You Have Been Tagged!

You Have Been Tagged!

 

A few days ago I received an invitation to take part in a sort of serial blog chain. I have enjoyed reading the responses of other people and now it is my turn to put words to paper J

The task is as follows:

                      Acknowledge the person who tagged you

           Give 11 facts about yourself

                    Answer the tagger’s 11 questions 

          Write 11 questions of your own

          Tag 11 of your friends to continue the chain.

My invitation came from Marisa Constantinides, who is based in Athens. She has become one of my dear friends, and a source of much wisdom.

So let me give you some facts about me to start with.

1.      I am the only one of my family to have lived outside Scotland. My sister and my parents live (d) within a stone’s throw of where they grew up. I moved to teach in Champagne when I finished college, and then moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands, where I have been ever since.

2.      In my free time I play Bass, electric bass, and guitar, in a variety of line-ups of musicians. Most of the time I play in the local ceilidh band (pronounced Kay-ly). We play folk music from England, Scotland, Ireland and France accompanied by a Caller who teaches traditional dancing.

3.      When looking for escapism, I love nothing better than a trashy novel. I can read them on my kindle so no one else is aware of what I’m reading. I still love books though, and have a fine collection of reference books at home.

4.      I have two cats, but growing up I was always uncomfortable around felines. I would really prefer to have a dog, but the little furry girls have grown on me J

5.      I’m looking forward to Christmas, but I don’t have any idea what I will be serving up for dinner. We have the tradition that our friend brings the meat as his share of the proceedings, and he will only tell me at the weekend what he has sourced. It’s great fun- although I will be scrabbling around finding interesting vegetables to go with whatever he has chosen.

6.      Every year my friends and I go carol singing around the pubs to raise money for charity. We will be out and about this weekend 

7.      I learned to drive in France when I was working there, but my French was a bit dodgy at the time. I am still friends with the family of the driving instructors, who took pity on me and invited me to meals at their homes to help me improve my French.

8.      I am researching how to flip some of my teacher training sessions. I want to save time in the classroom for HOW to teach not WHAT to teach.

9.      I live in a Victorian town house- and we have been doing something to it ever since we moved in.

10.   My 25^th Wedding Anniversary is coming up in February. We spent our honeymoon in Paris.

11.  I enjoy Christmas, but as a Scot, I really prefer New Year. We throw a big party for our friends and neighbours, invite the musicians to bring their instruments and have fun into the wee sma’ hours J

Now for Marisa’s questions:

1.      How long does it take you to draft and finalise a blog post?

Usually I write it and then sleep on it. The next day I proofread it and check whether it needs amendments- then post it.

2.      Which ICT tools do you actually use with your classes?

I like simple things for my students. With my business students I use apps like email-writer or IBE (International Business Etiquette). In general classes I use Glogster, YouTube, Animoto, Jing.

3.      What is your absolute dream job?

I am actually very happy with the one I have now. I have always wanted to be a teacher, but I like the semi-autonomy I have, and the chances for CPD.

4.      Which classroom activity do you enjoy doing with your students?

I like ‘getting to know you’ exercises, especially when I have to merge new students with an existing group on our rolling programme.

5.      How many of your current friendships were started through a social network?

Many of them. It is a wonderful feeling when I get the chance to meet face to face with friends I have been talking to online for months. It’s like catching up with family.

6.      Which household chore do you hate the most- and which one do you love?

MY least favourite chore would have to be ‘Cleaning the toilet’. I love cooking, and I don’t actually mind ironing, unlike most of my friends.

7.      Name your 10 Desert Island Discs

I don’t have a fixed preference for music- it depends on my mood on any given day. I would certainly include some Mozart, some Scottish and English Folk music and some rock in my list.

8.      Do you wish you had studied something different?

Maybe. I was very interested in the Linguistics course my daughter did at University, but I might not have been interested when I was her age.

9.      Describe the naughtiest thing you have ever done.

It was probably the time we went skinny dipping at midnight. The island is very Methodist, and I dread to think what the reaction would have been had we been caught.

10.  What artistic aspirations or skills do you have?

Apart from playing in the band, I do a little folk singing. I’d love to be able to decorate cakes really well.

11.  Which TV series do you keep watching again and again?

I don’t. I watch very little TV, don’t buy DVDs to watch at home, and having seen something that’s usually enough. Unusually, I have been watching the Inspector Montalbano series with my husband. He really enjoys them, and records them faithfully to watch later. I watch the subtitles- and try to learn a bit of the Italian dialect J

Here are MY questions:

1.      How much time do you spend on social networking in a typical day?

2.      What was the last thing you read for work purposes?

3.      If you could change one thing about your workplace, what would it be?

4.      Would you stop work if you won a million on the lottery?

5.      Do you like a particular genre of music?

6.      Are you a team worker or a leader?

7.      Do you prefer words or pictures to get your message across?

8.      What’s your speciality in the kitchen?

9.      What was the name of the last novel you read?

10.  Have you done/not done something this year that you regret?

11.  If you could live in another country- which one would you choose- and why?

I’d like to invite anyone who wishes to complete the questionnaire to do so.

I feel that most of my friends and contacts have already been tagged, and I don’t want them to feel under an obligation to do it again.

However, if they would like to, I’d be delighted to read what they have to say.

My choice of participants would include:

Elizabeth Anne

Chaouki Mkaddem

Aiden Yeh

Mbarek Akkadar

Belkis Yanes

Nick Michelioudakis

Lisa Phillips

Marian Steiner

Claire Hart

Martin Postlethwaite

Russell Stannard

These are all people I’d love to find out more about J