The Author
Teacher, Education Manager and Independent Learning Consultant with a particular interest in Literacy and Moving Image Education.
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American Born Chinese: Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien
Football Against the Enemy: Simon Kuper
The Inheritance of Loss: Kiran Desai
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- RT @Alan_Hamilton: I have started a blog - http://learnerham.org.uk/ - please be kind. Writing first post 'games in education' soon. 13 hours ago
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Dave Rawlings Machine: A Friend of a Friend
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The West Wing: Season 7
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Hi Bill,
It was good to meet you last week. I contacted Clive Gillman at DCA explaining that you would like to quote from the evaluation report and he will forward you a copy.
I found your presentation interesting and we certainly have similar positive views and concerns about the role out of Curriculum for Excellence. I thought it was just me getting a wee bit cynical in my old age!!! Like you I think that children need to be taught in the real world and facilitated to read /understand it and make informed decisions. There is a huge danger that in this blame culture we inhabit that we wrap children up cotton wool to the point that they are denied the experiences they need and deserve. Furthermore, I notice that many of my colleagues refer only to the outcomes for CfE and not experiences or they view that the practitioners role is to create experiences that will deliver a particular outcome. While this is a necessary part of the process I firmly believe that experiences are important in their own right. It’s truely open-ended experiences, with no defined outcomes, that are the richest learning mixes. Learners have to map out the way, assess situations, make deicisions, apply prior learning, co-operate, succeed, cope with failure, reflect etc. – MAKE CONNECTIONS – Sorry I’m rabbiting on and you know all this already.
Finally, wishing you all the best as you step out as a consultant. I stepped away from teaching last years at the end of the Scottish Screen secondment with a degree of trepidation but convinced that I needed a new direction. It has been a very interesting year where I have certainly learned a great deal about myself! Although I’ve not quite worked out the new direction yet – but there are lots of possibilities.
All the best,
Mairi
Hi Mairi,
Good to meet you last week as well, and thanks for your generous comments. You make a good point about some experiences being of value in themselves. Thirty years ago there would have been no need to even make this explicit as it was accepted that learning was good in and of itself. We seem to have lost that in recent, measurement-obsessed times.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for seminar today. I am looking for Baboon on the Moon online without any luck so far. Any ideas?
Thanks again
Danny
Hi Danny,
Thanks for coming. Baboon on the Moon is one of a collection of films produced by the British Film Institute (for 3-7 yr olds according to the pack but I think some of them can be used by kids who are older than that). You will find them at the BFI website as below.
http://www.bfi.org.uk
Good luck.
Bill
Thank you for course on Saturday – started mulling over new ideas – looking forward to discussing them l
Hi Judith,
Glad you found it useful. I look forward to discussing some of these ideas with you in more detail too. See you soon.
Bill
Thoroughly enjoyed the Saturday INSET at Radisson. Have found the content very useful nad intend to us this with Upper Primary children who experience some diffisulites with reading.
I can only support and fully endorse the reading aloud concept with all children , there being a place for this at all levels and stages.
In our 21st Century living we must continue to find ways to accommodate the human voice and its place in communication.
Indeed as an adult I still, when ’stuck’ with certain text will read this out loud in order to understand it better!.
Edna Dickinson
LST Scotitsh Borders
Hi Edna,
Glad you enjoyed the seminar and thanks for your generous comments. Good also to hear you supporting the practice of reading aloud for all ages, and I wholeheartedly agree with you, though not everyone does. I know exactly what you mean by reading it aloud when you’re stuck – we all do it! Good luck with using the strategies in upper primary and do come back and tell me how effective they are.
Rgds
Bill