Late this night

I've been up late doing some final exemplar answers for my year 11s, who take their second History paper tomorrow.

A couple of interesting things.

Firstly, I was trying to find "For Good" from the Wicked soundtrack, which was on tonight's Glee finale and I wanted to listen to; and I accidentally found "Everything is good for you" by Crowded House, which must be an album track I've had sitting on my hard drive for years and years but have never heard. It is an amazing song and maybe my anthem for this month.



It's not a great recording. I'd urge you to find a better one.

Secondly, I saw an ad for Google Chrome which featured this project. As someone who works with teens I was touched to find such a thing exists out there. I'm looking forward to reading more. I am supportive of anything that tries to make the awkward years of adolescence a little easier to bear.
I also found it interesting the Google would pick something which might be viewed as controversial to advertise their product. It's impressive that a multinational would throw their weight behind the campaign that way.

Finally, I forgot about our hilarious pilot on the flight back from Iceland in February. I can't believe I forgot for so long his amazing speeches and jokes over the PA system throughout the flight! I am going to have to talk to Tom and Jon tomorrow at work and see what they remember, but I do recall him saying, at the start, "If you're a nervous flier like me, you should look at the safety card..." which got a big laugh. His quips had more people paying attention to the safety demonstration than I'd seen in a long time.

Do you watch the safety demo? I must admit, I always, always do. I always check out my nearest exit too, and think through what I'd do in an emergency. I have a colleague who worked for years on fishing boats around the Falklands, and the first thing he does in a new place is check out his exits. He says you get used to doing that when you live on a boat. I read a review of a book about how to survive disasters once which said this was good practice, too.
I also always listen because it seems only polite to the cabin crew, you know? Even if it's all on the vieo screens nowadays.

I should also say, though, that if you're ever on a plane - don't applaud when the plane touches down. I hate that. I don't expect my pupils to applaud me when I teach a lesson. I'm not going to applaud the pilot for successfully enabling autopilot to land the plane: it's his job! Humbug.

On our recent flight to NY, poetic justice had a say and I was on a plane with about 50 secondary school pupils. They applauded when we touched down. They also screamed on take off, ignored the safety demo and sat in the aisles playing cards for half the flight. And then talked loudly about bombs and terrorists whilst queueing to go through immigration (both Mr Z and I edged away from them at this point). I took notes on what to brief my pupils NOT to do the next time we take a flight.

Anyway. I should go to bed. I do intend to blog about NYC soon.