Month: Jun 2013

(satire?)

Far-right groups the EDL and the BNP have joined forces this weekend to launch their biggest mobilisation for 30 years against English spelling with more than 50 demonstrations of appalling syntax and grammar planned in towns and cities across England. 

EDL leader Tommy Robinson launched the campaign against correctly written and spoken English earlier today by tweeting he was planning to lay a ‘reef’ at the War Memorial while carrying a banner saying “Sport Are Troops”.

And the BNP for its part started the campaign off with a warning to its members that auntie fashists may try to prevent them from protesting against terawrists, imogrunts and forynas.

Activists from both far-right groups also revealed the official slogan for the campaign:

Not to be outdone by the demonstrations of tortured English by their fellow far-right activists, the UKIP also released a statement in support of the campaign saying all terrorist’s should…

(satire – probably)

David Cameron has held crisis talks at Downing Street after being told of stunning allegations that he has been having a love affair with himself.

For legal reasons, Pride’s Purge cannot disclose the identity of the serving UK prime minister that Mr Cameron is alleged to have been involved with – however we can reveal that when aides told Mr Cameron he’d been shagging himself for the last 2 years he was ‘stunned’, and, according to sources, ‘immediately realised the importance of the story’.

The Prime Minister and his aides also discussed the possible fallout should details of his affair with himself become public – and how such disclosure could ‘blow out of the water’ any major political set pieces planned by the coalition by making his present bit-on-the-side Nick Clegg extremely jealous.

However, Mr Cameron has so far refused to comment on the sensational allegations apart from…

The University news feature on page 28 of the current Private Eye (No. 1341, 31 May – 13 June 2013) focuses on MOOCs – “massive open online courses”. Several prominent universities are offering these courses free of charge to anyone, anywhere with internet access. Many people are only likely to stumble upon these courses if they’re directed to them, but the options seem very attractive in light of rising fees in higher education and a decline in participation by mature students.

The article includes statistics that are surprising in this context and very disappointing if taken at face value.

• Only 10% of people who start short courses with Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) ever finish them. (Source: New York Times)
• There was an average completion rate of just 6.8% for students on 29 MOOCs run by prestigious universities in various countries (Source: Katy Jordan, PhD student at the Open University)
• A mere 2.2% of people who enrolled on a…

When I thought about the topic for Blogsync this month, I couldn’t really come up with anything to add to the comments I have written in my previous post on the reasons for a new professional teacher body – http://debrakidd.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/a-royal-college-of-teaching-a-view-from-the-grass/ – but recent events have added to this thinking.

I’m not going to go into events yesterday except to say that I did not leave the exchange without reason to look at myself for blame. Others have recently commented on their feelings of sadness as twitter users – tweachers – have begun to turn on one another in attacks on differences of opinion. Sue Cowley wrote of her increasing sense of isolation from the gangs and cliques emerging. Ian Gilbert noted a nastiness in the air. And I, have on more than one occasion, contributed to that nastiness. It is one of the curses of academia to challenge others when it…

I can see this Italian masterpiece stretched across my living room floor, inspiring great adventures.  Isn’t it amaaaaaazing?

[Carpet by Area Pavimenti]

hehehehehehe … he said ‘lude’ hehehe heh heh hehehe

I’ve been an advocate of just stopping the ride in the middle of the day’s events and looking around, enjoying the very fact of being alive. Whether it is to watch a squirrel eat, or children playing, or anything that is ‘living’ it really doesn’t matter. Just stop and enjoy the experience of being alive.

I subscribe to the Youtube channel ‘soulpancake‘ and it offers a large stream of living… people being alive and sharing those moments in various ways. Some of it is hit and miss but all of it is reality viewing. These videos really struck a chord with the part of me that just wants to stop the roller coaster for a few and enjoy. I hope you enjoy them too.

With summer on its way, perfect…

 

In case you wondered, as I did, The…

Cruel welfare: the Government’s attack on working class families

Jolyon Jones: an activist from West Midlands Social Work Action Network

‘After almost a decade of increased funding and more integrated development of children’s services, the recession has brought widespread cuts, alongside increasing poverty and family stress… in general young children and their families will have more challenges to their emotional wellbeing and less support available than in recent years.’

(Growing up in the UK – Ensuring a healthy future for our children. BMA Board of Science (2013))

7.30 p.m.
Wednesday 19th June
Methodist Church, Station Road, Erdington

(The entrance of the Church is at the back next to the car park. Any problems ring 0777 156 7496)

Unrest in Turkey shows cracks in AKP’s vision | Yavuz Baydar | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

A useful primer on what is behind the current unrest; well worth the read.  However, I suspect there are readers who have deeper familiarity with Turkey, and I’d welcome any contributions they can offer.

A hundred anti-fascists gathered at the Brighton’s War Memorial today and left white roses, a symbol of opposition to fascism and war. The White Rose Movement was the name of a group Munich students who opposed the Nazis and were executed.  People gathered between 12 noon and 1.30 pm, they held up posters saying “Against Hate, War and Fascism”, “Don’t Hijack Death” and “Don’t let hate divide us”. They laid white roses on the memorial itself.

The gathering was in response to a report in yesterday’s local newspaper The Argus that the EDL would be marching in Brighton and laying a wreath at the war memorial at 1pm. The far right group has been busy exploiting the killing of  Fusiler Lee Rigby despite his family and regiment’s request not to use his death to fuel revenge. Knowing that Brighton will never welcome racists and fascists, the “official EDL” altered the…