With half a day left I thought I would share the activity that caused most excitement in my class today. Not a DVD of the Simpsons or my wonderful Christmas worksheets, but Penguin batting. Sounds inhumane I know, but the penguin does voluntarily drop itself from the cliff and survives the actual hitting.
Have a try and you'll find that it's quite addictive. My best score is 555.3 metres!
Monday, December 19, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
CHRISTmas or Xmas?
As a teacher you look forward to the end of term and so I began handing out my Christmas worksheets earlier on this week. With one particular class of 13 year olds I had a mixture of mathematical Christmas co-ordinates and Christmas wordsearches.
One student was working though the wordsearch and stopped suddenly. They looked at the sheet and called out, "Jesus, what's he doing there?"
Unbelievable! What is Christmas coming to?! It brought a fair bit of discussion for the remainder of the lesson but sent home the message that we must battle through the commercialism and busy-ness (?) of this time of year to push the real meaning of CHRISTmas.
One student was working though the wordsearch and stopped suddenly. They looked at the sheet and called out, "Jesus, what's he doing there?"
Unbelievable! What is Christmas coming to?! It brought a fair bit of discussion for the remainder of the lesson but sent home the message that we must battle through the commercialism and busy-ness (?) of this time of year to push the real meaning of CHRISTmas.
Embrace
It's almost a whole month since I have been able to post something so I thought I would take the time to mention the Embrace concert JA and I attended last Friday. It was my first concert visit at the MEN Arena. An impressive venue but the sound quality was not as good as places like the Apollo.
Anyway, the boys were brilliant and were very humbled to be playing infront of ten and a half thousand people. They tend to get audiences in the region of 2 thousand so this was a big step up for them. I realise now that in the last year I have been to see my five favourite bands and this was a great way to round off that year.
If you do want to try them out, check out their 'Out of Nothing' album and I'm sure you'll be hooked.
Anyway, the boys were brilliant and were very humbled to be playing infront of ten and a half thousand people. They tend to get audiences in the region of 2 thousand so this was a big step up for them. I realise now that in the last year I have been to see my five favourite bands and this was a great way to round off that year.
If you do want to try them out, check out their 'Out of Nothing' album and I'm sure you'll be hooked.
The end to a great show!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Silence is broken, the news is out!
Well, it really has been ages since I posted. Part of the reason has been that life has taken over, school has been so hectic with the run up to Christmas and also because I have been struggling to stay awake at night, ( once I get home from school!)
The reason for this you may be asking yourselves. Why does a healthy 27 year old teacher need a nap when she comes home from work, after tea, after the bath and then to the night sleep? Basically I have been napping, eating, sleeping and teaching for the past 8 weeks.
Well... I am pregnant!
Yes, the time has come again for my body to do strange things, only this time the pregnancy is progressing nicely and hopefully our family will increase by a small miracle by the end of June 2006. We have been very cautious with our feelings and emotions, as well as our plans as we are still recovering from our last failed pregnancy, but we are told by our midwife and all of the wonderful people who poke and prod me that things seem ok.
So for now ok is good enough.
We got to see him/her ( I think he is a boy) last Wednesday and he was moving his legs, I thought he would make a great replacement for Roy Keane, Jamie isn't so sure.
Now that I am passing past 12 weeks, I feel so much better with the random tiredness subsiding as well as the nausea. Bring on the Christmas shopping now I have the energy!!
Apart from that life has been pretty ordinary.
I took 41 children to the cinema to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I have subjected every class I have ever taught to the reading of this book and me ranting on about the great fiction that I read as a child. It was a joy to sit and watch their eyes as they twinkled with delight as Aslan appeared from the tent, they could only imagine what he looked like from the book, it was cool to chat over lunch, is the book better? Were their predictions of characters etc correct?
I remembered why I became a teacher, why it is amazing to work with children and why I get up and go to work every day.
Today as we were making Christmas decorations I was sitting with a group of 8 children. They were discussing Little Britain. It is often really interesting to listen in on their conversations but today it was fascinating.
S:I think Little Britain is racist, what do you think J?
J: Well, if it was it wouldn't be allowed on telly cause that's wrong.
S: But people are allowed to have their own opinions.
J: But on telly, they have to be fair and right.
P: I am not sure if they are racist but I think they make stereotypes.
S: Oh that thing we have been learning about when we say all women are weak and all nurses should be girls.
J: Oh I remember, yeah maybe they are not racist but they are definitely stereotyping.
Wow. What a conversation from eight 10 and 11 year olds. I think they may, when they are older, consider writing to points of view!
Well, that is all from me, no doubt we will keep you informed about how things are going, however this blog is not going to be a pregnancy journal, if it begins to sound like one let me know and I will rethink what is going on in my head!
Have a good week to you all, not long now until Christmas, a time when many of us can take extra time to spend with family and friends and enjoy all that this amazing Christian season has to offer.
The reason for this you may be asking yourselves. Why does a healthy 27 year old teacher need a nap when she comes home from work, after tea, after the bath and then to the night sleep? Basically I have been napping, eating, sleeping and teaching for the past 8 weeks.
Well... I am pregnant!
Yes, the time has come again for my body to do strange things, only this time the pregnancy is progressing nicely and hopefully our family will increase by a small miracle by the end of June 2006. We have been very cautious with our feelings and emotions, as well as our plans as we are still recovering from our last failed pregnancy, but we are told by our midwife and all of the wonderful people who poke and prod me that things seem ok.
So for now ok is good enough.
We got to see him/her ( I think he is a boy) last Wednesday and he was moving his legs, I thought he would make a great replacement for Roy Keane, Jamie isn't so sure.
Now that I am passing past 12 weeks, I feel so much better with the random tiredness subsiding as well as the nausea. Bring on the Christmas shopping now I have the energy!!
Apart from that life has been pretty ordinary.
I took 41 children to the cinema to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I have subjected every class I have ever taught to the reading of this book and me ranting on about the great fiction that I read as a child. It was a joy to sit and watch their eyes as they twinkled with delight as Aslan appeared from the tent, they could only imagine what he looked like from the book, it was cool to chat over lunch, is the book better? Were their predictions of characters etc correct?
I remembered why I became a teacher, why it is amazing to work with children and why I get up and go to work every day.
Today as we were making Christmas decorations I was sitting with a group of 8 children. They were discussing Little Britain. It is often really interesting to listen in on their conversations but today it was fascinating.
S:I think Little Britain is racist, what do you think J?
J: Well, if it was it wouldn't be allowed on telly cause that's wrong.
S: But people are allowed to have their own opinions.
J: But on telly, they have to be fair and right.
P: I am not sure if they are racist but I think they make stereotypes.
S: Oh that thing we have been learning about when we say all women are weak and all nurses should be girls.
J: Oh I remember, yeah maybe they are not racist but they are definitely stereotyping.
Wow. What a conversation from eight 10 and 11 year olds. I think they may, when they are older, consider writing to points of view!
Well, that is all from me, no doubt we will keep you informed about how things are going, however this blog is not going to be a pregnancy journal, if it begins to sound like one let me know and I will rethink what is going on in my head!
Have a good week to you all, not long now until Christmas, a time when many of us can take extra time to spend with family and friends and enjoy all that this amazing Christian season has to offer.
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