hello hello

Am I back again? Facebook has taken over online because it's much easier to share thoughts in a spontaneous way. This blog has to be more considered and haven't really bothered to share with anyone much in case it doesn't look enough considered. It's a shame. I still haven't got a 'proper' website so perhaps I should have another go in here... Off to Lanzarote tomorrow. I'll think about web presence whilst I'm away with no computer!

my school - the wall

nearly two months later...

Degree show over, student work marked and verified.

School photo project finished. Wall printed onto vinyl banner material and went up on sports day. Looks great and feedback has been wonderful.

SATs results fantastic. Well done Sam!

Inductions days went well at Weydon but Sam is not is a class with most of his friends. Seems that they didn't ask to be with him!

Leavers stuff seemed to go on for about two weeks. School finished two days ago with copious tears shed by the girls whilst private tears shed by my boy - not because he is leaving - because he has been excluded from various events. My heart is breaking for him. Why has this happened to him so regularly? Is it just because he doesn't play sport? Are the other kids jealous of him? It does seem that there may have been some malicious back stabbing going on. It's hard to believe that kids this young can be so cruel. Only two of the nine or ten people that came to his party in December have invited him back to theirs. Don't the parents tell them that it is polite to return invitations?

Hopefully the big big big school (that seems so scarily big!) will provide a larger pool of potential pals and he'll meet some people with more mature ideas about friendship!

half term

Sam finished his SATs a couple of weeks ago, so let him have day off school to come and watch his friend's sister KM in Billy Elliot. About 15 of us went and had fantastic seats. What a show! The kid playing Billy was absolutely amazing - so much energy and talent. Sam was on the edge of his seat (so was I!) and came away really inspired. Need to check out 'Billy School'!

Then half term was upon us. Seemed to go so quickly and can't really think what we did. Spent a lot of time at home in the garden enjoying the beautiful weather. It was the village fayre on Monday and I helped out on the Scouts stall. - the boozy tombola - that seemed very popular with 16-year-olds! Hmmm! One of the highs of the week was rainy Wednesday when Sam and I went to see Coraline - amazing 3D animation, amazing story, weirdly dark - just my cup of tea.

Sam spent loads of time in the shed with his music making. He has started to upload to Dope Tracks http://www.dopetracks.com/profile/sjkoolboy. I love the idea of being able to share your music this way and that people can access it to rap over - but not too sure about his 'fans', the language they use and the discussions they are entering into. Wondered if there was scope here to follow this as some kind of research project. Need to give this a bit more thought.

DFSA has got the gallery for the Summer Show and, wow, it looks good. Private View on Thursday was great fun but too busy chatting to look at other courses so returned on Saturday for another look.

poppy comes to Y4

Neither Luke or Anna was able to help out at school last Wednesday so Poppy, one of my first years, stepped in the help at the last minute. I was very grateful for her help with the remaining groups who needed to shoot. She has also offered to research printing and mounting costs for the presentation which I hope to get together through June.

photography with y4

Luke went into school and did the presentation with Year 4 whilst I was in Florida. I am very excited about the way this project seems to be providing all sorts of unforeseen opportunities for individuals to step up and engage with teaching and learning digital photography on so many different levels. This week we were busy taking the first groups of children out of class to shoot their images. I had expected our facilitator role to become more complicated as we worked backwards through KS2, but I was really impressed with the way the children engaged with the project. Luke had obviously briefed them well. He is busy with his own work next week as assessments are looming. One of my 3rd Year undergraduates, Anna, is hoping to take a few hours out of her busy runup to her final show to help me out with the second Y4 shoots.

I need to talk to Mr C, the headmaster, about how and when we are going to show the final image wall but he has gone away for a 2 week visit to Africa. The summer fayre at the school could have been a well-timed occasion to unveil the work, but I just realised that is the weekend I am visiting the Venice Bienale. I hope to use most of June to complete the presentation. I am not sure whether to 'go it alone', possibly with some help from Anna, or whether to involve the children, and if so, on what level they can actually get involved. I have had some quotes for printing and mounting A0 panels of 16 prints and the price is very expensive as I need 8 or 9 panels. So I am trying to figure out some diy possibilities that involve using the printing facilities at the University. The only thing that seems certain is that the presentation should be hardwearing as I think it will be displayed at various locations over the next year or two.

Florida

We made this video at Epcot on a ride. We spent 6 days in Disney World:

Then  we went to New Smyrna Beach - my favourite part of the holiday...

         more photos to follow....