marlyn.moffat

On Wednesday afternoon I took some primary 3 children over to the local nursery. Our mission was to show them how to use their recently acquired portable Promethean board. The primary 3 children were amazing in their interaction with the wee tots. They altered their language to a level that the tots understood. They showed them some of the tools on the board, and how to play with Musical monsters. One wee chap, after a moment or two said “I knew I’d be good at that!”  Aged 3…and do you know he was…..confident little individual. Curriculum for excellence not necessarily required there eh?  Other tots drew on the board, handling the stylus in a way they can’t ordinarily handle a pencil. My wee peeps felt great about themselves and the nursery children took their input readily. Nothing held any fears for them. Ducks to water!!

It was two days of learning. By the end of it you just can’t absorb any more. I went to hear about some good stuff. Talked to some knowledgeable people, particularly at the Teachmeet unconference, found out what some companies can do in terms of cost for schools when the authority is prepared to support. But the saddest thing was, I was all fired up to get the biz where AIfL meets Curriculum for Excellence and ended up having both of them explained to me. I know about both. What I was hoping for was to find the meeting place, and what might help in the classroom. What I didn’t want to do was to fill in 10 questions at the end of a seminar that had already over run, with the people sitting next to me and suggest ways I could use in my classroom. That, it seems is the problem that many thinking class teachers have. They want to know they are doing the right thing, but don’t know what is going to be perceived as the right thing. They, like me, were waiting for someone to tell them. AifL without some of the buzzwords has always been my modus operandi. Curriculum for Excellence and wider thinking in terms of planning I have done for years and caused grief to my head teacher, when it was not popular with the powers that be, but she is now cool with it, ‘cos it’s ok for me to be a thinking professional, now. I just wish that presentation had had more oomph, enthusiasm and encouragement, for those who are less sure than myself. There were a lot of young teachers there . When I lose that oomph, I give up teaching.