A special focus on resources for Mental Health and Well-Being

Compassionate and Restorative Education (CARE) Some wonderfully creative responses coming in from schools who are part of this CDEC project on the theme of Afloat.  

Check out some of the amazing schools in Cumbria:-

St Herbert's School, Keswick exhibited at the Keswick Museum

High Hesket School, Near Carlisle 

Resources for Mental Health and Well-Being on the British Council Connecting Classrooms website. I was recently involved in producing these with Cumbria Development Education Centre and Development Education South Yorkshire.

My FACEBOOK page - often I see a really engaging news article and write this up as a stimlus with suggested activities  

Mental Health and Well-being - a new resource published by the British Council which I was involved in developing. Includes ground rules for creating a safe and open space, mood map, medicine wheel for mental health and well-being, activities for connecting. 

SAFE P4C - Ideas for organising P4C in the Time of Corona - a collaboration between P4C practitioners, including myself.  You can download from the documents section of my What is P4C page.

Sankofa Storytelling in times of Covid-19 films with P4C discussion starters for home and school.  New stories uploaded each week

Cumbria Development Education Centre   You can download a free copy of their wonderful new resource Philosophy for Global Learning (in the download section) and other resources  Sign up for weekly resource newsletter 

SAPERE #PhilosophyFriday Sign up for an email alert for new weekly resources for home and school  Also, searchable resources.

Delphi the Philosopher uses interactive storytelling to teach philosophy to children. An excellent free and child friendly section on Delphi's Guide to Athens for history and philosophy. Plus a detailed scheme of work and resource packs for philosophy to purchase online. 

StayINspiredWL  Schools in West Lothian have developed the most amazing local authority approach to home school learning.  Lucky to have one of their teachers join my Level 2A P4C North Cumbria Zoom group during lockdown to talk about this amazing project developing independent learners and learner agency through weekly open-ended challenges.

Global Education Derby With many young people using social media and digital technology more through being at home during Covid-19, GED offers an fantastic range of resources for thinking critically and creatively about social media.  Special mention to the Thinking Again, Thinking Critically Toolkit for KS3

Dialogue Works online and premium resources for teachers and parents, including Thinking Moves. Sign up for weekly Hometalk.

Wonder Ponder  Visual philosophy from Madrid!  I am their UK distributor of sorts and sell their philosophy boxes on my courses in the UK - please ask me!  Sign up for I Wonder, Self Interviews under Lockdown

Dying to Ask - vital ideas for thinking about mortal questions. Another thought-provoking resource from Wonder Ponder

Votes for Schools provides weekly lessons for schools on topical issues. After each lesson pupils can make a vote, making their voice heard on the voting platform Some excellent free downloadable contect e.g. Should you stand up for other people? Can anyone become homeless? Should you break a rule if you knew you wouldn't get caught?

P4C.com   Online resources for P4C 

Philosophy Man Subscribe to a free monthy bulletin for resources  

Thinking Blobtree review tool (£5) https://www.blobtree.com/products/thinking-blob-tree

Visual images can be an effective and accessible way to prompt dialogue and enquiry for all learners.  Visual stimulus can be effective for exploring big and complex ideas to develop the important skill of visual literacy. On a personal level of integrity, I am commited to locating the source, background and motivations of the visual artists I share here.

Conceptual art

Studio Carreras is a design studio in Girona which produces big ideas as simple shapes. I use these as part of my advanced training as a P4C review tool, and as part of aesthetic enquiry.

I follow a multitude of graphic conceptual artists on my Instagram page

Street art

When I visit a new or any city for that matter I always look for the street art as I have a personal interest in the history and culture of the powerful messages from street art around the world. I follow a multitude of street artists on my Instagram page 

Rural street artists on Instagram Y&B are rural street artists and activists for things that matter.

Photographs

Chris Buck  New York based photographer. Provative conceptual images with themes of racism, privilege, identity, power, realism, naturalism...and more

Greg Semu Visual artist born in New Zealand and from Samoan heritage working in the field of community arts and social justice.

Julia Fullerton-Batten German photographer covering social issues, often controversial.

Instagram account of photo collage artist Uğur Gallen from Turkey who contrasts photos to show injustices in the world.

Where Children Sleep is series of 56 diptychs of children and their bedrooms by James Mollinson by https://www.jamesmollison.com/where-children-sleep  Hugely powerful and thought-provoking images to share as a stimulus for thinking. James has many collections, including play and apes.  (Thanks Rebecca Katsaris from Cyprus for the recommendation)

Pobble 365  image One picture. One teaching resource. Every day.

Once upon a picture  Images to inspire

Picture News weekly poster related to the news with a thought-provoking question. Free for 4 weeks during Covid-19

Comic art

Blob Tree  effective communication tools for review and 1000s of free images on Facebook page for stimulus 

Wonder Ponder  Visual philosophy from Madrid!  I am their UK distributor of sorts and sell their philosophy boxes on my courses in the UK - please ask me!  Sign up for I Wonder, Self Interviews under Lockdown

Grant Snider Words and pictures.  Excellent comic art stimulus on Grant's website and his website Incidental Comics

Other artistic projects

Daily Art and P4C activities on Instagram from Jake Garfield of Line of Thought Where art meets big ideas.... (Jake is Royal Drawing School and Royal College of Art trained)

The Extended Mind Activity Pack from a contemporary exhibition at The Talbot Gallery, Edinburgh by Dr Miranda Anderson who attended my SAPERE P4C course at the University of Edinburgh a few years ago. The Extended Mind exhibition explored an array of ways in which aspects of the world beyond our brain, such as our bodies, objects, language, ideas, other people and environments can, and often do, expand our cognitive capacities.  The activity pack is a real journey of the mind to follow...

Films and animation

Literacy Shed  collection of films for excellent p4c stimulus  (also see Images Shed)

My You Tube channel for P4C stimulus is a growing collection of P4C films and animations

Ugur Gallen

*** My own articles and papers are available in the What is P4C? section 

Society for Advancing Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education  online search for resources

Delphi the Philosopher uses interactive storytelling to teach philosophy to children. An excellent free and child friendly section on Delphi's Guide to Athens for history and philosophy. Plus a detailed scheme of work and resource packs for philosophy to purchase online. 

Philosofun activities that are engaging, active, non-competitive and above all fun!

Open Scotland - P4C network in Scotland with resources section

Beyond the Secret Garden Regular series of articles examining BAME representations in children’s literature by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O'Connor in Books for Keeps online magazine for children's books. Suggestions for books and excellent background reading. 

SAPERE Gold School North Lakes School resources

Wonder Ponder  Visual philosophy from Madrid!  I sell their philosophy boxes on my courses in the UK - please ask me!

Little Chatters Outdoor P4C

International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children connect with P4C around the world

P4C.com   Online resources for P4C   (subscription with some free resources)

Sara Stanley  P4C trainer and Early Years P4C guru

Sara Stanley  Three excellent articles on EYFS in Teach Early Years magazine by Sara

Philosophy Man Subscribe to a free monthy bulletin for resources 

Thinking Space free lesson plans by Grace Lockrobin 

Philosophy for Children is a well proven approach to learning that encourages children to develop a love of wisdom - through thinking for themselves with others.  

My FACEBOOK page - often I see a really engaging news article and write this up as a stimlus with suggested activities for home or school

Sankofa Storytelling in times of Covid-19 films with P4C discussion starters for home and school.  New stories uploaded every week.  

Cumbria Development Education Centre   SANKOFA digital storytelling project activity ideas.A collaboration between Cumbria DEC and HEC and partners in Czech Republic and Slovakia

SAPERE #PhilosophyFriday Sign up for an email alert for new weekly resources for home and school  Also, searchable resources.  

Children's Big Questions during the Covid-19 crisis: Resources for parents by Jana Mohr Lone from University of Washington

Dialogue Works are producing a weekly resources called Hometalk for parents/children incorparating Thinking Move

Challenging Learning at Home. Activities designed to stimulate thoughtful conversations and problem-solving approaches to learning from the Challenging Learning Team.  

Wonder Ponder  Visual philosophy from Madrid and I Wonder, self interviews under lockdown

BBC Ideas Short thought-provoking animations based around questions on relevant issues e.g Is Coronavirus a chance to reset the world? What is the whole world went vegan? Do we need to re-think our ideas of time?

1000s of free thought-provoking images on the Blob Tree Facebook page for Covid-19 or check out their website Blob Tree

The Economist Education Foundation sign up for newsletter and some good resources for talking about Covid-19 for families

What makes me, me? and other interesting ideas on fairness, ownership and good  BBC site

What's the Big Idea? CBBC programme on different concepts 

Empathy Lab  Empathy Lab has such a wealth of resources for schools and background information.  Do check them out. Includes 15 activities for home.

www.blobtree.com