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Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
My S1 pupils have experimented with using the “Rule of Thirds” *(see earlier post). They were asked to subdivide their pages and each take responsibility for the different sections. In my most recent Flicr posting I’ve put five posters by one S1 class. They were asked to sum up key points in the S1 curriculum.
New tool box 008
Originally uploaded by ktbogenrief
Have found an excellent site called wikiHow. Embracing the wiki concept of creative commons, this site is an online DIY manual that anyone can contribute to and edit.. It has approximately 39 000 articles. These range from practical tips like maintaining your bicycle gears to more abstract issues like learning styles. Indeed there is a whole section on memorisation skil.ls, which I am going to pilot with my S1 c.lasses over the next two weeks.
The rule of thirds
Originally uploaded by dgray_xplane
Today in First Year we talked a little about field sketching. You have been asked to try a sketch of the farm landscape on page 96. There is a “worked example” on pages 95-96 of your textbook, but you might also be interested in what this guy has to say about sketching. When you prepare your field sketch of the farm think about the layout of your sketch-here, the example given suggests that you divide in into thirds, effectively giving you nine squares to work within.
For more on Visual Communication, visit the excellent website, Communication Nation.
I have made up a wiki, or shared web space called HutchieInternational. Its main purpose will be to act as place to make up collaborative pages, made up of contributions from pupils in our school, and our partner schools. But to for this to be of any use, you need to log on to the site and request permission to become a member. Only then can you add your own text.
So, here are the instructions.
Go to the wiki at http://hutchieinternational.wikispaces.com/
This will take you to the home page. At this point, you can read, but not edit.
To edit and to add new material, go to top right and click “join”
A dialogue box will pop up; fill in the fields as follows:
user name-whatever you wish (eg FredBloggs)
password-something you will remember
email your e-mail address no
click “Join”
You should now see your user name at the top right of the Home Page, beside the envelope icon.
Go along to the side bar on the left hand side and click “Join this space”
This brings up a box entitled,
“Request membership to HutchieInternational
To join the space, hutchieinternational, submit a request to the space organizers.”
No need to write a comment.
Click on “Request membership”
When I receive this request, I shall then grant permission to edit and you can begin to add comments.
What next?
1. S1- Go to “Where we live” (left hand pane). Add a brief comment about your home area.
2. S2 Go to International Trade (left hand pane) Add a comment about international trade, based on what you have found out by researching the websites in your Global Studies workbook 3. This comment shoud mention eg debt, fair trade, the work of Oxfam, poverty cycle, etc.
I have been reading about Comment Challenge 08. In fact I heard about it while listening to Dave Noble’s excellent podcast, Booruch, . It’s a bit late to get started on this, since it’s been running since 1st May, but I am going to have a go, and follow my own time frame, commencing on 25th May. The idea is to encourage us to become better bloggers, by focusing a bit more on what we actually post and the kinds of comments we write. There’s some excellent material on Sue Waters blog, and also on a dedicated wikispace:
http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com . There are plenty of ideas, here are some:
1. Set up a plan for tracking your comments–use CoComment or another tool.
2. Comment at a blog where you’ve never left a comment before.
3. Find three new bloggers and leave comments for them.
4.Comment on a blog post you don’t agree with.
5.Respond to another commenter on a post.
6.Find three bloggers that are not related to your normal niche and leave comments.
exam time
Originally uploaded by jenjemeer
This is the time of year when many teachers go into Purdah. Sacks of scripts, securely fastened by plastic handcuffs are delivered, accompanied by fastidious instructions for the marking, filling in Ex forms and returning of papers -by the next day, if possible. At this time of year, juts before exam leave, senior pupils are generally bipolar-manically optimistic aboutr exam succuess for no good reason or inconsolable that they have forgotten everything they ever learned. The Sixth Year revert to Primary 1 levels of maturity and regress or simply dissolve, a school career that started with cheery shots of first day at school ending in a wimper.
Markers meet in cavernous stadia to dissect scripts and agree a marking scheme-the lucky ones get to mark at home, at a time and place of their choosing; the less fortunate are coralled into barns and sheds to mark centrally in a given time frame.
This is my 18th year of marking Standard Grade Geography-I came in near the beginning when there were quite small teams for each level, and now there are over 100 Credit markers. For a while I used to be an examiner and setter, too, which meant standing in front of your peers and defending decisions on where to award marks for contentious evaluation questions. I loved the cameraderie of working in the exam team, meeting colleagues from across Scotland. So, despite my annual vow not to mark again, I’ll be joining the throng at Hamden to go through the 2008 Geography paper, and no doubt enjoying some good banter along the way.
Here’s an interesting slide presentation I found on SlideShare. Given the current concerns about world food shortages and rising prices, it seem more important than ever to consider the world’s food supply and how we can avoid people falling into famine and starvation.
index cards
Originally uploaded by kparra
I have been encouraging my pupils to practise condensing notes on to index cards, as a way of helping them to revise. I am prticularly keen to get them thinking visually, and spatially, So, I got my second years to try drawing a simple sketch map of South America on to an index card, set up in portrait layout. They had to add in some key points-major cities, the Andes, the Amazon, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn, etc-all from memory. They had several minutes first to look over their atlas first. The standard was very wide ranging-some were very accurate and detailed, others naive and barely recognisable as South America, with little sense of scale or relative position. That’s not a criticsm of the pupils, but an indication of how different children process and retain spatial data. I shall upload some images of their maps over the weekend. One thing I wanted to find out was, whether there was a significant difference in the mental maps of boys and girls-my first impression is that there was… but I need to check each pupil’s index card carefully first. To be continued…………
Today’s slide show
[Will also be posted on the Ethos homepage-shared documents]
Here is a sample of the many blogs and wikis out there, mostly relating to Scottish education.
General learning and teaching/use of ICT in teaching:
Ewan McIntosh, LT Scotland http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs
LT Scotland list of blogs: http://ltsblogs.org.uk/
Biology:
Tessa Watson; http://edubuzz.org/blogs/tessawatson/
English:
Neil Winton, PT Perth Academy: http://nwinton.wordpress.com/
Geography:
Ollie Bray, Depute Head, Musselbrough Grammar http://olliebray.typepad.com/
Val Vannett, PT Geography, High School of Dundee http://www.gmpay.blogspot.com/
Music
Alan Coady, East Lothian:http://edubuzz.org/blogs/alancoady/
Physics
Technology:
Stuart Meldrum: http://stuartmeldrum.co.uk/blog/
School/class blogs & wikis
http://www.innerleithen.tv/blog/2007/12/04/Natural_Heritage_Improvement_Project_at_St_Ronans_Primary
http://eastdunbarton.wikispaces.com/Blogging+Project
Everyday Geographies http://primarygeogblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/eco.php
Independent Schools Council blog:
Perspective of a Director of Education:
Don Ledingham, East Lothian http://edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/
Perspective of a Quality Improvement Officer
Andrea Reid http://andreareid.wordpress.com
A wiki on wikis:
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Articles+and+Resources
cloud chart
Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
It’s been a mix of a day. We went to the Scottish Deer Centre, near Cupar this morning. Nice, broken cloud, with plenty of blue sky, but come 1pm, as we all sat in the arena to watch the birds of prey demonstration, the skies darkened, the tempertaure dropped and we had hail and rain. Didn’t spoli the talk too much as we were all fascinated by the three birds on display-European Owl, Harrier Hawk and Falcon. The falcon was particularly impressive, coming in fast over the crowd like the RAF tornado we had seen earlier in the day, no doubt heading to Leuchers. Then, from 2 o’clock it brightened up and we were able to get some decent work done in the garden.
The route back from Cupar to Clarkston is like a transect through Scottish time and place-the large, rolling arable fields and extensive stone farm buildings make this a very different farming region to East Ren, with its predominant dairy herds; gold, brown and yellow to contrast with the green. I remembered the “windows on Scotland” approach we used in O Grade Geography, uisng selected maps that each convyed a sense of place-Grangemouth, for example,. still belching and flaring across the mournful mud flats of the Forth, or Blairgowrie-the classic market garden landscape, now often tilled by East Europeans (who would have predicted that social dynamic in the Communist mid 70s?).
On way back, we saw the engineering works going on for the Upper Forth crossing-struck me that I haven’t been over by Kincardine and Clackmanan since my days setting S Grade geogrpahy papers at Keiveil House, now five years ago. (Despite the tedium, I look forward to marking papers, as Markers; Meeting is a great time to meet up with old friends)
Almost everywhere I look there are wind farms, like forests of spartan, while trees. The latest is in my own backyard, at Eaglesham. They have a commanding position, and I imagine opinion is sharply divided. I think I like them, but I can choose not ot look at them-I don;t know how it would be if I had no choice.
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