Diannah's posterous

eTwinning National Conference 2010

So nice to see everyone from the eTwinning mob! www.etwinning.net
Yet again another year when we all leave, buzzin' heads full of new ideas and great ICT tools. Trying to figure out how we can apply them to our own lessons.
mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com is great for us linguists and the original, www.storybird.com look like they could be fun. As ever Joe Dale www.moblog.net one of his suggestions handy for blogging school trips,  is a bottomless pit of new tricks. Nick Falk and George Glass were informative with M-explore.
The second life workshop with Marc Thompson was a good giggle too. Nice to see the techies as flummoxed as the newbies for once.....  ;)
Hasta pronto x

Eliminating Excuses: Raising Educational Standards

This was the theme of a conference I attended in Birmingham yesterday, run by the Al-hijrah Trust Uk, and what a great day it was. I had been invited by a chance meeting with one of the speakers there at a previous conference on a totally different subject in Glasgow two weeks previously. After talking about our relative jobs, both teaching in Secondary schools in the UK, he as a Muslim and a teacher and me as a teacher with a lot of muslim students we kind of hit it off and so he invited me to attend apologising for the short notice. I thought, why not? It's on a Saturday but let's see what happens.

I have to say, it was a pleasure to have been invited to such an event and encouraging to see there were other non-muslims there too who were actually working at some Muslim faith schools and were finding it to be a very enjoyable experience. There were also parents, community leaders, school governors and other interested parties at the conference with the main goal of improving educational standards in general in our schools. There were also a selection of workshops to attend and it seems the only complaint about the event was that delegates were disappointed not to have been able to attend more than one on the day. Feedback during the coffee break just after the workshops were that all had been very informative, well presentedand inspirational.

Titles of the workshops were:

Delivering an Outstanding Lesson everytime, Teachers: Eliminating Internal Barriers, Becomoing a Role Model Teacher, Accelerating into School Leadership, Muhammed (saw)The Educator, Eliminating excuses for underachievement- A Governors Perspective, Governors Raising Educational Standards, Philosophy of Education, Sex Education In schools: Should Parents be concerned? and Parenting for Educational Success.

You can understand why we wanted to attend more than one!

I hope to increase my knowledge of Islam and my pupils needs and maybe fetch a few other non-muslims with me for the next one.

Drop me a line if you're interested whether working in education, a parent, a governor or just someone who cares.

Oh my aching sides....

(download)

Who knew Turkeys could fly? Not us. God bless my dear crazy friends They are saints of endless patience.
It was enough that they gave Russell a run for his money by showing that they could easily fly as high as the fence when they arrived.
Kate and me were already thinking ahead to wing clipping and I even suggested a ball and chain on each of them. B&Q don't stock 'em. Useless!
 
Today I think they have managed to exceed everyones expectations. While I was merrily training the children on how to correctly paint the dining room Kate called.
"Are you painting?"
"Yes"
"So you'll have a ladder then?"
"Yeeeessss.....why?"
"Well then u can pop round and get the turkeys down from the VERY tall oak tree in the garden"
 
I am not kidding and neither was she.
Turkelton and JD, as they are so far affectionately known, had obviously decided that they needed to scout out the local area and were looking for a vantage point.
Oak Tree  @ 12'o clock! Bonza!! What are we waiting for?
Kate's son and pal were trying all teenagers baiting techniques, throwing sticks, verbal abuse, shaking of tree to no avail.
Kate then texts me to say that upon climbing tree to shove the brat turkeys out they promptly flew into next door's garden to have a bit of a mooch there.
At this point I would have got out the shotgun.
 
Finally they were corralled using that age old technique of a bath towel over the head and grab 'em.
 
Kate is thinking of re-naming them James Garner and Steve McQueen.
Tomorrow lessons in wing clipping I think.
If not, Thanksgiving is something new to celebrate
 
 

First day of Half Term....

Turkey_babbas

Starts with a classic. Ever conscious that good friend has allowed youngest to tag along to livestock market and she is being picked up at 6:30. I set my alarm for six. Only to discover at 5:27 from my laptop that my phone hadn't automatically reset the time. Doh!
 
Now in proud possession of turkey babbas, 'cept they are not small or cute. Handsome maybe. Attitude for sure, shrugged when Flynn the Weimaraner came up to the fence to have a butchers. As if to say "yeah?". I think they may bully him the way a cat would when they are a bit more confident. Poor Flynn.
Thank goodness they are staying at friends house and not mine. Ruby would have them in her room to keep warm for sure.
Have traumatised the hairdresser's assistant with the thought of raising own Christmas dinner. Though she did ask who was going to kill and "skin" the turkeys?
By gum, I'll bet her birds are dry......
 
Moving onto the dining room tomorrow. Hopefully.
Husband is still under the misguided belief that his opinion about the decor of the house is crucial as to what will actually happen.
Bless :-) Still some innocence left in him then.
 
Roll on for tomorrow's next thrilling installment of Half Term

And Relax.......

Finally, latest round of exams over and I do not have to pick up another text or revise the subjunctive in Spanish, hurrah!!!
 
So now how will I fill my days, and it is half-term too!
Basically all the papers and media would have you believe that this is the time to take the children around to various eatablishments in search of quality time and cultural discovery.
This is where I can show the middle one, who was struggling with ratios this week just how they apply in real life
 
1. Event to please 12,13 and 38 year old = no chance
2. Not spending at least £70 every day out (and that is without going to the Trafford Centre) = In my dreams
3. Keeping them fed and not hungry = slim to impossible
4.Convincing them that painting the dining room is a great idea........= answers on a postcard please.
 
So roll on the next week. Hitting the gym has to be a priority and peut-etre a little de-tox before the madness of Christmas descends.
Will try to resist the urge to splurge in Office for new winter boots.......well, maybe x
 
 

Children....

I am blessed, I have 3.
3 girls.
 
All in their teens and so it is a challenge greater than the Crystal Maze to keep your own belongings!
 
This evening I have cooked a lovely bit of grub and took some pics and a vid on my phone.
But guess what?
After my eldest using my USB cable for my phone it has now mysteriously gone missing and she has gone back to Uni. I have been thumping round the house all night for the bloody thing. It is like when I bought myself a delicious new cardie from Zara, ruby red, long, cosy and they were all threatened with death should it be seen upon one of their backs. One week later Cardie goes missing. Some people say I am quite scary with a mean line in verbal attack when provoked. Obviously these people are not my children who are actually swanning round while laughing their heads off knowing how mad I will be. They have no fear.
What is a mother of 3 teenage girls to do? Would it be wrong to sell them? Though I doubt anyone could afford them and their demands.  Or maybe I can run off?
Mmmmm, tempting.
 
Thank goodness they keep me sane and I love them dearly otherwise.....who knows.

What a lovely way to spend the day.....

maybe not for all, but for me a day spent talking about international projects between schools really gets me giddy.
Yes they require organisation and effort from the parties involved, but their impact and effect are amazing
.
Today I was at an event that was geared towards such projects and it is a relief to know that I am not the only one who loves to do this.
It was also a relief to know that even though our government is trying to do it's best to create a culture of mistrust between ourselves, let alone "foreigners"
that there are still some people that are willing to go through all the hoops to allow pupils and teachers to benefit from such projects.
 
Yes there are horrendous, abominable people out there in the world who want to do children harm and I agree that the children need to be protected against such people.
But, and this is a fact. Those kind of people are going to find a way to get around systems as they have always done. They will, as the nursery assistant in Plymouth has shown, befriend and betray people to their own ends. How can we protect against that? I do not believe the answer is to check everybody to such an intense level of scrutiny as to deter many adults from becoming involved with children.The children will suffer and so will society.
 
Far better that we teach our children to use their own judgement as much as they can by giving them the chance to develop it through a wide range of experiences.
Let them become confident in the adult world and learn that most of us are safe and trustworthy.
Let them be unafraid to extend their friendship to others and enjoy the nice surprise of it being reciprocated. 
 
Rant over ........
but really, it was a lovely day

It's Monday already?

Well, I have to say this weekend has slipped by me and I am still tired.
This would not be so bad had I a weekend of partying behind me but alas, no.
 
Too little sleep too many "things to do".
 
Daughter at Uni came home after her Freshers looking almost see through and sounding like she has smoked at least 100 fags during the week.
Claims it was because of someone's birthday party that ahe has no voice, mmmmm ........
Managed to grab a whole 15mins of her before ahe returned to Halls. Is this the norm?
Was I so wrapped at Uni that I just did as I pleased and did not consider others desires? Who I am I kidding, I'm still like that now, hah!
 
 

Sunday morning...

Sunday morning equals Sunday papers.
Nice cup of Chai/Coffee and yelling at the journalists as though they are in the room with you.
Not very good for sleeping husband but he's learned to tune out by now.

 What to do with the kids today? They are very good at just vegging if left to it but all the bloody adverts that make you feel as though you are the worst parent in the world if you allow them to tend to get to you after a while.

 What's on in Manchester? www.creativetourist.com this site looks like fun.

 What's everybody else doing?

Would just like to add that Jamie Oliver's version of Huevos Rancheros in The Times did indeed make a lovely Sunday Brunch.....