Teaching and Twitter

Dearest Reader,

Welcome to my second blog on learning to use Twitter to improve teaching. It has been an interesting week! There are lots of things I could blog about from my early lessons. However, one has really caught my eye.

One of the amazing things about using new technologies is the opportunities it provides to record children and their work. It's a fantastic way of showing parents what they have been up to, putting up on displays and keeping a digital record of events.

With this capturing and recording comes a level of responsibility from the school. Images may only used with parents permission. Most schools ask parents to sign a form detailing the level with which they give the school permission to use images of heir children; for press releases, on their website etc. Most parents agree to this. This week, however, I have seen teachers posting images of children in their classes on Twitter.

I have many questions: 

Do parents know that images of their children are being posted on a social network? 

(Some parents are cautious about their children's photos being on the Internet.)

Have the schools given their teacher permission to share photos? 

(The parents have given the school permission but does this extend down to teachers. If the school gives teachers permission, should parents be informed of this?)

Do the teachers use personal devices to take the pictures or do they post images from school devices?

(Using personal devices is a huge no as a teacher. Caught with images of children on your phone will land you in a lot of trouble. At the same time, taking home images of children on a school device to share on the Internet is probably not a good idea either.)

So, with all these points considered, my question to you, dear reader, is this; can you shed light on any of these points? Are you a regular Twitter user who posts images of children? What do you do about consent? I would love to hear from you!!

Until next time,

Your friendly blogger 

Twitter...

Dearest reader,

I have today, officially had my mind blown. Whilst on a course in London, the presenter asked how many people used Twitter for work. No one put their hand up. No one.

After much advertising and big talking of Twitter, I was still unconvinced. However, on the journey home I began to look into 'educators' on Twitter. It turns out there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of teachers online and sharing resources. 

Now I'm not saying I'm totally sold and there are still, I think, barriers for it being used in schools. (An obvious example being that it is blocked on school networks...) BUT there is so much sharing going on! I started flowing at least 10 people/organisations and I feel like I have only just scratched the surface.

So I have challenged myself to do two things:

1. ACTUALLY WRITE THIS BLOG REGULARLY!

2. Learn to use Twitter in a more effective way, more than just as a social network.

If you are like me and are new to Twitter/have no idea what your looking for, then let me know what you find and I'll share what I've found and together will bumble through.

Until next time,

Your friendly blogger.

Garden shinnanigans!

Dearest reader,

It is with great excitement that I write the post! So many things to catch up on!

1. The dreaded cats... (Dun, dun duuuun...)

So, I have found a non-toxic powder to spread around the garden, apparently 100% guaranteed to work!

There is one slight downside to this said product. The idea behind it is to release an odour that only the cats will smell and dislike. That was the plan....it should say on the packing:

"Repellant for all living things"

This stuff HONKS! Never mind the cats - I can hardly stand in the garden now!! Anyway, proof is in the pudding...

2. It's harvesting time!

A few months ago I planted a ridiculous amount of veg and salad. Some has grown, others not so much. Here are the first fruits:

I am aware of the stumpy carrot. That was more of a tester to see where they were at. Needless to say I shall be leaving the rest in the ground!!

On the bean front, there are many more growing so it'll runner beans for dinner for a few weeks!

3. Decking! (And outdoor kitchen! ;) )

As we have now reached the summer holidays, my major project can begin! Muhahahaha!! Wait, wrong setting...

Our decking and cooking space is the main focus of my efforts this summer and I will be keeping you posted as we go through!

As always, dearest reader, thank you for reading and I will speak to you soon!

Your friendly blogger

Cat poo

WARNING. THIS BLOG IS ABOUT CAT POO....

Dearest Reader,

It is with a vexed temprement I write to you on this glorious evening. Having just moved to a house where there is some garden for me to get my teeth stuck into, I have discovered a somewhat unexpected nemesis.

The nemesis of which I speak is not a wild pest or even a noisy neighbour but none other than the silent feline(s) who use our garden as a highway to tier hunting grounds.

Let me first say this. I have had nothing against cats in the past but the events of weeks past have over me to question their sweet and 'innocent' nature. Two things have pressed my buttons...

1. They walk all over my vegetables and where I'm seeding new lawn.

Now, I am aware that I have just aged approximately 50years in that sentence but let me argue my point. I worked bloomin' hard to turn over soil patches, dig up weeds, carefully plant and filter soil. I have nurtured, watered and lovingly cared for the vegetables and flowers in my garden. I have not done this for some pesky cat to come and trample all over as if they own the place.

2. Cat poo.

For those who are not aware: cat poo smells. I mean really smells. It is revolting and toxic to plants around the garden. I have discovered that cats poo in two places and I have yet to decide which is the worst.

The first; on the lawn. In plain sight you might argue, easy to spot and avoid. No, no dear reader. A few weeks ago, whilst mowing the lawn, I was in a hurry so was whizzing around the garden trying to get the lawn cut when the air was suddenly filled with the worst smell. I had run over a cat poo, flinging the offensive substance EVERYWHERE. The air was full of it. The worst part of this event is that when you pull of the grass basin, you have to scoop the grass, knowing that there are tiny bits of the cat droppings IN THE GRASS CUTTINGS....

The second is, possibly, more vindictive. The sneaky poo is laid near a shrub or in a flower bed. This is impossible to see and so you don't know it's there until it's too late....

I have asked friends what I should do to solve the problem, here are a few of their suggestions:

1. Get a cat

2. Get a dog

3. Lay tiger poo

4. Put barbed wire around the top of my fences

5. Buy a gun

These obviously get more ridiculous as we go through, however, none are currently possible.

So, dear reader, I turn to you. I need your help and if I don't have help, the cats very existence may be at risk.

Comment below with any helpful tips!

Kindest regards,

Your friendly blogger

Random Act of Kindness 1

Dearest reader,

Random Acts of Kindness or RAKs is a new phenomenon sweeping the cyber world. The idea behind it is to do something kind for someone else either anonymously or with the recipient knowing. (Most RAKs are anonymous)

If you'd like to know more about RAKs check out this link:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness

Inspired by what I had seen and heard I decided to give it a go. There are lots of ideas but I needed to start with something small. So here it is:

I left £1 in the trolley. This has never happened to me so I thought it would brighten someone's day. 

Not every RAK has to be financial, it could be an action or a promise. I started with this because it's easy and hopefully I'll build up to doing a bit more!

Just a quick read today but as always dearest reader, thank you for your time.

Watch out, 2 blogs in 2 days!! Whatever next!?

Kind regards,

Your friendly blogger

It's been a while...

Dearest reader,

It has been an embarrassingly long time since my last blog and it's down to a number of reasons:

1. Moving house

2. Decorating the house

3. Sorting the garden out for the house

4. Working through an endless list of DIY jobs to do with the house.

There may be a common theme here...

Anyway, here are a few snaps, just so you don't feel left out!

Well that's quite enough pictures for now!

The other reason I haven't blogged in a ages is, and I'm sure most people would agree, that it's very hard to find anything to blog about. I'm not very good at blogging through things but I'd like to do better, so as a sort-of-mid-year-but-not-quite resolution I'm going to try and blog about 2 different things at the same time.

Here are my two new topics of blog:

1. RAK or Random acts of kindness

2. Garden shinnanigans 

These two topics are a different ends of the scale; a thought provoking life changing experiment and, what I'm hoping will be, a hilarious tale of how I WILL build my own decking and outdoor kitchen!!

With all this in mind and many other things to think about, it leaves me only to apologise for my poor grammar and spelling and wish a very good evening!

Keep a look out for the blogs!

Kind regards

Your friendly blogger.

Number thirty five!!

Dearest reader,

It with much excitement that I write this blog!! As mentioned in my previous writing, we were on the cusp of completion on a house. This Friday we completed!! 

The house is number 35 and it needs some serious love. Serious. In fact serious doesn't even come close. However, we had looked around and were confident that it was manageable.

I'm not sure if you are aware of a film called 'The Money Pit'? It's a 1986 film starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg. He plays one half of a couple who decide to buy a bargain mansion house and do it up together. During the course of the DIY process lots of 'problems' arise. You can watch the trailer here:

http://youtu.be/TLLQquBdU8M

Bearing this in mind, there were a number of events which occurred yesterday which made me chuckle at the beginning of our project;

1. New mantlepiece

Knowing there was to be a fireplace in the house we knew to keep an eye out for nice mantlepieces. And last week, bingo! A really beautiful reclaimed wooden mantlepiece, we had to go for it!  If you've ever tried to get hold of one you'll know it's very tricky to find something nice and for a good price, so regardless of size we knew we just had to go for it. When it would only just fit in the car, in three enormous pieces, alarm bells should have been going off! Alas, as we moved it into the house the mantlepiece was at least a foot too wide...not even close...so if you're after one, just let me know!

2. Taps!

On closer inspection of the bathroom, my mum pipes up:

"This tap's leaking!"

My dad, wanting to either prove my mum wrong (which rarely ever happens...) or prove his manly fixing ability (again not very often shown ;) ), wanders over and has a look. He tries to turn the tap. It turns and turns and keeps turning until it literally comes away in his hand! Hilarious!

3. The one legged builder

To be honest, this is a little bit of an overstatement! One of the builders who turned up yesterday had broken his leg, which made looking around the house an interesting task, I can tell you!

Through all this, however, I remained very excited and very amused. No matter how many dangerous electric sockets I looked at or the very, very dated carpets I inspected or even standing in the freezing cold utility, I could see through all of it.

This is the house our son (and hopefully other children) will grow up in. It's the house they'll learn to walk in and where they'll bring their friends. They'll play in the garden and out the front with the neighbours. It's where we will laugh, host parties and BBQs and be family together.

Yes, there is a lot of work, but just thinking about the future makes it all dissolve into insignificance. It will be our home.