Hmi and Adult Literacies

Today I had a great meeting with Karen Corbett from HMI and Iain Guthrie from SFEU. It was extremely interesting and highlighted just how important improving adult literacy is across Scotland. It was also extremely encouraging as it was very clear that HMI want to build greater links with colleges and practitioners.

A New Beginning!

Well, so far this term we've all been busy planning for new events, creating new materials, generating new ideas, and of course, teaching. Some of the exciting developments for the Subject Networks this term have included:

Working with the BBC's new learning tools which I hope will be available for all soon. They are really great in that they are instantly accessible and can be adapted for various purposes in the classroom. I used one of the tools to help structure an essay but by using the tools this became much more engaging for the students. The students also used one of the mind mapping tools to help them to independently plan ideas and revise topics.

There is a meeting scheduled with HMi to discuss Adult Literacy this week, and a seminar on Curriculum for Excellence in 2 week's time. Both of these events should be extremely informative and any developments will be posted on Practitioners Plus.

Events in December are already shaping up with a great conference focusing on HN Best Practice. I will be helping out at a workshop and I'm really looking forward to hearing some of your ideas.

By January the English, Communications and Media Focus Group will be meeting to share ideas, particularly focusing on Core Skills and to discuss plans for a subject specific event held at Scotland’s Colleges. Of course, any ideas would be greatly appreciated and any new members for the Focus Group would be very welcome.

As ever, keep in touch.

Best wishes, Claire

Thursday 26th June - Party time!

It was so nice to be able to celebrate the end of a successful year with eveyone. I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the other menorts and spending a bit of time outside of work getting to speak more informally with you all. Thanks to John for organising the event and to SFEU. I'm looking forward to next session, but it's sad to see Bob and Annamarie go. Best of luck to both of you for the future.

Monday 23rd June - Visit to Shetland College

I had a great meeting with a lovely group of people from Shetland College. We talked about the Core Skills refresh, teaching Communication and Lit 1 and everyone created their own blog! Hopefully I'll be back up to see the results next session.

Friday 13th June - Second Focus Group

This was a second very valuable meeting. We were delighted that Margaret Tierney from SQA could attend to discuss the recent Core Skills refresh. There was also feedback regarding the review of HN Comms with Media. Please view the minutes below to see full commentary of the meeting: https://claireswiki.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Minutes%20for%20Focus%20Group%2013-6-08.doc

Friday 6th June - College People Week

Well, what an exciting day and it was great to see so many practitioners. I was slightly unprepared for my new career in MC but everyone was very welcoming. I was very impressed by the speakers and the ideas which came from practitioners, so here's looking forward to next year!

Friday 30th May

I met up with Denise Fyfe from Angus College to discuss developments in e-portfolio and to consider Citizenship for a topic to discuss at College People Week.

Sourced information to reveal Government support of e-portfolio in education.

Contacted Focus Group to agree numbers and content for meeting on Friday 13th June.

Subject Mentors' Meeting - Thursday 22nd May

Another fine meeting in which we met Marie Thompson from Learning and Skills Development Agency in Northern Ireland. We shared ideas about the Subject Mentors and it seems Northern Ireland is making great links with employers.

We had some positive feedback from Colin and John McCann about our progress.

Now we're thinking about evaluation of the Networks and preparing for College People Week - should be a good day!

Friday 16th May

Well, the English Higher, Int 2 and Int 1 exams are over. I posted a discussion today about the exams and so far general opinion has been mixed.

I contacted Marie Morrison and Margaret Tierney regarding the next meeting for the Focus Group and have published the minutes from the Focus Group.

Now I'm off to write a presentation for College People Week. Phew!

Click here for the minutes: https://claireswiki.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Minutes+for+Focus+Group+2-5-08.doc

Friday 9th May

After the Focus Group meeting, Jerry O'Neill directed me to "Google Groups" which is basically a wiki space, but this is exetremely easy to use and, unlike Wikispaces, it tends not to crash everytime you upload materials. It's now my new favourite! Here's a link to a very slap-dash start to a wiki, but you wait, I'll get it looking beautiful soon.

http://groups.google.com/group/claires-english-class

I wrote up the minutes and will post these as soon as they have been agreed.

Contacted Marie Morrison and SQA to find out if a Core Skills representative would attend the next meeting. I'll let you know as soon as I do!

Thanks, Claire

Friday 2nd May: English Communications and Media Focus Group

Had a fantastic first meeting for the English Communication and Media Focus Group. We discussed literacy strategies, changes to the HN units, Core Skills and the inclusion of Citizenship within the teaching of English and Communications and Media.

David Neilson suggested a more accurate way in which to record students' grasp of punctuation and grammar in addition to their SQA certificates.

There were also suggested changes to the HN units to take out the reading assessment. It was suggested that this assessment is already embedded within the research necessary for the written assessments and so is already covered.

Denise suggested that the teaching of texts and discussion topics in English Media and Communication ideas such as respect, community values and responsibility for others are often covered. This leads neatly into the teaching of Citizenship and Denise suggested it is something which English Media and Communications could naturally develop.

Finally, the topic of Core Skills was considered. We were all keen to hear of new developments and of accessing interesting teaching materials, particularly for the less advanced levels such as Access 3 and Intermediate 1.

I will post the minutes as soon as possible on both Practioners Plus and the blog.



I was also interviewed for the Herald regarding the subject mentor post! It should appear either on Tuesday or Friday, so watch out for my mugshot appearing!

Over and out...Claire

Friday 25th April

Easter break was lovely!

Spent today arranging agenda and contacting everyone for the first Advisory Group meeting. I am very much looking forward to it and have included a list of those attending and the agenda items in the link below.

https://claireswiki.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Agenda+first+meeting.doc

I also asked the wonderful Murray to upload more Film and TV materials.

Friday 4th April

Today I have been gathering and developing matierals for Complex Communication for Vocational Purposes and Core Skills.

Friday 28th March

Confirmed members of Advisory Group:

Mary McCall, Motherwell College
Wendy Gormley, Coatbridge College
David Neilson, Cardonald College
Janis Bradburn, North Glasgow College
Denise Fyfe, Angus College
Jennie MacDonald, Clydebank College
Jerry O'Neill, Stevenson College
Liz Glancy, Anniesland College
Moira Reid, Telford College
Rob McDermott, Forth Valley College
Elaine Mullin, Glasgow Metropolitan College
Carol Thomson, Senior Verifier for Core Skill and HN Communication

So far Mary, David, Janis, Denise, Jennie, Wendy, Rob and Carol have all confirmed they will attend the first meeting, but hopefully the others will be able to make it too. I have contacted Langside to try to get a representaive to attend the meetings.

The first meeting is set to take place on Friday 2nd May from 9.30 - 1pm. Topics to be considered are literacy and the role of the group.

Sent materials to PP about teaching Richard III and poem Limbo.

Monday 17th March

Finished article for Broadcast, although needs a bit of tweaking!

Gathered contacts from previous steering group and e-mailed to gauge interest in Advisory Group.

E-mailed Colin with some positive feedback for meeting with funding committee.

Tried to access Second Life and while I got in I couldn't see anyone - I think I was lost!

E-mailed some materials on Seamus Heaney for PP.

Friday 7th March

Responded to email from Jane Henderson from James Watt College who may be inerested in a visit and called Karen Eunson from Shetland College further to last week's email.

Spoke to Annmarie about "Second Life" and agreed to be involved in what sounds like an exciting project!

Suggested a Steering Group for English, Communications and Media after interest had been noted.

Worked on article for Broadcast.

Uploaded more materials for Media on to PP

Friday 29th February

Contacted Karen Eunson from Shetland College about a possible visit. After speaking to Marianne from Langside (who seemed keen on sharing ideas for Media) I said I'd post some more Media materials to encorage more Media staff on to the site. She suggested something like PP was something they had been looking for to share materials and ideas.

Good news, so spent time getting more materials together for Media.

Spoke to contact at GLOW to get information about their site usage. Generally they receive hunreds of hits a day, but all staff registered to GLOW have it as their homepage which means they have to access it to e-mail. GLOW also make sure that their page changes every day with new information about events/ideas to encourage teachers to look at it regularly.

Subject Mentor Meeting - Telford College

What another wonderful college. Seemed very state of the art! Was great to see everyone again, although brief (for me). The meeting focused on getting greater use from PP and the need to take a more felxible approach to time when responding to emails. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to hear from Coleg, so I look forward to the minutes.

Got some lovely postive feedback from Langside: "You are an inspiration to us all ! Thanks again. Hope to meet you again with more wonderful ideas." Good for evaluation purposes.

Friday 22nd February

I created an evaluation sheet as I though this might be helpful to receive comments and suggestions after visitng Langside College. I e-mailed it to Langside College and asked the members of staff at the meeting if they wouldn't mind filling it in. I have posted this and hopefully my Wiki will now allow everyone access!

https://claireswiki.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Subject+Mentor+Evaluation.doc

I also developed materials for Media as PP is a little lacking at present. I posted these to Murray to upload.

Meeting at Langside College

Today I gave the presenation to Langside. A lovely bunch of people and all very encouraging. They all logged on to PP and seemed positive about the site. Unfortunately, their network would not allow access to Blogs but they seemed genuinely excited about the prosepect and we agreed I'd go back in May once they had sorted out IT problems.

Responded to Colin about the Welsh Tourism and Communications delivery.

Friday 8th February

Cotinued to work on the presentation for Langside, to be delivered next week. The aim is to encourage the staff to use Practioners Plus by highlighting its merits, as well as trying to encourage the use of Blogs and Wikis.

I responded to Colin's query about PP and offered some ideas about the English Subject Network Event on the 25th April. Here's the suggested plan:

1. Background, aim and target audience focusing on English Comms and Media, (of course!)
2. Introduce PP and focus on advantages to subject specialists
3. Introduction to the Subject Mentor, explain role and...
4. Explanation and encouragement of e-portfolio in the English classroom - view blogs and wikis
5. SQA delegate to explain developments in: NQ English, Core Skills and HN Comms Media

After offering advice to Inverness College, got some positive feedback from Elizabeth Barron: "Thanks Claire, that is great and very useful to know! Best wishes, Liz"

Hope everyone is well, and looking forward to seeing you all at the next event.

Friday 1st Feb

Today I looked for examples of good pactice to add to the "Illuminating Practice" aspect of Practitioner Plus. Murray kindly said he would update the page.

I also asked Murray to put a notice on the page for the SQA HN Comms and Media day and asked for this to be included in the ezine for English/Comms/Media

I contacted computing staff to help Elizabeth Barron at Inverness College with difficulties experienced with film editing.

Finally, I developed a presentation to deliver to Langside College - still basic and needs more, but it's a start...I'm now going to try to upload this onto the blog...fingers crossed!

https://clairesclass.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/SFEU%20-%20Presentation.ppt

It worked! Thanks Annmarie for your advice.

Meeting at Cardonald College

Today we had a meeting with Graeme Clark from SQA promoting SOLAR. The emphasis was on promoting SOLAR and encouraging others to develop and use the on-line materials.

We also focused on using Blogs and sharing materials on the Scottish Lecturers Swap Shop, which were great.

Finally, a date was agreed for an event which would focus on our subject area. The date for English, Communication and Media was Friday 25th April. I promised Colin I'd get back to him with further details about the content of the event.

Over and out!