Eunoia

I love Radio 4. Totally miserable drive to work, with morons who kept cutting in front of me, but the Today programme is talking about Eunoia, a book by Christian Bok.
Eunoia means “beautiful thinking”. It also contains all five vowels. The books contains five chapters, each one containing words just one vowel sound. The result [...]

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Inclusion?

Just completed the latest module and I’m a bit underwhelmed. Also a bit patronised, a bit irritated, but also more educated. Just not as much as I’d hoped.
The two previous modules have challenged me, made me consider issues from different viewpoints: they’ve stretched me considerably. My practical CPD is pretty good and I like playing [...]

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Terror and the Cake Fairy

Did my good deed on Monday night, delivering birthday cake around darkest Lanarkshire, leaving friends about 11.30 to head home. Travelling along the Clyde Valley I get that horrible feeling: there’s something behind me…
(Not behind me inside the car you understand, but following me on the road. I hate it when that happens.)
~Don’t be daft, [...]

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Opening my eyes

Back at uni this week, and a session on specific learning difficulties.
I found out what certain kinds of hearing impairment sound like, which really opened my eyes (if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor). I discovered, through wearing adapted glasses, that tunnel vision is extremely scary. While I could still see, and still read, [...]

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How are they supposed to learn?

My place of work found itself in an interesting situation recently. Changes to the lower school curriculum created a spare period in the timetable, so where should it be spent? There were three specific options:

PSHE
ICT/Computing
Drama

Of course, I wasn’t consulted. Being a librarian, rather than a teacher, I miss out on a lot of involvement, since it [...]

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Book shops

Honestly, sometimes I can’t stand book shops. Shelves closing in menacingly, darkly looming : Why are you lost? Everyone else has arms loaded high! Find a decent book! When I’m just browsing with no aim in mind, there are endless possibilities dripping alluringly off every shelf end. Walk in to specifically buy a book [...]

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Ambition and determination

Three times last week, I was reminded of an ambition I had from when I was wee. First Berlie Doherty asks a group of pupils if any of them want to be a writer (she’s asking them, so I keep arms by my side). Same day is my 40th birthday and I’m hit with that [...]

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Q & PR: Glasgow 11th October 2008

It’s quite sad when two and a half hours of bliss fly by but when you’re watching craftsmen like these three guys it’s inevitable. The SECC must be a tiny venue in comparison to some the group have played, and I bet the noise had even the Finnieston Crane shuggling and shimmying along.
We ended up [...]

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40 and loving it

Well, I hit 40 on Wednesday and I have to say that I believe this is the best birthday week EVER! I was 30 just six weeks after the birth of my son. Most folks actually forgot, including me, because we had a wee bit of trauma over some gastric reflux (the baby, not me) [...]

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