If you’re a regular visitor to this Blog, you’ll have noticed that there hasn’t been a lot happening here of late - there have been no new posts for a while.

If you are in an Aberdeen school, and you want to share something with members of the Curriculum Support team and/or colleagues in other schools, you can be given Author access to this Blog, which will allow you to write your own posts.

If you would like to get Author access, please send me an email - ajones@aberdeencity.gov.uk, stating your name, job title and school.

The Blog currently has an average of 3 to 4 unique visits each day, and I’m sure this figure will rise once we start getting new posts added to the site on a regular basis.

Thanks.

If you haven’t done so already, why not take a few minutes now to look at Online Interactive Learning, or OIL for short, which is the Council’s new e-learning system?

With OIL you can enrol free of charge on a wide range of online courses, which you can study from any internet-connected computer, at a time that suits you and at your own pace.

Online courses currently on offer include:
Conflict Skills and Techniques
Decision Making
Facilitation Skills
Making Objectives Happen
Managing Yourself
Mentoring Skills
Persuading with Numbers
Trust and Motivation
Working in Teams

You can also use OIL to view the details of all of the face to face courses which are currently on offer to schools through the CPD Directory, and within the next couple of months we are hoping to begin using OIL for taking online bookings for all of our face to face courses. This will mean you will no longer have to fill in any forms to apply to attend a course - just log in to OIL, click a button, and you’re signed up!

To access OIL you’ll need your unique username and your initial password, which you’ll be asked to change to your own secret password once you log in for the first time. You can obtain your username and password from your CPD Coordinator or your School Administrator, or alternatively you can email me - ajones@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Log in to OIL now at www.acc-oil.net

The Reading Bus is currently writing its own high quality book of Doric Verse. The Editorial Committee have selected 47 poems with the “scrievers” coming from all over Scotland.

Renowned artist, Bob Dewar, was commissioned to illustrate the poems and has delivered 59 vibrant illustrations. The Reading Bus Team would like to share these fantastic originals with a wider audience before they are returned to the artist.

An exhibition of illustrations is being held on Wednesday 27th February from 1pm - 5pm in The Reading Bus Office in Kittybrewster School, Great Northern Road, Aberdeen. We are delighted that Bob Dewar will be coming along and anyone wishing to attend should RSVP by email at
doric@aberdeen-education.org.uk or telephone the office on 01224 524007.

A proposed date of Thursday 11th September has been set for the official launch of the book at Fyvie Castle. A glittering event is being planned that will celebrate the culture and heritage of the North-East of Scotland.

In addition a comprehensive series of learning experiences to complement the book is being developed by The Reading Bus Team with their cross-agency partners. These innovative approaches use a variety of tools including storytelling, film animation, broadcasting, dramatisation and film making. These activities will be available in September across schools and communities together with a series of “training” sessions for staff.

The Reading Bus Team hope to see many of you at the art exhibition on 27th February.

Excellent website is available at http://www.educationcity.com/start/
Good for all subject areas.

Hi All,

This is just to let you know that Edublogs have made available a new email subscription service for individual blog sites.

Subscribing to the service will allow you to receive an email every time a new message is posted to the CST Blog, and means you can keep continually up to date with the work of the team.

Simply type your email address into the box on the right hand side of this page and click the Subscribe button.

(You can cancel this service at any time by following the “Manage Your Subscriptions” link.)

The 2007-08 Curriculum Support Team Newsletter is now available.

You can download a copy of the newsletter from here, or to view individual articles from the newsletter, go to the CST Newsletter Page, which can be found in the CST Essential Information section above.

Multiple hard copies of the newsletter will be sent to schools with an accompanying circular on Friday 11th January 2008.

I have added a list created by Liz Anderson which provides details of the Curriculum Support Team contacts.

Curriculum Support Team List

A gentle reminder to all colleagues who submit applications to attend our face to face workshops and courses - please remember to send in your applications as early as possible, and at least two weeks prior to the date of the course.

This allows us time to confirm final numbers with course presenters, catering providers and venues, and where courses are oversubscribed it gives us time to notify any unsuccessful applicants.

Occasionally we have to cancel courses which are undersubscribed, so we need to know final numbers well in advance of the course in order to decide whether or not the course can go ahead.

Many thanks.

Perhaps we could start a thread on useful websites. This one seems pretty good:
www.teachersdomain.org

I have placed all primary and secondary schools on google maps. So if you go to http://maps.google.co.uk/maps and type in the name of the school it will lead you directly there. This should help all of us poor people without Sat Nav.