Comments for Mr Shev's Blog

Comment on The Peter Principle by jomiddleton

jomiddleton — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:31:15 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated by this theory, (which is a sad reflection of my life). It is so depressing, yet so true – we all rise to the level at which we become too shit to go any further. Wouldn’t it make sense to demote everyone, all at once, so we just shiifted all down one? It might cause problems at the extremes, but perhaps we could just shift the bottom layer right round and into the vacant leadership positions? I see the makings of an intriguing social experiment…

Comment on Redundant Tech by E

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:54:32 +0000

The dismissal of all those wonderful machines which gave such joy and expansion to the older generations is sad and inevitable, but not as sad as the effect technology can also have on the younger generations. Just back from Ashbury Primary and their French class, I find your piece while I am still reeling from today’s experience. When asked to work out the English translation of the 12 months listed in French and in disorder, the children rushed to the computers and dictionnaries : no one sat down and tried to see whether, a vue d’oeil, there was any connection between the English words they know and the French ones they don’t know. When I asked to close computers and dictionnaries, and suggested there could be a third means of discovery, after the initial aghast moment one child did come up with the word “brains”. They actually got the answers far quicker than they would have with the other props. I was appalled at the reaction, and very concerned that most chidren, if not also the adults, rely far too much on technology, leaving their memory unused and their brains to rot.
Yours frustrated.

Comment on Redundant Tech by Tim

Tim — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:40:24 +0000

The pace of change is quite terrifying sometimes. I remember buying a 1MB RAM expansion pack for my Commodore Amiga about 25 years ago. It cost something like £100 (about £200 in today’s money) and was about half the size of a paperback. Compare that to your 8GB flash drive – available for about 1/100th of the cost, 8,000 times the capacity and maybe 1/25th the size.

It’s playing with tech with my kids that really brings home how advanced they are and how I am increasingly struggling to keep up. They will marvel at how we used to get my with computers whose capacity was measured in kilobytes, or how we used to listen to music on vinyl or cassettes.

I wrote a short series looking back fondly at analogue audio technologies and mourning their passing, prompted by a fantastic image I saw of a cassette tape and a pencil. I understand why these two items went together – my kids won’t. I’ve included a link here …

http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/2011/09/19/analogue-audio-memories-part-1-vinyl-records/

Comment on Yoda, I am. by Asturian Diary

Asturian Diary — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:18:26 +0000

From what I know of the local schools, here in Spain it’s the opposite. Talking between students is not considered an issue at all, apart from by some English teachers I know (as in they’re English, not teaching English). It does their heads in, or did initially at least, they’re coming round to the idea that there is some learning to be achieved that way. Still makes them twitchy though.

Comment on Yoda, I am. by Neal Moore

Neal Moore — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:23:22 +0000

Mate, give me a room full hard-nosed executives over a class of ‘yoofs’ anyday! You’re a braver man than me but congrats and I look forward to many more fascinating blogs from the artroom…

Comment on Yoda, I am. by angelsandurchinsblog

angelsandurchinsblog — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:13:33 +0000

Wow. When you’ve discovered your ‘voice of authority’ (she typed meekly, scared already) will you vlog about it?

Huge congratulations. The teens obviously thought you were very cool or would have rioted. I feel another book coming on.

Comment on Yoda, I am. by MariaL

MariaL — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:32:12 +0000

Many congrats Michael, I am sure you will be great. As a former secondary school teacher many, many moons ago i would echo the advice already given- start off as you mean to go on with all the ‘non-negotiables’ clearly laid out for them, because introducing them after things have gone pear shaped is very very hard! Teenagers can tell if a teacher doesn’t actually like them a mile off and that’s generally when there’s trouble. Contrary to popular belief I think most of them are great- they just hide it well sometimes…

Comment on Yoda, I am. by class factotum

class factotum — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:18:03 +0000

1. I love that movie and the Chart of Rock.

2. What I learned from substitute teaching: Start out mean and get nice rather than the other way around.

3. Congrats!

Comment on Yoda, I am. by wordtied

wordtied — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:23:42 +0000

Wow, congratulations. And don’t hone those authoritarian skills too much if you get away with it. Art teachers are supposed to be … well arty. Save the bad asses for Maths or Physics.

Comment on I need a favour! by mummywhisperer

mummywhisperer — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:35:51 +0000

Congrats!
Have you read john locke’s ebook on how to sell a million ebooks? It’s great and really helped me – although I haven’t sold a million yet!
Also you can do a blog book tour to get reviews & new readers.