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Feb 10 / 2:22am

41/365 As I kneel before you

by Dai Barnes

The hymn we sang in assembly this morning has a Latin chorus. This is the only contact I have with a language all my children are learning. The blessings of a northern comprehensive education did not deem it necessary. Latin has great value in understanding the roots of words, which in turn informs you about history and the evolution of people through language. Is it surprising we play scrabble and enjoy crosswords in our house?

I have no idea how to pronounce these words and have to wing it by listening to others and lowering my voice.

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Feb 8 / 7:30am

39/365 I got played...

by Dai Barnes

My class did this today whilst we were disussing something and I had left the remote control software on the board. Clearly the three culprits were off task a little while (my bad) but I loved their ingenuity to use the tools to talk to me.

An interesting concept in a lesson - each pupil contributes to the display but to see their work in context they must look at the board. Compelling. Food for thought.

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Feb 8 / 1:55am

37/365 The MP3 generation?

by Dai Barnes

Students working in Y12 Physics lesson I am covering. 9 out of 13 are listening to music. One of those is not using an iPod of some sort. Is this a good thing? (obviously this scenario would please Apple) Can concentration levels be maintained? Improved?

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Feb 7 / 11:42pm

37/365 The shopping arrives

by Dai Barnes

This is all the fridge stuff a man in a van delivered this morning. We used Tesco for two years before they totally let us down in a farce whereupon our shopping was ultimately two weeks late. Their substitutions were always quite random and frequent anyway. Now we use Ocado for six years or so. They are excellent. You do have to pay for delivery but a lot of items have Tesco price match on them. Quality always good. And, even when they get things wrong, you have a sense they are trying to satisfy their customers. As far as I'm concerned, they do.

Click here to download:

37365_The_shopping_arrives.zip (311 KB)

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Feb 5 / 2:26am

36/365 My cousin on the slippery slopes

by Dai Barnes

My cousin sent me this by MMS. He has bagged a free holiday because one of his friends companies paid for the pre-arranged ski trip when they needed him to go abroad on a job. Jammy Jimmy got the works for free bar ski hire and insurance. And then he rubs my nose in it by sending me this picture of the same place he and I first went skiing with our brothers as teenagers.

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Feb 4 / 12:43am

35/365 Binary on University Challenge

by Dai Barnes

All but one of these questions were answered incorrectly on this famous quiz show. I will use these in my A Level class.

Click here to download:

35365_Binary_on_University_Cha.zip (383 KB)

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Feb 3 / 2:39am

33/365 My little brother

by Dai Barnes

Popped in for quick cup of tea. He's a programmer. He runs his business out of his flat. He is a superb coder. His site: http://marketingqed.com

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Feb 2 / 6:52am

33/365 Getting lost in the Docklands

by Dai Barnes

Had directions on a piece of paper. Didn't use my iPhone. Big mistake. Wrong turn. Late for SSAT seminars on Web2.0. However, what I saw when I got there was excellent. More about that later.

Click here to download:

33365_Getting_lost_in_the_Dock.zip (495 KB)

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Feb 1 / 11:14am

32/365 Dawn this morning

by Dai Barnes

Cold and beatiful morning down my road as I waited for my groceries to arrive.

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Feb 1 / 12:50am

31/365 The Sole Survivor

by Dai Barnes

Having had fish for fifteen years I am uncertain why they die. Eventually I gave up having a full tank but this little fella keeps hanging in there. He is Freddy the fish. Five years old and counting.