The Incredibles' jourrney...

It has been a while since I last posted. Been very busy. In 4 days time I will be setting of with my partner, Kathy, for a nine month life of grime traveling the globe. Very exciting. For those of you who want to follow our journey (staff and pupils) please surf to our travel blog, and keep us updated with any top tips and comments while we roam around. http://furry-boots.blogspot.com/

My P6 class have enjoyed experimenting with their own blog. We've had a great 3 terms together, and it's nice to look back at it as a sort of online yearbook. None of it would have been possible without all their creative ideas, enthusiasm and sense of fun. They are an incredible bunch of kids. It has been a joy.

I wonder what changes will take place in education while I'm away? It will be interesting to find out where Curriculum for Excellence and Glow will be nine months from now. My biggest gripe with Glow has always been the cost (£44 million I'm led to believe) and that it takes a while to get used to. But I can definitely see its huge potential and there are lots of very talented teachers who will make it a success despite this. And maybe I'm just used to getting things for free on the net. How much does a Gmail account or Facebook account cost in real terms? These people earn millions in advertising.

Most of all, I can't wait to take a rest from education. I spend so much of my time thinking about lessons, resources and individuals that right up to this point I am still running around trying to do a million things at once. Come Saturday, I can leave that behind and live life a little differently. This trip is something we have both been planning for some time. I have no idea what it is really going to be like but I can't wait to find out...

Mr M has left the building.

Glow...

... worms








... in the dark.

Attribution






... sticks








After leaving another twilight session to introduce Glow to the staff, I am very tempted to be cynical about Glow, but I am countering my urges by focusing of the benefits of online content for enhancing teaching and learning.
I have already covered some places I find useful for finding and editing photos here. In this post I would like to cover the topic of copyrighted images and possible ways for schools to avoid getting themselves in a pickle once staff and pupils start uploading loads of photos to their Glow groups. This was an issue that arose in the twilight session.

There are many options for using images and resources in education that would cost you money in the commercial sector.

Creative Commons is a global licensing project. The various licenses you can choose to label the resources you create are explained here.

If you click on the symbol beside each license then that links to a page where you can download html to add a badge to your web page or glow page. Probably the best option for schools is the 'Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike' license. Quite a tongue twister! Basically, it allows you share content with others as long as they acknowledge where it came from. They can also do what they want with the content as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Perhaps where there are pictures of children it would be more suitable to choose a less flexible license.

If you use flickr, then flickr allows you to add Creative Common licenses to your photos. Here is an example of one of my photos with a Creative Commons license attached.

The Creative Commons search tool is a great way to find suitable pictures and videos that come under the correct license. You can choose various search engines from Google to flickr, and by selecting 'Search for works I can modify, adapt, or build upon', you are provided with a selection of resources it is safe to use in the classroom, or share on a Glow group.

I think that because we are using resources for educational purposes, then we can stretch the law a little bit, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Check if there are any copyright issues with resources, and if in doubt email the person to ask their permission.

VIDEO RESOURCES
Sites like youtube and blip.tv make it very easy to embed content directly onto your Glow site, therefore getting round problems of downloading and copyright. Teachertube and Schooltube are alternatives where filters block access to youtube. But I have found Teachertube to be quite slow. Hopefully, this will improve in the future because it is a great resource.

If you want to download video resources, then there lots of great resources available through the Creative Archive. The BBC led the way initially with a wonderful selection of clips to download and edit for educational purposes. I have them all! But since have pulled all the clips and seemed to have changed focus to streaming content such as this. Unfortunately, the Creative Archive seems to have lost its steam, but their are lots of downloadable clips available under the license from Teachers TV, the BFI, ITN Source (which allows you to download clips in Quicktime)pick n mix (channel 4) Channel 4 and the Open University.

You can access streamed clips through school computers of the BFI's extensive ScreenOnline resource. There are some excellent history packages for streaming to be found here. Scottish Screen are developing a similar resource for Scottish film clips in their archive.

You can use your school computer to access clips and download free clips (for educational purposes) from the British Pathe website. This is lots of fun for old fashioned newsreel soundbites!
The Internet Archive is an American project similar to the Creative Archive and full of goodies to use.
This NASA site has a fantastic collection of interesting, if sometimes very hazy, Apollo Lunar clips to download.

SOUND RESOURCES
This link for the Audio Network Library, if accessed at school, allows you to listen to and download its clips for free. Teachers (and pupils) can listen and browse the selection outside of school hours here.

Information about using copyrighted songs can be found here.

There are many other sites too, but I think this entry is already too long. I am too tired and I am writing this after watching the famous Aberdeen go down 4-1 to Dundee United. Gutted. Good night.

Tartan tearaways... Social collaboration...

Today at school we were designing our clan tartan, so just wanted to share a couple of fun and easy sites for doing this online. The first one is from the House of Tartan, and the second slightly 'way out' design is from Tartanmaker.com. The class really enjoyed it, even though the laptops were being more grumpy and frustrating than normal. Grrrrrr... computers - it's a love / hate thing. And relax.
After closer inspection of the tartanmaker site (one of those internet episodes where you get dragged into an endless whirlpool of clicking on link after link until you forget what it was that made you log on in the first place - is there a name for this? surely there must be by now!) I came across two other sites by the same site designers - stripe generator that does a nice line in everything stripey and image reflection generator, which is what it is. Will I ever use these tools? Probably not. Did I bookmark them anyway? Of course I did! The second one is actually quite fun.
Just feeling very conscious of my habit of bookmarking every new website I find, but then forgetting about them.
Another new site I discovered via techcrunch today is Kerproof, where kids can create their own stories, pictures and movies. It has an element of social collaboration about it in that you can edit other people's stories too. Will look at this further. Problem is that the majority of computers in our ICT suite don't like this kind of website, and our tech guy never seems to be able to fix it. Hey ho.

Oscar nominations for animated shorts

A wee link to a blog that has video previews of the animated shorts nominated for this year's Oscars. They all look amazing. I especially can't wait to see 'I Met the Walrus', an animated interpretation of a John Lennon interview.

Online photo editing / image searches... spreading the love ( a little early)

How could you resist??? Those fun guys over at Picnik have released some great Valentines Day add-ons just in time for Feb 14th. If you've not used Picnik before, you should, because it's really easy and fun. All you need are some class photos that you want to jazz up a little. You don't need to register. The full 'Premium Edition' is only $24.95. Not much if a school registers for a year. My class had great fun designing Christmas posters as part of their Enterprise last term. You can see the fantastic results below.

| View | Upload your own

We also had fun using the Big Huge Labs site to design our own Christmas Top Trumps trading cards. This site had loads of amazingly easy but impressive graphic design options. Loads of visual fun and literacy combined.

| View | Upload your own

There are one or two other online photo editing sites I have discovered that have some cool features. Take a look at Pikifix, Pixenate, Fotoflexer, and Splashup. But I like Picnik the best!

I'm finding the Creative Commons search engine, a great one stop shop for searching for images okay to use in school. Other online free stock photography sources I find useful are openphoto, pixel perfect digital and freefoto.com.

For more specific image requests I really like NASA, and geography resources here and here. The New York Public Library online resource is fantastic and the BBC have recorded a great sweep of the UK here.

Animation Backgrounds is a blog with an amazingly rich collection of old, yes you guessed it, animation backgrounds. As for Pictures from Old Books, well I'm sure you're already there.

Classtools.net follow up

Class teaching is always about learning from your own mistakes. Your teaching improves by putting yourself in the learner's position to see how effective your lesson is, but also by testing out your resources before you use them. Today, I stand guilty of failure on both accounts!!
My wee test timeline using ClassTools.net was not a stunning success... There are various resource making tools on the site and they are all great. The timeline worked well at home, but you could not read the writing on the school computer. We have only access to the 'accessability wizard' at school, bu that does nothing to change the flash. I use Firefox at home and we have IE6 at school, but whatever we couldn't read it and I had also put far too much info on it. [Keep it simple!]
I have had a quick glance at some of the other applications and they are fine on the school computer apart from 'diamond nine', 'priority chart', 'learning puzle', 'venn diagram', 'living graph' and 'target'.

Still a very useful resource, but if anyone has any idea how to get round the sizing problems then I'd be much obliged. All administration rights over the computers are handled externally.

Timeline of Scottish History

A timeline of Scottish history using ClassTools.net for tomorrow's lesson. Loving this site! Very easy to use and you don't get bogged down in trying to perfect layout, colour, style etc. Because it won't let you. And that, for me, is a good thing!

Click here for full screen version

Online quiz and games makers.

Every Wednesday I go to an excellent French course for Primary teachers. Everyone on the course is fantastic with a brilliant range of experience, age and sense of humour. I am the only man (as usual!).
But the programme disc isn't as interactive as it could be, so I have spent some time tonight dragging the images into the Promethean Activeprimary software to use on my interactive board at school.

I have also been trying out some online game and quiz makers to see the results. I got directed to the brilliant ClassTools.net by a fellow Scotedublogger here. John@Sandaig has highlighted a podcast with more about the resource here. It really couldn't be simpler. I am going to try setting games as homework tasks, especially for things like spelling and mental maths. Will post the results when I make them.

Another free site I had a look at was ClassMarker.com where you can create three different types of quizzes. You can also maintain a database of different classes and pupils, and record their scores. So it would suit primary and secondary teachers alike.

I have used Hot Potatoes a lot in the past for creating class games and the like but these sites are more readily accessible and understandable.

The last site I have had in my back del.icio.us pocket for too long is PurposeGames.com where you can create great looking picture and multiple choice games. Here is my attempt at one for the French lesson tomorrow. Try it out!

Please leave a comment if you can suggest any other sites.

Burns audio resources

A link to some Robert Burns audio resources on teachertube that teachers and pupils may find helpful for pronunciation and delivery of the sangs and clatter.

Animation Competition

Lots of schools enjoy learning through animation these days. The Film Street 'Animate It 08' offers you the chance to win a webcam and animation software if you design an interesting 3D character. The closing date is April 4th. A great motivation for writing fantastic character descriptions!

Glasgow Schools Film Festival

A quick post to say thank you to john@sandaig for writing my first comment. An honour and a privilege, ! And for the grand total of 9 people who have found my blog so far. Go me!!

But also to highlight the very exciting Glasgow Schools Film Festival that is taking place next month at the Glasgow Film Theatre. Some very exciting films and workshops taking place for pupils and teachers alike. You can book from Monday 14th July. Will try to persuade the boss on Monday to let the class go, but we're already booked up for loads this term already. Here's hoping!!!

Moving Image Education is a subject very close to my heart. So will be blogging lots about this in the future. Used to be a projectionist at the mighty Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh, and have enjoyed many great animation and film making experiences with my classes. More of that later too!

On a final note to self - need to be more careful of what pictures I post. One or two of the Burns Tam O Shanter paintings I posted previously had just a wee bit of female nudity in them, which for some reason I just hadn't noticed. Some interesting discussions with the class though...
And that, not long after visiting the GFT last term to watch the Japanese anime film Princess Mononoke, as part of National Schools Film Week, when there were 3 moments of choice swearing that delivered a hefty "OOOOOOOOO, SWEARING!" response from the P6 audience.
And the guilty character was a monk! (Great film though, if you've not seen it. By the same studio who made 'Spirited Away'.)

Robert Burns = The Bard, Rabbie, Robin or The Ploughman Poet, His Bardness, The Barderino (if you're not into the whole brevity thing...)

Well it's that time of year again when schools all over the country are chasing their tails to pay their dues to Scots and by celebrating the life and work of the man himself- Mr Robert Burns.
How many renditions of J.K. Annand's 'Street Talk', or Robert Burns' 'Tam O Shanter' will be sent home for homework? As well as all the paintings and songs being entered for the various World Burns Federation competitions.
As a teacher I love this time of year. Scots is such a rich language, full of brilliant descriptive words like glaikit and mawsie. But I hardly ever use it in a fluent sense. I always feel guilty that I'm one of these Scots that can unnerstaun and spik it (if it's written down) but it certainly doesn't roll off the tongue.
I also feel guilt for not embedding it more into my daily teaching over the year. Each year I promise myself to do more, but it just never happens. Always so MANY things to do.
Less about guilt, more about resources.
Some classic publications I always use are all my old Broons and Oor Wullie annuals, 'Bairnsangs', 'The Kist' , three volumes from Mercat Press ('A Bairn's Sang', 'Bairn Rhymes' and 'Scots Poems for Children). The excellent 'Burns for Bairns' published Burns specialists Alloway Publishing is full of shorter classics like 'To A Louse' and 'Willie Wastle'.
For a more modern slant on Scots then Itchycoo publishers are amazeen! The 'Eck the Bee' activity book and 'King o the Midden' poetry collection are personal faves, but recently they have produced a Scots version of Roald Dahl's 'The Twits', simply called 'The Eejits' and Stevenson's Kidnapped in graphic novel form- 'Kidnappit'.
There are some great online sources on Scots or Burns from LTS Scotland, The National Library, Scran, The Scottish Storytelling Centre and Burns Cottage.
Burns Country and the World Burns Federation provide detailed knowledge about Burns, his poetry and Burns Suppers.
Be inspired with some alternative recipes for haggis from the world famous producers MacSween of Endinburgh.
An extensive online collection of other Scots poems for children can be found here.
'Tam O Shanter', Burns' classic tale of drink, likeable rogues, witches and dancing is retold in dramatic fashion by the painter Alexander Goudie. These can be admired online here. I can't wait to show them to my class!

set adrift in blog galaxy...

Well I've been nicking everyone else's good ideas for years now. I suppose it is only fair that I begin to give something in return.

It does feel a bit like my first day at school. I know what to do, I know where to go and what my first class is but... what if nobody leaves a comment or completely ignores me??? Ah, the fear and intrepidation of first day blues.

No longer can I play around with font, colour, layout etc as an excuse for now publishing. To boldly go...