h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Posted May 21, 2000

Well it's been a good few weeks since i last accessed H2G2. You know what it's like you have all the good intentions of doing something and your subconcious finds you something else to do instead. For example for the last 3 weeks i have had a slight problem with my shower, in that it has gotten stuck on cold(ish). All i needed to sort it out was a spanner and a pair of pliers. Both these items i have in my tool cupboard at school. It seems like a simple operation doesn't it? Go to school, do your teaching, pick up tools and go home.

Unfortuantly it didn't work like that. At the end of the day my subconcious kicked in and urged me to do things like:
Put chairs on desks.
Sweep up.
sort out my felt tips in colour order and from broad to fine tip.
CLean out my desk drawers
Make a cup of tea
Sort the printers out in the computer room
Put my credit cards in order of most used
etc...

Why does the brain do this to me? If i need to do the ironing do i do it straight away? no i've got to send an important e-mail to someone first!

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Latest reply: May 21, 2000

Peaceful times

Posted Apr 14, 2000

Hello dear readers, There is a train of thought that says that schools are mystical places full of wonder and awe, (i think thats the word! being a teacher doesn't mean you can spell). Children, as i have said before are funny creaures, especially on the last day of term. On this more holy day than Christmas, children change But for that day only. On any other day a typical pupil would think of nothing but trying to wind you up, not doing work or at least doing it so slowly it makes a sloth look energetic! On the last day of term none of this happens. Children appear bright, energetic and a few even seem intelligent, (Although this is widely disputed amongst the teaching fraternity). On this day children become pleasent, classes normally full of noise and disruption become quiet and run as smooth as virgin olive oil off a ducks back. On this day time moves swiftly and as the bell signaling the end of the school day you realise that come next term the children will be back to their old selves. This is why teachers need 2 weeks of between terms. We need that length of time to recover from depression

(I will get around to sorting out my homepage when the anti-depressant i've just sucked from the corner of my towel has worked!)

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Latest reply: Apr 14, 2000

Children - funny creatures

Posted Apr 12, 2000

Children, dear readers, are funny creatures, capable of doing the most stupid things that even chimpanzees wouldn't dream of. Now i teach the little darlings and have some experiance of the things children try to do. At the moment i am just finishing marking my Yr11's GCSE Technology coursework. For the unitiated GCSE Design Technology requires coursework that is worth 60% of their final grade. A LOT of hours go in to it and you get to know the children very well! So why then do they try to lie to you through their folder work? I'll give you an example. One pupil wrote about glueing Pinewood boards together to create a wider board. Quite sensible really as the school only stocks pinewood 140mm wide, silly really most pupils want to use wood that is wider, still if we had wood 300+mm in width there would still be pupils wanting even wider boards! Anyway having read through this pupils folderwork this morning i read that he found out about glueing boards together from a book. Yes you may be thinking, he could have. The only problem being that it was i that told him, and even showed him what to do! This despite the fact that he knew i would be marking his work. In case you're wondering the book he mentioned doesn't mention anything about pinewood boards!

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Latest reply: Apr 12, 2000