Archive for the 'teaching and learning' Category
3 days of the condor
If it’s Thursday it must be a snow day, the third this week. I’m not keen on snow (not keen on much of anything), but since becoming a teacher I’ve learned to take it as a blessing. An extra day off work in the dark half of the year is not to be sniffed at, [...]
Filed under: Climate, Commuting, Conspiracy Theories, Education, Family, Time-Wasters, Travel, anxiety, being chippy, teaching and learning, weasels | 1 Comment
Tags: snow days
Dear Apple,
I just received an email from you with the subject, Make Your Customers Even Happier. Give iPod.
Now, I’ve not got any customers, sorry, unless you count my students, and I’m certainly not planning on giving those kind of corporate gifts to my students anytime soon. I’m giving them the gift of education. I’m inspiring young [...]
Filed under: Apple, Education, Family, Technology, autobiography, being chippy, marketing, teaching and learning | 2 Comments
Something Old Something Flue
room_with_a_flue, originally uploaded by mcmrbt.
The woodburner is in. The installation coincided with the best weather of the year so far.
The job is far from complete, so we won’t be paying for it yet. They’ve got some making good to do where the old gas fire was removed, and they need to fit some lead flashing [...]
Filed under: Climate, Education, Family, Flickr, Technology, climate change, happiness, summer, teaching and learning | 2 Comments
Tags: energy, fire, heating, stove, woodburner
Striking Looks
I didn’t join the teachers’ strike today. My wife did. I wanted to, but didn’t want to deal with the resulting financial meltdown. My wife is better with money than I, perhaps because she trousers the child benefit and tax credit money in addition to her salary, which is more or less the same as [...]
Filed under: Education, being chippy, teaching and learning | 3 Comments
Tags: industrial action, strike, striking
What’s the point of newspapers?
As a media studies teacher, one of the most vexing parts of my job is having to pay any attention to what newspapers are saying. My big problem with them begins and ends with the fact that they come out every day, and that column inches have to be filled, sometimes with decent writing, but [...]
Filed under: Culture, Education, Time-Wasters, being chippy, media studies, narcissism, secret girlfriends, teaching and learning, weasels | 2 Comments
Tags: newspapers
Now, that’s what I call Easter…
Easter seems really early this year, but for once is falling on the correct date, more or less, the spring equinox, which is nice.
My school had an inset day today, ahead of the long weekend, and the task was to moderate coursework. For various reasons, I’ve given up chasing students for late work, so I’m [...]
Filed under: Arrested Development, Character, Education, ambitions, ambitions in life, being chippy, media studies, teaching and learning | 2 Comments
Cat Shit
Fittingly, in a week which saw a horse called Catch It win at Cheltenham (which, Anita Anand on 5Live couldn’t help noticing, one couldn’t help but pronounce Cat Shit), our cat had diarrhoea today. I still can’t spell diarrhoea, and my first three attempts were so wrong that even the spell checker couldn’t help me.
My [...]
Filed under: Education, anxiety, being chippy, omens and portents, paranoia, teaching and learning, weasels | 1 Comment
Tags: baking, bread, dough
Reefer Madness
According to this story in the Guardian, one third of teachers (in a sample of the 1000 who agreed to take a survey) say that they struggle with technology.
I personally do not, though I struggle sometimes to see what it is that students are supposed to have been learning in ICT lessons, since they are [...]
Filed under: Education, Technology, teaching and learning | Leave a Comment
Juno vs. Wade
Went to see Juno last night, one of three films released this week given five-star reviews by such outlets as the Guardian. Even Kermode was mostly positive about it.
I enjoyed the film. Ellen Page is a star, and the one-liners in the script were funny. Interesting question in my mind as to audience, given the [...]
Filed under: Culture, Education, Entertainment, Family, Movies, Nostalgia, Perception, acting, arts, film, lesson plans, media studies, presentations, teaching and learning | 4 Comments
Tags: Juno
Serenity – Shot by Shot
For ‘A’ level media, it’s a requirement that under the “film and broadcast fiction” module, we study contemporary examples. Contemporary is defined by the exam board as having been released in the 5 years prior to the beginning of the course.
This is a little bit of a challenge to me, as I haven’t actually paid [...]
Filed under: Culture, Education, Entertainment, Movies, SF, film, lesson plans, media studies, sci-fi, science fiction, teaching and learning | 1 Comment
Tags: westerns samurai
