1. I will of course be encouraging the use of scholar with my students. I was just reflecting on teachers from other schools (not many I might add) who said their students came to their lessons already expecting to use scholar. It was widely agreed at the conference that the assessment systems within scholar are not as user friendly as they could be and this limits their use amongst learners & teachers. So some work is required with all users to encourage its use.

2. I did recieve and read your letter thank you. I went to try to find it again before writing this reply but I then remembered that I had to delete it from my email as it had a very large file size (I know - I should have downloaded it first!) I have read your learning teams post also. To be honest, I really feel as if I have just arrived in the middle of a huge debate and that the most comfortable place for me right now is on the fence!

My wife is a primary teacher and I’ve always envied the topic style of teaching she uses. In England, I taught combined science in years 7-9 and even that was more topic based (i.e. we’d cover elements of biology and physics in the topic ‘Forces & Movement’). And like most teachers, I’d love to be able to facilitate deep exploratory learning.

BUT, I can see the many fears surrounding such changes. I’d be most concerned if this was in any way rushed and without making every possible effort to engage every teacher to ensure that all members of staff were on board and comfortable with the changes.

Exciting times, indeed!

1. Why don’t you promote the culture of using on-line resources in your school.

2. Did you receive a letter from me about ACfE recently which was supposed to go to all members of staff? You might like to check out my recent post on restructuring our S1-S3 curriculum - I’d appreciate your thoughts?

http://edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/2007/06/25/learning-teams-worth-thinking-about/