Facebook Fever

So, now I’ve succumbed to Facebook fever like the rest of the world…  I’m determined not to ket it take over my life, but that’s just inevitable, isn’t it?? There are a large number of people I have known in previous lives on it, though, which could be good or bad… Have to see!

Winding Down…

So, I find myself on Thursday night wishing that it was Friday evening, as I’m absolutely knackered and want to sleep in tomorrow. It has been some week, let me tell ya.

Ofsted went well – I thought I’d get away with not being observed, but no – they got me last lesson… And I have to say that it’s not the observation I mind, it’s the scary questions afterwards that get ya. The Guy was mostly pleased with my lesson, but pointed out it could have been ‘pacier’, but I did say that my laptop wasn’t connecting to the network that day, hence no resources other than what I’d done the day before, and he accepted that. Some other tough questions about department policy which I could answer (thank goodness!), and a ‘well, this lesson has confirmed some of the things which we have been thinking’ at the end. Good things? Bad things? Have to wait for the official report. But, I think I can say that things went Very Well.

I’ve also not been feeling great this week, and did take Monday off, mostly through exhaustion. (Would it be evil to take tomorrow off as well??    ) But, if I can make it through this far, I should be able to get to 3.00 tomorrow… At least my year 10s are rather nice this year, so last lesson should be relatively OK…

Roll on Saturday!

And it was fab!

Twelfth Night update –

We had great seats, in the stalls on the back row, but around the side where we had a great view. I had never been to the Courtyard Theatre before, but it is a wonderful space, with a thrust stage and excellent seating, banked well so you aren’t obstructed even if you’re in the last row. Slightly interesting casting, as they had a man playing Viola/Cesario, which in our opinion (the 3 Teachers who went…) negated the necessary sexual tension between Viola and Orsino, but they also had women playing all the comic male characters (Toby Belch, Fabian and Andrew Aguecheek), and they were fantastic. It was also set in Victorian/Edwardian times, which was an interesting choice. The program had a large section on crossdressing, and they were obviously exploring this theme, which many references to Victorian crossdressers in the program as well as the costumes used. But the staging and lighting were excellent (particularly commented on by the Drama Teacher of the 3…)

A special mention has to be made of the actor who played Feste – fantastic performance, and a very interesting interpretation by the director of his character. He is the fool, who entertains but also speaks the truth and sees through deception, and his role was basically one of a  down-on-their-luck lounge singer… Worked very well in the setting of this production. Kudos to all!

I’m still alive…

Just a quickie to say that I’m still here, although extraordinarily busy…  Why does EVERYTHING happen in September??  I’ve got something on every weekend, and now…  an OFSTED Inspection this week. Luckily, it’s just a one-day thing instead of the four-day trial that happened four years ago…  And to be honest, I’m glad it’s happening now rather than in a month or so – may as well get it out of the way… But still, kinda ruins the weekend.

No matter – today me and the girls off to Stratford  to see Twelfth Night, and then off to a friend’s wedding this evening…  And I thought I had no social life!!

Morning ‘discussions’…

Just to settle a ‘discussion’ with my husband, and to clear up the issue in my own mind, please help me out with this one.

Hubby says he’s fixed the problem of ice in the back of the fridge by turning the settings ‘down’. To me, this means making it colder, but then why would the ice melt? This doesn’t make sense. To me, he turned the settings up, thus raising the fridge temperature and making the ice melt.

He then said that he had turned the settings from 1.5 to 1.25, at which point I got all confused about positive and negative numbers (and probably made an ass out of myself – it has been known to happen…) but I still think the end result was that he turned the temperature in the fridge UP, thus melting the ice.

Fridge dial.JPG, originally uploaded by Tahbepet.

So, does ‘up’ and ‘down’ here refer to power settings? Direction of the knob? I’m thinking another male brain may be needed to translate for me…

However, I still think the best way to solve the problem of ice in the back of the fridge is to clean the fridge out, thus making it run more efficiently, and keep it at the original temperature (or setting, or whatever…)

Michael Eastman

Came across this guy’s work while looking for images of Miss Havisham, of all things… Beautiful.

Us in Space

Thanks to Charles, I just found again (refound? Rediscovered!) the CBC Radio 1 science program, Quirks and Quarks, which we both used to listen to on Saturday mornings in our house growing up. (Charles – was it on about 11am? Seems we listened to it before Dad came in for lunch…) I’m amazed that Bob McDonald is still hosting it, since I’m sure he was the voice of Quirks in my youth as well, which is getting on for 20 years ago now, and he’s not decrepit… But I digress.

I was browsing the Quirks blog, and they have an item on the International Space Station, and how it’s taking so long to build it that they’re having to renovate the older bits even as they are building the new stuff on. And I had a thought – you occasionally get news items about the Station and stuff that’s going on up there (and the occasional tourist that visits – how’d you like to do that for your summer holiday?? ) but why do we have it? What’s it all for anyway? Is is just cool to have people living in space (on a rotating basis, I hasten to add…) or is there some other purpose? It seems not to be about US military strategy, as they’re working together with Russia on it… But then, what I know about US-Russian relations could probably be contained in a Tom Clancy novel, so who am I to comment?

Just from browsing the site at NASA, it looks like the station is there to provide a scientific base for experiments and learning about the universe – and each other, as it’s a joint venture between NASA, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and the European Space Agency. And it’s taken me a while to write this post because I’ve just been zoned out on the pictures of the missions and of space in general – no wonder people want to be up there…

Richard and Beth Simpson

OK, so we both decided to get a makeover, and this is the outcome:

This is, of course, courtesy of The Simpson’s Movie website, but I think the fashion may catch on! Lindsay and Howard have done it – anyone else out there been Simpsonised??

What’s in a name?

‘That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet…’ Romeo and Juliet

Hmmm… My name is Elizabeth, which various sources name as meaning ‘God’s promise’, ‘Consecrated to God’, or ‘my God is abundance’. Certainly Mom always said it meant ‘Consecrated to God’, which is lovely. Oooo – and according to Margot’s Magical Letter Page:

A ‘Beth‘ is an initiator who channels her energy toward a specific goal.

Great.

Richard means variants of ‘brave ruler’.

Charles is ‘manly’ or ‘free man’, and the third most common given name in Canada, according to Wikipedia…

I like Michael: ‘who is like God’ and Ella: ‘torch’ or ‘bright light’.

If we’re going for a more ethnic feel, there’s Iestyn, the Welsh form of Justin, meaning ‘fairness’. Or, simply the Hebrew pronunciation of Elizabeth, Elisheba.

This all started because I have a student in one of my classes called Imani and I was curious as to what it meant… It’s ‘faith’ in Swahili.

Anything I Need to Know I can Learn from the Arrogant Worms…

It occurred to me on the way home from school today that anything I need to know, albeit with a Canadian slant, I can learn from the Arrogant Worms.

For those of you who aren’t in the know, The Arrogant Worms are a comedy/music group from Canada – more specifically, from Ontario. I’ve been wishing all week that ‘Canada Is Really Big’ actually WAS the national anthem, but I realised something else even more profound this afternoon.

I didn’t have to go to school. All I needed when I was a lass was the Arrogant Worms.

It all started with ‘Canada is Really Big‘ – I could have learned geography from this song.

And then I really started thinking. To get all the lyrics to ‘The Mountie Song‘ you need to know about law enforcement, current events, and it’s also about job satisfaction – all part of social studies and (as it was called in my day) CALM – Career And Life Management. ‘The Last Saskatchewan Pirate‘ is about economics, and ‘Carful of Pain’ is a good example of why diction and enunciation is important (but you’d have to listen to it to understand…)

That leaves… science (‘I am a Cow‘), religious studies (‘Jesus’ Brother Bob‘), English (hey – it’s poetry…) and ethics (‘Carrot Juice is Murder‘). I’m a bit stuck on math, and I think I’d have to turn to Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie for History (‘The White House Burned‘), but otherwise, I think I’m set!

Think my head of department would let me take the rest of the week off??