Yesterday I attended the 6 Hour Emergency First Aid course which was being run by East Lothian’s Outdoor Education Team.

The course acted as an introduction for those who have never been involved in a First Aid course before and a refresher for those who have.

While I fully agree with the theory that everyone should have some knowledge of emergency first aid and wanted to attend the course so that I would feel more confident if I was ever in the position to use it, my main motivations for attending a course at this moment in time was because I am embarking on the BELA course and the RYA Coastal Skipper early next year. Both these courses require a first aid certificate.

The course covered many of the common situations that may occur in the workplace. We looked at CPR, recovery position, sprains, choking, burns etc. Our insturctor Bill Stephen was both knowledgeable and patient, and with a wealth of experience to share ran a very practical and realistic course.

My thanks go to Bill for an enjoyable and valuable day!

This afternoon I received a phone call from Claire McCallum from the BBC. Admittedly when I received the message from the school office I thought they had asked for the wrong person!

However, I was invited to join the BBC Learning Secondary Consultative Panel. This is not something I had even heard of before but it sounds very interesting. The literature I have since been sent states that

The panel is a reference set of “critical friends” whose contributions can help to inform our provision of resources for the secondary sector.

I was very curious to know why I was being invited to join this panel only to find out that I had been located through this very blog!!

Yesterday I visited Liz Brookes, Principal Teacher of Outdoor Education within East Lothian Council. The reason for my visit was that Liz had very kindly offered to talk to me about the various qualifications I would need in order to become GTC recognised as a Teacher of Outdoor Education.

We are very lucky in East Lothian as we have a very good and busy Outdoor Education Team who not only provide lots of opportunities for our pupils but also provide a wide variety of staff development opportunities. I intend to book onto various courses over the coming months in order to build up my qualifications. In addition, Liz is also allowing me to help the team out during my spare time to build up my experience.

 I would like to thank Liz for taking the time to talk to me.

In June this year, East Lothian Council, in partnership with Lothian and Borders Police, will be hosting a series of Internet safety and responsible use training sessions for parents with pupils in P5 - S6 across the county.  This is in response to growing concerns, expressed by individual parents and parent councils, about how to make sure young people use the internet safely and responsibly. The sessions are also designed to show parents how they can protect their youngsters from on-line dangers.
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> The training sessions will be led by Ollie Bray (Depute Head at Musselburgh Grammar School) and PC David Gunn from Lothian and Borders Police. Both Mr Bray and Mr Gunn are accredited Ambassadors of the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency (CEOP).
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> The training session has already been piloted within the Musselburgh Cluster and received positive response from over 200 parents. The content of the evening includes background information on new technologies and information about computers and mobile phones and the law. But the main part of the presentation involves Mr Bray taking the parents into some > ‘> real> ‘>  social networking spaces that young people use. This includes Habba Hotel, Teenspot, MSN Instant Messenger and Bebo. The session also gives advice on how you can protect your home computer and advice on on-line gaming.
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> Everybody who attends the training will have access to a comprehensive on-line handout.
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> The sessions will be held at:
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> *     Preston Lodge High- 3 June 2008
> *     Ross High - 10 June 2008
> *     Dunbar Grammar - 11 June 2008
> *     Knox Academy - 18 June 2008
> *     North Berwick High - 24 June 2008
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> All training sessions will take place between 7 - 9pm.
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> Ollie Bray, Depute Head at Musselburgh Grammar School, says:
> ‘> This is a very exciting time for East Lothian to be leading the way in Internet Training for staff, parents, families and pupils.  We are going to use the feedback we gain from these sessions to inform good practice nationally through the Scottish Learning Festival.> ‘>
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> These evenings will start promptly at 7pm and have a limited availability. If you have any queries or you would like to book a place on one of these sessions, please email Tess Watson, (Acting Education Support Officer) at  twatson at eastlothian.gov.uk or log onto http:edubuzz.org/blogs/internetsafety

Today I attended a Podcasting session run by the East Lothian ICT support team. Before the session I had a pretty good idea what Podcasting is and how I can use it in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning. A few weeks ago I posted about my S1 Modern Studies class who have asked to do Podcasting as part of their Mock Election campaign.

This meant that I went into the session with very clear aims:

• Find out what equipment is required
• Find out what software is required
• Find out how to post it to the internet

The session started with an introduction on what Podcasting is. We were shown a number of podcasts by various schools across Scotland and East Lothian. We were then shown the software that we would be useing and how to use it.

The rest of the session was given over to hands on experience of the technology. Although, it was dissapointing that some of the technology failed us, the course certainly left me with a much clearer idea of how I can bring Podcasting into my teaching and I have even learned how to post the Podcasts to a blog. This means that the class can link up their blog to any Podcasts they make.

I would like to thank David Gilmour, Dave Rawson and Tess Watson for presenting a very interesting course and Ann Cochrane for arranging it.

Today the Assessment is for Learning development group led a whole staff training session. Assessment is For Learning is a key area with in the curriculum. The afternoon started with a video of Assessment is For learning in action and staff were then split into three groups to complete some activities.

Kate Bulloch, Fiona Henry and myself had the task of showing the staff how Memory Mapping could be used within the classroom. Our session started with Fiona introducing a memory game where there is a picture with a number of objects laid out and staff were given 10 seconds to study the picture. The next picture showed that two objects had been taken away and the staff were asked to identify which objects were missing.

I then explained that Memory Mapping is an activity that can be used during a revision lesson or when pupils have to memorise a diagram. It uses peer assessment as pupils are working in groups and assessing what each member has remembered and written down, and what still needs to be written. It also helps the teacher because gaps in understanding can then be filled and we can ensure that pupils have been given important concepts before a test. Moreover, it fits in with a Curriculum for Excellence because pupils are working collaboratively in groups. In addition, all pupils are actively involved in the task and for pupils who are very shy in class it is a low risk activity as there is no need for them to answer in front of the class.

Kate then gave the instructions for the task. We had set the room into groups of four and staff had to number themselves one to four. Each member of the group was then given two minutes to look at a mind map on the wall outside and then return to the group and replicate the mind map as much as possible. They could onlylook at the mind map once during those two minutes. This was repeated until all members of th group had been to look at the mind map.

I would like to thank staff for participating in the activities and hope that we have introduced them to an activity that they can use within their own classroom.

I would also like to thank Fiona for stepping in to help at two days notice!

Well the holidays are here at last. What a term it has been, jam packed to say the least!

It feels like only last week I was sitting at home writing a post on here during the October break. Since then there has been S4 prelims, an EEBL placement, work experience week, S4 reports, S1 Parent’s Evening, S5/S6 Parents’ Evening, the Cadets Christmas night out, Christmas concerts, the infamous S6 Pantomine, Staff Christmas Lunch and so the list goes on.

There have been so many things going on that I would be here until the end of the holidays writing about it all. However, I thought I would briefly outline my personal highlights.

1. The EEBL placement was absoloutly fantastic, for more on that click here.
2. The Cadets Christmas night out to the Time Capsule in Coatbridge. Ice Skating was on the agenda and what fun we had. But I will never forgive the three NCO’s for pulling me round the rink at what felt like 200mph!!!!
3. The Christmas concert. This was the first performance to parents of the Knox Academy Pipe Band. We played Green Hills/Battle’s O’er and Highland Cathedral. The sound was amazing, thanks to our new piping instructor, Colin Pryde, from the East Lothian Pipes and Drums Trust. We really could have been playing in a competition. There have been many excellent comments about our performance which in encouraging for the future of the band.

After all that I am looking forward going back in January fully refreshed.

Merry Christmas!

We were joined by Sue again today to help us pull together the project that we have been working on all week. Sue had set out a structure that could be applied to our individual sections. This means that the final project has a more consistant approach throughout. We spent the whole morning editing and bringing together all the Teacher notes and the Pupil notes and by 12.30 we had our final project. The web designer now has the task of turning our thoughts into an interactive, user friendly, online resource to be used in schools across the country.

We were then treated to another fantastic lunch with the most wonderful sandwiches I have ever seen! We were joined by the whole JMA team who seemed really interested in, and excited about, what we had been doing during the week.

This afternoon Emma had organised three curators from other departments to come to talk to us about the work that they do in the Library. They had been asked to bring along their favourite three items from the collections that they work with. Our first guest was Dr Marina Castrillo who is the Manuscripts Curator. Maria brought along a selection of manuscripts including a diary of a Scottish emmigrant to Canada. Dr Brian Hillyard who is the Rare Books Collection Manager brought along three rare books including one of the first books for the blind ever published. Finally we were shown a selection of graphic novels from John Birch the Assisstant Purchase Curator. This started an interesting discussion about using books, traditionally written off as mere comics, to engage the most reluctant of readers. I was particuarly interested in the Maus books which raises issues about the Holocaust.

I have had a fantastic week at the National Library of Scotland. I have been given the opportunity to work with a wonderful collection of manuscripts and learned a great deal about the workings of the Library. I have developed skills that I can use in the classroom, particularly in developing resources directly related to the Curriculum for Excellence.

I would like to thank everyone at the Library, particulalry the JMA team for making us feel so welcome and Careers Scotland for organising the placement. I also appreciate the support I have received from Knox Academy and East Lothian Council for allowing me to take this once in a lifetime opportunity. Finally, I want to say a massive thanks to the four people that I have spent a great deal of time working with this week, my colleagues Donald and Martine, our consultant Sue, and of course Emma who has supported us throughout the project.

If anyone reading this is thinking about applying for a EEBL Teacher Placement, particularly within the National Library of Scotland, I would encourage you to go for it. It really is a once in a life time chance to do something different which builds on skills required in the classroom.

After a brief planning session first thing this morning, we set about re-drafting our individual sections from yesterday. The overall unit is looking really good and it was great to see it, all be it in draft form, being put together as a single unit.

 We worked independently again this afternoon and I looked through Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Scotland to find quotes that will form the basis of links on the website to each regional section. It was interesting to note that Murray did not like Shetland and spends at least a page picking fault with the remote islands!

Tomorrow Sue will be joining us again to help us bring the final project together and tidy it up so that it is more consistant. We will then present it to the JMA staff.

Today was another very busy and challenging day at the National Library. We met Emma who had set aside some work space for us to use within her office. This was to allow us access to computers, the internet and printers. We were also given a space to allow us to sit down together as a group and plan our resource. Emma then showed us a PowerPoint slide she had made using the outline we had provided of how the website homepage will look.

We then briefly discussed the progress that had been made yesterday and agreed that today we just wanted to get started on laying the foundations of our resource. We decided that the best way to do this would be to split the tasks into three and each take a section to work on independently.

The three sections were:

• Scotland and the Scots
• Murray’s Handbook for Travellers to Scotland
• Designing a local travel guide

I decided to take the second section. This seemed the most logical choice as it is the area most closely related to the study of History. I started drafting a worksheet that pupils will use in the classroom. I designed it in such a way that it can be used by teachers to stimulate a class discussion as well as for pupils to write their answers on. I moved on to draft some teachers notes, explaining how teachers may like to use the resource in the classroom. At this point I felt it important to emphasise the way in which the resource can be used accross the curriculum.

During lunchtime Emma had organised a visit from Ken Cockburn who was the John Murray Archive’s writer in residence in 2006. Ken clearly had a great deal of knowledge about various aspects of the collection and experience in using the material as a teaching resource, as during his time at the library he had run workshops with both adult groups and with groups of Primary 7’s. Ken then set the three of us a task to write a letter to a historical figure. I shall not rewrite my letter here but I will tell you that I chose General Haig. The task he set was useful and I know my English colleagues are keen to try it out in their classrooms.

We then decided that the teacher’s notes that I had typed up this morning could be used, with some additions, as the Teacher’s guide to the whole unit of work. We spent the remainder of the afternoon editing this guide. By 4.30pm we had in place a full Teachers’ guide and draft versions of the pupil tasks to be included in the pack.