Category Archives: CPD Events

Read to Inspire

Posted on by

Hi everyone – just writing a quick blog about a recent CPD event I attended. I went to the Read to Inspire event last Wednesday where authors Mairi Hedderwick and Eleanor Updale came to speak about their work and careers. It was fascinating! I completely underestimated how motivating it could be to hear writers speak of their work.

Growing up as a child, Mairi Hedderwick was a heroine of mine – I collected her Katie Morag books for years and her tales were among my favourite. Hearing her speak about her own work and all the thought that goes behind the books themselves was a real learning opportunity that revealed exactly why they are so popular for children, but also for parents and teachers who encourage children to read them. Mairi spoke of how so many of her own real life experiences and influences are included in the books, which I am sure would be a real talking point for teachers and children in schools to stimulate conversation about reading and writing. She also talked of her writing process and the “story mountain” approach she uses for all of her writing – yet another valuable tool for classroom practice.

Eleanor Updale’s work is fascinating. I had previously never heard of or came across her books, but after hearing her speak, I have been so inspired to go on and research her work. Her books are full of imagination, elaborate characterisation and twisting plots that sound ideal for avid readers – and her work doesn’t end at the writing on the page. She has used the internet to create a whole new world revolving around characters in her books, where you can find information from Facebook profiles to newspaper articles. It really was intriguing – I had never seen any kind of work like this before that involved so much imaginative detail, and would strongly recommend anyone else, like me, who hadn’t heard of her until now.

On another note – we have some exciting CPD events coming up in the next few weeks – Teachmeet 365 is on Wednesday of this week (16th) where the theme explores Equality. Graham Duffy is also going to be running a session about Creative Teaching and Interdisciplinary Learning on the 30th January – which I predict will be very helpful, especially working on from Integrated modules etc. Be sure to email and sign up if you are interested!

Thanks,

Kathryn

It’s all going on at Strathclyde!

Posted on by

The New Year brings a new bunch of CPD opportunities! The first week back after the Christmas holidays has brought two excellent literacy events.  The first being a Read to Inspire event which welcomed two wonderful children’s authors.  Mairi Hedderwick took the stage to give us an insight into the stories behind the famous Katie Morag.  I was always a fan of the Katie Morag stories so it was fantastic to hear how they started.  Mairi Hedderwick started her career as an illustrator, so it is no wonder the illustrations which accompany the Katie Morag stories are beautifully done, full of detail and integral to the story line.  The second author to take the stage was Eleanor Updale.  Her books are targeted at older children so would they would be fab to use in the Upper Primary and secondary schools.  The remarkable thing about her new book, The Last Minute, is that there are online follow-up resources the pupils can look at to get a more in-depth background about the story.  I can’t wait to use that resource in future as I am sure children would love to take on the role as detectives and look through the number of newspaper reports, social networking pages and tributes to find out what really happened.

Exploring Writing Cultures was the second event to be held and what a day!  Educationalists from around the world gathered to share their literacy findings.  It was very interesting to hear about literacy approaches from other countries and compare their ways of working with Scotland’s education system. I definitely gathered advice which I intend to implement on my upcoming placement and I am sure the other students will be doing the same.

As for this semester, we students are all out on school placements.  The thought of placement fills me with excitement, nerves and a desire to get into that classroom and start teaching!  To finally get the opportunity to put into practice what we have all been talking about is great.  Although I am sure that placement will be a challenge, I keep thinking about what Jane Thomson keeps telling us.  “You will love it, it will be great, you’ll just love it!”

The CPD committee was busy last semester but I think we will be even busier this semester.  We are in the process of finalising details with outside speakers and we are looking forward to providing lots of CPD opportunities.

I will finish by saying good luck to all the students preparing to go out on placement and I hope to see lots of faces at the upcoming CPD events!

Kayleigh Glendinning

TeachMeet 365 – Equality

Posted on by

Hello!

Just a quick post to let you know that there will be a CPD event this week! It is a Teachmeet 365 and it is on the theme of ‘equality’. The event will look at various issues and values of equality in schools. The presentations will be from students studying the B.Ed. in Primary Education at Strathclyde University. This event is open to all. Spaces are limited to 30. If you would like to attend please email:

info@cpdstrathclyde.co.uk with your full name, establishment, and job title.

If you are a Strathclyde student, please tell us your course and year group.

TeachMeets are well established, informal events, all about creating opportunities for educators to share practice, discover new ideas, network and be inspired. Anyone can get involved, share great ideas they’ve trialed in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply take part in learning conversations. All are welcome.

TeachMeet365 is an idea about bringing people together in small, local groups to talk, listen and ask (or answer) questions. There will be no huge audiences in big halls, live video streaming on the internet or sponsors to deal with; just small groups of educators sharing with each other.

The event will take place in the Lord Hope Building, in room 213 (a/b) on Wednesday 16th January. If you would like any other information or directions to the room, please email the address above and we can provide you with these!

Many thanks, we hope to see you there!

CPD Strathclyde

 

E – Learning: The Possibilities of Education

Posted on by

Hello! So it has been an incredibly busy first semester at Strathclyde! So many exciting things have happened, from course work to CPD to placement and so much more. I will be taking sometime to blog over the holidays, as there have been some really interesting things that have been going on!

Now, you may have seen in the news this past week that the University of Edinburgh has joined ‘Coursera’ which offers free online taster courses. (See here: Edinburgh University hails online ‘milestone’) I read this on the BBC news website, and had also by coincidence been looking at Edinburgh’s website and saw this. If you haven’t already – definitely look into it!

The concept of “e-learning” is not something that is unheard of now – in fact it is something that has huge benefits and is promoted. Originally I had not given it much thought. I had watched a video on TED (and I advise you do the same, see the video below!)

Initially, I had thought “wow, that sounds really good”, a really great way for people to engage with the best academics and courses across the globe. E-learning takes full advantage of global communications in the 21st century. After looking at the Coursera website – it seems utterly fantastic! I have not completed any courses yet; however have enrolled into an ‘Introduction to Philosophy’. (There is a reason for this, which I imagine I shall touch on in a blog to come!) It is a 7-week course, it is completely free and you do not require any previous qualifications. For this specific course it states that you will require 1-2 hours of your time a week. This whole idea seems fantastic, and I know I am only a student teacher – but I think it is an image of what education can be. People can chose to enrol in different courses spanning a range of subjects – they have chosen to – they want to learn! For me, the philosophy course seems completely manageable on top of my current studies and other daily commitments. It is something that you can pursue in your own time. It seems fantastic, I think.

So, check this out, and keep an eye on similar developments. I don’t know what the quality of this will be, as I haven’t yet started the Philosophy course yet, however, the concept is fantastic, and I imagine that it will be a very stimulating and a worthwhile educational experience. E-learning is not everybody’s ideal way of learning, however I think it will be interesting to see how this concept continues to evolve over the next few years.

Peter Norvig: The 100,000-student classroom

Also, I would like to end this blog, by bringing it back to the classroom. Why am I and others doing this? Well, for obvious reasons, it helps broaden my own (and others’) knowledge of different subject areas, topics of interest. Resources like this encourages ‘life long learning’ – people want to learn and have full choice in what they chose to learn about. Is that not one of the many things that teachers would like their pupils to be in their class – intrinsically motivated?

A couple of weeks ago I attended a CPD session with the company ‘TWIG’. If you don’t know much about TWIG, definitely check them out: it would be great for teachers in both primary and secondary schools. TWIG have been developing a new resource called ‘TigTag‘ and it is something that quite frankly looks brilliant. It is aimed for a younger age group: middle – upper primary school. The resource is not yet complete, but there is a brief demo available online, and I believe this should be launched within the first few months of 2013. The CPD session was to provide TigTag with some feedback and give people the opportunity to interact with the resource. When it is complete I think it will be fantastic.

TigTag compliments Curriculum for Excellence, and is really child friendly. It has a simple and efficient user interface – which always helps! There are also a wealth of truly excellent resources on it. Whilst I know there have been some challenges with GLOW over recent months, TigTag (and TWIG) are great resources for teachers’ own knowledge and teaching and children’s learning. Much like mentioned in Peter Norvig’s video on TED, this online resource also gives room to incorporate a flipped approach in the classroom, such as the mini clips on the website. Children can lead their own learning and build on each other’s learning experience, they could form their own questions and quiz the class. You could do an integrated approach using langauge and science and explore the short videos, the content and also the technicalities of how it was made? Why is it informative? What is it that makes it interesting?

I really do like this, it gives a lot of room to experiment as a teacher, and there are so many ideas that you can adapt to suit the stage and specific needs of each of the children in your class. Coursera and TigTag are 2 really exciting resources that I have come across over the past couple of weeks – have a look, they might not be your cup of tea, but they just might be!

 

Read to Inspire – 2013

Posted on by

Hello everyone. I want to draw your attention to an event that Vivienne Smith at the University has organised. It is entitled ‘Read to Inspire’. Vivienne has run the event twice over the past 2 years, and they have always had a large audience, all of whom are enthusiastic about reading and teaching language and literacy in the classroom. I am now in my 3rd year of the B.Ed. course and have attended the both events since I enrolled at Strathclyde.

These events are completely fantastic, they inspire you, they encourage you, they give you practical ideas and tips to implement in your classroom, and you develop a deeper understanding of the authors, their books and the thought behind their books. Previous Read to Inspire events have had very high profiled authors, and this year is no different!

Date: January 9th

Time: Afternoon (Time and Venue TBC).

Authors:

Mairi Hedderwick (Author of the Katie Morag books)

Eleanor Updale (You can find out more information on Eleanor’s books by clicking here.

This is a free event.

It is fantastic this year that there are two authors that appeal to the early years through to the upper school.

Take my word for it from one student to another – these events are completely worthwhile. I have hugely benefited from these events, they have prepared me for some placements and I would advise anybody who is working in the primary sector to attend! The event is also open to staff.  Use the hash tag #ReadToInspire on Twitter! I shall hopefully see you there!

CPD across the pond!

Posted on by

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending Teachmeet Belfast at Stranmillis University College. I had a great night of CPD the Norther Irish way! There were so many fantastic presentations but I will just fill you in on a few of my favourites:

Daithi Murray – Go Flip Yourself! (@dmurray742)

Daithi presented on the idea of the flipped classroom, something that I had never heard of before. The flipped classroom is a reversed teaching model as teaching is delivered to pupils at home through interactive videos created by teachers. Traditional “homework” activities are then moved to school. As the content delivery is moved outside of the classroom, teachers have much more one-to-one time with pupils. This sounded like a very interesting idea to me! Daithi uses this in his teaching of secondary Irish language and says pupils are enjoying it and are engaged with it. I would be interested to see how I could maybe adapt this for use in the primary school. However, as Daithi stressed, this would not be an all-or-nothing approach! It should be introduced slowly and I would use it at times rather than completely replacing our regular teaching methods.

Kierna Corr – Outdoor Learning in the Early Years (CiarnaC)

Ciarna showed a lovely video of her work with outdoor learning in the nursery. The children are given the opportunity to learn in the forest (inspired by practice in Norway) and children are free to explore and are able to experience all weathers! For more tips and information about working in the early years follow Kierna on twitter – @CiarnaC. This may be particularly helpful for BEd3s as we prepare to head out on nursery placement!

Barry Corrigan – Life of Pi (@MrMalcontent)

Barry presented on using the raspberry pi computer chip in the classroom. My favourite thing about Barry’s presentation was Scratch – a computer programming resource for children. This can be downloaded online if you follow the link below!

http://scratch.mit.edu/

All of you attending Teachmeet Strathclyde will be lucky enough to hear more from Barry very soon!

Chynel McCrink – Edmodo in the Classroom (@cmccrink567)

This has to be my favourite presentation of the night! I loved how we could see real life examples of how Chynel makes effective use of Edmodo with her class and how it impacts on the children’s attitude to learning. Rather than me rambling on about this, watch the video below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHDXKTlHwM

These are just a few of my highlights! Thanks to all of the organisers for putting on such a fantastic evening!

The Welcome Event

Posted on by
Reply

This is just a short post to pass on many thanks to all who came to our welcome event on Wednesday. It was an absolute pleasure to meet all of you, and the executive committee are very excited to be working with each of you for the year ahead! It really is fantastic to be working with so many enthusiastic people.

We would like to pass a very special thanks to our sponsors for the event! Teachersgem and Jolly Learning. We know that our sponsors provide high quality resources and our members at CPD Strathclyde will value these for placements and beyond! So thank you!

Remember to keep an eye on our notice board outside the School of Education Resource Centre in the Curran Building. If you have any suggestions for CPD – then please do get in touch! You can email us at info@cpdstrathclyde.co.uk, tweet us at @CPDStrathclyde or find us on Facebook. There is also a suggestions box inside the School of Education Resource Centre.

Teachmeet Strathclyde – A New Beginning

Posted on by
Reply

 

Teachmeet Strathclyde – A New Beginning

Date: Monday 29th October

Venue: John Anderson 325, John Anderson Building, University of Strathclyde
Address: 107 Rottenrow East, Glasgow, G4 0NG

Time: 5:30 p.m. until 8pm

In light of the closure of the Jordanhill Campus at the University of Strathclyde, and the integration of the School of Education with the rest of the University, we have decided that the theme for this specific teachmeet will be ‘a new beginning’. We feel this is appropriate, as it echoes the current changes within Scottish education today, (such as recommendations implemented from the Donaldson review and the recent implementation of Curriculum for Excellence across the whole of Scotland). The hash tag on twitter for this event will be: #TMStrathclyde.

For those who don’t know, a teachmeet is a free event for all those interested in education, learning and teaching. Teachers at any stage of their career or training, education advisors, support staff, local authority staff, and all those working in Scottish Education are welcome at the event, the more the merrier!

Learn something new; be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about learning, teaching and education. Anyone can share great ideas they have trialed in their classrooms, learned about, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations.

To sign up and come along, follow the link below and add your name to the wiki. If you would like to present, then please feel free to add your name and presentation to the list!

#TMStrathclyde Wiki

CPD Strathclyde – Lets get the ball rolling!

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back! We hope you have had an excellent summer, are well rested and ready to get involved in some CPD!

To new students entering the School of Education at Strathclyde University – welcome. We hope you will enjoy and relish the time that you spend here.

We also wish all education students the best with their transition from Jordanhill to the John Anderson campus. While the John Anderson campus will offer students and staff a range of exciting opportunities, resources and experiences, I think I speak for everyone when I say we will not forget our memories of Jordanhill: the experiences, the community, the stunning campus, the outstanding academic staff and librarian staff and others – some of whom are no longer with us. Most of all, the laughs will be missed. However, most importantly – the passion and the hard working ethic of staff and students coming to the newly revamped city centre campus will continue to build the excellent reputation that the Strathclyde University School of Education has – we will remember Jordanhill and continue to work just as hard, embrace change and take advantage of all opportunities available to us.

Our new executive committee is almost complete and will be announced shortly. The president and vice presidents have been hard at work, planning some interesting and beneficial CPD for student teachers and the wider education community. More details will be posted shortly on our website and advertised on our Facebook and Twitter.

We are hosting a welcome drop-in event in the Education Resource Centre (Curran building, level 5) on 3rd October where you can come and sign-up for this year. A year’s membership costs only £3 and you will be the first to be notified and given the opportunity to sign up to events. We will be there from 1pm – 3pm, so come along for some freebies and to meet the committee! You will also have the opportunity to provide any feedback from last session and suggest ideas for topics you would like covered in our events. This can be done anonymously in our suggestion box, which is now available in the Education Resource Centre.

We hope to see as many students there as possible.

All the best with your studies for the oncoming academic year!

Omar 

 

Hello

Posted on by
Reply
Only a good few months later and my third blog post is here. Quite a lengthy wait in between and don’t I know it. The verbal lashings I have received from Mr Campbell and Miss Skinnider for my lack of blogging has been, what can only be described as pain to my ears.

But. Yes. I am here to share the tales of my CPD….

Hi my name is Nicholas McMahon and I am now trained in British Sign Language Level One.

Five months later and I have completed my BSL1 qualification through Rein Kerr College. It has always been an ambition of mine to learn sign language and in our first lecture back in third year Collaborative Practice, allowed me to see first hand the impressive talent of two signers, translating for a student in the crowd.

So how did I afford and manage this course whilst being in my final year at university I hear you ask. Or I hope I hear you ask.

Firstly, in terms of completing an additional course whist in the hardest year of my degree? That is just down to commitment, hard work good time management and nothing else. A simple timetable of my week allowed me to slot in my night classes, time for revision and time for practice as well as all of my university and work  commitments.

Secondly, and most importantly… money. A course like this is quite expensive costing a good few hundred pounds. Luckily, the union at my part time job at Morrisons Supermarket was generous enough to pay for me. So as my first piece of advice; research into your work place and find out the types of courses that they send employees on. Even if you are part time, you are still able to apply to take part in such forms of valuable CPD ranging from health as safety qualifications to filing and system training through to courses such as beginners languages.

You will be surprised to see CPD opportunities that are available to your through your part time work than can be related back to teaching and education.

Thanks.

Nicholas.

Look out for another blog post in four or five months …