Light travels faster than sound

Here’s another post I did...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:04:06 +0000

Here’s another post I did for pedagoo

http://www.pedagoo.org/2013/01/im-not-your-stepping-stone/

The Eskimos have loads of words for snow...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:38:00 +0000

And it turns out that Primary 1-3 have loads of words they associate with Christmas and the festive season.

First day back and one of my remits is to do a bit of “diary-style” writing with the wee ones. What better way to start than a big chat about the Christmas holidays and all the wonderful presents they received and the time they spent with family and friends…

Being a kind sort of chap I gave them a wee word wall prompt, nothing fancy nor indeed particularly comprehensive but just a nudge to help them spell some of those trickier words when it came to writing. Of course I had greatly underestimated the levels of PFFS (Post Festive Fatigue Syndrome) in the little ones and writing was pretty much the last thing they wanted to do.

So we chatted. A lot. We made up sentences using one or more words from the word wall…

…and of course we had much talk of presents and Santa; favourite sentence for me though was “The best bit of Christmas was when we had my favourite turkey dinner” Bingo!

This led us onto thinking of some more words the children had in mind when Christmas was mentioned. Into shoulder partners we went and came up with another 21 words and phrases they associated with the great mid-winter festival.

Check out that entry in the top left hand corner. Go on, put that in a sentence!

Another pedagoo...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:28:00 +0000

Another pedagoo post:
http://www.pedagoo.org/2013/01/insert-bad-new-year-revolutions-pun-here/

This is my first blog on the mighty pedagoo site....

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:35:59 +0000

This is my first blog on the mighty pedagoo site. http://www.pedagoo.org/2012/12/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/

So I put this on my CPD blog...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:43:10 +0000

So I put this on my CPD blog...

This much we know...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:57:00 +0000

Weather science…what P1-3 learned today, in their own words.

So much to do, so little time...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:10:10 +0000

Really? Is there? So much that just has to be done? In such a limited timeframe?

More and more I appear to be finding myself at the mercy of those for whom inflexibility and rigid adherence to plans seems to be a mantra.

I mean,is it just me or did I read Building the Curriculum 3 wrongly?

The framework provides flexibility to organise, schedule and deliver theexperiences and outcomes in ways that meet the needs of all learners, but also provides reassurance about consistency where necessary.

I appreciate that planning for progression (and just to be organised!) in teaching in essential but I’m also well aware that without context, learning can often be - or certainly appear to the pupils - meaningless.

Last week, for example, it was the Hindu Festival of Diwali. Had one’s planning for RME and/or PSD not taken account of this and one was, for example, studying aspects of Christianity instead it would seem to me to be only sensible to “ditch” the plan for the week/day/lesson and do something - anything - on Diwali instead; from a look at the beautiful Rangoli patterns seen widely in Hindi households at this time of year to a session with the excellent Rama and Sita story from the BBC.

What one certainly wouldn’t do would be to say “we’re not doing Other World Religions until after Christmas.” I wouldn’t at any rate. I’d also not be using phrases like “we’re running out of time this term now and that’s still not done yet so I don’t think we should be spending time on stuff that’s not in the plan.”

Just saying.

Here’s the great cloud experiment…with a “how...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Here’s the great cloud experiment…with a “how to” guide from P1-3

http://www.edmodo.com/file?id=720b07f7be79aecd0a73ce82d5264d8f

All white(board) on the night...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:45:49 +0000

Mini Whiteboards and why they’re great > here

Gmt thoughts

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Post to come on this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time

Here’s a thing http://www.fi.edu/time/keepers/frick/res3.htm

Marked Weans [sic]

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:22:00 +0000

Quite pleased with my title there. It’s been a long week!

This excellent blog post came in on my Twitter feed…it’s well worth a full read and a proper digest but this bit in particular really chimed with me, particularly as I’m never in one class/school for two days in a row and proper feedback and time to reflect can be very tricky:

Recording and Reflecting on Achievements and Targets:
When my students are getting freshly marked books back they have some little routines that they know I follow, this one is mainly KS3 but works for all. My pupils know that I tick in specific places where they have done well and write the skill the noticed on in the margin allowing them to see exactly what and where they are doing well (e.g. ‘vocabulary’ or ‘style’.) I will the relate my positive comment at the end of work to one element I noted in the margin and expand on this. They have an on-going list of positives at the back of their books and know to fill this in every time their books are marked. I will also place a target or two at the bottom of the work clearly indicated and related to the focus of the task. The students will add these targets to their on-going list of targets at the back of their books. These positives and targets lists are frequently reviewed, used and referred in lessons. They have no choice but to connect with the feedback I have given them. They can really take ownership of this as trends and common positives and targets are easily noticed by them and me.

the author also makes a very valid point at the end of the post…everyone loves a sticker!

Some fantastic resources from The Scottish Book Trust for Book...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:39:00 +0000

Some fantastic resources from The Scottish Book Trust for Book Week, 26th Nov>2nd Dec.

I will add to this post in a bit - sorry, poor blogging there!

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:16:00 +0000

I will add to this post in a bit - sorry, poor blogging there!

Online safety…great graphic from the Fuzion team. //...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Online safety…great graphic from the Fuzion team.

The true spirit of enquiry...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:12:00 +0000

The true spirit of enquiry...:

Onam and the elephants...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:26:00 +0000

At this time of year, when we inevitably look at Harvest Festivals in school, it’s nice to be able to come at it from a different angle from time to time.

Today, with one of my P1-3 classes, I looked at Harvest & Giving of Thanks festivals from around the world…we paid a brief visit to America’s Thanksgiving but it was the (traditionally) Hindu festival of Onam which captured their imagination most. When you’ve got a selection of images like this to fire the imagination it’s not difficult to see why!

This is a part of the Elephant Procession which takes place in Kerala.

After writing a sentence or two with a fact about one of the festivals we’d looked at, the class decorated an elephant template in an Onam Procession/Elmer the Elephant style…

Through exploring stories from world religions, I can describe some of their key beliefs.

RME 1-04a

Prof Bailey - developmentally appropriate sport

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:03:13 +0000

Prof Bailey - developmentally appropriate sport

Excellent resources from TwigOnGlow for use in the weather...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:20:00 +0000

Excellent resources from TwigOnGlow for use in the weather topic. Hurricane Sandy all over the news so a good chance to explore real life scenarios with the p4-7 class today.

Lovely day today which inspired some excellent poetry in the...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:52:46 +0100

Lovely day today which inspired some excellent poetry in the form of both acrostics and mesostics.

Starting with a word association exercise where the class had to write a list of whatever came to mind when they thought of ‘autumn’ we then drew up a collaborative Autumn Word Bank on the big screen.

*more later*

Light travels faster than sound

Here’s another post I did...

The Eskimos have loads of words for snow...

Another pedagoo...

This is my first blog on the mighty pedagoo site....

So I put this on my CPD blog...

This much we know...

So much to do, so little time...

Here’s the great cloud experiment…with a “how...

All white(board) on the night...

More questions than answers...

Gmt thoughts

Marked Weans [sic]

Some fantastic resources from The Scottish Book Trust for Book...

I will add to this post in a bit - sorry, poor blogging there!

Online safety…great graphic from the Fuzion team. //...

The true spirit of enquiry...

Onam and the elephants...

Prof Bailey - developmentally appropriate sport

Excellent resources from TwigOnGlow for use in the weather...

Lovely day today which inspired some excellent poetry in the...