Not a Stick! Making Sense of Metaphors
→ I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here! | Sat Jan 28 10:51:37 +0000 2012

When I was 11 years old I remember struggling to understand the concept of a metaphor. There is a wonderful poem, The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes which opens with three super metaphorical descriptions to set the scene...

 However, my difficulty, as a child was that I felt I could never achieve the brilliance of this poet. In many ways it was a top-down approach to learning about metaphor, beginning with the finest examples and then, me and the rest of the class trying desperately hard to mimic at a sub-standard level the concept in our own writing. So one thing I'm keen to do, is to introduce metaphor from a bottom-up approach starting with what children do best...

One of the strengths about working in a natural setting is that it can help children develop their imagination through the use of metaphor in nature. When children play in a wood or on a beach, they quickly start using one object to represent another. For example in the photo below, the tree trunk has become a house and the children are using the bark as plates.

Taking this concept and adapting it is helpful for older children when formally introduced to the concept of a metaphor. There is a book called Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis which demonstrates very simply how a stick is used lots of different ways. It is not a stick! 

Children can find a stick outside, bring it back to the gathering space and the class can enjoy doing a dramatic round, where they take it in turns to show what their stick has become, "It's not a stick, it's a .... " and everyone can mime the idea. As we all know, sticks can be fishing rods, light sabers, wands and many other things.

From here, children can research traditional sayings and idioms that use metaphors and learn about what they mean. Ones that spring to mind include:

• Turning over a new leaf
• Barking up the wrong tree
• Stone the crows

As a follow up, undertake a simple activity like a leaf slide show. The children study the patterns and structure of leaves by holding them up to the sunlight. What does the vein pattern below remind you of? A star? The skin of an alien?

Children can use this as a brainstorming opportunity to come up with loads of ideas and narrow them down to one or two favourites. Once a simple metaphor has been chosen, such as a star, then a child can up level this to a more descriptive metaphor such as "The leaf is a star-bursting sun filter." (That's my quick idea which children almost always better!)

From here, the class can start enjoying The Highwayman and other fine examples of metaphor and hopefully will be inspired by such a classic poem knowing that they too, can write effectively this way.

#edtechcc Assignment 2 The Sight of Sound
→ John's World Wide Wall Display | Sat Jan 28 10:49:00 +0000 2012

Assignment 2 – The Sight of Sound – #edtechcca2

For this assignment, combine audio effects into a soundscape to represent a place or an event. This assignment may not be suitable for all educational areas, so please feel free to create a soundscape for a scene from a favourite book or a poem, or come up with another idea.

The Real Work - Gary Snyder

• Freesound.org - "wooden boat row water.wav" by bulbastre
• Freesound.org - "27022005_snares_island_sea lion.ogg" by stormpetrel
• Freesound.org - "Diesel engine boat 4 loop 100307.wav" by LG
• Freesound.org - "harbor waves.wav" by klankbeeld
• Freesound.org - "oceanwavescrushing.wav" by Luftrum
• Freesound.org - "seagull.wav" by hazure
• Freesound.org - "UrbanHerringGulls.wav" by acclivity

Took me a while to figure out a text. Limited my searching to Freesound to save time. Downloaded a bunch of files and loaded them into audacity. Just sliced, changed the volume, and made some fades. This is a good fun assignment that I'd really like to try in a classroom. Would need plenty of time as I guess this is the best part of 3 hours play for me. A fair bit of this was being distracted on freesound.

Time Saving Attribution

The only tip I can offer is only tangentially linked to the task and mac only. To gather the links for attribution I open the links in a set of tabs in Safari and then run a wee AppleScript this puts a list of html links to each tab on my clipboard, paste into TextMate and wrap in li tags. (I use FastScripts for running applescripts).

Links for 2012-01-27 [del.icio.us]
→ edu.blogs.com | Sat Jan 28 08:00:00 +0000 2012

• Use Appointment Slots on a Google Calendar

Struggling Pupils don’t catch up according to Department of Education
→ How to help your child reach their full potential | Fri Jan 27 23:09:29 +0000 2012

In a report published by the Department of Education in England, just one in 15 (6.5%) pupils starting secondary school in England “behind” for their age goes on to get five good GCSEs including English and maths, official data shows.  Read more details of the report as reported on bbc.co.uk here. Obviously this report applies [...]

XL3 Zombies
→ Our Lady's High School | Fri Jan 27 22:20:56 +0000 2012

XL3 are writing, photographing and starring in their own comic strip about a Zombie takeover of the school. Argh! Click here to keep up with their progress. The XL classes are funded through the Prince’s Trust. Filed under: Creativity, Home … Continue reading ?

The Great Climate Change Debate – Join us on Glow
→ Global Citizens | Fri Jan 27 22:19:38 +0000 2012

A series of interactive and lively Glow meets  

In November this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change launched a report warning that climate change is likely to lead to more extreme weather. Within weeks of this launch, Scotland was battered by severe flooding and hurricane-force winds which brought much of the country to a standstill. Is our climate already changing? What will climate change mean for Scotland? How can we respond positively and adapt to the changes ahead? 

We’re inviting your school to join the great climate change debate. We’ll be bringing together a panel of scientists and experts to answer questions, spark debate and discussion and help learners navigate their way through climate fact, fiction and controversy.

• Glow meet 1: Our changing weather and climate (23^rd Jan ’12)
• Glow meet 2: Climate science – evidence versus controversy  (30^th Jan ’12)
• Glow meet 3: Adapting to climate change (6^th Feb ’12)

Each Glow meet will take place from 2pm to 3:00pm. These events will be targeted at learners in secondary schools and upper primary.

Please see links below for further details about each event:

GLOW MEET 1 Our changing weather and climate 23Jan12 (To view the recording click here)

GLOW MEET 2 Climate science evidence vs controversy 30Jan12

GLOW MEET 3 Adapting to climate change 6Feb12

For resources and videos on climate change visit Weather and Climate Change, Exploring Climate Change and Climate Change on Glow.

Global Citizenship – Glow drop-in session
→ Global Citizens | Fri Jan 27 22:18:55 +0000 2012

Developing Global Citizens through sustainable development education

Time:  3.45pm – 4.45pm, Thursday 26^th January

Where: The shiny new Glow community for global citizenship

 2012 is a big year for Sustainable Development Education (SDE):

• World leaders will gather in Rio to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and decide on further action
• 2012 is the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
• We only have three years until the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Education and there is a buzz of activity happening in schools and local authorities across Scotland.

 If you’d like to tune into all that’s happening and are looking for inspiration and ideas to kick start 2012 then this is the Glow meet for you. The Developing Global Citizenship Team will be hosting this informal session open to any practitioner or school leader – just drop into the Glow meet to pick our brains, find out what’s coming up or tell us what you’re up to. If you missed the previous sessions then click here to see how they work.