Hakuna matata

Sometimes I just hate this Mum business.

So the last time I heard from Sarah - she's gone to New Zealand, remember - was Tuesday. Since then I've texted her, phoned her, got her voicemail and left a message, and found out by phoning the very helpful NZ flower shop lady that her Christmas parcel was delivered, but left at the door without getting a signature. But I haven't heard from her since Tuesday.

Should I worry? Clearly. I am her mother after all and I'll do that anyway.

Should I do anything about my worry? If so what? I have no other way of getting in touch apart from something quite extreme like the police. It's a very uncomfortable feeling.

Update: I've now phoned the police in Napier as I've still heard nothing from Sarah, and her phone goes straight to voicemail. Just waiting now.'

Further update: She phoned at 5am this morning to say they'd been on a four day hike and got out of signal range before they realised it. She was embarrassed to find they had attracted the attention of the police and consequently their neighbours. Next time she'll tell someone where she's going. Phew!

image: http://www.cambridgegreekcorner.co.uk/productslink.html

Preparing for Christmas on the beach?

I think she's enjoying herself. She and Tomas arrived in Auckland, bought a car, travelled to Napier and are renting a flat. They've done a lot of sightseeing already and sound very happy.

Christmas Greetings!

Health in the Eye of the Storm

Today we had an unusual In-Service day. Under the banner of Health and Wellbeing, our cluster, teachers, support staff and office staff, was treated to a whole day with a broad programme of workshops from salsa to pilates, well woman/man to meditation. (We had previously made a choice of 8 from which we were allocated to 4.) We were given a healthy and appetising lunch and given time to browse a "market place" of health promoting stalls.

The keynote speaker, Andy McKechnie was very entertaining as well as motivating.

I feel energised by the sessions I attended: salsa, posture and fitness, massage and "health in the eye of the storm". I had my cholesterol and blood pressure properly checked by a doctor at the drop-in (both reassuringly fine) and had a brief but very helpful chat with her.

I am hopeful. This is a new approach for our target-driven hierarchy, supporting with action the idea that treating people as people instead of numbers or statistics will benefit everyone. Don Ledingham, Director of a neighbouring Authority has written about his take on mental health and wellbeing. Our own Director spoke in a very personal way about managing stress and the importance of balance. I remembered Ian Smith of Learning Unlimited at SLF08 saying that a teacher needs the skills of a tightrope walker - not, as you might think, safely balanced, but being able to cope with being a bit off balance.

And it's interesting to observe the positive effect of finishing at 3.15, chatting with other teachers who had enjoyed the day, and no tedious plenary to sit through at the end.

Roll call

Alan’s blogpost ps about words brought to mind an entertaining diversion we indulged in at orchestra rehearsal one night.

The conductor raised his baton and we suddenly realised that crucial players had still to come back from washing up the tea cups.So we noted an an absence of bassoons...and while we waited, began devising group names for some of our comrades-at-arms. Those I can remember were:

an arrogance of first violins

a fluster of second violins

an enclosure of violas

an ostentation of cellos

a struggle of double basses

an outcry of oboes

What I wonder is the group name for Bloggers? Quite a few blogs consider this. This blog list of other collective nouns and also suggests a” of bloggers. And this one has assembled many suggestions including a "roll"

Maybe though it should be a solitude of bloggers reflecting the individual and yet communal nature of blogging?

Thinking on holiday

On holiday, I realised that the Curriculum for Excellence isn't going to be like this:











(That's Moses getting the ten commandments)

But more like this:







Perhaps ending up like this?











Who knows where I was on holiday?

Too much Glow

Some people whose blogs I read have embedded the absolutely excellent Glow Games in a post.

Is it just me being a grumpy old woman or is the muzak very very annoying? I could mute my speakers but if I want to view a video clip they've inserted in another post, I can't hear anything above the Glowing chanting.

I notice Andrew, being the first that I saw to put it up, now just has a link. Ahhh...peace....

slf08

Now that the dust has settled a little from my exciting two days at the SLF08, (thank you to my bosses and colleagues for facilitating this) I am reflecting on the messages I have taken from the experience. Before I went, someone said to me that he wasn’t motivated to go to SLF this year, as it seemed to hold less attraction for him, year on year. I think he would have been inspired by the Teachmeet unconference.










He would have liked Derek’s demo of the Virtual Art Gallery for kids project. He would have enjoyed the opportunity to chat to colleagues from other areas there and in the Glow Lounge. He would certainly have been impressed by the guitar heroes strutting their stuff!

The speakers I went to hear ranged from inspiring (Ewan McIntosh) through thought-provoking (Ruth Sutton, Charles Leadbeater, Frank Crawford) to disappointing (sorry, Gill Robinson on Next steps with ACE). The sessions I enjoyed most were those where the speaker left time for questions at the end. This I think is a symptom of the extent to which many of us are becoming used to and expecting more participation and dialogue. I hope this happens more in future SLFs. It takes a brave speaker to open up to this, but also, don’t forget, a brave teacher to step up to the microphone with a question.


I was impressed by Fiona Hyslop’s courage in this respect, and thought she came over very well in response to a good few bloggers (Neil, David, Adam and more) and others who posed questions. Unfortunately, her answer to most things seemed to be that she agreed with the teacher view, but Local Authorities were not under her control, and could do as they liked with the extra money/teachers/class size capacity she was giving them.



The common theme throughout the conference was personalisation, and relationships, and how the way in which these are built up is crucial to learning. From my point of view, being at most sessions on my own, allowed me to engage in brief conversations with teachers from all over Scotland, and beyond. Meeting people face-to-face with whom I normally interact online also adds an important perspective to my understanding.

It was even worth negotiating both Glasgow's and Edinburgh's rush hours for.







What am I going to do next?
Investigate some things like Google Sketchup and Alan McLean’s motivation work. (Should have known about both of these but didn’t)
Take a deep breath and volunteer for the next Teachmeet.
Keep my own guitar hero attempts strictly private.

SLF08

A photo I took while Ewan was preparing for the liveliest presentation I've been to so far.

SLF

The Cabinet Secretary and I walked through the door together. Well...at the same time. :-)

Baby no more

That's him off to pay homage to Gaudi in Barcelona. With his girlfriend. And no proper adults. Apparently he can do this. How did that happen?

Birthday presents

I'm not one for labels or ostentation but i am absurdly pleased with this present. And my laser mouse and my tom tom. Thank you everyone.

Intelligent Accountability

I listened to a programme on the radio yesterday that had me gritting my teeth, shouting at the radio and then vainly trying to find a feedback mechanism. Not good for my blood pressure at the end of a tranquil holiday. The presenter was trying to answer the question “Are Scotland’s schools really better than England’s?” You can listen to it here for the next 7 days.

A long list of contributors were consulted: Pete Main a Maths teacher from Perth, and previously Tooting, who had therefore taught in both systems; Sarah Atkin, a parent of a 9 year old at a school in the Black Isle; Linda Croxford from the Centre for Educational Sociology, Edinburgh University; Brian Boyd, Professor of Education at Strathclyde University; Tom Miers of the Policy Institute; and James Stanfield, Author of How Good are Scotland’s Schools? Evidence from Home and Abroad, Policy Institute, Edinburgh March 2007.

The Policy Institute is a Charity that says it is an independent body committed to researching how liberal principles of market economics, the rule of law and limited government can be applied to modern Scotland. The contributions from its Executive Director Tom Miers and the author of a report it published, James Stanfield, vigorously promoted their view that an industry model could be applied to education, and justified it by pointing to statistics showing an apparent downturn in Scotland’s exam performance compared with an upturn in England’s, despite a monetary investment 3 times that of England's. Insultingly, James Stanfield thought that the Scottish Educational establishment would reject this or any particular philosophy simply because it was used in England. And he accused it of complacent protectionism instead of being open to alternative ideas. He proposed allowing anyone from anywhere to set up a school, its success to be judged by the number of pupils it could attract.

It was the rather aggressive, unpleasant face of consumer-led models. I quote from their website: "The Policy Institute was founded in 1999 and is registered as a charity (No. SC029012). As such it is entirely independent of the political process and has no party affiliation" Google tells me that a Tom Miers was a Conservative candidate in the Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency and placed 4^th in the 1997 General Election, with a mere 10% of the vote. Presumably it's not the same Tom Miers? Otherwise you'd have to question the group's score on their "independence" performance indicator.

The easy, lazy measure of schools' goodness which they had used was exam performance. They were not prepared to consider whether that was a valuable or even particularly illuminating measure. (After all how could you make a graph to show improvements in creativity or social awareness?) They drew the conclusion that English schools were doing better because their SATs results were improving. (Doesn’t it just mean that English teachers are getting better at knowing what their children need to do to pass tests? And how valid is the thought that if a company has to compete against others to win a tender process to provide an exam system, it's not going to get picked again if it gives poor results, is it? )

Those interviewed who were actually involved in Education, ie all the other contributors, thought that the Scottish system was better, despite its shortcomings. Pete Main felt that Education was less of a political football than in the south. He felt there was less pressure than with SATs and he felt more respected in Scotland. Sarah Atkins,the parent, though satisfied with the education her child was receiving and impressed with the quality of new teachers, complained that there wasn’t enough accountability in Primary Schools. She only knew as much as she did (not a lot) about the Curriculum for Excellence because she had “taken the trouble” to find out.

Brian Boyd, as usual, stuck up for us valiantly. He made the case for Intelligent Accountability. He agreed that of course we should energetically address the gap of opportunity between the classes highlighted in the OECD PISA report. But he spoke of Scotland’s high status and broad outlook on what education is. He wasn’t really given space to answer James Stanfield’s assertion that we are failing in the main purpose of school which he considers is to teach people to read and write. But Brian Boyd did get a chance to say that trust is the most important element of intelligent accountability.

For a good talk on the subject of trust and accountability, and an appeal for a system that measures what we value, not one that values what we can measure, look here.

Priorities

I decided that, since I've finished reading my 5 holiday "must reads", (finished the Kite Runner last night and am still thinking about it) today was the day to outline next term's class plan.

So before I settled down, I did a bit of piano practice for next term's musical production. Then I fired up the laptop, found and made a copy of last year's class files for their next year's teacher and then looked at today's blogposts. That was hours ago and now, I've read loads, including a long article about how people don't read long articles any more, and thought a bit about it. Also, because of this post, I've tried to find out why an expensive Visualiser would be better for showing pupils' work for peer review etc than simply linking a video camera to my data projector (not sure on that one). I made a comment on another blog because a link made a very strong memory pop up. I've read some Tweets and found out the times for a film we're going to see tomorrow...And now it's lunch time and there's not even a blank document on my laptop with "Class Plan" at the top of it :-(

I think my difficulty is not with not reading in depth or being distracted by e-communication - it's with reading too much and being too interested in things to get down to the mundane matters that "must" be done. The articles I found were interesting enough for me to want to read them, not skim them. Now by finding a link to put here to the Kite Runner, I've discovered that Kahled Hosseini has a website which will give me information about Afghanistan and illiteracy there. So that's next on my list of things to read. (The irony there has only just struck me.)

Far from making things more superficial, I find that many things I read on the web cause me to think more deeply and allow me to make connections I would not otherwise have made.

But prioritising - now that's something I've never been very good at, and I don't think the internet has helped me with that. So, I'm making an start and instead of taking a long time to draft and redraft this blog post, I've just published it more or less as I've thought of it. It's been a more entertaining morning than it might have been though.

29 years

And still together. Roses and freesias. My favourite flowers from my favourite man.

Success Wheel

Success Wheel

As part of my PRD last week I was asked to complete a success wheel. Instead of the headings provided on this wheel I had to provide a list of my roles and then to rate how I thought I was doing from 0, not very good at all, to 10 excellent. The dots were then joined, looking for a dip to show development needs. It was intended to find ways to address that.

Although some colleagues enjoyed this, I didn’t like it. It seemed very simplistic. I know what my development needs are but this little tool didn’t show them up, because I put myself near the outer edge for everything, so there were no obvious dips.

My roles? Teaching (Class, Music and French) Pastoral, Planning, Assessment, Reporting, Collaboration, Outreach, Professional Development of others, Personal Support.

I also had to print out my CPD log to record my hours this year – 121 hours so far, not including travelling time. Wow!

Lighting the touch paper

Had a session tonight with 2 Glow Mentors from another Authority who are using Glow. I liked what I saw. The two teachers showed us how Glow was being used by teachers in one or two of their schools, in primary and secondary. They showed us a range of levels of use, making it seem straightforward and easily progressive.
Looking forward to using it for real.
By the way, is it OK for us to use the logo like this? Can anyone tell me?

Glowing even more faintly

Yes I know. I shouldn't have kept trying when I couldn't really remember the password. But I did click on the reminder button and it just told me I hadn't set up a password prompt. Well no of course not. I didn't think I was going to forget it did I? So that means that today's time I'd set aside for stoking the embers is released for other activities, like maybe going to see my Dad since it's Father's Day. Perhaps my priorities are being subtly rearranged for me.

Rites of passage

My baby on his way to his 6th year dinner dance. Milestone for both of us. He's wearing the tail coat his grandad wore to get married in.

Our first clematis

In our last house the clematis we planted grew with our family. This one will grow with us too. I wonder what changes it will see.

Exam fever

Advanced higher music tomorrow. We are taking this one seriously.

Conducting observations

I play in several different ensembles, across different musical genres. Amongst the several classical orchestras to which I contribute, there are 3 whose conductors are all highly competent musicians who understand the music well, and who also represent 3 different approaches to orchestral direction.

The first is the youngest and demands very high standards of performance from us. This he does by pinpointing with enviable accuracy who is able to improve their line, and in what way. He drills those players until, by intense focus, they begin to approach the sound he has in his mind. He then links their part with relevant others, and then with the section of music before and after. This is a very thorough and intense approach, which is quite stressful for the amateur players who form the orchestra. It seems to me that people who are playing for pleasure are usually trying their best. Making the violins play their tricky passages alone when their C# is still not sharp enough, for example, simply leads to more and more tentative playing. A good performance is eventually achieved through intense concentration by all players. I practise intensively for this orchestra in order not to be embarrassed at rehearsals.

The second conductor is from a choral background. He is a very relaxed singer, whose interpretations as a former soloist were heartfelt and sounded natural and unforced. As a choral conductor with an orchestra to accompany his choir, he mainly leaves it to the instrumentalists to sort out matters of ensemble and balance. He is rewarding to play for because of the level of trust he invests in the players, and because his response to the music is intensely emotional and personal. I practise for this orchestra because it’s a small group and my contribution will matter.

The third is habitually positive and sympathetic. He smiles and laughs during rehearsals. He acknowledges that players are trying their best and offers advice in a spirit of collaboration to achieve a mutual objective. He frequently compliments sections on their improvements. He has high expectations, which he expresses through entertaining analogies, metaphors and similes. I practise conscientiously and with enjoyment for this conductor and I have probably made most progress in my technique through playing for him.

I try hard for all three conductors, and get enjoyment from playing for each but I'm sure my playing is best for the third.

Dies Irae

It’s interesting that Don’s last two posts have concerned the concept of judgement. He received a letter from a teacher who, he felt, impugned his professionalism, the quality which, I suspect, is of the greatest importance to him personally. This happened to me recently with a parent, and I know how much it hurts. Even when you have colleagues, friends and the main part of your own intellect telling you that the person was wrong, there’s still that Scottish Calvinism genetically implanted in the furthest reaches of your psyche whispering that you could have done better, and therefore in some respects the critic was right. It hurts a lot.

The matter of unconditional positive regard is tricky because there are many perceptions involved – it’s not a one-way or absolute thing. I may think I am showing genuine UPR for someone, but the person may not perceive this. Or this person may have learned how to manipulate others through emotional withdrawal, and by saying “the teacher doesn’t like me” hopes to get his or her own way. Or the person may have learned early on that if someone disagrees with you it means you Fear of rejection is deeply rooted and people take different routes to preserve themselves from it. Could it be that for some, showing UPR is actually a

I think that to ensure that this isn’t the case, non-judgemental UPR needs to be accompanied by the 2 other Rogers ideas, congruence, and empathy. In other words, it’s not just about showing but also about feeling. And I think that’s harder. I know that I should show UPR for the child in my class who constantly disrupts and spoils my best planned and most exciting lessons, but I have to be genuine and I have to feel where he is coming from for UPR to be perceived by him.

But in a classroom, it’s not just a 2-way process. It's not the relatively secure client-therapist context. The expectation of the 30 or so others in the room is that a discernable negative consequence will follow such behaviour. I realise that in the real world, not the ideal one, the negative consequence most children expect is the observable withdrawal of positive attention, and/or affection. Most children (and adults) in the room will expect that if Jimmy lifts his feet to another child that the teacher should swiftly establish control and reinforce the hierarchy that gives them security. How is this achieved while at the same time showing congruence, UPR, and empathy for Jimmy? Apart from explicitly separating personal response from behavioural, ("You have done a thing that has hurt someone. He is crying and I don't like that. But I still like you." just doesn't seem a realistic response does it?) I don’t have an answer, and I think I don’t succeed as often as I’d like.

Finally, some children, like Jimmy, have backgrounds I would not wish on my worst enemy. Despite this knowledge, I know that a parent like Jimmy's who doubted my professionalism might be right – I Yet I know that they are perpetuating a cycle they have not begun themselves but are in the middle of, and which may deny them the insight to know it. With congruence and empathy, blame is not possible, but steps forward may be.

Glowing even more faintly

I am becoming increasingly frustrated. My Glow laptop was rebuilt a couple of weeks ago so it could interact with the RM CC3 network at school. To do this I had to back up all the stuff I'd put on it because apparently it was essential that the hard drive was wiped during the process. Now it is driving me bananas!

• won't install Adobe Reader so I can't read Technologies Experiences and Outcomes document for the launch on Tuesday
• won't retain iTunes and therefore podcasts. All the songs I've purchased remain on my external hard drive and have to be uploaded everytime.
• won't play sounds on youtube videos
• won't play radio 4 because it doesn't want to install Realplayer
• won't retain Outlook emails - not really a problem because I've swtiched to Googlemail now anyway.
• can't download clipart
• Saving anything isn't straightforward.

We were told that if we had this work done, technical support would be available to us, whereas if we didn't, we were on our own so far as support went. Well, I never needed anything more than the support of my ICT literate sons before. Now I need a full time supporter all of my own as I discover more and more things that I can't now do.

The big question is: How on earth will it manage anything useful with Glow? Most of what I will try to tell others about I will prepare at home.

I want it back the way it was...

Heron

On the walk back from our lunch we watched this heron catching his.

Spring

On way back from rehearsal. Beautiful day. Famous landmark.

DPA

Children enjoy keeping fit. For a while we haven't done our laps of the playground. It's been such wet and miserable weather. But today we resolved to start again, whatever the weather, so here we are. Starting again at 2 minutes - you don't have to run, you just have to keep moving. I wonder how our stamina will have increased by June?

Iceland

Akureyri was just great! We had a tour all to ourselves and saw volcano craters, bubbling mud pools and spectacular waterfalls. Our guide was full of information and legends. The wonderfully relaxing nature baths at Myvatn were a fitting reward for the climbing through thigh-deep snow and sliding over sulphurous mud.
The skiing was brilliant and the Icelandic horse riding better than I could have imagined. The tölt really is smooth!
Akureyri has excellent food, and the best ice cream shop in the world.
I want to go back in the summer!

Holidays and homework

Holidays are approaching again, and parents have to find things to do with their offspring. Some of them, like mothersoup are tempted by who knows what pressure to offer their children "more of the same" in the form of holiday homework. I want to say to them - forget about the workbooks! If little Timmy wants to write a poem, do sums, read about dinosaurs, great! Let him do it and tell you about it. If he wants you to explain something, so he can achieve what he wants, fine! I think mummies are really for doing fun stuff with, and for allowing fun things to happen, however the children interpret that. So put that shiny workbook firmly back on the shelf beside the others.

I'm going to sound all Happy Families now. In the dim and distant at home, my children painted, glued-and-sticked, made cardboard creations from cereal boxes, made playdough with me in a variety of colours and then played with it, cooked and baked stuff and ate it...you get the picture. When they were a bit older they wanted to learn knitting, sawing, yes and sewing, making bigger and more challenging creations. I assisted by giving them the things they needed and offering help when asked (or, in the case of the sewing, arranging for Granny to visit.) They made up dances to their favourite songs, wrote out the lyrics and moves, and constructed concert schedules for which Granny and Grandad, when available, and I were the ticket buyers, audience and critics etc etc They also liked to read, do sums and asked me to give them quizzes. When they were older they made quizzes for each other and developed complicated paperwork for imaginary clubs they invented. They wrote their own stories, books and magazines. At that stage, I mainly just listened and admired when required. All this was on their own terms and not dictated by me. We went to the library, the swimming pool and the park, sometimes ourselves, sometimes with friends, played football, learned to roller skate, ride bikes and skateboards....

The things I've described cost little or no money, but they were certainly valuable. The fact that I now have four well-balanced and bright young adults who say they remember those holidays fondly and will probably eventually do the same with their own kids is probably proof enough. And of course they were learning Maths and Spelling as well as a whole host of other things, in a "need to know" way - their need, no-one else's.

I'm almost certain that if our holiday activities had been a structured diet of Teach Your Child Maths and Practise Your Spelling, mixed with extended sessions at the Easter Sport Academy and the Revision Club, my children would be no brighter, and a lot less well balanced.

I loved the holidays and looked on them as an opportunity to spend time doing things we all enjoyed. At the heart of it all was the fact that I enjoyed being with my children....

Ch-ch-changes

And I'm quite proud of this!

Music lessons

I've attended 2 concerts this week which made me proud. Both involved my younger son, in his classical music persona, and I was of course immensely proud of his efforts in both. He played cello in the orchestral one, and sang in the choral other.

But I am also proud to be part of a teaching service that enables young people to come together in such a positive and creative way. The standard achieved by the youngsters was outstanding in both contexts. This could not have been achieved without the corresponding quality of teaching staff who instruct technically and inspire aspiration beyond the expectations of all. In particular the music staff at Peebles High School deserve much praise and respect for what they have achieved there over the past 10 years.

I hope also that what we achieve in Music in the Primary sector gives pupils an enthusiasm and basic knowledge that they can take forward to their larger cohort at Secondary School for the inspiring teachers there to build on.

When in Rome...

This term the children in my class have been enjoying most areas of the curriculum taught through our topic (Ancient Romans). It's been great to see their motivation through active learning and the links they are making naturally. Their ideas and conversations have been illuminating. ACE in action!

Last week we were asked to provide some of our jotters for ongoing audit - specifically our writing and topic jotters. As a lot of our learning has been active, the children have not done a great deal of formal writing about their work, though more will naturally emerge as we gain more background knowledge to use. When I said I had no "topic jotter" to hand in, I was met with surprise by my line manager. In their "writing" jotter the children have imagined themselves to be Roman soldiers at Housesteads fort, researching and giving themselves appropriate Roman names and then written home to their families about life in Northern Britain. Lots have included Latin words they have picked up, and all have at least some pertinent detail and some conventional features of a letter.

But in my classroom and elsewhere you would easily find evidence of all four capacities:

• Roman Villas in the process of being made, in groups (SL, EC)
  
• wooden catapults in the process of being designed and made individually (thanks to the excellent PGDE student I've had) (SL, EC, CI)
  
• a Wikispace all have now contributed to, some from home, and ongoing (SL EC, CI, RC)
  
• pictures on our school website of our informative visit to the Roman camp at Trimontium and the museum in Melrose (thanks to the vastly knowledgeable curator) (SL, RC, CI)
  
• labelled legionaries made by the children, and beautifully (thanks to my CA) displayed on the wall (SL, EC)
  
• cartoon strips the children made of the Romulus and Remus story (SL)
• Roman sums in their "maths" jotters (SL)
  
• photos that one pupil brought back from her half term holiday looking at Roman sites that we all so enjoyed seeing on the whiteboard and hearing about from that well-informed pupil (EC, CI)
  
• children who have already been to the NMS Early People Gallery with their parents and can tell you about some links between Romans and Celts (SL, CI)
  
• lists of talents from round the necks of the slaves at the slave market that we held (SL, CI, RC)
  
• fabulous gladiuses (should that be gladii?) and scabbards that a few have finished designing and making (SL, CI )
  
• some Roman artwork produced by the children under their own steam (SL, CI, EC)
  
• some books brought in by the children with post-its at interesting pages, showing they have actually read what's in there. (SL, CI, EC)
  

In a couple of weeks time, we'll have had a Roman baths afternoon, where we'll use olive oil on our hands and do the whole room to room business, and a Roman feast for which we'll have taken turns to grind some stuff in a pestle and mortar; we'll have learned more Latin and made more connections with our language. We'll carry out fair testing of our catapults; we'll make coins; dress up; find out more about Roman beliefs; do more Roman Maths; and later, visit the NMS Early People gallery and experience the artefacts there. We will do lots of writing on the way but it probably won't be in a project jotter, though I may offer children this as an additional option if they want.

And it's not just about keeping them occupied. If you talked to the children you'd be in no doubt that this has been an exciting and memorable topic for them and that their learning from it has extended well beyond the People in the Past Learning Outcomes of 5-14. You can already identify challenge and enjoyment, depth, breadth, progression, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance and we are only half way through.

And yet, my jotters were handed back with a raised eyebrow.

In my generous moments, I can sympathise because my line manager is in a difficult situation - she can probably not now tick the "satisfactory" box for the topic jotters from P4. But in my professional moments I worry about future assessments of my work as a teacher. I am confident that these children have experienced wonderful opportunities in all areas of ACE, their learning, achievement and attainment have progressed in lots of areas and they are in the process of becoming aware of how they are doing it, but they have not written about all of it in a project jotter, so no tick for P4 and me :-(

Hmm. Back to the reality of the 21st Century with a bump.

Old dogs

I stood behind my son and his girlfriend at the pc yesterday as they revised for the listening part of their Advanced Higher Music exam. There is a SQA school website where they can practice listening to examples, which accompany several questions with blank spaces they have to fill in. Initially I thought what an excellent tool this was, but I soon changed my mind.

They hear a (very annoying) voice interrupt the music with the number of the question at the point to which it refers. The questions often ask them to say how many beats are in a bar. For me this involves concentration as the excerpt is played and I found this very difficult as the questioner's voice would interrupt at odd points with the right number for the question but the wrong number for the beat, if you see what I mean.

I also noticed that the two of them have a repertoire of appropriate answers and even though I could suggest alternative correct answers, their answer would turn out to be accepted where mine wasn't. For example something like "The violins are playing a..." where I might offer "counter melody" they preferred "sequence" and they were judged correct.

There were other places however, where they offered perfectly correct answers that were not accepted, presumably because they hadn't correctly guessed the field the questioner was aiming at. And I don't know how they know how precise to be. If you know it's an A clarinet, or soprano sax that's playing, do you put that or simply Clarinet or saxophone?

Not for the first time I'm very glad I'm not at that stage.