Had the opportunity to take a short trip up to Kilmartin today. North of Lochgilphead, Kilmartin lies at the heart of a remarkable prehistotic landscape of standing stones, cup and ring marks, hill forts, as well as relicts of the Pictish and Medieval past. It is akin to the significant landscape of Wessex, in the south of England and is certainly a region of national importance in the archaeology of the British Isles and Europe. It has been a long time since I last wandered among the slabs and graevstones of the local church-1980, when I was in First Year at Glasgow studying archaology. Not much has changed, indeed “timeless” may be the most suitable word to use. As always when you return to a place after a long absence, its immediate familiarity jolts you back in time with the instance of selecting a favourite track on a CD. There is no meandering chronology of intervening years and events to negotiate en route. I remember Dunadd, the hill that rises out of the broad, flood plain of the River Add, capital of Dalriada. Today it is a forlorn place, grey with driving rain, extensive pools of water in the marshy lowland; inscribed stones pointing into the mist, cattle grazing nearby and gulls and crows wheeling in the gusts coming off the sea. Bedraggled, but smiling tourists clamber into a steaming minibus, while the rain harshens. But the coffee and home baking at the museum are delightful, and there is time to browse the books on geology, history, wildlife and admire the art work on the stone walls. I leave, but feel I’d like to come back.
india poster 002
Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
Two of my colleagues head off to Nitte, near Mangalore, southern India tomorow. With British Coucil support we have set up an exchange agreement with a local school there, with a view to establishing curricular links. We also want to find out what life is like in India, and do some research into topics such as water management and rural settlement. Three of their staff visited Hutchesons’ last October and we had a great time sharing our ideas.
Here is a poster some of our pupils made up to say about about themselves and their interests. This will be presented to the children in India.
I attended a meeting chaired by Councillor Irfan Rabbani of Glasgow City Council. Council.lor Rabbani has particular responsibilities for equalities. This was a very interesting group of representatives from many sectors, mostly council agencies, but also some private organisations and independent schools such as Hutchesons and Craigholme. The main goals were to examine the provision of services for young people in Pollokshields, and to consider ways of improving the delivery of such services. I welcomed the chance to make contact with some key workers representing the local Moslem community, the community council, police.
PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
class work 001
Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
I have started a gallery of classwork on Flickr. I ‘ll put up a selection of pupil work, ranging from drafts to fair copies which can be annotated to highlight useful comments. This fits with the aim of formative assessment, which is to use feedback effectively to encourage further learning. By showing examples of good practice, this can also help provide pupils with models they can adopt.
I am hoping to use this blog, and the associated HutchieInternational wiki to build up an “e-partnership” with two schools in Germany. These are the Hans Sachs gymnasium, Nurnberg, and the Hildegardis Schule in Hagen. Our school has had a long standing exchange with Hans Sachs, and we hope to develop a new kind of e-twin relationship, focusing on curricular matters. I know the Hagen area better, as I used to teach in Gutersloh, which is not far from the Ruhrgebiet and I spent some time exploring the nearby Sauerland. I very much hope that we can begin a dialogue and learn more about the geography of these two very different regions of Germany. We are particularly interested in the concept of “ecoschools” and want to find out how German schools tackle environmental issues. How green are the schools? How much do they recycle? Do they source local food? How much thought goes into building designs and energy efficiency? What can we learn from each other about how to encourage students to respect the environment. Also, we are interested in the local geography-how have the economies changed? Is heavy industry still important in the Ruhr? What are the population issues? In Scotland we have a large Polish community, for example. How has EU enlargement affected Germany?
I hope we can use shared spaces on the wiki or on Flickr to showcase pupil art work, and create a communal, virtual gallery. Please add your comments on how you feel we can use blogs and wikis to develop international links.
Clouds of Fire v2 / Nubes de fuego v2
My first years have started studying weather. For useful links on weather revision, go to the S1 page of this blog. I thought readers would appreciate this spectacular photo which I found on Flickr. Today each pupil submitted a radial diagram summarising the key elements of the weather for a specific day. I shall be posting these later in the week, as part of a virtual gallery of pupil work.
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Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
Today was the last match of the session. Both the Third Year teams wone their games, the “A” XV beat Wellington, while the Bs, pictured above, had a convincing victory over Glasgow rivals, Kelvinside Academy. The pitches have held up pretty well this term, despite the shocking weather, and overall the Third Year squad has developed very well, with many of the boys good prospects for senior rugby over the next 2-3 years. More photos are on my Flickr page-just follow the links on the “blogroll”.
See also the Sports page of this blog for report of recent match against Marr College.
On 27th February, much of the British Isles experienced a fairly sizeable earthquake. Centred near Market Raisen, it was the strongest earthquake to hit Britain in more than two decades. Luckily there was little destruction, but Some homes had minor damage, and one man was injured by a collapsing chimney. Many others were left shaken by the experience. We tend to teach that earthquakes and volcanoes occur only at plate boundaries, and therefore the British Isles, in the middle of a plate should escape such events. However, nowhere on earth is competely safe. In fact, Britain is hit annually with about 200 quakes but only 10 percent are strong enough to be felt. A quake of magnitude 5 is capable of causing considerable damage—particularly in places like Britain, which is unaccustomed to earthquakes. The UK, like the rest of Europe, is an interplate region. It is not on any tectonic fault lines, like the San Andreas fault, which lie between different tectonic plates. So we don’t get big earthquakes registering seven or eight on the Richter scale. “The reason we still get earthquakes is that the UK is criss-crossed with geological faults. In Scotland, for instance, most major tremors have been felt along the country’s three major fault lines: the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Loch Lomond to Stonehaven; the Great Glen Fault, which runs from Fort William to Inverness and beyond; and the Southern Upland Fault, which reaches from South Ayrshire to the East Lothian Coast.
See here for details on earthquakes
Herald article
BBC links about the earthquake here.
