A Monkey in Manhattan
This ape's thinking has evolved sufficiently to know that this is all there is.
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Falling Slowly
Every teacher must reflect on how quickly pupils grow up, especially your own!
Here’s a little project, five pupils and I started five years ago when they entered secondary school in Year 7. Each of them have been filmed every week doing a stride or two in a walk around our school, two from the front, two left profile and one right profile. That walk took five years and here is that passage as they come back to the entrance from which they started, just before they leave in Year 11.
Charlotte
Megan
Myles
Sophie
Ross
Falling Slowly
April 24, 2014
Muhammad Ali – The Greatest
At the end of the sixties when I first became aware of Cassius Clay, I couldn’t stand him and always wanted his opponent to beat him. Nobody ever laid a glove on him because he was so fast. The first Parkinson interview in 1971 changed all that and from then on, like the rest of the planet, I regard him as simply the greatest athlete and personality that has ever lived.
Any other champion of the world would have been happy to prosper from his fame and fortune but that wasn’t enough for Ali. He changed his slave name and followed the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and became a leader for black rights in America.
Even winning the Olympic heavyweight gold medal in Rome was not enough for him to be able to eat downtown in his own city. He subsequently threw the medal away into the river in disgust. Ali also later refused to enlist into the army to fight in Vietnam and as a result was stripped of his title and banned from boxing for four years. That started his long journey back, losing to Norton on the way, before losing to Joe Frazer in probably the greatest fight that there has ever been. One billion people watched the fight including a 13 year-old in Felixstowe, England. I was heartbroken and I remember writing about the injustice of his story at school!
Ask any sportsman who was the greatest athlete/sporting icon of all time and there is no contest. His poetry, wit and character made him a hero on every continent. Charming and kind, a man for all seasons who fought injustice and for what was right in the world.
I recorded this Parkinson show on a reel to reel rape recorder; – yes before cassettes of any kind! I was so taken by this Atttica poem that I learnt it by heart and actually chose to perform it at a school Prose presentation. People after asked me why had I recited it whilst imitating Muhammad Ali’s voice to which I replied I hadn’t even known I had done so. I must have been so taken by his aura and the conviction for what he believed in, that I mimicked his delivery subconsciously. Tony Benn said that the four most influential people he’d ever known were all black. Freedom fighters all of them. Nelson Mandela, Ghandhi, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Paul Robeson. I’d like to add Muhammad Ali to that list. Not a learned man or a politician but remembered by everybody and not only by people of his colour. There must be some reason why 44 years later after learning this poem it still remains with me today. Simply the Greatest.
I overall love his humour, honesty and wonderful character which transcends race, colour and creed.
Muhammad Ali – The Greatest
April 16, 2014
Black and White Gold
This James Cagney scene is at the end of Yankee Doodle Dandy, a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as “The Man Who Owned Broadway”. I was so impressed with this routine, I tried to do it when I was at school with obviously absolutely no success!
Unbelievable perfection in dance, timing and golf swing technique. In the next clip, Fred Astaire describes how the cameraman complained about the trajectory of his shots being too high and how he had to amend them.
This was the first film I recorded on our new VHS recorder and so because of the novelty of being able to rewind and review, learnt the whole film by heart. Fantastic thought-provoking script, characters and unravelling story.
The Marx brothers were so ahead of their time. ‘A Night at the Opera’ my particular favourite. Love the Groucho Marx quote, ‘I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member’!
My parents’ generation regarded Spencer Tracey as the greatest ever actor. ‘Boys Town’, ‘All about Eve’, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ This speech still relevant today – perhaps more so! …. “because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding.”
The Tony Curtis quote, ‘Kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler,’ is actually untrue. No-one else came close to MM when I was a teenager.
Black and White Gold
April 13, 2014
Stevie Wonder – He’s Misstra Know-It-All
April 8, 2014
Eden’s Edge – Amen
March 30, 2014
Husband of the Year Award
March 29, 2014
Honorable mention goes to the United Kingdom contestant:
followed closely by… The United States of America.
The judges were particularly impressed by Poland’s entry this year –
but 3rd Place must go to… Greece:
Now it was very very close but the runner up prize was awarded to…. Serbia.
but the winner of the husband/partner of the year is – Ireland.
Ya gotta love the Irish. The Irish are true romantics. Look, he’s even
holding her hand.
Credit cards – Easy cash that’s hard to pay back.
“Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best –
God! but the interest!”
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best–
God! but the interest! <!–…–>
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/debt?page=1#0Mdg8X6KgURdxsHK.99
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best–
God! but the interest! <!–…–>
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/debt?page=1#0Mdg8X6KgURdxsHK.99
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best–
God! but the interest! <!–…–>
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/debt?page=1#0Mdg8X6KgURdxsHK.99
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best–
God! but the interest! <!–…–>
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/debt?page=1#0Mdg8X6KgURdxsHK.99
You might have noticed just recently how hard it is to get a phone number on big corporation’s websites like Sky or BT. They hide it very well, preferring you to fix your own problems by way of a online chat or e-mail or some other way of registering your complaint or query. Call centres are undoubtedly expensive, it means humans have to be employed and that’s an expense the shareholders could have. If you are old or uninitiated in the ways of the computer, you have become disconnected from your provider, and they seemed so nice and friendly in the advert!
Government as a rule does not interfere with business. The food industry has been poisoning us for years but regulating them would mean lower profits and where would the first cuts be – jobs of course. The betting industry is now rampant and whose interest really does that serve? I can only think the lobbyists are lining the politicians’ pockets handsomely to let these mobsters try and squeeze every hard-earned penny out of a working man’s pay packet before it even gets home. Unless there is a popular campaign that government think might attract a few votes, even the most unethical business practice continues unabated. What’s that you say Starbucks, Google et al haven’t paid anywhere near the tax they should have in this country well I think you’ll find, like Jimmy Carr, they haven’t actually done anything contrary to the letter of the law. The spirit of the law, now that’s a different thing.
We don’t have a car, motorcycle or ship-building industry in this country any more but we are damn good at financial services. Have you ever been financially serviced!? I have banked with Lloyds for over 40 years, I should change but untying yourself from all the administrative tentacles is time consuming and prevents you doing it and they know it. Do you think that loyalty is somehow repaid – No way. It’s naive to think nowadays that any customer loyalty exists at all other than the knowledge that you’re more likely to come back in the future than some other smuck. I wanted to borrow about £3000 just recently. Lloyds don’t do loans for under £1000, there’s the reason why QuickQuid, Wonga etc exist. For loans between £1000 and £4000 the APR is 20%, for loans between £5000 and £7000 it decreases to about 10% and then settles to 6.4% for £7500+. I think that’s disgusting that our banks which are supposed to serve us solely exist to encourage us to borrow more and even penalise us for settling early. So I turn to the great offers to be had from Credit card loans at the moment – 0% for 18 months. It’s a brilliant way of getting a short term loan for virtually nothing but you have to remain vigilant. Look how hard they make it to change your payment per month. Remember you only pay interest if you don’t pay a minimum amount or if circumstances dictate you go over the duration of the 0% offer.
I am trying to open an online credit card account which might help me regulate the terms of the loan.
Firstly, I have a 10 digit ID number which you can’t change.
(OK admittedly the computer can remember it by checking box)
Press continue
I have a unique image (elephant) and phrase combination (Bizarre) to choose. It will be shown on this page to indicate that I am on the genuine Online Banking site. This is set up by me along with the 3 security questions:
Where were you born?
What was the name of your first school?
What is your mother’s middle name? All three chosen from a choice of 6/7
Next I have to enter the 6th 9th and 3rd characters of my password sent in Letter 1 of the login details, That’ll be 84381329
and then…. the 4th 2nd and 5th numbers of the 5 digit security number sent in Letter 2 of the Login details. That’ll be 16354
Give up yet?
Then I’m compelled to change the supplied password and security number to one of my choice. The restrictions on what the password and security number are unusually tough.
I’m through at last. I choose Set up/amend direct debit
It seems to be easy until I learn that all amendments to my account will only be sanctioned if I relay a 3 digit number which has been sent to me by text. (the text was sent the next day without any 3 digit number included!) I comply only to find the online programme goes on to refuse many times my request to either increase my direct debit monthly amount or let me pay off the full balance. My fustration and this deliberate avoidance is not a one-off, hence this rant!
I take to ringing now. On the 28th of March, I pass through the usual several menus of the telephone call centre exchange. My first minimum payment of £6.75 went through on 25th March and I want now to increase it considerably to say £250!. In other words I want to do what they don’t want me to do and that is to firstly pay way over the minimum payment so as to definitely not incur interest on the sum I owe and furthermore make sure I give myself every chance to pay off my debt early.
I ask if I can pay off the entire balance, an option clearly given on the online account. No comes back the answer, you must contact your bank to do that.
Can I increase my payment to £250 then – Yes you can but that will only come into operation on the 25th May!! So much for instant access and being able to have instant effect on my financial affairs. Them are the rules and we know why they’re like that don’t we?
I know I must expect pain if I want to benefit from a 0% offer, but I can afford to take on the big banks and corporations in terms of money, time and technology know-how. What about those who can’t and hence will pay over the odds? The financial service brigade know what they’re doing in playing the big numbers probability game. That is to sting that inevitable proportion of clients who they know will be either too busy/confused or not as determined as I will be to keep an eye on what is happening. – Bastards!
Credit cards – Easy cash that’s hard to pay back.
March 29, 2014
Performance Feedback Revision – Baba Brinkman
Baba Brinkman’s freestyle rap “Performance, Feedback, Revision” from “The Rap Guide to Evolution’, live in front of 3,500 people at Robin Ince’s “9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People” comedy variety show December 20 2009 at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. Instrumental beat by Nokz from Tehdit.
One thought that I have and that a lifetime teaching Maths has confirmed to me is that, The best solution is never at the extremes.
The best solution in optimisation problems are not exactly in the middle either but where the competing variables find an equilibrium together. Anybody who has played computer civiisation building games will know programmers build in a riot, plague, invasion of an enemy etc to throw at you if as a player you ignore completely or play with a variable to excess. Complete state control such as the totalitarian communist model of USSR is as far off the ideal political solution as the ‘American Dream’ free market, capatalist model. Excessive authoritarian parenting leads to as many problems with bringing up children as a laissez-faire, too liberal, no clear boundaries approach. My little experience in film-making taught me the need to have a structure but at the same time letting freedom in the model leads to unexpected magic happening that could never have been planned.
There has been million-dollar research into the quickest way to getting passengers on and off planes to minimise the time needed for the plane to stay on the ground. This is a billion dollar industry so it’s important to get it right, so guess what they found out!There are about 40 ways of getting people on and off a plane with such variables as the back/front of the aircraft, window/aisle, left/right etc. The best solution was one that involved a balance between order and randomness.
Teaching thirty youngsters is a more dynamically fluid chaotic system than people uninvolved with education think or will ever know. Establishing a successful relationship with one adolescent let alone a group is one of Performance – Feedback – Revision. The evolution of this relationship which can take years to develop, observing administrators attempt to judge in 20 minutes!
…..and how do human beings (teachers) ever learn to do anything? – like this –
Performance – Feedback – Revision
…..and how do I generally develop my lyricism (teaching style/behavioural management)? – like this –
Performance – Feedback – Revision
…..because the performance is necessary to change the words (learning) to decide which have an impact and which to send back to the drawing board.
Performance (by me) – Feedback (from me and my peers) – Revision (suited for the children I teach)
“… the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don’t need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it.” – John Holt
A Monkey in Manhattan 