beeswax

The clue's in the name

You just can't find the leather elbow patches these days.

There have been several threads on here regarding expensive software which has been bought but not even unpacked and used. VLE's could fall into this category. How long have you had your VLE in place? Is there any material for your Year 7's to view/use? It's a bit like having a Ferrari but no petrol. Nice to look at but serving no purpose other than as an example of beautiful design.

That's a little like saying everyone who lives on a council estate is a benefits scrounger. I was self-employed for 25 years, used an accountant and claimed what was my due within the law.

horses for courses. If people didn't have different interests this would be a boring world. Some folk like one type of food while others make a song and dance about it.

Ta. There's a beer in the post.

We issue all our PE staff with mobile phones configured to take registers via Bromcom.

Happy Bank holiday Ric. What I'm referring to is something like your signature which contains a link to LinkedIn

How do you go about adding these to your signature?

http://www.lowbird.com/data/images/2008/08/beckham.jpg

This is not so much what we have to do, and what we have achieved so far, as what you do with contractors who say they'll turn up at 09:30am Monday, but in fact don't show their faces until midday Wednesday. Our NM works himself really hard coordinating and organizing all this, phone calls, emails, face to face. What do you do when people don't turn up when they say they will? Have you any sanctions? Do you tie them in to a contract (with penalties) which stipulates certain factors such as when they turn up etc?

I always check my cutlery.

I think they actually tried something a little like this in Ohio. They made sure that primary class sizes were no bigger than twice the child's age, i.e. a class of 5 year olds would have no more than 10 pupils, and plenty of one to one time with the teachers. At age 7 they would be in classes of no more than 14. What it did, if I recall correctly, was ensure that pupils could read, write and do maths, felt confident and behaved better, with all the subsequent knock-on effects (less time lost through unruly behaviour etc) further down the line in secondary school. As for all the poor people moving south, I think that's a great idea, with house prices falling now is a good time for the work shy northerners to go and populate all the remaining green belt land down there.

I'm not an NM, but I run our Moodle on site, everything from seeing that it runs smoothly to working with teachers to produce work for it. In fact I'm now timetabled two days a week specifically for this reason. If all you're doing is managing it, seeing that it runs smoothly, you have to ask yourself, "Can you do it?" and "Do I have the time?" Emergencies aside, can you fit it into a normal school day? Being able to go to the Moodle server and drag and drop 473Mb of info into a folder is a great plus. I can also edit the css files to get the site looking how I want it, and don't have to wait on other peoples' convenience. I should add, from a personal perspective, that the advent of BSF, and for our LEA, single status, which for us will mean a cut of between 20% - 30% according to informed sources, that a lot of goodwill is going to be lost. The things you do out of a sense of helping the school community, sometimes in your own time. Attitudes are hardening.

Snakes on a plane?

you have a pm

...and Google are(is?) short of a bob or two.

It's being knocked down to make way for 400+ new houses now. If you tell me where to look for the blue plaque with your name on it, I'll see if I can locate it.

You should try Wardle then.

You could try Googling it, there may be some pictures (yes it is). Actually, they may have pictures of me. How am I going to justify an 08 Lexus RX400 h on my salary?

not a great picture, mobile phone camera etc, but definately the Google camera car.

Used to call it spec creep when I worked for a web design company. There was a time when if you knew your html and had a flair for design you could do the whole job, but unless you're the Universal Man you'd be better off concentrating on one field. There are a lot of decent CMS out there with thousands of professional looking templates. Royalty free (which doesn't mean you don't have to pay) stock photography sites offer loads of great images, unless you're such a good photographer (but then, why aren't you being a photographer?). Create some dummy sites so that clients have something to look at. Think carefully how much your time is worth. Imagine this is your sole income (a bit like closing your eyes and pretending you're blind, I know), but what does your income have to cover, rent, rates, mortgage, fuel bills etc. Have a professional attitude. If you start undercutting someone who scrapes a living doing web design full time by cross subsidising from your full time employment you're doing no one any favours. Offer several levels of sites, starting at the basic html, through to the dynamic with shopping cart. And stick to them. "Skip Intro" on Flash movies is there for a reason. Get things in writing. Design a professional looking Word doc template, one copy each. Be prepared to walk away. Listen to what the customer wants. Does (s)he have any sites which they like the look of? What are they trying to achieve? Which market are they aiming for? If they show you a site they like and you realize that it's a Joomla site, keep it under your hat. It may well be a ready made, off the shelf design, but you don't know how much work has gone into the backend. HTH p.s. your local plumber may think he needs a website, he doesn't.

Lightbox is another you may want to look at.

Just add my two pennorth here. I'm doing the Education, Research & Technology degree at the Ultraversity which is all online, and my biggest problem has been managing to fit it all in to a normal life. Before I started this degree I could spend time at home researching solutions to problems at school. Not any more, that's out the window, though in a way that's no bad thing as I only get paid for the time spent in school. Having said all that if I were in your shoes I'd go for it. I'll be 56 when I finish the course but I don't feel I've wasted my time. good luck.

"admin" "admin"