Lucifer’s Loch. Strange name, named on Google maps, not OS or open street. Had a walk this morning around the back of Jaw & Cochno: map & pics.
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Corrugated iron hut reflected in loch. We got up earlish and walked up to Jaw Reservoir. Beautiful still day & blue day. Larks singing. Geese above. A few more photos on flickr
Ardinning Morning

Lovely morning at Ardinning, arrived around 8. A hint of mist and a smattering of very light frost. No wind, loch like a mirror. Lots of birds singing. Few roe about before more people arrived. A few toads in the loch, looked like males awaiting the bigger females. A pair of dabchicks chattering. Larks and lapwings.
Took a walk around the grounds of Gartnavel this afternoon. Old hospitals are always interesting to look around. A few more snaps on Flickr
Out for a walk in a very snowy Glasgow. Was surprised to see a few parakeets, at one point flying above through fairly thick snowfall.
I’ve been getting fed up with not being able to get out for walks, or when I can they have been pretty busy even before it is light. I like a quiet walk. As it is half term we got up quite early and got to Ardinning around 8. No one else was there! Few more on Flickr
Ardinning around dawn
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I’ve got a Team for my class with several channels. When I share to Teams from an iOS app (keynote, whatever) I can search for the Team and it shows me a list of channels. All except one.

Which just happens to be the one I want my class to share into.
I can’t seem to see anything in that channel setting that are different.
That channel also will not allow another member of staff to reply or post. Even though she is an owner of the team. Weird.
Back to the digital classroom
From tomorrow I’ll be back in the digital classroom. I can’t say I’m very happy about it. For all my love of technology I much prefer the real classroom.
I’ve been reviewing my previous lockdown experience, I continue to find reading my old blog posts useful. Also interesting to see what happened in the first week of term last session.
Last time I felt I spent very little time learning new stuff or seeing what other people were doing. As I recall my head was down. I believed that I cut out social media pretty much. I just had a look at my 2020 twitter stats:
And was surprised to see I was wrong about that.
It feel like there is a lot more pressure on this time round. I think, as teachers, we put enough pressure on ourselves, not sure the idea of teachers, schools and LAs having to produce data to justify themselves is a great idea. I gathered my own last time, and held myself to account blogged about it, that felt tough enough.
I certainly hope that whoever tries to hold us to account understands the situation, the amount of prep needed to teach online, whether preparing for a live lesson or creating asynchronous ones.

During the last lockdown I made a wee webpage to use instead of a whiteboard and magnetic letters for phonics. It might be useful to someone else: Word Makers. Made with iPads in mind. It presents a list of words and you can drag letters around. Here is a 30 second screencast (silent).
The words are from NLC lists.
and a general board:
Doubtless a few bugs but someone might find it useful.
A last holiday walk this morning out to Duncolm. Great view of hills surrounding Loch Lomond. Photo not so great.
Diverting my self from the news of further lockdown by playing with randomising blends with imagemagick. Photos from Necropolis New Year’s Day 2021, more blends on flickr: