Tag: school

Origami Saturday

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

Today you have the pleasure of three fantastically amazing pieces of origami. Due, in part, to a particularly busy couple of days:

  • Thursday was a very busy day. Rushed home from school to be in for plumber. Said plumber did not show up. I hate plumbers. Enough said.
  • Thursday night a school trip to see ‘Of Mice and Men’ at The Playhouse in Nottingham. Good play, bad journey. Broken coach door. Enough said.
  • Friday was, after 7 years, a first time visit to the Shalimar Balti House followed by an early night. Rock and Roll!

 

So from this day onwards the 10th November will be forever known as ‘Origami Saturday’. With the aid of some specially purchased origami paper from Amazon for the princely sum of £3 (hence why it is only small me thinks) may I present #origamisaturday……

Origami #8…turtle or maybe a tortoise….

Origami #9…crane or maybe a dragon…

Origami #10….a very cute cat….

Origami Day 6

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

If you were unlucky enough to read yesterday's post you'd be aware that I had a cloud hanging over me.

However, I am happy to report that the cloud has moved away. What a difference a day makes!

This morning the students in my tutor group had the delightful experience of learning how to make an origami piglet. Despite having to help some with some difficult inside folds (get me using all the correct terminology) I can report the activity a complete success. We now have 20 pink piglets accompanying the 20 pigeons from last week on the windowsill. I think some selective culling will be required soon.

And so on to today's piece of origami…..can you guess what it is yet?

If the shouts I can hear are….”It's a dinosaur!”….award yourself 10 gold stars!

This definitely looks easier than it actually is. The arms and feet were very tricky, I don't think my tutor group are quite ready for this piece – it is rated as 'hard'. Believe it or not….25 separate steps!!!

 

What a day!

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

A long day, piglet and cults.

Today was a very long and stressful day. It has felt like everything has been against me:

  • I have a stack of marking that, despite my best efforts, does not seem to be going down.
  • I was not really ‘feeling it’ today.
  • The kids have been slightly crazy today. Even my ‘lovely’ Y11s were also not really ‘feeling it’ either. Even a spontaneous bit of Zumba in the classroom failed to shift the negative feeling that was banging around.
  • iPad has less that 4% battery life left – Apple make the shortest ever charging cable in the history of the world so that it is impossible to work and charge it.
  • I made an origami piglet that ‘apparently’ looks more like a rhino (see below).
  • I’ve got work to do but can’t be bothered.
  • The paper is rectangle and not square which is a problem for an origami master like myself.
  • The dog thinks I am mean all because he is a big girl and is stressing out about the fireworks.
  • Blogsy, the app I usually use for posting blogs, has decided that it wants to mess me around as well.
  • All in all I am feeling very sorry for myself.

 

I also found out today that my sister lives in a strange town that offers sacrifices to their God in the form of rather bizarre bonfire Guys. Lance Armstrong was this year’s sacrifice, just ahead of Jimmy Savile and George Osbourne. My sister took part in last night’s procession through the streets of Edenbridge before Reverend Bonfire helped conduct some sort of mass cult prayer session before the effigy was lit to cries of “burn him, burn him!”.

I will be keeping a close eye on my sister’s behaviour in future, although the giant Wicker Man she has erected in her garden is causing some concern.

And so to Day 5 of November’s Challenge to produce one piece of origami per day. Continuing the recent animal theme, a piglet is today’s offering….

Here is Billy hiding like a girl in the cupboard because of the fireworks….

In an attempt to lighten my mood I resorted to the genius of Terry Hall, in his guise of lead singer of Fun Boy Three, that didn’t work either…..

Bunting, Books and Bungle

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 3 Comments

The final week of the first term is finally over and since it has been one whole week since the last blog entry *bows head in shame* I feel I should write something, even if very little has actually happened.

My classroom is now the owner of beautiful new energy efficient lighting. Fitted after school on Thursday to enable a day's trial, before a decision was made to fit them throughout the block late on Friday. Although this is great news, being able to see students in the classroom I feel is an essential part of teaching, it did threaten our chances for winning a tin of chocolates. Earlier on in the week my tutor group had completely decorated the room in Union Jack bunting to celebrate 'Red, White and Blue Day' to bag said chocolates in a school competition. I had, of course, completely forgotten that the engineer would appear on Thursday to fit lights, bunting was taken down, as was our chances of winning the competition.

A visit to the school library meant a collection of teenage fiction to read over the holiday….

Not that I'd actually get round to reading them because of the MASSIVE stack of marking I have to do….

Friday evening came to a close with a walk into town to partake in a few pints of the black stuff in a local hostelry. Who should be at the bar when I arrived? One of my neighbours, already slightly the worse for wear. It was quite easy to recognise this due to the fact that despite being neighbours for three and a half years he didn't seem to know who I was, he shook my hand and said, “I know you from somewhere”. After giving him a couple of clues the penny finally dropped, before he began to introduce me to all his equally drunk mates. The next half hour was spent discussing such subjects as: literature, education, darts, beer and….. the 80s TV show Rainbow…mainly because one of them had the nickname 'Bungle', and did look surprisingly like him…

 

Failure. Blood. Running.

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

Failure. I hate to admit defeat, but for one reason or another I am officially announcing that September's challenge has been extended into October. I'm slightly disappointed that I've had to take such drastic action but with a two week half-term coming up, together with the fact that my body is finally starting to feel better, I feel it is the best option. The challenge of learning to ride a unicycle was always going to be difficult fully fit, but with various aches and pains appearing (none I think directly related to unicycling) completing the challenge in one month was near impossible.

Blood. It has been a busy week at school. Various assessments taking place and an ever increasing pile of marking that needs completing. Thursday saw the school's open evening, and the annual 'teach the parents' classes I put on. All was going well early on, I was doing the old descriptive writing session using sweets to encourage the use of senses in our writing. We had got through the sight, sound, touch, smell parts without any problems. At this stage I did the old comedy healthy and safety speech before tasting sweets, “please don't eat sweets if you are allergic to anything that could possibly be contained within the sweet”. I should also have mentioned loose teeth! Before I knew it I had a prospective student in front of me in tears, blood flowing down her chin and tissues being stuffed in her mouth by her mother. She was quickly whisked out of the room passed other prospective parents and students, leaving a trail of blood from the English classroom. Not the 'English is Fun' look I was going for. Needless to say that could be one less student joining us next September.

Running. Today I went for a run, the first for three weeks, and although my back was a tad sore it felt good to be finally running again. So I'll be partaking in the first Frostbite run tomorrow morning at St Neots. The Frostbite Races are a great little series of six races held throughout the winter (hence the name) for local club runners to enter. I'll use tomorrow's race as a nice training run and take it pretty steady. That should put me in good stead for next weekend's Great Eastern Run, a half-marathon run around the picturesque streets of Peterborough. Followed, of course, by the Zombie Run later in the month.

 

Unicycle Day 7

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

This week has been a difficult week in the September Challenge. First full week at school full of teaching, meetings and information overload has had a negative effect on the unicycling.

There has been far too much of this….

And not enough of this….

The forecast for the weekend is dry, warm and sunny so my plan is to practice, practice, practice! I desperately need to lose the fear and get back on track.

So here's to a successful weekend of unicycling!