Tag Archives: Achievement

Achievement, Active Learning, CPD, EduBuzz, ICT, Ideas

Class Blogging

I noticed that the Primary 1 Blog at Gullane Primary School was very active at the minute so I decided to get in touch with their teacher Mr Dagger to find out why they blogged…

What have you been doing?
I’ve been writing a class blog about things we’ve been up to in Primary 1.

In what ways does this relate to Curriculum for Excellence?
I think that the blog allows the children to share their success in school at home. Also I feel it covers ‘I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning’ (TCH 0-04a) quite nicely!

What were the reasons for doing this?
It’s a way to communicate to parents what their children have been doing in school. By looking at the blog with their parents the children are able to talk about what they have been learning about in school. Sometimes I write the posts with the children, so they are keen to look at the pictures at home. The blog also links to the children’s learning logs, which they take home every Friday. I often comment that a piece of learning a child has written about can be found on the blog.

What has happened as a result?
I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from parents. They enjoy using the blog to stimulate discussion at home about what their children have been doing. The comments left are brilliant to share with the class, and allow me to assess what the children have remembered about activities we have undertaken. This encourages them to ask their parents to look at the blog again and leave more comments!

What would you do differently next time?
I think it’s an ongoing, evolving process. Last year I had a separate page called Onion’s Patch which I had big plans for, but never got round to getting it up and running properly. I think I am going to try again this session. Also the class have been writing notes for my dog to read ever since I posted a picture of him in the snow. I was thinking about posting pictures of him with their work – to encourage independent, spontaneous writing in class, and engage more reluctant writers.

Thanks to Mr Dagger for sharing!

If you haven’t got a blog going with your class, perhaps it’s something to think about? You can sign up to eduBuzz here.

If you’d like to share your interesting practice go ahead and download the form…

16+, Achievement, Health & Wellbeing, Ideas, Research

Research Round-Up November 2010

The November 2010 issue of Research Round-Up, Learning and Teaching Scotland’s educational research digest, is now available on the LTS website. Click here to download.

Some of the interesting titles include:

  • Achievement of Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
  • Impact of School Gardening on Learning
  • The Determinants of Non-Cognitive and Cognitive Schooling Outcomes
  • Literature Review on Teacher Education in the 21st Century
  • Good Practice in Involving Employers in Work-Related Education and Training
Achievement

Recognising achievement

Recognising achievement

A number of case studies on recognising achievement have been uploaded to the LTS website.

Work on the theme of Recognising Wider Achievement has been ongoing since 2006. Further development work was more recently undertaken which explored emerging ideas and practice, particularly at S1-S3 levels, in a range of settings. The resulting case studies are presented here.

You can also download a national evaluation of the pilot projects from the Scottish Government website.

Assessment, Implementation, News

Building the Curriculum 5: A framework for assessment

Building the Curriculum 5 is now out. A paper copy will be coming to every practitioner in due course (so don’t go printing out lots of copies just yet!) In the meantime you can download and read.

Building the Curriculum 5…

sets out key messages about principles of assessment, standards and expectations, ensuring consistency, CPD and support, reporting to parents, informing self-evaluation for improvement and monitoring standards over time. LTS Website

There are actually four documents to download:

Don’t forget there is also the Assessment and Achievement section of the LTS website.