Welcome Back

It's a new term and it's been a hectic few weeks. First there was the furore of the Year 11 Mocks and all the marking that followed, Year 11 ISA tests and then the Xmas break. Hope you all had a good rest. For Year 11 in particular now is the time to start putting in those much needed revision hours. The mocks weren't done well on the whole and mostly because factual recall was poor. Sorry guys but there is no substitute for revision - very few people can remember so much information having only done it once. On a positive note, the ISAs generall y went well with most people picking up some extra much needed marks.
Congrats to my Year 10 groups. Both did exceptionally well in their Novemeber module tests and can all be proud of their achievements. One or two people may want to think about a module retake in March, but there aren't many of these.
For Year 11 students there will be lunchtime revision surgerys running on Tuesday for Chemistry and Thursday for Physics from now on onwards. Do a little work then come along with your problems to solve.

Hapy New Year All and may you all have a happy and successful 2009.

What am I reading now?

OK so not everybody is a reader. Some of you may know that I have a weird taste in reading too. Actually there are two passions I have in my spare time, reading and playing MMORPGs. If you've got to ask what that last one is then you won't be interested, trust me.
My tastes in books are limited, mostly because I never have enough time to read so I only get through about 15 novels a year.
Mostly I like fantasy novels, particularly if there is a comic element. No surprise then that Terry Pratchett is always on my backlist of to reads. I think (for the first time ever) I'm down to just one of his left to read, the latest one which is sitting on my bookshelf with 'Xmas Hols' metaphorically on it.
for more of Terry's stuff go to http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/
If you like your fantasy more sword and sorcery with a twist of sci-fi then I recommend anything by Terry Brooks - they are all excellent. Be prepared to put aside some serious time to catch up on his catalogue, though. If you liked Lord of the Rings, you'll like him. Start with The Sword of Shanarrah but stick with it. This was his first novel but not his best. What follows is far more original and epic. http://www.terrybrooks.net/novels/index.html#
Don't like him? Try David Eddings, particularly the Belgariad series or Sparhawk novels. Much more magic and epic battles. Still not your thing? Try Stephen Donaldson. He's more heavyweight and thought provoking but he has the most original anti-hero I've ever read in the shape of Thomas Covenant - a crippled man swept from this world in to another dimension where he has god - like talents he doesn't want! http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/

What am I reading at the moment? Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas by Roger Highfield, of course!

Bones, blood and body bits

Year 8 have recently been studying the digestive system. We looked in detail at how it works. For the curious amongst you there is a very good FREE interactive body model at the link at the bottom of the screen.
Note, although it is free you will need to give an email address for activation and you will also be prompted to install some animation software. The first time you run it it will take a few minutes to load the body systems up so be patient! It is worth it.
Sorry if you only have a dial up connection then it will take forever. The program stays in cache so it will be quicker once you've run it the first time.
Enjoy!

http://www.visiblebody.com/

Seasonal silliness

Deep Freeze Freeze your enemies with your water gun.

Play this free game now!!

Oh no not that song again!!!

By (un)popular request for all those of you who still can't remember the 7 waves of the electromagnetic spectrum, here is the link to You Tube for the now infamous Electromagnetic Song. Don't say I didn't warn you how annoying this is...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bjOGNVH3D4Y
For a more ethereal presentation try http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uh3hH_Vu2tU

Polymerisation Madness

Recently Year 10 have been studying polymers. For your amusement again, here is the video now on You Tube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gUUSPtyvdHk

Blog, wot blog?

While surfing around to day I found a really good site for those of you who like to look at other peoples' Powerpoints. It's called Slideshare and it's a free to join resource. While there I discovered that I hadn't thought about what sort of blog this is. After a quick read (of someone else's slide show on the subject) I discover that this is probably part Linkblog, part Reviewblog and part Repostblog.
To a newbie like me I think this means I'll post links up for you, you can do the same for anyone reading the blog through comments and replies, I can use my 'expertise' to review/comment on stuff you have done (work maybe??) and there are occasional bits of stuff I'll just whack in because I came across them elsewhere and thought some of you might find them interesting.
Phew!
Here's a link then http://www.slideshare.net/
enjoy