Tag Archives: Active Learning

Think of a Learner…and a loop the loop

Education Scotland’s Sciences Development Offier joined up with SSERC to work with Physics teachers from South Lanarkshire during their recent in-service days.

The Think of a Learner toolkit, under development to aid practitioners in self evaluation and engaging in professional dialogue, to explore in more depth the guidance and advice on CfE from the perspective of the individual learner, was used to stimulate and structure interesting and challenging discussion. This toolkit, designed to be used for individual, department, Faculty or whole school CPD,  addresses the most common questions and queries arising around new NQs and bridging from the BGE to Senior Phase. The theme was continued with some hands-on work including the amazing invisible test tube and new ideas for physics of motion using a loop the loop track and a neat piece of free software called Tracker.Jar. Together, we explored how learning and teaching in a three year Senior Phase can offer opportunity to build on prior learning and support the learning in achievement his or her potential.  

Many thanks for the teachers who worked hard on each of the two mornings, and to South Lanarkshire and SSERC for working in partnership with Education Scotland to support teachers with CfE.

Community Café

On Wednesday (02/02/12) I had the opportunity to visit Kate O’Regan a Primary 7 teacher at Livingston Village Primary in West Lothian. The Primary 7 pupils were preparing for the opening of their Café the following day. They described the processes they went through to set up the Café and also explained the skills they developed.

To find out more about my visit view the video of Primary 7 on the Chalkface Blog.

To find out about  the opening of the Café visit their blog.

Developing Learning in Early Number Conferences 16th & 17th March

The Numeracy team at Education Scotland is hosting events for practitioners on Friday 16 March in the Drumossie House Hotel, Inverness and again on Saturday 17 March in the AECC, Aberdeen. The aim of the event is to support effective teaching and learning of number in early years settings and primary schools. Throughout the day there will be opportunities to participate in workshops, network with colleagues, share good practice and hear key messages in numeracy.

 http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/newsandevents/events/2012/eventgeneral_tcm4687535.asp (Inverness)

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/newsandevents/events/2012/eventgeneral_tcm4687537.asp (Aberdeen)

 The event will be of particular interest to practitioners in early years settings and in primaries 1 to 3. If you are interested in attending this free event please email either staffdevelopmentunit@highland.gov.uk (Inverness event) or cpd@aberdeencity.gov.uk (Aberdeen event).

Early Years Glow Meet – Building the Curriculum 4: skills in the early years

Wednesday 29th February
4.00pm – 4.30pm

This Glow Meet is appropriate for all early years practitioners.
Building the Curriculum 4 supports the planning, design and delivery of the curriculum in early years establishments, schools and colleges. It sets out skills for learning, life and work demonstrating how they are embedded in the experiences and outcomes.
Can we build employability skills in the early years? Should we be thinking about these within the early level? During the session we will speak to a practitioner who, in partnership with her colleagues, helps children develop the skills they need for their life now and in the future.
A key aim of this Glow Meet will be to promote discussion and to inspire practitioners to explore different approaches to skills development in the early years. Participants will have the chance to ask the panel questions and share ideas.
Hope to see you there!
Click here to sign up and find out more!

Health and Wellbeing Showcase, Thursday 9th February, Aberdeen

The Health and wellbeing team welcomed over sixty practitioners to our Showcase event. 

We had a packed day celebrating good practice across the health and wellbeing organisers. There was a marketplace where many of our partners were available to discuss how they can support schools, these included Active Schools, British Heart Foundation, The Red Cross, Organ Donation, Sustrans, Health Working Lives and Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.  

Alison Hammerton from Outdoor Learning enthused with ideas that stimulated how schools can deliver health and wellbeing by taking the curriculum outside. Click here to go the Outdoor Learning Blog for updates.

We finished the day with a keynote speech from Craig Brown, former Head Teacher and current Manager of Aberdeen Football Club.  He shared some tales of football fun whilst integrating the key messages of health and wellbeing and gave us all a laugh too.

We hope our delegates gain a lot from the day and would encourage them to sign up to our HWB Community where we will share the presentations from the day and partner contact information. Click here to sign up to the community.

Also don’t forget to join Education Scotland on Facebook and Twitter.

Designing a Design & Technology Curriculum

Yesterday (o8/02/2012) I had the opportunity to visit Kirsty McFaul, the Principal Teacher of Design and Technology at Hazlehead Academy in Aberdeen. During this visit Kirsty described how they redesigned their S1-3 curriculum for  Design and Technology using the Technologies Experiences and Outcomes. One aspect of the course included an interdisciplinary project which involved the Maths and Art Departments. Kirsty also discussed how they used the National Assessment Resource (NAR) to help move towards a more formative assessment approach.

To find out more about this visit, watch the video on the Chalkface Blog.

The Daily What in Mind Reading shock!

At the start of February I was blogging about the amazing breakthrough in brain computer interfacing, reported widely in the press, which links to our forthcoming Bioengineering context on STEM Central.

Turns out those clever folks at The Daily What read my mind to come up with this article and interesting lesson ideas and suggestions. The Brain Quiz (mind reading not required, just click the mouse) can be used to introduce or refresh prior learning on the brain and nervous system, with ideas for discussion topics and links to information and animations to support learning and teaching.

Resources for RME – “Amina” Muslim Womens Resource Centre

Amina – the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre is an organisation based in both Glasgow and Dundee that is willing to support schools in the teaching of Islam. They can offer a wide variety of services and workshops. They have worked with a number of schools in Dundee and have been well received and are looking to work with more schools across the country.

Please visit their website to find out more or look at the attached document.

www.mwrc.org.uk

 Amina Publication

Health and Wellbeing Showcase – Carnegie Conference Centre, Thursday 26th January 2012

The Health and wellbeing team are welcoming a hundred practitioners to the first of our Showcase events.  We have a packed day celebrating good practice across the health and wellbeing organisers.  There is marketplace where some of our partners are available to discuss how they can support schools and we have a keynote speech from Dr Rosemary Geddes, Research Fellow for the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh.  Also Julie Wilson from Outdoor Learning will stimulate ideas about how schools can deliver health and wellbeing by taking the curriculum outside.  Click here to go the Outdoor Learning Blog for updates.

We hope our delegates gain a lot from the day and would encourage them to sign up to our HWB Community where we will share the presentations from the day and partner contact information.  Click here to sign up to the community.

Also don’t forget to join Education Scotland on Facebook and Twitter.

Digitalising Burns Poetry

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Wellwood Primary School in Fife. The pupils were looking at Burns’ Poetry in a range of ways to develop their ICT skills. First of all the pupils researched Burns’ poetry and selected a poem they wanted to read. They read their poems to a talk partner, ensuring they followed the Success Criteria that they had set them themselves. Pupils used the software Audacity to record their poem and then used their creative skills to create an avatar using Voki. The Voki was then added to their individual blogs.

To find out about other Burns activities visit our resource calendar.

Click here to find out about Burns Day on Glow on 25/01/11 at 9:45 am.

Get Set Network and Ticketshare

I am pleased to attach as usual the latest figures for Get Set registration and network membership together with lists of those schools in your authority which are either ‘not yet registered’ or ‘registered but not yet networked’.  You will see from the overall Get Set report that there are now extra columns detailing the final tally of schools which successfully applied for membership of the network before the 16th Dec ticketshare deadline.  The overall figures show a healthy 39% of eligible schools nationally and a rise to 65% of registrations.   Well done for all your efforts in making this happen!

 As we move into 2012 there is still plenty of time to apply (click here!)and take advantage of many more rewards and opportunities including Get Set goes global, World Sport Day and the Torch relay.  Please continue to encourage Get Set network membership!

Pasta Geometry

Pasta + mathematical equations = food as a context for interdisciplinary learning?

“With over two hundred elaborate diagrams and photographs, as well as a few words on regional provence and cusine,” writes George L. Legendre in “Pasta by Design,”  the book “offers a surreal interpretation of the everyday experience of making and eating pasta.  “Here is a selection of photographs, mathematical equations and descriptions of unusual pasta shapes from the book.

See them in action by following this link.

New Literacy across learning materials

New reading support materials for first and second levels and new Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available on Glow.

First and second level materials

‘Reading to Learn; Learning to Read’ are new reading support materials to support first and second levels. They are now available in Glow: (Glow log-in required).

These materials include practical ideas to develop and support reading at first and second level, active learning strategies for teaching reading and a wide variety of approaches to support reading.

Specific areas covered include:

  • reciprocal reading.
  • hot-seating.
  • before, during and after reading activities.
  • the Thinking Reader.

Third and fourth level materials

New Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available in Glow. (Glow log-in required).

These materials include information on:

  • practical strategies and ideas to develop literacy across learning
  • listening and talking strategies
  • writing across the curriculum
  • recording literacy across the curriculum
  • analysing moving image texts
  • reciprocal reading strategies
  • information literacy
  • Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
  • links to additional resources.

South Ayrshire cook off

Councillor Hywel Davies, Lifelong Learning Portfolio Holder said: “These young people showed exceptional talent in the kitchen when they took part in the competition.

“South Ayrshire is known for great hospitality and wonderful places for residents and tourists to eat. Tourism plays a huge part in sustaining our local economy and ensuring we have outstanding people who can create new dishes, put a modern twist on traditional ones and cater for all tastes in future years is very important.

“The competition called for the students to use literacy and numeracy skills combined with their flair and talent for culinary creation.

“Cooking is a skill that will stay with these young people for life, whether they become professional caterers or enter another profession, the knowledge they have gained will be of great use to them.”

To read more click here.

STEM Central: Bioengineering

Work continues towards the publication of the STEM Central context “Bioengineering”. Working in partnership with the BBC to explore the role Bioengineering plays in helping service personnel from 45 Commando Royal Marines based in Arbroath, and Touch Bionics, the Livingston based company behind world leading prosthetic technologies, this fourth level sciences and technologies based context will prove a rich source of learning, debate, discussion and creative thinking for your learners.

CPDConsolarium: GBL and Technologies loan service for Scottish schools

Cross post from the Consolarium Blog.

Over the past few years the Consolarium team has invested in a variety of technical/digital equipment that it wanted to explore in relation to how its effective and innovative use could impact favourably and positively on teaching and learning contexts in settings from 3-18 years.

We have been thinking how best we can utilise this ‘cupboard of super stuff’ and how it can be out in schools helping teachers teach and children learn rather than not doing that! After some thought we came up with the idea of establishing a loan service that Scottish teachers could access via Glow – this is what we are now calling CPDConsolarium. Based on the excellent leading work of Con Morris and the CPDCentral team we have designed a community of practice that aims to act as the focal point for teachers to share their experiences, successes and challenges in using GBL, game design and other technologies in their practice.

We have an inventory of over 220 assets that can be loaned by any teacher that joins CPDConsolarium. Before they do this they must first of all join the community by filling in the online membership form. Once this is done they can then browse the searchable catalogue and see what resources are available and when they can loan them. If a resource is free then a bid is submitted. This is an important part because we are asking teachers to begin to reflect on how they plan to use the resource, what impact they anticipate on learning as well as what it means for their own professional development in relation to how the Standard for Full Registration is being addressed by their work in this area. Once submitted it goes through an approval process which can involve e-mails, phone calls to the school or Twitter DMs by myself to the bidder in order to iron out any problems and to get the resource out to schools.

However, any bid that is accepted comes with a blank wiki page dedicated to that teacher and the resource that they have loaned and an expectation that the developing narrative of their experience will be documented and shared with everyone else. Without agreement to this no kit is sent out.

Some of the kit that is available includes:

  • Sets of Nintendo DS, PSP and a wide variety of games
  • 25 Nintendo Wiis and a wide selection of games
  • 20 Sony PS3s with a wide selection of games
  • 15 Microsoft XBoxes with a range of games
  • 10 Macbooks with I Can Animate & I Can Present installed
  • 10 Graphics Tablets
  • 3D mice
  • Class set of iPod Touches
  • A number of sets of 20 PC Xbox360 controllers for Kodu
  • 2 sets of licences for RPG Maker VX
  • Arduino kits
  • Lego Wedo kits
  • Set of GPS devices
  • and much, much more!

Already the community is growing and we have already approved quite a number of sets of kit.

This resource is here for any Scottish teacher who can access CPDConsolarium with their Glow account. It is our resource, for us to use and to help inform each other of our developing practice. Come and join and empty my cupboard of superb stuff!

Over the past few years the Consolarium team has invested in a variety of technical/digital equipment that it wanted to explore in relation to how its effective and innovative use could impact favourably and positively on teaching and learning contexts in settings from 3-18 years.

We have been thinking how best we can utilise this ‘cupboard of super stuff’ and how it can be out in schools helping teachers teach and children learn rather than not doing that! After some thought we came up with the idea of establishing a loan service that Scottish teachers could access via Glow – this is what we are now calling CPDConsolarium. Based on the excellent leading work of Con Morris and the CPDCentral team we have designed a community of practice that aims to act as the focal point for teachers to share their experiences, successes and challenges in using GBL, game design and other technologies in their practice.

We have an inventory of over 220 assets that can be loaned by any teacher that joins CPDConsolarium. Before they do this they must first of all join the community by filling in the online membership form. Once this is done they can then browse the searchable catalogue and see what resources are available and when they can loan them. If a resource is free then a bid is submitted. This is an important part because we are asking teachers to begin to reflect on how they plan to use the resource, what impact they anticipate on learning as well as what it means for their own professional development in relation to how the Standard for Full Registration is being addressed by their work in this area. Once submitted it goes through an approval process which can involve e-mails, phone calls to the school or Twitter DMs by myself to the bidder in order to iron out any problems and to get the resource out to schools.

However, any bid that is accepted comes with a blank wiki page dedicated to that teacher and the resource that they have loaned and an expectation that the developing narrative of their experience will be documented and shared with everyone else. Without agreement to this no kit is sent out.

Some of the kit that is available includes:

  • Sets of Nintendo DS, PSP and a wide variety of games
  • 25 Nintendo Wiis and a wide selection of games
  • 20 Sony PS3s with a wide selection of games
  • 15 Microsoft XBoxes with a range of games
  • 10 Macbooks with I Can Animate & I Can Present installed
  • 10 Graphics Tablets
  • 3D mice
  • Class set of iPod Touches
  • A number of sets of 20 PC Xbox360 controllers for Kodu
  • 2 sets of licences for RPG Maker VX
  • Arduino kits
  • Lego Wedo kits
  • Set of GPS devices
  • and much, much more!

Already the community is growing and we have already approved quite a number of sets of kit.

This resource is here for any Scottish teacher who can access CPDConsolarium with their Glow account. It is our resource, for us to use and to help inform each other of our developing practice. Come and join and empty my cupboard of superb stuff!

It’s a cook-off!

Eighteen youngsters from secondary schools across East Ayrshire recently competed in a hard-fought competition at The Cook School Scotland, in a bid to win a place in the all-Ayrshire final.

The cook-off was for S3 pupils studying Home Economics/Hospitality. In schools, budding chefs prepared a main course for two on a budget of no more than £5. Top two from each school were selected to compete in the East Ayrshire heat.

Click here to read more about this great example of partnership working.

STEM Central @ SSERC

Lauren Boath, Development Officer (Sciences), attended the SSERC Physics Residential on Friday 2nd December. A fascinating insight into using physics in accident reconstruction from the Police, a hard hitting account of reconstruction of an accident in 2006 which claimed three lives. Lots of ideas for exploring applications of Physics with connections to health and wellbeing, and ethics. After an introduction to STEM Central, delegates had an opportunity to try out a kit which could be used within the technologies focussed learning journey from the Electric Car context. Once constructed, scope for open ended investigtion around relationship between battery voltage and motor speed, reversing direction of vehicle, design and aerodynamics.

Driving Learning with Mario Kart

Cross post from Consolarium Blog.

Derek Robertson (Consolarium Team) was contacted by Wilma Leaburn, a QIO from Renfrewshire and invited to a Mario Kart CPD evening at a school in Paisley. A number of teachers had taken this practice forward and a CPD session to share their experiences had been organised. The evening itself was a fantastic example of how creative teachers can be and how, when give the chance, their own idiosyncrasies can lead to wonderful learning experiences that meet the needs of their learners. At this event he met a teacher called Julie Paterson who invited me to Mario Kart open afternoon for parents and carers at her school, Bargarran PS in Erskine.

This series of posts will feature Derek’s observations at this event:

1/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: What’s in the box?

2/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: The buzz of learning

3/4 Driving learning with Mario Kart: The parents’ perspective

4/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: Healthy Eating and Grannie changes her mind

Mario Kart Leaderboards

Using Technologies for Learning

Today I had the opportunity to visit Bridgend Primary School in West Lothian to find out how they had used Technologies for Learning during  their Interdisciplinary Topic of Orkney.

To find out how the teacher used Technologies for Learning during their topic click here.

To listen to how the class used a blog to communicate with a school in Orkney click here.

Karlie and her pupils presented on this project at the Scottish Learning Festival 2011, to find out more click here.

STEM Central Electric Cars

If you’re using the STEM Central Electric Car context, some interesting materials to support learning around vehicle and road safety from the BBC: crash-proof cars, and a map of road deaths from 1999-2010 with information on accident cause, weather conditions, injuries and fatalities searchable by postcode or local authority area. Would be ideally accompanied by work with the Desktop Road Safety Reaction Timer, developed by a partnership between Fifex, Renfrewshire Council and SSERC.

Storying Telling in French in Kilmodan Primary School

I was lucky enough to visit teacher Gwen McCrossan in Kilmodan Primary school, Argyll and Bute so I could see how she uses story telling to teach French to learners in her P2-4 and her P5-7 classes.  Gwen made fantastic use of the target language and even learners as young as P2 use and understand classroom instructions in French.  She was using “La Surprise de Handa” and “Homme de Couleur” with the younger class and the film” Kirikou et la Sorcière” with the older learners.  Her pupils seemed to love learning a foreign language and enjoyed singing, dancing and acting out the stories.  One girl in P5 told me she loved learning French because “it’s just like playing, but you’re learning too!”  She went on to explain that they didn’t just do French at “Frenchtime”, they regularly used French in their numeracy lessons and in literacy too.  ” We watched video clips of French fables that were in French”, she explained, ” and then we wrote our own ones in English”. 

If you would like to hear Gwen talking about her approaches to teaching French then please visit my post on the Chalkface Blog by clicking here

If you would like find out more about Gwen’s lessons then click here to see her reading La Surprise de Handa”

If you would like to see her S2-4 pupils acting out the story then click here

Gwen has also very kindly shared her materials for the animated children’s film Kirikou et la Sorcière.  They are posted in the Modern Languages National Glow group in the resources for sharing section.  To find Kirikou please click here.  (You will need your Glow password)

A Healthy Lunch packs a Healthy Punch

Pupils at Auchinleck Academy are getting arty… and their talent is on display for all to see.

A group of third year pupils recently created a huge, colourful mural for the school dining hall as part of a health & wellbeing / art project.

“The mural has really helped to create a better environment for pupils who take packed lunches in Auchinleck Academy and has boosted the confidence of our art pupils who created the work”.

For more information click here

Pandamonium!

I am delighted to hear that the pandas are arriving in Scotland on Sunday. This is a mark of the growing friendship between Scotland and China. The pandas offer another exciting opportunity for schools, teachers and pupils to engage with China, its language and culture. The arrival also offers opportunities to stimulate learning right across Curriculum for Excellence, e.g. environment and cultural heritage, science, literacy and creativity. The Panda Blog provides ideas related to these examples. We have already had schools indicating their interest in finding out more about the pandas and Glow offers an excellent way to share information, resources and ideas for practice. The Panda Blog is a starting point and will lead to the further development of resources. We are looking forward to working with colleagues in the zoo to provide news and updates about the pandas to local authorities and schools.

Professor Kay Livingston, Education Scotland.

To visit the Panda Blog click here.

Click below to sign up for the Glow TV Events (glow log in required):

06/12/2001 – 2:30pm: Pandaphernalia

07/12/2011 – 10am: Panda facts with DWN Eds and Competition details

08/12/2011 – 02:00 pm: Pandamentary

Click below to view The Daily What News articles:

Giant Pandas Come to Scotland

Panda – monium

Forensic Rookies, Transition and the Astrazenica Science Teaching Trust (AZSTT)

Lauren Boath, Development Officer for Sciences, was excited to attend a meeting of the practitioners participating in the AZSTT funded “Forensic Rookies” project. This was the initial briefing by Professor Susan Rodrigues of the University of Northumbria, whose main research interests are in the language of science, teacher professional development and the use of ICT to  transform teaching, learning and assessment in science. Neil Taylor, Programme Director of PGDE Secondary programme at the University of Dundee has worked with Susan and the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee to put together a series of lesson ideas to engage learners in dialogue around science and the nature of evidence.

Working in conjunction with the University of Dundee’s Xanthe Mallet, whom many of you will recognise as one of the stars of BBC’s History Cold Case, primary and secondary classes will share information via Glow Wikis, with input from Xanthe, to solve a crime. The participating learners from schools in West Lothian, Shetland and Perth & Kinross will have the chance to share their conclusions via a Glow meet in February. Will they succeed in solving the crime?

Active Learning in Modern Languages

I was delighted to be able to make a good practice visit to the Modern Langauges Department at St Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch.  Diane Stokoe amd her team set up a carrousel of various activities that promoted active learning around the theme of ghosts. 

Instead of going to their normal classes, S2 pupils, assisted by S6 helpers, spent the morning in the assembly hall doing vocabulary building games such as ” à la pêche” or “Le pas de grand-mère”, following French recipes for “gooo”, or finding their way round a” maison hantée”.

The learners really enjoyed this fun-filled, creative approach to learning a language.

To view one of the activities please click here

To see my post on the chalk face blog please click here        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Say Bonjour to Remote French Teaching

Cross post from the Glow Scotland Blog.

SAY BONJOUR TO REMOTE FRENCH TEACHING (TESS, 18 November 2011)

Intermediate 1 French at Tiree High is a lesson like no other. The S3 pupils’ teacher, Helene Bernard, teaches them from 140 miles away, in a classroom at Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh.

When Tiree High was unable to fill the post for a French teacher last year, the school and its local authority had no choice but to use Glow Meet as a medium to connect its pupils with a French teacher elsewhere. A number of classes, including a P7/S1 and an Intermediate 2 class, are now regularly taught remotely.

“It has been very much a challenge for us. It has taken us probably about a year to get some basic technology issues sorted out,” said Maggie Irving, education support officer for ICT at Argyll and Bute Council.

There were problems with sound quality initially, and new laptops had to be bought to resolve these. Connecting a large number of laptops to the school’s wireless network also proved difficult, with the result that the computers are now hardwired through the network.

In addition, the new learning environment proved a challenge for younger children. “They have to sit down and listen very carefully and respond on a keyboard – not the best learning medium for those learners,” she explained.

Miss Bernard, a native French speaker, was one of two teachers last year to take on the challenge of teaching remotely.

Last week, she had the five girls in her Intermediate 2 class working on directions and maps, using Google Maps to work out and describe how they would get from one location in Lyon to another. They worked in teams to follow directions, and she marked the group’s homework, which they had uploaded onto the Glow Meet site.

“It was quite a learning curve, but we have been able to do so many things because of Glow,” she told TESS. “In a normal classroom, I can’t have all my children going on the internet and checking out real life in France, but I can do that online via Glow.”

In many ways, the teaching experience was not dissimilar to being there with the pupils, she said. “You have a whiteboard on the site, you have the children in front of you through the camera, and we have a jotter. Because it is a language, we have to speak a lot. The only thing that is different is that we have a chat box.”

Teaching via Glow could even be more efficient: “Each of the kids is in front of one computer, so they are very focused; it makes for a very effective class.”

STEM Central raising issues for debate and discussion

Perhaps your use of STEM Central contexts has raised debate around ethical issues – access to clean water, housing sustainability, energy through renewables? If so, the Speak Up Scotland! initiative might be of interest to you. Free workshops for teachers introduce different forms of debating, so you can encourage learners to explore the ethical and moral considerations around scientific developments. The programme also offers to arrange visits from or online discussions with university and industry STEM Ambassadors.

More details available on the SSERC website or by e-mailing science@esus.scotland.org.uk

Global Citizenship Drop-in session (Glow Meet)

Theme:  Developing Global Citizens – A whole school approach

Day:  Tuesday, 6th December

Time:  3.45pm – 4.45pm

Following the success of our first Glow drop-in event, the Developing Global Citizenship Team are once again making themselves available on our new Glow TV channel to share inspirational practice and ideas and also to answer any questions you may have about global citizenship.  This is an informal session open to any practitioner or school leader in Scotland – just drop into the Glow meet to pick our brains, find out what’s coming up or tell us what you’re up to. If you missed the first one then click here to see how it works.

Our next session will focus on the potential of global citizenship education to inspire learning across the curriculum.  Ann Kay, Head Teacher of award-winning Whitelees Primary School (the first to gain five excellent grades in their school inspection) will share how embedding global citizenship across the curriculum transformed the learning experiences and ethos in the school. 

The session will open with a presentation from 3.45pm to 4.15pm on How to develop a whole school approach to global citizenship.  An open floor Q & A/discussion session will follow from 4.20pm – 4.45pm.   

Remember: It’s not a requirement, but if you join us with headphones or a webcam then it means we can have a good blether.

How to join:

Click on the following link to pre-register and also to join us on the day:  http://bit.ly/DGCdropin

 

If you can’t make this one then the following drop in session will be on Thursday 26th January 2011 from 3:45pm – 4.45pm. As 2012 is The Year of Sustainable Energy for All, the focus for this session will be on developing global citizens through sustainable development education.

Glowing Thursdays – National School Sports Week

This week Scottish athlete Lee McConnell, 400 metres runner will be on Glowing Thursday to tell us about what it takes to be an Olympian and to encourage schools to get involved in National School Sports Week 2012.

Nearly half a million primary and secondary pupils from over 1,400 schools in Scotland participated in National School Sport Week last June, making it the biggest school sporting event in the country. So, the numbers for 2012 are set to rise!

The week will be from 11th – 15th June 2012 and the theme for this year is Stage your Games! The possibilities for capturing the Olympic and Paralympic spirit in your National School Sports Week events and for supporting interdisciplinary learning in Curriculum for Excellence are endless.

Join us live from Muirhouse Primary School in North Lanarkshire on Thursday 17th November at 11am and find out more about how you and your school can get involved! Sign up in Glow TV.

Purple Mash

Purple Mash brings you a selection of online creativity tools to support and inspire young children.

The following resources from Purple Mash are available through Glow.

2Publish

2Publish is a program which allows pupils to create simple layouts using text and drawings. A selection of templates, word banks and images are available to use.

2Design & Make

Design and make 3D models. Select from a range of templates or create your own design. As you work watch the changes take effect on a 3D preview of your model. Customise your model with the painting tools then print it out to fold and stick it together to complete your model.

2AnimateLite

Get started with simple frame animation to develop an understanding of sequences and processes. Use the ‘onion skinning’ facility to ensure smooth transition from one frame to another when you play your film.

You can access Purple Mash by clicking here. (Glow login required)

You can also add a Purple Mash webpart to your Glow Group by:

– clicking on Modify Shared Page

Add Webpart

Search, type Purple Mash

Click Virtual Server Gallery

– Drag and drop the webpart or select the relevant area on Add to

Need some Friday inspiration?

Myra and Diane from the Early Years team attended  TEACHMEET  at the University of Strathclyde on Wednesday evening. Very inspiring!

We learned about a number of interesting ideas including:

  • 7 things you didn’t know about wikipedia by Ollie Bray
  • Great places to find images by Andrew James
  • User Twitter to enhance CPD by Morven Skinnider
  • Using QR codes by David Muir
  • Digital literacy and moving image education by Jane Thomson
  • The Scottish Book Trust fabulous website by Chris Leslie

Lots of ideas there suitable for Early Years – start exploring!

Click here to find out more about the presentations.

Getting to Grips with the Great Outdoors

104 nursery children from Alloway and Doonfoot nursery classes are getting the chance to enjoy the great outdoors thanks to an exciting new outdoor learning pilot project in South Ayrshire.

http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/news/South-Ayrshire-children-get-to-grips-with-the-great-outdoors.aspx

Schools Global Footprint – refreshed resource now live

Education Scotland’s new-look Schools Global Footprint Calculator is now live and can be viewed at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/schoolsglobalfootprint

This key online resource has had a significant make-over and now features:

  • a user-friendly interactive calculator
  • streamlined navigation
  • a comprehensive teacher handbook
  • tutorial videos for practitioners
  • inspiring examples of how schools have used the resource to reduce their footprint.

The school estate is responsible for an estimated 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from local authorities. The online calculator allows learners to measure the ecological footprint of their school in relation to six topic areas: food, water, energy, buildings, transport and waste. Learners are also encouraged to develop innovative approaches to reducing their impact on the environment and promoting sustainable lifestyles in the wider community – from tackling the school run to growing and eating their own produce to reduce food miles.

In addition to providing an exciting real life context for delivering the experiences and outcomes, the resource greatly supports Eco-Schools activities and provides learners with skills for learning, life and work as Scotland move towards a low-carbon future.

View the Schools Global Footprint resource or find out more about Education Scotland’s sustainable development education resources.

Home Economics Good Practice : Young Chef of the Year

Published Monday 10th October 11

Pupils from five East Lothian secondary schools put their culinary skills to the test in front of distinguished judges – in the final of the East Lothian Young Chef of the Year 2011 competition on Friday.

The nail-biting event was held at Preston Lodge High School, Prestonpans, on 7 October and the ‘home team’ of Shelby Dalgliesh and Abby Douglas lifted the trophy.

A special award for the individual chef ‘most determined to succeed’ went to Rachal Cooper from Knox Academy.

The teams of two S4 pupils had 90 minutes to prepare a two-course meal based on local ingredients, working under the scrutiny of a team of judges. The main course and dessert was prepared from a selected menu, using locally-produced pork, chicken and salmon. Accompaniments for the main course were chosen by each team. The main ingredient of the dessert had to be a dairy product. All ingredients had to be predominantly fresh, East Lothian and/or Scottish and reflect current eating trends.

The competition has been developed to complement and promote East Lothian’s rich history of local produce by involving our young people in an exciting culinary challenge and also introducing them to the idea of a career in the hospitality industry. To read more click here.

Learning about food: down on the farm

One hundred and fifty Primary 6 pupils got their hands dirty down on the farm – but it was all in a good educational cause.
Children from Annanhill, Galston, Hurlford, Silverwood, Barshare and Ochiltree enjoyed a fun Food and Farming Day at Auchincruive Estate last week, to find out about the food they eat and where it comes from, courtesy of the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET).
Youngsters enjoyed a variety of activity sessions provided by local farmers and by lecturers from the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC). They made butter and ice cream, ground some grain and toured the farm to get a closer look at dairy cows and calves. The children also tried experimental ‘egg magic’ and had some tractor fun, which incorporated basic physics activities.
To read more click here.

SLF 2011: Education Showcase – Technologies

Using Glow/Technologies to support Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Karlie Robinson and Jack, Becky and Kieran from Bridgend Primary in West Lothian presented at the Scottish Learning Festival about how they have been using Glow and other Technologies to help with learning, teaching and assessment across the curriculum.

They presented on a number of topics including:

  • how Glow can be used to connect with other schools across Scotland and collaborate through topic work
  • why Glow is important in the delivery of lessons
  • the impact of using technology in lessons on pupils through their own words as they discuss their learning experiences
  • challenges and successes experienced by class teachers in delivering these types of experiences

To view their inspiring presentation click here (Glow login required).

You can investigate how Bridgend Primary have been using Glow and other Technologies by visiting the West Lothian Sharing our Learning Blog.

You can also get the pupils thoughts on their first visit to the Learning Festival here.

#SLF11 Planning for…CfE in Sciences!

George Eliot is quoted as saying “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together”. The great things showcased in an #SLF11 seminar “Learning, Teaching & Assessment – Making the Connections” by inspiring practitioners and learners from the Bearsden Academy cluster started with small things.  The cluster comprises Bearsden Primary, Baljaffray Primary, Castlehill Primary Mosshead Primary and Beasden Academy. The small steps? Practitioners within the cluster talking together about transitions, about improving literacy in science. The end result? The wordle shows all that this piece of cluster work encompassed. And the impact? The learners shared with delegates the impact on their wellbeing resulting from understanding more about secondary science, more about expectations of learning in secondary and having already been welcomed into the school community. Evidence of how assessment within sciences truly can enhance learning and teaching.

STEM Central – erally car

An update on the progress of an electric rally car Modified Green Rally Car ‘banned for being too fast’ which fits nicely if you are using the STEM Central electric rally car materials. Are there obvious reasons why a modified electric car might outperform a petrol car?

Glow TV – School’s Channel First!!

Our first School’s Channel broadcast is coming live from Braehead Primary School in West Dunbartonshire. Headteacher Joanne Paton contacted us through Glow and now her pupils will be taking centre stage on Glow TV for a National Event.

Join us as the candidates for the Braehead Primary Pupil Council for 2011-2012 will be rounding off their election campaigns with their own election broadcasts outlining why they should be elected to the Pupil Council.
Watch the broadcasts and then have your own vote in school. You will be able to ask the candidates questions yourselves too! Find out the winners by logging on to the Braehead Primary website after the final vote on Tuesday 13th September.

Sign up in Glow TV and join us on Monday 12th September at 1.45pm to find out more!

Science & Technologies DOs visit SSERC

DOs were at SSERC yesterday, working on STEM Central, and were lucky enough to be allowed a sneaky peak at some of what’s in store for the delegates on the Physics to support CfE two part residential course. Looking forward to the return event on 9th – 10th December 2011 when ES DOs will be sharing STEM Central and working in partnership with SSERC to explore practical work to underpin the STEM Central contexts.

French resources to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day – Jan 27th 2012

Based on the Louis Malle film “Au Revoir Les Enfants” and the Joseph Joffo novel “Un Sac de Billes”, these engaging resources have been added to the Modern Languages National Glow Group.  They encourage learners to explore the plight of Jewish people in France under the Nazi occupation.  Click here to access resources

David Mach Exhibit

Just to remind you that the David Mach exhibit is still on at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh. This exhibit uses the King James bible as inspiration and David has used sculpture and collage to convey his interpretations of classic biblical stories.

A Design challenge for both Art and Design and RME is being developed with kind permission from David himself – so look out for this in future as a way of linking together two subjects.

Ideas for celebrating world animal day Oct 4th 2011

New French resources have been posted in the Modern Languages Glow group  in the resources and sharing area that will help you and your pupils celebrate World Animal Day and discover information about endangered species, their habits and habitats.  Click here to access resources