The Fujiwhara Effect

I can no longer call myself an amateur meteorologist, because I now know about the Fujiwhara Effect.

Only real meteorologists know about that one. So I'm pleased and proud to announce my promotion.

The Fujiwhara Effect is pretty interesting. It's the pull that one typhoon has on another. If they are within a certain distance of each other (less than 1000km, I believe) then they will begin to rotate around each other. If one is much larger, then its movement will be less. So it was with Typhoons Melor and Parma. Melor at that stage was a Super Typhoon, at around Category 5. Parma was bordering Tropical Storm status. As a result, Parma was sucked eastwards again, and made yet another crossing of Northern Luzon in the Philippines.

Here is the satellite picture showing the Fujiwhara Effect taking place.

It's been a while since my last post. Summer holidays came, thankfully early due to H1N1 (although teachers were still at school, of course)and time passed. Now we're back and I'm contemplating a year of new little ones. Apparently they are not as well-behaved as last year's crop, who I will still be working with, but nothing compared to the nightmares that arrived two years ago, and who are now embarking on Primary 3. Luckily I will have nothing to do with them any more.

Unluckily, however, I will be working in Primary 2 with two of the most difficult teachers to co-teach with. The teacher who loathes children, and the teacher who breaks things to show her anger.

But I now have a fabulous view to come home to every day, which is going to be good for my soul. Right now I am watching a dozen dragonflies turn circles above the trees outside my window. It's hard to believe I live in an Asian city.

We'll see how it goes.

The First Typhoon

The first real typhoon of the year was a damp squib. In fact, it wasn't really a typhoon at all, never having grown beyond a tropical storm. It crossed the Philippines and then started trekking up the South China Sea. I had a feeling that it would stay on a westward route, and I was right. I am no expert but this is how it usually happens. It came ashore just north of Hong Kong. Before it arrived, Hong Kong was deathly still and humid. Overnight, it rained, and the next day (when all signals had been lowered) there was a little wind and a few storms. But all in all, very disappointing.

I have a feeling that it's going to be a pretty disappointing year. I know that it's wrong to wish storms and typhooons on us, but I do like dramatic weather....

Beaker

I do like Beaker. And I do like this video.

Social Networking

I came across this fabulous Venn diagram, and I couldn't agree more.


Social networking sites are the curse of modern life. It's all just banal, useless chatter. I remember the days when I would compose letters. Letter-writing was an art form, and one that I took very seriously. Now my emails are no longer than six or seven lines, and nobody goes deeper into the minutiae of life any more. I read somewhere that Facebook is infantilising adults and it's true - communication is reduced to childish, unimportant soundbites. Okay, rant over.

Link

The Nature of Friendship

I'm not very good at the whole friend thing. I think I have a vulnerable or needy aura, and so I tend to let people know more than they should at first meeting. I let them get to a certain point, and then I give them an almighty shove. That's what I did with my friend M. She came back from holiday to find that I had disappeared halfway around the world without telling her.

I want friends, I need friends.....but I am unable to maintain healthy relationships. Either the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head and makes me resentful and dishonest (Oh really, you're moving to Costa Rica? Yes, I've been there. It's too wet for me. But still, you'll enjoy it) or I just can't develop the friendship. It's as though everyone else has people they can call up and chat with on a whim. I have noone. And when it looks like I'm making a new friend, it suddenly becomes apparent to me that they have hundreds of other friends, and they are just being nice. They don't really want to spend any time with me.

How do you balance this? This desperation for people to talk to, to call up and chat with, and the fear of anyone getting too close? It's like a seesaw. You both get on, smiling shyly at each other, and then unpredictably, the balance shifts. More often than not, they are the one to fall off, and walk away.

I have more email friends, possibly because I find it easier to express myself in writing than in face-to-face contact. But I would never call them. There are people that I email on a regular basis that I haven't spoken to in decades. I'm not sure what I would say to them on the phone.

Then I go to the supermarket and make eye contact with someone - and think, she looks nice. Perhaps we could be friends. I am so busy craving new friends that I neglect the ones I already have.

Daft overreaction

So, a lot of things are messed up at the moment. Schools have closed for two weeks due to the H1N1 flu. I'm not sure that I understand the logic behind this - surely it would be better for as many people as possible to catch it, and therefore have some immunity if it mutates into something more serious? A bit like 'chicken pox parties' which Mums would apparently hold in order to make sure their children caught chicken pox while they were still young and would recover quickly. And what about after the two weeks - do they really think that H1N1 flu is just going to shrug its shoulders and give up? Of course not. It's here to stay.

It means that there are a lot of things that I will not be able to get done before the end of term. We still have to come to school (in some cases, for longer than we would have had to if the children were here!) but without children, there are some things that just can't be done. I'm filling my time as well as I can, but I generally feel a bit cross and angry. There are things happening outside school that are contributing to that, but sitting here in this freezing staffroom, eating rubbish and watching the rain fall, is not helping.

One of the saddest stories....

that I have ever read.

A smashing time

Well, today J lost it again and smashed the metre-rule on the table, which promptly shattered. As usual, the children sat in stunned silence for about five minutes. Then they started up again. They are irrepressible.

There seemed to be a lot of shouting going on today. The area outside the staffroom is the Shouting Zone, and it was in full swing at around lunchtime. If I had been shouted at like that when I was at school I would have been reduced to a quivering, snivelling wreck. But again, these kids are irrepressible.

Classroom Dynamics

I've just finished a communicative activity with the four P2 classes. And I can hardly believe the difference between them.

The first class was a model of propriety and enthusiasm. They spoke in English, were polite and (fairly)subdued, and seemed to grasp the true purpose of the activity. Even the less able students participated well, and were not afraid to ask if they could not pronounce or spell something. I was mildly encouraged by their reaction, and rolled it out in the second class.

Please note that I presented the activity in exactly the same way, and the children are of a similar mixed ability to the first class. And yet the difference could not have been more astonishing (or harrowing). Even the highest ability kids blatantly copied the work from each other. Very few children actually made the effort to practice the target language. Perhaps three. Or maybe two, out of a class of thirty-one. The third P2 class was the same, but perhaps worse, as the children spent a great deal of time yelling and picking apart my laminated cards. The fourth class were a lot better, but just after I told their teacher that they were doing really well, they suddenly all starting screaming as they rushed back to their seats. So that ruined that.

Why the difference? Is it the teacher? Of course there are 'better' teachers. The teacher of the first class is a person of extraordinary stature (made even more surprising by the fact that she is no more than five feet tall). I have never heard her shout, and she is the type of teacher who can think of all the pitfalls and complications, and has solutions for them all. The second class teacher is pretty appalling - she spends much of the time yawning, and has a hostile air about her. The third teacher is well-meaning, I guess, but she has been given the class from hell. And the fourth teacher is pretty good. Could it possibly be that the teacher's attitude somehow rubs off on the kids?

What I really think is that it all boils down to classroom dynamics - the 'chemistry' between the kids, if you will. Some classes are like oil and water. They just don't mix. They curdle. And some classes, when mixed together, become bigger than the sum of their parts. I'm just not sure if it is the teacher who produces the final ingredient - the binding agent. In fact each class has several teachers - a class teacher and then two or three more subject teachers, so it may not be that.

But then - their exam results - the class that performed the worst in exams were in fact the class that always perform the best in whole class activities. How can we explain that?

I guess that's a whole other thread.

Wednesday Shocker

Yesterday I went into class with - let's call her J. She is the English teacher of possibly the naughtiest class in the school. Rows apon rows of disruptive boys and distracted girls. When they are quiet, it's because they are playing with straws or doing their Chinese homework under their desks. Or using their erasers to rub their desks, and then collecting the rubber poo for some nefarious plan.

They are difficult to teach. They have very little interest in what I have to say. But I soldier on anyway, because it's my job, and well, just a few weeks left and then I'll never have to deal with them again. Hallelujah!

There's one boy in the class who seems to be disliked by all the teachers. I rather like him. He's loud, yes, and sometimes obnoxious, but he is for the most part focussed on me and the topic at hand. But yesterday he was doing some serious fiddling under the table, playing with some object that he had brought from home.

I was standing at the other side of the classroom with my flashcards when I witnessed something quite horrifying. Teacher J marched over to that boy, dragged him from his chair, and then threw his chair on to the window ledge. Due to the force of the throw the chair bounced off the ledge and fell back down to earth, narrowly missing another child. If that chair had hit the boy it would have been very serious, possibly involving hospitalisation.

Where I come from it could be a matter for the police. But here, it appears that this kind of rage is acceptable. But what are we teaching our kids? Certainly not tolerance or self-control. When your teacher throws her toys, how can you be expected to learn the correct way to deal with your anger?

To add insult to injury, teacher J then tossed the boy's schoolbag on to the window ledge. Not a casual toss, but a deliberate, murderous toss, if you can possibly imagine that. Then imagine the silence that ensued. Even I was quiet, standing at the other side of the classroom, clutching my transport flashcards, wondering what the hell I was doing there.

Starting Somewhere

Blogs. Everyone has them. I didn't,until now.

I honestly didn't know what I could write about that wouldn't give too much away. But yesterday something happened, and I really wanted to write about it, but had no forum.

So here's my forum. It may be empty, but it doesn't matter. I can shout as loud as I want.