Tuesday 7 May 2013

Mists and sunshine

This morning at home it is bright but a bit damp still, the grass is visibly growing and the cats have taken the renewed garden as a challenge and I shudder to think what they will kill and bring in! As I wend my way to work it got duller and less warm, until a few miles from the coast it was grey and misty. The radio chirped about the sun burning off the coastal mist and nice days for all! I wished I had my coat on. I have named this post mists and sunshine as I hope by the time I get to post it the sun will be out! Which shows how much of an optimist I am.

The school is quiet and peaceful at the moment, there are plans to take the first years out for a day this week and with 4th and upwards away, that makes for a school of just 2nd and 3rd years. Sadly that also means that most of the issues are still in school but as I was told over 13 years ago when I first started working in school, the worst case scenario is you have to cope with them for 6 years! You can also say that no matter what you do you can't keep them past 6 years either! There have been a few I have waited to leave but there has been many many more who I have been broken hearted to see go! The current crop of leavers include some wonderful people who I will miss and wish well. Friday saw some of them in tears, the reality of their final school day only just setting in.

It is strange seeing the kids grow from little first years full of wonder and bravado  through teen years and pushing their own limits and reaching for the stars, to the almost adults that leave to go out in the world, some experience, some plans and lots of wonder again, almost a full cycle. Strangely they are still growing in looks and personality, the young adults that leave often change so much I don't know them a few years later. We have various staff who had been pupils during my time and I had one the other day chatting and said yes she was a pupil of mine, I had no idea and since she is now married I still have no idea who she was! Thankfully she also sees me and not the librarian persona I wear, so it doesn't really matter who she was as who she is now is fine.

The blog I shall mention today is from the hack school library which is american but covers such diverse areas that the few that seem to be mainly american centric are few and far between! The blog post I have linked to is about copyright which yes I know changes between countries and situation but it is the attitude that got me, that fact that no matter what your job as a librarian, information professional or collection manager you need to know about copyright, what is and isn't covered and how it applied to your work! While the wording may change and what is covered changes by country that fact is we musty all be addressing the issues involved.

This links to another part of my world at the moment  my revalidation which is still being worked on, I was writing up my activity sheets and came to the last umbrella conference. I know we as mentors talk about documenting our thoughts and feelings at the time, I know we frown on retrospectively writing up events, but I have all the evidence for at least the last 3 years already, I have been keeping track for myself so have it foe the revalidation. I just need to get the notes made at the time and treat them to the 'So What' attitude. This was the Portfolio building day's biggest idea for most up here, looking at what they were putting in the portfolio with a 'so what' thoughts, helps to be reflective, to get the most out if the information and to have a move forward. A sort of how did you apply what you learned? or what did you get from the day?

On a different note I also got this in my email today about being greener. I have always felt that any changes have to come form us as individuals and while government ideas and things help they can still only help us to change, not change us! living so far out in the wilds, I get owls and buzzards on my washing line uprights, the trees and bushes fill with birds and other creatures, even my cats look at visiting cars as warming spots and not potential killing machines. The night is dark in winter and we can just see the distant street lights at the village end, and in summer bright all night but so quiet. The trees get blown so hard in high winds that it sounds like a jet plane taking off, and the tree when full of leaf fill the air with a green haze! I love being this wild, but close enough to go to the cinema and to find a good health food shop!

On a brighter note my poppies are finally starting to put up flower heads! this is last years to remind myself and make me smile.
 The sun hasn't come out and the sky is still grey but the pictures of last years flowers has cheered me up no end.

No comments:

Post a Comment