The World has Changed
In a democracy, if you don't like the result of democratic process, that's tough. You certainly shouldn't be calling foul and demanding a re-run. You might think of other things you could do.
In a democracy, if you win a narrow victory don't crow about it and do not, ever, attempt to stifle political debate (and freedom of speech) by telling people to shut up and live with the result.
Similarly, if you are in a demographic sector that generally voted and lost, don't whine about how it isn't fair that other groups didn't take account of your needs and now you have to live with the decision. I am seeing posts on social media that claim young people have somehow been handed a bad deal by older people. No. Older people have children and grandchildren and probably considered their needs as well as their own. That's what parents and gradparents do. Don't claim that older people don't care about younger ones. If you want young people's voice to be considered get them registered and get them to vote.
There's also been a question about whether we should be allowing 16 year olds to vote and shouldn't we have done that because in Scotland look what happened - they were "responsible" voters. A "responsible" voter in those terms is one who votes the way the Government (who had to frame the legislation to allow it) expects them to vote. That is all.
The real issues with this Referendum and the reaction to the result lie elsewhere. In no particular order...
- Education - or the lack of a proper education system - more about thatlater
- Me first politics - more about that later too
- The quality of political debate (or lack of it)
- The quality of our elected representatives
It is true that you get the quality of politician you deserve. As an electorate we stink! I will put my hand up and admit that I am very cynical when it comes to politicians. Don't trust many of them. We got the untrustworthy politicians when we all started saying that politicians were corrupt and none of them could be trusted. Self-fulfilling prophesy. Turning our back on them and not engaging with the political process, not challenging and not making the buggers earn their keep and justify themselves and not checking what they are saying got us into this mess. We got rubbish politicians because we are a rubbish electorate.
What we need is for many, many more people to be engaged in political debate. They don't have to belong to any political party, but they do have to be aware and active and interested and prepared to stand up and say "You are not good enough. You do not deserve my vote. You are lying. You are distorting the facts." That would take effort though and we are collectively too lazy to do that. We got exactly what we deserved. Serve us right.
Date posted: 26 Jun 2016
Well, Well
The time really has flown hasn't it? It is a couple of years since my last post and a lot has happened. I switched jobs, got promoted, switched jobs (all within the same organisation), worked like crazy and have now, yesterday actually, stopped working. I am thinking about retirement and about a career change (though it is a bit late for that really) and about just slowing down. I have an offer of a part time job already and am interviewing for a full time one on Tuesday. That last would be back in the school system so I would at least have a chance of decent holidays, though at Head of Department level I would expect to have to go in during holidays. I could deal with that. The question is whether I want to be rushing round like an idiot again. Lots to think about.
Since it has been a while, a brief update on us might amuse. No. 1 son worked as a Head Chef in a local restaurant, moved to a different restaurant, cut his hours back and is now at College doing the advanced course and 2 part-time jobs. He has a girlfriend who we all like. This is a result as his previous girlfriends have all been a bit grim. No. 2 son squeaked into university, squeaked through his first year and is now in his second. Him indoors is leaving his job of 40ish years at Christmas. If I retired we could spend a bit more time together. If I work until I reach retirement age he will be 73. We also have my mother moving in with us. She's 94 and not fit to look after herself she is unsteady on her feet and can barely walk unsupported. I have to help organise the removal of her things and the sale of things we don't have the space for her to bring here.
In other updates, the boys and I spent a lovely few days camping in Scotland this summer. We managed to avoid the worst ravages of the midges - though just because the repellent keeps them physically off you it doesn't mean that they don't come anywhere close. They were close. Too close. We survived though. What we didn't want to test was whether our tent would survive the gales heading in from the west. When CalMac warn of delayed and cancelled sailings due to the weather then it is time to run for it. Run we did - all the way to Edinburgh for an overnight stop before driving home. 12 hours door to door. That was less than the 13 hours it took us the year before to get back from west Wales which is 318 miles compared to the 457 from Edinburgh. M25 roadworks/closures/breakdowns as usual.
Some things never change do they?
Date posted: 17 Oct 2015
Wide awake at 6am - thank you cat!
The title says it all really. To be fair, as number 2 son says frequently, I was almost awake. I was in that semi-conscious state where you know that in a minute you are just going to have to get up and go to the toliet, but you are still dreaming. I could have carried on like that for a while, except that puss-cat decided that she wanted to get into our room. Now!
From the noise of meowing and carpet clawing I thought she was trapped inside the room trying to get out, so I forced myself to get out of bed to let her out. She wasn't in. As I opened the door she shot past me and when I came back from the bathroom she was comfortably curled up on the bed. Now I am wide awake, yes really at 6am, and the cat is once again outside the bedroom. Himself is still fast asleep.
The problem is that all my clothes are in the bedroom. All of them. i did the laundry yesterday and No. 2 son brought all the clothes upstairs and I put them away. I could go to the allotment and do some stuff, but if I get dressed I am likely to wake Himself up. Also No. 1 son isn't home yet. He was at a gig last night and was going to get the early train home. He should be in soon. I will wait and see if he's OK. I may do some allotmenting later, after I have taken No. 2 son to the start of his sponsored walk and done a bit of shopping. We are allegedly having a BBQ tonight, so I need to get food for it.
Date posted: 12 May 2013
Does Time Fly...
When you are having fun? Not sure fun is exactly it though. Busy is much nearer the mark. Busy is an understatement actually. I changed my job for the start of this academic year. It was a step up professionally and got me out of the madness that was the previous place. Of course I just landed in a whole new lot of madness, but different madness. The major difference is that the senior management have mainly done the job and they don't actively despise the teaching staff. This makes it a much better place to work as far as I am concerned. New job, new place, what could go wrong? Hmm. Well, while nothing is actually wrong, I now find myself doing 2 jobs on 1 set of remission. The remission amounts to 6 hours per week - for each job. This would reduce my teaching load to 12 hours per week. I am actually teaching 18 hours and trying to find somebody to take away the other hours. In fact I am interviewing somebody tomorrow. I am clinging on by my fingertips. 8 am to 6pm days are the norm at the moment and I haven't had a lunch break for as long as I can remember.
Of course none of this is helped by having had Ofsted in a couple of weeks ago. Everybody in the place worked 12 days straight: the week before Ofsted arrived, the whole weekend before the inspectors arrived, and then the week of the inspection. Now about half the teaching staff are ill. Well, it feels like it anyway. I spent most of Ofsted week with a sore throat and then came down with a really bad cold and lost my voice. Mostly it was OK but you want to try teaching a class of 16 year olds when you can't make yourself heard! Interesting. Not. I was lucky that the learning support person was able to do the shouting for me. Of course all the jobs that had deadlines during Ofsted week were postponed so this week has also been mad and I have had to reschedule and arrange cover for classes because people have been off sick. Luckily the team is good and we have pulled together. I am not allowed to write down what grade we got from Ofsted as the grading is still subject to moderation, but we were quite pleased.
Date posted: 17 Mar 2013
A Day in the life
With so much talk recently about teachers and what an easy life they have I thought I might tell you about what was, for me, a fairly typical Thursday.
I start teaching at 9am. I arrive at work somewhere around 8:20, depending on traffic. Yesterday the traffic was bad and I was "late" and only arrived at 8:35. After that everything went downhill.
Before first lesson: turn computer on, wait for updates, fill in time by checking calendar for upcoming events like Open Day (8pm finish on that one), discuss upcoming student trip to Bletchley Park and need for somebody to be able to drive the College minibus because even small coaches are very expensive. Apparently if you want to do the driving test to be insured for driving the bus you have to pay for it yourself. That's not going to happen any time soon. Check email and find several from students who want me to do things and also several from the Functional Skills co-ordinator with results and instructions. I should not have been sent the results as they are not for my students, but he's sent all of them to everybody. I have to read all the instructions and results before I can work out that none of them apply to me.
First lesson: Introduction to HTML for level 1 students. Not all of the class is there but we start anyway. They need to be able to use Notepad on their computers. All College computers have Notepad installed. No they don't, not in this room they don't. So my carefully planned lesson immediately goes out of the window. We spend 20 minutes or so going round checking the computers in the room. 2 have the right software and 3 don't work at all. 17 computers, and 21 students in a full class. That's going to work well then. Yell for help with the lack of the correct Software. Tech support is "busy" but will send somebody along as soon as possible. Do different lesson to the one planned but end up in the same place as planned because the next person with that group has planned their lesson based on what I said I was going to do in mine. Students do not find this lesson nearly as much fun as the one they should have done as there is a lot more of me telling them things and a lot less of them doing things.
10:30 is break time. Warn the person following me with the group I just had that the software doesn't work. I catch up with a part-time colleague about what we are doing today with our groups, check that the speaker on Sexual health who is booked for the afternoon tutorial slots is still coming (she is). Deal with more email. Just at the end of break somebody from Tech Support comes in to ask what the problem with the software is and which room it is in.
Next lesson is planned round access to a particular web site which the students are supposed to use for research. I checked the site was still there and that everything the students would need was available. 15 minutes into the lesson we got to the bit where they had to visit the web site and carry out a specific set of activities. They can't access the web site. It is blocked by the web software. I knew this. Last term I asked the tech support people to unblock it, which they allegedly did. Or didn't. Anyway lesson number 2 down the drain. Much disgruntlement and an emergency request to tech support to unblock. Which they did - but not until after lunch, which wasn't a lot of use to me. I replaced the lesson with one I prepared for the next session with that group and soldiered on. I got a lot of complaints about marking not being done when work has been handed in. The rule is 2 weeks maximum from due date, but late work can take longer. Several student had work that was more than 2 weeks past due date and not marked yet. I have to speak to my colleagues about that.
Lunchtime. I ate my lunch with one hand on my mouse while I checked attendance for some of my students. I discussed some disciplinary issues with a colleague. Another colleague sent me a bad behaviour report for a student in one of my tutor groups (I have 2 tutor groups - lucky me) so I processed the paperwork to send him to head of faculty because he's on his third misbehaviour report. A student came to see me with problems with their work so I sorted that out. I even managed a cup of coffee.
Free period: Yeah right. I am mentoring a student who has fallen behind with his work. I have known him (taught him) for 4 years. He works for me, but apparently not for anybody else. I spent an hour with him steering him through some work that he was being taught by somebody else. Then my head of section comes along and asks me to support a new-to-teaching colleague with their marking and check that it is being done correctly. I have already done some of that but there is now a significant amount that needs to be checked. I also hear that there is a chance that the layout for the annual course review has changed and that the updates that I completed in March will have to be typed in again on a different form and printed out instead of the electronic submission we had just started using. Apparently it is Ofsted's fault! What this means is that Ofsted said that a lot of the procedures we were using were too cumbersome and not fit for purpose, so management decided to change them. Right now, in the middle of the academic year when half of the stuff is under the old system.
After that it was a relief to get into class. That lesson at least worked out OK and the students did what they wanted to do and not everybody had problems with the software, though several did.
After my last class (only 4.5 hours of teaching today) I did some marking, tried to print the annual course review and found that every time I tried it crashed the system with an exception. Worked with a colleague to get paperwork completed for a suspension hearing (the student, not us) before senior management and finally left just on 6pm.
By the time I got home and cooked dinner I was too tired to do much of anything, though I did do some preparation.
Today I discovered that not only am I going to have to re-write the annual course review but I am also expected to get my students through a new short qualification, in addition to their main qualification and their Functional Skills and another qualification we are running alongside the main course to make up their taught hours to 16 per week. I did manage to deliver the second of my ruined lessons from yesterday because the web site had actually been unblocked. I also managed to leave "early" at 5:20, having spent the time after the end of my classes doing some marking and preparation for next week. I am so glad it's the weekend.
Date posted: 20 Apr 2012
Is it that time already?
Suddenly it's April. I have no idea where the first 3 months of the year went, but they went! Actually I do know. We had an Ofsted inspection in January so we spent a lot of time preparing for it, and then some more time recovering from it. Then there was the usual dashing about like mad things trying to keep on top of the work, and I had an interview for what is essentially the same job I am doing now. The significant difference is that I have gone from a fixed term contract to a "permanent" one. Same contract and pay. Same government trying to make me pay more for less. Same 0.5 percent pay rise.
There was some bozo trainee reporter writing in the paper the other day saying that teachers have a dead cushy life and shouldn't complain about their pensions because it's better than most people get. So what? That pension is part of my contract of employment. She bleated on about the long holidays teacher get (see my previous post about teacher arithmetic) I don't know how she thinks that will help pay the mortgage since I am contractually obliged not to take additional work outside teaching, even in the holidays. I bet she'd be moaning fast enough if all teachers decided, without consultation or negotiation to reduce their class contact hours by 3%. Sauce for the goose?
Date posted: 17 Apr 2012
Review of the Year
Well, it's New Year's Eve and everybody else is doing it, so I thought I might as well, since I'm here in front of the computer anyway. The Madwoman's domestic review of the year.
January - We weren?t too badly affected by the snow, though schools and Colleges were closed for 3 days. The boys had a great time. They may be teenagers but they still like to build snowmen and have snowball fights. The cats were somewhat less than impressed by the snow and stayed in until all risk of cold paws was gone. I managed to come down with some unspecified lurgy and ended up being signed off work for 5 weeks, not fun.
February - Nothing much. Half term came and went, I worked through it, trying to catch up and also trying to undo the damage that the supply lecturer did to my classes. She appeared to be nothing more than a menace. I had an argument with her within the first 10 minutes of meeting her. Apparently we weren't managing our time properly because we didn't have a telephone directory in the office (it's on the intranet) and we also didn't have a year planner on the wall in the office. Hellooo we are a Computing department, we use IT systems, including timetable software (it's a database) and Outlook why do we need a planner on the wall?
March - Busy month, still trying to get back on track. We were still working with unsuitable accommodation and having to work in 4 different buildings.
April - I officially became the short person in the family. No. 2 son had a growth spurt and shot past me. He's still growing, well over 6ft tall now. No. 1 son has also grown, and maintains his height advantage over his brother.
May - A/S exams for No.1 son and some GCSE module exams for No. 2 son. I sang in the Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall. Then the boys and I went camping for a few days at half term. The Isle of Wight was warm and sunny and not windy for the whole time we were there. That was a new experience, the first time ever we have been camping and not endured wind and rain. Both boys want to go back there as soon as possible, so we might think about that for 2012.
June - More exams for the boys and the final push on to get the results we needed at work. Of course most of the good students were pretty much finished by this point, but we still had to nag, drag, push and bully the duffers through so that they could finish their qualifications. Nobody said a word of thanks (naturally).
July - End of term for all of us. I got into a "use it or lose it" situation with my holidays so I decided to use it. That was good. On the less good side No. 2 son's cat, Hoopy, vanished and, despite leafleting the area and going out searching for her there was no sign. I sung with The Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall. That was good fun, as always.
August - is holiday month for us. Because himself is always busy during A level results week the boys and I go away that week, just to get out from under his feet. This year we went to Wales (camping again) on the western edge of the Snowdonia National Park. It rained for at least some of every day and it was also cold. Not cool, but cold. Twice it was so cold by 9pm that we could see condensation when we breathed out. That's colder than it was here at 9pm yesterday! Luckily we have a good tent, so we didn't get wet, but it was seriously cold at night. We now have a tent heater. We went to Harlech and Aberystwyth and did a fair bit of walking one way and another. No. 2 son managed to fail to pack his insulin needles so we spent the first day, trying to locate a chemist who had some. The Medical Centre in Bala was fantastic and looked after us brilliantly. We had to drive a fair distance but we did get the needles in the end.
September - Back to school time for us. I don't know (well, actually I do know but I'm not telling) who it was dithered about for so long on rooming allocation that we ended up moving our entire staff room from one building to another in the middle of Admin week when we were interviewing and enrolling new students. Of course then we had to change all the rooms on the timetable and check that they all had the correct software installed on the computers. 2 years ago my main teaching room was in an old building, it was large enough to get 20 computers round the edge and a table in the middle big enough to seat 20 students round easily. The air conditioning worked. I am now in the new building, there is barely enough room to get 20 computers round the outside (and no room to put notepads or anything next to the keyboards as there was before), I can fit maybe 10 students round the table in the middle - as long as I don't want to walk round and look at what they are doing. There is no air-conditioning and even with the windows (and half of *them* don't open at all) and door open (onto a busy corridor) it is still much too hot. This is progress?
October - Good news. Hoopy turned up. We had had no news of her and since she is micro-chipped we were a bit worried. We got a phone call from the vet at the other end of town. Somebody had taken her in and she had been well looked after . The vet had been trying to sterilise her, but it had already been done, so he re-scanned her and found the chip. We were all very pleased to have her back. Well, all apart from Toffee, the other cat, who isn?t impressed. No trip away this half term, though No. 1 son and I went to my mother's house and cleaned it while she was away with my sister. No. 1 son lost his job and was part relieved and part upset. He's still looking for a new job, so if anybody wants a good part time (evenings and weekends) junior chef I know where you can find one.
November - We got the dining room back. For most of the summer we have had the contents of the sheds inside the house. The taxi firm who had their garage/office adjoining our garden moved elsewhere and the building was sold. The new owner pulled it down and built a house there, but of course the scaffolding had to go somewhere and since their house wall is our garden boundary wall, it went in our garden ? right where the sheds were. They came down, and everything came into the house so we were minus a dining room from the first week in July. All is back to normal (more or less) now though. The scaffolding has gone even if the house itself isn?t finished yet. I sung in "The Armed Man" with my choir mid-month, that seemed to go down quite well.
December - This was mainly Christmas preparation. Some singing with the choir, the usual rushing about. Of course I have the disadvantage of having 2 major birthdays to contend with since both Himself and my mother have birthdays in December, and so did my father. Now we are looking forward to the new year. We have avoided the sales so far, since we have no money to spend and anyway who wants to go shopping? Yesterday I was driving past Bluewater at about 1pm and was horror struck by the sheer volume of traffic trying to get into the place. Have these people nothing better to do than just shop? Have they no life? I was on my way to a concert (see previous post). Today I am planning to settle down with a book for a while before preparing the family dinner and spending time with my family. With any luck it will be at least another week before I set foot in any shop, and possibly longer.
Oh well, it could be worse. Happy New Year everybody.
Date posted: 31 Dec 2011
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