Tag: Neil Kelly

Picture Parade Two Hundred and Ninety-Seven

A reprint of the second picture parade.

This was published on the August 3rd, 2013. Nothing to do with dogs but some great photographs nonetheless.

More photographs courtesy of Neil Kelly, Devon.

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Is it a bird? A man? — Is it a bird? A woman? Take your guess!

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Aren’t these terrific!

OK, next week it’s back to normal!

A snowy Dartmouth, South-West England

More photographs from Neil Kelly.

(plus a few of my own!)

Couldn’t wait for a future picture parade to share these with you.

They are all of Dartmouth, Devon.

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Now here’s a few taken around the home yesterday morning.

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Before we know it, it will be summer and all of this will be forgotten!

Picture Parade Two Hundred and Nine

Just a few memories of the last week.

Our English guests, Mark and Debbie, who stayed with us after traveling to Warm Springs, South-East of Portland, Oregon, to view the eclipse took the following three photographs.

See the crescents in the dappled shade of a near by bush. 10 minutes before totality.

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Then you will love the next one. Sent in by Neil Kelly from Devon, England.

Madison wears sunglasses to view the eclipse along the Cumberland River, Nashville, USA

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And another beauty courtesy of Neil K.

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Back to the stars!

The rising moon a little after 5am on the 19th August.

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And there hanging above that rising moon was Venus!

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Finally, back to Tanja Brandt whose most beautiful photographs will be gracing these Picture Parades in the future.

Happy July 4th!

If you will allow this old Brit to recognise the 4th July!

Speaking of Brits, the following was sent to me by Neil, a close friend from my previous days living in South Devon, England.

Perfect!

Thanks Neil!

Maggie the teaching dog.

Two views of teaching in the United Kingdom.

The title to today’s post may be a tad misleading, for it doesn’t offer a guide to both aspects of the post.

But first to what prompted the title.

Earlier yesterday, Neil Kelly, friend from my days when I was living in South Devon, sent me a link to a recent BBC News item. Here’s the story:

Maggie the dog made honorary primary school teacher

28 December 2015 Last updated at 04:31 GMT

A dog has become so successful in helping children to read, that she has become an honorary member of staff at a school in the West Midlands.

The idea of getting pupils to read to dogs in order to improve their literacy was first tried out in the UK five years ago, but Maggie, a 10-year-old Shih Tzu, has become so successful that she now has her own staff badge at Earls High school in Halesowen.

Phil Mackie went along to meet Maggie, and Grace, another Shih Tzu, who is training to take over when Maggie retires.

Teaching Assistant Toni Gregory spoke on behalf of the two literary pups.

Unfortunately, the short video of Toni Gregory speaking hasn’t yet made it to YouTube so I can’t include that in the post. But do go across to here and watch the short interview with Toni. Here’s a picture of Maggie.

Moving on!

It’s difficult not to see the connection between Maggie offering teaching services in a UK school and this recent essay from Richard Murphy of the Tax Research UK blog. It is republished in full with Richard’s very kind permission.

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The parents of primary school kids need to get very angry for their children

Posted on December 27 2015

Ninety three per cent of all children in the UK are taught in state schools. The parents of the other seven per cent may wish to pretend otherwise but the truth is that the prosperity, well being and future of the UK is dependent upon the ability of state schools to deliver the education our young people need. But, as the Guardian has reported, that is in jeopardy:

Britain’s leading expert on school recruitment has warned that a shortage of trainee teachers is reaching crisis levels in some of the most important subjects in the curriculum.

In evidence submitted to the parliamentary education select committee, TeachVac, an independent vacancy-matching and monitoring service for education professionals, said that it had identified a “woeful” lack of new teachers in several key secondary school subjects.

This is not a minor issue. As they note:

[TeachVac] has identified an 85% shortfall in the number of trainee teachers needed to fill vacancies in both business studies and social sciences. The number of new teachers for design and technology is also more than a third below what it needs to be and there is a 10% shortfall in the number of IT teachers required.

These are core subjects at the heart of the skill base the UK needs. And we may not be able to teach them.

There are three reasons for that. First, when the government portrays any job in the state sector as parasitical – and large parts of the media join in – any recruitment programme is going to be hard.

Second, student debt is crippling for those on what is thought to be middle pay, which is what many teachers can, at best, hope to earn.

And third, pay is just not good enough.

All of those are the direct result of policy. The first is ideological. The second is born of the desire to economically enslave people though debt which underpins neoliberalism. The third is the austerity mantra.

Put them together and this country will be crippled by denying an education to those who need and deserve it.

We need a new narrative.

The need to supply high quality education has to be at the core of that narrative.

I hope parents of those ten and younger realise what is going to happen to their children. It is not good, and they need to get angry, now.

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It strikes me that we need new narratives on so many issues ‘both sides of the pond’. Maybe, just maybe, 2016 kicks some of these new narratives into play.

From Canada to Cute.

“The best laid plans of mice and men.”

Following yesterday’s post about Ellesmere Island and the white wolves, I had plans to write more about the history of the wolf and the dog. (Oh, and thank you so much for the great way you all reacted to yesterday’s post.)

But events transpired to get in the way.

We were longer in Grants Pass in the morning than anticipated, then it was time for a quick lunch, get the fire going again, go through a rather bulging inbox, and then I was in the mood to start the post. I stood up to stretch and noticed that the deer that we feed most days were waiting impatiently.

So outside to put down some feed for the deer, then hover around, just captivated by them, decide to grab the camera from indoors and take a picture,

then, while I was outside realised that I ought to bring some logs in for the fire, and …… you get the scene, I’m sure.

I sat down at my PC to start the post and knew that I was stressing about there not being enough time to do it justice.

Gave myself a talking to about writing a blog was not something to stress about and looked for a ‘fill-in’ for today.

Opened an email recently sent to me from long-time UK friend, Neil Kelly, and discovered Neil had included in the email the most wonderful, evocative, serenely beautiful photograph of a rambler from calmer, more peaceful times. It really had to be shared with you.

Continue reading “From Canada to Cute.” →