Barry Smith - Stuff and things

Stephen Heppell’s visit to the school was a great opportunity for me to see some of the incredible animation and film work being created by the youngsters at Preston Lodge High School.  If animation and film-making are your thing it would be worth getting in touch with our Art department, PT Jim Cramb and the other members [...]

                                             
I took a good deal from what May Sweeney had to say in her presentation to the conference on Friday.  To summarise, the message I got (feel free to correct me if you were there and I’m wrong!) was that the curriculum is opening up to allow activities previously viewed as extra curricular becoming an integral [...]

I found out about VIG only today in discussion with a colleague and we have decided to look at look at possibly using it with the ALPs programme.  What is the VIG you ask?
Video Interaction Guidance “is a technique which aims to improve communications and relationships for participants.  Participants are involved in discussing very short recordings of their [...]

I’ve blogged quite a bit about thinking skills and creativity, it’s something I have a real interest in.  I am keenly aware my own personal development has been positively affected by becoming more emotionally literate and thinking about my thinking, perceptions, mental models whatever you want to call it, and subsequently accessing my own creative thinking in [...]

Professor Brian Boyd’s keynote speech focused on the place of thinking skills within a Curriculum for Excellence.  The main themes from the speech as I understood them were as follows :
Making the connections
Are we on the edge of a ‘New Enlightenment’ with the freedom being given to educators through a Curriculum for Excellence?
Thinking skills are equally important [...]

It has been a hectic few weeks as I think I’ve mentioned ad infinitum recently with the launch of ALPs, SQH Unit 3 and other ‘enjoyable’ pressures.   However, I think I was beginning to feel a bit empty in the fuel tank, the red light was certainly on.  I knew that the brain was threatening to become full [...]

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about reading Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline.  Over the last few nights I’ve been reading about the concept of mental models.  The idea is not new to me, nor I suspect to many others who have read the book.  The interesting thing about Senge’s description in my opinion is what we do with [...]

I’m putting a health warning at the top here, this is more of my thoughts as opposed to information about anything that’s going on.  It may or may not be of interest, but it is important for my learning.  With that in mind please feel free to bail out or battle on, the decision is yours! 
I’ve [...]

I’ve spent another fruitful and hectic day working towards the SQH comparative study today.  Firstly I interviewed a number of staff at John Muir House about their impressions of the ‘climate for creativity’ within their working environment.  I was delighted that as we chatted a number of themes appeared to be emerging, in relation to the perceived culture of the working environment.  [...]

Today I spent the day at John Muir House shadowing Don Ledingham as part of my SQH comparative study.  I’m comparing the climate for innovation and creativity between ELC Education Department and Preston Lodge HS.  It was fascinating to see at first hand how the different/competing interests and demands of so many stakeholders are balanced [...]