February shuffles off with stormy weather and a very hectic schedule at work. A lot of my photos this month have been set up in the house because the weather has been so awful. The exception to this was the school holiday weekend. We were down in Derbyshire and the weather was glorious with cold frosty nights, misty mornings and sunny days.
Work has been exceptionally busy with a huge number of tasks and activities keeping me so busy that blogging has not been easy.
March is next.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Beginning to GLOW
This has been a very hectic week but one of the good things about it has been related to seeing GLOW in action in some of our schools. One of the schools I was in was using a context for learning which was encouraging kids at all stages to engage with the different tools in order to consider aspects of social studies, literacy and expressive arts. In a secondary school the VLE was being used to enhance the learning experience and to help the teacher to assign, mark and track the work being undertaken. I was talking to another head teacher who has been quite sceptical about GLOW. She was talking about how effective the tools were proving for her staff collaborating together in a whole number of areas.
This was only a tiny snapshot but it was really encouraging to start to see some of the emerging practice with GLOW. It has taken a long time but I think we are starting to see some really interesting work starting. None of these examples have come from the centre. All have been designed and implemented by staff in our schools. This is what makes the project really exciting. I wonder where we will go next.
This was only a tiny snapshot but it was really encouraging to start to see some of the emerging practice with GLOW. It has taken a long time but I think we are starting to see some really interesting work starting. None of these examples have come from the centre. All have been designed and implemented by staff in our schools. This is what makes the project really exciting. I wonder where we will go next.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Learning On-Line
Those who know me and who have read this blog for a fair length of time will know that I started blogging and learning about using web 2.0 by going on-line and using web 2.9. I didn't go for books or magazines. My aim was to do all the learning through using on-line tools alone. After a couple of years it would probably be fair to say that it has worked. If you have the motivation, drive and enthusiasm then iy possible to learn on-line. That is not making a comment about learning and teaching in any way, just about my own recent learning experience. I am fairly sceptical in general about on-line learning, particularly with kids. I think that a blended approach probably makes far more sense and allows all that human interaction that is just important and so difficult to replicate on-line.
Over the last wee while I have been trying to improve my photographic skill. I tend to be far too quick at just shooting in automatic mode. Around about Christmas I started subscribing to a couple of blogs on improving my skills. The one that I like most is this one http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/. The tips and features are great and the instruction is really paying off, I think!
Over the last wee while I have been trying to improve my photographic skill. I tend to be far too quick at just shooting in automatic mode. Around about Christmas I started subscribing to a couple of blogs on improving my skills. The one that I like most is this one http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/. The tips and features are great and the instruction is really paying off, I think!
January 2008
Well that's January over. A very dark, wet and windy month. A very busy month at home, work and church. My eldest daughter got engaged just before new year which meant the year started with a bang (I can't possibly be old enough to have a daughter getting engaged!). Work started calmly, then I opened the email. Since then it has been a whirlwind of activity.
One of the big things has been getting all our email accounts transferred from EasyMail to Glowmail. It has all worked and all our schools now have GLOW accounts. We are beginning to see some examples of practice using GLOW in the classroom which is quite exciting. I am looking forward to seeing that develop in February.
Curriculum for excellence trundles on as well. A number of our schools are enthusiastically starting to trial some of the outcomes and some are using GLOW to collaborate on interdisciplinary working. On that them our partnership with Learning Unlimited moved on again with more in-service on Joyning the Learning. We even got a big piece in TESS yesterday about the project.
The rest of the time has been taken up with school reviews, all sorts of other ongoing developments and the usual round of activity. The one thing that I really haven't done much of is reflecting on what I have been up to in the blog. I will need to do better in February!
One of the big things has been getting all our email accounts transferred from EasyMail to Glowmail. It has all worked and all our schools now have GLOW accounts. We are beginning to see some examples of practice using GLOW in the classroom which is quite exciting. I am looking forward to seeing that develop in February.
Curriculum for excellence trundles on as well. A number of our schools are enthusiastically starting to trial some of the outcomes and some are using GLOW to collaborate on interdisciplinary working. On that them our partnership with Learning Unlimited moved on again with more in-service on Joyning the Learning. We even got a big piece in TESS yesterday about the project.
The rest of the time has been taken up with school reviews, all sorts of other ongoing developments and the usual round of activity. The one thing that I really haven't done much of is reflecting on what I have been up to in the blog. I will need to do better in February!
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