Small Tortoiseshell on Sea Rocket at Barassie Beach.
Children here at early level experience 50 per cent of learning and play outdoors, those at first level have 33 per cent and second level children have a quarter of their school time outdoors. This has enabled the school to use a mixture of formal and informal learning outdoors to build in play-based and pupil-led learning, which, in turn, has helped to reduce anxiety and build resilience.
Really positive article in TES by Jay Helbert💙 (@learningjay) .
Our Forest School (in the grounds of Argyll Estate) and Beach School (on the shore of Loch Fyne) provide opportunities for a blended experience. These lessons take place weekly over the course of a school term and are child-centred experiences where teachers set up learning “provocations” and options for activities ranging from den-building and mapping to creating artwork and storytelling.
I’ve done a bit of outdoor learning in school but nowhere near the 25% the second level classes are managing here. I was interested to see this maths idea:
where children survey plant and animal species to gather data
I sometimes struggle to think up second level ideas for literacy & numeracy. I’ve mostly found early and first level ideas online.
The outdoors a great stimulus for writing, reports, narrative and poetry. Talking and listening seem built in. In maths we have done a fair bit of shape & measure and I can see the potential for data and related activities. It would be good to see a bank of ideas. 25% is more than once a week.
Bonus thought, has TES Scotland become a sort of medium for educational blogging. I am reading a lot of good stuff on TES.
Out around the Glen Douglas Trio again today. Notes and photos
walkmapDon't think there's been a bigger, more positive influence on effective CPD and improvement in Scottish Education in the last decade than @kennypieper. From Teach Meets to Pedagoo to @researchEDScot1. Audiences packed with world class educators. What a loss!
Braeval To Stank number 6 walkmap
Part of the Rob Roy Way.
Cloudy & warm, getting brighter. Butterflies out later.
Very quiet, saw one couple on the way out, a few more coming back. Spider, nest & young.
Read: Burning Your Own
Read: Burning Your Own by Glenn Patterson ★★★★☆ 📚 1969, Mal is 10. I’d have been 11. Mal lives in a estate in Northern Ireland. Great, horrible, atmosphere. Football with his pals and building bonfires with civil rights and politics in the background.
And so ends the strangest year in my teaching career. Felt like a long one. It is had to recall August now. I think I might have learnt more this year than any other. Pandemics bring a unusual perspective. It was somehow easier to see the best of pupils this year.
Introduction to Web Stories (Storytime #1) https://youtu.be/MCcHkmzrIVY via @YouTube Open Source. Seems to put the creator in charge-- rather than the platform in charge of your content.
The open source and WordPress plugin make me prick up my ears. I Wonder if the open source means that the WordPress Plugin is self contained? Might be worth a test over the summer holidays.
Pickle cat is marvellous via simply. personal. Joe Jenett (@joejenett)