Today I've mostly bin...

[Bunnylump]

Sparkout - I really hope everything is ok with Mrs. SparkOut!! Send her my best wishes!

Kingsley - I think I need a delivery of the fruit cone by express delivery, please.

Giraffe - I take it you go to a dentist who has either a ladder or stilts?

BB - was it Scurra and Gill's puzzles which gave you the migraine? I'd sue if I were you.


Looby - REALLY??

[Looby]

Yes, really - but that was yesterday. Today I have to make half a dozen birthday cards, as well as start to prepare a presentation for the WAF.

[giraffe]

Thanks Looby, you're a star! You've just reminded me that I need to send a couple of birthday cards for birthdays next week.

[BassBloke]

Doin' that piece of work I should have done yesterday instead making the door. And I'm still not finished, despite the deadline looming fast.

Coz, I've been spending a little bit too much time on Madame Arcana's Prediction. But with that out of the way now I should be able to get the documents off to my client by ... oh.... March probably.

Cheers. BB.

[strep98]

typing up Parish Council minutes, Vicar of Dibley it ain't.

[LAT]

Doing lots of amendments to some statistics I prepare each month. Several changes per sheet, times about 20 different sheets, times two different sets. At the end of which I had the makings of a wonderful headache. But they are pretty well done

[Bunnylump]

...urgh, that sounds like my idea of hell!

I've been teaching year 7s maths. Well, I tried to make it as unlike maths as I could possibly manage - involving lots of coloured sticks, and Winnie the Pooh party bags, and a game! Didn't quite stretch to jelly and ice cream though.

[LAT]

that sounds like lots of fun. I bet they enjoyed it.

[Bunnylump]

Actually, they did. And all of them learned something. I'm not quite sure what their parents would make of it though...

[LAT]

Well if they learnt something and, more importantly, remember it too, then I'd have thought their parents would be pretty happy.

[MBH]

And all of them learned something....

... that the sound of an eyeball being poked with a coloured stick is "Yukkkky"

[Bunnylump]

Oh yes, I'm the anti - Health and Safety Queen, me!

[Laura]

Well, on a slightly related subject, last week I was teaching 6 year olds about Javanese Gamelan! I don't even understand it properly. Makes me wonder why its on the curriculum

[MBH]

OK - Laura - that prompted a Google search from me What subject does this come under? Music / Geography / Cultural Diversity (if that is a subject these days?)



My favourite personal 'school teaching' story was when we had the computer bus at a primary school and had different year groups for the morning, and the afternoon. Seeking out the teacher of the afternoon's group during lunch - to see what she wanted us to do - I was asked "Do you think you could teach them [class of 7-year-olds] Databases?"

Not only did I do it - I checked back the following week to make sure that they understood about Records / Fields / Sorting / Selecting........ Result!!!

[SparkOut]

Complete with primary keys, foreign keys, BLOB types, LEFT INNER JOINs and RIGHT OUTER JOINS I hope!

[Bunnylump]

Blob types?????????? Is that what colour jam came out of the doughnut on to the computer keyboard when they were taking a sneaky munch?

Laura - my son went on a taster music course at Herts university the year before last (yes, I know he's doing Conservation biology and ecology now, and no, he doesn't have a plan!!). One of the things they did was to write and perform a composition on a Javanese Gamalan. They had to treat the instruments with the utmost respect, even to the point of having to take their shoes off before they entered the room. (My goodness I pity the rest of them when he took his shoes off, his feet are radioactive). They all had to leave the room in silence after they had finished and meditate quietly for a few minutes before they left. Although this sounds like a palaver, I was pleased to see that as the university had been given the gamalan by the Javanese people (this is apparently a great honour), the university were upholding the respect and reverence it was due. My son thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and found it "strangely calming"!!

[SparkOut]

I'd explain, but a gang of 7 year olds seem to have taken my anorak and driven off in a bus.

[Scurra]

No, let me. Oh, wait, I can see those seven-year-olds heading my way...

[giraffe]

I pity the rest of them when he took his shoes off, his feet are radioactive). They all had to leave the room in silence after they had finished

Did the smell of feet render tham speechless?

[Bunnylump]

Did the smell of feet render tham speechless?

Highly likely!!

MBH, I can't believe a primary school teacher would expect you to cover databases. Although, to be honest, your average 10 year old probably knows more about computers than I do!!