Help our colleagues to get going on the Tutor Wiki

Now that Claire has built and published the brilliant new Tutor Wiki, as Quality Champions we can also help our colleagues to make the most of it in our role as promoters of quality in our route to outstanding. The Tutor Wiki is the next tool in our growing resources designed to achieve that aim - so all tutors need to use the Wiki, from now.

If tutors are having problems logging in or are a bit unsure what to do, we can help them - in each of our tutor group meetings each term, by email, or when we see them next time asking them if they are finding the Tutor Wiki easy to get on and use.

One thing that cropped up the other day for a couple of tutors is how to get to our Tutor Wiki home page after they have accepted their invite from Claire. This is understandable if you are not that familiar with navigating around a VLE, a MOODLE, or other learning platforms, which for some of our tutors is the case.

Here are some simple but key tips for tutors not familiar with our Tutor Wiki which you can copy and paste into Word or an email etc:

1. "Once you have signed in, click on the little (and I do mean small!) bar in the top right corner of the Wiki window which will reveal the sliding menu bar in full. Then click on My Wikis to reveal a drop down menu. Choose learningSkills (shown in blue in the image above) by clicking it. You will now be on the home page of the Tutor Wiki." 

2. "On your home page (shown above) you will see news and information on the left of the screen and resource pages on the right. Click on any of the pages to go there and access the resources and to contribute your own resources to share with your colleagues. There is guidance on how to contribute on the home page."

3. "Further HELP.  At the bottom of the HOME page there is a HELP link that takes you to a whole list of FAQs and help tips, how-to's and videos. Just click on the word HELP. If you get stuck on the Tutor Wiki contact Claire Ritson, your Quality Officer in Dryden or ask your Quality Champion."

If Quality Champions are meeting tutors that are either having problems using the Tutor Wiki or have ideas about how it can be developed further, please pass the information onto Claire.

PS: look at the top of the page here on the QC Blog and you will see a new tab: "Tutor Wiki". This is to make it easier and quicker for us to access our online spaces as QCs - Twitter, Facebook, Blog and Wiki.

Blooming Marvellous!

We have two new short guides on our QC Blog taken from Bloom's work. These were handed out at Julie's Teaching and Learning workshop session recently. The first is a guide to writing questions (that will help with writing SMART goals and clear Learning Outcomes). The second is a list of verbs in the cognitive domain to be used in questioning, goals and learning outcomes. Go to the Resource Page opposite: "Initial Assessments, SMART Goals, Using Bloom".

Quality Champions become Authors!

Those QCs who attended the last QC meeting have been invited to be blog authors using their Gmail accounts. Please accept your invite when you get it (it will be in your Gmail). Authors can write their own posts and add links to the blog.

Those QCs who weren't able to attend the last QC meeting need to open a Gmail account and send their Gmail address to Bernard so he can invite you to be a blog author too. This is so we can use the blog as a team. Please send Bernard your Gmail address as soon as you can.

Using Bloom in class (short guide)

A one-page guide to using Bloom's Taxonomy of learning in our class is now on our blog for QCs. It has been created by Bernard from various sources. Feel free to add to the document and re-upload to the blog.  Go to the Resource Page "Learning Outcomes" to access this brief guide.

List of Outcomes (1)

A list of potential learning outcomes has been created in MS Word. Imogen and Bernard have started the list with the idea being that QCs from other subject areas either add to this list or create their own for their subjects and add it to our QC blog for sharing. Go to the Resources Page "Learning Outcomes" opposite to access the document.

Quality Champions subscribed to the QC Blog!

As mentioned at our last QC team meeting, all Quality Champions have been subscribed as followers to our QC blog (this one!). QCs will now automatically receive an email alert to any new posts on the blog. Notifications take about 24 hours to reach email in boxes. We will be discussing membership, private versus public and permissions for blog members further at our next QC team meeting this Thursday 19 September.

Every Child Matters summary guide added to EDI Resource Page

We have added Karen's brief summary guide to Every Child Matters (ECM) to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) resources page opposite. This is a simple MS Word document as presented to the QCG group recently. Go to the resources page to see, download or print a copy of the ECM summary guide.

QCG Mentoring Resources - NEW!

There is a new page opposite with resources to help us with our mentoring of tutors: "Mentoring Resources". Click on the links in that page to see, download or print the documents. There are two for now: A pocket guide to mentoring and the mentoring interview record form. We will add others as we go - do you have any resources that would help us with mentoring?

New Agenda for 22 August QCG meeting

The new agenda is available in the resource page opposite "QCG Matters".

Community Learning SOW & LP new format examples

Two Community Learning examples of how the new SOW and LP standardised formats will look when content is added. Go to the resource page "New Format SOW&LP Forms plus exemplars" to see, print or download the files.

Family Learning SOW & LP - new format examples

Two examples of how the new SOW and LP standardised formats will look when content is added. Go to the resource page "New Format SOW&LP Forms plus exemplars" to see, print or download the files.

New Standardised Forms - SOW &LP

The new standardised Scheme Of Work and Lesson Plan templates are now ready. Go to the resource page opposite "New Format SOW&LP Forms plus exemplars" to access them.

The OFSTED Good Practice Database (archive)

QCG Videos

The first rough cut versions of our QCG Good Practice videos are now available to view by going to the "QCG Good Practice Videos" page in the Resources column to the right of this post. Final cut versions will be added to our blog as soon as they are available. You can share your views and comments by leaving comments on the resources page.

QCG Agenda 22 August 2013

Click the image to see the agenda for our next meeting 22 August 2013, SOTA 1pm-5pm:

LSIS Link - click the image to go to the Excellence Gateway site

Click "7 comments" to see how a conversation looks like in Blogger. This is how Quality Champions can reach each other in one step with comments, ideas or messages. You can also use Twitter (click link at top of page) or Facebook (click link at top of page).

IA and SMART Goals Presentation

The presentation from the workshops on Initial Assessment and SMART goals has been added to our site. Go to the resource page opposite "IA and SMART Goals" and click on the link on that page to go to the presentation.

EDI presentation added

There is a new resource on our site. This is the presentation made by Rachel Beadle to the QCs in July. Go to the resource pages EDI opposite and click the link in that page to view Rachel's presentation.

Welcome to the home of the Quality Champions!

Welcome to our Quality Champions home. This is our online resource service for the Quality Champions team at Gateshead Council's learningSkills Service.

Here you will find the latest news and resources to support you in your work as a Quality Champion.

On the right are our QC Resource Pages for champions to use, including:

• best practice videos and photos, 
• examples of ILPs, Schemes of Work, Lesson Plans...
• major topics such as Embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion...
• links to other website such as OfSTED, EHRC...
• further reading...
• calendar of meetings and training events...
• etc...