March 7, 2017
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Comments Off on Pedagoo Perth
My aim throughout my time as a student is to continue developing my professional practice so that when I graduate then I will already be in the habit. From day one, the University of Dundee have encouraged our use of twitter, twitter chats and blogs to effectively share our experience with others. I can safely […] Continue reading
January 15, 2017
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Comments Off on Developing Mathematical Concepts and Language Through the Cockatoos’ by Quentin Blake.
The Cockatoos’ is a story about Professor Dupont, a man so wrapped up in routines that he overlooks how some of his quirks may be perceived as annoying! This book offers several opportunities to explore mathematical language with early years’ pupils. As Professor Dupont searches for his ‘Feathered Friends’ classes can explore positional […] Continue reading
January 5, 2017
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Comments Off on Keeping the Dream Alive
I was asked to write a response to Tom Bennett’s comment piece in the TES about how he thought that the use of computer games such as Minecraft in Education was ‘gimmicky‘. My response was written in early December 2016 however it was published in the TESS today. Here is the unedited version: My Christmas playlist will […] Continue reading
October 26, 2016
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Comments Off on My second attempt of the OLA and NOMA assessments.
Today, I attempted both online assessments for the second time. My results were as follows: Literacy – 83% and Maths 81%. I improved 3% in literacy and achieved the same score in maths. I was really happy with this, however I believe that I could have achieved a higher score in both tests. This was […] Continue reading
October 25, 2016
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Comments Off on A couple of nifty teaching resources
Over the last few weeks, I have come across 2 online resources which I feel could be really useful in my future teaching career. These have been shown to me … Continue reading → Continue reading
October 19, 2016
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Comments Off on Non-Fiction Writing Ideas
Today’s lecture was our second so far about non-fiction texts and delivering lessons around them in the classroom. After going through the different types of non-fiction texts we will be teaching about we were all given a book and asked to create our own lesson from this. The group I was working with was given […] Continue reading
October 17, 2016
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Comments Off on My Dad is on Facebook!
Strange educational blog post title – yes. However, after 6 years of protesting how much he dislikes facebook, around a month ago my dad officially joined the digital space and made a facebook account. This shows me just how much we are moving towards a digital age and how much our lives revolve around the …
October 16, 2016
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Comments Off on Social Media
Since starting at university, we have been encouraged to engage with social media in order to gain more access into the world of education. Through browsing various sites, I realised that social media is not only a place for personal accounts but for professional pages also. Firstly, we were shown the ways in which we […] Continue reading
October 4, 2016
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Comments Off on How can digital tools enhance learning in the classroom?
After having an input with Derek at the beginning of Semester 1, my vision of digital tools in the classroom changed. I have always been aware that technology can enhance learning in the classroom, but this input really struck me as a developer to manipulate these tools and use them as much as possible to […] Continue reading
October 3, 2016
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Comments Off on Developing Effectiveness in Teaching and Learning – TDT- Ocearch!
Me and fellow student Samantha MacDonald decided to focus on one resource from Derek Robertson’s input – that resource being ocearch.org . This is a shark tracker which shows the real time location of sharks movements. All the sharks have been tagged on their dorsal fin and have been given names by the organisation. You […] Continue reading
October 3, 2016
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Comments Off on Developing Effectiveness in Learning and Teaching – TDT Ocearch!
Me and fellow student Kirsty Gallacher decided to focus on one resource from Derek Robertson’s input – that resource being ocearch.org . This is a shark tracker which shows the real time location of sharks movements. All the sharks have been tagged on their dorsal fin and have been given names by the organisation. You […] Continue reading
September 30, 2016
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Comments Off on Arcade Fire, Deserted Islands and Chrome Experiments
I teach on a 3rd year module on the teacher education programme at the University of Dundee. Entitled, Developing Effective Teaching and Learning, it aims to explore how learning can go beyond subject boundaries and in doing so make rich, cohesive, purposeful and relevant links between and across the subject areas. There is a focus […] Continue reading
June 15, 2016
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Comments Off on The Flexible Learner – Blended Learning
Blended learning What is it? This term is generally applied to learning and teaching that occurs both face-to-face and through an online interface. The majority of the courses on which I teach have this blend of approaches to a greater or lesser degree. Most of the PGDE and MA modules are face-to-face with materials collated […] Continue reading
May 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Glow Blogs – One Year On…
As the end of the academic year draws to a close, I thought now would be the perfect opportunity to post about my experience as a ‘blogger’. As the new blogging system was introduced to us in September, I have now been blogging for a whole academic year! It is very rewarding to see how […] Continue reading
April 8, 2016
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Comments Off on Enhancing Digital Technology
Would you accept children being failed to be educated on maths or language? Although they are being brought up/growing up surrounded by it and to have a successful, positive experience within and out with school they must have developing knowledge and skills of these subjects. I’m assuming your answers would be no, therefore, why do […] Continue reading
March 25, 2016
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Comments Off on The Internet is my Teacher
This morning my brain is buzzing with a thousand thoughts. Through a connection on Twitter (did I mention that I love social media?) I was advised to listen to a wonderful show on BBC iPlayer entitled ‘My Teacher is an App‘. This is a fascinating piece about the ever increasing role of technology in education. […] Continue reading
March 23, 2016
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Comments Off on Social Media for Teachers
Recently, I was lucky enough to be asked to host #ScotEdChat. This is an hour long Twitter discussion, where teachers and other professionals can share their thoughts and ideas on a given topic. Our topic was the use of blogging and social media in a professional context. (Click the image to read the ‘Storify’ log […] Continue reading
March 18, 2016
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Comments Off on Transforming Learning
“Digital technology can enhance learning and teaching across the curriculum and equip all of our learners with the essential digital skills they need to succeed in life, learning and work.” – Angela Constance, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning. The world we live in is surrounded by digital tools and spaces that everyone is consuming […] Continue reading
February 23, 2016
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Comments Off on Health and Wellbeing, the Physical Education/Activity side.
Today’s health and wellbeing input on Fitness brought quite a few things I’ve learned throughout school into practice. Why is oxygen important when exercising, and what methods of training are linked. There are also the individual fitness factors; Cardiorespiratory Endurance (CRE), muscular endurance, strength, speed, power, and flexibility; which are all tested by different means […] Continue reading
February 16, 2016
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Comments Off on Drama conventions …
… So, What is a convention? Well…. Normally a convention is a way in which something is carried out. There are agreed rules and criteria which make up the convention. A drama convention is where the actions of an actor/actress are decided by the writer or director and are done so to have dramatic, or […] Continue reading
