Today was the eduBuzz sharing good practice lunch. Half an hour is a very short amount of time to introduce people to eduBuzz. As a result, much of the time was spent getting logged in. Those that did get logged in managed to find the online support documents and will hopefully now be able to work through these in their own time [which should all be accountable as CPD time].
One thing I don’t think I made clear enough was the fact there are two parts to eduBuzz which require separate logins:
2. Apps
eduBuzz can also now provide Google Applications. These include email, calendar, documents and sites. This is quite separate to the blogs described above and require a separate login. This is a fantastic way of communicating and working with others and is being rolled out across the authority. Through this you can access the eduBuzz support documents I’ve created.
To login to apps, use this link: http://mail.edubuzz.org/
If you’ve got your logins and had a look through the support documents, please take a minute to evaluate the lunch by clicking here.
For more help with eduBuzz or to get yourself a login, please feel free to email me: fkelly@edubuzz.org
This Thursday’s sharing good practice lunch is on the use of eduBuzz.
We’re really lucky in East Lothian to have a free and easy system for setting up blogs. As a result many teachers, classes and schools are now using eduBuzz to share their news online. EduBuzz is now providing other services as well by introducing Google Apps to our schools too.
The aim of this lunch is to support staff in using eduBuzz and introduce them to its benefits.
In order to allow staff to learn how to use eduBuzz at their own pace I’ve made a few documents to share what I know about eduBuzz. These could also be useful if you aren’t able to come to the lunch. These documents are available via eduBuzz Google Apps, but they can also be viewed by clicking on the links below:
Our extra CfE in-service training day was Monday of this week. We started the day with a variety of presentations sharing the work which is already being carried out within the school. A few of these presentations are now being shared online too! Have a look…
Mrs Boyd shares her use of group presentations for learning about German culture…
Ms Matthew & Mrs Gibson show how the SVS community event meets the four capacities…
Mr Burt shares his efforts to create new resources for learning about creation stories…
Mr Kelly talks about getting pupils to plan their biology topic…
The next good practice lunch is scheduled for Thursday 18th June in room 116 and will focus on the possible uses of EduBuzz. I know it’s a little early to be asking for names for this, but I’d like to make the lunch as useful to everyone as possible and need some time to do this. So, if you are planning to come to this lunch please email me with answers to as many of the following questions as you can:
Do you already have login details for an EduBuzz blog? If not, would you like this?
Do you already have login details for EduBuzz google apps? If not, would you like this?
Have you already used EduBuzz? If so, what for? How successful was it?
Is there anything in particular you would like to learn from this lunch?
Before you come along, why not watch this inspirational video showing how we could use tools such as EduBuzz in our classrooms:
This week’s lunch involved looking at our current cross-curricular links an brainstorming possible future ones. Our English & Social Subjects faculties shared the great work they have been doing together on the Holocaust.
We also worked in groups to demonstrate the links we have and could have. These ideas are shown below:
Yestesterday’s lunch offered staff an opportunity to share what they had achieved, and what problems they’d faced, during the aCfE development time last term.
All staff we’re invited to share their experiences using post-it notes to begin with, and any particularly interesting ideas were then discussed further as a whole.
On Tuesday the 17 March, the Restorative Practices (RP) Working Group hosted a good practice lunch where members of staff were encouraged to reflect on, and share, their past experiences of RP in the classroom.
Lee Campbell introduced the topic by explaining the purpose of the group as embedding Restorative Practices into the mentality of and the ethos of the whole school, both pupils and teachers alike. Long term goals included moving away from a purely punitive disciple system toward one which emphasises and relies upon personal relationships and mutual respect being established and maintained.
The groups is attempting a ‘bottom up’ approach, where it is hoped policy will be drafted to match good classroom practice rather than vice versa.
Yvonne Binks added that the purpose of the lunch was to encourage staff to recognise the parts of what they do that might be described as restorative in order and to aid in the meeting of development plan targets next year.
The remainder of the time was spend in a circle sharing ideas and experiences, answering the following questions:
What do you think Restorative Practices are?
What strategies used have worked well?
There will be further training for staff on several Friday afternoons in the summer term.
At the meeting of the Improving Learning and Teaching Group, the following was planned for next term. Mark them in your planner now!
Wednesday 29th April: Planning for Curriculum for Excellence. We hope that departments will share with others the ideas they gained from their development time.
Monday 18th May: Cross-curricular ideas. A sharing of what is already happening across departments and faculties and a brainstorming of more possible ideas.
Thursday 11th June: Edubuzz: lots of different ideas for using Edubuzz.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for any of these lunches, add them as a comment below.
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Good Practice Lunch, edubuzz | 
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Posted by Fearghal Kelly
