Pain

Bursitis. Right shoulder.Blinding, screeching, showering sparks of pain. Like blossoming fireworks radiating down to my wrist. going to bed.

Errorandum

Remember how I once said there was no Starbucks in Australia? Well I was wrong. There are 61 Starbucks stores who employ 600 staff. But its OK 'cause apparently, according to the radio this morning, they're closing 'em all down.

Further Update: Apparently there are 85 in Australia so they are only closing most of them down. Different radio station in the car on the way to work....

Work? Work??? Hell, Am I at WORK??????? Better go do some.

Veterinary Emergency?

"Mum, Mum," called the BA in alarm, "something's wrong with Morticia!!!"

Morticia was stretched out on the ground with her tail in the air in obvious pain as she was meowling piteously. What on earth was the matter? Should we call a vet?

We petted her. She responded, but immediately lay down again and kneaded her front paws as soon as we stopped. She didn't seem to be in pain as we picked her up but persisted in this disturbing behaviour.

I was feeling panicked. Had she damaged a tendon or a muscle in a jump? Had she eaten something she shouldn't have? Lord knows she chews anything left lying around and there was a reeeeeaaallly hot curry left out on the kitchen bench. Perhaps she had got into that and was feeling the 'burn'? Perhaps eating the big cat's food had made her constipated? Perhaps he had given her one too many cuffs across the hind quarters?

I know what you're all thinking. How dumb can one woman be, right?
Well, in my defence all I can say is that all our previous cats have been spayed! It took me looking it up on Google (see photo above) to confirm that my little, baby kitten is in fact in heat!

I feel quite emotional.

I also feel a trip to the vet coming on.


image credit

The End of a Long Week

Well thanks for the maths ideas folks and keep 'em coming. I'm still considering a prize for an idea I end up using and whilst I have a few ideas for the ladies, I am a little more stuck if any of you scientific type gentlemen come up with a winning project. I don't suppose you fancy a stylish knitted cushion cover do you? Naaaah. But don't despair! I will come up with something!!

I am happy to report that we have made it through the first week and my new classroom is almost feeling like home now. As is to be expected, the usual suspects of a 'room move' have gone missing: my set of scissors, a DVD, my set of glue sticks. Do you realise that glue sticks are like currency in the school setting? I had a boss in the UK who used to bribe us with glue sticks. I'm not kidding.
"Anyone who volunteers for this extra duty gets a free gluestick!" (hands fly up all over the room)

There have been no major meltdowns amongst the kids unless you count the VIQ (Vocational interest Questionnaire) which was an adventure in itself. Basically the kids have to fill in an online questionnaire which endeavours, through tricky questionnaire-type techniques like asking you the same thing twice, to determine which career interests you. Now this exercise sounds relatively simple but is, in reality, fraught with skill levels to challenge even a native english speaker of tender years. For example, how would your 15 year old self respond to the idea of

"consulting, analysing, planning and implementing strategy for the introduction and marketing of innovative products with production clients and prospective retailers."
Very appealing/ Like/Indifferent or Dislike?

Where was the button for 'Fail to Comprehend'?

There were many traps for young players, especially those with english as a second language and limited comprehension at the best of times. Consider for example, this question:

"Maintain and care for laboratory animals in a research facility."

Now most of the kids immediately saw the word 'animals', thought "I like animals" and hit the Very Appealing button. Another example was

"Organise finance and administration for sports and the arts."

You guessed it. Every prospective football or soccer player saw 'sports' and hit the Very Appealing button. As a result of this I spent a double lesson going through the quiz, question by question, trying to explain what each item was really about. There were 140 questions.

Any of you who are familiar with my Year 10s and their inability to follow directions will understand how harrowing a task this was. Firstly, some of them resented the suggestion that they didn't understand the questions so they were resistant to the whole exercise. Then came the inevitable chorus of 'where are we up to?' and 'I LIKE that one/That's ME /NO WAY that job SUCKS' which followed every explanation and which required precious seconds to settle before we continued on. Of course from time to time I would look across to one of the girls to see that she had replaced her questionnaire screen with MSN or a picture gallery of some rapper.....but apparently that was alright because she was 'ahead of us'. *sigh*

By the end of the lesson I was hoarse from explaining financial management and engineering 40 times and customer service and the printing industry 35 times. Hopefully, there is enough relevant detail in their answers to help the careers counsellor point them towards the right subjects next year. That's what the whole thing is actually about.


To celebrate surviving the first week back, Himself and I attended the Roosters' Gala Ball on Friday night where we had this rather nice (I think) picture taken. My husband actually brushes up ok in a suit I think!

(warning: girl's paragraph)
Unfortunately I am forced to report that I no longer fit into my ball gown. Well, I do fit but it is not a good look. As a result I wore the black baby doll we bought at Harbour Town Mum but because I am self conscious about my footballer's shoulders I also wore a jacket. Himself convinced me to take it off while we were dancing (yes, I actually got him onto the dance floor) and of course told me I was 'the most beautiful girl there' which was kind on one count and a downright lie on the other and I will leave you to figure out which is which! :-D

Finally, because we have been a bit short on pictures of the Baby Angel lately, here she is with both cats, yes, you read right, BOTH cats in the same room. And although Morticia seems relatively calm and ready for a cuddle here, I can assure you that she has once again simply taken the highest ground and is eye-ing Pippin off, awaiting her opportunity to attack.


Hasn't she grown though?













image credit

Give It Me Baby...ah huh huh...

The brilliant Elisa with her comments about Maths Projects from days gone by has made me think. I have a huge on-line resource with you guys right here at 'The Flaming Sword'. So come on. What Math projects do YOU remember as being interesting and engaging? Don't worry about ability levels because I can always modify the content if I get a killer idea!

Perhaps I should turn this into a contest? Give me great Maths ideas from your youth and I will organise a give away of some sort. Let's both get thinking on that................

Highway To ????

Year 10 and I are goin' on a road trip!!!!!!!! Not literally of course. That would be a virtual road trip in order to........er..........funnily enough Himself asked me the same question this evening.

HS: So what are you actually trying to teach them through
this virtual road trip?
Me: Nothing! I am simply trying to engage them in a meaningful activity which involves them having some sort of opportunity to use maths in a meaningful way! If they happen to learn anything along the way I will be
giving mighty thanks I can tell you!!

Of course, Year 10 asked me if we were actually going on the trip. Of course they did. Bless them. So did my Head of Maths. "Are you taking them away for the term?" he asked straight faced. He is very amusing for a mathematician.

To backtrack a bit. Do you remember I mentioned that I'd made a step towards engaging the kids a bit more? Well it turns out that the mother of one of Small Boy's 'Street Mates' (yes, the four that are always at our house) is a maths teacher at quite a prestigious school here in Adelaide. I did know this but like many maths teachers, I had failed to put two and two together and realise that she just may be a great resource for me!

On the middle weekend of the holidays we were taking the boys to the football and she called in to drop her son J off.
"You're a maths teacher," I stated. (duh!) "Do you have any good ideas for projects to motivate failing learners?"
"Funny you should ask! I won a prize last year for 'Motivating Middle school Maths'."
(Chorus of angels start singing "Won't you come home Bill Bailey.....")

Generously, she gave up her Sunday afternoon to sit with me and share units of work, bounce around ideas and generally commiserate over the poor skills of my Year 10 class. As I had suspected, every idea she shared would have to be modified mightily before my babies had a snowball's chance of grasping it but some of those ideas were so creative she got ME excited!

For example, she worked with a Year 10 group, one year, to produce a Murder Mystery Film involving a whole lot of crime scene investigation maths: measuring handprints and heights and developing a generalisation about ratios between the two; measuring the drop in temperature in a cup of coffee over time in order to pinpoint the time of the crime; analysing the shape of fake blood splatters in order to determine direction and height of impact etc etc. How brilliant is that?

Unfortunately, most of the activities she had planned assumed prior knowledge waaaaaaay above the level of my Year 10s. Nevertheless, she had other great ideas and we were able to bounce modifications off each other. For example, I mentioned that I'd thought of trying a 'World Trip' with the kids where they had to : look up the cost and availability of flights, book accommodation within a budget, read a timetable enough to get around a foreign town etc etc.
She had done an 'Around Australia' trip with a group of kids at another college and suggested I start with this. Thinking more carefully about my own group I realised I would probably be better off starting with an 'Around SOUTH Australia' trip. Hell, we probably shouldn't even consider leaving Adelaide!!! :-D

We also came up with a few ideas for other projects which I may try with Year 9 who have a better skill level.

And so I bravely introduced the idea to the students today (well, half of them anyway. As usual many of the class were absent) and guess what? They seem enthused by the idea! We had some terrific discussion around the question of which car would be best to take. Fuel economy/efficiency was a hot topic and, interestingly, many of the boys had not heard the expression although they certainly understood the concept once I demonstrated it. Some were amazed to learn that loading up a car with luggage and passengers would increase the fuel consumption. Some were amazed to learn the word 'consumption'!

We had a whole discussion around accommodation. Would the initial cost of hiring a caravan be offset by savings on hotel rooms? What about sleeping the in back of your car? Do pubs in the country offer accommodation? What do caravan parks charge for electricity?

In their typically chaotic style, the question of 'where to go' did not come up until the end of the lesson.

Even with this level of interest and engagement I had to stop them 15 minutes from the end of the lesson to do a few aerobics on the spot. They just couldn't quite sustain concentration for the whole double. This aside it was a promising start. We now have to suspend activities for a few lessons while we complete some Vocational Interest Questionnaire which will assist the staff in steering the kids toward subject choices next year. I have opted to do this over two lessons to try and keep up the inertia we have developed through today's lesson by devoting half the double to work on the project.

So wish me luck. So far it's been ok although I stayed back until after 6pm tonight sorting out my 'new' room :-( cos I didn't do it in the holidays. I hate not knowing where everything is.

Have a great week everyone and I'll check back in when I've got all these exams marked!

image credit

This Is It Folks, Over The Top

Thank you to all those who wished me well and are eagerly awaiting news of 'the first day back'. Mondays are always better than most days because I have my mainstream History class and I was able to happily congratulate them on their exam results. Did I mention that half of the class got B and above??? Today will be the killer because
a) the Maths classes start again
b) I haven't finished marking their exams and can't really be bothered as they are going to be so awful (the few I sampled before the hols assured me of that) and
c) I went to bed last night and didn't do the thorough prep which assures me a good lesson; actually who am I kidding, even thorough prep doesn't ensure anything with these guys :-)

SOOOoooooo

Wish me luck for today!!