Friday 25th October

Oyez, oyez, we are speeding towards Christmas!

A leaflet from COOK dropped through the letterbox; I am sorely tempted by the Christmas Dinner bundle for 2;

Not cheap, but how much would a Christmas dinner cost in a restaurant?  Admittedly it doesn't include a starter or the pudding, but we never have starters and usually can't manage a pudding on Christmas day.

 I'd seen the buds growing on my Christmas cactus, but even so the first flower managed to come out without my noticing. I wonder if the flowers will keep arriving until Christmas? 

I've moved it to the kitchen windowsill a the buds and flowers were going to get knocked as we went up and down the stairs when it was on the hall windowsill. 

Today I've spent time browsing on the second-hand books website. I just needed something to make up the 'buy three, get another free' offer, and I remembered this;

One of my colleagues,  a firm favourite with her pupils, used to read this in a loud raucous voice to her class; they loved it! I was lucky enough to hear her reading the one about the dog in the playground  - what a performance! 

She used to quote chunks of it back at her 5 and 6 year old when they came asking  questions with obvious answers... 'please miss, what should I do with this?' as she had pretty robust expectations for them in regard to of thinking for yourself,  remembering without being continually reminded and so on. Woe betide any who didn't write their name on their work before handing it in!

I remember teaching a music class with a young lad who paid no attention to class instructions; you would always end up saying 

'OK, stand up everyone, DAVID stand up. Push your chairs in and line up at the door, DAVID push your chair in, line up at the door DAVID...'.

No, he wasn't deaf,  or neuro-diverse, or anything like that. Just... never paying any notice unless personally addressed and called to attention... his class teacher got his measure and he got the message after a few weeks of careful cajoling!

Watching my colleague with her class was a real joy. I shall be hearing her voice in my ear as I read the poems.