Jan 18 2007
Hello world!
So, I’ve decided to give this blogging thing a go.
It seems to be that everyone is blogging these days, but I have to admit I’m not entirely convinced that there’s always a purpose. I worry that by having a blog I am just making more work for myself and that it’s all a bit egocentric. Despite this I’ve decided to go ahead anyway. This is mainly due to the fact that I’ve thought of a possible reason for me writing a blog. I’ve trained and taught in England and I’ve made the move North of the border.
I’ve seen and heard quite a few discussions about making this move. Most of them have been along the lines of ‘is it possible?’ and ‘how hard is it?’. It’s also interesting to compare the two systems, and I have experience of one and I’m gaining experience of another.
Why have I ended up in this position? Well, I left Northern Ireland after school and did my biology degree in Scotland. I then decided that teaching would be a potentially good career for me. So I went to England to do my PGCE where they were offering lots of money and my plan was to try to come back up after the PGCE. Unfortunately this was the year that Scotland introduced the guaranteed job for one year for NQT’s. Because of this there were no jobs being advertised and I stayed down South.
With three years in a girls’ grammar school in the South of England behind me, I worked as an advisory teacher in Africa for one year. Returning to the UK was then the perfect opportunity to finally make the move back to Scotland.
So here I am, a few months into Scottish Education and my head is still swimming with terms like ’standard grade’, ‘NAB’, ‘higher’, ‘arrangement documents’, ‘intermediate 1′, ‘LO3′……..
If you like, you can follow me while I try to unravel this confusion.
Welcome to Exc-el and Blogging! Very best wishes in your new post at Ross High! See you soon!
[...] As always, I am keen to encourage the use of ICT and Social Media in education. Today I recieved an email from Fearghal Kelly. Fearghal is friend and colleague. He currently teaches Science and Biology at Ross High School in East Lothian. I was delighted to here that he has started a blog with the Exc-el. I am looking forward to reading his posts as he settles into his new job. You can take a quick peek at his blog by clicking here. [...]
Welcome to Exc-el!
These terms were whizzing over my head when I started a 10-week returners’ course at Moray House a couple of years ago. It took a while in the classroom, though, before it all fell into place. Just in time for ACfE to come trundling over the hill. Have you found the SQA site yet?
I look forward to hearing your story develop. There’s definitely an audience - there’s a whole TES forum on Working in Scotland.
Welcome to exc.el Fearghal.Good luck.
Welcome to Exc-el and East Lothian.
Hi there,
You’ve no doubt read a few blogs by now and hopefully seen that it’s not egocentric, but the opposite. The blogosphere is full of people trying to help each other out, trying to *not* reinvent the wheel and, in the long term, *save* time. The latter is a real investment but you are guaranteed a return by sharing regularly on your blog or in comments.
Welcome aboard!
Thanks for all of the encouragement! I was shocked to see that there was 6 comments already (thanks Tess).
I had a feeling that some of what I said about blogging would result in comments. I just wanted to be honest about what I’ve thought of blogs in the past. I can, however, see the benefits of sharing and networking - especially in this job as we don’t get to meet teachers outside of our school all that regularly. So I can see that it’s really more about communicating with other people than talking about yourself.
I’m here to contribute and reap the benefits and this generous welcome is very encouraging. Thanks.
Welcome! So you’re the new biology teacher! I believe you have the dubious responsibility for one of mine - you’ll just have to guess which one.
Being a bit ecocentric occasionally may allow others to make connections with you, as well as you with them. Perhaps it’s a tiny bit of that network Ewan was talking about.
And I like your website links. I shall point junior in its direction
Ecocentric might be good for a biology teacher but I did mean egocentric.
Sorry - not quite finished. When you’ve figured out what all those terms really mean, could you let me know? Everytime I think I’ve more or less grasped it, something else gets thrown in.
Very intriguing. Not sure I can work out who it is without your name. Will have to have a good look at your blog and try to decipher the mystery.
hi F
send me an e-mail …… I hope your okay and doing well at Ross…. I nearly went for recent post ….. Eden my American friend took some of your classes last week. Are you okay, I really hope so.
Gill