Life's Surprises

OK, this news item is a few days old now, but I'm gonna post on it as there can't me many out there who will have had this experience.

So, I'm in the local supermarket and I look at the newspapers and think 'I know that face on the front of the Daily Mail. Now I will admit to not normally being someone who will instantly trust the Mail, but thought I'd investigate further. So home I go to the internet.

Now a few years ago there were a few of us from church who decided to go salsa dancing and to have lessons. We ended up at a local club called Club New York. (Now closed and re-named The Church, which is what it was originally, and was its earlier club name!)
Anyway, the main instructor for the beginners group was this guy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=424260&in_page_id=1770

So, turns out I know a spy! (I'm waiting for the MPs to call ).

To be honest he wasn't the nicest of people, a tad sleazy (offered to sleep with someone I was seeing at the time), but I don't think that any of us had him labeled as a spy.

So, that's my Christmas surprise. What's yours?

Chris

Madness

OK, so it's been a while since I've been to a gig, but hey, I was no way near the oldest.
So, I've got a few Madness albums at home and when it was mentioned at the tennis club I thought, why not. Of course I didn't remember that it was the penultimate day of term and how tired I'd be (let alone the usual chance of being a bit ill).
So I went to the gig. Oddly enough, after the gig I felt a lot better. Can't really explain why. Probably a bit of adrenalin helping to get over the tiredness, but I genuinely felt better afterwards as well. Now is that just the relaxing or is there something else about a gig that helps. As I said, not a huge fan, but enjoy their music well enough to go to a gig. So we’re not looking at the euphoria of seeing your fav band perform, but obviously something else instead.
The gig itself was good. The usual mix of classic songs and stuff from their new album. Knew about 2/3rds of the songs so that made me relatively happy.
What was a nice touch was that they had clearly had someone do some local stuff for the show. The big projection screen had local images on a few occasions (notably ‘Our House’) but also had pictures of those who had dress up in fancy dress for the night as they came in. They also had their kids (at least I assume it was their kids) dancing on stage to the last song.
Overall, an enjoyable evening, would have nice not to have been so knackered before hand, but would recommend it to anyone who is considering going to see them.

I always knew I was right

OK, slightly amusing story here. (In a way).

Preperation for Ofsted is involving senior teachers being watched and watching so that we know how to evaluate a lesson in the way that Ofsted evaluate lessons. I had one observation of a lesson today.

From the word go I'll put my hands up and say that it wasn't my best lesson. I felt that it fell into the (will be seriously reconsidering that one) group. They didn't, they felt it was satisfactory. However it was the feedback that was interesting.

Basic summary was that the teaching objectives were too vague, and that the work set was too complicated. So basically a simplification of it all. And I totally agree.

What makes it all interesting to me is that I purposefully chose to do a lesson that was right out of the the governments Key Stage 3 Strategy for ICT, which provides all the resources, even the lesson plans. I did the lesson strictly to that, and got that feedback.

For ages I've been arguing that the Strategy (clearly written by people who have no idea what young children would interested in) is expecting far too much in what it sets out to achieve. I also couldn't help but laugh at the fact that the 'best' the government could get to work on this stuff could only produce vague lesson objectives according to the Ofsted chap. I'll be doing my own lesson next time and I'll be interested to see what feedback comes from that. I suspect it will be more in line with what the inspector would be looking for.

So I am looking forward to the next time I get the local lea person in to let them know what Ofsted thought of the governments much praised strategy.

Relatively early night tonight as I have a tennis tournament match tomorrow.

Chris

It's amazing who you meet

OK, so it's the day after the open evening and it's a quiet day at school. Inset for one and a relaxed atmosphere with a number of staff going out to visit students on work experience placement to check that everything is going ok.

So, I do what needs to be done during the morning and lunchtime annd off I go to the first work experince placement.

Anyway, I arrive and have a chat with the kids to make sure that everything is going well. Finish chatting with them and then the receptionist goes to get one of the managers that they have been working with.

I'm not sure who was more surprised when the manager turns up and it happens to be and old friend who I haven't seen for over 5 years. Still it made it a nice interview and I know that I can trust her with what's been happening and some requests in terms of helping the kids get the most out of the placement. Was also good to catch up on what we'd been doing and how we came to be chatting to each other today.

Always think it's nice (generally) to bump into old friends. Did it on here the other day, so it serves some purpose.

Even bumped into someone I knew at the second placement visit, though I seem them quite regularly anyway, so wasn't quite the same.

Anyway, thats all really for now. Need to go and play/set up the new PDA that was delivered today (yes I'm a geek).

What no questions?

Well despite what I thought might happen, the parents evening was a total success (just). The technology was being a real pain and refusing to work properly. This would obviously be a bit of a problem as the IT room is very boring if it's just tables and chairs. Thankfully though the webcam came back on-line just in time for the first parents to walk through the classroom door. I was quite surprised that it was such a hit with the little ones, though I', not sure I needed to see as much dentestry as I did in the end.

It's frightening to think that within a month of the new school year, we've already had the most important day in the school's callender. I have to say though, that it was the busiest I've known it (though that could have been parents hanging around the ICT room longer).
Feet are currently killing me as I've been on them for the majority of 13 hours non-stop. Hoping that they will stop hurting by tomorrow.

Quite tired so will keep it short and sweet. Am tempted to cheat a little and copy in some posts on other blogs that I'd had to keep some sort of consistency.

Anyway, off to bed now.

Catch people later

Chris

Days where you make a difference

Well it's definately been a day with a difference.

At the start of it, all I was really thinking about was getting the display work underway for the school's open evening tomorrow (I'll have more to say about that later if I remember). By lunchtime, everything had changed and it was one of those days where being a teacher was the smaller part of the job. Obviously I can't go into details about what was happening as it would be both unfair to the student concerned and professionally improper to do so. All I'll say is that I needed to get out and do something (ended up swimming) after school just to make sure that I was focused away from school. My only other comment is that it was one of those days where you can see that you've made a difference in someones life and hopefully made a situation better. It's probably the more rewarding part of teaching away from the academic side of school. The student is going to have a tough time, but hopefully some of what has been said will help them get through it.

So, tomorrow, Open Evening. For those who haven't been to a school open evening, now-a-days they are basically sales pitches to parents, that basically determine whether teachers have jobs the following year etc. There's a lot of work in the displays etc and I think that the majority of it is wasted on most of the parents. To be fair, the majority are OK and have a look around and a few ask questions, and a few go over memories of their time in the school. However there are also the questions that make you think twice. I'll try to remember to post any good ones I get. Previous hightlights though include the parent who wanted to know why, on my computer timeline, I didn't have the Lyon Tea Shop computer. (Apparently had it been taken up it would have been better than anything today) I wanted to point out the fact that it wasn't so really didn't deserve to. Biting of the tongue reuired, as it was with the parent who wanted to know why the school didn't have an automatic telephony system built into the computers for the kids to use. (Like we don't have enough fun trying to get them off the mobiles as it is).

Anyway, that's all for now. My eyes are killing me from the chlorine in the swimming pool (I must make sure I find my goggles for next time), and it will be far better if I closed them (and I'm not sure that my touch typing is so reliable as to be able to do that.
Have a good day all of you and I'll write again soon.

Chris

Late nights

OK, so a fair bit of time between blogs, but then you should check how long it's been since I posted on my blog site!

I now seem to be suffering more late nights, but this time, not at my own deliberate making. Insomnia being the problem in a nutshell (as you can probably guess from the time that this is being posted). It's been going on for about 2 weeks now and I'm not entirely sure why. There isn't anything at work that is particularly bothering me, and I don't think that there's anything socially either. (I don't think that poor tennis is on my mind that much!!!)

So I'm left to wonder what the cause of it is. A friend has said that its something most of us go through at various times in our lives (the sleeping aids aren't helping much). Could it be that having spent many nights up watching DVDs or reading books late into the night has turned me into a creature who now can't sleep when he wants to? I'll not be happy if that's the case.

Anyhow, it's now 2 and I'd like to try to get some sleep before a long day at school tomorrow, preparing for another long day (open evening) on the Tuesday.

Hopefully won't wait as long for the next blog.

Isn't that just typical

OK, so for the first time, I've decided that at the parents evening, I'll be totally ICT based (which as an ICT teacher isn't too bad really, lead from the front and all that).

So isn't it Sods Law (as one parent put it) that ICT decides to fail me on the night.

The plan was oh so simple. All the report where on the laptop, and the kids work was on a VLE (virtual learning environment for those who have a life and don't live online). The idea, I bring up the student report, and then access the kids area of the VLE so the parents can (a) see the VLE working, and (b) see the work that their child has done.

So, the reports, nice and easy. They were on the laptop, and easy to bring up. The VLE, well the school's wireless just about extended into the canteen where I was based, so that was fine. However for some reason I could only access the VLE front page and not any of the kids works. All my plans lay in tatters.

To be fair the parents were fine, and in the end, there were probably quite a few students showing their parents how it all works when they got home. (That was my suggestion anyway).

If you look at it this way, it will turn into a nice learning experience for both pupil and parent. In some respects I've managed to set a homework without either party realising it!

So, not a total disaster after all.

Chris

University Challenge

Ok, bit of a rant again (not intentional), but was absolutely fuming after a chat I had with a good friend.

We all know about university fees being introduced and like it or not, they are currently here for the payment (in part) for tuition and other university stuff. However I think that we have the real situation that some universities are going to be using this idea as a real money making scheme.

Now before we start thinking about fees being raised above the £1000 mark, this is about something totally different.

Many courses have a workplacement year. Good idea, totally for it. Give students an experience of the real work environment, plus the posibility of employment after they finish thier final year. During this year the students work at the company, get paid a nominal amount, but have their accomadation and some other stuff paid for. However, there's very little, if any, input from the university during this year.

So, that being the case, why do they feel that they have the right to charge tuition fees for that year. OK, they are cutting the fees in half, but that's still £500 for actually doing nothing. Multiply that up by all the students doing placement years on all the courses and suddenly that's a lot of money for doing nothing.

I suppose at least the directors will be able to take their pay without crippling the university now.

Hopefuly something less rantful next time.

Chris

Council Inconvenience

OK, so it's spring time and that means doing stuff in the garden so that it's ready for the summer. Everyone know this. Apparently not the council.

Due to various bits of garden work that I've done over the last couple of years, I basically need to replace some of the turf in the garden. Far too many weeds and moss for a treatment to be able to cope with and about 20 bits of turf isn't going to break the bank, and is the easiest way for me to solve the problem.

However that means that I need to dig out and dump the old turf. This counts as soil (especially given the lack of grass involved). This is where I have encountered my problems. My council (or the contractors) have decided that they will only take 6 bags of soil a month. My registration has been taken, so I can't take any more down for another month. That works out at about 2sq meters a month. That's a lot of bags on the driveway (good job it's long!).

What's really annoying is that one of the neighboring councils (sadly too far to drive) is willing to let people dump as much soil as possible.

Obviously flytipping is illegal and I won't be doing that, but they are hardly doing a lot to prevent people from straying down that path.

At least I'm getting the garden looking nice I suppose, even if the council are doing their best to stop me!

Making Friends

OK, so slightly later in the day than I had planned, but hey I've been busy.

As promised, a thought or two about friends and how we make them. I've just got back from a ski holiday where there were about 60 of us in total. Now I went with just one mate, but after the week have felt like I've left behind (because they are scattered around the country) a load of good friends, despite having known them for only a week.

Now it might be that I was just very lucky and we had a group of about 60 were everyone really got on well with each other, which meant the group gelled really well.

But what is it that has turned us all into friends in the space of a week. I feel sure that part of it is the sort of living together under one roof thing. But it must be more than that as I've been on other similar holidays and not felt the desire to stay in touch with others on the trip.

What was also interesting is that it wasn't really a holiday where there were lots of little cliques. Yeah people has others they would sit with for breakfast or dinner, but it wasn't a permanent arrangement and people often moved tables and sat with others.

So, why do some large groups just work whereas others clearly don't. Was the time thing enough for people to get to know each other without knowing each others faults too much to stop the friendships developing.

I suspect that there are some clever people out there who will be able to put a scientific term to all of this, or will invent one. I just find it interesting that I feel far more attached to this group of people than I did with those from previous years. Certainly hope to be keeping in contact with a load of them.

OK, two posts in two days, I suspect that some may be feeling like I'm going for the overkill.

May add tomorrow as well, depends on whether.

Till next time,

Chris

How Time Flies

OK, so it's been a bit of a time since my last entry. All I can say it that it's amazing how quickly time disappears.

Between getting stuff sorted for the end of term and then going away skiing I think I just didn't realise where the time had gone.

Still I'm back now. Time flying by quite quickly again though as I'm half way through the school holidays and I'm wondering whether I'm going to get some rest. Still have a load of work that needs to be done, and want to try to work in the garden as well.

Anyway, I'm fairly tired so I'll sign off for now and will blog again tomorrow when I'm a bit fresher (I think it's meant to be raining tomorrow as well so I'm less likely to be working on the garden in that case). Think that I'll talk about getting to know people, based on the fact that I'm just back from a holiday with people I didn't know before hand.

Catch you all on the other side.

Chris

Monday Mornings

OK, so I'm laying in bed on Monday morning, wondering why it seems to be the only day that I feel that I can lie in, knowing full well that I can't. Is this something that we all go through?

Now I'm not talking about feeling that you can lie in bed all the time. For some reason, it is always Monday when I feel that I could roll over and go back to sleep for quite a nice long period of time. My problem seems to be that it's only Mondays that it seems to happen on (though this Monday is an exception as I've not slept well at all). I wouldn't object to the feeling of being able to sleep in on a Monday if I was able to do it on a Saturday or Sunday, but for some reason, that never seems to happen. It must be that my body hates me! Waking up nice and early both days of the weekend seems almost compulsory.

What is then doubly frustrating is that as school as the school holidays come around, I don't seem to have the same situation as I'm once again up far too early.

Maybe I should get some blackout curtains!!!

e-bay experiences

Like most people (or at least it seems like most people) I've been known to spend time on e-bay. Mainly as a buyer and occasionally as a seller. For the first time I've had a problem. To be honest, the amount that I've lost out is minimal, but the whole experience has set me thinking.

First of all, the honesty (or possibly lack of) from some sellers. While most of the people on e-bay are honest, there are obviously those that aren't and to varying degrees. I'm the sort of person who would feel bad about selling something duff to someone, even by accident. Others clearly don't have such issues and I find it curious that people don't feel bad about ripping people off.

Second, from my experiences is e-bay themselves. It's interesting to note that e-bay is becoming more and more eager to point out that it considers itself just a portal for others to make transactions. True enough, but should they have a responsibility to the people using their site as well. Lots has been made of people misusing e-bay and e-bay being poor at dealing with it. (For me it was not bothering to deal with an issue until it was after the time limit for them to act and only then mailing to say they couldn't/wouldn't do anything).

Are they passing the buck, should they have a moral responsibility? Clearly they have certain policies, but how much is it in their interest to act on such policies if it involves costing them money. (It is notable that e-bay are being taken to court in the US by Tiffanys jewelers over the selling of fake jewelry and the lack of action for stopping it).

We all remember the protests there were about e-bay allowing the sale of Live8 tickets. I'm convinced that e-bay UK only changed its mind due to the quantity of protest in their community section. If more complained about questionable dealing on e-bay, would more be done.

Is it a case of the adage 'for evil to flourish, the good need only do nothing'. (I appreciate that might seem strong, but I'm sure you appreciate the idea). And if we decide that is the case, should that not be something that we take note of in other walks of life as well?

It's a small world (but thankfully not a Disney one)!

OK, well I was at church this morning (nothing uncommon about that) and had just finished up helping with the kids work (well clearing up and doing the usual chase round to find various people) when, totally out of the blue, I'm met by someone who works in the previous school I teach at. We didn't overlap in out teaching (I left at the end of one year, and he started the next), but with various supply and other days in, he was able to recognise me at church. He'd been a few times before, but was looking for one to really call a home church.

Anyway, it's made me wonder about whether it really is a small world. Many say that the Christian world (especially in the UK) is small, and that, within reason, you are likely to bump into other Christians you know more frequently at Christian events. However, is that true of most groupings of people.

As a teacher, at the end of term, for some reason teachers all tend to end up in the same series of pubs/bars. (Possibly to avoid the kids!)

So, do we all live in a small world, despite all the travel that is open to us, and if so, do we do it purposefully at some level as it's a comfort zone things.

Just a thought.


Chris

 

Lost Weekend Lamentations!

OK, it's Saturday morning, and I'm sitting here thinking to myself that the weekends just seem to disappear. Now I appreciate that it's not even 10am yet, but I know that before I know it, Saturday will be all but gone, I'll have probably played tennis for a few hours (given that it's dry, if somewhat windy, which will make for an interesting game!) and will come home and watch the rugby, recorded while I'm playing. And that will be half the weekend gone.

I suppose that it's better than just doing nothing, and I suppose that some people will do far less than I will be, but part of me thinks that I should spend more time doing 'useful stuff'.

It's left me thinking about whether other people get more out of their weekends than I do. Possibly it's part of the human condition, that we al think that we're wasting time, or maybe it's just me thinking that. Or should I just work on the basis that the weekend is for recharging, and that 'wasting' it isn't such a bad thing.

So, there you go, my first proper rumination. Not much of one really, but something that I do ponder about from time to time.

Well, this is my first entry, and it's going to be pretty boring, but then it's more to get the blog up and running.

I'll be interested to see how many people look at this blog (once it's up and running properly).

I suppose like most blogs, it's going to be a bit of a diary of my thoughts. However as a school teacher, work is something that I'm not really going to be able to talk about as it's not going to be professional to do so. (So no questions about that if you ever have any).

So, I'm going to get the rest of this set up, and then post something else later on.