research site from New Zealand and an American forum which is both informative and contentious.

ESOL Grammar Activities

I have added a page called ESOL Grammar Activities, linked from both the Teachers and Students pages. This page will carry our quizzes and links to other sites' activities for aspects of literacy grammar which particularly cause difficulty for second language learners.

More details on the Skills for Life Blog.

New Quizzes (17 October)

I have added some new quizzes for:

• Maths: easier subtract, multiply and divide for learners starting towards Level 1 tests
• Interviews: a selection from the Moodle project I am developing for Travel and Tourism students which make use of video and are mainly but not exclusively on listening skills. I hope tutors will feel that many students will benefit from seeing the videos.

More details here on Skills for Life Blog:- Numeracy, Inteviews

Red Kite Learning (Sept 24th)

I've added a number of links to Red Kite Learning:

• The main page and newsletters (to Background)
  
• CV and Interview Assistant (to Jobsearch and Topics)
• An interesting video on listening skills to the Speaking and Listening Page

Connected to Red Kite are the numeracy activities from LLU+. The demos are mostly fine, though some of the Level 2 are difficult. I'll add some to Maths Activities. You can access more if you register and create your own for the bank of activities.

Skilled to go (July 3rd)

I've put a link to Skilled to go on the English and Maths page.
The site contains excellent learning materials for both literacy and numeracy. The development has been done for the Office of Fair Trading on the theme of consumer protection. Most of the materials are good quality paper-based, though I noticed at least one listening exercise with an mp3 file.

Practice Tests and Functional Skills (July 3rd)

I have added links to:
Edexcel's E3 practice tests on End Tests and English and Maths
Edexcel's L1 and L2 practice tests on End Tests and English and Maths; they look the same as those on Move On
I've also put a round up of Functional Skills sites on the Key Skills Page

New Blogs (July 3rd)

Added links to two new bloggers:

• Skillsworkshop Blog from Maggie Harnew
• Students with Learning Difficulties with lots of Skills for Life insights

Welcome to the Blogging World

Speaking and Listening Page (April 9th)

I have added a new page for Speaking and Listening, linked of the Teachers Page. This contains so far:

• detailed links for all Skillswise listening activities
• lists of relevant units in printed DFES packs which have linked audio
• lists of relevant NLN materials

DFES and NLN resources are freely available within FE and Adult Learning in England and Wales.

Further details on Skills for Life Blog.

Fire Extinguishers, etc (March 19th)

I have added 5 simple matching quizzes about Fire Extinguisher labels. These have been designed for Hairdressing students I support who get the labels confused. I imagine they could be used for other curriculum areas as well. They are listed in Quizzes under Hairdressing.

Other new links include:

• a series of new links on different pages for Move On, including their E3 Fractions Hot Topic
• BESOL, a blog for ESOL students in Blogs
• Spelling City, a Look, Cover, Say which lets you save lists and do other activities with the lists to Interactive English and English Activities
• Football Academy, literacy and numeracy games on a football theme from Learndirect Scotland, to Interactive English
  

Video Jug Punctuation (March 5th)

I've added links to three "how to use" Punctuation videos, Capital Letters, Apostrophes and Commas to the English Activities page, and a general link to all videojug's Punctuation videos on the Elearning page. They are very clear and English English, but they are so comprehensive they will be more useful for L2 learners. More on Skills for Life Blog.

I've also added other links for 2 mental arithmetic games, Odd One Out and SumDiv, to Maths Activities.

Embedded Learning Portal (Feb 8th)

I've updated today all the links to all the "DFES" Embedded Learning materials, mostly on the English Activities and Maths Activities pages, where all the E3, L1 and L2 activities are listed. I've also changed the key from "DFES" to "RW+".

I'll probably find more links that I've missed. I guess this a change of server following the break up of the old DFES.

ESOL Scotland (Feb 6th)

I've added links for these:

• ESOL Scotland, a general site which also has good downloadable free teaching resources for ESOL and Literacy (to Interactive English and English Learning Resources)
• Teachers TV which has videos useful for demonstrating embedded skills (to Elearning, Embedded and Work-Based Learning)

More details on Skills for Life Blog

Site Search (Jan 24th)

I've added a Google Custom Site Search to the front page (Index).

Dustbin Quizzes (Jan 21st)

I have added a couple of "Dustbin" quizzes on the spelling page, using the Classtools site. It's early days but it looks interesting.

I've also checked and updated the Topics and Jobsearch pages.