´óÏó´«Ã½

run a yearly poetry competition for Moray schools. Following on from the success of last year's primary competition, entrants this year were invited from S1 and S2 pupils.

The title for this year's competition was 'Imagine if...'. Pupils were invited to submit poems inspired by this theme, with no restrictions on length or structure. The winners, all from Buckie High School, Forres Academy and Lossiemouth High School received book vouchers, with selected poems published in a booklet and winning poems displayed in libraries across Moray.

Watch each of the prizewinning pupils read their poems below...

Imagine if...
Susanna Read the transcript - Overall winner

Imagine if...
Brooke Read the transcript

Imagine If...
Campbell Read the transcript

Imagine if... I were there
Samira Read the transcript

Hadron Collider
Scott Read the transcript

Here are listings for our tv and radio programmes with accompanying Programme Notes and websites.

Spring listings
13 January - 24 March 2009

Primary TV

Around Scotland Age 10-12 ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO Scotland Mondays, 1140-1200

The Jacobites
19 Jan Ye Jacobites by name
26 Jan Charlie is my darling
02 Feb Over the sea to Skye
Programme Notes - 246kB PDF
Jacobites website

Food Matters
02 Mar A weighty problem
02 Mar World report
02 Mar Whose menu is it anyway?
Programme Notes - 137kB PDF

Money Matters
09 Mar A material boy - money
09 Mar Thinking right - social and emotional health
09 Mar Managing - respect and care for self and others
Programme Notes - 316kB PDF

See You See Me Age 7-9 ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO Scotland Mondays / Fridays, 1140-1200

Scottish Physical Features - The Southern Uplands
23 Jan Programme 1
30 Jan Programme 2
06 Feb Programme 3
Programme Notes - 356kB PDF
Landscapes website

Health - Risk
09 Feb Living dangerously
13 Feb Stick to your guns
Programme Notes - 733kB PDF

Are you eco-friendly?
06 Mar The seashore
13 Mar The river
20 Mar The town
Programme Notes - 242kB PDF
Are you eco-friendly? website

Primary Radio

Hop, Skip and Jump Age 5-7 ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 digital Mon/Tues overnight, 0315-0330

Hop, Skip and Jump
13 Jan Augustus and his smile
20 Jan While you are sleeping
27 Jan The new puppy
03 Feb Titus's troublesome tooth
10 Feb Noah's ark
24 Feb The very noisy night
03 Mar Night walk
10 Mar Hugo and the Bully Frog
17 Mar Mo's smelly jumper
24 Mar Super Sid the Silly Sausage Dog
Programme Notes - 255kB PDF
Listen online

Hopscotch Age 5-7 ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 digital Mon/Tues overnight, 0330-0345

Hopscotch
13 Jan Brr, it's cold outside
20 Jan East West home's best
27 Jan I can't
03 Feb As time goes by
10 Feb The surprise party
24 Feb You can help too
03 Mar It's good for me
10 Mar Fresh and clean
17 Mar Day animals, night animals
24 Mar The very unusual pet
Programme Notes - 1,008kB PDF
Listen online

Scottish Resources First Level/Second Level Age 7-9 ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 digital Mon/Tues overnight, 0345-0400

Time for Drama: Get up and Go
13 Jan Jungle Jim
20 Jan Jungle Gym
Programme Notes - 182kB PDF
Listen online

Time for Drama: Bike Buddies
27 Jan Trapped in a tunnel
03 Feb Between a rock and a hard place
10 Feb Tinelli's treat
Programme Notes - 237kB PDF
Listen online

Secondary TV

English Int2/Higher ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO Scotland Wed/Thurs overnight

Literary Study: Scottish Poetry
29 Jan Carol Ann Duffy 0400-0420
29 Jan Liz Lochhead 0420-0440
Programme Notes - 190kB PDF

Geography Int2/Higher ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO Scotland Wed/Thurs overnight

Physical Environments: River Landscapes
29 Jan Programme 1 0440-0500
29 Jan Programme 2 0500-0520
Programme Notes - 103 kB PDF
Rivers website

Industry and Industrial Change
29 Jan New lives, new landscapes 1 - Dundee and Cottage Industries 0520-0540
29 Jan New lives, new landscapes 2 - Grangemouth and Business Parks 0540-0600
Programme Notes - 102 kB PDF

A customised version of ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer has been launched, designed for children aged 6 to 12.

With handy links to and from the main C´óÏó´«Ã½ website, children can watch their favourite shows on the C´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer, with all content suitable and safe for the younger audience, as Marc Goodchild, Head of Interactive and On Demand, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Childrens explains in his blog.

Following on from my last entry, about 'getting out' and learning in different spaces, I've been thinking about other opportunities for active learning outside the classroom. What about virtual worlds, or social networks, for example? I went to a training session on Tuesday with my colleague Neil Scott, producer of our (rather brilliant) alternate reality game Lost Penny, about social media. It was helpful to see how people in other areas of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ interact with their audiences, and I'm now puzzling what more we can do to reach ours.

Given that I've started writing this blog and have discovered how ICT-literate so many teachers in Scotland are, this might sound a bit like . The East Lothian schools' blog project, , is a great example of how many schools in Scotland are already using social media. Essentially, it creates a learning community that can share practice, something that the is attempting to do on a larger scale for the whole country. I have to be honest and say though that I rather like the idea of these informal, spontaneous projects existing alongside official Glow operations, as part of the many ways that teachers and learners can connect and collaborate. Have a look at , for example, where you can see that many schools and classes have set up blogs, and are also dipping their toes into the Glow portal, arranging link-ups between their classrooms and others in different parts of the country. Similarly, many teachers are on - the microblogging tool that forces you to sum up a thought in 140 characters - sharing links, ideas and even asking people to send in data their classes can use, in real time. Those of you who will get a wee update whenever this blog's updated for example, amongst other shared links and random thoughts.

Social media is slowly feeding its way into classrooms, and I hope that our resources will continue to engage with this - for our part we're hoping to get a brand new blogging space set up soon that you can interact more with, through comment and discussion. Our Scotland's History messageboards have seen furious debate from all corners of the country (and further afield!), and Lost Penny continues to captivate learners who send in solutions to the clues Donna finds.

The course I was on on Tuesday focussed more on the different ways people can 'interact' with our content, whether that's sending a text into a radio show, , or commenting on blogs. Communicating with people is the most exciting part of my job - and I'm sure communicating with young people is what makes so many teachers' jobs so rewarding. If we can use technology to make this easier, that can only be a good thing. One of my New Year's resolutions is going to be to make this blog as interactive as possible - linking out, hopefully forming links between the different content areas on this site, and (if we get our brand-spanking-new blogging tool) able to host ferocious discussion. I am looking forward to blethering with you all.

Comments

Students are certainly taking advantage of social networking on their own. Might as well tap into that passion and use it to improve the delivery of education. The potential value of online learning communities and global networking is too great to fathom. David Warlick, who was a keynote speaker I heard recently, said that educators are trying to prepare youth for a future that we cannot describe. I was struck by the absolute truth of that statement. Nothing is certain or impossible for that matter. December 4, I attended a technology in education conference myself and it was an eye-opening experience. I was heartened to learn that students have not lost their inquiring minds. They've simply taken them underground or online. What they're not asking in school, they are asking people in social networking situations and creating amazing things in the process. There is no doubt that the landscape of education is changing and that these changes are powerful and positive. However, I wonder about the ramifications of too much interacting online. Are young people losing their ability to conduct personal relationships face-to-face? Second Life is a place where people can develop alter egos which take the form of avatars. This "place" is being touted as a way for students who have difficulty relating to their peers to transcend these problems and succeed. At what are they succeeding? It's not real, or is it? Are they learning important life and coping skills by creating a graphic of themselves and existing in cyberspace? There has to be a balance. Humans will adapt to new technologies as soon as they're available in the mainstream, but at what cost?
Cathy Fraser
Fri Dec 19 04:39:45 2008

One for music teachers, or for anybody who'd like to see the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra's latest performances online in exclusive video content.

Part of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3's 'visualisation' programme, you can watch the SSO perform Stravinsky's Firebird and The Rite of Spring and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no.4.

Or if you prefer to listen, the whole of the final concert of the Russian Winter series is available to listen online. The concert webpages come complete with programme notes and information about the artists, composers and works.

Another chance to see A Revolution in Childhood, a special ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four debate which picks up some of the themes of the latest series of Child of Our Time which followed 48 hours in the lives of 22 British children to see what they actually get up to.

Martha Kearney and a panel of childhood experts examine the candid and intimate footage to determine if childhood in Britain really is in crisis. The panel is made up of , , , and .

Read more on the , including a and chance to share views and opinions on the .

Well worth a watch on the iPlayer from this week is Sighthill Stories. Meet the pupils at a Glasgow primary school going through a time of turmoil.

Sighthill Primary School sits in the shadows of the huge high-rise towers of the Sighthill Estate in Glasgow. As the housing estate is cleared out for demolition, the children of Sighthill face constant uncertainty about when they'll be moved out of their homes.

Hundreds of families have already left the estate. Everybody here has been affected by the large-scale regeneration of the area, but none more so than the pupils of Sighthill Primary.

A revealing and uplifting portrait of a community undergoing massive change in challenging times, Sighthill Stories is an intimate and poignant film following the fortunes of a few children who in the face of adversity reveal admirable optimism and resilience.

Entries for next year's have to be in not long after the schools are back after the Christmas break, so get your application in now.

Eight student producers will help make a special youth edition of the programme to be broadcast on 9 July 2009. Details on applying are , including . Closing date is the 9th January.

is on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE tonight and will be on the iPlayer. The panel includes Jim Knight, Minister for Schools and Learners in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, writer and commentator Will Self, and journalist and campaigner Esther Rantzen.

We've added our first game to Standard Grade Bitesize - have a play with Mia Cadaver's Tombstone Timeout!.

Mia's ready to test your ability in Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Play with friends or against all players online - the more players the better, so spread the word.

I'm down in London today for some training - and this got me thinking about how getting out of the office for a couple of days, and away from Glasgow, is conducive to me learning more. Taking people out of their usual working environment does blow away the cobwebs, and this freshness can really bring about new ideas or approaches.

This led to me wondering about our Outreach programmes - they could just be the most important things we do. The initiatives we're currently running are as varied as our other output, focus on active learning and encourage learners to step away from the desk, the classroom and the school. The very real possibility is, of course, that they will develop new ways of thinking or approaching learning that they can translate back into their classroom experience.

Breathing Places encourages a focus on the outdoors; regenerating wasteland and developing environmental awareness. This ties in very well with the project, but more widely can mean a real whole school approach to - something I'll be blogging about in more detail in the coming weeks. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Blast, a UK-wide project offers the chance to develop creativity, and to learn more about the expressive arts.

If you can't take the kids out of the classroom - well, why would you want to in this weather? - transform your usual learning space into something else. Off by Heart**, the new poetry competition means that all the world's a stage, including your gym or dinner hall. By signing up for even one of these projects, teachers are giving their pupils experiences which can impact positively on all aspects of their learning - they have the '' stamped all over them! changes the classroom into a newsroom with the help of ´óÏó´«Ã½ mentors for the day, encouraging confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens and successful learners - watch how scared their mentors are after watching their confident performances in front of camera. The four capacities come from experiencing many different kinds of learning - whether that is remembering and practising a poem by heart for participation in a contest, or transforming a disused patch of ground into a green space that can be used by the community.

Alternatively, come on over to our place. Our LAB (Learn@´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland) space is now also proving a real success. Groups from early primary learners, through to a women writers' group, have come in to our building in Glasgow to make films with our team, Johanna and LJ. I took part in a 'Learning Lunch' at The LAB recently, where the very patient LJ showed me and some others in the Learning team how to make short animated films. Great fun - though I have to say that our efforts were not as good as the groups who've come in to use the space! Check their videos out on The LAB website. You can bring your class in here to make films too - they can work on a 'news report' about their school, a documentary, a drama - your class are the directors, the producers and scriptwriters.

So, I'm urging you take your classes out - or, make the classroom different for them. Learn poems, become news anchors for the day, make animated films, or build bird feeders for the playground. Our Outreach site gives lots of ideas, so it's a good place to start; but just use your imagination - you could plant Christmas trees with your class before the holidays. I'm looking forward to learning something new, somewhere new this week - I hope you will all 'get out' and learn something fresh too. Send us your class's out-and-about stories, and don't forget to have a good look around the site and let us know what you think.

** The closing date for registration for Off By Heart is 19th December - so there's not long left to get your school signed up!

The last of our programmes for the year are available online. You can still get the programme notes for all our tv and radio output. We'll be posting next year's schedules soon.

Watch or download the following programmes on the iPlayer..

The Vikings : The Legacy of the Norse
Programme Notes - 623kB
The Vikings in Scotland website

The Nature of Money: A Lot of Lolly
Programme Notes - 888kB

Blast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO showcases the very best in youth arts from across the UK, with two hour-long programmes available on the iPlayer.

Programme 1 looks at street art, street dance and the games industry
Programme 2 focusses on the Blast Film Festival winners, featuring film shorts made by teenage talent.

Blast aims to inspire and support 13 to 19-year-olds to get creative with ideas for art and design, dance, film, music, fashion, writing and games.