There are times when it's just easier to say "I'm an idiot" and hope that people take it well. I did that very thing today and fortunately it was taken well.
At one point today I did wonder about the wisdom of putting me in a room with the most annoying kid in the school (well maybe not THE most annoying but certainly very annoying) and about 20 very sharp instruments. Restraint is my middle name.
For the first time in a while I have been to Spring Harvest. I went four years in a row but my last visit was 6 years ago.
We went to Minehead which was a first for me, no closer to get to really but it is right next to the town of Minehead giving more things to go and see and do when not wanting to be in a seminar.
I suspect my approach was rather different this time to my last visits, I used to be a bit of a cliche fitting as much as I possibly could into every day, barely pausing for breath in between everything.
We arrived on Sunday late afternoon - 24 hours after most other people - the drive was very slow but not that slow, we went to a lovely wedding on the Saturday so travelled along on Sunday morning. The journey was through some very bizarre weather conditions - at one point we seriously considered stopping somewhere to then travel on the Monday, the snow was settling on the roads and didn't show any signs of letting up, then finally we hit glorious sunshine and all was well.
My Spring Harvest Week
Day Morning Afternoon Evening Late Evening
Sunday Celebration
Monday Bible study Minehead^ Celebration Tim Vine & John Archer^
Radio 2
Tuesday Bible study Steam train^ Celebration* Conv - heaven and hell^
Radio 2 Steve Chalke Q&A^
Wednesday Bible study Cartoonists Celebration^ Tim Vine & John Archer^
Radio 2*^ chat^
Thursday Final
celebration^
Key * = watched on TV in chalet
^ = stayed awake throughout
Some may notice the fact that I didn't manage to stay awake throughout any of the morning sessions I spent in the Big Top - apart from the last one, others may be quite impressed with my quite full late evening activities - I certainly am!
Things I really enjoyed about Spring Harvest were the things I stayed awake throughout for - on the whole. I found the question and answer session on heaven and hell interesting but suspect that I had missed some other important sessions on the topic, I was really interested in what Steve Chalke had to say - he was entertaining but I also learned quite a lot.
I don't think I 'enjoyed' the worship as much as I did in the past (there is a whole other debate about enjoying worship that I won't go into). I don't like the feeling that worship isn't as sincere if you don't wave your hands around - of course no one says this but the amount of songs that include words along the lines of 'lift your hands' may imply it. Of course there were a lot of new songs - we expect that but I really would find worship easier if I could sing something I am familiar with rather than having to concentrate on learning some thing new. (I'm not against new songs I just rather they weren't in the majority each time)
Overall I enjoyed it and we are already thinking about going back again next year.
I had a conversation with a parent the other day where this genuinely seemed news to him.
The senario - kid does something a bit naughty, I say to the kid 'did you do something a bit naughty?' he says 'yes I did' I say 'ok well that's naughty as a reminder not to be naughty here is a detention'. Kid goes home and asks dad to sign detention, dad says 'what did you do wrong?' kid says 'I didn't do anything wrong, it's not fair' dad phones me to protest and tell me that I didn't see it and his kid is innocent, I ask why he admitted it to me when I asked him and dad realises his whole world is about to fall apart. His kid lied to him.
Shocking.
Which is actually better when the parent decides that there is no way in a million years their kid could possibly ever lie and so I must be a liar, and stick to that.
I don't think I post enought about the girls (cats) they are very entertaining and just adorable to watch. Mattie is bigger than her sister Evie by quite some way. I worry that this might lead to trauma as we sometimes make fun of Mattie for her size. I wouldn't do it if I thought she could understand me. Does that make it ok? There's a moral question for you.
Evie is very lively and I feel I am a bit of a disappointment to her as I sometimes don't want to play games when she does (which is pretty much all the time actually), I leave my husband to the game playing a lot of the time.
Mattie has become much more of a lap cat in recent months, she used to never come and sit on me which was disappointing but now she chooses all sorts of inopportune moments to plant herself.
I should post some photos of them. Afterall everone loves cats!
When I was young very little would drag me out of bed early on a Saturday morning. Today I got up at 8am - which I grant you isn't early to a lot of people, but I had set my alarm for 9.45. I got up because my joints ache too much. My hip hurts my back hurts and whichever way I turn I can't get comfortable. If this doesn't mean I am old I don't know what does! Thankfully once I'm up and moving I'm fine.
The only blessing is that it's a lot worse in every other bed than my own - is that a blessing?
Anyway Saturday so far has been spent surfing the internet, I should have made better use of my time, I have a tonne of marking to do and my office / second bedroom is still a complete tip, though the other day I did push everything over so it looks a bit better than before. Anyway, time for breakfast.
I seem to have missed blogging on half term. Here is my summary.
Saturday - went to a friends for a meal in the evening
Sunday - really must have done very little indeed
Monday - we went to Canterbury and when we got back found the boiler had broken down
Tuesday - we stayed at home and phoned a lot of plumber corgi type people and one visited us and my parents dropped by and met the cats
Wednesday - I caught the train to meet my mum and then met up with my husband for a meal
Thursday - spoke to plumber amd lounged around for the day
Friday - waited in for the plumber to fix boiler (which he did) then played badminton
Saturday - had a very cold walk to the station where we found replacement buses but went to London anyway to avoid the cold walk home straight away
Sunday - went to church and met up with friends for lunch
Nothing earth shattering but a good week off all the same.
We had a meeting today about how important it is to make our lessons interesting. It was explained that children find lessons very predictable and we really must avoid that. They know what we, as individuals, are going to do (which is in itself quite clever because half the time I only decide what we're doing as we go along), we need to cater for different learning styles - not every time granted but generally - I myself am not an auditory learner, I am a visual learner and to some extent a kinasthetic learner. The meeting catered largely for auditory learners but there were notes we could read - of course as we also had these on a print out and my reading level is pretty good I could have just gone away and read them myself. We're told to guage body language, note when children turn off from what we're saying, then perhaps we have said enough. I don't believe that it is an adequate tactic to simply say 'discuss this for 30 seconds with your neighbour' as a break away - the whole thing is a turn off. I agree that there needs to be a variety in lessons, and in an ideal world this would be every single lesson every single day of every single week. The reality is that when you have over 20 lessons a week you cannot make them all 'all singing and dancing'. If you run one staff meeting in a half term you may be able to do something a little more enthralling, or perhaps not when you are addressing a very tired staff after a day of seeing approximately 150 pupils.
Ever since my teacher training I have been a firm believer in sticking to time limits - most importantly end of lesson time limits - that way the pupils know that if they have worked well they will be allowed to leave on time, making it clear that you stick to your side of the deal but they need to stick to theirs. The meeting was going to be up to one hour but certainly no longer. Hmm my watch said 1 hour and 20 mins.
That may not seem stunningly exciting, but it set the stalk alight, which is quite something. I don't just pick up random vegetables and put them in the microwave to see what happens, I had previously eaten stuffed peppers and had a half left over so took it to work.
It really really stank. Is this common - the burning - not the smelling?
You are a calm person who is considered almost fearless by some, however you often resist any cravings or urges that you have, but sometimes you give in. You lead a leisurely and relaxed life. You would prefer to sit back and smell the roses than indulge in high energy activities. You prefer facts over fantasy and are more interested in what is happening in the real word. You mostly assume that people are honest and fair, however you are wary and hold back from trusting people completely, however you are not adverse to confrontation and will sometimes even intimidate others to get your own way. You believe that you have the intelligence, common sense, drive, and self-control necessary for achieving success.
-Go to the library (I was in the habit of going regularly but probably haven't been since the Summer - or thereabouts)
-Book our Summer holiday (we have a smaller window of opportunity than normal so shouldn't leave it as late as we normally do)
-Tidy up the second bedroom
-Apply for a passport
Obviously there are the usual things but I'm not going to list them, we'd be here forever.
We got kittens - who are now cats
We had a faulous Cornish holiday
Celebrated 1 marvellous year of marriage
Got great exam results - work wise
Went to visit lovely friends in Lincolnshire
Mad Teacher 
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