How the other half learns

"Little Angel" J in Y7 was true to her word and didn't turn up to school today, excellent, thus giving me back an hour of my life. Apparently her mother is punishing her poor behaviour by keeping her at home - kinda like an exclusion set by the parents. She seems to think this punishment will help her behave better, but I'm not convinced. Clearly she will just save all her wildness and bring it all back to school with her.

So anyway, I had an hour back, and I could have used it profitably e.g. by marking my Y7 tests, by entering my Y8 reports into the system, by planning lessons, by sorting out my teaching file. What did I chose to do? Drink tea. Yay!

Rant alert! Not looking forward to trekking it to Canterbury tomorrow, grumble grumble grumble. They don't want us to be late, so they decide to hold the session 3 hours away from my house, boooo!

On a more positive note, teachers make sure you watch How the other half learns on Channel 5, 8:00pm this Weds - looks very interesting and will no doubt inspire you to run away to a nice private school! I'm not sure if Preston Manor is a TF school but it sounds very similar to one, so anyone who seems to think I make up stories about madness at my school should watch the program and see that I'm telling the truth!

Also check out this article on Teacher Blogs...hahahaha! Wonder how long it'll be before my school gets a blogging policy?

RateMyTeacher.co.uk

Sunday morning. Despite having not yet planned a lesson this weekend, I have been busy busy with other forms of paperwork. I tell you, there is just too much to do alongside actual teaching. So I have prepared a mini-Autograph presentation for our study day in blinking Canters on Tuesday. I have researched investigations for KS3. I have written a template for the Y8 full reports due this Friday, so hopefully I can just change the relevant bits for each kid. I have described my pastoral contribution to the school for my teaching file. Up coming things to do include marking the Y7 end of year tests, completing the risk assessments and sorting out the football team for Tuesday, and administering my detentions.

Yep, detentions are back on the list for this week - I already have 2 hours of them lined up on Monday and Thursday, boo. It's so annoying, when you set a detention you're the one being punished cos you have to sit through each of them. But still, J in Y7 so deserved one for being an absolute monster in a cover PE on Friday. We have new incident sheets where you can tick what the child has done to deserve the punishment, but annoyingly there is no tick box for if the child has just been a complete bitch for no reason. She says her Mum will pull her out of school next week so she won't be at my detention - gosh I hope so.

In other news, heard about this website www.ratemyteacher.co.uk. Can't figure out if it's an excellent teaching evaluation tool or a massive forum for slagging off your school. So far it seems pretty responsible, but then again, my school isn't on it! I did like the suggestion from one of the posters that there should be a ratemypupil.co.uk sister site where the bitching can fully commmence, forgetting all intentions to be a source of constructive feedback.

Have been listening to Virgin radio, this is alarming, there is no ghetto gangsta type music on it, but I am starting to like it. It's better than Sunrise radio at any rate, where this morning there was a wonderful debate about why "british asian youth want to be gangsters". Lots of enthusiastic middle aged men called up and complained how kids just aren't the same these days. Seems Asian kids are just as bad as the rest of them. Any hint of a constructive solution? Well, one man suggested we bring back heavy industry so that these good for nothing boys have something to do. Another suggested that we teach them to fight with their hands and for something that matters so that they could be real men. Not quite sure either of those will quite thwart the rising gangsta culture in Asian communities.

School update

Thursday, whoop. Thursday is usually meeting day. Cue a 2 hour department meeting apres school. Actually not so bad. Am starting to vaguely understand the point of all the things we discuss and can occassionally make useful comments. True, today I just joined in the bitching (I know, how awful, I'm not a bitch, what has happened to me?) but also realised that being a head of department is even more work than just teaching, if that's even possible.

Spent another day as 7A tutor. Having covered them for almost a week now, am starting to really like the little blighters and am even getting to know them etc. Told them the story of how marathons got their name. The kids in my maths group now think I am super obsessed with marathons, but I'm not really, they're just topical and full of interesting maths and other stuff. Think I will be a bit sad when I have to give them up - 7A, not the marathon obsession. Before it was always fun to move around the year 7 tutor groups and get to know all the kids, but now I'm kinda looking forward to having my own group next year.

Timetabling discussions are going on at the moment for next year. Speculation is rife about my timetable, what with no-one really knowing exactly what I'm teaching. New Head of VIth form approached me about teaching A-Level Sociology. Obviously have no experience of teaching social sciences or KS5, but why should that stop me? Jumped at the chance, then realised that I was probably already looooooaded up with maths, so some negotiation may have to take place there.

Was observed period 2 today by a visiting professional tutor (due to the continued sick leave of my actual professional tutor). He turned up a late, halfway through the lesson in fact, which obviously sent my little angels off the wall, but still got a pretty good review afterwards. My Year 8s did their listening paper as part of exam week and then watched Mr Bean. Is it wrong that I'm dreading actually having to teach them properly again next week? And then through all of Year 9, where it is fully expected the real nutters will reach their peak of madness?

As you can see then, my life is chocablock with school. So much so that I haven't been to the gym in two days because every evening I am busy planning lessons, writing up evaluations, marking tests, writing reports, completing risk assessments, collecting evidence for OFSTED etc. Bring on the 6 weeks of freedom this summer, bliss. Better yet, drinks tomorrow night and maybe a little pizza too at that special place we never ever go to :)

Bussssssy

I am super duper busy at the moment....pretty much back into the swing of school and thus being bombarded continuously with things to add to my to-do list. Most of the things will make no sense to you and so I won't bore you with them, but trust me, I am busy. Phew.

So sorry not to be able to entertain you. Instead, read this article from the BBC to do with school lavatories. I particularly like the line "it is suggested that making toilets unisex would discourage pupils from congregating in the area"....errrr, yeah, right, hellooo, am I the only one that has ever been around teenagers before? This theory is so stupid I can't even be bothered to disparage it.

Funny maths things

Two funny things happened in school today. Well, lots of funny things, but two particularly funny things.

Firstly, period 2, support teaching Y10, a lesson on ratios. As a starter the teacher has pictures of giant apples and bananas on the board, and asks the class the ratio of apples to bananas. There are 6 apples and 2 bananas so some pupils correctly answer 6:2. The discussion moves on to simplifying ratios. In an attempt to help them understand, the teacher splits the fruit into two groups so that there are 3 apples and 1 banana in each group. However, the teacher does not really consider the layout of her new fruit groups. She stacks the 3 apples one on top of each other, and then puts the banana next to them. The banana is at an angle. Cue ridiculous guffawing from most of the class, and, I am ashamed to say, me too. The teacher isn't sure what is going on and so tells them to be quiet and then continues pointing at the giant ratio fruit, now resembling huge wide awake willies. Oh dear.

Secondly, I was marking Y7 practice papers for their exams next week. Yawn yawn, I hate exam papers, and can't believe I have to prep my Y7s for their end of year exams, how ridiculous, talk about narrowing the curriculum and teaching to the test. Anyway, question 10 is about sampling. Ali, Brian and Caro all ask people to taste two drinks and decide which they think is the supermarket cola and which is the more expensive cola. Ali surveys 20 people, Brian surveys 50 people, and Caro surveys 200 people. Part d is as follows, with sincere answer from one of my Y7s:

Ali, Brian and Caro all had different results. Whose result is likely to be the most reliable? Tick your answer.

Y7 ticks Ali.

Explain why you chose that answer.

because I wouldn't bother going round to ask 200 or 50 people about some coke! it would waste my energy. I think 20 people would save time.

Bear in mind we spent aaaages on surveys and sampling, and almost every other kid in the class got the question correct by choosing Caro and explaining that she surveyed the most people, and this kid's answer gets even more funny. Bless.

Here's an article on TF, perhaps with a vision some of us jaded TFers have forgotten....
And another one in the same issue of The Independent, which is all about TF but manages not to mention it by name at all, ingenious.

Sunday

In a deliberate change of routine, I decided not to "waste" my Sunday lesson planning, but instead doing what I wanted. As such, it was glorious day. I did do some work, but managed to plan a good quantity of lessons for the week in about an hour (aaaah the joys of no Y8s till Thurs!), and completed an Appendix 6 during two episodes of Grey's Anatomy (yes people, I watched it today, and it's great!) True the unit of work for KS4 was awful, and made me realise how much better my teaching is now, but whatever, it's done.

Having had such a lovely and relaxed day, and despite hitting the gym hard and also drinking some delicious wine with my folks, I fear I won't be asleep for a good while. Oh well, more time to ramble!

So some things I've thought about today:

1. I can't believe that pitpads now exist in France! For those of you that haven't heard me talk about these, I swear I invented them aaaages ago, but never made a prototype, and now Potter tells me a company is making them in France! Shocker! But rather than being demoralised, instead I will take pride in the fact that this is evidence that all my "inventions" aren't a load of rubbish but may actually have social and economic value.

2. In more news of France, am really pleased there was an 80% turnout in the presidential elections today, good stuff. The consensus is that turnout was high because the candidates and parties stand for different things and because the race hasn't really already been decided - every vote could make a difference. Further proof that my degree wasn't entirely irrelevant. Will be keeping my eye on that one, but am really inspired by Royal's chatter - perhaps I'm a socialist after all...

3. Did some more research into graduate study. Found out that one of my old tutors is now a course provider and specialises in some of the things I'm interested in researching (there are many, but the current fore-runners include youth identity formation in multicultural schools, homosexuality in minority communities, and the achievement of the Teach First mission i.e. do "exceptional graduates" really help neutralise "educational disadvantage"?) Am now gonna do my best to grab a TF coach who can help me with all this future plans stuff.

4. Laughed a bit when my mother suggested acting as a potential career move for me - clearly teaching must be a downer for her if she thinks acting would be an improvement!

5. Laughed a lot at this text from Bertie: "Race is so damn funny tho, I mean ure skin colour is different from mine. Ha ha it dont get no better than that!" Awful grammar there Berts, but loving the race banter!

And finally, girls, if you've not yet seen the Aero Bubbles advert, check it out! The chocolate tastes good and the man on the advert....wow!

Pirate Punting

Aaaah it is a lovely sunny Saturday and I have nothing pressing to do, blissful :) So what are the highlights? Well, first week of school is done and went pretty well indeedy. Next week my Y8s are on exams so no lessons with them (I think...need to check that!) hence it should be another good week. Had a great observation by my subject mentor with Y11 on Friday morning - pretty chuffed about that. Also had a pretty good group work lesson with Y7 on Friday afternoon including a bit of Autograph and all :)

Today Spurs drew with Arsenal, keeping European hopes alive :) Also my hangover is receeding and I am hoping my "weekend cold" disappears soon. Went to Loic's last night, which was really good fun. Lots and lots of teachers there, which was great because all conversation dissolved into teacher-talk. I remember when I first started how annoying it was to hear people talk about school stuff all the time but now I can't help but do that, and in fact love discussing school matters with other teachers to the extent that normal forms of conversation are almost entirely forgotten. Strange how things change.

Managed to get the phone number of a hilarious gay man and Chinese woman comedy duo, both teachers in maaaad schools like us, thus proving I am still a magnet for the gays and the minorities, excellent. Not sure why I am hungover though, I think I only had about 7 units, which isn't massive for me. Humph.

Ooooh and the most exciting thing I learnt about last night (apart from what management consultants actually do - despite how boring that sounds, it was an interesting discussion - I think I could be a management consultant since it's all about fixing things, my favourite) was pirate punting. Loic lives in Cambridge and loads of his buddies from there were at the party and they described how they used to jump off the bridges over the Cam and land in random people's punts and then give them guided tours in return for treats! Sometimes they just used to jump from punt to punt, but Loic said he managed to jump off the Mathematical Bridge and land in a punt, which is crazy high! I can't believe more people didn't get cross at the them, but apparently after the initial shock most people loved them! One of the guys even "pirated" (well, was given) a free hotel pass from some random hotel owner whose punt he boarded. They also used to make up random stories about the history of Cambridge, famous alumni etc. and the tourists lapped it up. I really wish I coulda seen it.

Autograph training

Oh my gosh, check out my Metro horoscope today:

You may be consumed by the need to fix someone at some point today. But if your knight-on-a-white-charger act is un-called for, if they don’t want your advice or help, it could well blow up in your face. Just ask beforehand whether they want some support.

How crazy is that? And yes indeed I am thinking about meddling, although haven't got round to anything yet since I'm outta text messages, and everyone knows all the best meddling is done by text. So yes, person who requested meddling, who will also remain unnamed for legal purposes, I am contemplating getting my spoon out and stirring that pot right up, heehee.

In other news, went to a training course (Continual Professional Development - CPD) at the Institute of Education on Autograph today. Was a revelation - it's so powerful! All I could do before was just about join two points with a line, but now I've learnt to do sooooo many things such as drawing histograms, using it to solve equations, and teaching transformations (reflections, rotations etc.) just to name a few! Am very excited about practising this in class tomorrow, where obviously my whiteboard will crash and I will have to go back to my old ways. But until that moment, well, there's lots of potential there.

I love training courses too because it reminds you why teaching is really exciting, especially when you get to meet lots of inspiring teachers and share good practice etc. I am now gonna do my best to get on as many courses as possible so that I can become a super-teacher, like the hilarious e-card Ladun sent me (thank you Ladun!)

And finally, both my mother and father mocked my accent/dialect in separate incidents today. This morning, on the way out of the house, I said something (I can't remember what) and my father replied "because of the refridgerator". Now, this made no sense since I hadn't been talking about fridges, but this is what he had heard. I explained that he was talking nonsense but to no avail since the original conversation point was over. Instead my father began a glorious lament on the decline of my accent all the way to the station. I blame school. He blames school too. We are united on this front. I guess this is what happens when you set-up shop in East London/Essex - I'm sure I warned him about this when we moved here (yes I was 7, but already a finely tuned sociological machine). Later, at dinner time, I sat down next to my mother and jokingly said something that ended with the words "safe innit bruv". My mother started laughing and then looked at me with the same face she uses when I have sworn in her presence. No more "innit bruvs" from me then.

Woo it's almost the weekend! Just gotta get through my first of maaaaany observations tomorrow.

Instantly Fit cont.

From Bertie:

meena just caught up on ure blog thing after a bit of a break and could barely concentrate on anything other than the fact that mos was put forward as ure 'instantly fit' candidate. i hate u.

x

Hahaha! But he is instantly fit - I can't help that. Also, how instantly fit is this guy? I found him on SB's blog and have no idea who is he, but yum yum yum.


In other news, when support teaching Y9 today, "G" says to me: "Miss, you should become a teacher you know". Humph. Clearly have had an impact there then.

Am on an Autograph course tomorrow, yay! Autograph as in the software package, not Autograph as in learning to sign my name (as my mother thought - strange).

Day 30 + later in the evening ramblings

Day 1 of the summer term. I have called it Day 30 since this is how long my Y11s are in school for before study leave. Only 29 days with them to go, how sad! I do love that class.

Anyway, so far so good. New behaviour policy was implemented today. I don't think I fully understand it. Clearly made an error since have filled in 0 incident sheets today, whilst the more experienced and senior teachers have filled out looooooads. Obviously in two weeks when my classes are running riot, this will be why.

Strangely I feel like I have nothing pressing to do right now. I better enjoy this feeling - no doubt it will vanish rapidly in about 10 minutes when I actually let myself think about what I have to do.

Sprousey, perhaps I should submit a thesis on why ethnic people are more punctually challenged? I'm sure I read somewhere it was because the emphasis on time is much greater in Western societies, whereas in our ethnic worlds, time doesn't matter, events happen when they happen. Also, who is JM? I've forgotten, crumbs.

What else? Well, I stumbled upon this blog since it was the one that had just been updated as I signed into blogger. Haven't read it, but how cute are the babies on there? Forget mixed race babies, now I want Aryan ones.

Update - 22:23

Some things I forgot to mention/have happened since my post:

1. Sparrow had some tests done today and she'll get the results soon, but she's been feeling better. Yay!
2. I made awful fun of a Y11 girl in my group for having a lovebite. Not very professional.
3. Birds pooed all over my car bonnet while I was at piano, grrr. Still, my little car is in dire need of a wash, so I guess it's time.
4. I remembered to pick up my dry cleaning but forgot to take enough money. Whoops.
5. I realised that my "piano crazy" is back - namely being unable to control my hands independently of one another, and also completely freaking out if my hands touch each other or Jade's when we play. It is now an official syndrome.
6. I went to an amazing dance class at the gym. We are learning a routine to Entourage. At the start of the class there were about 35 people, and by the end less than 20 were left. Clearly we are the hardcore. I have limited co-ordination, but was so much fun!
7. I watched a great Horizon on intelligences, which featured Gardner's multiple intelligence theory (of SI Professional Studies fame).

What a great list of stuff I've done. How interesting for you to read.

Timekeeping

I told myself that I had to get all my work done by 9pm. Lo and behold, I did. Clearly when it comes to setting myself mini-deadlines, I can stick to them. Why is that the case? Well, because this is the very last opportunity I have to plan my full day of lessons tomorrow, so procrastination was down to a minimum and my time was well used.

More generally though, why can't I use my time well all the time...or, more leadingly, why am I often late? The answer can be found in this article in yesterday's Sunday Times. I was surprised at how many psychological traits I share with the chronically late (anxiety, being messy and easily distracted, perfectionist habits, low levels of self-control or a penchant for thrill-seeking...I have all of those to a degree, with thrill-seeking and perfectionism right up there). So that's my excuse then, I was meant to be late.

This is seemingly at odds with being a Virgo, and true, I'm not late all the time - mostly when it involves going somewhere different from my routine. I'd say the best explanation from the list is that I underestimate how long it takes to do something, or even just how short a minute is. This is clearly evidenced in my early lesson plans, where I'd plan impossible amounts of material for a lesson and then feel like I'd failed when we couldn't cover it all. I know that I'd patently be one of those people still reading two minutes later in the test where you're supposed to stop reading after 60 secs. This is actually quite hard though - I did something similar with my Y11s where they had to shut their eyes and put their hands up when they thought a minute was done - the range of time during which hands were put up was hilarious, with one boy putting up his hand after about 20 seconds and another girl waiting for almost 2 minutes!

In other news, it was a training day today so fun and games. All about the new building and our move into it. Cue lots of drama about equipment and classrooms and planning and who gets what etc. Fun.

And finally, it turns out that OFSTED are only coming to see me, not everyone, thus I am the only one who has to prepare all the paperwork. Further, I figure it's quite a big deal. My professional mentor, who consistently ignored my emails last term, failed to pass on details of observations, didn't hold our IRB meeting or tell us our IRB gradings, hasn't got us an SSE, and barely checked in at all, came right up to me first thing this morning to talk about the visit. My subject mentor did the same thing, so it must be important.

Sometime this week I will make a little OFSTED list of things to bring up, that way I won't forget.

Oh and finally, yes, I know, he's totally instantly fit, and has a magnetic personality too. Sadly he is of the others. Boo. Puja, use the comments! I love getting comments, it makes me feel like I'm not rambling away to myself. Even though I mostly am. Right, bed time, it's a school night!

PS Crumbs, I accidentally posted this to the OUWAFC blog, whoops! Sorry MT!

Bierodrome, Instantly Fit People, Finals

Went to the temple yesterday, good stuff. Decided this made me well enough to resume battle so completed Bierodrome Take II last night. Bon. Lots of nice Belgian beer. Music a bit loud and the ladies' lavatories smelt of dried fish, but the barmen were fit. Allegedly.

Puja wimped out early in the game, perhaps in sympathy for the temporarily absent Sparrow. Luckily Jade was able to soldier on and so we completed five glorious toasts.

1. To the beautiful weather and may it last evermore (Puja, Lindemans Cassis, nice toast nice drink).
2. To a happy Tamil New Year for everyone (Me, Lindemans Framboise. Not convinced this was raspberry, tasted more like cherry).
3. To health, wealth and happiness (Jade, Chimay Rouge. A traditional Chinese greeting for a strong Trappist Ale).
4. To fit people (Me, Lindemans Cassis again. Yes, the standard of toast dropped here).
5. To true love and may we find it this year (Jade, two glasses of beer, one passion fruit, one apple. What a soppy toast, bless!)

Realised just now that we missed out Delirium, some beer that Braden was raving about in Montreal. Also didn't drink any Kwak, the good stuff in the sciencey-type glasses. Would def go again then, if only to finish off the menu (we have a looong way to go!)

At some point we discussed the concept of instantly fit people, and decided we didn't really know that many. Our contenders:

They will remain unnamed for legal purposes, and they're not the best photos, but I'd like to point out that clearly my contender, "blue tie", is fitter than the other two. Right girls?

And finally, you wanted to see photos of finishing finals. Well, I sadly can't locate mine, but here are some others:

Distractions from OFSTED

It arrived in the post today. The dreaded letter from CCCU confirming that OFSTED would be coming to observe Team TF at our Academy. Woohoo!

Apart from lunch during the SI, I have no real experience of OFSTED. Thus, my fear could be construed as irrational. It is based almost entirely upon the myriad of OFSTED anecdotes that have come my way during my brief spell of teaching, the highlight being my Head of Department detailing how he'd had a minor breakdown when they'd last visited. Excellent.

So I have a big long list of things that OFSTED will want to see. Unfortunately, it will be difficult for them to actually see these things because for the most part they don't exist. Yet. Believe me though, if I have a lot of work to do, the other TFers at my school will have double or even triple that (I am widely regarded as "the organised one" - toot toot, my own horn sounds good). Before even thinking about this work, I have to go through a period of denial and distraction. Here we go then:

1. It's Tamil New Year - happy New Year!
2. I have a cold. Excellent.
3. If my Dad thinks I am a bit of a brat, well, he should read the story about that girl who caused £20,000 worth of damage to her house during a house party. How awful!
4. Grand National - come on Numbersixvalverde, let this be your year!
5. Twitter.com - heard about this ages ago on this internet start-up business blog, but am pleased this is finally getting some serious recognition.
6. Professor Mankiw's blog - how exciting, the smart guy who wrote our Macro textbooks communicates to his students. Surprisingly light-hearted but frank for an economist! Plus, finally, someone who blogs more regularly than me!

No doubt more distractions later, hopefully in the form of alcohol.

Berts, hope you had a safe flight back, tell Grandma Pink and Carmela I said hi!

Venice Part II - Verona and Venice Proper

After Castelfranco we spent a day in Verona - very pretty and lovely and old, you will see once Jade puts the photos up! Here we did lots of walking around. Obvy lots of references to Romeo and Juliette, including a building they've turned into her "house" with a balcony, museum and big statue outside it. Supposedly touching Juliette's right breast will give you luck in love, so we all did a bit of that and are now waiting for the magic to happen!

One night in Verona and then we headed to Venice proper. Stayed in a lovely lovely apartment called BB-Venice in Favaro - about 30 mins on the bus from Venice proper, but SO nice and pink it was worth it!


Two days were spent getting lost amongst the many canals and rios and alleys and pontes in Canal - it all looked the same! Luckily Sparrow was a master map reader and so we were never really lost, just a bit lost now and then. Still, even the skills of the mighty Sparrow couldn't find us the excellent gelataria we went to randomly on the first day but then couldn't find at all ever again despite searching desperately for it. Sigh. I miss ice cream. But not all the scary masks and things in the shop windows, check this one out, how much do they wanna cram in there?!


Best way to see Venice was taking the Number 1 vaporetta (public water bus) from Pizziale Roma down to Campo San Marco, thus catching all the highlights along the Grand Canal, then taking the day to stroll back up. Spent a good amount of time (and money!) drinking cocktails in Cafe Florian, a fancy schmancy famous place in St Mark's Square. Also had lovely pizza in the hard to find Ae Oche, with the Queen Goose logo. It seems very Americanised, but the food's great, even if the waiters were rushed off their feet!


We played cards at a cafe by a canal, sat in the same random square lots of times (forgotten which square!) and soaked up the sun and prettiness. Venice is so pretty and a pedestrian's dream - plus since it's so heavily dependant upon tourism, people are really friendly everywhere! Perhaps a little more expensive than other European cities, but definitely worth a visit if you've not already been. I'm sure Bertie would love to have you!

Dinner in Islington

So it is fairly obvious I have given up doing anything education related this week. Instead I have been drinking my money away, good stuff.

Yesterday night Bertie came down for a bit of a jolly. We started off in a nice little pub near Chancery Lane, where we discussed the pros and cons of the "great race race". He is the first one to think it would be ok to have a race on facebook similar to the girls vs boys, except along the lines of racial origin i.e. blacks vs whites. I know it would be controversial, but fun(!) all the same.

Please note, I'm not into stirring up racial hatred or anything, just curious as to why girls vs boys is acceptable whilst blacks vs whites probably wouldn't be. I'm probably being thick, I know it would cause trouble, but why?

Anyway we moved on to the Knight's Templar, a Wetherspoon's better known to me as the Scholarship.
I tend to drag people there kicking and screaming, until they see the wonderful ship style lavatories and the pear cider, and then they're converted. Here Ish (and Suze, briefly) joined us. We then moved on to Ish's house where we met Chi, Clare and Nas, and Berts cooked us all carbonara. By this time I was pleasantly merry and a good time was had indeed.

(As an aside, I told Ish about gimmealift.com and she thought it was a great idea. Also, I bought a Big Issue on Weds and the lead article was about social entrepreneurship, so am gonna see if there's any real advice in there about what to do next).

The real point to this post though is how different all my friends are from each other. I sometimes honestly wonder what would happen if I put them all in a room together. Some of them are in fact so different from others that I'm sure they wouldn't even speak. Actually, that's pretty harsh, they probably would talk, but run out of things to say rapidly. But why are they so different? And to which group do I really belong?

Builders Builders

It is 10:30am. I am trapped in my room and so have been inspired by our "house guests" to compose this little poem.

Builders builders
Like strange pasty aliens
They sing out of tune
From 7:42am.

Builders builders
More tea? Already?
Why don't you do some work?
Quietly.

Builders builders
Stealers of hot water
From the shower and my mug
Give me back my coffee.

Builders builders
Brick by brick
Build this prison
Good and strong

So that we are together
Forever
Lost
In building junk.

Given that I'm purporting to be an education blogger, here's something from the BBC on discipline. But really, it's all about the builders today.

Scrabble + Trash Palace

The sun was absent this afternoon so CK and I relocated to The Court near UCL for our scrabbling. Mouche joined us for a bit of a threesome and entertained us all with her fake word of the evening laming - supposedly the present participle of the verb to lame. In theory it sounds like a word, and MT has said that it is, as has dictionary.com, but I can't think of any occassion on which it could be used. Controversial. Also got thoroughly confused when trying to spell that word that means the coloured bit around nipples (areola - but I spelt it aeriole), which, along with CK's imam (turns out this IS a word for Muslim priests, rather than iman as I thought it was) ultimately cost me the game. Sigh. A very colourful board nonetheless including such beauties as: foodie, coy, fart, virile, bricked, mews, vertex, quo, fez and keystone.

After the game and a guzzled 3 pints (my beer baby is growing) we trotted along to Trash Palace (another gay bar I can add to my list courtesy of CK & co.) to see Gid and Josh. Josh told us the sad news that Noor has broken her arm snowboarding, oh dear. Gid is still amazing, even after partying hard for two weeks in New York. I decided that he is very personable, in an Ish kinda way, and that it could be cool if they met, I'm sure they'd get on. Although I'm not sure what she'd say about his gay jokes:

What did the lesbian do on her second date? Hire a U-Haul truck.
What did the gay man do on his second date? Second date, what second date?

I now feel vaguely hungover, which is a bad sign for the work I "intend" to do tomorrow. But a good evening indeed.

Venice - Part I, Castelfranco

I have submitted my WA3, woo hoo!

I am now meant to be creating my unit of work on Multicultural Maths. However, I can't be bothered to do that yet. Please understand, I really am very excited about this unit of work, but what with the bloody foxes screeching all night, the crazy man next door holding long distance phone calls at 1am in his back garden (annoyingly close to my bedroom window), and the builders starting their relentless drilling (and singing!) at 8am, well, I am pretty tired today. Except when it comes to using bold in my writing.

Ok, ranting over. Before I bring you part I of the Venice trip, some points of note. In list form for Bertie.

1. Jade, p244 of Captain Corelli's Mandolin: "I am the breve, Carlo here is the semibreve, he is the crotchet". A mere 6 pages later: "he could sit with unnerving patience watching Pelagia's hands doing the formal dance of the crochet." So that's how you spell them. Really, what are the chances?
2. RIP the Facebook man. Those of you who have met my littlest brother know that he is almost the splitting image of the facebook man, so this is a sad day for us indeed. Initially I was annoyed by the FB changes, but now I am starting to appreciate their true potential stalker powers.

Venice Part I
So we went here, the Veneto region in the northeast of Italy:


Map's not great, but Bertie lives in that place just south of the 5 - Castelfranco. Very exciting place - it seems Berts has found himself an Aylesbury in Italy. Some people would have thought this was impossible, but where there's a will there's a way.

Our holiday began with a little trip on the train. Both transport and drama were to feature strongly in the week (alongside ice cream, strong coffee, and spritz - more on this delight later). Bertie met us at Treviso station and we got on the train to Castelfranco. Strangely none of the stations had any signs on them, and despite purporting to know his way around, we completely missed our stop and ended up in Venice proper (aka Venezia aka the old swampy bit with the canals etc.) Our tickets weren't valid for this journey but luckily some random Australian Italians in our carriage were having a huge long kick-off with the ticket conductors about their tickets, so they didn't catch us. Excellent.

Anyway, to cut a loooong story short, eventually we made it to Castelfranco (learning lots of useful Italian along the way, particularly colours, mmmm gello treno.) Lots of people stared at us, I'd like to think it was because we were stunning rather than because were brown-skinned. Important note: there are about 4 brown people in the whole of Italy, 2 of whom were Dina (Sparrow) and I (I guess Jade counts as half ethnic, congrats Jade!).

Once in Castelfranco we spent a delightful two days wandering around and eating things. Highlights here include (once again in list form):

1. Bertie's lovely flatmate Francesca, who gave up her room for us, and spent many a happy evening chortling away in front of her computer (much like me, heehee)
   
2. Pushing two beds together and then sleeping sideways on them with Sparrow and Jade, and then slowly falling into the growing gap between the beds during the night
3. The electricity cutting out just in our apartment after a crazy loud storm with thunder and lightening and everything. We all hid in the bed and had a lovely nap and then chatted away.
   
4. Being trialled in an informal court by "Grandma Pink" and "Carmela" held in front of Bertie's building - this was particularly dramatastic because people kept popping their heads out of their windows and chucking their two pence in. Basically "Grandma Pink" bumped into us leaving Bertie's place on Tuesday morning and told him it was against the rules to have guests in Castelfranco unless they were registered with the carabinieri (aka Italian military police aka the Sardinies). Castelfranco apparently is a hot bed for illegal immigrants (where were they all, I didn't see any!) and so they were worried Bertie was setting up some kinda immigration racket (obviously, duh, I mean why else would he know any brown people?). "Carmela" joined in the fun and thus it was decided we couldn't stay there any more. However, later they softened and touched our faces and chatted with us etc. and then decided we could stay after all. Very strange procedures indeed.
5. Drinking numerous spritzes while wandering around Castelfranco for hours (strange it took us this long, it's not actually that big). I think this was Bertie's elaborate plan to stop us getting on trains all over Italy - sabotage, *sigh*. Anyway from Wiki: Spritz, an alcoholic beverage has its origins in the Veneto Region, Italy. Spritz is a bitter, summery pre-dinner aperitif made of either Aperol or Campari and mixed with White Wine or Prosecco and Sparkling Mineral Water. It is usually served in a lowball glass with ice, a slice of orange, and sometimes an olive. Particularly like the bit where they say it's a pre-dinner aperitif - one day we started drinking it at about 11am in Beppe's bar, and there was already a bloke in there drinking before us! Sure the Italians don't binge drink - they just drink all day instead.
6. Sparrow getting proposed to by the Internet cafe owner (ok, this didn't really happen, but it could have).
7. Teaching them to play 304 - an old school Jaffna card game, quite complicated, made more so by having to play with a local Trentine card deck, which is rather different to our standard Americo-French deck.

Can't really remember much more, and that all sounds rather droll, but really, it was a laugh a minute! Particularly trying to speak Italian - gosh we were awful! Tales from Verona tomorrow.

Coffee Bags, Micragolia, Scrubs Quote

Yay, I'm back from a glorious week in Venice! I bet you missed me :) So what's been happening? Well, I have made myself promise not to write about Venice until I finish my WA3, so you'll have to wait a bit on that front. However, I have to procrastinate somehow so here's a post for you anyway.

Firstly, I thought I'd invented fresh coffee bags (kinda like individual tea bags except with fresh coffee in them instead) and was whooping around celebrating my discovery before I googled them and found that they already semi-exist. Boo. But Potter helpfully told me about "second but better" theory so there's potential. Obviously what will ulitmately happen is that I'll just throw coffee bags onto my ever-expanding list of ideas and then forget all about it.

Secondly, my friend Netty is doing some crazy Mongol Race or something this summer, which essentially involves driving from Hyde Park to Ulaan Bator in a very small car. How exciting! And how faaaaar! She is very cool and made this lovely map, so thought I'd put that up.


If you wanna find out more or sponsor her, check out their justgiving pages:

Mercy Corps - www.justgiving.com/micragolia
Hope and Homes for Children - www.justgiving.com/micragolia2

Thirdly, CK sent me this Scrubs quote and said it reminded him of me. I assumed I was Dr Cox in it, but thinking about it now, I'm probably Elliot....

Elliot to Dr. Cox "Oh, you think you're funny?"

Dr. Cox "I do. I always have ever since I was little. It's one of the reasons that I'm a winner!"

New Teachers' Rights

Good stuff, new legal powers for teachers to "restrain and discipline unruly pupils" come into effect today. I think I might go into Walthamstow just to test them out (yes, apparently they apply even outside of school - hahaha, like anyone'd risk trying to tell off the street gangs!)

Full article from the BBC here.

Am hoping this isn't an elaborate April Fools' joke...

Will be back later to offer some completely unjustified opinion, but first I'm going to the last day of the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition with my Mother. Awwww bless.