TessaWatson.com

Have You Updated Your Aggregator?

2007-01-23T20:03:00.000Z

Following a number of emails and a couple of passing comments, I thought I should post this. If you are not being directed to my new site, Exc-el, can you make sure you have updated your RSS aggregator? Either that, or your favorites.

You can still catch me on the same domain name.

The new address for your aggregator is:

http://exc-el.org.uk/blogs/tessawatson

This only applies to people who want to read what I write.

Feel free to delete me otherwise :)

Pastures New

2007-01-15T17:32:00.000Z

As you may have noticed, I have remained relatively quite on the blogging front this week. After a tutorial with David Gilmour and a few hours of trial and error, David and I have successfully managed to migrate my webpages to the fantastic new Exc-el Wordpress platform. This will be my final post from blogger.com. You can now find me in my new pastures here:

http://exc-el.org.uk/blogs/tessawatson/

I will switch my domain name later tonight. Before I go, I would like to say a huge thank you to all of my readers for their comments and support. I would particularly like to thank David Gilmour for his tutorial last Monday, and his endless patience during our 'Skype' chats. I would also like to thank my very good friend Jennie for helping me to set up my first webpage.

Join me over on Exc-el!

Exc-el 2007

2007-01-10T18:18:00.000Z

The third term has started on a very positive note for me. My pupils and I are ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ after a well deserved Christmas break.
On Monday I attended the Exc-el Board Meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the steering of online learning within East Lothian and our visions for how Exc-el will develop over the next three years. I would say more, but my collegues have already given their accounts on their own blogs.

Don’s post
Ollie’s Post
Davids’s Post
Ewan’s Post

I am very pleased to have been invited to join the group and I am looking forward to contributing to the development of Exc-el.

RSS: What I Think It Is And What It Does For Me And My Blog.

2007-01-07T20:42:00.000Z

I am hoping that this post will be useful to some readers. Please bear in mind that this is my account of RSS with relevance to blogging.

RSS- With an orange logo that reminds me of the old supermarket chain Fine-Fare, it appears on many websites these days. Most of us have heard of it or read about it, some of us even know the secret of what it is! Explaining it however, is a bit tricky. Following Robert's recent successful series of posts, I am going to bit the bullet and give it ago.

RSS- What does it stand for?
There is no particular rule as to what the letters RSS actually stand for. Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary are two possible meanings listed on the wiki-pedia page. For now, I am not interested in this as it really means nothing to me. If you can just imagine RSS is the name, a word.

RSS- How is it formed?
Let's start with how is RSS formed. The internet is packed jammed full of information. Much of this information is updated on an hourly, daily or weekly basis etc. When I say updated, I mean that something on that web page has changed. Let's look at blogs as a particular example. You will know from reading my blog, that I update it on a daily or weekly basis. This depends on whether I have something I want to share with others. When I update my blog with a post I have written, it produces what we call RSS.

RSS- BUT WHAT IS IT!!??
So the question is still with us. Here goes......

Imagine my blog is a radio station, probably a very boring one at that. Every time I write a post, this radio Station (my blog) broadcasts it via radiowaves (RSS). You will only be able to receive these radio waves if you have some kind of Radio, i.e. receive notification that my blog has been updated. This Radio is call an RSS reader or Aggregator, I.e. Bloglines or Netvibes. These are simple accounts that are very easy to setup and use. You can see a screen shot of a Netvibes account here.

Now let's think about it on a wider scale of things. Each blog transmits its own RSS, its own radio waves, to our radio (RSS reader). If we program our radio (RSS reader) to receive the radio waves (RSS) from our chosen radio stations (blogs), we can see them all at the same time.

I.e. I have all the blogs that you can see listed below, on the right, in my RSS reader account. When I log into my account, I can see which ones have new posts. This saves me time as I don't need to click through all of them to see if there are any new posts. My Radio (RSS reader) has done it for me!

Ok, this is one of my understandings of RSS. I have no idea whether this will make the slightest bit of sense; I have let my imagination take over here.

I am more than happy to elaborate on anything I have mentioned.

Please feel free to beat me with comments. Be kind :(

More on PowerPoint searching.

2007-01-07T18:43:00.000Z

Just a quick post. One website where quite a lot of resources can be found is World of Teaching.
However, beware. Many of the PowerPoint’s are either incomplete, or require editing. Certainly, with regards to Biology, they do not cover a lot of the course learning outcomes adequately. However, there is the odd gem to be found, with the added bonus that there are no copyrights.

Well worth a rummage.

PowerPoint Search

2007-01-06T13:36:00.000Z

This may not be any big secret to a number of you, but I felt it was worth a mention on my blog. As we know, the internet has lots and lots of information. There are lots and lots of ways to filter this information, allowing you to find the particular facts etc, that you are looking for. With particular relevance to PowerPoint presentations, you might find the following quite useful (that’s if you didn’t already know)

Firstly, open up a window with Google.

Secondly, beside the Google search box, you will see a blue hyperlink ‘Advanced Search’. Click on this link and you should see the following page:

There are lots of boxes on this page, but the two specific ones that you need to use are:

Find Results -‘With All Of The Following Words’

and

File Format- 'Any Format'

Type in the specific words of your chosen topic (i.e. ‘Mitosis’ ‘Basic’, for me as a Biologist). Next, look at the 'File Format' row. Here, make sure that you change ‘Any Format’ to 'ppt (PowerPoint)' from the file format drop down menu.

It should, now, just be a case of clicking ‘Search’. The list of web pages that come up should be PowerPoint in format. Allot of them may not be relevant to you, but I have found some excellent PowerPoint’s by searching through Google in this way.

AVENUE Q

2007-01-02T12:10:00.000Z

A very Happy New Year to you all! In a bid to escape the manic celebrations in Edinburgh, I decided to venture south and spend New Year with family and friends in London. Every Christmas, I try and see a new musical. Although I saw Avenue Q in August, I just couldn’t resist returning again tonight. Avenue Q The Musical was created by to gentlemen called Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. The pair began writing Avenue Q in 1999, thinking that their idea would make for a great TV series. Four years later, in 2003, the musical hit New York's Broadway, eventually reaching London in 2oo6. It is like a kind of ‘Adult' version of the 'Muppets/Sesame Street’. Indeed, on December 4th 2006, the cast of Avenue Q (only 8 in total) appeared at the Royal Variety Performance. They performed several numbers from the show including the hilarious, ‘It Sucks To Be Me’ and ‘Only For Now’. The songs are as catching as those from ‘Grease’ and ‘Cats’, and the lyrics are very meaningful; a colleague of mine has even used some of these songs during RME lessons!

'Avenue Q is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He soon discovers that the only neighbourhood in his price range is Avenue Q; still, the neighbours seem nice. There's Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fiancée Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his roommate Rod -- a Republican investment banker who seems to have some sort of secret; an Internet addict called Trekkie Monster; and a very cute kindergarten teaching assistant named Kate. Together, Princeton and his newfound friends struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life'.

Broadwaybox

I won’t give anymore away, but if you have the chance, you should go and see it. It is a new breed of musical that is guaranteed to have you chuckling and singing all the way home. A 'must' for any University graduate.

More details can be found at the Avenue Q website.

Best wishes for 2007!

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me...etc

2006-12-28T12:35:00.000Z

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. I saw this blog post recently circulating and I have been fortunate enough to avoid being tagged. However, thanks to Robert, I must now join in.

Five things you didn’t know about me.

I enjoy playing the piano and the flute, badly.

When I was thirteen, I gained my Pony Club level C+ Certificate.

In the summer of 2002, I did a sky dive over Magnetic Island in Australia.

I am a huge Volkswagen Beetle fan

I am the only member of my family since my grandfather, Michael Swann, to follow a career beginning in the Biological Sciences.

I tag Jan, Luke, Glowboy, Liz and I don’t think OB has been tagged yet.

GLOW Not Frozen Yet!

2006-12-20T20:26:00.000Z

With the second term ending within the next 24 hours, life is more manic than ever at school. The S6 Pantomime is looking great. The S6 have really pulled together; thank you to everyone that has helped us. We haven’t been able to rehearse on stage due to tonight’s Christmas concert (fingers crossed all will run to plan tomorrow). The Christmas concerts at Knox are just legendary. This year’s will be out standing as usual, judging by the sounds I could hear when passing the assembly hall today.

This morning saw my last lesson with my 3rd year INT1 Biology class before Christmas. There are two INT1 Biology classes that come to our department at the same time in the timetable. I, and my colleague, decided to give our INT1 classes the choice of working on their PowerPoint projects down in ICT or watching one of our DVDs (I think it was the world famous ‘Blue Planet’, but I am not entirely sure).

Having been given the choice, one pupil piped up:

‘Miss, did you know that Glow is still online?’

On hearing this, 10 out of my 16 pupils chose to carry on with their projects and have a 'cheeky' interaction on the portal!

What a very positive and encouraging note to finish the second term on.

Wishing You A Merry Christmas!

2006-12-18T19:32:00.000Z

With the onset of Christmas, life is very manic. I am feeling very guilty that I haven’t sent any Christmas cards yet. However, I have decided to blog one online to you all.

I have taken an alternative approach. I have purchased a goat for the less fortunate in Africa.

However, sending or ‘blogging’, a card online is free.

Very Best wishes, enjoy this online card/clip.

Merry Christmas!!!

Tess :)

Oh Yes He Is!...........

2006-12-14T20:24:00.000Z

With the S6 Pantomime rehearsals in full swing, we are starting to practice our small production on stage. The Lighting is now fully functional as is the audio side of things. Tonight I am trying to compel a series of sound effects and theme tunes. I am on the lookout for any good sites where I can down load sound effect mp3s for free. I have found a few that will do, but I was wondering if any of my readers have any suggestions further to my own findings? I am also looking for the Big brother theme tune and the X-Factor theme tune. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas that could save me valuable time (and money!).

:)

Increasing The Network.

2006-12-13T19:40:00.000Z

I was meaning to post this last night. If you are reading this and you don’t already have a blog (or are thinking of starting), take an outclick to Robert Jones . He has posted a really useful and simple guide to creating and maintaining a successful blog.

Give this a click and a read. Well worth your while I promise

Thanks Robert!

Festive Fun!

2006-12-11T19:20:00.000Z

Ho Ho Ho! Christmas is only 14 days away!

Thanks to Andrew Brown and Ollie Bray for blogging the above Idea!

With the onset of the festive period I have offered to supervise the back stage activities of our School Christmas Pantomime. Having had surgery on my foot last year, I was unable to get involved. Although I have helped out in previous school productions out with Knox, This is my first time actually supervising backstage. I know that last year’s pantomime was a huge success so we have a lot to live up to. We decided not to go for any particular theme this year, but a kind of 'Mish Mash’ of a number of famous pantomimes with an added ‘X-Factor’ thread running through (I won’t say more as it is meant to be a secret!). The pupils have written the script and are now manically rehearsing for the last day production. I have got the ball rolling with scenery and costumes. The pupils have been great in supplying a lot of the materials themselves. So far, I am in communication with Tesco who are more than happy to send some old yet robust cardboard packaging my way, I have a mound of old retro clothes and a pile of outrageous makeup, but I am looking for any advise or suggestions as to where to search for more cheap, or even better free, resources.

Any ideas?

:)

Are You Keeping Up with The Commodore?

2006-12-10T21:30:00.000Z

As mentioned in my last post. I have purchased a Commodore 64. The C64 was released in August 1982. It was the best selling model of the 1980’s. It had a huge 64KB of RAM and a graphics chip with 16 colours! It really was state of the art. My parent’s bought a C64, in 1986, with the intention of using it to manage farm accounts. This was not to be so. It took my Father 4 hours to program the machine to play ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’, let alone, create, calculate, manage and save any accounts. With so many failed attempts he gave up and passed the machine onto my brother and I. I don’t actually know anyone who used the C64 for anything other than gaming.

This is where my passion for all things ICT initially began. I would spend hours working out how to programme the C64 to do very simple (and at the time, fascinating tasks) I managed to play small monophonic tunes, draw very basic pictures and of course there was the game playing. I find it incredible to think that 20 years later I am now able to do the same tasks and much more from my mobile phone!

With regards to gaming I was an avid user. This, however, is not something that has stayed with me. I am not really very up to date with the latest games consoles (Sony Wee?) With 16 colours the C64 games were just fantastic! ‘Hungary Horace’, ‘Dizzy’, ‘Wheelies’ and ‘Road Blasters’ to name a few (others not the most PC in this day and age). It gave me a very nostalgic, yet strange, feeling when I set it up last week. Seeing the famous blue C64 screen, holding the ‘Run/Stop’ and 'shift' buttons simultaneously, waiting in anticipation for the game to load; would it load or would it come up with ‘system error’?

As I asked for my purchase to be delivered to school, I couldn’t resist setting it up and letting my own pupils see my new toy. As you may have read in previous posts, my INT 1 Biology class are working on the subject of ‘Alcohol and Its Effects’. Under the umbrella of this subtopic is ‘Reaction Time’. What better a way to demonstrate reaction time than with a good old 10 minute game of ‘Crazy Cars’ (This is a game where you have to race around a circuit avoiding other cars and potential hazards, ideal for testing reaction time!).

After overcoming the basic graphics (one boy asking me, ‘but where is the car?’) the pupils surprisingly got really into the game. They were also very inquisitive as to how the machine worked. (I.e. loading of cassettes and the general setup). I am pleased to announce that my reaction time was not the worst in the class! Though I do have the advantage of several years of C64 experience.

Why am I writing a post about an old computer I ask myself? I don’t know really, a trip down memory lane.

The Commodore 64, such a fabulous computer of the past, they have even commissioned a classical orchestra to play the music from the games!

Glowing, Going, Gone

2006-12-07T20:40:00.000Z

I am sorry that my recent posts are set in the past tense of ‘yesterday, I….’. With the onset of the Festive period, life in and out of school has been very hectic.

However, this week saw the last of the Glow portal trial at Knox Academy. As of 6pm today, it has been taken offline.

On Tuesday evening, I met with Karen Robertson, Elizabeth Cowan, Paul Smyth, Dawn Adams and my fellow mentors Leeann McMillan and Glow boy Dave. This was our official feedback meeting. We reported on pros, cons, progress and the general usability of Glow. No new issues have arisen in the last week, hence I won't repeat details. On a very positive note, Dave, Leeann and I agreed that we have really enjoyed being part of the trial Glow portal. We are hoping our feedback will be useful and we are very much looking forward to using the ‘real Glow’ in 2007.

My last Glow lesson was yesterday. My INT1 class and I were very pleased to welcome John Connell and Karen Robertson in to observe. As it was the final lesson involving Glow, I decided that, in addition to our usual interactions on the portal, I would ask the class to fill out a short feedback form. This will be sent to RM in addition to the formal feedback Dave, Leeann and I gave on Tuesday. The pupils had to download a word document that I had posted on to our glow group. After typing out there responses on the form, I requested that they print them out. This was the fourth Glow lesson for these youngsters. I was very pleased to see how they had adapted to using the portal with great ease in such a short period of time. We are very much looking forward to using the real Glow next year. I would like to thank John and Karen for taking the time to visit us yesterday.

This will probably be my last ‘Glow’ post for a while. Thank you for all your comments, queries, questions and words of encouragement.

Goodbye Glow! See you again in 2007!

What am I going to blog about now? Well on the ICT front (and in the absence of Glow) I have just purchased an old Commodore 64 (much to the utter dismay of my parents).

No, I am not mad; I am keen to compare the ICT I grew up using with the technology I am now using every day.

Combating ‘cold turkey’ in the absence of Glow? No. An investment I say!

Watch this space ;)

The Beginnings Of Glow

2006-12-05T19:14:00.000Z

Yesterday I was very pleased to have informally met John Connell. John is the former Director of Glow (SSDN) He will be visiting me and my INT1 Biology class tomorrow morning to observe Glow in action. Yesterday John showed me a little of the background planning and specifications of Glow. This was an excellent opportunity for me to gain a wider knowledge of what we are now currently using in the classroom. Glow has been planned, created and constructed over the last 6 years. Initially, glow started as a simple idea. John illustrated the concept with this diagram

From this, a more complex mind map was then derived. Many concepts branching from the initial three. This mind map illustrates how the planning progressed

Let’s take a look:

SSDN ‘State Of Requirements’

The Scope of the Procurement
‘The procurement of the intranet will embrace the design, delivery and implementation of the software and applications as well as the management of the intranet as a service to authorities, schools and national bodies for the agreed period of the contract. An agreed subset of intranet functions will require to be made available to all users across the country whatever they’re networking and connectivity arrangements’.

It was fascinating to see how such a huge initiative originally stemmed from such simple concepts. Obviously the process of where John was 'then' and where we are now is far more complex. I won’t go into excessive detail, but John also showed me some of the prototypes that were initially involved.

Prototype created by Robert Skey

This looks very different to the trial portal. Indeed, my first vision of Glow was similar to what we see above. Though this is largely due to the fact I use applications like windows media player and MSN Messenger every day. The portal is still in it’s trial phase. Other collaborative and VLE tools will be integrated between now and mid-2007.

All very exciting nevertheless. I would like to thank John for taking time to meet Dave and I yesterday, it was very interesting to see some of the foundations of Glow.

The Art Of Science

2006-12-04T19:05:00.000Z

A 'must click' for any Scientist

'Waltz Of The Polypeptides'

More from the makers

Glowing; Dusk Till Dawn

2006-12-01T16:45:00.000Z

On route to Haddington.

The view from my Beetle.

Sunrise Over Seafield Road

One of the many beautiful sunrises that are, frankly, just 'glowing'.

After a manic week, I am trying to fit in a bit of ‘power blogging’ before the weekend. On the glow front, I am pleased to be meeting John Connell (former Director of the SSDN, glow). John has accepted the invitation to visit Knox Academy. He will be observing his ‘vision’ and years of planning in practice. He will join my INT 1 class, and I, on Wednesday morning. We are really looking forward to his visit.

This week also saw the trial of glow in the Primary Sector. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Leann McMillan (King’s Meadow primary school, Haddington) trialed the glow portal with her pupils. Unfortunately I was given cover on Tuesday and I was teaching on Wednesday. However, Dave R was able to attend. His review can be found here. (Thanks Dave)

Alas, it is the weekend. Have a good one :)

Glow Gossip

2006-11-30T08:15:00.000Z

Yesterday, Paul Smyth returned to Knox to join my INT1 Biology class and I. He was accompanied by his colleague,

Alan Atwell from LTScotland.

We are currently working on 'Alcohol And it's Effects'. Today the pupils were creating new slides for their projects using my suggested links. They could also download my revision notes (PowerPoint) that cover the Learning Out comes of the first unit. Though today’s lesson was no different to others involving glow, we did stumble across a few more glow usability issues.

Firstly, I posted a 'News Flash' on our glow group. I mentioned ‘Mr Smyth’s’ visit, followed by today’s task. I illustrated this with a series of bullet points.

Create three slides on the following:
· The Liver and its function
· Alcohol- The short term effects
· Alcohol- The long term effects

Although the bullet points were clearly visible when drafting the item, when I saved the post, they just disappeared. I repeated this two or three times, each with the same result. Today’s second problem lay with the uploaded documents. As mentioned, I uploaded some power points that the pupils could download and view. Once I had viewed my own uploaded document (ppt slide show) I clicked the back button with the intention of re-entering the portal. This didn’t happen. The document automatically downloaded it’s self onto the hard drive of my machine. And, logged me out of the portal. I am not sure if this is a consistent fault with ‘glow’ or if it indeed could be an issue with the school browser. However, I would like to thank Paul and Alan for taking time to come and visit us yesterday, my apologies that your visit could not have been longer.

Skiing Or Boarding?

2006-11-27T20:15:00.000Z

Having read Robert's blog, and commenting recently, I felt the need to write this post. I am an avid skier. Robert Jones is currently taking votes on; ‘what do you do when the snow comes?’

Robert is one of my colleagues in East Lothian.
We are currently engaging in an ‘informal’ battle of the skier/snowboarder superiority. I am hoping most of you will vote for skiing (top left-hand side of his site, then click ‘vote’).

Flo, the boarder, had to be resecued 'off piste' as you can see!

Vote now

Ali, I know you will be influential on the outcome of this one!

In the mean time, enjoy this!

Happy time!

What Kind of Blogger are you?

2006-11-26T19:56:00.000Z

I have just had an email about this quiz. Not sure if I agree with the out come here. I have to say I feel I put alot of thought into my posts. What kind of blogger are you?

You Are a Link Blogger!

Your blog is more about cool links than thougtful posts.

Better to be entertaining and breif than longwinded and boring!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

More Diet Coke and Mentos!!!!

2006-11-24T18:58:00.000Z

Obsessed, me?

Never. But what fun!

More Diet Coke and Mentos!!!!!!!!!!

Have a fab weekend!!!

Tess :)

GLOW GLOW and more GLOW!

2006-11-22T20:10:00.000Z

Yesterday, I arranged a very last minute glow session with a few East Lothian 'Glow' colleagues. Initially, Dave R, Brian C and I decided to meet so that we could explore the glow portal further. After a few skype chats and a couple of emails on Monday night, our trio developed into a small gathering. By chance, Ollie B, David G, Ewan Mc and Paul Smyth (RM) were available to join us. This was great. From 4-615pm we explored the portal (I am sure we would have spent even more time together, but the portal is taken offline during the week after 6pm). During our informal gathering, we investigated the use of HTML, flickr badges and, of course, talked non-stop about glow (It was great!!)

Today, Paul returned for more glow feedback. He joined my INT1 class for our first glow ‘Biology’ lesson. He observed the lesson and activities. More importantly, he was able to chat to the pupils about their experiences and views.

My INT1 pupils have been working on their 'Health and Technology' projects for three months now (2 year INT1 Course, replacing SG Science at Knox). If the accommodation is available, we spend one period every one to two weeks in the ICT suites. They have created an array of fantastic slide shows that they can now share and comment on within the trial portal. We plan to give a presentation, around Christmas, to a member of management and any staff who are free at the time. This proved to be a fantastic experience for the pupils and myself two years ago (the first Intermediate 1 cohort to pass through Knox)

We did encounter a few more problems today, the majority involving the pupils uploading their own documents. Glow has a ‘banned words’ policy. When I set up the glow group for the class, I forgot to change this setting. Glow has about five settings for filtering words:

Full filter
RMPS allowed
Biology allowed
PSE allowed
No filter

As a Biologist, I am sure you can imagine, many of the words that we use are banned. One particular case today was ‘body fat’. This is a physiological measurement that we study during this unit. I would have tried to alter the filter had time allowed.

My pupils are really enjoying this exciting experience (So am I as you have probably guessed!).

Dave and I are still in the midst of writing a feedback report for RM. The experiences of Today and last night have brought attention to a few more ‘glow usability’ issues. We will submit our report along side Leeann McMillan (Kings Meadow Primary school) towards the end of this week.

I would like to thank Paul Smyth for visiting today (and last night). I hope our lesson provided useful feedback.

Thank you to all of my East Lothian colleagues who popped in last night. I felt our seesion was very useful. I would also like to thank my Biology class for being fantastic ambassadors for Knox Academy.

(blogger.com is, yet again, not uploading JPEGs for me. I am very angry......VERY ANGRY!!).

I will try and post images later.

Interesting Science......Find That Bean Man!!

2006-11-20T20:14:00.000Z

This will be a fun test for the kids. As I am still in the midst of S4 prelim marking, I thought I would lighten my evening with a jovial post (not that I have time...15 min break. All has been copied from and earlier email).
So check out this. Try to find the 'man' in the JPEG (photo)

It's not a trick, i.e. there is no play on the word "Man". You don't have to squint your eyes in a funny way or anything like that.

QUOTE Random USA Scientist(allegedly) (:

"Now here's the dodgy science bit. Doctors have (allegedly) concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, your right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, your right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!!! "

I don't know how long it would have taken me tonight, had I not received the image earlier.

Back to the grind-stone :(

Networking And Rugby???

2006-11-19T12:07:00.000Z

I don’t usually write posts about my social life out side school, but today I am going to. Yesterday I met two individuals from the teaching profession. To illustrate what blogging is about, I thought I would write a small post for them.

Yesterday, after a two hour marking session, I decided to take a break and head down to my local rugby club, George Heriot's (Golden Acre). I am a big rugby fan. Ever since I have been a student, I have helped occasionally helped behind the bar there. George Heriot’s RFC is not only a fantastic place to watch great rugby; it is also a great place to meet individuals from lots of different professions.

With a superb victory of 31-13, networking and blogging were far from my mind. This was until I started speaking to Peter Hill, one of the members. Peter is a Lecturer in Physical Education at Moray House. I was chatting to him about blogging and glow. He was interested to hear that he knew some of the people behind the blogs that I read. He is not the most keen internet user, but I am hoping that he will now become one of my regular readers! (I am sure you will Mr Hill!)

Another member who I regularly enjoy chatting to is Alex Dunbar. Alex has been a loyal Herioter for many years. He has a wealth of rugby and war stories. His most interesting are the tales of when he was stationed out in Rangoon with the RAF during the War. Yesterday Alex brought his daughter, Morag Moir, to Golden Acre. Morag is the Head Teacher at Causewayend Primary School, Aberdeen. She had come down to Edinburgh to visit Alex for the weekend. No sooner had I sat down to chat with Alex and Morag, I found my self talking about glow and blogging! One particular person, that Morag mentioned, was Andy Watson. Andy’s blog is one that I had not read before. Andy is the ICT Development Officer with Aberdeen City. A very useful connection. Thanks Morag!

It was very nice to meet you I hope you have a safe journey back up to Aberdeen.

So, in a nutshell, welcome to blogging. Keep up the networking!

Third Glow Trial Update!

2006-11-18T09:53:00.000Z

We have completed our three secondary class trials. Dave's third and final group had great problems logging in, as mentioned in my earlier posts. This wasn't helped by the fact that the network access was like treacle. The main problem with the passwords was the font in which they were typed. Even when Dave changed this, it still was a challenge (i.e. a straight vertical line could be a number '1', a capital 'I', a small 'L', etc).

Dave, Brian Cunningham (Musselburgh Grammer) and I, are proposing to spend some sessions, after school, exploring glow further this week. Although our trial lessons are over, many of our pupils are keen to use glow for various projects for the remaining time of the trial. I will report back in due course.

Our fourth years sat their Biology prelim yesterday so I am off to entertain a 'door step' sized pile of marking :(

I will let you know how we get on. Keep the glow gossip up!

Glow, Second Trial Lesson Update

2006-11-15T19:58:00.000Z

Today, Dave and I monitored the second glow lesson. This went very well. The pupils were nearly one step ahead of us this time! By the time we were on task 3 (of the supplied pupil document) half of them had already changed their glow themes! The problems that I mentioned in my last post were the only ones that cropped up today.

Difficult passwords
Copy and pasting
The use of the apostrophe (Frames started to jump)
And of course, time

It was fabulous to see the youngsters so enthusiastic and progressing on a very steep learning curve. They posted their views on the theme (Global Warming: Is It Real?), uploaded their documents and started to create their own address books. This was all very exciting to be part of.
I am in the fortunate position with this class that we currently do a ‘project’ period once a week (if the ICT accomodation is available). My pupils and I are really looking forward to using the trial portal to enhance this. I haven’t had any free time to experiment more, as yet. I have uploaded some revision documents that I hope introduce to the class next week.
Today was such a success. I am very pleased! Dave and I had 8 pupils from the first two trial classes’ request that they come in at lunch time to explore a little more! Our third and final trial is tomorrow. Unfortunately, I am teaching, but Dave will give me a summary that I can report back on. We will then summarise all our collected feedback from pupils and staff for RM.

One separate fact, just as a by the by, the Operating system we use is:
Microsoft Win2000
And our current browser is:
Internet Explorer 6.0,Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)

I hope my post doesn’t appear as jargon. I am very sensitive to the fact that a lot of my readers have not had the privilege of exploring glow. I am currently working on uploading a number of documents on to the East Lothian Glow blog. These should give you any information that I have missed. Thankfully, Andy from Aberdeen has already done the deed. (Thanks Andy!)

I welcome any thoughts or views, positive or negative

Tess :)

Glow First Trial Lesson Update

2006-11-15T07:05:00.000Z

Good Morning!

Yesterday saw the first trial lesson within the glow portal at Knox Academy. All was very positive, but on the critical side, the main flaws, that we have come across so far, are:

Difficult passwords
Copy and pasting
The use of the apostrophe (Frames started to jump)
And of course, time

Today, Dave and I will be monitoring the second trial with my Intermediate 1 Biology class. I am hoping Dave isn't given a cover class. I would like to thank John Taylor (PT Physics) and Elaine McMillan (PT English) for help and support yesterday.

My intentions are to write a more detailed post tonight.

Mrs O'Neill's Blog

2006-11-14T08:41:00.000Z

Liz O’Neill is a Teacher from the South West , Dumfries and Galloway. She recently made contact with me with regards to glow. She is really excited about glow, and is hoping to get involved. She, like myself, feels that the networking, enthusiasm and innovation that glow would provide, could transform her school. She is on the school 'Learning and Teaching committee' and doing her bit to publicise the great things that are happening in Scotland right now.

Quote Liz
“As an English teacher I think we need to be relevant. The pupils I teach are writing online all the time -and moaning and groaning over producing a paragraph for me. So, we need to start activating that aptitude”..

Though her blog is in the early stages, she feels it might be encouraging for other 'not very technical people'

I totally agree Liz! Give her blog a click!

BEBO: The Movie

2006-11-13T07:02:00.000Z

Ewan McIntosh posted this video yesterday. It is called Bebo: the Movie. It’s been made by university students as part of a media project. It's only about 10 minutes long but well worth a look. As Ewan suggests, this video would be superb for using in class to get pupils thinking and talking about internet safety.

Quote Ollie:
'..... a great tool to introduce parents and teachers to the different uses, functions and dangers of web tools like Bebo'.

View the video at here.

I have already forwarded this to our Guidance department.

It Was All 'GLOW' For Knox Today!

2006-11-11T05:28:00.000Z

Today Dave Rawson and I gave the staff at Knox Academy their first taste of glow. We ran three, forty minute sessions over the course of the afternoon. Unfortunately the trial portal does not run during Fridays and over the weekend as it is being updated and serviced. However, we managed with the static screen shots that I have included below.

Following the presentation, we took a range of questions. There were a number of queries regarding copy right. Dave and I are under the impression that this will be dealt with at the Local Authority level. One particular question which has got me thinking came from our PT Mathematics, Linda McInnes. She queried how she would be able to perform a ‘glow math’s lesson’ for up to thirty one pupils as our current ICT labs have a maximum of 20 PCs? Is this something that could inhibit teachers of non-practical subjects from using glow as part of lessons?

Though I felt I staggered slightly during the first session, our second and third flowed well. Dave and I would like to thank the staff at Knox for listening Today. We hope our presentation was informative.

Following on from Ewan McIntosh’s recent comments, I have included more screen shots of the portal. Yesterday, I managed to explore a little more. I have investigated the ‘search for other glow user’s' button. This allows you to browse through all the registered glow users. I believe it is only pupils and staff of the 'chosen classes' from the schools within the selected Authorities, who are listed within the portal for the trial (i.e. Knox Academy and Kings Meadow Primary in East Lothian).You can search under different categories; first name, Last name, area of interest, establishment etc.
I have also looked into the glow groups. I can see this becoming a very large part of glow and glow use. Before I say anymore on ‘glow groups’, I would like to spend a bit more time experimenting. Below you can see a number of static screen shots of various areas within the portal. I will post more information as and when I explore them. Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments. For any other glow mentors reading, I am more than happy to email you the PowerPoint from today’s presentation.

Have a fabulous weekend. Catch you later!

Signing In

Main Page

Creating A Glow Group

The Glow Group

My Personal Calander

My Personal Area

Trial Of Portal, GLOWing So Far......

2006-11-09T06:21:00.000Z

Following on from my recent post, 'East Lothian Was Glowing This Morning' , we received the usernames and passwords for the trial of the glow portal at Knox Academy yesterday. Today Dave Rawson (ICT Coordinator for Knox) and I experienced our first taste of glow.

After attempting to enter the portal, with some what ‘Krypton Factor Challenge’ passwords and a number of email enquiries by Dave, we finally gained access.

The trial portal, as it stands, can only be accessed within Knox Academy and Kings Meadow Primary in East Lothian. Hence the glow trial intranet is relatively empty. Today, Dave managed to create a test Glow Group and edit some of the images on the Knox site as an administrator. The format, tabs, drop down menus and general content appear to be user friendly so far. This is how I imagined it to be. After a pretty much full teaching day and a meeting after work, I was only able to play within the portal for half an hour. (After 6pm, and on Fridays/ weekends, it is taken offline for maintenance servicing and updating).

Tomorrow, I would hope to use my only non-contact period to experiment a little more before our trial lessons next week. However, this evening I did manage to edit my own personal space within the portal….!

Unfortunately, we will not be able to demonstrate the live portal to the Knox staff during our presentation this Friday. Dave and I will, however, try our utmost to provide the clearest static images.

All very exciting! Watch this space......

What Would You Like To Know About GLOW?

2006-11-07T08:04:00.000Z

With the trial of the Glow portal looming, Dave Rawson (My fellow Glow Mentor) and I have been asked to give a presentation to the staff at Knox Academy. This is to take place on Friday during our staff CAT afternoon. Though this will be a joint effort, I think that the presentation should be very basic and perhaps include the points illustrated in my recent post 'East Lothian Was Glowing This Morning'. If you were a member of the audience, what would you like to know about glow?

HTML Cheat ;)

2006-11-07T07:08:00.000Z

A few of my colleagues have been quizzing me with regard to using HTML and templates. I have a few ‘cheat’ sites that you can visit to help you add in those links.

Web Monkey
HTML Examples

Hope these are useful. If you are aware of any good HTML links, please can you leave a comment!

Second Podcast: GLOWing!

2006-11-05T05:38:00.000Z

Pictured opposite is the mug that could complement a certain GLOW Mentor's tea set ;) I used it in my second trial Podcast.

Second Podcast! I am getting better, but still no sound (not sure what I am doing wrong? Maybe the camera mic). Once I am more practiced, I think I will Podcast an investigation to find out:

‘What Is The Minimum glow Temperature?’

Aren’t these mugs just LEDGENDERY!!! (lol)

(You will love this one Ollie!!!)

The Blogging Bug Is Spreading!

2006-11-04T04:07:00.000Z

The blogging bug has spread with three of my colleagues starting within one week!
Jan Peaston is a new member of staff in Biology, pictured right (sorry Jan, it is the only picture I have!). Luke Francis, a new member of staff in RME and my fellow GLOW Mentor buddy Dave Rawson.

Feel free to give their blogs a browse and leave a comment!

I am off to browse a few blogs before the weekend commences. Have a good one! Catch you later!

Is blogger.com Best?

2006-11-04T03:38:00.000Z

After a very manic week, I am just embarking on a bit of blogging before the weekend. Having not had the time to read or post anything for the last two days, I guess you could say I am going to have a bit of a ‘blog binge’ for the next hour or so!

Public and Private Face of the Teacher (Posted by Kenneth)

Earlier in the week, David Muir and Kenneth left me very useful comments. I had mentioned earlier that I was thinking about moving to a wordpress or typepad platform. I have had a number of queries why? So, I thought I would give you a few reasons.
Firstly, when I decided to start a blog, the current East Lothian blogs were not up and running. An old university friend offered to help me set up a blogger.com account. At this point I was not aware of the vast abundance of platforms that could be used to host blogs. Since then I have found my self really enjoying networking and learning in this new way. As I have learned, the blogger.com accounts may not be the most appropriate platform for teachers like me. All blogger.com blogs have a next button at the top of the page. On clicking this, you will be directed to the next random blog (mine has now been removed). All fine I would say if you are directed to a blog such as David or Kenneth’s. Not so fine is when you are directed to a site which could be deemed as inappropriate. Though there are a vast range of blogs to be found on blogger.com, not all of them are the most favourable. I don’t want my site to be the referring URL to anything that I have no control over. I have a reputation to maintain. Now that the East Lothian blog site is up and running, I feel I should become part of their more 'secure' platform. After all, I am an East Lothian Employee. I guess it is a bit like using your Hotmail address instead of your work Outlook Express address. Maybe that’s not a valid comparison?

I am quite happy just now as I have managed to remove the next blog button, though I am still aiming to move into the East Lothian blogosphere. This might be considered a logical idea, especially with the onset and progress of GLOW.

I welcome your comments and views!

East Lothian Was GLOWing This Morning!

2006-11-01T09:08:00.000Z

This Morning East Lothian was GLOWing, and not because it is Halloween!

Scotland has 32 Local Authorities, eight have been chosen to trial the GLOW portal. Out of the eight, three have been selected to trial the portal before Christmas (the other two being Renfrewshire and Dundee City).
The first schools within East Lothian to be selected are Knox Academy and Kings Meadow Primary. Today Leann McMillan (Kings Meadow), Dave Rawson and I (Knox) were able to see the portal in action. This allowed us to gain a vision of how the initiative will be used to aid Teaching and Learning.

“Glow is the national intranet for Scottish schools, linking Scotland’s 800,000 educators and pupils. Glow is a powerful set of tools for learning and teaching, sharing and collaborating which will be provided within a safe and secure on-line environment accessible from any location.”

Quote RM/GLOW

The Portal was demonstrated by Paul Smyth and Dawn Adams, both Educationalists, and Tom Gregory, the project manager. (Pictured to the left).

Phase One
Initially the portal will have a very basic set up. Each participating pupil and member of staff will have a user name and password. This will allow them to enter into the GLOW Intranet. The initial facilities that can be accessed within the GLOW Intranet will include:
• Pupil site
• Staff site
• Establishment site.
• GLOW groups within your establishment that you are a member of. (i.e. sports clubs/homework clubs)
• Local Authority Site
• National Site
• Your own personal site.

If you can imagine how your own school server operates (i.e. emailing, sharing resources, the daily bulletin) this will give you a small idea of what is to come. But, let me reassure you, GLOW will be far easier to use. We as GLOW mentors will be here to help you!

GLOW Bulletin

It might not be very clear from the images that I have posted, but on signing into the portal, this is an idea of what you should see. (Pictured above)
There will different themes for different age groups. When I say theme, I mean appropriate aesthetics. Primary themes will be more icon based, while secondary will be more text enhanced.
For those of you who have been lucky enough to see the GLOW Movie, you will recall that part of the GLOW intranet will have such things as instant messaging and video conferencing? For the trial of the portal, and the initial implementation of the initiative, the setup will be far from any of this. (These are tools which will be implemented during later phases of GLOW) GLOW is not solely about ICT. Indeed, as our Educationalists pointed out this morning, GLOW will develop with its users. GLOW is an initiative that is being designed and developed to enhance Teaching and Learning in Scotland.

How are Knox Academy and King's Meadow Primary involved?

Phase one of the GLOW trial will involve four classes (three Secondary and one primary). These trials will test the usability of GLOW.

What is easy to use and what is not?
What is understood and what is not?
What is missing?
Why did or didn’t that happen?
I have a vision that these are the questions that are likely to be answered.

GLOW Lesson

Each class will be given a trial lesson which will involve each pupil interacting within the intranet. Pupils will have to upload images and create their own individual pieces of work during the trial lessons. This will be tailored to the specific age group. The purpose of this trial is allow RM and GLOW to find any defects that internal testing may have missed. It will also test the internal systems and processes in practice (i.e. support, infrastructure etc). In addition, staff and pupil feedback (both positive and negative) will be requested. This will be fundamental to success of GLOW.

"Phase 1 is not the final version. We expect users to find defects. It is not the whole of GLOW. It is being run from a smaller but equally secure environment".

QUOTE: RM/GLOW

The GLOW pilot should be available as of Monday 6th November (Knox Academy and Kings Meadow Primary) The pilot will run Monday – Thursday 0830 – 1800. During the other three days of the week, the portal will be serviced, updated and developed by RM. There will be a remote support (GLOW Helpdesk) that will operate when GLOW is available. Our trials will commence the following week. Of course I will keep you updated with our progress.

On behalf of East Lothian, I would like to thank Paul Smyth, Dawn Adams and Tom Gregory for their time and presentation today.

I hope this post has been informative. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions.

After five and a half hours on my PC, I am afraid that I am all GLOWed out for today!

No more 'NEXT BLOG'!

2006-11-01T03:19:00.000Z

Having thought that there was no way that I could edit the template on my blog, (i.e. the ‘next blog’ button) David Muir posted a very helpful comment last night.

David Said:
“It is possible to hide the "Next blog" link in blogger (although they don't exactly make it easy!) I got the instructions on the MFLE section of LTScotland. It says "go into the template and find the tag. Just in front of it, type . Andrew M. Brown, ICT Education Support Officer for Argyll & Bute, has produced this screencast on his blog to show you how.”

I would suggest that any teacher who decides to use blogger.com should alter their template. This means that your URL address cannot refer others onto ‘random’ blogger.com blogs.

Though I have rectified my situation, I think I will still move to a wordpress blog in the near future.

Thank you David!

Moving on; but still GLOWing!

2006-10-31T06:23:00.000Z

Having had a few interesting SKYPE chats over the weekend, I am taking the decision to move my blog to a different platform. I am hoping that this will be relatively easy. With the help of David Gilmour, this should be less than two weeks. Is blogger.com a suitable platform for teachers to use to blog? I have found out that my site could be the referring URL to any page on blogger.com. I don’t like this and I cannot alter it. I am thinking that I will switch to wordpress or typepad.
On a more exciting note, I and the rest of the East Lothian Glow Mentors will be trying out the GLOW Portal tomorrow at Preston Pans Education Centre. I am not sure how much will be ready for the trial; hopefully lots!
Tomorrows post, ‘East Lothian was GLOWing This Morning’

Watch this space!

Digital Camera?

2006-10-31T05:40:00.000Z

Today I decided to take a few more photos of experiments that I have been doing on a daily basis for the last seven years. Having opened a flickr account, I tried to set up a ‘pro’ account via PayPal. Not realising that the payment was not immediate, I can’t upload the pictures :( (What are they doing with my money in the mean time? A Swiss bank account?) I have uploaded a few onto photobucket instead, but the widget function is not available! I guess I will just have to post a couple of static pictures for now until the account payment clears. This experiment is part of out S1/2 Curriculum:
Formation of Alum Crystals under one of our basic microscopes
I am also in the midst of browsing suitable cameras for use in the classroom, mainly for photography and podcasts etc. I really like the Fuji digital cameras, but I am not sure which is the best one. Ewan suggested I approach the council as they may be able to partly fund such equipment, but I would be using it personally too. Anyone any advice or ideas?

editgrid.com

2006-10-30T08:10:00.000Z

Having read Tom Barrett's blog earlier I thought I would share another new site. Editgrid.com is an online forum where excel templates can be shared and stored. You can see how Tom is using the site to collect and share results of Science experiments by clicking

Useful Sites This Week

2006-10-28T05:40:00.000+01:00

How Stuff Works. This web page is excellent. It has every thing from 'how Batteries work' to 'why do we yawn' It was actually the pupils who told me about it.

Steve Spangler. His blog is really good, lots of new ideas. Definitely worth a click for any scientist looking for experiments and links. He is also a 'Diet Coke and Mentos' fan!

TeachOneBiology This site has a wealth of useful links for Biology and Science teachers, even I have not explored it fully. You will find everything including lesson plans, investigation tips, useful sites and more.

Have a happy weekend catch you later!

Animations for web pages!

2006-10-26T19:15:00.000+01:00

I was just taking a quick peek at Robert Jone's blog and thought I would try a site he (and Ollie) recommended. I hope this works. The kids will love this stuff, especially if they are blogging.

Try it out!

CHLORINE Reaction

2006-10-26T05:55:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post as I was wondering if anyone out there has a podcast of the reaction between Copper foil and Chlorine? Or any ideas of where to find once. Though I will eventually do my own, my room is a Biology Lab and there is no fume cupboard; hence I am looking for a clip. I have searched high and low on the net with no success. I have found one with Aluminum and Bromine, but it doesn’t match the end of topic test paper. Anyone any ideas? :)

PODCASTING: Talking Science

2006-10-25T07:11:00.000+01:00

Ewan McIntosh posted this site earlier today. Although it looks relatively new, it is very much worth reading for any Science teachers who are keen on using ICT. I will be uploading more podcasts as and when. Watch this space! 'Talking Science'

RISK ASSESMENT: This must be a Thesis?

2006-10-25T06:40:00.000+01:00

Having read Jim Henderson's blog earlier, This site is a 'must' for all Science teachers to visit.
Observer Slideshow: Chemistry:
I would love to know how many ceiling tiles this gent has gone through?
The article “Setting Young Minds on Fire”

My Trial PODCAST

2006-10-24T06:28:00.000+01:00

Yup! Sorry but still on the 'Diet Coke and Mentos' theme. My INT1 class and I experimented on the last day of term. This was taken on a very basic 2 mega pixel so I'm not sure what the quality will be like? I am still learning the HTML codes on templates, so I am just posting a link at the moment (My blog looks a bit like a jigsaw other wise!)
Miss W's 'Diet Coke and Mentos'

Blogging in Education: Girls?

2006-10-23T06:13:00.000+01:00

Having just returned from a fantastic October break I have been doing a little bit of research in to why blogging in education is predominantly by males. I am aware that not everyone reading this post will be blogger.

Quote Wikipedia
'A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media'

Blogging is relatively new to me. I myself was unaware of the immense benefits that blogging brings until I became involved with the exciting initiative GLOW. It was Ewan McIntosh from LTS who really inspired me to start. Initially, setting up a blog can be a rather daunting and frustrating process. Rather like learning to use a new mobile phone, or an application such as File-maker Pro. However, once set-up it is all go. But why is it that the majority of Educators networking in this way are male?
Briefly asking a few female colleagues from all levels of the secondary sector, their comments include the following:

‘I just don’t have enough time’

‘I don’t know how to begin? I would if some one could show me’

‘Blogging is fine for reading, but I have no idea what I would write about!’

‘Blogging? No it’s not for me. I have only visited two blogs. Where do people get the time to do this? It’s all a bit flashy and cliquey if you want my honest opinion!’

‘I would rather stick pins in my head than read or write a blog!’

The general feeling I perceived was a lack of confidence in using ICT. Some staff are not confident in using PowerPoint. Logically, they will not be entertaining the thought of producing a blog. I strongly feel that classroom practitioners who are confident and able in this field should be given opportunity to pass our expertise on. I can understand why the blogosphere might appear clique from the outside, but anyone reading this can be rest assured that it isn’t. We are just well practised with our ICT skills. Speaking for myself (and I am sure my fellow bloggers will agree) we are more than willing to help you if you would like to start! Time may also appear to be an issue. It might look like bloggers spend hours on the net, typing and creating sites, but again this is not the case. Once the Blog is created, it is just a case of posting articles when you choose. Most bloggers have become very quick at typing. Having spoken to Ewan McIntosh via SKYPE, he can type a huge 60 words a minute! As they say, practice makes perfect! There does seem to be a slight negative attitude among some staff and I and my fellow bloggers must try and turn this feeling around. As a GLOW mentor, I am hoping to encourage more staff to blog, but before they blog they will need more support in using ICT. You have to walk before you can run! Though, in my opinion, this support will be fairly useless unless it is given on a one to one basis. This will need to happen soon as what we have occurring is a polarisation between those who are seen as ICT gurus, and those who struggle to use outlook express.

Anyway, I have gone a bit off the track here! What are the reasons for more males than females to be blogging in education? I think that, in general, male teachers are more confident in using ICT, that is not to say that us ladies are any the less able! Let me know what you think.

Blogging in Education; Need more GIRLS!!

2006-10-15T06:28:00.000+01:00

I am jetting off tomorrow for the October break, but on my return, I plan to write a post on;

'Gender and Blogging in Education'

Is it just me, or is blogging in education predominantly for males? If so how can we attract more ladies into networking in this new way?
Let me know what you think. Catch you on my return.

Breaking into HTML

2006-10-15T06:17:00.000+01:00

I am still in the midst of investigating many blogs, podcasts, the wonderful world of HTML. In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser, it is a code. HTML is used to structure information, denoting certain text as headings, paragraphs, lists and so on. It can be used to describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document. On the HTML front, I have been playing about with many templates and formats with a view to possibly starting a site for my subject. One book I have found particularly helpful was
‘HTML, In Easy Steps’ Mike McGrath
McGrath gives an excellent coverage of all the basics of using HTML to improve the content, aesthetics and format of your site. I found this guide very easy on the eye and very informative in explaining how to use and understand HTML. You can access the summary here.

My HOURS!

2006-10-13T07:25:00.000+01:00

As you may be aware, the posting times of my blog appear to be some what erratic. I don’t actually get out of be to post articles at 430am!!!!
Quote Mum:
'Darling….. What an earth are you doing on the internet at such anti-social hours!?'
The auto clock on the blog is wrong and I am trying my hardest to rectify the situation!!! I love my PC but really not that much! I can only post the date and time if I choose to and sometimes I forget, apologies to all!

PODCASTS in Education

2006-10-13T01:20:00.000+01:00

Podcasting and Secondary Science.

A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet. This can be in the format of an audio file or a video file (vodcast). Podcasting's initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own "radio shows," but the system quickly became used in a wide variety of other ways, including official and unofficial audio tours of famous places, conference meeting alerts and updates, by police to distribute public safety messages and of course, distribution of school lessons. With regards to the new GLOW Initiative, podcasting will be fundemental. Being a practical subject, there are many advantages to using podcasting in Science education. One fantastic illustration of their use is by the Highland council for the Intermediate 1 Biology Course. They have the three course units now available online. There are a series of lessons for each unit. Each online lesson consists of a short podcast, a PowerPoint presentation and a downloadable work sheet. Podcasting is something that is relatively new to myself and I am eager to trial run of a pod cast. My first thoughts would be during a dissection. My department and I are planning to run another fish dissection after the October break. Following the dissection, I would hope to post a podcast on the net. In the meantime if anyone has any suggestions, ideas or experiences they would like to share, I would be really interested to hear from you!

Check out these sites for some great examples of podcast use in Science education:
Teach with Tech
Bruce's Science Page
You can leave a comment, Skype me (on the tool bar at the side if I am online) or drop me an email tessawatson@tessawatson.com

Need for CHLOROPLASTS!

2006-10-12T05:44:00.000+01:00

Chloroplasts are specialised organelles found in all higher plant cells. These organelles contain the plant cell's pigment chlorophyll, hence provide the green colour. A large part of many of the SQA courses require pupils to analyse plant cells under the microscope and identify the chloroplasts of the cell. The standard plant always chosen is the pondweed Elodea. Elodea has lovely large chloroplasts that look rather like green smarties. You can actually see the organelles move around with in the cells cytoplasm under the microscope. However, sometimes it can be quite difficult to get hold of Elodea. Our technician’s suggested we look at moss cells instead of Elodea (Just the plain stuff that grows on stones and concrete). Our results are excellent. The chloroplasts are just as visible as they are in the pondweed. Big thanks to our fabulous technicians Pamela, Lynn and Sheila.

East Lothian GLOW

2006-10-10T21:09:00.000+01:00

A number of staff have been quizzing me with regards to where we are at with the new initiative ‘GLOW’, so I thought I would write a brief update. We are lucky enough at Knox Academy and Kings Meadow Primary to have been selected to pilot the trail run of the portal. This is to take place after the October break. In the mean time, you can keep track of our progress in East Lothian via the following site.
East Lothian GLOW.
Most of the blogs I read (on the side bar, right) link to GLOW too, so click away!

Get FLICKR-ed!

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

For all of you people who don't blog, or have not yet started, I thought I would tell you a bit about photo management with Flickr.Flickr is, in my opinion, certainly the best online photo management and sharing application on the Internet.
It allows you to get your photos to the people who matter to you. With Flickr you can, show off your choosen photos to the internet world, blog the photos you take with a camera or camera phone, securely and privately show photos to your friends and family where ever they are and lots more! The basic accounts are free!

You can see my first efforts using flickr on the top right of my page. These photos were taken during our CPD session in one of the School Labs on Friday. Not bad for being taken with a camera phone i say!

ADVANCED HIGHER CPD with Ann Chapman

2006-10-07T06:06:00.000+01:00

Following her return from SAPS Ann Chapman, PT Biology KNOX ACADEMY, offered to run a CPD session for fellow Biology colleagues in East Lothian on Advanced Higher Biology Practicals. This was a very informative presentation with lots of newfangled ideas that pupils might choose to use for their investigations. Ann's ideas included the following:

1. Photosynthetic rate in algae (Scenedesmus and Chlorella) - Measuring either oxygen evolution or carbon dioxide uptake so that rates can be determined. Suggested variables that could be altered were: Colour of light, Light Intensity, Distance from lamp, Neutral density experiment, Number of balls, Ball size, Concentration of algae, Temperature, Starting [CO2] etc.

2. Micro Scale Investigations with Catalase- The advantages of this type of investigation are quick repetitions, quick microcentrifuge, small samples of tissue, series of samples e.g. from diseased vegetable, no diffusion of enzyme from disc, results are quantified and easily controlled variables. Ann's suggested investigation ideas for this practical included, variation in catalase activity during germination, inhibition of seeds, hormone treatment
Variation in catalase activity between, different tissues, different parts of plant and diseased and healthy regions plant.

3.Biosensors, A modern Use of Bacteria-Photobacterium phosphoreum is a type of bacterium which displays luminescence (i.e. it gives out visible light) You can find out how toxic a substance is by adding it to Photobacterium and measuring its brightness. The more toxic the substance, the more it will damage the cells’ metabolism and the less brightly the Photobacterium will shine. The Investigations Ann Suggestions were: Different concentrations of a pollutant, Different types of pollutants. The pollutants suitable for school are, Ethanol, Copper sulphate, Detergents and any other naturally occurring pollutants. (I think a great investigation could be using common fertilisers?)

Through out the session I took a few amateur photos on my phone. I have now added a flickr badge (top right) to my page so take a peek!

It was an informative afternoon enjoyed by all, thanks Ann! I have more links and pictures to upload which I will do tomorrow morning. Must dash as I have an appointment to share some 'Good Practise' with an old colleague of mine, Sharon Gallagher. Topic? 'Products of fermentation' Location 'The Omni Centre'.

Have a great weekend!

If you would like more information or have any queries please get in touch tessawatson@tessawatson.com

Smoking Demo: No More?

2006-10-05T12:48:00.000+01:00

Many of the SQA Biology courses cover the topic of respiration. Under the Respiration umbrella is the subtopic of ‘Smoking and its effects’. For years the standard effects of smoking could be demonstrated using the 'Smoking Machine' or 'Smokey Sue'. Due to the Laws on ‘Smoking in Public Places’ that were enforced earlier in the year, SSERC have decided to ban this demonstration.
Position Statement On The Use Of Smoking Machines In Schools.
I can see why they might ban the experiment indoors, but what about the use of a fume cupboard? Or demonstrating it outdoors,

'Light winds may cause smoke to drift and be inhaled by observers'

Personally I feel that pupils will benefit immensely by seeing the effect of what just one cigarette can do, even if they are exposed to part of the cigarette fume. Some councils also have a ‘No Smoking on Council Grounds’ policy so even if it were legal outdoors, where would you demonstrate it? The road? All in all I guess that will be the end of the demonstration, rules are rules.
On the brighter side, Highland Council have produced a number of Podcasts for the Intermediate 1 Biology course. One podcast is the Smoking Demonstration. It is not as good as the real thing, but an excellent contender for second place.

Smoking Demonstration

SCHOLAR: A Mini Glow?

2006-10-05T08:29:00.000+01:00

Whilst at this year’s SETT conference I and my colleague, Dave Rawson, attended a rather interesting seminar:
‘SCHOLAR: A Mini SSDN’ Gerry Toner, Heriot-Watt University.

Quote: Scholar Website

‘Heriot-Watt University is rapidly becoming a world leader in creating the inclusive and supportive e-learning environment that helps people to learn at the times and in the ways they choose. Drawing on its special expertise in interactive and distance learning, SCHOLAR materials have been specially written by subject specialists from schools, colleges and the university. They bring together the best of innovative learning with tried-and-tested educational approaches’

Having been a keen and active user of the Heriot Watt Programme, I was very curious as to what Toner had to say. His comparison of SCHOLAR and the vision of Glow was of no surprise to my own preconceptions.

Online resources and tools available on a private Intranet anywhere anytime.
Sharing Ideas, expertise and resources nationally for both Teachers and Pupils.
Online assessment that can be accessed by Teachers and Pupils.

In the short term, my opinion is the biggest difference will be the number of persons involved (50,000, Scholar: 800,000 approx, Glow). I feel ‘Glow’ will initially embark with the majority of attributes that Scholar maintains. Eventually, in the longer term, Glow will succeed in revolutionising education. It will be a Premier, National, Education based intranet. This will prove to be fundamental to the ‘Curriculum for Excellence' and an invaluable asset for pupils, staff and eventually parents alike.

Bring on Glow!

Diet Coke and Mentos?

2006-10-03T14:27:00.000+01:00

Recently I have had a number of requests from pupils that we peform the 'Diet Coke and Mentos' experiment.
There has been a lot of internet discussion about why Diet Coke and Mentos make such an interesting combination. It is know that the carbon dioxide that has been compressed into the liquid escapes so rapidly that the pressure forces the liquid out of the bottle; Like shaking a bottle before you open it, but even more fierce and wild. Click here to see this experiment in action and for some suggested reasons as to why it works best with Diet Coke and Mentos. This is a fun experiment and would I recommend that it be carried out in a large open area, not to be tried in ones bathroom :(

In the DNA

2006-10-03T08:48:00.000+01:00

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
As part of the Unit 1 Higher Biology syllabus, one of the optional practicals is basic DNA extraction. This is a great practical which usually has excellent results. When DNA extractions are performed, you can expect three basic results:

1. No DNA
2. DNA appears fluffy which means it has sheared in the extraction process
3. DNA appears as thin threads.

Although DNA that strands is the most impressive, DNA that has sheared still shows that DNA is present. Having experimented with many types of fruit over the years, I have come to the conclusion that strawberries or ripe kiwi fruit will provide the best results.

SKYPE

2006-10-02T13:18:00.000+01:00

If you haven't got it already, you will want it! Skype is a little piece of software that allows you to make calls from your computer. Talk for as long as you like without worrying about the cost or the distance. My Skype name is Tessa Watson if you want to get in touch.

GLOW!

2006-10-01T19:51:00.000+01:00

What is Glow?
Glow is the new name for the Scottish Schools Digital Network. It is a national schools intranet, digitally linking Scotland's 800,000 educators and pupils. Glow is funded by the Scottish Executive and managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) in partnership with RM.

Glow Mentors
Being known for my passionate use of ICT, MSN and Skype, I was very excited to be selected as a Mentor for this initiative. East Lothian Glow Mentors met last week to discuss how we will be involved in this national intranet. We’ll be encouraging and supporting colleagues to use Glow. We are planning to start initial trials with the portal after the October break.

Just Beginning!

2006-09-29T22:12:00.000+01:00

I am currently in the midst of consutucting this site. I am hoping this will be an entertaining, as well as educational, insight into the comings and goings of a high school Science teacher.

WATCH THIS SPACE!