This week the blog posts about teachers’ return to school have been flying, but few teachers will have that first hard week more in perspective than Caroline Gibson, who spent her holidays working in Malawi with the Global Teachers Programme.
During her adventures she managed to keep an online diary of her learning, the new experiences, the fun, and over the past few weeks has been emptying her brain of the remainder of this amazing journey.
My favourite aspect of her time there is probably one that’s unrelated to her reason for being there. A keen runner, Caroline somehow managed to maintain a training schedule, joined by the occasional local child on her 10k runs – the photo at the top of this post is indicative of just one day’s running companions!
Today I received an email from the RSA alerting me to an interesting event which I simply can’t attend. Why do I enlist for newletters from organisations 400 miles away? The main reason is to remind me to keep in touch with what these interesting organisations are doing. By visiting the Index of audio lectures you can listen live or, later, listen again to this Thursday’s debate with Lord Adonis chairing entitled Rethinking Schooling.
Dr Anthony Seldon – the only one to bring some young people with him. One of them pointed out that “…we are expecting more and more of our young people, but believing in them less and less.†Another stressed that there is little point in involving young people in lessons in well-being if the rest of their day is directed by staff who exhibit very little of that quality.
Including the vigorous debate which followed the invited speakers, the whole thing lasts for 90 minutes but is very stimulating for anyone involved with young people. It is currently top of the list in the archive.
Ollie Bray expands on the gaming sessions senior students have been organising for younger pupils at Musselburgh Grammar School, and sees yet another simple role for gaming in keeping kids in school at lunchtime, eating the healthier food of the canteen, instead of venturing to the deep fried alternative in the high street. So could gaming, so often associated with the new couch potato generation, actually be making our kids healthier?
According to Death Clock, it is 18 Feb 2051, 9 days short of my 92nd birthday and 8 years short of receiving a congratulatory hologram from the President. Still, it"s a good innings. The details required for the calculation are so few (DoB, Gender, BMI, Smoker/Non-smoker and Optimist/Pessimist/Sadist) that my less-than-svelte, non-smoking, 47-year old biology must be relying on Optimism for such longevity.
I am an optimist and therefore eschew complaining. But just let me get one in – consider it the reformed moaner"s autumnal equivalent of a Hamlet cigar at Christmas. It"s this.
Nobody I know would blatantly read over your shoulder or shame-facedly examine the content of something you were writing by hand. However, many people, of all ages, seem to think it permissible to read the contents of your screen while purportedly talking or even listening to you. Is it because it looks kind of like a TV and you wouldn"t feel weird looking at the TV in someone else"s house? Perhaps it"s time to grace the taskbar with an ever-ready mp3 of de Niro"s Taxi Driver voice inquiring, "Are you looking at me?â€
That"s it for this year – Meldrew moment over. Is it just me? Any thoughts?
Morna Crombie from Curriculum for Excellence and pupils from St Stephen’s Primary School in Dalmuir in Clydebank demonstrate interdisciplinary learning with a short drama combining food and health, physical activity and maths.
Representatives from three different educational groups introduce what each of their projects involves. Fiona Fisher of the Scotland China School Links Program, Bridget Doogan of Scottish Health talking about ‘emotional literacy’, and Margaret Sutherland of the Scottish Network for Able Pupils feature in these short interviews.
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Ollie Bray expands