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Head on over to Headroom for a bit of time to unwind your mind. Ruby Wax talks about exam stress and gets some tips from educational psychologist Kairen Cullen.

There are more short wellbeing videos covering stress, anxiety and depression, as well as tips on personal happiness. Check into the Mood Spa and find out how your lifestyle could be affecting your mental wellbeing.

Bitesize is here to help with the revision side of things, and the weekly planner may help you organise your last minute studies. And you'll find plenty of Bitesize tv clips on Learning Zone Scotland.

Also worth a look is the SQA's guide to , where you'll also find and the itself.

The St Vigeans Sculptured Stones Museum near Arbroath has been recently refurbished.

Read about the musueum and the work, including the major conservation operation on the stones, and look through the gallery of the stones on show.

Find out more about Pictish symbols and meanings at our Scots and Picts site for 7-9 year olds.

I'm trying to learn Gaelic, and it's really difficult. Or, I should say, it's no more difficult than any other language to learn if I'm honest, but I've found learning difficult - undoubtedly as a result my own failings to get to grips with certain aspects of the language. I came across the previous version of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Alba Beag air Bheag site before I started working at the Beeb, as well as Roddy Maclean's An Litir Bheag radio programmes. I found these resources two of the most helpful ways of learning because I could use them in my own time and at my own pace, in the comfort of my living room, without making a fool of myself. Trying my new phrases out on Gaelic-speaking pals always made me feel like I was getting somewhere, and so spurred me on to learn more.

Now that I'm on the inside as it were, I'm delighted to see that they've both undergone a bit of a revamp. Beag air Bheag (as well as looking much more modern) now contains sections where you can learn a song in Gaelic - I promise you they will stick in your head all day long - and even an ongoing soap opera where the learners control the plot. The simple, straightforward phrases, with audio aids and the 'test yourself' section are still there so you can keep an eye on your progress too. I know that I'll be using this in my own learning, and I'm sure that with a resource like this to use I will improve my Gaelic 'beag air bheag'.

An Litir Bheag has followed its big brother, Litir do Luchd-Ionnsachaidh, into podcasting - now you can subscribe to receive the programme as a podcast and listen to Roddy's patient tones telling you a new story every week. I find the really useful to follow, sometimes just seeing the words written down in front of you can really help it sink in!

So why not join me in my quest to learn Gaelic? For the year of maybe your learners would enjoy picking up a few essential phrases - Gaelic and ³Òྱ»å³ó±ô¾±²µ Higher Bitesize is also there for those who have taken it that step further! As for me, I'm going to sit tonight with a 'srùbag' (cuppa) and explore the new-look Beag air Bheag; who knows, I might be able to blog this in Gaelic soon.

Sharpen your speaking skills with The Speaker, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO's search for Britain's best young speaker.

You can catch up with the tv series so far and get hints and tips on improving your public speaking, with famous faces sharing experiences for effective communication from preparation and fighting the fear to persuasion skills and delivery.

Julian Chapman's comments at the NASUWT conference in Bournemouth have received a lot of media attention this week. The idea that , and making it harder for teachers to deliver an in-depth lesson seems odd to me, given that I work in a department who, amongst other things, make educational television programmes.

We're moving towards a curriculum that puts the learner increasingly at the centre, so why shouldn't learning evolve to meet the new demands of learners, who are used to technologically advanced and engaging materials? I know that, for example, we've moved towards the shorter 'clip' based way of accessing our resources. This isn't just a response to the YouTube generation - it also allows teachers flexibility. Want to illustrate something in five minutes, keep your class engaged and then have plenty of time left for activity and discussion? Use an audio or video clip. Better still, have the class make their own media clips to illustrate their understanding.

It's my opinion that instead of , teachers could look at ways of using it in lessons â€" helping both their own delivery and the learners' engagement. A great example of this is the use of games in class, which I've written about before. I went to see on Tuesday and the work that they have done in bringing games into learning is remarkable. Instead of seeing children playing video games as a hurdle, or as something that stops them doing their homework, Derek and others have , combining that enthusiasm and engagement with real and active learning. Can't television help get the point across, to reinforce learning? I believe strongly that it can. We can't continue to draw this line between what the learner needs in order to be 'switched on' and what the teacher can deliver. Resources have to enable both learners and teachers to share experiences (and yes, outcomes!) that can be as engaging and entertaining as they are educational.

Comments

you have to distinguish between good educational programming and bad quality programming, it is like comparing fruit to sweets. Some bad programming is very addictive rotting "brains" instead of teeth but it is harder to make good educational content addictive, the games industry are probably further down the road with that rather than terrestrial tv educational programming. Teaching style have to change to suit their learners rather than serve their "teaching comfort zone". We are not teaching 1980's children even though teachers are of that generation.
John Heffernan
Fri Apr 17 14:50:24 2009

Start growing your own grub with Dig In, a brand new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ website giving instructions and top tips on growing vegetables.

It is a growing site in more ways than one - more animations and a veggie-growing blog from Radio 1's Sara Cox will be added, along with a wealth of links to great ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Gardening and Food content.

And if you're out in the garden, greenhouse or allotment over Easter, try out Radio Scotland's Scotland's Gardens podcast where Scotland's top horticulturalists offer seasonal gardening advice on what to do and enjoy in the garden each week.

Last week, the Scottish Government for the new , under the watchful gaze of every teacher and educationalist in the country. For teachers, this will mean hours and hours of preparation; for learners we hope it will mean a broader, more active approach to education; for us here at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland Learning it means creating more flexible resources for learners.

As schools prepare for the implementation of the curriculum, our content in TV, radio and online, as well as our outreach schemes, will be supporting the new developments. I've mentioned in previous blog entries that we've moved away from the traditional age and subject specific programmes we've made in the past. You'll find that we're aiming for a fresh way of telling stories to enhance learning, but allowing practitioners to decide best where, when and with which group of learners it should be used. This allows the materials to be more relevant as teachers look for more cross-curricular projects to use in class, and for resources that match the of the new curriculum.

We've recently uploaded even more clips into the Learning Zone, which learners, teachers and parents can use in class or at home for studying. Given the impending examinations, we've added clips from the Standard Grade Bitesize programmes for revision purposes, and there are hundreds of topic-based clips which would help hard-working exam candidates, so have a good look around. The idea of the clips library is to have our content available in manageable pieces, to allow for more choice in how they're used - rather than plonking a class down in front of the telly for half an hour, you can show a couple of clips, set a task, and discuss and evaluate it. Similarly, if you're revising at home, these pieces are short and to-the-point - often just what you need when trying to understand or remember a tricky concept. We hope you'll make good use of them, and bear in mind that there are more clips being added on a daily basis.

For Higher candidates - we haven't forgotten about you - Bitesize has been revamped, and we think it's easier to navigate, with more useful information. The feedback so far has been pretty positive, but the team are always looking for more suggestions and thoughts, so do get in touch with them if you have anything to add. We're excited about the new curriculum and the different challenges it puts on us, but as ever we are always looking for feedback and opinion from those at the chalkface.

Lesley Riddoch hosts a special education edition of Riddoch Questions, recorded this week before a live audience at Peebles High School.

Scotland's Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop and her opposite number, Labour's Rhona Brankin were in attendance, along with Ken Cunningham, general secretary of and Judith Gillespie from the . The panel discussed issues affecting pupils, parents and teachers in Scotland and faced questions including:

With a thousand teachers missing how can the SNP deliver its commitment to smaller class sizes?
Why are Scottish pupils in early secondary school under-performing in maths and numeracy?
What changes will the Curriculum for Excellence bring?
Is discipline a general problem in schools?
Is our exam system confusing parents and employers?

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, has launched the guidance for the .

Read the about the launch of the new guidelines, and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ report on .

Get an along with the at the site.