Mundane News

[tyred]

Horrible dreich morning but I managed to get my walk in between the showers.

One of life's simple pleasures is putting on nice warm socks straight from the radiator

 

[fossyant]

Busy picket lines today. I'm in trying to plug a massive hole in the Faculty budget as we've not recruited enough students to target ! Folk were emailing me last night, so I've replied, but they have all have auto replies - 'we are on strike'. Hopefully will be quiet on the emails today and tomorrow.

Time for another brew.

 

[classic33]

Time to finish my tea, tidy up the dining room table, bank the fire for the night and toddle off up the wooden hill.

Nunnight one and all xxx

Worth that much!
In a fireproof safe I'll assume.

 

[Gwylan]

Some rodent has dined on Vanessa's wiring. Result is she's feeling a bit flat.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Cellar temperature is fine for cask. But I don't have a cellar. What I do have is a very warm flat. I'm not going to drink Bock and Sticke beer at over 20C.

Why is your flat so warm, over a bakery?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Why is your flat so warm, over a bakery?

The hot water boilers in all the flats are unlagged. I've raised this as an issue. As the room heating is included in the rent tenants don't end up with excessive bills but the cheapness does seem to lead to wastefulness. And there will be a hike in the heating part of the rent when the council's gas contract comes up for renewal.

 

[DCLane]

Busy picket lines today. I'm in trying to plug a massive hole in the Faculty budget as we've not recruited enough students to target ! Folk were emailing me last night, so I've replied, but they have all have auto replies - 'we are on strike'. Hopefully will be quiet on the emails today and tomorrow.

Time for another brew.

My subject area's the reverse; far more students recruited than planned. We're having to find new people to cover the additional classes. One reason I shattered at the moment is from doing additional sessions to cover the gaps, but that has a subsequent effect next semester as I'm nearly up to my annual capacity.

 

[DCLane]

Just won an auction for a bike with a £225 bid. Seller gets in contact and wants £695 instead.

Erm ... no.

 

[tom73]

Oi !!!

Some of us try to make classroom-based stuff more exciting. Or I would be doing if I wasn't on strike today. I spend days/nights/weekends crafting creative learning materials, which must be decent-ish as I see colleagues using them for years afterwards once I've passed the modules onto new people. And students like what I do, not just in-class but comments I get years later.

Oh, and you lot buy the stuff my graduates market to you 😊

Mind you, it'd probably not beat driving a dumper truck round outside. But there's Diggerland for that

You have to admit a hell of a lot of spoon feeding happens in teaching not inc the total parrot training that schools churn out.
Planning stuff in ways that engage, thinking up ideas and making stuff is what makes teaching fun. Luckily I did my training in a place that dares to be different at the partner uni it was just about the next set of teacher clones.

 

[DCLane]

@tom73 - I agree with you. Spoon-feeding and giving 'easy' grades doesn't help anyone. That's why a part of what I do is working with others to enhance their teaching practice.

 

[tom73]

@tom73 - I agree with you. Spoon-feeding and giving 'easy' grades doesn't help anyone. That's why a part of what I do is working with others to enhance their teaching practice.

Community of Praxis so often over looked or ignored a founding stone of any good practice.

 

[DCLane]

@tom73 - agreed again. But then I'm a practitioner academic rather than a research-based one who is more interested in their latest publication than the students.

Most of what I do is applied learning, connecting with real clients where possible so there's benefit inside and outside the classroom session, and I treat the lectures/seminars as facilitating learning amongst future professionals rather than as students. To me that changes the context from a teacher/pupil classroom in a higher education setting.

Many of my colleagues are similar, however we've a few who don't seem to go beyond research-first or a teacher-to-pupil approach.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I'm watching the BBC News at One .... have the clocks changed again?

 

[PeteXXX]

Newbie or CPC?

CPC for the umpteenth time...

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I'm watching the BBC News at One .... have the clocks changed again?

Watch it on iPlayer to completely blow your mind.