This week my S3 class have been busy researching, direction and producing their own news broadcasts. Though I use this activity to teach the ending of the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, it is a really fun task that can be used in many subject areas to teach different topics.

I split the class into two groups or rival news channels. Each group had to pick their own director, camera person, researchers, writers and of course presenters.  Each period I expected a full script to be completed for a single broadcast. Each broadcast included sports and weather in addition to the main news topics. I called directors meetings at random times to give the teams faxes that had just come through. These faxes were designed to give the pupils a brief outline of the key events and helped them structure their broadcasts.

The pupils then recorded their broadcasts and we watched them back together. The class enjoyed the task and every member of the team contributed to the finished product. Pupils who did not want to be on camera could work the camera or acted as researchers. One pupil even dressed up to deliver the weather bulletins. The two directers emerged as excellent leaders and I would like to congratulate them on the maturity, and the skill in which they lead their teams.

Thanks also to the drama department for the loan of the costumes!

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.

This afternoon we were given an excellent tutorial in the use of interactive whiteboards from John Self a representative of Promethean. John started with the basics including switching the projector on and off and callibrating the pen. He discussed the use of other programmes through the board to allow teachers to use resources they already have. We then looked at various tools. John finished off the demonstration of each of the tools by explaining how we could use them in the classroom and giving us practical examples of these.

We were then given some time to play around with the software and try things out while John went round the group answering questions. The session finished off by the group coming together and we discussed things we had found and tried whilst exploring the software.

Despite going into this session having already used an interactive board for a number of weeks, and feeling fairly confident in the use of the board, I still came away with many new skills and ideas. Interactive whiteboards certainly have a lot of potential within any classroom and I am in no doubt about their value within the History classroom, it is just a case of playing around with the software and being as imaginative as possible.

I would like the thank John for his inspiring presentation and sharing his knowledge and experience of using this valuable resource within the classroom.