The Year of Creative Scotland 2012 is a unique opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s talent as a creative nation. The Year begins on 1 January 2012 and is a chance to showcase, celebrate and promote Scotland’s cultural and creative strengths. Through a dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events, festivals, culture and heritage, the Year puts Scotland’s culture and creativity in the international spotlight.

http://dmtrk.net/FES-N58Z-784D19OCA4/cr.aspx

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/12/12092817


Scotland-wide celebrations for the Year of Creative Scotland 2012 have been mapped out by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs. On a visit to Glasgow Print Studio, Fiona Hyslop unveiled a map representing our creative nation by artist Murray Robertson as she confirmed more details of the 2012 programme.

http://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/newsarticle.aspx?p=6235
Pupils enjoyed art on their doorsteps, when the Travelling Gallery took the Rodin to several East Ayrshire school playgrounds this week.
And youngsters at St Andrew’s Primary, Kilmarnock – the mobile gallery’s first port of call – made the most of the opportunity, picking out their favourite artworks and chatting to on-board guides about the exhibition. Different classes took turns to go out and climb aboard the artbus throughout the day.

http://www.readingroom.spl.org.uk/poetry_issues/issue_29.htm

Poetry Issues <http://www.readingroom.spl.org.uk/poetry_issues/index2010.htm>  is the Scottish Poetry Library’s monthly magazine page for librarians and teachers who work with poetry. This month’s issue includes a new free handbook to download on ways to approach discussing poetry.

The Creativity Portal is now a little over a year old and users are visiting the Creativity Portal for its offer of creative partnerships, resources and inspiration, as well as engaging with the Creativity Portal Glow Group behind the scenes in new and exciting ways.

Creativity News Feeds

Nearly 700 partnership opportunities and examples of creativity in the curriculum have already been shared through the Creativity Blog – many of which are free for teachers and community learning groups.

That’s more than four pieces of inspiration and creative opportunities each school day.

You can receive the Creativity Blog in the way that suits you best:

• email subscription
• follow on twitter
• ‘like’ on facebook

You can also subscribe to specialist Creativity Feeds such as Creativity and Literacy, Creativity and Sciences, Creativity and Heritage, Creativity and Drama, Creativity and Dance, Creativity and Music, Creativity and Art & Design, Creativity and ASL, and Creativity and Social Studies.

The Creativity Portal website

Nearly 15000 unique users have visited the Creativity Portal already making use of:

• 74 quality assured creative partners responding to and investing in Curriculum for Excellence
• 29 quality assured case studies of creative partnerships in action across all ages and areas of the curriculum
• easy access to 106 creative resources, learning and teaching tools and sources of inspiration
• listings of 32 national Glow Groups with creativity at their heart to inform your teaching

The Creativity Portal Glow Group

Various associated Glow Groups and tools have been developed alongside the public facing Creativity Portal to engage educationalists, teachers and youth workers in sharing, discussion and celebration of creativity’s role in teaching and learning.

Creativity Forum – a national forum for all Glow users to contribute to the debate and seek answers

Creativity Archive – a national repository of creative projects and lessons that any Glow user can add to, ensuring that all our creative learning is shared and no learning is ever lost

Creativity online newspaper – a simple newspaper style newsfeed giving you at-a-glance news from across Scotland in creative learning

Glow TV’s Creativity Channel – featuring an increasing number of creative Glow Meets with authors, theatre directors, artists and creative partners

This is an exciting phase for the Creativity Portal and with changes happening all the time your feedback is as powerful as ever. You can access the Creativity Portal Evaluation tool here – http://glo.li/mrNuJE, leave a comment on the Creativity Forum – http://glo.li/ieF6fA, or email me direct on stephen.bullock@educationscotland.gov.uk

If you have any questions or suggestions then please do not hesitate to ask. You can also find resources to help you promote and share the Creativity Portal’s resources with colleagues in the Creativity Portal Glow Group.

Model animation or stop motion animation is a great classroom activity that engages students of all ages and abilities and can support many curriculum areas.

This resource has been designed for teachers to use as a planning aid for an animation project in the classroom or/and as a printable teaching PDF resource. Each section will explain simple approaches to creating a short animated film.

To find out more click here.

To view examples of Animation in Action click here.

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/sitecontent/news/latest/livi50

West Lothian Council announces that the designs of two Livingston pupils have been combined to create a cheerful, positive and optimistic new logo for the Livingston’s 50 celebrations.

Two pupils from St John Ogilvie Primary School will see their design on posters and publicity for community events to mark the golden celebration of the town in April 2012.

‘What does the education and skills system need to look like in order for people to lead fulfilled creative lives, and for the creative and cultural industries to thrive?’

Creativity Money Love: Learning for the 21^st Centurybrings together over 60 leading policy makers, educationalists, artistic practitioners and other leaders of their field to answer this question.

The responses are highly personal, yet informed on behalf of all contributors by detailed knowledge of their respective fields. The articles also cover the whole education spectrum, from primary and secondary education, to further education, higher education and lifelong learning for the creative and cultural industries. You can contribute to the debate yourself too.

http://creative-blueprint.co.uk/thinkpieces/creativity-money-love/

Air Iomlaid (On Exchange) was a partnership project bringing two schools and their communities together with practising artists to explore their outdoor environments through art and language. The lead artist described the project as undergoing a process of ‘getting fit’ artistically.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/l/learningthroughsketchbooksinartanddesign/intro.asp?strReferringChannel=learningteachingandassessment&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-653952-64

This resource is intended for primary and secondary teachers who want to build confidence in discussing the visual elements of the art and design curriculum with learners and colleagues. A key focus is the use of sketchbooks as a method of developing artistic confidence in the learners. Sketchbooks are also used by teachers as a way of recording and analysing learners’ progress.