Teraknor

Often weary of the negative hype of the media, always looking for something at fault and available for criticism, with members of the governments opposition jumping in. On behalf of my wife, daughter and oneself i would like to say ... "Thank you London 2012, today has been an immensely enjoyable experience" We are not particular sports fans, but with the Olympics being a once in a lifetime experience, we decided to request tickets when the 'lottery' started over a year ago. Unsuccessful, we were determined to get tickets, getting up early on the day they opened the 'free for all' at 06:00. I felt we were fortunate, getting 3 tickets for the Ladies Hockey and Football Final ... neither sports are 'our thing' but with a 16 year old daughter, each seemed appropriate. We did not want to spend too much money, but wanted to have that memory, as chances are, we may never see any Olympic event again. So, maybe we were a little bemused when so many wer...

Minutes of poetic nonsense, minute prose, making rhymes from words that mean little. Triptychs of time, temporal moments, minutes minute as they pass. Microseconds collect, becoming momentary delay. Adding up, collecting, accumulates each day. As each breath passes, each heart beat rendered, another day drifts on our journey to our end. Once begun, we hurtle towards a definite path, with only a moment to make an impression on our world. Words lost into an ether as each year becomes more and so even more. Decades, accumulate, maybe a century passed. Yet earth still spins, every day.

Now this has to be back in the first year I was teaching. For anyone new to teaching, working with 16-19 year old males in an urban setting can be a baptism of fire. You do need to have your wits about you, it is an alpha male culture and you do have to be on top, ahead and not 'worth the effort'. Being the new lecturer, the second years see you as prey whereas the first years are blithely unaware. Most of the characters 'trying it on' were easy to bat away with a little wit, leadership and 'taking no shit'. But, as befits the experience of any new educator, there are some situations that come from left field angle and takes one completely unaware. Blowing up in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, as befits the tempestuous nature of the young adult male. Early on in my career I was working on the 'if I am late" ... "so can you" policy, this worked as I am quite obsessive about time keeping, often at appointments early much to the cha...

Before you get irate about the title of this post, check out what feckless means. Over the years I had motivated students, students who coasted and those who were alas a waste of time. It may seem unfair to label students in such a manner, but having taught 1000's you do get to see a varied and interesting cross section. When I started in the 90's, I recall a student who joined us early in my teaching career and meandered their way onto a BTEC national (level 3). Never impressive, their work ethic was minimal and by the time they completed the second year was a 'pass only' candidate (after two tries at year two). So, already three years with the college, the culture of the time was 'bottoms on seats'  so some colleagues found it difficult to turn away students. Having a successful Computer Maintenance / Systems Support strand. We were into the second year running of a successful 'Networking' Diploma using another vocationally oriented qualificati...

You know when you have been involved with something for too long when you see the greats come and go. When you are able to lament on what was and laugh at what others are doing, as you have already made that mistake. A mark of longevity is when you see/hear of innovative practice and when you read it think "didn't we do that, way back when?" or more often "many were doing this, but why not now?". Moreover, you often hear of some organiastions, schools, colleges or universities being the 'best' at X or Y, having acquired a reputation that is no longer a reflection of their current reality. The reality is that in education, monoliths come and go, often with rapid ease. As education is entirely reliant on the one resource of the professionals teaching the topics in question. Unless there is the collective enthusiasm, supported by an ability to deliver the topic and get results. It can easily be lost in the mists of time. Sadly, the culture cultivat...

At a 'national' event one was co-leading last weekend I bumped into someone from 'the dim past'. Over coffee, we recalled how both of us, in our respective further education colleges had to endure the relationship with a local University. If this University was good at teaching computing; it may have had a ring of justification. But the issue was the opposite, in a relationship imposed by the senior exec of all local organisations in a consortium. Suddenly the 'Computing' faculty of the incumbent university found that whilst they had to service this widening participation partnership they were also in line for exposure over the quality of their teaching. We both had a torrid time, their fight lasted for a few short bouts, mine, over a period of five years was the 'unpublished' reason I started looking for work elsewhere. Unhappy at both the treatment and lack of support from local and corporate management. For the other incumbent, the fight was ...

Having taught HE in FE over four years ago, I used to manage a programme where over 95% of the students enrolled came from our FE college already. So, they did know that they were coming onto a programme that was already at their college. This article from the The Times Higher Education , does concern me. Whilst one was in a situation where we worked with local students to give them a local choice, we made it very clear that they are moving locally from their level three qualification into higher education.