First of all, the bad news. Ronnie and Reggie are no more. They sadly died a few weeks before we were due to pick them up. The vet gave them their special jags but they became weak and died a few days later. We were upset but not as upset as the lady who was looking after them. She was deeply affected by it and I do not think she will let her cat have any more kittens for a little while if ever again.
After months of deliberation, cogitation and digestion, we decided that we would not get any more cats! I don’t think we’ve been very lucky with them, have we?!
So guess what?!….we’re getting… A DOG!! Yippppeeee! (That’s the good news, by the way!)
Here he is…
His name is Suluk (pronounced soolook), which means ‘feather’ in Inuit/Eskimo/Alaskan. We called him that because he has a tuft of white fur on his head and a bit on his back so if you are wondering which one he is then look for the ‘feather’. He is only 6 weeks old just now but we can bring him home once he’s 8 weeks old because he’s not allowed to be away from him mum until he’s old enough. We will probably get him on 2nd October.
Click here to learn more about this breed of domestic dog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Malamute
He’ll grow to be very big so it’ll be a huge adjustment for us. We look forward to walking him for at least 2 hours a day, climbing up hills with him, and even scootering (see video)!
Thought I would update the photos of Ronnie & Reggie. I’ve got youtube videos too so will try to get them on here if I can.
Ronnie & Reggie! Our newest family members!
We met Ronnie & Reggie today and fell in love with them straight away. We’ve not even held them yet as they need their vaccinations so it was torture! We get to take them home after their second vaccination on 15th June so we cannot wait!
We named them Ronnie & Reggie after the Kray brothers after we saw what tough little men they were fighting with each other!
The best part is that Ronnie & Reggie’s mum and dad are Cody’s granny and granddad so technically they are Cody’s uncles even though they are exactly two years younger. We feel very privileged to have two blood relatives of Cody as part of our family . We still miss you, Cody and we’ll never forget you. We got these two wee cuties in your honour 
All that jargon must put so many people off!
I have recently organised a few voluntary CPD sessions on the Promathean whiteboards at Law Primary and was very pleased to have a good turnout. It is very encouraging to see how much the staff WANT to improve their use of the boards and can see the value in them for the teaching and learning in their classrooms. We managed to cover quite a few skills and techniques in the two 45 minute sessions. Drag a copy of an object, putting photos on from the internet, taking the pigment of colour from a picture or photo to use elsewhere on a flipchart, using the camera tool in different ways, grouping several objects to name just a few. Some have even joined the Promethean Planet website so that we can find and share our own flipcharts. I encouraged them to use the Teacher Notes facility so that we can share our flipcharts on the server and also to remind ourselves how we used them the following year or whenever we use them next.
I wanted to make sure that the sessions were workshops rather than ‘chalk and talk’ (we’ll need to think of a new term for that now! ‘Point and click’? ‘Board and Bored’?) so that they could learn by doing rather than writing things down and forgetting them. Practice makes perfect etc etc!
Now that we all have the boards in our room we are now using them every single say without fail and it is amazing to see how far we have all come in a year. Well done, everyone!
It is with a very sad heart that I tell you little Cody has gone missing. He left our home on Wednesday 17th December and has not been seen since. We have done absolutely everything in our power to find him but to no avail.
I shall keep you posted and we hope for the best Christmas present ever…his safe return.
If you would like some information go to www.nationalpetregister.org and look under the missing cat section. His photo is there under the date 22 Dec.
I do hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I’ll see you in 2009.
When I put my name down a few weeks ago for a morning of Interactive Whiteboard Training, I really wasn’t sure what to expect and as the day drew nearer I was, as I’m sure many others were, regretting the fact that I’d have to get up at the crack of dawn on a SATURDAY to attend. However, I have absolutely no regrets. Quite the opposite. At the risk of sounding very ‘sad’ (for want of a better word), I had probably one of the most amazing CPD seminars in my teaching career (this is my 8th year). I left with goosebumps and an actual desire to drive 30 miles, break into my school and pickup the laptop so I could get started on my new phase of teaching…Activsharing!
I attended Kate Brown’s Interactive Spelling/literacy seminar in the first half then John Self’s art one after the aforementioned yummy pastries and delicious coffee. Kate was just fantastic. Her teaching style, her expertise, considering she’s only been using the boards for three months!, and her sheer enthusiasm was inspirational. My colleague and I couldn’t write quickly enough as she fired so many good ideas at us! (That is a good thing by the way.) Between us we were able to jot down her tips and tricks to make our dreaded spelling lessons fun as well as informative. (We do try but with these ideas it will definitely spice things up a bit!) She showed us simple yet very effective techniques like using the rub and reveal tool, locking items to the background, using video, assigning actions (a bit trickier but once you get it, it is very useful), using the camera tool and a few more to boot.
I spent that night in front of Strictly and X Factor typing up my notes while they were fresh in my mind. Think that is a new one for me! Working on a Saturday night!
I’d heard lots of good things about John Self before I went in, so my expectations were pretty high. I am very glad to say that he met those expectations and then some (with a dash of Geordie humour!). I could not believe that I’d not known how amazing the video recorder function was! I could teach and prerecord entire lessons and send them in…just teasing. But, the formative assessment benefits of that function just screamed out ‘USE ME!’ to assess children’s learning, particularly those children who need motivation and/or lack confidence.
John showed us the Art Rage package where you can import photos and treat them like paintings to create amazing art work. I’ve downloaded the starter version of it at home and work already without any problems. He talked us through some of the Scholastic Art lessons which were really helpful and straightforward. He showed us how to lock items to a grid to create mosaics, how to show the correct way to draw a self-portrait using photos of real people then comparing them to a child’s typical drawing of a face. I also can’t believe that I didn’t know the ruler was a working tool…duh! Of course it is! Silly me.
I really appreciated the opportunity to attend such an event and I hope to be able to attend a similar event in the future. My colleagues and I are planning to show off our new skills to our other colleagues (of which there are 28+!) so I better get organised for that.
(See this in another light at http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.5828)
We did it! Ok, it was 6 months ago but we did it!! We, at Law Primary School, had our HMI inspection at the end of April/beginning of May and it went pretty well(!) We were all geared up for it and on the very first day I was the second of all the staff to be observed. It was a strange experience. On one hand, you dread it and your heart sinks when anyone comes to your door (There were a few false alarms. The children’s reactions were hilarious) and on the other hand you look forward to it because you’ve planned what you hope will be an array of amazing lessons and you WANT them to come in and see what the children are learning and experiencing.
I remember when it was my ‘turn’ and one of the inspectors came to the door/curtain, I just went into autopilot. First of all, I couldn’t believe she’d come to me so soon in the week and second of all it wasn’t really my favourite lesson of the week so in a way I was disappointed. That was soon superceded by relief at the realisation that in less than an hour it’d be over. Just go for it. Get it over with. Enjoy it if you can.
Well….the children were…silent. They were a good class to be honest but they were uncharacteristically quiet when the HMIe were there. Almost eerily so.
We were at the beginning stages of a grammar lesson. Learning Intention was on the board, I had a child up at the IWB highlighting parts of words which indicated the past tense and the class were silent. They knew who the lady was but seemed a little shocked too. The lesson went well and the children worked really hard. There was one child who had written their name on the sheet with a blue highlighter and then proceeded to draw the Saltire on it too. I didn’t ignore it but I didn’t go over the top either. It was fine. That was really the only blip in the lesson to be honest, behaviour-wise.
I’d put the LI on their differentiated worksheets too and I managed to pull out a few groups throughout the lesson to talk to and this gave the Inspector a chance to talk to the children and she even gave one of them some help which was good of her!
As I sat one group down, one of them said, ‘Miss Boyd, your face is bright red.’ Well, that was me. I totally relaxed after that. I knew then that the children were on this journey with me through the lesson. They knew it wasn’t easy to be watched and they understood that I was a bit anxious and most of all they knew that they were being observed too to gain their understanding of the lesson. I was so proud of them.
More to follow…I have work to do, you know!
We wish! I get asked this question quite a lot at this time of year. Far from it. The end of term is often the most hectic as the school timetable is bursting at the seams with events and activities. We have had an extrememly busy term with the HMI Inspection, French visitors and parents and relatives coming to the French Breakfast. We are now in the throws of Enterprise. The children come up with something for the whole class to be involved in in an enterprising way. It might be an event, a community linked project or even a make and sell type idea. It doesn’t have to be profit making but any projects that are profit making, the children usually decide to give their profit to charity.
We only had 3 and a half weeks to organise something. Help! The class were amazing and came up with fantastic ideas like a cookie stall, smoothie bar, chocolate stall, sponsored walks etc. Their final decision last week was that they would have a Giant Water Fight with a difference. They chose their company name; Mission Imsplashable (quite a mouthful, isn’t it?!), they had a logo and tickets were designed. The finance team had decided on how much they would have to charge in order to make a fair amount of money for giving to the Rwanda project which PC Walker is involved in.
As Enterprise is very much a child-centred learning activity, the children have been pretty much left to get on with little input from their teachers. We oversee things, make sure people are involved and are getting along etc but to make it more meaningful the children work together and make the decisions based on liason with the other teams. They have managed to get on well within their teams; Finance, Market Research, Advertising, Selling, Production and Finding Resources. They’ve chosen managers and admin assistants and managed to get on quite well with the task.
However, no-one thought to ask Mr Barnes’ permission! A sharp learning curve, I’m afraid. Unfortunately due to the huge amount of activities we have at Law during the final week it was just not possible to proceed with the project. They’ve thought of making it a paintballing type activity but with water instead and they were going to have inflatable and static items to dodge round and hide behind etc.
However, the class have been BRILLIANT. They’ve not let it get them down and they are now in the process of finding another project to do in a much shorter space of time. The ideas are flowing so watch this space!
Please help us to raise money for Cancer Research uk. Many of the Law staff and I are doing the Race For Life on Sunday and we’re hoping to raise as much money as possible.
In March, we finally moved into our new home. Cody is really beginning to become territorial. He defended his garden from another cat this morning. It was quite funny! He loves the garden and the fields. He’s not brought back any little gifts for us yet thankfully but I’m sure he will once he becomes stronger and more confident. The house is still a bit bare but gradually we’ll start filling it and making it our own.