What is Planet Castor?
A platform providing elementary & primary teaching resources.
Is my teaching subject included?
Planet Castor is orbited by nine subject planets: PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education), Taxonomy, Feedback, AFL (Assessment for Learning), Topic, Language, Mathematics, Science & Other.
The resources contained on each planet have been designed in such a way that they can be transferred from one subject to another or onto a planning canvas.
What is a planning canvas?
PowerPoint templates that enable teachers to efficiently and consistently bring learning journeys to life during the planning, delivery and reflection stages of every lesson!
How will they help my students?
Planet Castor’s pedagogical canvases ensure planning has meaning for both teacher AND learners. Please refer to our shop for more information about the wealth of benefits that our planning canvases offer.
Are your VIP resources really free?
Yes!
Planet Castor is passionate about supporting teachers in the process of improving the consistency with which learning is presented. Our VIP members area is our opportunity to showcase some of the materials contained in our toolkits.
What is a toolkit?
A wealth of teaching and learning resources that can be used in conjunction with our planning canvases, or in a manner of your choosing. Their editable, printable and transferable designs ensure that teachers and learners are able to benefit from them straight away.
How many toolkits are available?
Four!
Planet Castor’s Pedagogical, Resource, Planning Canvas and Exemplar Toolkits.
Please navigate to our shop to learn more about each one of these toolkits.
Are kits the same as toolkits?
A number of items from our resource toolkit can be purchased individually as kits. Teachers who purchase a resource toolkit or a toolkit bundle will receive individual resource kits, and so much more, for a fraction of the cost.
Do I have to use Planet Castor’s resources with my planning canvases?
No!
The wealth of resources contained in Planet Castor’s toolkits ensure that teachers have an abundance of materials to make effective use of. Teachers can also bring their own imagination and resources into their new planning canvas slides.
Are your materials only for elementary and primary school teachers?
Not entirely!
Our resources have been designed and aligned with current international, UK & US Common Core State Standards for students aged 5-12. These content based resources are ideal for teachers working with this age range.
However, teachers working with older students are also expressing a desire to use our planning canvases to present their learning journeys from.
With the launch of Castorccino, we believe that in time we will begin to create individual resources that will enable those teaching older students to also have a wealth of resources to transfer onto their canvases.
What is a Castorccino?
A refreshing approach to introducing new concepts and developing oracy skills.
This fun and engaging ‘Guess Who?’ style activity enables students to work together to find mathematical solutions using carefully devised, curriculum aligned clues.
Please refer to our Castorccino Blog for more details about this resource.
What ages are Castorccino activities for?
Grade 1-5 (UK Year 2-6) Mathematics Castorccinos are now being served in our TpT store. In time, we will be adding more flavours in the form of Language and Science Castorccinos.
Why aren’t you subscription-based?
We know that teachers are far more creative than simply printing and handing out generic worksheets. Education is a wonderful profession and one that requires an extensive skill set.
Our resources and toolkits provide teachers with the necessary tools to bring their imaginations into Planet Castor’s materials. It is this approach that we believe will enable your voyage to benefit an even greater audience in years to come, while keeping Planet Castor’s long-term vision alive.
What is the long-term vision?
There is an abundance of great material being shared with students throughout the world. Yet, the consistency that these inspirations are presented does not necessarily make them accessible to all students’ needs.
We believe that no others on Planet Earth are providing educators with a pedagogical canvas in which to display learning journeys from. Our signature planning canvases are what we think will appeal the most to our followers. And, we have spent the best part of two years devising a pedagogical toolkit and extensive set of resources that will enable others to gain from them.
We would love in the future for our community of teachers to be in a position to share and sell their own Planet Castor resources and learning journeys.
What part can I play in Planet Castor’s voyage?
Your support is pivotal. We are confident that those who purchase either a Castorccino, individual kit, complete toolkit or better still a Bundle toolkit package, will have the necessary material to bring Planet Castor to life in their schools. And, it doesn’t end there!
We have created 14 unique hashtags to enable Planet Castor’s community to share, learn and benefit from one another’s practice.
These posts will endeavor to provoke and support teachers in their thinking towards the delivery of their lessons. Should you wish to follow (and better still contribute towards) any of our hashtags, then you can be sure a warm welcome will be received!
#planetcastor #castorjourneys #teachersexcel #learnersshine #castorccino #planitpshe #planittaxonomy #planitfeedback #planitafl #planittopic #planitlanguage #planitmathematics #planitscience #planitother
Why Castor and why the Gemini logo?
When we first embarked upon bringing our vision to life, we needed something that resonated with the power of two. If the right duos are working together then inevitably success follows. Teachers & Students! Learners & Peers! Parents & Teachers! Planet Castor & Teachers Pay Teachers! Mr Castor & Mr Pollux! You & Us!
The Ancient Greek names C(K)astor and Pollux represent the two shining stars situated in the Gemini constellation. The discovery of these two gems marked the birth of Mr Castor, Mr Pollux and the Ancient Greek inspired mantra teachers excel – learners shine.
This astronomy theme also enables us to classify all resources, in order to help our community efficiently locate a planet subject that meets their own teaching and learning needs.
Check out some of our planet themed blogs for more details!
What are the four moons?
Plan IT | Present IT | Teach IT | Assess IT
Planet Castor’s four moons ensure that all learning journey stages are catered for. Our homepage slider gives more details about the approach of each moon and how our four toolkits equip educators.
