Gogwit's Blog

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…

Members of the PCS union who work in Midlands offices of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are on strike again on Wednesday June 5th.

PCS members in the DWP are angry because:
*  20,000 jobs have been cut in the DWP since May 2010
*  Years of pay restraint has seen our living standards drop by 20%
*  We are all be affected by planned cuts in our terms and conditions
*  Targets, attendance management andpeople performance mean more stress
*  Their pensions have been attacked.
*  The government say they won’t talk about these issues

In HMRC Government plans to close every HMRC public enquiry office with the loss of 1200 jobs and an essential service to the public.

Support PCS by attending picket lines from 7.30 am and the public rally at lunchtime:-

Public Strike Rally

Wednesday June 5th

Save Handsworth Leisure Centre
No Cuts-No Privatisation

PUBLIC MEETING

2pm
Saturday 1st June
Handsworth Leisure Centre Dance Studio, Holly Road, Handsworth, B20 2BY