Off To A Conference.

A day packed full of 'happenings'. I started the day well with a bit of a lie-in as I was going to a Science Co-ordinators' conference. It was the first time I had been to a conference (or indeed any off-site training for a very long time). Before I left I had to wash Smudge's throat which was all covered with muck that turned out to be a burst abscess, yuck. A bit later as I drove towards town I had to come to a stop for 2 cars parked in the road with their hazard lights flashing. Standing between them was a border collie (b & w sheepdog) that seemed reluctant to move. One of the drivers got out of his car to shoo it back to the driveway of one of the houses that border the road at this point but it was quite tottery. The man then picked the dog up in his arms and carried it up to the house. Sadly if this is the same dog that rushes out barking madly at cars it had probably been knocked by a car. Hope it is OK. I don't know anyone who lives in those 6 houses so I'll never know. Actually I do know one girl who used to be at school with my boys and has done teaching practice in our school but she is away at uni.Sunset over Tescos at Tiverton.

I had a bit of a 'blonde' journey finding my way to the conference using a faintly printed google map which resulted in my arriving 15 mins late. Of course the last empty seat was right at the front directly in front of the speaker. The powerpoint presentation was supplemented by printed copies that had been shrunk to a minuscule size so you could write notes and guess where my glasses were? Back in the car where I had taken them out to consult my map. So I had to get up and make an exit across the front to go and retrieve them. After all that hassle it was a good day, great to meet up with other teachers and exchange information, views and tips. As it was science we had some practical work to do which resulted in a lot of laughs. Quite a lot of the conference was about teaching older children but that was to be expected. Being in a hotel the food was superb, a fantastic selection of salads and hot dishes as well topped off with creamy fattening puddings (raspberry cheesecake for me). The final speaker of the conference introduced us to some amazing software for interactive whiteboards. There were so many things you could do with it , the first thing he showed us was the wordwall where you can put words, names, pictures etc on buttons which can be flipped over, rearranged or sorted in loads of exciting ways. When you've made a resource you are given the option to save it for all to use and you can use other people's resources. This part of the software we are being given free to use as a single user at school. Can't wait, that would be so impressive for OFSTED. The other part he showed us was the bit you buy and I can see it being a massive hit with older children. Everyone has a small phone-like handset which you operate as he said 'in the old fashioned way of texting' (That's old-fashioned!) and everyone can respond to a question , survey or multiple choice questions at the same time and the answers can be displayed as names or numbers or as a graph. Yes it does predictive text if you want. To check it out go to www.wordwallweb.com Tiverton nestles in the hills.
The conference was held in Tiverton an hour's drive away, probably less if you don't get lost as I did. I took the opportunity to visit the Tescos that was next to the hotel. Although these big chains are as similar as they can make them I just like to see if they have anything different (they didn't) and I would have had to go into the Tescos in Barnstaple on my way home anyway. The drive home was in the dark and the rain though this was mitigated by seeing some interesting grey clouds outlined against the darkening sky. I was not so keen on the bit where it was totally dark and I was being blinded by lorry lights and hoping there were no idiots coming towards me trying to overtake the lorries on my side of the road.