Keeping a blog upto date is tough!!!

Things I learned this week.

1. Huge respect to those of you who have the life styles, time, interest and/or dedication that enables you to post regularly. Maybe a list of things I learned on a daily basis is too tall an order.




2. Darwin was taking the waters in White Wells Bath House in Ilkley, when his famous work "On the Origin of Species" was published. I attended an excellent and thoughtful lecture on Thursday to mark the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. This was given by Dr Jeremy Pritchard from Birmingham University and was a Tour de Force on how to teach Evolution in schools. The bath House is at LS29 9RF. The powerpoint of the lecture can be found here. Thank fully we are not in the USA where in several states the teaching of evolution is banned. He showed hopeful data that more people are becoming, once again, more in favour of evolution as a theory, and that good teaching can make a difference.




3. One of those interesting coincidences was pointed out in the press this week, that Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day. Simon Jenkins' article about who was the most important, not surprisingly for a political journalist comes down in favour of Lincoln, but is still worth a read. But Isn't this abit like asking which is most important for life....water or oxygen.



4. Dwarf Aquatic Frogs are fascinating and easy to keep pets (so far.)

Things I have learned in the last few days.

1. Bad weather is great for bird watching. We've been making sure we keep our feeders topped up over the last week. We have been rewarded by tens of birds visiting our garden. We've had feeders that look like pictures in an RSPB catalogue. We've also had some rarish visitors like flocks of waxwings and fieldfare. So feed the birds! (bit more than tuppence a bag but it's worth it)

2. Get a job as a banker if you can. How can they get bonuses? A bonus has to be performance related. Some of these guys seem to have negotiated contracts where their bonuses are guaranteed!!!

Things I learned today.

A work colleague of mine in a previous school worked as a science technician. Though she left school with hardly any formal qualifications she loved her job and really worked hard to understand the science behind the experiments she prepared. After one of my explanations she stood back and said "You know something? Coming to school is a real education!" Need I say more?

1. That the revision plan I have been pushing for some years. "Mr G's one hour special" has now been proven to work. An article in the TES shows how students were able to assimilate information very quickly from an intensive revision process. Here is the article

   http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6007908

2. That my colleagues in my department are a hard working and dedicated bunch (I knew this already but events of today reminded me....if I stopped adding qualifiers you would be able to read it) Several are in today, against doctors orders, with viral conditions that really need rest, but they know that if they are off the pressure is put on the rest of us, so in they trundled
3. That students come up with the best ideas. For years I have got my students to measure the strength of self-made electromagnets by how many paper clips they can pick up. Two year 8 students today decided to use a miniture plotting compass and see how far away an electromagent will make the needle flick when its turned on? Brilliant! Far more sensitive than paper clips.

Things I learned Yesterday

Yesterday for the first time in 15 years of teaching the school where I teach shut, due to the snow.

Here are some things I learned on my day off.

1. Being able to sit and eat your breakfast whilst reading the days paper on the day it arrives is very pleasurable (but not for my wife as I spent all day saying...In the guardian this morning do you know what someone wrote?)
   
   
2. Watching a Reed Bunting and other birds around your feeders in the snow is very pleasurable.



3. Most of the world still views that my job is not to educate children in a safe and stimulating environment, its basically to look after them all day so their parents can go to work. Maybe they can tell Ofsted and the DCSF thats all they want.



4. That most people don't understand that children have the right to be educated in this country, they don't have a right to free childcare.



5. That Oliver Postgate was a poet. The opening to Noggin and Nog is as lyrical piece of prose as you could wish to read.