S2 Poetry - Winning Words

In S1 and S2 this week, we have been looking at the Winning Words event, where the public are choosing lines from a poem to be inscribed on a wall in London's 2012 Olympic village. Today, S2 were sharing the lines of poetry that they would like to have inscribed.

S1 and S2 keynotes

It's been quite a day in S1/2 Social studies! Over the last fortnight, pupils have been working on keynote presentations, on any subject of their choice. This has meant that although some haven't been able to come in due to the adverse weather conditions, all pupils have been able to work on their iPads at home.

This is the third presentation this year that the classes have done, and they are becoming increasingly confident in speaking in a natural, interesting way. The quality of their keynote presentations today has been exceptional, and they are all enjoying the new features of the new updated iPad version.

Topics we've heard about today include:
Cadburys
Coco Chanel
David Livingstone
Germany
Kosovo
Ice skating- Torvil and Dean and Robin Cousins
Robins
Harley Davidson
Gymnastics
Strictly come Dancing
Area 51
Rangers
The Solar System

















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Today Huw Williams from Radio Scotland was in the school to find out about our iPad venture!

He interviewed Mr Speirs and then Mrs Speirs and some of the primary pupils.

He also wanted to record part of a lesson in the secondary school, so he was lucky enough to come to an English lesson with S2!

The first part of our lesson was a self-evaluation exercise. We are reading a play called Street Child by Berlie Doherty and last week the class had compiled a Top Ten List for Reading a Part in a Play. Each pupil had to complete a self-evaluation form on their iPad based on how they had read in class yesterday. Huw Williams recorded the lesson as each pupil read out two targets that they had set themselves for next week.

Next, Mr Williams interviewed Nathan, Amy, Nicol and James and asked them various questions about how they have been using the iPad for school work, and if they are enjoying using it. Mr Creighton will be pleased to know that Nathan put in a good word for the Maths department by explaining how the iPads are been used in Maths in a fun and useful way :-).

We then read some scenes from the play and Mr Williams recorded that too.

Well done to those who took part in the interview- they've all being promised a brick on the wall!

Listen out for us on Radio Scotland- hopefully on Wednesday.

S2 Geographers

S2 are analysing travel brochures today, in preparation for writing their own. Each pupil had brought in leaflets/brochures and are identifying good/bad aspects. They are filling our ideas box on the board with good aspects, and putting less effective aspects round the outside. By the end if the lesson, each will have a guide to a perfect travel brochure written in Pages on their iPad.


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iPad fever is here!

S1 and S2 have some lessons together in Social Studies. This morning they are learning to send emails on there iPads to one person and a group of people. This is a skill much needed for their Victorians topic which will require them to undertake lots of research using the Internet and email useful links to their class mates.
















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iPad experimentation...

Some of the pupils were experimenting with some of the art educational apps on my iPad today. In particular a drawing app called "Brushes", an art masterpieces jigsaw puzzle and a very interesting app called "Type Drawing" which involves you creating an image with lettering and words.

This image was created entirely out of layers of text in different fonts, colour and sizes. The pupils chose descriptive text related to the area of the image they were creating.

S1 Collage

S1 had triple art this morning! They worked really hard on some colourful torn paper collages... and made quite a mess of the GP room!!

Below are some of the works in progress - we will finish them on Thursday morning

Observational drawing!

Art student and former pupil Heather Pugh was working with some of the S2 students again today. This time the focus was on observational drawing. As it was such a beautiful day, the playground was the perfect situation for some building sketches.

... and when the primary playtime began, Chloe had an admiring audience for her work!

S4 Art teachers...

Heather and some of the S4 girls worked hard with P2/3 on an art project all morning. They were each in charge of an activity station and worked with groups of 5 children at a time. They did a great job and the finished pieces of art were excellent!

Vive le francais!

This week, we have been very pleased to have had French student teacher Laurent working with us in Cedars school. He has visited classes in both primary and secondary; he has given some taster Spanish lessons and told us a little about where he is from in France; he has managed to explode some popular myths about French culture; and has even taught the French national anthem, 'La Marseilleise', to the school choir. As they say in France, merci beaucoup Laurent!

Int 2 Drama: NAB Performance

S4 drama students performed an extract from the play "Witness for the Prosecution" by Agatha Christie today. It was part of a NAB assessment for the Theatre Production Skills unit of their Int 2 course. They all gave excellent performances and have worked very effectively on the backstage aspects of theatre production such as set, props, costume and make up. We are all looking forward to seeing a professional production of this play at the Theatre Royal on the 28th.

In the first photo you can see Megan applying make up to age Deborah whilst they all rehearse their lines. Particular thanks are due to Stuart in S2 who stood in at the last minute and gave a super performance as the accused in the dock.

Cross curricular - Art and French!

S3 artists had Laurent, the French student who has been working with us for the last week, taking part in the art class today. I thought it was a great opportunity for some cross curricular work between the subjects so we played the artists version of Happy Families... in French! It was great fun and my French accent has definitely improved!

Cross curricular - mathematical art!

Some of S2 had a quick look at the art work of Escher today, in particular some of his amazing tilings. They then had a go at making some of their own tiling images and experimented with some Op Art inspired puzzles. It was definitely harder than anticipated!

S2 Still life

Visiting artist Heather Pugh was working with S2 again this week. Today they were doing some still life drawing using chalk pastels.

Megan's art work

A pencil drawing of a small stage mirror by Megan in S4: