Gorgeous Guernsey

What a wonderful visit to Guernsey I had! I arrived at lunch time on World Book Day to find colleague and friend Kate Garnett presiding over a buzzing book signing event for students that had taken part in the Write Path. The published authors were having great fun signing their books, the paper tablecloths, a wall display.....and well, anything that didn't move really!! Lovely polite kids, they gave me a round of applause when Kate introduced me and were very interested to find out how I had originally got the idea for the Write Path. After explaining as best I could (all about little ideas growing when you least expect it) I told them that they were the ones that deserved a clap for the stunning prose they came up with. One of the boys names is the same as a famous horror writer so maybe they had an advantage ;0) . Apparently all of their parents had attended the event and had their books signed as well as enjoying a cup of tea with the boys. Kate had told them that they had to write something nice in the books for their mums and dads - and in return the parents had to agree not to ruffle their hair or kiss them, think it was a pretty good deal personally. The bowls of jelly babies were what caught my eye and very nice they were too but I think the boys thought the chocolate cake was best ....it certainly disappeared quickly enough. It was a really lively, happy event and I can't thank Kate enough for letting me share it. (photos on my Flickr account)


After a break to recover from all of the excitement I led a web 2.0 inset session for members of the English and MFL departments. We were a little late starting as we had to send them all back to get their laptops, they hadn't thought they would actually have to do anything but I wanted them to see how much fun it is to 'play' with applications. One teacher was very nervous at the start of the training and was convinced she wouldn't be able to make anything work, her face was a picture at the end when she had managed to start her first Glog! There is still so much fear in the education world about web 2.0, great to be able to dispel some of this. The session was fuelled by more jelly babies and cake which was much appreciated! Interestingly all the teachers liked different apps which bodes well for future deployment. 


The morning after was spent revisiting places I hadn't seen since I was a youngster of 9 years and I arrived home after the short flight proud that I had managed my first solo flights etc without mishap. Well......that's what I thought until I got out my laptop to sign on the net.....and discovered it wasn't my laptop at all!! A call to the airline established that it belongs to one of their staff and I remember him being at Customs at the same time as me, it appears he picked up the wrong machine. Now awaiting a phone call so that we can organise a swap - it's a good job I have a back up lappy lol!