Personal and Professional Review for 2008

It’s this time of year when I look back over my learning log to see what I’ve achieved during the last 12 months. In summary it’s probably more than most people, but a bit less than I should have. Here are a few aspects from the last year that really stuck out.

Work

I continued at Musselburgh Grammar School as Depute Head Teacher in charge of Grange House. The second part of 2008 (the start of the academic year) was the first time that I have not had a complete remit change for three years, so in some respects my day to day role at the school has been running fairly smoothly.

However, we have been busy juggling school efficiency savings and preparing for implementation of the Scottish A Curriculum for Excellence. I continue to enjoy working with all the children at Musselburgh Grammar School and participated fully in a number of extra-curricular activities including the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the S6 London Trip, a Residential to Loch Lomond, S6 Teambuilding weekend and various events around the school (including narrating the panto for the second year in a row).

 

Education Innovation

2008 was a good year for really getting my teeth into some innovative education projects around Musselburgh and East Lothian Highlights included:

1. Guitar Hero Games Based Learning Project: this is certainly a project that has put Musselburgh and East Lothian on the map in terms of education innovation. I was over the moon when we scaled the project up in December 2008, to all East Lothian Schools.
2. Internet Safety: One of my proudest achievements of 2008 was reaching my target of training 1000 adults in Internet Safety and Responsible Use. I hope to work with East Lothian to build this into a really sustainable model that will help all children in families in east Lothian during 2009.
3. Graphic Novels in Education: As some of the above projects come to an end, my Graphic Novels project has really started to build momentum. It was great to see the start of the MGS comic book club and the English Department using the comic version of Macbeth to aid learning.
4. Musselburgh Cluster Leadership Programme: With a lot of support from the centre. I managed to get my vision for accelerated leadership up and running in October 2008. I’ll write more about this early in 2009, but I think we have created a fantastic package here.
5. C Project: In partnership with Catalyst Entrepreneurial Charity we bought the intellectual property for Project K (A New Zealand youth development initiative) and founded C Project. We started the 12 month programme in August 2008 with a group of eight young people from MGS.

 

National Influence and Presentations

It’s been a busy year presentation wise. I was asked back to the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Conference for the 4^th year in a row to do a presentation. I also had an opportunity to speak to lots of other people over the year on a variety of topics including:

• The 21^st Century Connected School (SCSSA, May 2008)
• Games Based Learning in Secondary Schools (Handheld Learning, October 2008)
• Creating More Time to Manage Teaching and Learning (SCSSA, November 2008)
• Enriched Assessment for Enriched Enquiry (Scottish Learning Festival, September 2008)
• Language, Learners and the Power of New Technology (Scottish Learning Festival, September 2008)
• ICT in Education (Edinburgh and Glasgow University ’s)
• Breaking Down Walls with Google Earth (Various workshops during 2008)
• Digital Literacy (East Lothian Leadership Programme)
• Internet Safety and Responsible Use (Various workshops during 2008)

 

Academic

I continued to progress towards my Scottish Qualification for Headship. I picked up the course award for Course 3 and had an opportunity to speak to next years candidates on completing action research. I continue to value the support of my SQH Tutor and the Academic co-ordinators at Edinburgh University.

Volunteering

In 2008 I continued as Chair of Volunteer Development East Lothian (VDEL). Where we increased our staff team to ten during 2008 and our youth and befriending projects continue to move from strength to strength.

 

Outdoor Education

I continue to enjoy the great outdoors. Rock climbing was really replaced with Mountain Biking during 2008 with frequent trips to Glentres and further afield. Iain Robertson and I made our second successful crossing across Scotland by Canoe (and we thought the first crossing was hard!) I continued to climb in winter and although I didn’t do anything new, I repeated a number of classic lines in the Northern Cairngorms during early 2008.

 

In the summer I led a youth expedition to Washington State and British Columbia. Where we successfully trekked around Mt.Rainier, Climbed Rainier (via the Disappointment Cleaver Route) and then canoed the Bowron Lake Circuit in Canada.

 

Personal

It’s been a funny year personally. I had a significant Birthday in July and was overwhelmed by the amount of people that tuned up for the party that my good friend James Chalmers and I threw. I’ve been to a number of weddings, one funeral and was in a car accident. The latter two events turned my life upside down for a few months.

I continue to enjoy living in East Lothian and developing my love of the outdoors, real ale and malt whiskey!

Looking forward to 2009

2009 is going to be an interesting year for me. Here of some of the things that I am going to do:

• I’m going to be starting a new very exciting project which will last about 23 months.
• I’m going to finish my Scottish Qualification for Headship.
• I’m going to continue working with the Volunteer Centre and we hope to move some of our projects into new premises during 2009.
• I’m going to canoe across Scotland for the third time (this time between Laxford Bridge and Bonar Bridge in the North of Scotland).
• I’m going to use my summer holidays to cycle between Canada to Mexico  (yes, you heard me right).
• I’m going to dust off my rock boots in the summer and re-visit some of the classic lines in East Lothian and the Berwickshire Coast.
• I’m going to complete a number of ‘on-going projects’ and ideas (including a new book).
• I’m going to select my team for a 2010 Youth expedition to Alaska (keep your eye on the Leading Edge website if your interested) 
• I’m going to start to look for a new house with a double garage so I can fit all my toys in it!
• I’m going to continue to work hard, play hard and only drink good coffee!
• I’m going to continue to stand for truth, justice, freedom……… (or was that batman?)

Anyway, if you’re a regular visitor to my little part of the Internet - Happy New Year and huge thank you to everyone how has helped, supported, worked and laughed with me through a very successful 2008.

BEST WISHES FOR 2009!

OB

Comments

[Alan Parkinson]

Good idea for a post Ollie. Will be filling in my CGeog log later this week.
Some exciting stuff coming up there, particularly the USA cycle.

[Don Ledingham]

I wish you all the very best for the New Year. Looks like it's going to be interesting.

[Kenny]

All the best for 2009, Ollie. Many thanks for the inspiration and good luck with all of your aims for the new year.