Lynne ydw i

Daily Archives: Friday 11 July 2008

The robot

Let me give you a brief explanation – kids aged 5 through 7, kidpix, follow instructions and draw what I say. Now bear in mind, the first lesson I explained what we would be doing, and I went through all the basic tools in kidpix – ie we didn’t go further than the pencil, drawing a straight line, cuved line, oval, rectabgle and free hand.

It’s a listening game – duh!

Fast forward to today:

ME – our robot has a blue head

child 1 – what shade of blue?

ME – doesn’t matter

child 6 – well dark, blue, light blue, cobalt

ME – doesn’t matter, your choice

child 6 – can you just tell me what blue?

ME – fine, light blue

child 2 – what shape?

ME – I didn’t say, so it’s your choice

child 2 – so I can draw a circle

ME – whatever shape you want

child 3 – can I draw a triangle

ME – ANY SHAPE!

There were red heads green heads, yellow heads etc etc etc

15 MINUTES LATER!!!!

ME – our robot has a rectagular body

child 3 – what colour?

ME – any colour

child 4 – can I do it red

ME – any colour

There were circle bodies, triangular bodies, shapes I couldn’t make out, some kid clicked on the stampes and had green zebras plastered all over the screen, another kid found the firecracker and kept blowing up his picture and erupting into fits of giggles – it was TORTURE!

And so it went on, and on, and on and on and on and on until I wanted to put my head through the window. I tested all my lesson plans for the little ones on my son – he just turned 5!

I get to do it all again with a new group on Monday

More on racist loonies

After my previous post I just couldn’t resist this little bit of lunacy which shows it’s not just the brits that need to get a grip.

Source

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.

Of course, under the same logic, as a poster over at GA points out must we now change the name of the game ‘blackjack’ is it politically incorrect for me to order a ‘black coffee’, and I’m guessing we can only pink/yellow/orangemail someone and not blackmail them?