Teaching is to emancipate

We've moved

2006-11-06T06:53:00.000Z

This weblog is moving to another platform and another framework. Please update your feeds and bookmarks:

Website: mrhood.co.uk/tite
Syndicate: http://mrhood.co.uk/tite/?feed=rss2

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Win a flight on SpaceShipTwo

2006-10-29T15:39:00.000Z

Here's an opportunity that doesn't come along every day... a chance to get yourself into space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two. This is a specially great opportunity for teachers: the winner will have most effectively demonstrated how they would use the experience of a SpaceShipTwo flight to best motivate young people to enter the world of aerospace. From the Aeronautical Society's website:

Through the generosity of Virgin Galactic, the Royal Aeronautical Society is delighted to offer our members the opportunity to win a ticket on SpaceShipTwo. Your chance to experience weightlessness and gain your Astronaut Wings.

There's time to join the RAeS before the competition launches in December. Download the flyer here and register online here.

SQA National Stats

2006-10-24T20:47:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Qualifications Authority have published their national statistics from this year's diet of examinations. They conclude that nothing much has changed from last year, with the caveat that this year's figures don't take appeals into account, from which you are meant to infer that things are actually getting better.

I reckon we could raise attainment if we could get the little buggers to behave better, what do you think? See also this and this.

Here's the document in pdf format.

Dundee. Such a lovely town.

2006-10-24T20:28:00.000+01:00

This taken from the glitziest shopping centre in the city. Gorgeous, innit?

Bored? Try this...

2006-10-23T01:43:00.000+01:00

You may have played Reversi or Othello, a game in which the rules are simple but the strategy can be challenging. Here's a web-based version of Othello for you to try. Techno-geeks may be interested to know it's brought to you by the Ruby on Rails framework.

We like Firefox

2006-10-08T09:16:00.000+01:00

My browser of choice is Firefox. Apart from the superior functionality of Firefox, they have a sense of humour, too. I found this site at http://ie7.com...

New motivation initiative

2006-10-02T00:23:00.000+01:00

Class contact time down!!!

2006-10-01T19:31:00.000+01:00

Hooray! According to a quote in this week's Dunfermline Press:

A spokesperson for the Executive countered, “We have fully resourced and funded class contact time reductions. We are giving councils millions of pounds to implement this so schools are not left with larger classes."

This is true. I can be sure that I now have 6 non-contact periods a week, if you ignore the "contact" I had with the 20 or so children who were creating merry havoc outside and around the school when I was trying to do my planning and preparation.

Mike Gilmour, the highly regarded Rector of Woodmill, has gone on record this week in the Dunfermline Press:

In a newsletter to parents, Woodmill rector Mike Gilmour said “very significant staffing issues” throughout Fife had forced the school to rejig first-year classes.
Other measures, such as banning staff from attending courses during the day and cutting school trips, have also been actioned in the school amid concerns that Fife is not getting its fair share of probationary teachers from the Scottish Executive.
And, despite pulling out all the stops to take the heat off his under-pressure staff, Mr Gilmour warned parents, “Even now the situation remains constantly critical.”

As always, there are more issues than apparent here, and the situation at Mr. Gilmour's school will be subtly different from that at the school where I teach. However, it is evident that teachers are finding it hard to be given the OK to go on CPD courses during school time (I got the OK to attend one one a Saturday) and the timetable is so tight now that it squeaks.

Meet my pets

2006-09-16T09:30:00.000+01:00

Inclusion, my ass

WikiMapia

2006-06-30T21:17:00.000+01:00

This is amazing. WikiMapia is another brilliant Google gizmo for the internet (like Blogger, which I use for this site). I found this amazingly detailed picture of the house I was brought up in:

Social Influence.

2006-05-22T21:40:00.000+01:00

Oh, Brother. It's back on the telly. The trouble I'm having is telling which of the housemates have Tourettes Syndrome. I think it's all of them. No wonder, ten minutes of watching the programme is giving me the symptoms.

No value, no values.

For Mathematics Teachers: Conferences

2006-05-16T10:18:00.000+01:00

Networking is very powerful for improving teaching and learning. What better place to do your networking than at a conference, where you can feast on the food for thought presented in the sessions and keynotes. Some organisations which run conferences on Mathematics Education:

The Mathematical Association (Stirling, 9th September 2006)
Edinburgh Centre for Mathematical Education (around November)
Scottish Mathematical Council (around March)

Book early.

British Values

2006-05-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that the Government is considering introducing classes in school on "British Values". Question this:

What are "British Values"?
Should they be taught? Where? By Whom?
What are your core values? Where did you get them from?

Perhaps we are heading for trouble when the state determines what people's values are.

Can you dig it?

2006-05-13T21:15:00.000+01:00

Rotovator and flat, fresh soil give testimony to honest work with an honest reward on the table. How well we live. Man.

Seek and ye shall find...

2006-05-13T21:07:00.000+01:00

Rotovate, and ye shall find all sorts of things in your garden. Like this, for example:
Has anybody got an idea what it might be? It looks like one of those buckets they pour molten steel from. If it is, how on earth did it become buried at the foot of a garden in Rosyth?

Dod wiz here LOL

2006-05-11T23:48:00.000+01:00

Good enough for most of us is to scribble some witty epithet:

If you're a King, of course, you can be a bit bolder. This, in the street of his name in Edinburgh:

Money talks.

A nice day out

2006-05-01T00:01:00.000+01:00

I went up to Glendevon for a picnic in the sunshine. This is Glendevon Lower Reservoir. Lovely, innit?
There were sheep and goats and cows on the farms leading up to the reservoir. Some of the cows were quite intimidating. I thought this one might jump on the car:She was OK, though, once I had explained that there was only chicken in the hamper. Apparently, chickens are fair game.

Healthy eating advice

2006-04-25T10:13:00.000+01:00

A colleague is organising a trip for pupils to an Army careers day at one of the local barracks. In the letter to parents, he advises "... catering vans will be available. Suggest pupils bring a packed lunch." One assumes that the Army Catering Corps is not exhibiting.

2O2 loves physics

2006-04-24T15:27:00.000+01:00

I got the next batch of young scientists at the changeover this morning. Having done the intro to Heat and Forces, I sat them down to some short video clips and a relaxing few minutes before the bell. This is what one creative pupil produced on my whiteboard.

Spread a little happiness

2006-04-21T23:30:00.000+01:00

The Kirkcaldy Links Market is in town, so my friend and I went down tonight to do a little people-watching. Security was good, with CCTV cameras in evidence and the police doing a grand job of lifting bottles from the lads before they got in.

		The effects of a little alcohol and a little of the delicious food on offer were felt by many of the good people of the town. The Tango took on a whole new meaning for some as a cool girlie lost her supper from a great height. I was impressed by the good nature of her pals as they stepped off the ride, wiping themselves down. I could do a little analysis on projectile motion but it's the weekend, OK?
There were one or two visually funny moments. This one, to the right, said a lot for me.

Opportunity knocks

2006-04-20T18:25:00.000+01:00

The opportunity? The chance to take on a significant role in a high profile school in Fife. The knocks? The feedback on how I was beaten to the job at interview.

Not knocks, really. It is extremely valuable to reflect on who you are and what you are. This way, we hopefully learn to resolve things that are preventing us from improving our lot in life. All the more valuable, then, that the reflection comes with feedback from a highly regarded person who felt able to be kind in his assessment and his remarks about how I presented myself at interview.

Thanks for the encouragement and support: I hope it will pay off, for the benefit of the people whose lives I might affect in future.

Blog crazy

2006-04-17T13:07:00.000+01:00

OK, well, I can't just eat one piece of chocolate either. I've updated www.mrhood.co.uk with a new Blog-based front end to make it easier to use podcasts in my teaching. Let's see if I can get the time to make a decent job of it. Follow the link to take a look.

The Blog is back

2006-04-16T10:30:00.000+01:00

OK, a quick note for now. I've decided that I need to reinstate my personal web log, and here it is. I've left the old posts intact for now, but expect to see more regular posts here... and maybe even a podcast or two.

An example of a great blog, and one which has been a source of much encouragement on how to do these things is Ben and Marina Curtis' notesfromspain.com.

Assumptions

2005-12-05T15:57:00.000Z

As anyone who wastes their time doing Sudoku puzzles will tell you, sometimes you are left with no choice but to make an assumption. You go with the chain of logic and the picture begins to complete itself, ever becoming clearer and more mature as the numbers in the grid are filled in.

Until, suddenly, there appears a contradiction - two identical numbers in the same column, for example - and it is this contradiction which exposes the falsehood which was the original assumption, upon which all of the other progress has been based.

When this happens, you know that the assumption was a false one and that some other truth now is evident. Not only that, you have to go back to this truth and rebuild everything which follows it.

Sometimes it is hard to tell what is truth and what is a false assumption, upon which we build so much.

Prelims 'r' us

2005-12-02T00:18:00.000Z

OK, poor souls that you know you are, you should hopefully have finished your prelims by now and might, just might, be feeling quietly confident about things.

Then again, your knees may have turned to jelly just like your brains and you are possibly considering a life of crime or social exile because you're never going to get a proper job.

The important thing right now is for you to realise that here's a chance for you to reflect on your performance. The prelims are not real, in the sense that they are not actual qualifications. They are a practice, a check, a chance to see what like is your readiness for the rest of the course and the proper exams in the spring.

Here's a chance for you to look in detail at where you have got to ask questions, get more practice from past papers, go to study support, read your notes... FIND your notes!! Let your prelim results be the wake-up call you know you are needing and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Me? I'm off teaching for a couple of weeks whilst I recover from some nasty little virus (nobody you know). I'll be back in the classroom next week, thanks for asking. I've not been bored - who marks those prelims you all just sat? The prelim fairy?

Oh, and check out www.mrhood.co.uk and let me know what you think!!!