Pentatonic playfulness

Thanks to Nick Hood aka Cullaloe for the link to this fascinating audience participation clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk

The audience has no difficulty in knowing exactly which note to sing, even when he extends the range below and above what he has sung to them, and adds his own harmonic patterns. Amazing!

The glistening trail of snail mail

What a lovely surprise!

It was our 30th wedding anniversary and our 4 children collaborated to give us a card signed by all of them!

After a week of concentrated focus here and having used digital technology extensively to collaborate, it's a timely reminder of how satisfying it is to receive a personal communication which took a lot more effort to make.

The stamps on the envelope trace its journey from New Zealand, to Iceland, to Edinburgh and finally to Peebles.

And tomorrow they have arranged for us to go to Stobo Castle for a relaxing afternoon, including a massage. Bliss! and just what we both need...

They are a lovely lot.

Meme power

Jenny, the daughter in iceland, sent me the link to this video which is very relaxing as well as totally amazing.
http://www.vimeo.com/5606758
What's also amazing is how the viewing stats rocket from 7K to 74K in 6 days!

I know it has to happen, but it would be at the very time I wanted Glow to be available!

Another cool tool

Thanks once again to Ollie for the link to this cool tool. I could have done with this at the end of term when I was putting together lots and lots of photos for the end of term slide show. I'll pass it on to the next year's teacher of this lot, and she can maybe use it as a wallpaper on the kids desktop. Once it's downloaded (I needed to register with the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network first and then download a Microsoft NET package) it's a really simple app to use, and the result is very pleasing. The one here has 50 photos of our fabulous Laughter Yoga session. I'll certainly be using it at school and passing the details on to colleagues.

Using YouTube in school

I read Ollie's post and thought how lucky we are that ours is an enlightened Authority which does not filter youtube in our schools. I thought I'd list some of the clips that I can remember using which have enhanced my teaching and the learning of my pupils, colleagues and parents. I think I probably used others as well but I can't now remember.

Visually impaired person reading braille
BSL demos
The Mask intro stimulus for National Assessment in Writing
Our Only One World
Scottish ospreys
Irish Jig Extravaganza
Shift Happens
Olympic clips
Tom Lehrer new maths clip
Ma and Pa Kettle doing Maths

More of a wisp of smoke

My experience of glow today :-(