The guns ... they've stopped!

When America sneezes ...

2008-03-18T18:03:00.002Z

How hilarious. Last month, the New York Times ran a report on the ignorance of American teenagers. But I'm not sure that I, for one, have anything to gloat about.

"Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought ..." Civil war?! Er ... that's Abraham Lincoln, right? So (no cheating and looking up Wikipedia) 1860-ish? "... and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750." But, as we all know, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in fifteen ... er, fourteen hundred and fifty ... sixty? ... seventy-two? Oh, ninety-two?! Really?

According to the survey organisation, the results demonstrate that "a significant proportion of teenagers live in stunning ignorance of history and literature". Well, I'm here to tell you that (a) it isn't just American teenagers, and (b) it isn't just teenagers!

I don't know about literature, but history seems to be an endangered subject in some Scottish secondaries. Far more important to learn what proportion of the Scottish population are elderly, or what age you have to be to get a criminal conviction, or how a gay couple constitute a viable family unit. The authors of the report said, “The nation’s education system has become obsessed with testing and basic skills because of the requirements of federal law, and that is not healthy.” Narrowing the curriculum? Sounds familiar.

Wild Science!

2008-03-10T10:03:00.002Z

Seemingly, Sir Fred Hoyle believed that evolution occurred because of mutating life-forms continually arriving from outer space; all this was arranged by a super-intelligent civilization wishing to colonise our planet.

Sounds grand.

Gissa job!

2008-03-01T01:03:00.002Z

I feel a bit like Yosser Hughes.

Nobody who grew up in the 1980s can forget Bernard Hill's splendid portrayal of that out-of-work labourer in Alan Bleasdale's Boys From The Black Stuff.

(Actually, I much preferred Hill's laconic Praetorian Guardsman in Jack Pulman's BBC adaptation of I, Claudius (or "Aye Clavdivs", as we called it in the playground next morning, when we discussed the salacious details from the previous evening's episode). And younger viewers will only know him as King Theoden from The Lord of the Rings.)

But I digress. Yosser Hughes' famous catch-phrase (I'm sure I don't need to remind you) was "Gissa job. Go on. I can do that." And with fewer teacher vacancies, existing teachers becoming "surplus to requirements", and Computing's general falling-out-of-favour, this is fast becoming my own mantra.

I hope you're having better luck.

Cheat!

2006-10-24T19:26:00.001Z

Just a quickie.

The Education Guardian has an amusing piece on exam cheats by the indefatigable Boris Johnson. Here's a snippet (or, as Alan Bennett's Mr Irwin would say, gobbet).

I have just been looking at a cheat's website called UKEssays, and its sheer efficiency makes me feel queasy. Never mind some long-dead monk; UKEssays will supply you with a tailor-made essay, at £500 a pop, on any subject you are set, and teams of essay-writing graduates can calibrate their output to provide you with material worth a 2.1 or, if you are feeling really brazen, a first. According to some estimates, 10% of university students are engaged in some kind of cheating. If you consider that the difference between a 2.1 and a 2.2 can be thousands of pounds on your starting salary, the incentives are obvious.

Definitely worth a read.

Clouds

2006-09-30T12:00:00.000Z

This morning's Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 ended with an item on clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney of the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Clouds: That one looks like a horsey ...

Besides background music from David Bowie, singing Bertold Brecht's Remembering Marie A. (... there was a cloud my eyes dwelled long upon ...), Gavin selected the wonderful Cloudbusting, from Kate Bush's 1985 (was it really so long ago?) album, Hounds of Love. And not a single mention of Wordsworth.

Nil nisi bonum

2006-09-13T18:00:00.000Z

I've just realised ...

It's not a good idea to go criticising people who will be writing your next batch of references. And you certainly shouldn't complain about the facilities that they have kindly loaned you for your probation year. And as for questioning the philosophy that underpins their educational establishment ... don't even go there.

Unfortunately, the whole idea behind the "education" blog, as far as I can see, is to air new ideas. This often involves a critique of the status quo, and might even include a moan or two about how things could be done so much better if we did them this way instead of that way.

Again unfortunately, I think I have left too many hints about my current whereabouts, so that any searching analysis may be construed as veiled criticism (or worse). Which kind of defeats the purpose of the blog. I can't see any way round this conundrum. Can you?

Week Three

2006-09-04T09:00:00.000Z

Here they come.
And I'm not ready.
How could I be?
I'm a new teacher and learning on the job.

(Frank McCourt, Teacher Man, London: HarperCollins, 2006, p.11.)

Yup -- I know that feeling.

Book of the Month

2006-09-01T08:00:00.000Z

In a previous post, I lamented the fact that I was due to teach Visual Basic 6.0.

The problem was that (a) I didn't know the software, (b) I didn't own the software, and (c) Microsoft couldn't supply the software. (In fact, I was officially advised to purchase a VB 2005 licence, and then somehow regress to VB 6.0 -- quite how was never fully explained.)

All that has now changed, thanks to a book called Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours, which I stumbled upon during a recent visit to Waterstones. It's not so much the lessons that I'm talking about, because the LTS resource pack is based on VB6, so I could just have followed that. The real bonus, however, is the bundled "Working Model" of Visual Basic 6.0 that comes on a CD-ROM. And all for £17.99.

Blast! I've just realised that I could've had it from Amazon for only £13.59. But I wouldn't have had the satisfaction of supporting my local book shop.

Car trouble

2006-08-21T21:00:00.001Z

Dawn Over Banknock.

All good things must come to an end.

My trusty old car, which has served two generations since it was born in 1986, has finally given up. The irony is that, mechanically speaking, it's fine. But the chassis needs £700-worth of welding to hold it together, and I ain't got that kind of cash!So I've been calling in favours to borrow cars for the long commute.

(Maybe Santa will come to the rescue.)

Even in Australia

2006-07-26T12:00:00.000Z

I know I shouldn't be surprised.

It's called the internet for a reason, after all. But I'm always fascinated to see the widespread geographical locations of my modest band of visitors.

Auntie Mel stumbled upon my blog ... and loved it

I recently discovered (courtesy of SiteMeter) that Aunty Mel had stumbled upon my blog in Australia. She was kind enough to give me the thumbs-up, chiefly for my habit of adding copious links.

But what's the point of the internet if you don't link ..?

Hedge-cutting

2006-07-15T12:00:00.000Z

... is not my favourite pastime.

Not by a long chalk. In fact, it's one of those activities that I put off as long as possible. Usually until the ligustrum ovalifolium has almost taken over the pavement at the front, and the fagus sylvatica has plunged the side garden into gloom. (And don't even mention the cupressocyparis leylandii at the back of the house.)

Why do I dread hedge-cutting? Because (a) we've got rather a lot of hedgerows, and (b) they're pretty high. Not exactly Longleat hedge maze high, but high enough. High enough to present a challenge to my old Black and Decker GT250, with its modest 41cm cutting blade (that's a compact 16", for my American reader — I know you're out there).

Anyway, the hedge-cutting is now over. And, like hitting your head against a brick wall, it's fantastic once you stop. (The hedges look pretty good, too.)

A Grand Day Out

2006-07-05T08:00:00.000Z

(Cue the Wallace and Gromit music.)

Dunkeld Park Hilton
Originally uploaded by Duncan__.

Yesterday, those nice people at QiE invited me to their team-building day at the Dunkeld House Hotel Activity Centre.

After a drive up through the beautiful Perthshire countryside, we had archery in the morning and off-road 4x4 driving in the afternoon, all in glorious Scottish sunshine! In the recurve target archery, the target was only 25m away, but I only managed bronze medal position; not good enough to win the bottle of Portuguese wine, and not poor enough to win the consolation box of chocolates. Although the off-road event was non-competitive, driving the Range Rover, with 4-channel ABS and automatic hill descent control, was exhilarating.

All in all, a grand day out ...

If it wasn't for bad luck

2006-07-01T20:15:00.000Z

... wouldn't have no luck at all.

While loading the dishwasher and generally tidying up of an evening, I usually listen to a CD. Lately, it's been The Very Best of Cream, with the wonderful bluesy track "Born Under a Bad Sign". (Hence, the opening title.)

Now, don't misunderstand: I don't think for a minute that I have "real bad luck". But it did strike me as rather unfortunate that, having spent a year's Teacher Training getting familiar with Standard Grade Computing Studies, I'm going to a school where they don't teach it!

I'll be spending my summer vacation getting to know Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 Computing. Then, there's the small matter of figuring out how to teach Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to 13-year olds when (a) I don't know the software, (b) I don't own the software, and (c) I don't know the software. Oh, and (d) Microsoft appear to have moved on to VB 2005 (thanks for the CD, David!) and .NET. Actually, now that I think about it, let's talk about that bad luck again ...

A week in the Borders

2006-06-23T23:00:00.000Z

I just can't stay away from schools.

This week, while many of my fellow NQTs are earning a crust stacking shelves in supermarkets or pulling pints in bars, I found myself visiting schools in the Borders.

The view of Hawick High SChool from my B&B. If only my Probation school were so handy ..!

Putting my PhD to good use, I became involved in a research project which has been running in Primary and Secondary schools across the Scottish Borders council area.

It was really interesting to meet some great youngsters with challenging needs, and chat about their learning experiences. And all without the use of a Borders-Glasgow phrase book.

Twice in one week

2006-06-12T16:00:00.000Z

Once would surely have been enough.

When Stirling Council invited me to a meeting, as one of their Probationer Teachers for 2006/7, I immediately contacted the school to see if I could arrange to visit the school on the same day.

Unfortunately, the Council were expecting us on Wednesday 14 June, whereas the school's Principal Teacher (it transpired) was expecting all probationers to visit on Monday 12 June. Joined-up government? Or a plot by Shell shareholders? (See previous post.)

The splendid King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn: scene of Stirling Council's Probationer Teachers meeting, Wednesday 14 June, 2006, 2pm.
Out of shot, to the left, is the Bannockburn Heritage Centre, commemorating the significant Scottish victory in the vicinity 692 years ago, over the forces of the English king Edward II.

A long and winding road

2006-05-29T13:23:00.000Z

It seemed a good idea at the time. (Have I started a post like this before?)

Approaching the end of my year of teacher training, I was obliged to nominate five local authorities where I'd be willing to spend my probationary year. This is a requirement of the Teacher Induction Scheme. As I am West of Scotland born and bred, with deep roots and a massive mortgage, I listed the four surrounding authorities, hoping for something within my ten-mile zone of inclusion.

The pink circle indicates my 10-mile preferred zone, for comfortable commuting. The large black arrow marks the approximate location of my placement school!

As my "wild card" fifth option, I nominated Stirling, which is the next-nearest authority, but which stretches uncomfortably far north and east.

So, guess whose bluff was called?!

It seems that I shall be spending 2006/2007 in a Stirlingshire school, a daily round trip of 70 miles. With petrol running at 96.9p per litre (and, I must admit, my car is not the most economical model), it looks as if most of my Scale Point Zero starting salary will be going straight to the Shell shareholders.

How to get soaked in one easy lesson

2006-05-27T13:00:00.000Z

It seemed a good idea at the time.

My son's exams were finished, my last school placement was over ... what better way for us to celebrate than a bracing walk in the Scottish Highlands?

Our problems largely stemmed from the fact that, as the owner of the 1976 edition of OS Sheet 56 (Loch Lomond), I was reluctant to shell out £6.49 for a more up-to-date edition. Surely not much can change in (wait a minute) ... thirty years?!

Well, for a start, the A817 evidently didn't exist in 1976, but in 2006 it cut right across our walk area!

A brief break in the torrential rain allows a quick photo to be taken

Following a ridiculously outdated map, with the weather alternating between mist and torrential rain, didn't make for ideal walking conditions. Our promised "wonderful high-level walk with magnificent views" turned into a damp slog across boggy hillsides, negotiating electric fences and bristling gorse bushes.

I should say that my walking companion was snug and dry in his 21st century GoreTex-this and Kevlar-that, but I shall have to think seriously about replacing my Victorian gear!

Postscript: Can anyone identify the location from the above clues?

Done, and almost dusted

2006-05-25T22:00:00.000Z

I'm sure many of my fellow trainee teachers shook the metaphorical dust off their feet as they left their placement school today. Not me. I've had a great time. Busy, but great.

Today, the last day of my last placement, was an "in-service training" day. This was basically a couple of meetings, followed by cake and coffee, before settling down to edit an instruction booklet for S3 web design. (This I could get used to.)

But it was strange to drive out through the gates for the last time. It seems that you're just getting used to a place, making new friends, getting to know the youngsters and finding your way about ... and it's time to move on. (This I'll need to get used to.)

Turned out nice again

2006-05-17T07:43:00.000Z

Those of you who are wondering why the weather has taken a turn for the worse in the Dunbartonshire area, ... I'm afraid it's my fault.

I had my crit (er ... tutor visit) with one of my S2 classes yesterday (Tuesday). (For any American visitors -- I know you're there, 'cause you're on my ClustrMap! --, S2 is roughly Grade 8.) I only see each S2 class once a week for 55 minutes, so I haven't really built up much of a rapport with them. And it doesn't help that there's a complete range of maturity and ability in each class. So I was hoping that, if everything else went well, I could concentrate on keeping the pupils under control.

Here's where the weather factor comes in. The classroom designated for my crit has a wall of south-facing windows and no blackout facilities. (That's a polite way of saying that the curtains have mostly fallen off the rail and apparently can't be put back up again.) During previous lessons in that classroom, the May sunshine was streaming in the window, which is nice if (a) you don't have 21 computers already pumping out magawatts of energy into the un-airconditioned room, and (b) you don't need to use PowerPoint projection.

As I was planning to use an element of PowerPoint, I was praying for bad weather. I know it was selfish of me, and I apologise unreservedly, but at least (on the Monday morning run-through) the PowerPoint was clearly legible, even from the back of the room. Of course, on Tuesday afternoon at 2pm, just to add spice to the crit lesson, the sun peeked through the grey clouds, raising my blood pressure by a couple of notches. But, as those of you who have struggled in to school today with raincoats and umbrellas will know, ... it didn't last!

Mission accomplished, thanks to the wind and the rain.

Back to school

2006-05-05T22:47:00.000Z

Even though it was a 4-day week, the first week back in school seemed to last forever. It didn't help that, since the S4s are on study leave, my PT thoughtfully filled three of my five S4 slots with a new S1 class. Thursday especially was a long day, teaching four out of the six periods. (But I suppose, as a teacher, I'll have lots more days like that.)

While I was away, my three S2 classes (who only get ICT once a week) started on a new program called Game Maker, written by Dutch guru Mark Overmars (the Utrecht professor, not the ex-Barcelona winger).

It's a pretty impressive program, but it's far too complex for many of the S2s, who are forced to follow instructions without really understanding what's going on. I hope to get to grips with it over the summer (... although I don't know of any other schools that use it. Do you?)

Into the matrix ...

2006-04-19T13:09:00.000Z

As preparation for this week's Computing session on AI, I briefly considered browsing the library's holdings of Artificial Intelligence magazine, a journal with such recent articles as "Conformant planning via the heuristic forward search" [*] (the what, now?) and "Is real-valued minimax pathological?" [**]

Instead, I had a quick look at the Advanced Higher AI resource pack (all 132 pages of it). But it's a truly scary document. Far too scary, in fact.

Finally, I dug out my paperback copy of William Gibson's Neuromancer, purchased in 1986 to read on the bus to university (the first time around). A terrific read. Still gripping, twenty years on. (Incidentally, something called cherishedwig-at-yahoo has the bare-faced cheek to post a review on Amazon, headlined "Not great, but I still like it". Not great?! "Lacklustre writing style ... poor writing ... rather flat characters"?! Whaaat? How dare he disrespect the wellspring of cyberpunk!)

So, if I end up teaching AI next year, I know what my recommended reading will be!

[*] Abstract: Conformant planning is the task of generating plans given uncertainty about the initial state and action effects, and without any sensing capabilities during plan execution. The plan should be successful regardless of which particular initial world we start from. It is well known that conformant planning can be transformed into a search problem in belief space, the space whose elements are sets of possible worlds. We introduce a new representation of that search space, replacing the need to store sets of possible worlds with a need to reason about the effects of action sequences. The reasoning is done by implication tests on propositional formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF) that capture the action sequence semantics. Based on this approach, we extend the classical heuristic forward-search planning system FF to the conformant setting. The key to this extension is an appropriate extension of the relaxation that underlies FF's heuristic function, and of FF's machinery for solving relaxed planning problems: the extended machinery includes a stronger form of the CNF implication tests that we use to reason about the effects of action sequences. Our experimental evaluation shows the resulting planning system to be superior to the state-of-the-art conformant planners MBP, KACMBP, and GPT in a variety of benchmark domains. [Now scroll back up]
[**] Abstract: Deeper searches in game-playing programs relying on the minimax principle generally produce better results. Theoretical analyses, however, suggest that in many cases minimaxing amplifies the noise introduced by the heuristic function used to evaluate the leaves of the game tree, leading to what is known as pathological behavior, where deeper searches produce worse results. In most minimax models analyzed in previous research, positions' true values and sometimes also heuristic values were only losses and wins. In contrast to this, a model is proposed in this paper that uses real numbers for both true and heuristic values. This model did not behave pathologically in the experiments performed. The mechanism that causes deeper searches to produce better evaluations is explained. A comparison with chess is made, indicating that the model realistically reflects position evaluations in chess-playing programs. Conditions under which the pathology might appear in a real-value model are also examined. The essential difference between our real-value model and the common two-value model, which causes the pathology in the two-value model, is identified. Most previous research reports that the pathology tends to disappear when there are dependences between the values of sibling nodes in a game tree. In this paper, another explanation is presented which indicates that in the two-value models the error of the heuristic evaluation was not modeled realistically. [Phew ... now scroll back up]

Happy birthday, son!

2006-03-24T12:00:00.000Z

I'm feeling slightly old, this week.

My son turned 18 at the week-end, which is fantastic for him. He's heavily involved in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, and wanted a new tent to use on his expeditions. After weeks of research, he came up with the Vaude Hogan: a great, lightweight tent and a good, solid performer.

The Vaude Hogan: the lightweight classic with plenty of space.

I said it's great for him. But it's great for me, too -- although I'm fitting into the fifth of Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" rather too well ("in fair round belly with capon lined"). I hope I don't have "eyes severe", and I certainly don't have a "beard of formal cut", but I'd like to think that I am "full of wise saws and modern instances" (if only for my future pupils' sake).

The guns have stopped ... temporarily

2006-03-10T08:43:00.000Z

The final whirlwind week of placement 2 has come to an end ... with a bump. It's recall day at Jordanhill.

Today, there'll be no delightful S2s to engage in the usual battle of wills. No S3 classes trying to derail the lesson with their tangential banter. No S4 TrueBasic programs to troubleshoot. (Actually, I will miss the intellectual challenge of "spot the misspelt variable", and last week's accidental infinite loop was quite amusing.)

Instead, we're looking over evaluation statements of our teaching ("must do better"), and catching up on unfinished (unstarted?) written tasks (e.g., "From your school experience so far, what is your understanding of the term ASN?" I'm guessing it's not the Atlantic Satellite Network).

And then there's ICT Task 2 ("Submit a lesson plan that clearly identifies the use of ICT in a classroom"), which everyone has probably forgotten about, but is due on 24 March. This is a tricky one for a Computing teacher, although including "a rationale for the use of ICT in your subject for this lesson and the positive contribution ICT brings [makes?] in this context" seems to be a formality. If a Computing student can't use ICT, it's time to hang up the USB flash drive.

Of course, we're all working on our 3,500-word essay on the role of assessment, due now on 27 March. And whatever assignments our APD tutors have set. So ... back to Jordanhill, with a bump.

No pupils were harmed during the staging of this crit

2006-03-02T17:01:00.000Z

I was going to write a post about the tutor visit (the dreaded 'crit') that I had this week, but, to be honest, there's not much to write.

It could have been one of my two S2 classes, who are doing interesting things with PowerPoint, but it wasn't ...

It could have been one of my two S3 classes, who have just started the Communications & Networks topic and have been generating good discussion about networking, but it wasn't ...

(It was never going to be any of the three S4 classes that I've been with, because they're all frantically working on their Standard Grade coursework tasks, so I've never taught them. I've spent hours troubleshooting their TrueBasic programs, Excel spreadsheets, and Appleworks databases, but I've never actually taught them.)

No -- it turned out to be one of my two S1 classes, who are just starting word processing. What an exciting topic for a crit lesson. (Replace the adjective with one of your own choice.)
I worked in some hardware theory from the 5-14 guidelines, just so that my tutor wouldn't fall asleep in the corner ..., but I'm sure that, if you've seen one word processing lesson, you've pretty much seen them all. I counted all the pupils in, kept them from killing each other for 55 minutes, and counted them back out again. End of crit.

Led astray by artificial rules

2006-02-26T00:14:00.000Z

It all started with an almost throwaway remark. Teaching two new S1 classes, I began their introduction to ICT with word processing, to ensure some familiarity with the Windows HCI. That was when I happened to recommend leaving two spaces after a full stop (or "period").

I thought it worthwhile to spend a few minutes discussing the correct use of punctuation, but the classroom teacher (present in her role as observer) threw me a disapproving look. In my own defence, I was simply reading from the school's own teaching materials. But I ought to have investigated the background to a matter which I had taken to be self-evidently true.

In fact, on further reflection, I realised that the double-space rule has relevance only to the monospaced text of the typewriter. Publishers and typesetters have their own system; and word processed text has more in common with these than with the typewriter.

Searching around for advice, I turned to the style guides that I have always found fascinating. As a student, I was much taken by the Chicago Manual of Style, then in its 13th edition. But at £35.00, it has stiff competition from its on-line fellows, such as The Economist style guide. On the full stop, The Economist offers the following (economical) advice: "Use plenty. They keep sentences short. This helps the reader." Nothing on spacing.

Nor in the Guardian style guide, famous for such gems as "housewife: avoid", and "pi: the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, as every schoolgirl knows". Incidentally, the paragraph on Latin (explaining, inter alia (!), the correct meaning of "decimate") ends with the delightful advice that, "as the Guardian is written in English, rather than Latin, do not worry about any of this even slightly".

The Times style guide is less entertaining, but just as authoritative. Its entry for decimate (with the advice to use sparingly) is matter-of-fact. But, again, nothing on full stops.

I have also been thickly embroiled with presentation software (i.e., PowerPoint), this time with Second Years (who roughly equate to the U.S. Eighth Graders). They were required to copy out the school's rules for presentation, which included (halfway down) the word "viz". Not a single soul had a clue what that meant, but all had dutifully copied it out regardless.

The Guardian style guide makes no mention of viz., but The Times offers the advice to "prefer namely, that is, or even ie". Quite so. In this Latin-less age, who can be expected to know what videlicet means, far less why it should be abbreviated with a z?

English as a foreign language?

2006-02-18T10:58:00.000Z

This week, the current rotation of First Years came to an end; the classes I have grown to love (or tolerate) will be moving on to try out other "practical" subjects. As a reward for 13 weeks' hard work (!), the pupils spent their last period of ICT as "free time".

In my day (cue 1974 Hovis tune), "free time" was only granted at the end of June, when the curriculum had been completed, and involved the heady excitement of playing hangman on a scrap of paper with your neighbour. In today's ICT classrooms, scraps of paper just won't do. To the pupils, free time means internet time. So I was handed a golden opportunity to witness what the average 12-year old uses the internet for. And there were no surprises.

Boys, who (in simpler times) would have been playing "Best Man Falls" (remember that?) on the grassy banking outside, naturally transferred their violent tendencies to gaming sites like the bloodthirsty Stick Men. Girls, on the whole, were content to play with the (non-violent, but pretty vacuous) Paperdoll Heaven.

The only exceptions were amongst the girls, some of whom elected to practice their French using the Task Magic program, or browsed each others' home pages, most of which sported titles like Welcum 2 ma syt! and comprised lengthy sequences of digital photos.

I briefly wondered which activity engaged the brain more productively: my scraps of paper, or the modern equivalents? Then I logged on and dressed Harry Potter up in a ridiculous floral shirt.

Best foot forward? (How many feet have you GOT?!)

2006-02-15T20:43:00.000Z

Foreword: If Jack can do this, ...

Like most folks (probably), I went back to school today, after mid-term. Unlike most folks (probably), I have a nasty cough and have almost lost my voice. Luckily, I was expected to stand in the firing line ... er, I mean, teach ... for only two lessons, so I croaked my way through an introduction to HTML with a very understanding S3 class, before doing battle with the rebellious First Years.
They were scheduled to have pre-test revision of word processing, information storage, and Logo programming theory. So, pre-test revision they got, despite many and varied attempts to derail my carefully prepared programme.
Thursday is an altogether busier day. Let's hope that the antibiotics have miraculously kicked in by then.

Postscript: I must just say that, over the last two-and-a-half weeks, from my total ignorance of Logo the turtle, I have grown to love writing long sequences of fds and rts, penups and repeats, on the whiteboard. That, and the sea of confused faces as the little darlings attempt to decipher my diabolical pattern-making. (Today, we did a "J" ... a proper one, a capital ... none of your makeshift straight-line stuff, now ...)

Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi ...

2006-02-11T11:19:00.000Z

Seems an appropriate title for a student teacher to begin with.