Blogging IT

Talk about frantic …. the end of term is always the same!  It is almost as if we have to get everything off our desks, out of our heads in case we don’t remember to do it in the new term.  The last minute emails … the phone calls …. By 12.30 I felt as [...]

I had a tour around all our secondary maths departments today.  We have recently installed interactive whiteboards into every maths classroom.  I was really encouraged to talk to staff and hear the types of comments the pupils were making about the improvement in their learning experience in maths as a result.  Pupils commented that lessons [...]

I spent the day at Preston Lodge working with 3rd years doing stop-frame animation as part of their activity week.  A rock band in the school  had been creating their own rock video, so the pupils decided to use it as a theme for their animations - we had animated rock videos galore!  We used [...]

Elizabeth and I had an away day today - although it turned out to be not quite as away as we’d hoped.  No visits to the zoo for us, or plush surroundings such as those at Musselburgh Race Course.  No, we really pushed the boat out and ended up in the coffee lounge at Prestonpans [...]

Curriculum for Excellence – Kathleen RobertsonBackgroundNational debate led to the curriculum review and ultimately to a Curriculum for Excellence.  The Values, Purposes and Principles of Curriculum for Excellence mirror those of Early Years.
Current positionTo look at the 3 to 15 curriculum - bringing 3-5 and 5-14 together to ensure a smooth transition.  ICT is an [...]

Recently I have spoken to a number of schools where the teaching of ‘ICT’ has been organised as part of McCrone time.  This means that a teacher goes into class to release the class teacher for a period of non-contact time as agreed through McCrone (commonly known as McCrone time). I have difficulty with this [...]

Had arranged an interesting presentation today with Stuart Anderson from Apple who agreed to give interested staff a tour of the iLife apps and podcasting.  I use a mac at home and have my own web site using the iLife tools and my dot Mac account.  I was interested in what would be possible with [...]

Early Years centres from across the authority attended the Folio afternoon at Musselburgh Race course.  The aim of the folio session is to enable centres to share the good work they do using technology in the nursery environment and to learn from each other.  The afternoon was quite informal and lighthearted, as is the way [...]

I attended a coaching course over the last two days.  The course was held by Clare O’Sullivan of EvaHR.  I was really looking forward to  attending as I saw it as a way to develop myself and potentially people I work with to achieve personal goals, to promote a supportive environment with clear values and [...]

What a great day!  One of those days where you come away feeling inspired. I spent the day meeting with potential candidates for the SSDN mentor role.  We had a lot interest so we needed to meet those interested to try to select who to go forward to the Mentor training at the beginning of [...]