My Stuff

My Primary 5 class have just posted their first ever blog at Inchinnan Primary School and are feeling highly motivated and excited about it. This is a plea to all you educators out their to please leave a comment to keep their excitement going. Thanking-you all in advance!!

I have just arrived back from our Primary ICT Co-ordinators meeting, put the kids to bed, have hubby cooking dinner (yes I do know how lucky I am!) and thought I should use this window to blog my thoughts on tonights meeting.
The presentation from Paul Smyth of RM on Glow gave me a feel for all the possibilities that Glow should create. I am particularly excited about the collaborative tools to help, as Paul said, teachers always reinventing the wheel which is a bug bear of mine! However, I do still have concerns regarding two things.
Firstly, parents coming online with this. I am not sure how far I want to go with shared information about everything. Teaching challenging pupils can be a hard enough job without being attacked (metaphorically) at every turn. As a parent myself I can see that it would be useful to have access to certain information but as my boys are not yet at school, I am unsure just how far I want to go. Those of you with kids at Secondary could maybe open my eyes more.
Secondly, I am concerned about how we are going to get on board all staff with this new technology. Of course, I’m sure there will be plenty of enthusiastic colleagues who will embrace the challenge of Glow and carry some staff along with them. But how do we get on board those who don’t “do computers”? How do we get the message to them that this will revolutionise (there’s that word again, Gordon!) the way they teach when some are quite happy with what they are doing, thank-you very much. I suppose a little at a time, showing them the benefits to their classroom, their subject, a little step at a time. Today’s mention of online report cards may be just the carrot we are looking for. Hope I’m not going negative again, it is a genuine concern for me from an authority point of view.

Well it definitely worked. I was once again inspired by all I saw at SETT. I started the day on Wednesday attending David and Ewan’s seminar which set me down the blogging path once again. I have now decided to set up a French learning blog with another local school ( Kirklandneuk ) and we are meeting up this week to go through all the technical stuff. I really took on board what they said about letting people know what is out there by advertising it so I guess this is my first attempt to do it. More on that once I have set up our blogs.
I also attended another seminar by Rob Henderson, Teacher, Hillhead Primary School, Highland which was all about his school news programme. This really excited me as I have been looking for a way to connect with my parents other than through newsletters and I think a termly video podcast is definitely the way to go. Check out Inchinnan Primary for more details soon. This linked in with another superb idea from Susan Buchanan, Principal Teacher, Woodhill Primary School where they have created a blog to engage their parents in debate about policy, etc. I can’t wait to take this to my Head Teacher and see what ideas we can come up with. This leads me back to John’s brilliant idea of advertising through posters in local shops – sometimes the simple ones are the best! A design a poster competition beckons …

Two days back and things are looking up. With SETT to look forward to and a holiday weekend, I’m feeling really positive. I decided to start blogging for myself last week just to give it a try. It is really amazing how just a couple of comments (thanks John and Ewan ) can convince you to get going again. On Monday, I showed Sandaig’s website to the P6s and had a great discussion with them about how we could use blogs in our work, things like the book reviews and a healthy blog for eating and exercise during our Health week. Their task over the next week is to make comments on other people’s blogs and then we will take it from there.
Then, tonight I had a great Curriculum Development with my staff where I convinced them all of the benefits of online bookmarking and delicious/inchinnan has taken off. Since I have already started using it with some of my classes, hopefully it will become embedded soon as they all immediately saw the benefits – I always knew my staff were well tuned in!
I also tried to introduce them to flickr and bubbleshare but it was information overload at that point so I think I might have to take them a bit more slowly and come up with some innovative ways to get them using them first. Hopefully SETT tomorrow and Thursday will provide me with some more inspiration! See you there if you are going.

Well I’m now feeling much more upbeat. I spent Friday at my sister’s wedding. What a great day! The weather was fabulous, everyone looked gorgeous, Nic and Nathan grinned from ear to ear all day and everyone threw themselves into the day. It all went smoothly so all those months of planning were well worth it! Check out the photos here. And can I just say – how cute are my boys?! (They’re the ones in the cream shirts, generally running away from the camera!)
I am now feeling in just the right frame of mind to get the P6s to post some comments on other people’s blogs tomorrow and to get them thinking of inventive ways in which they can use blogs and/or podcasts in Health and RME. Watch this space!

As I was rushing from the gym hall with one class trailing behind me, realising that I was if fact late for my next class, it suddenly struck me that very few of my great ideas following on from the Web 2.0 course at Stirling and the XChange Conference in Belfast had come to fruition. Once again I had been sucked back into the vortex that is my Primary school and the pressures to just get throught that section of the Maths with that class, complete that part of the Writing syllabus with that class, look at the programme of work for this class and so on that go with it. What happened to my inspiring ideas that were going to transform how I covered the non-contact time in my school? Three words – not enough time! What a pathetic excuse I hear you say and you would be right. How do you juggle transforming the way you teach, inspiring your staff, covering the non-contact 2.5 days a week, taking a class 1 day a week and, in my case, looking after a 2 year old (yes I know potty training beckons, but it is just too hard at the moment!!) and a 4 year old (well, on Monday)? I know the answer is just take one thing at a time, but which inspiring idea do I start with. I suppose I should take heart from the fact that I did set up online bookmarking for my school but I am disheartened by the fact I have not found the time to show any of my staff how to use it!!

Ah well, maybe next week at SETT and attending the Glow awareness raising dinner, etc. will bring back my inspiration. I sure hope so.

Apologies to all for such a rant for my first blog – I promise to be more upbeat in future.