I was lucky enough to be invited to a demo of LTScotland’s Consolarium earlier today. The Consolarium is the brainchild of Derek Robertson and focusses on the value of learning through games. Derek has (in a relatively short time) initiated a number of case studies with impressive results, including the use of:

• Dr Kawashima’s Brain training with P4 pupils
• Guitar Hero as the focus for a primary / secondary transition
• the use of role playing games.

Talk about motivation!

He even promised to populate CPDFind with the CPD opportunities on his site and blog. My kind of guy!

Our good friend Donald Henderson has now left his post in Teachers Division to take up a new role as Interim Chief Executive of Lifelong Learning Directorate, Skills Development Scotland.

 The National CPD Team owes a great deal to Donald’s vision and drive, and he has been unfailing in his support and encouragement at a personal and team level. We will really miss him!

Click to read the years-2-6.doc

This occasional paper outlines the CPD needs of teachers in early stages of their careers and describes challenges, and examines interesting practice and CPD issues.

Comments as always welcome.

As the festive season approaches, and to save a tree or two, the CPD Team would like to wish you all a fantastic Christmas.

As a thank-you to all our readers, we are offering a bottle of Champagne to the person who comes up with the wittiest (and printable!) caption to this photograph of our very own Jim Keegans!

Just select the comment button below to leave your caption.

And here’s a bit of fun too. It might be slow to load but it’s worth the wait!

Happy Christmas!

Margaret, Ruth, Jim, John, Con

Click to read the Coaching and Mentoring summary

This post comes from Graeme Finnie (leadership consultant with Learning and Teaching Scotland).

“This is an important period of growth in coaching and mentoring in schools and local authorities and this commentary reflects the extent of the development supported by SEED 2006/2007. In it you can read about examples of approaches taken and the impact that coaching and mentoring is making in many local authorities. Of course this is not the whole story. There are many other developments going ahead which are not described here and you should get in touch with your CPD contact to find out what is happening in your area. Work is also underway (see the earlier blog entry) to develop case studies and examples of practice which will shed more light on the impact of coaching and mentoring for pupils and students, teachers and school leaders, in schools and classrooms across Scotland.”

Please note some edits have been made to the original posted commentary (17th Dec 07)

As part of the CPD online initiative, which is being developed by Learning and Teaching Scotland in partnership with the National CPD team, a pilot of an online coaching and mentoring environment for Curriculum Managers, Principal Teachers (Faculty Heads) was developed. This was based on Learning & Teaching Scotland’s online communities’ tool which currently hosts, amongst others, ‘Masterclass’, ‘Deputes Together’ and ‘Heads Together’.

You can read an evaluation of the pilot here evaluation-of-faculty-leaders-pilot-28-08.doc