Category Archives: Skills

Interdisciplinary learning, Literacy, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

SSERC Chemistry Residential

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At a recent SSERC course I was able to take part in a range of innovative practical activities that I hope to be able to integrate into our science and chemistry courses at St Margaret’s.

Practical activities included:

  • a novel method for carrying out chromatography that can be used in biology (separating compounds found in plants) in chemistry (chemical analysis in the new National 5 course)
  • etching zinc plates as a new way to demonstrate displacement reactions  – this allows a possibility of creating cross-curricular links with art (using the plates for printing) or CDT (shaping the plate to make a product).
  • ethanol rockets as a way of comparing energy from different fuels (this can be run in conjunction with physics to allow calculation of acceleration, velocity and average speed.)
  • making and analysing a shampoo from herbs and natural oils
  • extracting limonene and pectin from oranges and using the pith as an absorbent
  • looking at the properties of hydrogels
  • making ceramics
  • making liquid crystal displays

Continue reading SSERC Chemistry Residential →

Numeracy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference

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Bronagh  McKeown – Mathematics Teacher

On Saturday 14th September four members of the maths department attended ‘The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference’ held in Stirling University (www.m-a.org.uk).  The day consisted of a keynote address by Peter Ransom and then the opportunity to visit four different workshops of our own choice.    Below is a summary of the workshops I attended:

Workshop 1

This workshop was entitled ‘A Square Meal’ by Adam McBride and it was both informative and entertaining (bonus!).  The focus was on investigating Magic Squares (a square in which every row, column and diagonal have the same total).  He showed lots of cool tricks that can be investigated by pupils and the algebra behind it all which could be investigated and discussed with high ability pupils.  I found it very interesting and hope to be able to find a way to incorporate some of it into my lessons. Continue reading The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference →

Skills, Uncategorized

Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2

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Laura Watson, Collette MacAllister, Scott Wood, Louise McAdam, Catherine Kerr and Keith Varty – Science Department

On Friday 20th September members of the St Margaret’s Academy Science department ran a workshop which provided our primary colleagues with a variety of practical experiments which they could take back and introduce into some of their science work. There were three different practical stations set up during the workshop one for Chemistry, Biology and Physics. These stations lasted for approximately 20 minutes and provided ideas for work that could be used to cover 3 of the 2nd level science E’s and O’s. These stations also showed how the pupils develop in this area when they carry out their 3rd level work at St Margaret’s Academy. Continue reading Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2 →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Personal Development in Spanish

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Mairi Godley- Modern Languages Teacher

Having graduated from Strathclyde University in 2005 in French with Marketing, Spanish was entirely new to me when joining St. Margaret’s in 2006. Back then it was proving to be a popular subject and so I decided to embark on a graduate diploma, a distance learning course, in Spanish from Dundee University.

Miss Doran (at the time) and I initially participated in a 6 month intensive language course, which progressed onto the two year diploma. Although this was successfully achieved in 2009, my command of the language at that time did not leave me feeling fully confident to teach Spanish at senior level. Curriculum for Excellence did not pose any problems but I felt the need to further improve my level in order to teach at a higher level.

This is what prompted me to complete a Comenius in-service training course in Barcelona this summer.  I am no stranger to such courses as, in the summer of 2008; I spent 3 weeks in Granada, completing a language course that supported my studying in obtaining the Spanish diploma. Continue reading Personal Development in Spanish →

Literacy, Responsibility of All, Skills, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

Literacy Development and Debating

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Lauren McMahon – Faculty of Language and Communication

For the last four years, I have been working as a Literacy Development Officer within West Lothian Council. This has provided me with a wealth of Professional Development Opportunities which have impacted both on my own practice and that of my colleagues.

I embarked on this development as literacy is core to every child’s education and I was interested in exploring ways in which this could be improved at an authority level in order to improve the learning experience for all.

A major aspect of this post has involved the wider development of debating across West Lothian. I have, for the last four years, run the West Lothian Speaks! Debating competition which is aimed at encouraging S1 and S2 pupils to learn debating skills and develop their confidence. St Margaret’s has participated in this competition each year and is the current holder of the shield. This has impacted on St Margaret’s as I believe that by raising the profile of debating early, pupils are more encouraged to join the school debating club which is highly beneficial to developing their literacy skills. Last year, I launched the West Lothian Public Speaking Competition, aimed at S3, in which 8 West Lothian Schools participated. A member of staff within my department assisted in preparing the pupils for this competition which also contributed towards her CPD. Continue reading Literacy Development and Debating →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Vision and Leadership

Internal Verification

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Anne Keenan (Health and Technology) and Laura Watson (Science Department)

Internal verification is a huge aspect of the new CfE qualifications. Over the last year we have become very familiar with the process of internal verification through teaching Skills for Work: Laboratory Science and Skills for Work: Early Education and Childcare. Both of these courses are internally assessed and require the assessors and verifiers to have a sound understanding of the assessment procedure to enable the internal verification to be carried out accordingly.

The key to this process running smoothly is for the assessor and verifier to have an agreed and shared understanding of the standards that must be reached in order to ensure the candidates’ evidence meets the assessment requirements.

It is the role of the assessor and verifier to discuss and record (SQA guidelines) the agreed assessment, any amendments and an in-depth discuss to ensure the candidates’ evidence meets the assessment standard.

Internal verification provides us as teachers with the responsibility of ensuring standards are met, allowing ourselves to draw on our professional judgement in deciding whether candidates evidence meets the set requirements, enabling them to gain the overall qualification.

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

Action Enquiry in Science – Talking to Learn

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Ann McLean – Biology/Science Teacher

In 2009, I completed my masters at Stirling University. Three years hard slog to obtain the status of Chartered Teacher but the benefits have been invaluable. The course introduced experienced teachers to ‘Action Enquiry’ and guided us towards being researchers in our own classrooms.

We carried out two research projects. The first was a classroom based enquiry and involved only one teacher as researcher. The second was a collaborative project, involving two or more teachers.

My first project was inspired by a ‘difficult’ second year science class I had inherited (2V).  Most students were poorly motivated, badly behaved, had a fairly negative view of Science and failed to engage with and participate in lessons. A nightmare class you might say!

The class had a large number of less able students who were struggling  and a couple had significant behaviour  problems.   The only way I could get them through any work was to resort to rigid ‘ lock step’, teacher led lessons. I couldn’t trust them to do practical work so I demonstrated it and any notes they had to make were copied from the board. I became increasing  unhappy  with this ‘reception’ style  teaching where my passive learners were  receiving facts from me and expected to learn them. Although I tried to encourage and motivate my students, I didn’t see much improvement. They continued to be reluctant Scientists with very low self esteem. They performed poorly in assessments which triggered the whole cycle again. Continue reading Action Enquiry in Science – Talking to Learn →

Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Go! Animate

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Laura Williamson – Modern Languages Teacher

During my last week at Teacher Training College we were shown how to use an online cartoon movie maker called ‘Go Animate!’.  It is an animated cartoon maker with a range of characters, backgrounds and props to suit any subject area.  Most importantly it is really easy to use!

Once you have chosen your characters and backgrounds you can give your characters voices and even movements and expressions. This is a really useful tool for creating fun and interesting listening exercises for Modern Languages because not only can you change the voice from male to female but you can choose the language and accent. This means that when you type French or Spanish, for example, the person speaking actually has a French or Spanish accent.  This gives pupils more challenge as they have the opportunity to experience other voices apart from the teacher’s.

Importantly, the listening exercise can also be differentiated to include speech bubbles, so that pupils have the choice to read what is being said as well as listen. The speech bubbles give learners confidence that they can understand what is being said. It can be as complicated or as simple as you please because you control the content.

I have used ‘Go Animate!’ several times now and the pupils always welcome it with great enthusiasm. Here is an example of a listening activity based around future plans that I used with an S3 class.

‘Go Animate!’ could be used in any subject. For example, in Geography it could be used to talk about weather systems and pupils could answer questions or make notes. It is an effective learning tool as pupils see something that is visually attractive which makes them more focused on the task. Since you can make the characters say whatever you want, it can fit in with any topic.

Furthermore, ‘Go Animate!’ not only allows the teacher to be more creative with listening activities but it can also be used to give pupils the opportunity to be more creative with their outcomes to consolidate learning.

Literacy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills

Moderation and Assessment of Reading in St Margaret’s Cluster

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Mary Gibson – St Margaret’s Cluster Development Officer

On Tuesday 12th February all primary staff from across St Margaret’s cluster, representatives from Cedarbank School  and teachers from the English Department met to embark on the first of a two stage exercise to moderate and assess reading at Early, First, Second and Third level. Early and First level meetings took place in Howden St Andrew’s and St Nicholas’ primaries while Second and Third level staff worked in St Margaret’s Academy. The overall aim of this exercise was to establish a standard across the cluster of “secure” learning in one outcome.

The process involved using a template* to plan and deliver lessons to pupils who were secure at Lit1- 19a, Eng 1-19a, Eng 2-19a and Eng 3-19a. Passages were provided for selection according to the needs of the pupils involved. Continue reading Moderation and Assessment of Reading in St Margaret’s Cluster →

Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

Skills for Work: Laboratory Science

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Laura Watson – Biology/Science Teacher

St Margaret’s Academy Science Department, this year, introduced a new course available for S5/6 pupils called Skills for Work: Laboratory Science. This is set at Intermediate 2 level and has been a huge success since introduced in June.

Skills for Work: Laboratory Science is designed to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills which are required for employment in laboratory science

Throughout the course the students explore a variety and range of industries and services, and the career opportunities in science laboratories, in a local, national, and global setting. At this point in the course the students attended a work based placement at one of the local scientific companies which helped support the material they have been learning in the class and provided them with the opportunity to speak to people who work in a laboratory setting.

Continue reading Skills for Work: Laboratory Science →