kathleen.johnston

Janice our P3/4 teacher is just back from an inservice course. She was learning all about ‘Kidspiration’ software – the company describes it as  ‘the visual way to think, write and comprehend’. This software has been on our macs for about 18 months now and I am ashamed to admit that apart from the odd mindmap, it has been seriously under used in our school. Janice was thinking the same sort of thing – hence the reason she went on the course, to find out more, and more she did! The course was taken by a Glow colleague- Morag MacDonald from Dunoon, and she opened up the world of Kidspiration to Janice! Morag, Janice did you proud, she came back to school the next day raving about all the different ways you can use Kidspiration. Janice showed me how you can import photos of the children to create fantastic personal profiles – perfect for the work we have been doing in P1/2. We also explored activities relating to a balanced diet, letter writing and lots more. We could see a lot of potential for supporting class work throughout the rest of the school. The problem was, how could we spread the good word throughout the school to get Kidspiration up and running? Janice could do a wee chat at the end of the school day but it really isn’t the best time to introduce anything new. Back I came to the same old mantra – training has to be meaningful. Suddenly I had a cunning plan… Janice could take my ICT team teaching time one Tuesday to introduce Kidspiration to all classes and teachers whilst I take her class! That way with a careful bit of planning Kidspiration could be introduced to each class within a context and make a valid contribution to learning and teaching. Both class and teacher get to see the software working for them and also use it with the support of Janice. This idea has gone down well with the four class teachers and Janice is happy to spread the good word. It happens tomorrow – I’ll let you know how we get on…