Nifty

Nifty new gadget. Unfortunately I don’t have plane fare for Hong Kong and doubt anyone will offer me it!

Qualification review

Full text of Fiona Hyslop’s statement

Loose Coupling

I hadn’t read Elmore’s “Building a New Structure For School Leadership”, 2000 for a while. It’s easy to download a copy of this online. I went back to this recently as I’m increasingly dwelling on just how to improve learning and teaching in my role as a QIO – my main role is supporting schools on the quality improvement agenda so unlike some QIOs I do not have a wide curricular remit in addition. This frees me up to really concentrate on this one area. Anyway the simplicity of his argument had a big effect on me when I first read it and still does as I revisit it.

For anyone who hasn’t read this its well worth a look or another read as whether you agree with what he says or not, there’s a lot for reflection in it, on how we really make concrete improvements to learning and teaching within the classroom.

Delighted to see what Caroline and Jaye have been saying about their Glow days at Stirling management centre – sharing success and making connections. It sounds like they’ve had a useful couple of days. And I like their animoto slides from it too!

Persona dolls

Liz Mercer at Cathkin Community nursery has recently had an article published in Early Years Matters on LTS site about their use of persona dolls. I was interested today when I picked up some of the feedback from her parents on this initiative. Here’s a small selection –

“The use of Persona Dolls seems an excellent idea especially in our multicultural society. It can only be good learning for the children”

“we are particularly appreciative of the cultural awareness aspect of the learning experience to be gained by using persona dolls. It is clear that using them gives learners a good headstart in life in order to tackle the constant challenges that they face throughout life.”

“It makes it easier for the kids to express themselves and foster an imagination with the persona dolls”

“Very engaging and useful method”

“Valuable life skills”