Back to Preston Lodge today to teach science for the rest of the week. I'm sharing responsibility for a timetable with a very experienced supply biology teacher. Helpful information in the desk planner eases the handover, and a few notes highlight particular issues needing dealt with today.
She had suggested using some video material on cells, but as usual it's a time-consuming problem to track down an appropriate video. Although there's a range of material on video-cassette and as PC video files, the only way to know what's on them is to sit through the whole thing – and there's seldom time for that. It's at times like this you appreciate how easy it is to browse paper information and get a very quick idea of content. Perhaps the
Scottish Schools Digital Network will help solve this problem?
Ended the day with a well-attended S1 parents' night. It's becoming clear that students, and parents, are using the internet to complement information provided by the school. Sometimes it's to help with homework, but I was especially interested to hear from parents about children who were using the web to investigate a bit more on their own. In both cases, it seems that some sort of guidance on good web sites would be appreciated. Even the ones that are well-known in schools, such as
BBC Bitesize, are clearly completely unknown to some interested parents. Maybe schools could do more here? Must find out if anything's been tried.