Tag: humour

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School’s out Friday

I love this University Professor’s Halloween joke with his class, and I agree with the comment appearing under this video on YouTube,

“…if every teacher was like you there will be better students. Continue like that, maybe that will inspire other teacher’s. And im sure students also learn better with fun.”

I think humour plays such an important part in teaching. Sure, we’ve all got important messages and information to impart to our students, but sharing a laugh and teaching them how important this ingredient is to a healthy life should be part of that too. I shared plenty of laughs with our Year 7 students this week as they worked on their inquiry project. Together, we tackled the joys of using technology as we converted files and sought out ways to fix problems we were encountering. Laughing along the way, and not getting disgruntled as we hit roadblocks, made the learning so much more enjoyable.

I had to laugh to myself when I sent out a tweet asking for help about a filetype I was attempting to convert. Alec Couras replied informing me that a WMPL file was a project file and not a rendered movie file. There lay the solution to our problem, and there I was looking foolish on Twitter! I figure you just have to accept that no question is a dumb question, so I dutifully thanked Alec for his help. What’s truly wonderful about this is that I could have tried sorting that issue for a lengthy period of time, but instead, I went to my network for help. It came within a minute or two from Canada. As Alec pointed out after I’d thanked him,

So there you have it, republicans, reason to retain the monarchy!!

I’m the subject of John Larkin’s Friday Follow interview this week. If you feel so inclined, take a visit to John’s site and see what I have to say about social media and education. I’d like to thank John for inviting me to participate. He is one of the gentleman on Twitter. Someone I’ve never met face to face, but whose online demeanor makes me feel like we would get on.

I don’t have much planned for the weekend ahead, but I’m figuring that’s a good thing. Just happy right now to go where the flow takes me.

Enjoy whatever comes your way.  : )

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Rules of Thumb

I was reading a blog recently (can’t remember which one) that referred to the website Rules of Thumb . The site claims you’ll find ‘Every Rule of Thumb on earth in one place.’ I was reminded of this site tonight after my idyllic walk down the beach with the kids and dog all went wrong!

First day of the working week, busy day, hot, humid weather. However, I had cleverly made dinner the night before so had time up my sleeve when I got home. We ate dinner and I suggested we take the dog down the beach for a run. Beautiful warm night, quality time with the kids, dog deliriously happy. What could possibly go wrong. You could lose your car keys on the beach, that’s what could go wrong!

We scanned the beach back and forth to no avail. Had to ring mother from local restaurant to take family and dog home and search for spare key. Thank goodness it was found. Back down to beach to retrieve car.  Writing this blog entry at 11.00pm as a result. Here’s my Rule of Thumb – whenever you think you have time up your sleeve something is going to happen to upset your applecart!

I like this one from the Rules of Thumb site;

Body Language thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb
WATCHING PEOPLE’S SHOULDERS
Genuine emotion is always expressed with the entire body. When uncertain of a person’s sincerity, watch their shoulders. You should doubt anyone who is speaking with strong emotion and relaxed shoulders.

This could be a good site to use with an English class. Students could read the examples and come up with their own – they could then contribute their own Rules of Thumb to the site and experience the thrill of seeing their creation on a webpage.

Off to bed for much needed sleep!