The Return of E****

You wouldn't read about it.....then again....of course you would.

For those of you 'in the know', guess whose Mum phoned today? Contrite is probably too strong a word but suffice to say E will be back on Monday.

"And that's all I have to say about that................."

Theme Thursday: Memory

"London is London
Is anyone in doubt about it?
London is London
It's easy to find out about it......." (Petula Clark in Goodbye Mr Chips)

I love London. For me it evokes powerful memories.
History. Beauty. Culture. Adventure.
Stepping off the edge of family into the big, wide world as I departed for my backpacking tour of Europe in 1979.
Friendships. Shared experience.
My daughter's childhood.

This memorable trip was the Summer of 2002 when the Queen celebrated her Jubilee.

The Baby Angel stood on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral and played at Samson bringing down the pillars in the temple. We wandered the quiet streets on a glorious summer's Sunday after the fireworks and street parties of the night before and found a shop celebrating in its own way.

This is the stuff of which Memories are made..............

To see what everyone else is remembering, click over to the Land of KA.

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You Are Invited to a Masked Ball

There is absolutely no excuse for me blogging right now. % I have work to mark, courses to plan and sleep to catch up on having roused myself (ooer) at 4am in order to catch up with things I slept through the night before. Like work. [DS % al coda]

But this post has been hanging around in my head for several months now and I have wrestled with writing it. Last night as the Bestie and I talked about some of my pupils at school and I showed her the blog entry, she challenged me and it brought up the whole issue again. And it is this.

Anonymity.

Where to start?

Some of you, who have hung around these pages for a while now, will remember my Bestie and perhaps have visited her blog. I launched her upon you as she recounted the unfortunate tale (heh heh heh no pun intended) of the Rottweiler that bit her butt and provided photographic evidence of same. She 'reviewed' the school musical...perhaps harshly but it certainly made me laugh... and then there was the day that we visited the school fair together and she managed to find, much to her hysterical amusement, a salt dough crucifix at the craft stall. Did I mention the Bestie is an Atheist? (capital A)

The thing is, she used to have a blog. It was a fun blog. It was witty and edgy and oft opinionated (we're like that) and it had wild/funny pictures and recounted stories of her life, at home with family and friends and from time to time.....at work. Are you hearing where this is going?

Like me, she put her picture on the sidebar and like me she had a 'screen-name'. She never referred to anyone by their real names, and that included her place of work, but she did recount events that happened there and made comment on the political scene that surrounded it. I linked to her blog, perhaps in a less than discreet manner but most importantly, she, in her usual trusting way, gave the address to several friends and colleagues whom she believed had a healthy sense of disrespect and a good sense of humour.

She no longer has that job.

As happens in situations where you tell a 'trusted few', the address got out. Most of the office has been reading the blog and loving it for months but one slightly 'holier than thou type' took offence and reported the blog to the Board. Who over-reacted in the extreme.

The thing that really gets my goat about the whole business is that the Bestie LOVED her job. She was passionate about the cause and not at all flippant when going about the serious day to day business of managing a range of social minorities whom most employers would have declared bankruptcy and changed business addresses, rather than employ. The week before the 'beginning of the end' we had spent an entire day making ribbons for badge day.....calloused fingers and all! I don't believe, as CEO, that this was in her job description!!

But my Bestie is not a political animal. She always does her best and does the best for the organisation and she has no defences for when people are threatened by her or object to her style or challenge her personal life. The sharks were circling. Those with a personal interest in her job (they wanted it) or with a complaint against her rapid changes to the 'system' or with a belief that as a non member of their 'community' that she couldn't effectively manage their organisation, seized the opportunity to sink in their fangs.

Over what? An 'anonymous' blog which occasionally poked gentle fun at the ' community'? A blog which dealt mostly with family and friends, which did not come up on any Google search of keywords.....except Arizaphale........and which also carried the fire of her zeal and the anger she felt towards the Government and the lunatic fringe which threatened the funding of her organisation! It incenses me still to think about it.

When the letter came however, it was easy to see how, out of context, her words had been twisted and misinterpreted. My Bestie, one of the most long standing and loyal of (I wish I had another word for it) Fag Hags....was accused of being homophobic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *bitter laugh*

At the end of the day, although she parted company with the organisation, she was vindicated in that the National organisation kept her on the board of directors and asked her to consider the role of Fund Raising Manager; many people in 'the community' regard her highly and are appalled at her treatment; and the key players responsible for her demise have since resigned.

She also very quickly got another job with an equally deserving organisation.

But all this begs the question. What about work? What about anonymity? How anonymous should one be? I mean, I know for a fact that I 'bond' (is that the right word?) with a blogger better if I can picture them. So I put up my picture. I have nothing to be ashamed of and don't indulge in that 'say whatever comes into your head because I'm anonymous' style of communication that many turn specifically to blogs to fulfill. (er well except for the unfortunate incident over at 'ask and ye shall receive' ....no link given) I want to talk about my work because it occupies huge parts of my mind and heart (much to Himself's chagrin) but I don't want to offend anybody...even unintentionally.

Bugger. Best not blog then.

My intellect and world experience tells me that I should take down my photo on the sidebar if I want to talk about work. The other option is don't talk about work.

Anyone got a third option or some sage advice?????

Best Shot Monday: Comfort Food

It's Monday and this week I have taken nary a photograph so tonight when the BA presented me with this Rocky Road Sundae I took advantage of the light on the balcony and with Himself 'art directing' I took a Monday shot.

I feel fat just looking at it.

I am hoping this week will be more productive and less stressful than last week or I could be eating a lot more of these Rocky Road Sundaes. Being the Special Ed Co-ordinator is a lot to take on and involves quite a bit of emotional investment.

I have edited this post in light of the fact that anonymity on blogs cannot be guaranteed and the content may have been identifiable.

To see what goodies others have been shooting, visit Mother May I, home of Best Shot Monday.

Where Have I Been?

I have been a little quiet of late. Work and sleep seem to take up a lot of my time and although things are happening all the time, I have been too busy or tired to blog about them.

I have decided however that I need to 'introduce' you, as much as anonymity will allow me, to my classes this year. I do this because the other morning as I snuggled with my husband on a Sunday morning, child free lie-in, I found myself discussing one of my classes and some of my plans. Himself was amused that I woke up thinking about kids and maths and I assured him that all over the world teachers were doing similar things. Our classes and our kids occupy a huge portion of our minds and hearts and as such I will probably talk about them a fair bit this year so it seems reasonable to introduce them.

There are three 'support' maths classes this year with a specialist Spec Ed teacher (yours truly). This represents an exciting opportunity and a real acknowledgment of the needs of these pupils.

The classes are very different. Year 8 for example seem a delightful group of kids, a little intimidated by maths but willing to try and responding very well to the slow, structured, cumulative approach. Once last week I was concerned that one or two lads seemed to be finishing quickly and becoming a bit 'bored' so I created a 'fast table' where they could do mostly the same work as the rest of the class but at their own pace with an extension activity and with only occasional input from me. They were delighted. The rest of the class systematically worked through the examples on the board with me and seemed very happy with that....so good result all round there! These kids are thriving on the 'tables challenge' I have set them. It's a great system based on Precision Teaching and the kids enjoy seeing themselves build fluency and accuracy. There's one or two in this class who struggle a bit but they are generally a pretty homogeneous group and seem to be working well so far. We shall call them 'Dream Class'.

Year 9s are the group I had last year in Y8 and a number of things have happened here to improve the situation. We are in a different, smaller room with a lower ceiling so my voice does not soar heavenward and bounce back at me like it did in the cathedral ceiling of last year's room. Two kids have either left or transferred across to a different class and this has changed the whole dynamic so that we are much more settled and co-operative. There are still one or two difficult characters however; this class contains some of the 'Lipgloss Set' girls who blatantly sit in class applying (banned) lipgloss as you are working an example on the board. Any request to put it away or hand it over it met by "But it's clear!!". Yes, but it's full of glitter. Give me the lipgloss.

Then there's Year 10. Oh dear. Year 10. This group has 6 African students; a severe dyslexic; a boy with an intellectual disability who wants to be a wrestler; another boy is a 'potential hairdresser' with poor social skills, which his thoughtful classmates capitalise on regularly by calling him 'extremely happy' anytime he walks into the room. This winds him up and he responds by hurling racist abuse or referring to the money making proclivities of their mothers on street corners (are you getting all this...I'm trying to be polite here).

Throw into this mix a complete inability on the part of any of them to do maths.......and you will see what I'm up against.

Actually, to be fair, the dyslexic is reasonable in his grasp of maths concepts.....it's just that his writing is so bad that you can't read it and he lines his numbers up incorrectly and has never heard of a ruler. Even for graphs.

I have unfortunately allowed myself to be swayed by the Deputy Principal who formerly taught this level and started the year off with a Maths Project. The idea is that they design a house, then work out the cost of painting, tiling and carpeting it. It involves a field trip to the hardware store and apparently they all get As and feel good about themselves before commencing the real job of learning Maths for the rest of the year.

Perhaps you are starting to make connections between this and the picture at the top of the page.

I knew I was in for a hard time when my mentor's timeline for the project included one double lesson to produce a plan of a house. Granted, they have had a week off for camp, but yesterday I was still helping one of the boys finish his plan (we are in week 4). The one you see at the top was the first effort by one of the African girls.

Some cynical commentators have observed that perhaps the African girls don't have any concept of what a house is? Perhaps they are still thinking of huts and bare earth floors. I would like to inform these simplistic types that, although M and M were in the camps for years and probably suffered shockingly, they are now ipod wearing, Cosmo reading glamour girls who have lived in European housing for at least 5 years.

I will acknowledge however that there may be a cultural bias against the birdseye view. On discussion with another teacher we wondered whether they are a culture which ever uses maps. Many tribal cultures do not. Certainly in drama when they were asked to do a stage plan they had similar conceptual difficulties.

I could have given up then and there after lesson 1. And perhaps I should have! Except that I think they need the experience of carrying things through to completion. We tried the next lesson, using fraction blocks to represent different sized rooms and tracing around them with the proviso that each block must touch another one so that we at least had common walls.

I will try and post their finished plans. The relative sizes of rooms are incongruous and the arrangement far from perfect (eg you have to go through bed 1 to get to bed 2 but then there are plenty of Victorian terraces like that in the UK) but they have actually come up with something that looks like a floor plan. I would really love to get them to build it but I'm not sure I can justify that in maths terms. I mean at some point we really ought to use some numbers :-D

So what with that and managing, in my new role as Special ed coordinator, to oversee two long term, funds attracting pupils leaving the school this week, it has been a rough trot. Hence not much blogging. I'll probably post about the two pupils and another Flaming Sword quandry (do I let her go to the Mall alone yet??????) later today!

Have a good one!!!!!

Best Shot Monday: Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree...

Not a particularly good shot today but we heard this screeching and cawing outside and looked out the kitchen window to see not one but TWO kookaburras sitting on our pool fence! They seemed to be having a conversation without the usual cackling laughter one usually associates with this iconic bird.

I called for Himself and snuck outside with the PAS while he went for the DSLR with the biiiiig lens. I couldn't get too close so I had to shoot this with digital zoom and as such I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

Here's another one which is not technically v good either but he just looks so funny sitting there on our sail.



Of course, Himself got the big lens onto them and shot some things like this. Which is just showing off really.














Even after being back for 5 years, I still get excited by koalas in the gums around our place, or the sight of a pair of kookaburras!


What got you excited this week? Click over to Mother May I for more Best Shot Mondays!

The Book Meme

Brittany did this meme and it's sheer randomness appealed to me.

Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people



Here goes. Nearest book right?

"Convert the following: 15km to m, 240mm to cm, 32m to cm (you get the picture)
A giant squid was caught and stretched from tentacle to tentacle. It measured 9625mm."

That's three sentences! In case you are desperate to know, the last sentence on page 123 is
"What is its length in centimetres and metres?"

Riveting eh? It would be nice to read literature again.

Oh wait! There is another book behind the maths book. Let me try this one.

It's almost a relief when a woman appears and asks me to follow her down the hall. She's about thirty, with a lively face that stills to concentrate as if what you're saying is the most important thing she's ever heard. Her name's Laura and she says that it's my time, to talk about whatever I like, and that nothing I say will leave the room.

Now that's a bit better. It's from 'Peeling the Onion' by Wendy Orr. I haven't read it yet. I have maths to plan......