Movemeon book now available

What a fantastic idea, a compilation of advice from educators on a range of subjects and all the length of a Tweet.  Have a browse and many thanks to the editors and all contributors for sharing this with us.

http://movemeon.wikispaces.com/

snow days and laughter

I seem to have missed all news coverage surrounding the arrival of snow in the UK therefore I wonder if the usual panic has arisen?

Personally I love the snow. I get a sense of excitement and adventure watching those first few flakes fall always anticipating a heavy covering and hopeful that it will lie and not turn to immediate slush.

This time it has not been exactly a quilt covering of snow but at least we have slightly more than a veil. My solution to the fact there is not enough to make a snowman? Lets go to the zoo. Yes - the zoo.

Edinburgh zoo has a daily penguin parade and what could be more fun than taking my girls to see this in the snow and what a perfect day to do so: end of term, half day of school, pack up a picnic to eat in the for the journey to Edinburgh and we are all set. Plenty of layers to keep us warm and it promises to be a great afternoon.


penguin cam

Lets face it I'm excitable enough about snow, but in the week before Christmas, what is better at bringing home the spirit of the season than a wee bit of the white stuff? Scottish winters are not so bad after all!


Part two


Okay so confession time.  We missed the penguin parade after going all that way we spent too long playing in the snow and then went for lunch.  Sitting in the Macmillan room we realised it was over.  We did go to see the penguins though and although we didn't make the parade this time we have seen it many times before.


My girls had a great time picking on my friend by covering him with snow, as the photo shows they made a good job of it too.

placement

I was recently given a fantastic opportunity while I was on placement in a Primary 7 class.

Without giving too much away it provided me with the the chance to incorporate techniques and approaches that link in with my educational philosophy.

Using a games based learning approach I was also able to link into current practices in this field. I have always been of the opinion that this form of motivation is an excellent approach, but the chance to see this first hand, to plan for it, observe pupils working in this way and assess the learning following this form of input was more than I had anticipated.

My wish now is to use the confidence I have gained from the experience to influence my future practice.

More to follow...

Followers, Friends, Fans etc

The worldwide increase in social networking over the last decade has undoubtedly broken many barriers in communication terms but at what cost?

We can be guilty of adding people to our social networks whom we don't know, but is mistrust and scepticism the solution?

When is a friend a friend? When are they merely an acquaintance? A follower?

What information do you share that you wouldn't consider telling a stranger conducting a survey in your local supermarket?

The sceptics may suggest information sharing is entirely foolish.

As a society have we become too wary of openness?

Yes there is a rise in fraud and identity theft, measures to combat this are often ignored. We wouldn't post our full name, DOB, email address and phone number on a large banner hanging from our living room window, so why would we do so on our webpages? We teach our children to be internet safe for fear of who they may come into contact with yet we often fail to follow this advice personally.

Complaints about social networking also surround an inability to communicate. By only communicating via the likes of Bebo, Facebook, MSN, text messaging etc it is often said that teenagers are unable to hold a 'proper' conversation. The suggestion that many teenagers have ever wanted to hold long and meaningful conversations with adults is another issue but the descent in communication is highly debatable. Even the loneliest person can find somebody to virtually speak to; why is this considered a negative?

I'm not saying make all your profile pages public but take the opportunity to speak to people, through what ever means you can. Conversation is vital and next time you gain a new friend, follower, fan etc then say hello. If they don't reply then don't accept them, if they do who knows what you may learn? After all isn't every experience a learning one?

Perhaps 6 degrees is more than we can achieve? Milgram would be in his element.

http://www.glacir.com/join

I Don

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