Where's it gone?

On Monday, I looked out of the window, to see a nice thin blanket of snow covering everything, which meant scraping it off my car, then having to drive slowly on the way into work, due to the iced up roads. The slower speed meant just about making it into school on time, then I had to cope with classrooms of hyped up kids who haven't seen a decent snowfall for something like 4 years, including one fool who thought that bringing a snowball into class and trying to hit me with it (failing, thankfully!) was a good idea, even if he had no clue what he was going to do after throwing it.

The journey home was about as much fun, because it started snowing again, and the snow seemed to be sticking to things.

The weather reports promised loads more snow for the next couple of  nights, with a couple of inches likely.

I was even worried about going out to play poker on Monday night, because of the possibility of frozen roads.


And then it got a tiny bit warmer, and it all melted. :-(


The likelihood of the school I work at being closed is highly unlikely anyway - it's in the middle of a town, just off a major route, so unless we got some ridiculous blizzard-like proportion of snow dumped on the North West, the gritting along with the heat of the town and all the cars on the roads would melt it off the main roads pretty quickly.

So now, it's back to business as usual.

Some good news for me, as told by the Headteacher to the Year 8's in assembly this morning:
"Tomorrow, at lunchtime, you'll be halfway through this academic year." - 19 and a half weeks gone at that point.

The only other countdown in my head is the 5 months and 10 days to me turning 30. I sent a 30th birthday card to a cousin of mine last weekend, and I think it's made me a bit depressed about getting older, especially as I now also have a 3 month old niece.

I'll just have to cheer up. :-)

On my computer desktop, I have Post-It notes. It's a digital version of the paper note squares. 

One of them has a list of all the weekends for the next 4 months, along with what I'm doing during them, because if I don't write stuff down, I end up forgetting what I'm doing, and will end up needing to be in two places at once. 
( So, what's keeping me busy? )

So, it's 2009.

I've not much to say about it.
I've made no resolutions, and can't really think of much I want to do at the moment.

I turn 30 this year, in about six and a half months, so I might actually try to get my arse in gear to go on holiday somewhere at some point. That, and think about what I want to do with the next 10 years of my life. 

I'm quite lucky with regards to my career choice with the current financial issues in the country. Children aren't likely to become an endangered resource any time soon, and so I should have a job for a bit.
I saw a news article somewhere saying that there was a move to recruit stockbrokers and bankers from the City to become teachers ... hopefully not of Business Studies though, or we'll be going through the same problems again in 10 years time.


I hope anyone reading this has had a good Christmas time and New Year.
All the best for the rest of this year.

When I said that I was going to go mark some tests, I was obviously lying. What I did instead was read the last few posts I made to this blog before going, and realised I managed to miss a few things:

There is no longer anyone in my house but me - my lodger moved out about a month ago. His wife changed her mind about a divorce when he took her at her word, and started to make appropriate preparations to get divorced. They are now slowly fixing things in their relationship, and he moved in with a frien who lives just round the corner from where he used to live, so that he is nearer to her and his sons.

I've left the computer downstairs, because it seems to work here - I can watch TV, and search the interwebs at the same time.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that I'm now an uncle, and have been forcoming on 6 weeks. My formerly oversized sister lost a bit of weight, when she gave birth on the 30th November to my niece, Lauren. I've been around a few times, and all I have to say is that small babies are cute. I have managed to avoid changing any nappies yet, but over Christmas, I'm sure I'll end up getting my hands dirty (although hopefully ONLY my hands, and hopefully not that much either.)

Right.

NOW, I'm going to go mark some tests, then go to bed. 

At least...that's the plan.

Where am I up to. What's happened in the last few months that I, again, stopped writing anything.

I'm now 6 school days away from Christmas. We'll finish early on the last day, meaning I don't need to see my bottom set Y8 class (yay!) again until the new year, and Y11 will be on Mock Exam Leave next week, so that will also mean an easier week. I'm planning on having pupils work up until Wednesday (or even Thursday morning potentially for one class), which will get gradually harder as everyone stops for Christmas and puts on DVDs.

My Form class are still really nice, which is gives me a nice start to the day in the morning.
One problem I do have is that I don't like getting out of bed, so getting started is an issue. Going to bed too late probably doesn't help there.

My last work-related thing is that I am now part of a 'Level 6, and Beyond...' project. (I think you really need a loud voice and some echo on that last part to do it justice). The aim is to develop pupils skills to make them better at Science, instead of just teaching the content for tests. No SATS exams is good for this too. So far, it's meant two days out of school talking to other teachers, which has been really useful, as it's given me lots of good ideas to use in my lessons. It's also a welcome change of pace in the middle of the longest term of the year.


With regards to bowling, my curse of league closing has struck again, with the league I bowled in on a Wednesday moving somewhere that the rest of the team I was in didn't want to go to. This has left me only bowling occasionally, which seem to be doing me some good - I can enjoy it a bit more when I do, and my left knee, which has sometimes started to hurt after a couple of games, isn't strained as much. I must be getting old if I'm complaining of joint problems. I've still got 7 months until I turn officially old (30) though.

I'm still playing poker, although not as well at the moment. I'm off to play a tournament in a casino with a few others from the Monday league I play in later this month, which should be an interesting experience - the entry fee is only a few pounds, but it's a step up from playing for a pound. I've also, with a bit of research, found that a couple of casinos within half an hour of me have regular tournaments for quite low (under £10) entry fees, which may be something I will be doing in the new year. It'll get me out of the house more anyway.


I'm off to visit a friend in Newcastle this weekend, to catch up, and also to go shopping at the Metro Centre, which is even bigger than the Trafford Centre outside Manchester. I have a list of stuff I want to try and find as gifts for people, although I'm trying to use the internet for things where I can.

My final thing to include on here is that I've just finished putting together a chest of drawers I bought form IKEA. It looks quite nice, and now means that, if I ever dump some of the junk I've kept in the room since I moved into my house 6 years ago, that I have a serviceable guest room, with space for people to put clothes that isn't just the floor or a chair. There's even some hanging space, as I actually did have someone staying in there for a couple of months, and they bought a cloth covered DIY wardrobe pack.

Right now, I'm going to mark some tests, then go to bed.  Then I can tick something else off my quite long to-do list.

3 weeks into the term, and I'm a bit knackered.

Still, it's Friday tomorrow.

That is all. :-)

During this week, I have had children in my classes asking 'Sir, is the world going to end on Wednesday?', or ' Am I going to die on Wednesday?'

This is to do with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a rather large piece of experimental apparatus that fills up a 27km ring underneath Switzerland and France. This is a facility run by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, which is better known by it's acronym in French - CERN, The experiment is designed to bash very small particles into each other, at very fast speeds  - 99.999999% the speed of light, eventually, when they get it all working.

Apparently, certain newspapers and other information distribution organisations have published articles warning that, once this is turned on, it will produce Black Holes (ooooo!), or that it could even 'Destroy the whole of existence as we know it' (aiiiie!). This partly comes from the fact that a number of uninformed persons launched a court case in America (where else?) in an attempt to stop a previous collider experiment from being started up, on the grounds that it might 'Breach their human rights if it destroyed the Earth'.

These people have obviously never heard of Cosmic rays, which strike the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere every day with tens and even hundreds of times more energy than will be produced by any particle accelerator on Earth. The things they are worried about occurring would have happened in the last 4.5 billion years (or 6000 years, according to some... ?), if it was going to happen at all.

They also seem not to have not read many, if any ...

I was going to write the word 'books' here, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

They also seem not to have not read many, if any, of the many articles that have been published, debunking the myths about the production of Black Holes. Interested in what exactly might be the situation regarding this, I spent all of 20 seconds typing a search into Google (Something along the lines of 'LHC Black Holes'), which produced a number of interesting articles which took all of 15 minutes to read, which confirmed that there is such a minuscule chance of the Earth being destroyed in this manner, that I would be more likely to win the lottery for the next 2 weeks, than be killed due to the Earth being destroyed by a black hole.

If Black Holes are eventually produced by the LHC (and it isn't a certainty), it would give people trying to explain how gravity works an interesting bit of evidence. One of the interesting things is that we don't know what will happen - that would be the whole point of Science - Investigate a Hypothesis, by Experiment (whenever possible), to provide Data, to form a Conclusion.


What's even worse is that those shouting 'The End is Nigh!' have no clue about what actually happened today in the LHC. All they did today was make sure that beams of protons would go all the way round the ring, in both directions.(I'm throwing the word 'All' in very lightly there - it was a massive feat of engineering to get this to happen). The next thing they have to do is check that they can get a beam to go around multiple times without falling apart, or flying off somewhere.
Only once they've managed to do this can they start to speed up the protons from their injection speed 97% of the speed of light (which, is still really, REALLY fast), up to their eventual maximum of 99.999999% (Also known as LUDICROUS speed, for those who have watched Spaceballs).


So, to answer anyone who asks 'Are we going to die today?', the answer has to be 'Only if you choose to run out in front of a bus,' (Don't do that, by the way!)

So, it's the first week of a new school year. Back to work for all the teachers and children. I've been back for 4 days, and so far, it's going well, even if I am feeling quite drained.

( 4 days down, 191 to go? )
One other thing that is nice about schools being back is that, when I've gone bowling on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the car parks outside the bowls have been much less full - I've been able to park much closer, which considering the current weather, is something I'm glad of. Yay for schools!

Friday tomorrow, during which I get to meet two more of my classes for the first time (including the bottom ability Year 8 set ... for the last lesson of the day - that should be ... interesting). I'm also going to let the new Year 7's loose with Bunsen burners for the first time. Health and Safety to the front please!

...and no, they aren't going to 'axe murder' me. Yet. They haven't spent enough time in my company. I give it a couple of weeks.

Joking aside (which I'm capable of for short periods), one of the other Science teachers at my school needed somewhere to stay for a bit that was nearer to school than his mum's, 90 minutes away. I have a spare room, and so I've offered it to him to use.

Which means I've moved my computer from upstairs in what was my spare room - not really 'spare' when it's in use - to downstairs.

And I found out a few things:
( Listification: )
So, I have a new setup for using the computer, and someone else around, which will be a big thing for me to get used to.
With a 3-4 month exception about 5 years ago, I've lived on my own since I moved into my house. 

I'll have lived in my house for 6 years in October. I'm about to start my seventh (!) year of teaching... I'll be 30 (!!) at the end of this academic year...and I'm getting back pain and my knees are starting to hurt when I'm ten-pin bowling...

So, I've also 'found out' I'm getting old. Not that I'm getting worried in any way at all. Or anything. (!!!)


So, my new computer setup is taking up half of my downstairs table. And I'll have to move it all again next weekend so we can play poker around the table.
 
I'm hosting a small Home Game for my sister (who is 6 weeks from giving birth - she's getting BIIIIG...but that's another post), her husband, and a friend of ours - it's more an excuse to get together and see each other - but it's fun to see how much we can bluff each other. We've had 5 or 6 of the things, and they are getting quite good at it now. :)


Moving the computer also meant setting up a wireless USB dongle thingymebob (technical term - honest), because the router and cable modem are upstairs. 

( RTFM? ROFL! )

...now to go to sleep, so I can get up and enjoy the last weekday of my holidays...by running around after small children at the Children's Playscheme I'm volunteering at in the morning (which really is a lot of fun)
Then I'll be going into school in the afternoon...to do some tidying. (which isn't as much fun)
Yay.

Strange thing about the school summer holidays - they make me feel tired.

I suppose part of it is not having to get up for a particular time, which then means I go to bed at weird hours, and so my body clock falls apart.

The other part is trying to find things to do - which probably will obtain no sympathy from anyone on a regular work schedule. After a couple of weeks, most stuff has become repetitive, there's only so much funny stuff on YouTube, and I can already remember what happens in most of the DVD's I have, just by looking at the box. 

One of those things about my memory - although my short term - up to a day or so - can sometimes leak like a sieve, my long term memory of things like books and films means that, if I've seen or read something a few times, I can most likely remember most of the salient points...including the ending.

Anyway, that's when doing the things that I don't get time to do during term-time come in handy.
I get to go and meet up with my sister, or my parents for lunch. I try and do that during most holidays, as its nice to see them.
I also tryand get up to see my Nan - I'm not bowling at Blackburn any more, so I'm not up there most weeks like I used to.

Something I've done for the last few years during the Summer holidays, and that I'll be doing this year, is that I'm going to be volunteering at a local community centre playscheme for a few days a week for the next few weeks. It gets me out of the house, doing a bit of running around, while helping children to have fun, and it's fun itself. The people who volunteer there are nice and friendly, and the playscheme itself is very well run and organised - because it only runs for a few weeks each year during the Summer (there is a weekly 'After-School' club on, which is sort of the same thing), it gets OFSTED inspected every Summer. The reports have been excellent every year.



Today, the thing I did to get myself out of the house was to go swimming. I've got some new presecription goggles, so I can now see things a lot more clearly. Now I need to learn to breathe properly so I can swim with my head underwater without drowning myself.

I predicted it when I started this blog, that I might end up losing interest, which I sort of did, because after getting back from Rome, I didn't use it for two months.

I got out of the habit of writing about what I was doing, and I also thought "I'm only really saying the same sort of things each time, about a few topics.'

However, on Saturday (2nd August), I did something that I'd quite like to remember - with one little bit I'd like to forget - and so I thought I'd write about it here.

I've been playing poker in pubs once or twice a week now, for the last 4 months, in leagues that fall under the umbrella of www.pokerdownthepub.com . When I first started, I came in near the end of a 13 week season, and so didn't have enough points to qualify for the Regional Final. For the last 13 weeks, on a Monday, I've played quite poorly (the topic for a couple of my previous blog posts.) This meant I wasn't anywhere close to the top 10 in the league at the end of the season (two weeks ago.) 

The Top 10 in each league gain qualification to the Regional Finals. However, having played OK on a Friday, I managed to collect enough points to qualify from there to the Regional Final. This was held on Saturday 2nd August, at a Gala Casino in Liverpool.

I've just got back from a 5-day holiday in Rome, along with Mary, Ben, my Mum and Dad. The weather was fantastic (apart from Thursday morning, when it rained), I didn't get sunburnt, due to liberal application of sunscreen, and Rome (or Roma, as the inhabitants call it) is a beautiful city.





 

Last day of school for a week,  so it's now time to get ready for my holiday.

With a holiday coming up, I needed a few bits and pieces, so it was off to the Trafford Centre with me. Having a shopping centre that's open until 10pm within a 20 minute drive of my house suits my lifestyle very well - I'm not really able to get to many shops during the regular 9 - 5:30 times during the week, and I don't like going into a crowded town or city centre during the weekend.

...in the Champions League final, then I might have been bothered about watching it. I'm not a big football fan. I'll watch it if it's a social activity, and I can follow a game and know what's going on. Anyway, that's not really what I wanted to go on about.