Equal opportunity

Last year at uni, I had an inclusion assignment for which I tried to develop a module which would raise awareness of inclusion and equality. Collaborating with a colleague, we drew up lessons to analyse stereotypes and get pupils to think about their own reactions.  Unfortunately I found suitable resources incredibly hard to find so I ended up handing in a report full of good intentions but lots of excuses for all the inaction.

Well, the module springs into action this week, and it’s looking good. We decided to move from a very general equality agenda to a focus on disability rights. Naturally I have my own interests here, but I had also found some great video clips from the Disability Rights Commission back in December, which sparked the idea for the investigation.  About a month ago, I discovered another great DRC film called Talk, which is still available from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The icing on the cake was a report by Cerrie Burnell for the BBC which examined prejudice against disability in the media.

The investigation starts with a series of six very short case studies covering different disabilities.

• I use a wheelchair and it’s difficult to get around school.
• I’m trying to get a job but employers don’t want to know because I’m partially sighted.
• My supervisor is always making nasty comments about disabled people. I’m scared in case he finds out I’ve got diabetes.
• I have dyslexia and want to go to college but my friends say the lecturers won’t understand my learning disability. I’m worried that I’ll fail.
• A group of  girls have been making fun of me because I’m deaf.
• My brother has autism and sometimes says and does strange things. I don’t like it when people talk about him and say bad things.

They’re deliberately short to encourage the groups to read through them all quickly, and select one that they would like to work with. Their task is to “make life easier” for the person in the case study in some way. That could mean a poster campaign, an invention, writing a story/poem, creating a presentation; it’s entirely up to each team.

I’m excited that it’s getting started, and curious to know what the kids will make of it. Unfortunately, I’m not likely to see the results in person since my timetable is already so busy.

Walk along the Wall I

It’s been interesting re-reading Hunter Davies’ book recording his walk along Hadrian’s Wall in 1974 to see how things have changed since then.

First stop is Wallsend. In Davies’ book, Segedunum fort is still covered by terraced houses. Now the fort has been excavated, and an award winning museum stands beside it.

Later on his wander thrugh the suburb of Benwell, Davies tops to see the Vallum gateway and Temple of Antenociticus. There’s a great explanation and pictures on the Roman Britain.org website. Nowadays they look pristine. Davies complains about the rubbish chucked all over the place. Looks like the kind of place that I’d love to go and spend hours poring over but husband and children drag me away after five minutes. Thank heavens we’ve all got cameras now: they’d have something to keep them occupied!

Wind in the Grasses

Gorgeous piece of piano music on Classic FM this morning, which reminded me of the theme tune to Beatrix Potter (sung by Miriam Stockley).

It was called Wind in the Grasses, by Helen Habershon, and was played by John Lenehan. It comes from an album called Found in the Rain. You can hear bits of it on Helen Haberson’s website.

Chuffed

Left at lunchtime on Friday to go along to Daughter’s school show (really funny and well produced), and discovered The Envelope from uni waiting for me at home. Got good comments for my final assignment so I’ve now completed my PGC APS. I’d love to continue, but the cost is just too much, for now anyway.

Anyway, I’m feeling quietly chuffed and proud of myself right now.

Children in Need

I loved the video for the Children in Need single. Me and Daughter sat and screamed excitedly at the telly:

“Thomas!”

“Wombles!”

“Scooby!!!!”

“Pingu!!!”

“Chippy Minton!!!!!”

“Who?” asks Daughter, (guess I didn’t bring her up right).

I think it’s a phenomenal piece of work, getting all these animated characters together. Peter Kay described it as “joyous” and I couldn’t agree more. It’s put the biggest smile on our faces and it’s going to be a DVD single!!!! Hurray!!

But where was renowned first bass of the Grumbley and District Choral Society? (You might know him better as Ivor the Engine).

The good, the great and the frustrating.

Another interesting and (mostly) fun week. In-service on Monday I was introducing more staff to Glow, working on Health and Wellbeing outcomes and planning for literacy and numeracy. Plus I got a good start on the restart of the Junior Fiction stocktake.

It’s been a relatively quiet week for classes, so there’s been time to help pupils with their personal statements for UCAS, which involves a lot of editing and a lot more persuasion and investigation. Pupils find writing nice things about themselves so difficult. I also had time to work with various departments on forthcoming investigations, with the associated searching and evaluation of resources, updating the website and of course, the inevitable timetabling.

By the end of the week I’d managed to complete the junior fiction stocktake, got loads of orders in and  even managed to work on the Librarians’ Glow training in January. And then I was asked for input regarding various new projects, which look really interesting and worthwhile.

Naturally, there were problems too. I was trying to train pupils on the library catalogue, but it decided not to work. Seems to be a problem whenever we get an update to the software. And we’re still having problems with classes trying to log in. It’s really frustrating for pupils to see people on either side working away, when the network is refusing them access for no apparent reason. But all of this is being documented, and people are working on solutions and ways around the problems.

Life is pretty good right now.

Awful Library Books Blog

I was pointed towards this gem from a LibraryThing forum post. The Awful Library Books blog celebrates all those wonderful resources from the past that should have been binned years ago.

At this point I have to pause to consider some of the tattier fiction residing on the LRC’s shelves. Unfortunately, it’s tatty becase it’s popular, so it’s all about grabbing it before it goes back on the shelf to be borrowed again. (That’s my excuse anyway).

My favourite weeding story concerned a colleague who never threw anything away, and then retired. The subsequent weeding revealed a copy of a book called “Today’s economics”, with a piece of paper taped over the letters T-O-D, reading Y-E-S-T-E-R.

The worst thing I ever found was an old hardback with some ‘natives’ on the cover waving spears at the white folks on the boat sailing downriver. First book I ever binned.

Creature of the night

Not a reference to the Rocky Horror Show, but an excellent book by Kate Thompson. I get so little time for reading these days that I tend to judge how good a book is by how it takes me to read it. This was a 3: three long reading sessions because I couldn’t put it down until I actually fell asleep (or in one case was going to be late for work).

The story’s quite simple: Bobby is a joyriding, thieving, thoughtless, addict ned from Dublin. His mother (not fit for purpose) moves the family to a cottage in County Clare to try to ’start again’. It’s clear that this is not going to work. This is family life at its most abusive and hurtful. I actually felt myself cringing away from some of the things they said and did to each other.

And then the plot circles around wee brother Dennis and his ‘little woman’ that he leaves milk out for, Bobby’s plans to get back to Dublin and his bad old ways and his mother’s struggle to live a decent life with no clue how to do it, with nods from previous occupants, a Swede named Lars with a fascination for the supernatural and parents who served prison sentences for the murder of their daughter.

It is hard and brutal, with matching language, but Bobby is a tremendous character, and I’ve got so much running through my head about it – Kate Thompson’s stopped in exactly the right place and in the right way to let the reader carry the story on themselves. It’s definitely one I’d recommend to other folks. Brilliant.

In search of Albion

What to say about this wee book? It was good, I liked it. It was full of many, many, many eccentric English customs, some I knew about and some I didn’t. The constant references to lack of navigation skill got a bit annoying after a while though.

I wasn’t expecting such a focus on folk music, which is perhaps a bit daft of me on reflection, or perhaps not. Music kind of stands by itself I think. People don’t necessarily associate it with ‘custom’, but then that’s kind of Irwin’s point. It used to be part and parcel of everyone’s daily life – why isn’t it anymore?

This would certainly be a great book for someone wanting not just an introduction, but background to the folk revival, but then whether they’d be interested in the meanderings across England is unknown. But I like it for that, for not sticking to the point, or at least making the point as wide as possible and not being limited by which bookshop shelf it’ll sit on.

Work Experience

This was one of those occasions when you blithely offer your services, knowing full well that they’ll never be required. As a result, that offhand remark about work experience placements came back to haunt me. A lot of LRC tasks are repetitive, but the last thing I wanted was to bore a pupil (C) for five straight days especially when their preferred place had been cancelled at the last minute.

So, I decided that the best thing was to give them a taste of all of the LRC’s tasks, but avoid anything that I was particularly picky about (which is kind of a lot).  At the end of the week I reviewed what we’d done:

• Monday: up to date photos for the school website / handbook. Visit departments gathering information for the  press release. Begin stocktake. Circulation (issuing / returning books for classes using the LRC).
• Tuesday: I had meetings all day so C spent the day helping out in other departments. This would otherwise have been a day of stock preparation (jacketing, labelling etc)
• Wednesday: Circulation. Continued with stocktake but the program crashed. Created an order from an existing list. Had to check ISBNs, current prices and availability first. Then had to type one page again when I accidentally closed it without saving C’s work (oops!).
• Thursday: Press details. Ran around the school gathering last minute details from staff. Checked invoice and delivery note against resources delivered. Catalogued new resources. Helped with 1st year class. Shelving.
• Friday: C updated work experience diary. Reviewed website pages for non-functioning links. Created a website page. Involved creating the page, typing the text, selecting photo and altering it in Photoshop. Completed stocktake and cataloguing.

So, I think it was an ok taster. C was well turned out, pleasant and did exactly what was asked of him. It was wonderful having an assistant. I got through a lot of work, although I felt lost without my computer (and Star Trek chair). With no access to the computer I had no documents, no favourites, and no access to the school website. In some ways it was frustrating because I’m used to having access to my own information whenever I want it, but on the other hand, it gave me time to research and set up so many other pieces of work, and reorganise long sections of the shelves that hadn’t been touched in months. I was able to fully assist the pupils selecting books, rather than vanish off to the desk for issues and returns.

Naturally, in the current climate, I’m never going to get an assistant, but clearly, it would be incredibly valuable. The LRC could remain open when I had meetings. All the new stock sitting in the office could be jacketed, catalogued and labelled. News gathering would be a doddle. I could run clubs at lunchtime because I’d have assistance getting things organised.

Just so long as they get their own Star Trek chair.