End of one era…the beginning of another

Well today marks a special time in my life, as toady I handed in the final essay of my degree. It’s the end of a seventeen year long journey, which began when a child (me) first took a step into a classroom.
One Primary School, three secondary schools, one college and one university later, and my time in education as a student is over. Yet I actually feel like I might miss it. Yes I may have moaned…a lot. I may have had tantrums when the words didn’t come out right. I needed pep-talks, inspirational chats, and full on rants. And I know who my friends are because of it. They are those who listened and accepted me for me. Who tried to cheer me up when I was down, who checked up on my word counts to make sure I was progressing. They are the ones who gave me lifts to uni, and brought me home, who held study groups to bounce ideas around. Those who lent essays for inspiration.
So I suppose I could look back on another phase of life and say good bye, making last for as long as possible, trying to drag out what has been and gone. To make it last that little bit longer, afraid of the future.
Or I can face the next phase head on and shout ‘hit me with your best shot!’ embrace what the future holds and go with the flow, letting the wind guide you through life’s little mysteries.
Whichever path I take now, I know I will have the full support of my family and my friends, who will be like the wind…gently guiding me on to the next journey.

Looking back on a child’s learning outdoors.

When I was growing up, my parents, siblings and I lived at the very bottom of a little village in Buckinghamshire. My paternal grandparents lived near the top of the village and we had friends who lived between our house and theirs. After school and on weekends we would call on friends on our bikes and ride around the village, playing in the public footpaths, going down to the fields at the bottom of the village and playing pooh-sticks on the bridge over the river, no matter what the weather was doing. Wind, rain, the occasional snow shower, we were dressed appropriately and would still have our fun. We would climb trees, make dens, pick flowers for our parents, but we rarely stayed in the gardens of our houses, preferring to roam the streets and make a general nuisance of ourselves! Saying this however, we knew never to go too far, every house in the village knew of us, knew where our parents could be found and knew our grandparents who had lived in the same village for over 50 years. We knew that we could have fun, be noisy and run riot all we wanted, but we also knew where to draw the line. Make too much noise, be rude or chase the cows, and our parents and grandparents would know before we could even get home to explain it in our own way. It wasn’t worth the risk. So we behaved ourselves, to a certain extent. If we wanted true freedom, we went to the woods over the bridge in the felids. We would climb the trees, and inevitably fall out. We would sting ourselves on the nettles, but we’d been taught from a young age that if you stung yourself to find a doc leaf to rub on it to take the pain away. We were taught where to look, how to distinguish, and how to use the leaves. It never bothered us at all. Returning home, we would help granddad dig up vegetables for dinner, pick apples, pears and plums for pudding, then go inside and sit quietly my sister reading a book my brother with the Lego and me playing the piano until it was time for dinner.
We left the village when I was eleven. Recently, aged 20, I went back to the village to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. I decided to take a walk round the village, revelling in the past, the memories I can still dredge up form my mind. I walked first down to my old house, seeing the changes over the last ten years, I walked through the public footpath where I had once built such a successful den, I had hidden in all day and no-one could find me. The trees are gone now, cut down for health and safety reasons. The place is overgrown with weeds and nettles, no place for children to play. I wandered down to my church, reliving walking the same route I used to take to lock the church each evening with my grandfather when I was a child, walking round the wall which runs around the edge of the church. I believe to this day my good balance came from walking these walls, especially the one thin one. I remembered watching two of my father’s three sisters walking down the aisle at this very church, me and my sister bridesmaids for both. I went down to the fields; the cobblestones which we used to run over have gone now, replaced by grass underfoot. The bridge is still there, as are the cows, but the river is so overgrown you can’t see it, and the bridge has locked gates to stop people crossing. Walking back up the village I passed the pond, no longer covered by frog-spawn, I wonder who keeps it clean now as it used to be me who cleared it. I walk back past some of my old friends houses, wondering if those children I once played with still live there, or whether they’ve moved on to pastures new as well. I carry on walking, up to the village green, remembering my brother running across the road alone, and the telling off that ensued for going so close to the main road without an adult. Looking across the road I saw the old village hall, where I used to go to nursery when I was younger, and the bus stop where I caught my first bus to school aged eleven. As I went back down to my grandparent’s house, I passed the new house which had been built on the end of my grandparent’s front lawn, where the fruit trees used to grow. Before I can get emotional about their loss and bring up more memories, my aunt and uncle come and find me, everyone knowing how emotional I can get on my wanderings. Walking back up the drive, something hits me like a tonne of bricks. I had been out for the better part of half an hour, yet I had seen not one single person, adult or child. Ten years ago, someone doing the same route I had done, would have seen every child in the village at least once on the streets playing. Not any more, it seems.

Our thoughts are with you…wherever you may be.

Now I know it is rare for me to publish anything more than once a week, let alone twice in a day, but I couldn’t resist. I was skimming over my Facebook wall earlier and found such a beautiful video that it drew me in, and wanted to share it on here, as it’s a subject close to my heart. On Sunday, I posted about ‘the importance of family‘ when I drove 70 miles to see a handful of my family members. I class myself as extremely lucky to have most of my family still alive and kicking today. I have lost an uncle to cancer, and two of grandparents have had hip replacements over the last few years but are still active, plus I still live with both my parents. When I was a teenager, I felt I was the odd one out much of the time, as my parents were a) biologically related to me, and b) not divorced. I still find it strange to this day.

But even so, I couldn’t imagine life with out both of them in my life. My mother is always there if I need someone to talk to about anything, im lucky like that, and daddy has put up with working with me for over 8 years, even though I am late on a regular basis, and continually stroppy, and have really bad days. So life without one? Not an option.

When I was 17, my friend S’s mother died of cancer. It took me weeks after the funeral to actually come to terms with the fact that she was gone, and wasn’t coming back. at 19, my uncle died of cancer, I couldn’t make it to the funeral, but burnt a letter I’d written to him over a candle later in the day. I still havent seen his wife or children since, and a part of me doesn’t want to, because it wont be the same without him. At 20, I lost the family dog to a fatal road accident. She died of a broken back at the vets. That was what brought death closer to my mind than ever before, having someone taken from under you nose is the most horrific feeling. But another part of me is almost glad that i was at an age where I understood death a little better, and so was better able to contemplate going on with my life without these wonderful people in my life.

So for the little girl in the video (which is the focal point of this post today) losing her father at the tender age of 4 to terrorism, must have been horrendous. I can’t even think how much pain she must feel, knowing that her daddy will never come home, will never walk her down the aisle when she gets married, will never see her graduate, let alone learn to swim.

On this subject, I may as well point out that it is not just death that separates us from our loved ones, nor divorce. War can do the same. The UK got a big hit of love from the Military Wives Choir at the end of 2011 when they released their single Wherever You Are which inadvertently reached Number 1 on Christmas Day. The proceeds went to two major charities: The Royal British Legion and Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen Families Association (SSAFA).

So my heart goes out to those who have lost relatives, be it to cancer, terrorism, fatal accident or war. It is never easy, but I have found it get a little better over time. Our thoughts are with you, wherever you are.

Too young for Facebook

Over the last few days I have worked on my e-learning essay on blogging in schools. And it has made me think a lot about micro blogging in the form of Facebook.
I googled ‘dangers of blogging for children‘ and clicked on the first link: ‘kids, blogs and too much information‘ which is a brilliant article about the dangers of children blogging without the correct knowledge of Internet safety.
It mentions briefly about Facebook, but still made me think, as I happen to know a child on Facebook who is 11. Facebook states that someone has to aged 13 to open an account and use the site. So how do tweens get around this? According to Sullivan, they lie. Entering a later year of birth is simple, all they have to do is work out what year they would have had to have born in to make them aged 13 and enter it. Which is what my friend E has done. I’m not happy, but I’m happier than if she hadn’t protected her identity in other ways. For example she doesn’t use her real name, but an alias so only those who she tells this to can find her. She only has about 20 odd friends, most of which. Are mutual between us as they are from a local sailing club. The others are school friends. She is fronds with both her parents on Facebook, so it’s not a secret that she’s on there. If necessary we can all check what she’s up to, not that I’d do that unless I was extremely worried about her.

But it does make me think. I have to moderate my Facebook wall to make sure she doesn’t see something she shouldn’t. She’s only 11. When I comment on her posts I have make sure I’m careful with my wording, to make sure it’s suitable for her. I don’t mind, and my friends have started being a bit more careful when posting to my wall, which is quite nice actually!!

So she has an online presence, understands online safety, and reads my blog due to Facebook. Is it really that bad a thing that’s she’s on here, even if she is ‘too young’? I don’t think so. Any thoughts?

The importance of family…

Today I should’ve been writing an essay. Instead I drove 70 miles to see my family. This I did because they are important to me, many people said why are you going, you have an essay to write?
Do you know what my response was? Because I love them. I don’t see them often, in fact I haven’t seen my auntie and her family for over a year. So today I drove myself up to Burnhmn-on-Sea to see them. We had a lovely walk around a lake, along the seafront, through the town and then was taken to dinner by my grandparents.
And to say that I have had a good day, would be an understatement. I have enjoyed every second, even though I was frozen, the fact that I was surrounded by my family made me get a warm a feeling inside which kept me going through the day.
Now I’m getting ready to drive home again, just to spend all night writing to catch up with all that I should have done today.
Ask me if it was worth it tomorrow, and I’ll look at you, yawn, and say yes. I will be worth every second, even though I will be shattered.
So even though I have 6000 words to write before Friday, I won’t blame myself for having today off, we need laughter and family to keep us going through tough times. This week has been MY tough time, and this was my fun and laughter.

Blonde Stereotype

As this blog is written by a blonde I thought it would be very apt to post this link i found online today: Blonde Stereotype & Blonde Jokes.

Many people find blonde jokes amusing, myself included, yet i am struck by the realisation that each time I laugh at a blonde joke, i am reinforcing a stereotype that I belong to.

Now I don’t claim to be smart, clever, brainy or any other word with that meaning. Yet i don’t class myself as stupid, dumb or any other derogatory word in the same sense either.

Everyone is different. Unique in their own way. Some brunettes may seem clever next to a blonde in one instance, but if the topic was changed to one in which the blonde was more suited, who would look clever then?

For instance the film Legally Blonde starring Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a blonde. When she gets dumped by her boyfriend for being blonde, she decides to follow him to Harvard University to prove she’s not dumb. This film has so many positives in for blondes. Elle is dumped simply because she is considered a ‘dumb blonde’ by her boyfriend, yet by the end she has passed with a higher degree than her ex-boyfriend. Because she knew more about the subject she was battling about in court: Fashion and Women.

Does that make the Ex boyfriend dumb? or Elle clever?

Good one isn’t it? What do you think? Let me know below, I am intrigued…

Just a little bit more…

What are they?

Multi-User Virtual Environments ( MUVE’s) are ‘a popular form of multimedia-based entertainment’ (Center for Implementing Technology in Education, no date).

Popular MUVE’s include Second Life, Gaia, imvu and Club Penguin.

Different MUVE’s are aimed at different age groups, for example Second Life is aimed at adults, whereas Club Penguin is aimed at children.

Educational MUVE’s

River City.

‘The virtual environment is a nineteenth century American town that is plagued by disease. Students work in teams to develop a hypothesis regarding the disease’s cause. They can interview citizens of River City, read relevant documents, visit the hospital, and review photographs. Agents are available to provide guidance, but the students determine the approach they will take. The focus is on learning both science concepts and inquiry’ (Center for Implementing Technology in Education, no date).

How can they be used in education?

Second Life can be used as a virtual classroom, either for distance learning or teaching at home.

Educational institutions can purchase land on Second Life to build a virtual campus, or school, which is private. (Wright, 2008)

These options have their drawbacks, however.

Advantages

Exciting new side to education.

Interactive.

Engages and entertains pupils.

Can be used to teach the rules of the Internet.

Helps with self esteem and confidence.

Schools could hire out a space on the world to use a classroom.

Disadvantages

Safety of students online.

Not all children have access to a computer or Internet.

Children may spend too long at a computer monitor rather than experiencing in the real world.

It can take a while to get used to controlling the avatar, as well as creating one.

Could make the Internet slow throughout the school if all the children are on it simultaneously.

To conclude

Useful, but could be expensive for the institution.

Time consuming, but worth it in some cases.

Very dependent on the teacher and class.

References

Center for Implementing Technology in Education (no date) Multi-user virtual environments for education. Available at: www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=159#educ (Accessed: 3 November 2011).

www.imvu.com

www.gaiaonline.com

www.secondlife.com

Wright, T. (2008) Second life as a virtual learning environment. Available at: http://dokimos.org/secondlife/education/ (Accessed: 8 November 2011).

Taken from a presentation I did on MUVE’s, hope this gives some more info/ answers!

How not to prioritise…..

On a Monday morning I set the alarm for 6 o’clock, get up and leave the house by 6:45 to get the 07:07 train to NA, in order to get the 07:29 to P. This gets me to P in plenty of time for my 9 o’clock lecture.

This morning, however, things didn’t go quite to plan. The alarm went off at 6, I turned it off, rolled over and went back to sleep. At 6:30 I woke up wondering why the alarm hadn’t gone off, then picked up the iPad to check my e-mail and Facebook. 15 minutes later, I realised I was now even later than I thought, rushed through getting dressed and such and ran out the door at 7 o’clock. Consequently I missed the 07:07, so got into NA late, so didn’t get breakfast.

Luckily I managed to get the usual 07:29 to P as usual, so wasn’t late, but it made me think about the way I prioritised this morning. Why did I put Facebook and e-mail above getting ready for uni? What is it in me which makes Facebook rule my life? Any ideas or solutions are welcome!!

The Father And His Sons, or at least a child and their friendships

The Father And His Sons

A FATHER had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the faggot, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons’ hands, upon which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: “My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks.”

This is one of Aesop’s famous fables. While reading this story, I was drawn into thinking about the values we install in children about friendships in nurseries, pre-schools and schools. Do we encourage children to form a strong friendship base by saying things like ‘everyone is your friend’ and ‘we are all friends here’? Would it be more beneficial to the child to have a small group of firm friends who they can rely on, or lots loose, ‘forced’ friendships throughout the class?

Another joy of the iPad

Was reading a friends blog today about how the iPad can aid children with autism. If you get a minute, I’d go check it out, it’s very interesting.