Tag: environmental studies

Free Learning for Sustainability Training for Teachers

Edinburgh University and The British Council are offering free places to teachers on a professional on-line learning course. The course starts on the 20th April 2018 and it will take about two to three hours of your time each week to take part in discussions and activities.  To book a place Click Here

This is a fantastic opportunity as it is a GTCS accredited course and by The Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL).

The Benefits of the course

Scotland is unique internationally in having a requirement for all teachers and education professionals to address Learning for Sustainability (LfS) in their practice. This fully funded professional learning has been developed by experts in online learning and is based on the most up-to-date methodologies.

It will:

  • support you to create an enabling environment for pupils’ Learning for Sustainability, with a focus on critical thinking and problem solving and citizenship;
  • help you to meet the GTCS Professional Standards, contributing to Professional Review and Development and Professional Update and contributing to a whole school approach to learning for sustainability;
  • offer the opportunity to meet and share ideas with other like minded professionals across Scotland
  • offer flexibility for you to participate at a time that is convenient to you
  • give access to an international network of like-minded teachers
  • provide support for British Council Professional Partnerships with schools overseas.

 

Opportunity to study Learning for Sustainability

In our quest to share the resources we receive, we received an e-mail from Learning for Sustainability Scotland and the fully funded courses in Learning for Sustainability (LfS) they are offering.

The courses are being run by the British Council, University of Edinburgh and Learning for Sustainability Scotland and they are accredited by the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) and Scottish College for Educational Leadership.

They are offering a great opportunity to consider the difficulties of what Learning for Sustainability means and how do you integrate it into your practice.

Link to Fully Funded courses in Learning for Sustainability

Opportunity to study Learning for Sustainability

To look into the background of this the University web site and the Learning for Sustainability Scotland sites are both excellent resources.

If you are struggling for time, Tim can to come to schools and deliver twilight sessions on LfS as it is part of his Masters Degree.

 

Resources – John Muir Award

Various resources arrive in our in-tray, here in our hidden office, some of them we think are worth sharing. So occasionally we will put up short posts on things we think are worth a look at.

We received an email from the John Muir Trust about their Literacy and Nature Resource Guide. It is a file with some good links out to other sites and files, what we think useful to teaching staff here in the Outer Hebrides, is the John Muir Award and the CfE document which has details of how the John Muir Award can be linked to the Curriculum for Excellence.

There is their promotional film explaining the Trust and the Award:

If you would like to use the John Muir Award please contact the Isi or Tim and we can help you to set it up and deliver it.

Laxdale School shelter building

One of the classes, P2/3, in Laxdale School are doing a project on weather and with the class teacher we thought one way of exploring this would be to build shelters in the Castle Grounds, to talk about why you need shelter to protect you from the weather. There was a sub-text as part to the learning, to get the young people to experience working effectively as a team and think about how they could do this better.

The weather started the day with a bit of rain but improved as it went on.

The plan was to arrive from the school and head to the water-wheel building with the shelter building equipment. After talking about the water wheel and why it was there, we began to talk about why we need shelter. Before we headed out into the woods several of the young people discovered a water fall coming off the roof and decided to see what it felt like to have it fall on you and then to taste it.

 

Using the tarps, cord and pegs the young people set about creating a shelter to protect themselves from the weather, the four groups made very different shelters using the varieties of trees and other materials.

At lunch time we were able to use the great new facilities at ‘the HUB’ for the young people to use the toilets.

Some of the building materials they young people used were significant in size?

When the shelters were all complete and the young people spent some time making them feel a bit more like somewhere they would like to stay, then each group was able to give the others a tour of their shelter and to explore it. We then drew the learning back to the features which would protect them from the weather and how.

The final thing the young people were left with was to go and explore and question the difference between weather and climate.

Exploring the Castle Grounds with Stornoway Playgroup

On a slightly wet morning Andrew (who has just started work as the Outdoor Learning team on a modern apprenticeship) and Tim met the young people of Stornoway Playgroup at the Golf Club for an adventure exploring the Castle Grounds. They enjoyed the cover of the trees to shelter from the showers.

All the young people were given a magnifying glass and we explained how to use it. This caused great amusement when they realised they could make other peoples eyes much, much bigger. Quickly they discovered they could use them to look at things and for small things.

Although the waterwheel wasn’t working they enjoyed looking it and it will give us an opportunity to visit again.

Working with Tong School

Tong School in the summer term of 2017 did a whole school project on outdoor learning, the team supported elements of this.

Tim provided a twighlight session to explore ‘how do I begin to soften the walls of the classroom’ with the staff.

This session led to taking several classes look at the ecosystem of the beach a short walk from the school.

The young people discovered the diversity of the ecosystem using the new resource boxes.

Another class wanted to look at fire; the local fire office came into the school to talk about fire safety, the young people particularly enjoyed seeing how a fire extinguisher worked.

Tim then came in with the fire pan for two sessions; one to reinforce the fire safety lessons and try different ways of lighting a fire and the second to cook on an open fire. The fire pan was set up under a tarp in the school grounds and the young people cooked fruit and vegetable kebabs followed by bannocks which they mixed themselves. After the session the teacher reported several of the young people had gone home made bannocks and asked for peppers with their dinner.

The English and Gaelic nurseries had a session exploring the school grounds which have a lovely stand of trees using the environmental resources boxes, with the magnifying glasses and the sample jars creating a huge amount of interest.

Particularly the large slug they found.

New arrivals

As part of our work we are developing an environmental studies resource for schools to access and when we arrived in the office today the first box of sparkly new things has arrived.

The key cards are from the Field Studies Council and a fantastic resource, they are laminated as great to be used outside in all weathers.

Our plan is to have a box available for schools to borrow which will have the equipment to explore the area round the school, so there are fresh water, sea shore and moorland keys. The boxes will also have field microscopes, magnifying glasses and other sampling kit. We are happy to come out and help you run sessions and we can also organise and deliver CPD sessions in Outdoor Learning.

When the rest of the box arrives we will post more …

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy

Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.

Close