Bulgaria with Noodles

Tina in Kalotina, contemplating the workings of the boiler I started writing this in the kitchen of our house in Kalotina. Every so often, there is a little “tinkle tinkle” sound. No, it is not that naughty little doggie, Tina, peeing again. No, it is the sound of the wood pellets falling down into the central heating boiler’s combustion chamber. Very clever, really. I wonder how it knows when to feed in some more pellets. The boiler also makes a golden glow, an orange light that bathes the room. It is like having your own pet dragon in your kitchen. The bad news, of course, is that the whole damn house is so blooming cold that it is going to take ages for the central heating system to warm up every room. Well, that is the main drawback of a pellet boiler, of course.  The boiler uses wood pellets (and lots of them!) The boiler itself takes ages to get going properly and then it takes even longer before the house starts to warm up. But when is the house going to warm up

Another very annoying article in the TES provoked me into writing this reply. Homework Dr. Wendy Edwards criticizes teachers who set "finishing off" homework, especially for English, but it is often the case that a class of 30 (or more) students do not all complete a piece of work at exactly the same time. Perhaps she did not know that this does in fact happen. If a student gets most of the work done in the lesson, then asking that student to spend some time at home completing a comprehension exercise, writing a story, doing a piece of proof reading or whatever, is not an unreasonable thing to do. The student has already made a significant start on the work and knows what to do, but he or she just needs some more time to get it completed. Yes, I am sure Dr. Wendy is right in claiming that many schools do not have "finishing off" as a reason for setting homework. On the other hand, many schools do boast about their high academic standards and that might

Well, it makes a pleasant change to get a letter from a teacher who is hoping to go the Middle Kingdom, rather than the Middle East. Dear Anne, Yes, my real name is “Simon”. My username at the TES is “the hippo” and this is an old nickname from when I was at school, more years ago than I care to remember! Okay, what do you need to do? Well, first you have to read my blog! There are heaps and heaps of posts from when we were in China. Lots of things in GZ will be very similar to SZ. In fact, I remember when I was wandering around Guangzhou, I thought to myself, “I could easily be in Shenzhen!” However, GZ is quite a bit older, so there are some ancient bits that might be of interest. GZ also has the famous (or infamous) snake restaurant, the one where Michael Palin had dinner in  Around the World in Eighty Days. At the top of the Canton Tower Secondly, once you have actually signed the contract and it is all going to actually happen, then you need to get beavering w

Yes, Christmas is on its way. My dear Irisha has put up the tree and the decorations in our apartment in Ulitsa Kozyak. Then she started to go with Patricia to lots of rehearsals for a special Christmas concert in Sofia. Patricia and Irena at the Christmas Market in Sofia. Here are some photos of the festivities at St. George's School. The traditional Bulgarian dance troupe really were rather good. 

This piece by Lucy Moss recently appeared in the TES. Do we really need to teach  (or use) cursive handwriting? The issue of whether students need to produce joined-up writing is a divisive one  – Lucy Moss takes a look at the debate                                               Everyone has an opinion on handwriting.  It’s a divisive issue that can take up whole staff meetings and Inset sessions, and often commands its own official policy in school.  Speaking to a colleague recently, we got on to the subject of teachers’ handwriting. While we agreed that it is essential for teachers to lead by example and write neatly and legibly in learners’ books, we disagreed on whether that should be in a certain style.  Cursive handwriting She felt that all staff should use the school handwriting policy. She pointed out that I do this – which is true. But that is how I prefer to write at work; it does not mean everyone should do it.  I recently worked

Yet another teacher has contacted me through the TES, asking me about teaching in Qatar. Well, it gives me an excuse to include lots of my old photos of Doha. Dear Casper, To be brutally honest, the Gulf English School does not have a good reputation. Yes, I might consider teaching there, if the alternative were to be unemployment and starvation, but not otherwise.  Yes, it is true that the ISR reviews I sent to you are quite old. If you want to read more recent ones, then you will have to pay your twenty dollars or however much it costs these days. Then you will be able to read the lousy new reviews for the Gulf English School, as well as the lousy old ones. Yes, in theory it might perhaps be possible for the Gulf English School to improve, but in reality that is most unlikely. If the school has the same Qatari owner or owners, then my guess is that nothing is going to change. In addition, most of the students will be Qatari and that is seriously bad news. There