at home on the harbour side

on friday I went crab fishing with my 10 year old. the harbour is only a walk away from where we live. as a small child I went crab fishing when I stayed with my aunt who used to live on the other side of the harbour. it was the first time he had ever sat by the harbour side in the sunshine for a few hours, with a crab line in hand. yet we have lived there for almost as long as he has been alive. he is now ckken to do it again with his friends from school.

I think when you live somewhere that is a popular holiday & day trip destination it is all too easy to ignore the things that many visitors do. but last week we didn't and had a great day crab fishing or as we put all the crabs we caught safely back in to the water, feeding the crabs.

wiki time

as a teacher it can be very difficult to maintain enthusiasm especially when you have a class full teenagers looking out at a lovely sunny day across to the sea, next to a lovely gentle sandy beach. sounds idyllic and to some degree it is, but when it comes to getting the same students to get interested in spreadsheets its and formulas as well as completing a project. it can be challenging to say the least. however I thought I would try something (not new of course) but new to them. most web 2.0 functions have been accepted and used by pretty much all the students I teach. rather less however have been adopted by my colleagues. no matter. the risk I took in order to at least get them to look away from the beautiful day (after all the evening are light they can enjoy it later), was letting them loose on a wiki that I set up through wetpaint last week. I was amazed at the ease at which most of them adopted that way of working. so bebo, myspace, facebook, et all are not always 'the route of all evil'. as some where focused on there work for the first time in a short while, communicating and working together, creating profiles and new pages with ease as well as learning about spreadsheets along the way. I will remain cautious for the moment but hope that the wiki is a way forward.