Monday Night Quiz

This was the first Monday in the month and as such it was the embassy Quiz night, Its a good night and I enjoy the fast paced rounds and questions. But unfortunately there is a "bug" going around and I seem to have caught a bit of it, I am getting off lightly but many others are dropping with a sore throat and general feeling of being unwell.

Its always been my attitude that unless I am really flattened which touch wood isn't something I am looking at doing then I should be able to continue.

I think a lot of it is a positive attitude, it seems too easy to just "take the day off" but then again if it was a streaming cold or flu then I admit I would rather someone took the day off than came in and shared it around.

Over the last few days I have started briefings on the new project "The Mothers Day Picture Frame" it does seem that the kids are quite interested and excited, partly because its NEW and partly because they now feel they have enough skill to actually have a go and get some sort of decent result.

From tonights post I intend to run a class by class review of what they do and how, focussing on one student and one class to see how it all comes together. I have allocated 5 weeks or 10 lessons to complete this which is driving it hard with new tasks coming in fairly quick succession. Time wise each lesson is a new task thus not allowing the pupils time to drag things out or get too relaxed with a slow build up. It will mean at the end of the paper work phase they will require to review their work for improvement after a quick mid task assessment, before moving into the design and manufacture.

In UK we teach approx 10 week projects which is a reasonable base within the UK curriculum but I feel out here with the timings and class teaching, projects need to be readjusted for shorter courses rather than longer ones. (This is a learning outcome from the last 2 projects and partly down to the fact the kids dont have the experience gained from coming through from the younger year groups with a knowledge and initial skill gained from previous work) Its been hard for the kids but the evaluations of the current work show they are really really keen and interested in a couple of years time I feel the department and the pupils who are then coming through will be developing some very nice projects.

More later tonight....