Weblogs

Get into someone else's shoes, broaden your knowledge of East Lothian education and maybe even get a few new ideas. Better still, contact us and tell your story.

In-school weblogs:

Subject-based:

• Reading Comprehension
• Learning Teams: Dawn Finlayson of East Lothian Learning Teams initiative "...and also WALT and WILF. Thought I understood from Shirley that, while these were used a lot in the early days of formative assessment, now they're not considered so good. I havent used any of them, partly on that basis..."

Teachers:

• Ed Offer, Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT), Dunbar Grammar"Teachers should not be put off from taking kids out and giving them opportunities to learn from their experience just because of the latest newspaper scare-story about litigious parents."
• Robert Whiteside , Haddington Infant School "Behold, a sneak peek behind the scenes of our latest adventure!"

• Students - coming soon!

  Primary Head Teachers & Deputes:

  • Kirsty Parkin, Prestonpans "Now we can expect children to create websites and nearly everyone has at least one mobile phone that’s a camera, MP3 player and can log onto the internet. I want to know when these machines will make a cup of tea, mark jotters and do the ironing..."
  • Richard Wilson, East Linton "P5 invite you to pose a question to the First Minister, we will choose some questions posted on our wiki page and ask the First Minister on your behalf, join the fun here. I can tell you that my P5 class were as chuffed as chuffed can be about this fantastic opportunity. When I returned to my office I reflected on the power of the new technology and opportunities avaliable to our youngsters today and was a bit humbled by the generosity of a leading politician agreeeing to spend time speaking to our P5's all because I had the brass neck to ask."
  • Angus MacRury, Innerwick "Today we are making pancakes. How many other Headteachers in Scotland are being paid to make pancakes with 3 and 4 year olds today? After a messy morning the pancakes are devoured at snack time. All the children made their own batch, cooked by myself and then invited P5/6/7 up to the Nursery to share snack with them. Fantastic."
  • Fiona Beveridge, Macmerry "It won't be long until some other 'Health' Department tells us that children would perform much better in school/nursery if they had more sleep. Presumably the request would then be to introduce set times when children could lie down for 40 winks.If staff were allowed to do that too, perhaps even that idea might go through...."

  Secondary Head Teachers:

  • Paul Rafaelli, Dunbar Grammar "...met R. Demarco who was at the school as we are involved in a number of projects including a project with Scottish Power to paint a 'cow' which will then be displayed in Edinburgh."
  • Ronnie Summers, Musselburgh

  Out of School Weblogs:

  Parents:

  • You?
  • You?

  Employers:

  • You?

  Friends of Exc-el:

  • David Warlick"This woman is geekier than I am. I’m loving this. Her students do a classroom podcast, and it is about instruction. Here are five reasons why a classroom should podcast..."
  • Richard Ledingham"Children see worksheets all the time and to be honest don't care if you spent 3 hours the night before making it accurate and attractive. What they appreciate is a charismatic and enthusiastic teacher who will have a bit of a laugh and make the work relevant and interesting."

  Inside the Education Department:

  • Cathie McKerracher, Team Teach East Lothian Tutor "..the training emphasises positive handling as but one part of a whole setting approach to behaviour management."