Funny faces

So I’ve used Ewan MacIntosh’s idea with staff where he shows the youtube cup stacking video and the Mom just doesn’t have a clue. There’s an important point there about how much time children spend developing skills which we are not always harnessing in school.

I think this guy’s face making skill may be slightly less useful but still, he’s spent a long time perfecting these faces. I can see now that all is not lost for those wee rascally boys at the back of the room who tend to start doing this at the Primary 4 stage…..

More useful than these faces, was recently listening to Richard Holloway talk about leadership. He reminded us of what we can learn from geese. I remember watching this video a long time ago, but it was good to be reminded of it by Richard, and good to watch it again. Not so helpful is that everything on youtube or myspace is blocked for use within school and to use resources which are found on eg youtube you have to spend valuable time at home getting them into an appropriate format.

I’m still reflecting on what I saw and heard at the Learning Festival and I agree that it’s time we had sensible conversations in education about the use of these sites without the hysteria that so often comes up. Neil Winton talked about this at TeachMeet and it was interesting to hear his perspective on the use of these spaces in education and his thoughts on cyberbullying – how can you deal with it as a teacher, if you don’t have access to the spaces where it happens? Access means you can monitor and deal with issues, no access means it goes on unchecked.

Something I’m not so keen on having access to is chronic tv. I’m all settled down with my duvet, snuffly nose and those general aches and pains teachers always get in time for a holiday. Saturday night – prime time viewing and what do I get? “Worlds greatest Elvis” impersonator. I don’t have the words….

I did see Scotty Moore play the other year and that was a real pleasure. The woman sitting next to me in The Cottier Theatre was having a ball, screaming at every song. She just  about put up with my quiet viewing through Scotty’s set (and DJ Fontana on drums), but she gave me a steely stare at the end when I admitted I’d never been to Graceland.