JDMcDsblog

Dictionary Definition

Originally uploaded by luv4sams

This is the title of a regular column in the popular monthy magazine, Readers Digest. (a digest here means a summary of the main points) Each month they introduce the reader some new words and their meanings, with a view to enriching our vocabulary-ie increase your word power.

In geography we want to increase your word power. Geography is the description of place and there fore we can use lots of adjectives to paint a full, detailed and interesting picture of different parts of the world-maybe a city, a mountain, a river or a rain Forest.

Throughout the session, we shall be introducing many new words and terms. The first time you meet a new word, you will highlight it in your jotter, and you’ll add its definition. All new words will also go in a separate page of this blog called the Word Bank. As the session proceeds, you will see more words go into the word bank. You can find this page by going to the right hand pane of the blog, look for the heading “pages” and click on “Word Bank”.

Sir, what are we doing today?

This seems the most important question a pupil should ask. If you don’t know why you are in a class, and most importantly what it is you are meant to be learning or doing, then there is not much point in being there. It always helps to know what we are going to be learning.

One general approach we can apply to every lesson in geography is to think 5 Ws. This is a list of 5 questions, all beginning with W  we should be asking about any place we study.

Where is this place?

What is it like?

What makes it the same as/different from my home area?

Who lives here?

Why is this place the way it is?

We don’t always need to ask all 5 questions, and there are others we ask instead, but this is a useful starting point, and most importantly gets us thinking about the idea of place.

Next-building a geographical vocabulary: what words can we use to describe places.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Michael Marland, an inspirational headteacher  and author of the seminal guide for teachers, “The Craft of the Classroom”. I well remember being given a copy of this book by my first Head as a tyro teacher at St Stephen’s High School in Port Glasgow. The Times describes his successful period as the Head at North Westminster Community College, “where his blend of bow-tied charm, erudition and irrepressible enthusiasm for language, for the arts and for ideas would entice famous figures to come and share their thoughts and performances with students and staff”

The “Craft of the Classroom” focused on effective classroom management, with practical advice on the ways in which a teacher can establish control as a necessary precursor to building relationships, becoming “more friendly, more subtle, and more yourself”. I am going to get hold of the latest edition and re read Marland’s words of encouragement and practical suggestions, which I first read way back in 1983; it’s always instructive to revisit your roots, and weed out bad habits……

I love his pithy use of English; to define the central aim of a school as,

 “..sensitive, warm, efficient, human, realistic and thorough”

and the ideal mix for a teacher was a cocktail – “a spirit compounded of the salesman, the music-hall performer, the parent, the clown, the intellectual, the lover and the organiser”

Not an easy cocktail to distill for HGIOS3, perhaps, but Marland’s insight offers a refreshing vademecum for today’s teacher!

Alexander Brodie in his book “The Scottish Enlightenment” describes the contribution of a group of key literati-the enlightened Scots who forged one of the great intellectual and philosophical movements of Scottish-and European-history. It was a period, he tells us,  when Scots produced works of genius in chemistry, geology, engineering, economics, philosophy, poetry and sociology among others. These men were part of an international community of thinkers, people like Kant,  who thought for themselves, and who saw themselves as members of an international republic of letters.  What strikes me on reading this book are the parallels with some of our contemporary  ways of thinking about education. We are told that the Republic of Letters had no boundaries; the literati wrote for anyone anywhere willing to read them; ideas were laid out for public discussion, dispute and improvement. This public dissection of ideas finds a contemporary parallel in blogs, where writers set out their stall, and invite comment, and debate. Today’s online discourses represent efforts by educationalists to grapple with the big issues in teaching and learning, and to share such ideas with an international readership. There is a real crossover of thinking between the UK and the USA, for example. The literati set up societieswhereby they could enjoy each thers company and discuss and debate the issues of the day.

One account describes such a society (the Oyster Club), where,

the conversation was always free, often scientific, but never didactic or disputatious..as the resort of (visiting scientists to Edinburgh) it derived an extraordinary degree of variety and interest.

Brodie remarks that this was a time, too, of emphasis on critical reflection and analysis; “Enlightenment” was understood as mental activity engaged by a person committed to the values of truth and validity. Much of this seems familar to us today-enlightenment as a concept is every bit as important in today’s schools as it was in the coffee houses of the New Town two centuries ago.

Lord Kames

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

Henry Home, Lord Kames was one of the leading lights in the Scottish Enlightment of the late 18th century. A judge and author of several influential books, notably “Sketches of the History of Man”, Kames contributed much to the debate on religion, education, law and the nature of civil society. He was in good company. Among other leading thinkers of the day were philospher David Hulme and economist Adam Smith and  I am interested in tracing the parallels between this golden epoch in Scottish history and where education-and society- seems to be heading today. Does the Curriculum for Excellence and its attendant infrastructure of virtual learning, formative assessment and modularised courses signify a new enlightment. Is Web 2.0 the new community of ideas? The Enlightment ideal was that

people should think for themselves, but not by themselves.

Would Kames, Smith, Hutcheson and Hulme recognise- and applaud- the aspirations of a Journey to Excellence? Certainly they believed in the importance of a good, liberal and general education. George Davie has discussed this tradition  in his books “The Democratic Intellect” and the “Crisis of the Democratic Intellect”. Yet how significant was the Scottish Enlightment for the greater number of Scots, outwith the literati of the Edinburgh coffee houses? I hope to reflect on some of these issues over the next few posts.

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.

Today’s slide show

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[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

http://www.mrhood.co.uk/pub/

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:

http://blog.isc.co.uk/

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

We received a letter to say that our younger son, Fraser, will be part of the random sample to take part in the SSA for Maths and Core Skills. The survey studies what pupils across Scotland know and can do in certain subjects at important stages of their education. As the accompanying information sheet sets out, the SSA aims to collect accurate, up to date information that will allow the Government to plan and deliver policies to benefit all pupils, understand some of the factors which influence attainment and achievement and to target resources.

SSA was introduced in 2005 as part of Assessment for Learning, since when it has surveyed:

English language (2005)

Social subjects (enquiry skills) (2006), and

Science, science literacy and core skills (2007).

Full details can be found here.

Will be doing an In Service on blogs and wikis on Monday 21st, along with Jane Bulloch our librarian. I have made up a PowerPoint, which I;ll put out on the school intranet. Here’s a preview below. It’s really just a few images designed as hooks for the discussion. I don’t want to spend more than 20 iminutes on this, as we want colleagues to try making their own blog, and to ask questions.

When I watch or make up a PowerPoint slide show, I recall the story of the IBM president, who, attending a presentation by one of his senior mangement, stood up and switched off the projector. “How about we just talk about your business?” he said. There was a very long pause, before the meeting recommenced, but he had made a vefry important point.
I think we need to watch that we don’t use PPs as a crutch and switch off our critical thinking faculties. I think that’s whay embedding slide shows on blogs is a useful option-you can direct people to the blog to look at the presentation in detail, and spend more time actually engaging with them at the meeting, rather than just talking at them.

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