Mc² = E Learning Reflections

I'm a friend, a brother, a lover, a son,  A father, a mother all rolled into one. A husband, a wife, a partner, a carer, But all of that simply must wait til later, Because, first, I'm a teacher. I love making music, I love baking cakes,  I'd love to have time to go out dates,  I just wish my job was a little bit fairer, But all of that stuff simply must wait til later, Because, first, I'm a teacher. I'm human, not an object, a person of faith,  I pray for my students, God let them be safe, God give them courage and help me to share, Even when they are angry, lashing out 'cause they're scared. Because, first, I'm a teacher. Yes, I have regrets, the personal loss, As a mathematician I've counted the cost. The feeling of failure, the feeling of doubt, It's palpable but something I'm never without.   Because, first, I'm a teacher. So next time, you're dropping the kids off at school, Or in a lecture and say something cruel, To a person w...

  I've written about this before, my love of horror movies.  But I wanted to write down my thoughts after recently going to the cinema to watch a sequel production.  I think what got me was how this movie was little more than a retelling of the original story but with a minor twist.  I was largely a bit bored half way through.  The name of the movie itself doesn't matter, I think what got me was the "sameyness" of it. It got me thinking about one of my favourite characters from a famous shark movie.  She was the wife of Martin Brodie who began as a supporting character backing up the stereotypical male hero figure, staying at home while he goes off to sea to kill the monster shark.  But by the time the the fourth movie came along, Ellen was quite a different character taking to sea herself on a mission to finish it and put an end to the whole watery saga.   ( " 'Jaws' pictogram movie poster " by  Viktor Hertz  is licensed under...

Life's been crazy recently.  So much has changed in my personal life and in my professional life since the beginning of 2020 and, though the idea of getting back to normal would be lovely, I am under no illusions that life will never be the same again.  Am I searching for that ever illusive new normal  that people keep talking about?  Maybe.  Ultimately I find myself wondering what my next step might be? I got a letter today from work requesting that I attend a welfare meeting to see about my plans for going back to work following a period of extended absence and to see if there's anything that they can do to make my return to work a bit easier.  While I really appreciated that, I found myself panicking at the idea of returning to the same levels of stress that contributed to me being ill in the first place.  I didn't want to find myself back in that dark place.  Indeed, during my absence from work I found myself dealing with so many p...