Well-meaning friends

From time to time well-meaning friends forward me emails they have received warning them of all sorts of dire consequences that will happen to their computers if they get a new virus which is doing the rounds. They have been strongly advised to forward the email to everyone in their contacts address book which is why I end up with it. Whenever I receive anything that tells me to pass this on to all my friends I do an internet search and it has always been a hoax. I usually reply to the “friends” and let them know the truth.

Another nuisance email I sometimes get, like the one that arrived this week and prompted this rant, warns me of a scam which runs up a massive phone bill if I call a particular number. This also turned out to be a hoax. Mind you, an article appeared in my local community newspaper giving credence to the scam. And here’s me thinking that everything printed in the press was true!!

I would just like to say to all my concerned, well-meaning friends: Do a google search before you forward me any warnings! You’re wasting my time!!

Already?

I just heard a couple of ads for Christmas on TV. I love Christmas but is it my imagination or is the build up to Christmas getting earlier each year?

Miss November

After reading my friend Ali’s blog I was reminded that we decided last year to make a Science Department Pin Up Calendar of our classroom assistants. (Not one of THOSE calendars, Ali) It began because one of the girls was a bit down and we decided to cheer her up. So she became Miss November. We did it for a laugh – nothing tasteless or smutty.

Anyway, we lost interest after November and let the whole thing drop. There were a lot of complaints from the other assistants, not because of the male chauvinist thing, but because they had not been asked to go on the calendar. You can’t win.

Let there be (no) light!

I have finally gotten the lights in my classroom sorted. This is something I know has been of great interest to those of you who read my blogs on a regular basis. It turned out that they were wired wrongly (why didn't I think of that?) Now I can turn them off so that I can show the kids a DVD, play soothing music and bore them to sleep .............zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Pearls before swine

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast

(William Congreve)

Studies have shown that playing classical music, especially Mozart for some reason, can have a calming effect in the classroom. I have tried this on a number of occasions when the pupils are doing practical work and it seems to work.

During one class I had the radio tuned to Classic FM and there was a particularly soothing instrumental piece playing. One girl obviously had not read the research and said, “Sir, I can’t stand that opera music.”


Her friend was a bit more knowledgeable and told her, “That’s not opera music. Opera is when some woman sings at the top of her voice and you can’t make out the words.”

And here’s me thinking that was a description of heavy metal.

Light headed

We have just moved to a new, purpose-built school. It is great because I was in a mobile classroom (why do they call them mobiles when they don’t move?) and it was not pleasant getting to the main building when the weather was bad (most of the time).

In general, I am quite happy with my new facilities even though the room is slightly smaller than my old one. One benefit of the new accommodation is that I have a conservatory adjoining my room although, for some strange reason, it is described in the architect’s plans as a greenhouse.

The school has been designed to be ‘green’ so it has many energy saving devices and recycles rainwater to flush toilets etc. My room has a modern lighting system which is operated by motion sensors. This means that the lights go off automatically. Unfortunately, I discovered that I cannot turn off the lights to watch videos or carry out experiments on light or colour unless the entire class sits perfectly still the whole time. (Yeah, that’s going to happen!) After much thought and scientific application I found that if I disabled the motion sensor with a piece of card and some sticky-back plastic then the lights could be turned off.

The builders have come up with a more permanent solution. They are going to install an ingenious manual activation device on the wall. This means that when the switch is down the lights are on and when it is up the lights are off. Revolutionary, eh?