After reading a discussion on twitter and with the introduction of the new Curriculum for Excellence I would like to add this to the blog and as you to discuss it…

Is there a culture of fear within Scottish education?

As 2011 starts as does a new term and therefore new events; curricular and extra curricular to look forward to…

With still no word from SQA/Government re examinations for senior pupils sitting Curriculum for Excellence we move forward with developing our S1 and S2 courses with a cautionary step. I have to say that I feel we are currently doing some excellent work at Knox on how to meet the needs of our young people in S1 and S2.

Our Standard Grade Pupils are currently involved in a playwriting project with a school in America and are developing their plays based around the theme of ‘Home’. The aim of the project is to write a 5 minute play that will then be directed by a student in the other school, so the Americans will be directing modern Scottish plays and we will be directing modern American plays.

Our Higher students move into the Examination period with the Acting Exam just around the corner…

The NC pupils are currently working on their Musical Theatre Cabaret’s which will be showcased in Feburary before starting their final productions.

on an Extra Curricular side of things… Our school production is being shown in February after being delayed because of Snow in December. So Sweeney Todd is getting gorier by the second…

Our NC Make-Up course is going from strength to strength thanks to my wonderful collegue…

KWN will start filming their Global Citizenship video…

We have our trip to New York and London…

So as you can see… it’s all go… nothing like starting the New Year hitting the floor running.

On a personal note I was given my sabbatical for next session and have applied for some post graduate courses. I have applied for a few promoted posts lately which I haven’t been lucky to get and am kind of feeling maybe teaching isn’t for me. So this sabbatical will be a breathe of fresh air.

Teaching is a great job but there is too much paper work, red tape, people to impress, new ideas, governement schemes (i could go on and on and on) to actually be able to do the best in your job – we can but try – but it’s hard and this holiday I have realised that. I love my job but can I actually do everything that is asked of me? I try but can I do it to the standards I am happy with? Anyway… my sabbastical will hopefully make me fall in love with the job I currently do again… cause at the moment i’m on Act 5 of The Crucible!

To all the teachers out there… you do a wonderful job! Just keep reminding yourself that.

Have an amazing 2011!

A group of S3 pupils at Knox Academy are taking part in an excellent educational programme called KWN (Kids Witness News) which is ran by Panasonic.

The programme aims to train our young people in issues of Global importance for their age by engaging in Media. I was so lucky to be part of this project at my previous school and we created a documentary about the Lockerbie Air Disaster which can be seen here

This year's Knox Team are already on the go! They have had several meetings and have decided their topic to research. After two intensive days of Media training from the excellent James, the pupils learnt skills in Editing and Filming. We were shattered but had so much fun.

Panasonic KWN is a global education programme for 11-16 year-olds in five continents. At no cost to schools, the Programme provides video production equipment and training for the development of School Video News Teams.

Beginning with two schools in New Jersey, USA in 1988, the KWN Programme now supports 617 schools in 25 countries. During the 2008-9 academic year, 83 schools took part across Europe including 22 in the UK.

Starting work in October, School Video News Teams research and produce four minute videos on aspects of global citizenship from the point of view of their own communities. The deadline is mid-February.

The pupils value this project because

• Active Learning (doing rather than just listening)
• Collaborative Learning (working in teams rather than alone)
• Being part of something really big (global is very big)
• Making their own decisions
• Setting their own targets
• Learning from their own mistakes
• Knowing how much their skills have improved
• Sharing ideas with other young people around the world
• The challenge of winning a major award
• Being supported by, not led by, adults
• Having fun!

and as a teacher I value this project because it offers the pupils skills in the following areas

• Project planning
• Time management
• Persuasion
• Target setting
• Flexibility
• Presentation
• Team building
• Brain storming
• Decision making
• Task allocation
• Researching
• Internal & external P.R.
• Prioritising
• Communication
• Press relations
• Scheduling & re-scheduling
• Negotiation
• Evaluation

and on a selfish point of views… means i’m doing Media Studies again which i’ve missed since coming to Knox.

So a HUGE thank you to Panasonic for getting in touch with us  and a thank you to Mrs J Craig for agreeing that Knox can be part of the programme.

We’ll keep you posted as this fantastic ‘Curriculum For Excellence’ project  takes hold.

I came across a programme called ‘Glee’ by a conversation I had with a friend back in September of last year who said ‘It’s about these group of misfits who sing and dance in this club and it’s set in a school’ From that moment one I made it my goal to find out what the hell he was talking about and watch it!

I found it and was hooked to the smash hit Fox programme GLEE.

Set in a High School in America it looks at a group of teenagers in a show choir, they all fit into a stereotype. I bought thebox set when I was in New York and have paved the way at Knox for them to become ‘Gleeks’ (fans of Glee)

At Knox we have such a strong musical tradition but lacked performance groups and therefore I set up a ‘Glee’ club, we were actually in talks about setting up a performance group back in August.

BBC 5 Live and BBC Scotland recorded us LIVE from Knox Academy and we were so excited, we have only been rehearsing since Janurary but they are fantastic.

Clearly the ”Glee affect’ is taking hold, with songs from the programme storming the charts and The Knox Academy Glee Club performing Live on the BBC.

You can listen to us here

drama-glee5live