Month: January 2015

Scheduled later start with todays class, which was just as well as quite a few of my students had a touch of the zombies or ever so slightly feeling the effects of a very late night! Lots of drinking water throughout the class session but they all got through it. Not sure how much of my presentation they took in though today? Ominously, their briefing for next weeks team assignment was emailed to me during the class session – Enjoy this week folk’s, it’s about to get real, soon!

Most of the group appeared to be heading to the amazing V&A museum for the rest of the day. I had a couple of errands to run then headed off in search of ‘hidden gem’ pub #2. The previous wonderful find of a couple of days ago being The Holly Bush on Hampstead Heath (see below), where I will hopefully be introducing my travelling colleagues to on Friday evening. Todays ‘hidden gem’ is the Dove, tucked away in Hammersmith. An amazingly cosy pub overlooking the River Thames. No doubt a beautiful location during the summer, but a perfect place to relax on a damp January afternoon too 🙂

Alarm worked – thank goodness!

Day two of the class, and getting into our stride now. A lot of fun teaching the course and hopefully, my students will get a lot out of it, which they can continue to use now and into their future.

After class a majority of the group was going to finish their homework (yes, there’s homework – I don’t give this course away 😉 and head to the British Museum – What a treat they’re in for. All that lovely plunder we took when the empire was world wide! I myself was on a mission I had been waiting for over a year – the Imperial War Museum – World War One (100th Anniversary) exhibition. I was so excited to see it, and it didn’t let me down – quite amazing! Recommend it to everybody (especially the generations who have forgotten the Great War even happened! Is it even on the school curriculum anymore?)

Here are a few photographs from the exhibition (and trust me, I edited down from many more:)

Continue reading “Class Time, Fun Time and the Amazing IWM”

Great start to the day – I knew I needed to be up and about with plenty of time to get on the tour bus, so obviously I set my alarm. Unfortunately those wonderful iPhone people made it so I can specify particular days of the week for my alarm to go off. In my slightly travel fatigued mental state I set it just fine, but didn’t notice that it was for weekdays only – as a result, bus left at 8:30am, Gary woke at 8:35am. Peachy! 45 minutes later, dressed, coffee picked up (well duh!) and a taxi ride to Westminster Abbey – and I reunited with my students. Bad start but all well in the end. As always, a really enjoyable tour – never gets tiring, so much history.

No time to take it easy when we returned to the hotel. I had to get to the room we would be using as a classroom and set up my equipment. Time to put the iPad mini/palm projector to the test! After a little improvisation with the room layout and ten minutes to spare – I was good to go. Time to get serious and deliver.

So here we go again, the ‘every two years’ jaunt to ‘Blighty’ for the J Term.

Two things of note here: 1. It’s my largest group of students – a class of 12 juniors and seniors, and 2. Using my smallest equipment to deliver the class yet – a palm projector coupled to an iPad mini, with a portable pair of speakers. It’s my aim to eventually deliver my syllabus (primarily three big Keynote/Powerpoint presentations) using just my iPhone and a palm projector – getting closer!

So we only arrived around 8am this morning after the usual long but incident free journey from Chicago O Hare to Heathrow (actually, I took the charter bus from Peoria, so add another three hours travel time onto that.

Thank goodness for phone charges built into buses these days). My students were a little weary but still good to go for a few more hours until the ‘crash’ finally kicks in.

The Imperial Hotel still looks good with it’s Christmas decorations hanging on for dear life as the new year kicks in.

A relatively ‘gentle’ first day with the only two things on my agenda being to take my class out on the tube… and then leave them to find their own way home. It’s just a bit of tough love. They’ll thank me for it – at least those that make it back to the hotel will 🙂 The second thing was purely personal – to sit down in one of my favorite pubs with an English lunch and a pint of finest – in this case, a pint of Directors. Everything gets busy tomorrow, so nice just to relax for one day at least.