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Safeguarding Digital Course Evidence with ‘Dropbox’

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:02:25 GMT

On average, at least two pupils a year, studying Advanced Higher Graphics here at The Royal High School, lose significant amounts of course work because it hasn’t been backed up somewhere. This year, I’ll be encouraging pupils to use http://dropbox.com. Dropbox provides 2 GB of free storage on its servers (and up to 100 GB, for [...]

Primary 4/5 Viking Maths

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:01:29 GMT

Primary 4/5 have started work on their topic, the Vikings.? They discovered that they knew a little bit about the Vikings, but not much, so are now doing some research.

One of the things that they discovered was that a Viking Longship was about 30 metres long and about 6 metres wide.? They decided to see how big their ship really was, and went out into the playground with trundle wheels and chalk.

First of all everyone tried to estimate how long 30 metres was on the playground.? Each person marked where they thought it was with their name.? Then they measured how long their guess was., using the trundle wheel.? They discovered that all the estimates were around 20 metres to 27 metres.

Next the exact length of the Longship was marked out on the ground, then everyone estimated the width of six metres.? After measuring it, Kyle was exactly right, with a few others very close.

The class next formed a line down the side of the ship, and they drew the shape of the ship on the ground.? When the outline of the ship was drawn, everyone got their chairs and set them out in pairs like Vikings seated and rowing their ship.? There were only 15 in class and using this number and the space available on the ship, they then estimated that about 70 Vikings might have travelled in the great Longships.

Viking Maths in the playground

S6 Session 26 August 2010

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:02:05 GMT

CB file-1 file-2 file-3 file-4 file-5 File-6 CV Newsletter template Leaflets MB Enterprise Ltd Employers briefing Good candidate Interviewee nae bothered Right! So you’ve now experienced what life can be like both as an interviewer and interviewee We need to make sure that when you go for an interview that you are fully prepared and [...]

Blogshelf: the RSS Reader for the iPad

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:34:42 GMT

My RSS Reader of choice on the Mac has been Netvibes for a number of years. I prefer its ‘widgets view’ to the standard ‘reader view’ used by, for instance, Google Reader (although Netvibes does offer the reader view as an alternative for those who prefer it). Netvibes via Safari on the iPad disappointed me, [...]

Science Apparatus Pictures

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:58:18 GMT

Hi First Year scientists! Do you want to make your science reports look fantastic? Then click on the link below to download a sheet with some of the common science apparatus you will be using in Mr Mallon`s science lab. You can print out the sheet and cut out the pictures of test tubes, beakers [...]

Assessment – Part One

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:51:22 GMT

I was going to write this as one post but I am still getting my thoughts together on Curriculum for excellence. I thought I’d share the initial part of the talk on assessment. This week I attended a talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival today given by Terry Lanagan, Executive Director of Educational Services at [...]

Teacher Productivity - what if we harnessed Mechanical Turk?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:21:00 GMT

One of the most important areas of teacher development must surely be working out how to save time, create more time, drop some of the less meaningful activity in our days to create more, higher energy time to engage with students or improve our own professional learning? 9 times out of 10 the main barrier to teachers doing what they...

Sami & Me

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:02:01 GMT

by Haris Thursday 2nd September My big brother is called Sami. He is 10 years old. His favourite t.v. show is Top Gear & some other channels he likes. His favourite cartoons is OOPS T.V & Spongebob Square pants and Ben10. His favourite food is Pizza and chips. He likes to play football. by Haris

Thursday 2nd September

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:01:13 GMT

We were painting houses for our new topic. - Fletcher

We were writing 4 and 3 in maths. - Joseph

We painted houses for our new topic. - Sophie

We were singing songs in the hall. - Emma

We painted houses for our new topic. - Molly

Mr McDonald came and spoke to us and showed us his socks.? He is so funny. - Ollie

We painted a house in bright colours. - Richard

I liked seeing Mr McDonald's socks.? They had eggs and sausages on them. - Callum

We were putting toys onto the letters. - Alexandra

We were writing 4s. - Molly

We took stuff out of the magic bag and seen if it was a 'a' or 't' or 's' or something else. - Matilda

My Favourite Things

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:13:32 GMT

by Dylan L I love Carolanne very much. She takes me to the park. I like playing on the computer. And I like school. It’s so funny. And I love the playground so much. When I grow up I want to be janitor. I will go up on the roof and sometimes I will check [...]

PC Passport ASPs SCQF levels 4, 5 and 6

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:09:38 GMT

The revised PC Passport ASPs are now available on the secure site. I believe they were published last week although the e-mail from SQA mycentre did not go out until 31 August 2010. Please use the revised ASPs (August 2010 versions) as these match the updated Unit specifications.

Where there were two ASPs (for school and FE use) there are still two ASPs available but titled ASP 1 and ASP 2 and not differentiated for either market. Centres can choose which one they wish to use.

Technology is not an 'either/or'

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:16:52 GMT

Ever want a compelling reasoned argument for those we meet who'd rather "young people learnt how to play outdoors in the sun and get away from all this technology"? John Connell vents some mild frustration at the Luddite brigade who proclaim that all this technology is good and well, but…: "Call me a grumpy old man, but I want my...

Let’s try Judo

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:14:35 GMT

Some of the classes watched a Judo demonstration in the hall today, with some of the pupil chosen to help with the demonstration. Anyone interested in having a go is welcome to a free session on Friday 10th September. Details have been sent home with children. Click on the pictures to see more detail.

Quotabl.es - finally our quotations history gets the home it deserves

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:47:44 GMT

My good chums at Mint and Channel 4's Adam Gee have come up with a beauty of a service, finally providing a beautiful, slick home for the world's best quotations. It's a brilliant resource for any student of history, English language, Classics, science, or PowerPoint 101. Never again will I have to suffer inaccurate citing in keynote presentations, or dinner...

Recruitment and Selection

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:43:24 GMT

As always good quality presentation from TED.Some thoughts here on the “loss of wisdom”, particularly relevant to the HR arena in terms of constructing job applications( reference to the janitor job spec./description). It’s also relevant in terms of rules, regulations and bureaucracy and how these “stop us doing the right thing”, and “hinder improvisation”. Great [...]

Edublogs News: Featured blogs and a hero’s interview

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:50:56 GMT

For the past few months, we have announced on facebook and twitter our featured blog-o-the-week each Thursday. We hope that others are able to gain ideas from these blogs while we are able to recognize teachers and students for all of their excellent work. This week, the featured blog is Heroes 2011 from Brebeuf Jesuit College Preparatory [...]

Annie McSeveney

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:54:39 GMT

Annie McSeveney sadly died on Monday 23rd August 2010 of complications following surgery to treat a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage. Members of her family were with her. Annie’s funeral took place on Monday 30th August 2010 at Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh. It was attended by over 100 friends and colleagues reflecting Annie’s many and varied activities and interests: ACTS, the GTCS, [...]

Links for 2010-09-01 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Hands-on tech boost (Aug 31) | Herald Sun
A visiting UK conference presenter has advised teachers to learn from the creative industries where, he says, "in a field like film they are learning all the time and if they don't they die".

Ewan McIntosh, director of NoTosh Limited (UK), presented at last week's Expanding Learning Horizons and School Tech conference which explored the theme "what is now possible" for educators and IT professionals.

The focus was on the impact of new technologies on the classroom and the move towards one-to-one learning.

McIntosh says: "Most of what occurs in schools is aimed at succeeding in exams or getting to the next stage of education. But employers are looking for something quite different. They want people who can invent new solutions and come up with new avenues of success."
Canon 7D vs. Barbie Video Girl on Vimeo
A comparison between my two new cameras: The $1,800 Canon 7D versus the brand new $50 Barbie Video Girl... available in the girlie aisle of your local Toys R Us. It's the sassiest camera money can buy.

Links for 2010-09-01 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:00:00 GMT

For Classroom Teachers alternatives when youtube is blocked
some good sites and practical advice for teachers

UK Sound Map

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:19:00 GMT

An interesting crowd sourced data project UK Sound Map answers the question: 'What does Britain sound like?'

All you do is record some sound with Audioboo and tag it uksm the boos are moderated and added to the The UK SoundMap. This, of course, reminds me of our EDUtalk project.

Discussing social media and this sort of thing with my daughter Christine we recorded a quick boo of the rather quiet traffic outside our flat.

This could be a nice classroom activity for iPhone equipped teachers and I intend giving it a wee try next time I am working with a class, perhaps a playtime recording would be a good idea.

Lost on the bypass road

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:49:16 GMT

Categories: Urban
I've been trying to think of a way to look at urban traffic problems and bypasses with my S4 classes. I was thinking of using a maps from memory activity from David Leats book based around Newcastle, but feel there are times in the year when I'd want to do this type of activity again and I don't want it to wear thin. This is a vague collection of other people's ideas which I hope I can put into a single lesson or two, but I may take the path more travelled if I assess this tomorrow and feel it won't work.
First up is an adaptation of a colleague Val Adams exercise for the lower school based around Disney Pixar's Cars. Val related Radiator Springs to a local bypass issue. Due to the year group, the students were given lots of potential advantages and disadvantages to sort, but as it's a more senior group, I'd like to see if the students can arrive at most of these themselves. Towards the close of the discussion, I'll present more potential choices to the group.
Secondly, I'm going to use Google Earth or wheresthepath, choose a local settlement and trace two potential bypass routes, ask the group to consider the same advantages/disadvantages, but using local knowledge, decide which route they would choose and why. I'm toying with the idea of impromptu audioboos on their choices.
Finally, as a homework exercise, I'd like to use Tony Cassidy's facebook templates to recap on the themes. We'll construct facebook pages for pro/anti-bypass campaigners. I'd like to see some simulated debate on wall posts, who would be likely to fan this page etc. As I say, we'll see what tomorrow brings, but would be nice to pull this off.