Thursday 19 July 2007

Faith restored

I have had two great days. One in the rain & one in hot sun! We have taken two groups of students to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. It was nominally a 'geography fieldtrip' and was offered as an option in the 'enrichment programme'. Yesterday we took a mini-bus full of year nine students. It tipped it with rain down once we reached Malham Cove. The students were impressed by the scenery, awed infact at Goredale Scar, paddled in the stream & a few hardy souls splashed close to the waterfall (Yes, it was in the risk assessment!). One even said 'There's alot of Geography out here Miss'! Today we took a coach full of Year 7's. The sun baked down. They picnicked, they paddled, they socialised, they watched the Peregrine Falcons & had a go at the village quiz, ate ice creams & didn't want to come home & said they wanted to come next year! The staff (the staffing was fairly generous) all felt really privileged to spend time with these kids away from school & targets & assessments. How can we measure their level of interest & engagement? The standards in our classroom? Intellectual safety? Quality of the teaching environment? (classroom climate its called!). Look at these pictures. This is why I teach Geography, damn it!

In the mini bus I was able to knit & finished Mr J's socks. Today the coach was a different proposition & knitting would have led to sickness! I have, however started knitting the Regia Bamboo into some toe-up's (I had to use a larger circular for the Turkish cast on as I have yet to replace my broken 2.5's) & with 'yarn over cable' from Sensational Knitted Socks. This is Mr J actually wearing his finished Opal Mexico sock! Colours are a bit more vibrant, but the flash seems to have washed them out.

The biggest news? I AM IN! In what? In Ravelry! Oh what a basket of delight lurks there! We break up for summer tomorrow!!!!!!!!! Forcast rain....... Guess what I will be doing? Good job I picked up on the fact that you can see where you are in the queue. My invite had come in two weeks ago & into the junk mail!

5 comments:

Simon said...

Looks like you had a great time. Nice blog.

Dipsy Doodle said...

Yay for being in Ravelry - but let me warn you, time passes by so quickly when you're having fun there! I've spent one whole day on that page a while ago and didn't even realize how fast time passed!
What a great time it seems you've all had in the Yorkshire Dales - what an amazingly beautiful area this is, and it's really fantastic that you had such wonderful summer weather for that trip! Thanks for sharing the pics!
I love your socks, btw, great colour choices!

Artis-Anne said...

I visited Malham for the first time after Kath did her Geography trip up there, a truly amazing place: keep up the good work :)
Oh lucky you re Ravelry,I am still waiting for my invite :( I have heard its totally addictive .How did you find out were you were in the queue ?
Great socks there , hope Mr J likes them

Artis-Anne said...

Found it :) it's on their homepage now and I am WAY down :(
Still I need more kniting time !!

WJS said...

i cannot believe you managed to KNIT on the minibus, now that really is commitment.