Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Stomp On That Pupil Tracker.

No photos today as the only ones I took were of my class doing their stomp dance moves and I can't put their faces on my blog. They're really enjoying the stomp dancing. It's only my attempts to copy moves from the video but after learning a few steps and shapes I let them freestyle to some very heavy rock/stomp/Indian music. One of the most satisfying things for me is the way most of them put all their energy into the dances and are completely puffing and panting by the end. I like the way that stomp with its high energy actions and optional heavy music appeals to most of the children while giving them the opportunity to makes shapes at different levels, compose routines with linking movements and do partner or group work. All the objectives that might come from more traditional styles of modern dance. Let's face it , it's fun.
After school was not fun as we (the teachers) all headed off to another local school for a 2 hour training session on the On-line Pupil Tracker. Learnt quite a bit and it's all good stuff ... if you don't mind spending time ticking little boxes. One good thing, provided you have been a good little teacher and put in assessments, targets and comments throughout the year, is that it will print the main part of each child's end of year report though I expect it will take a year of using the system before it starts making life easier. It's just a bit much to have to have 2 hours training after a working day especially when there is nowhere near the school to park and you end up parking a 10 min walk away as we did.
Ha, almost forgot to put in a bit about Peter's new job. He's really enjoying it and even convinced the lads he works with that he's some sort of Lothario. The reason, he's been seen chatting to two very glamorous young women who joined the firm recently. All the lads had failed to establish any contact with these girls while he's there only 2 days and already having lunch with them. The other men are most impressed but what they don't know yet is that Peter overheard the girls talking Lithuanian and being a fluent speaker he struck up a conversation with them and of course they were happy to chat with him. Lithuania being a very small country with a population of less than 3 1/2 million it is not surprising that one of the girls comes from Kaunas and knows of Peter's father's family. It won't take long for the penny to drop but for the moment he's enjoying being thought of as someone who the girls all fall for.