First I have to say, I love SKYPE!!! Being able to connect and talk to my family while i am so far away ahs been an absolute dream. With the built in web camera I am able to see them at home and they are able to see me here.
Okay, on to my day. First I took a Taxi to St. Clare Catholic Primary which I discovered is located about 25 minutes car ride from city center. It is one of the last communities to the NW of Glasgow before you leave town. The school is located in a beautiful old community however it is a realatively new school.
It has many open bright spaces, two stories with a nursery that shares space. The nursery I have learned takes children from 6 weeks old, imagine teaching in an area where you can go visit babies on your break?
The school has @ 257 students from Level 1 to Level 6 which I seem to have translated from our K to Gr. 6 class. Level 1 is 4 and 5 year olds. The cool connection for me with this school is the name of the Headmaster which happens to be the identical name of my former principal at Corpus Christi. She showed me around the school and introduced me to the students. They were delightful and aside from uniforms and an accent just like my former students at Corpus Christi.
Technology is part of the Curriculum of Excellence here in Scotland and different schools are at different stages of working towards integrating but like us their main focus appears to be Student Engagement not just the technology. Building learners for the future, not just passing "standards".
I could write about St.Clare's for hours but I will move on to my next visit. I was honoured to see the children, speak with the staff and learn from them. I look forward to maintaining a connection with them in the future.
Notre Dame Secondary School is an all girls Catholic secondary that begins at about age 11 to age 18, our 7 to 12 grades. Here I was greeted by the Headmaster and Prinicpal Teacher, the headmaster and I could be mirror images when it comes to teaching style, beliefs and passion for teaching and learning. She invited me to join one of her classes where I had the opportunity to speak to the girls, I brought gifts from our MP Neil Brown of Alberta/ Canada pins (badges they call them here). They were thrilled to receive them and were very excited to hear about school in Canada. They then proceeded to show me some of their presentations for a News and Views series. The students choose the topic, research it, then compile in a format of their choice and present. The rest of the class provides feedback and then they edit, revisit etc. Topics interestingly are exactly what our students would want to research and discuss.
After getting used to the idea it is an all girls school I toured the building and took photos of some of the work and the spaces. This school like St. Clare believe in honouring and celebrating student work, student learning and student engagement. Although St. Clare is fairly new Notre Dame is over 100 years old. The building site is a historical site and although it went through some revising the original building had to be left as is and only restored. Original tile on the walls makes it a very unique building as do the people that walk the halls.
Again I could go on forever about Notre Dame but I will save some for my reflections later on. I proceeded via Taxi to the SECC center to attend the Scottish Learning Festival. This is on the River Clyde in a complex collection of buildings that are used for conferences, SECC standing for Scottish Exibition Conference Center. The "Armadillo" is where the Clyde Auditorium is located and where the keynote speakes presented. Including Carol Dwerk author of Mindsets.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/aboutslf/index.asp
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