jamesdsouza76

Class of 2012: Home Truths

Tonight – Touch The Sky Each year another set of Year 13 students steps beyond the castle walls and escapes to university to begin Life After School. Each year group likes to think that they will be remembered fondly in teachers hearts and minds. Truthfully, year groups have a tendency to blur into one another.ContinueContinue reading “Class of 2012: Home Truths”

JDS Insights: May 2012

It’s in your head… For a teacher May is a month brought sharply into focus because of those little things called exams. The particularly depressing weather through the month didn’t really help matters – in my mind it was supposed to be warmer, sunnier and feeling like the end of the year was approaching. InsteadContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: May 2012”

JDS Insights: April 2012

I had an interesting time this month. I received a cheque in the post from Google for £60. It’s taken me a few years but it was generated from this blog. It did make me think: could I write some stuff here that could generate enough interest to make some money? It’s an interesting questionContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: April 2012”

The Beginning is the End is the Beginning 3 of 3: 2012: Clearing and Clarity

Direction: Coming from and Going To* This part three of three. Parts One and Two deal with what happened last year. Yeah yeah ok…So this post was *meant* to have been completed aaaages ago. For some reason, for the past few years this post is delayed by a few months. I’ve been trying to ‘get it right’ and chooseContinueContinue reading “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning 3 of 3: 2012: Clearing and Clarity”

JDS Insights: March 2012

Hard Sell This post is not *trying* to sell you anything. But I do acknowledge the self-indulgent nature of blogging and my own self-interest. So sometimes I will sell something: a book, an idea, a particular paradigm – whatever. But make no mistake – I am selling it. There are openings for action on myContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: March 2012”

JDS Insights: February 2012

Perhaps the fact I’m getting round to putting down what February was all about towards the end of March speaks to what a non-month February usually is. If January is post-apocalyptic, then February is the deadly silence that follows the post-apocalyptic trauma. And so it should be as we slowly emerge from Winter and moveContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: February 2012”

JDS Insights: January 2012

I think January of every year has a post-apocalyptic feel to it. It’s as if we’re emerging from the remains of something to create something else. The whirlwind of December meant my January felt relatively sedate: back to school; mock exams; marking…and well embracing how mundane life really is. It just feels like a l-o-o-o-o-n-gContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: January 2012”

The Beginning is the End is the Beginning 2 of 3: 2011

Part Two of the Trilogy… 6. House We moved in 2011. It was stressful and wonderful in equal measure (but probably more wonderful). Our house is now our home and I’m so grateful for all the help we had. Especially from Them and Them. I can’t imagine going back to a one-bedroom flat. We’ve hardly needed/ wantedContinueContinue reading “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning 2 of 3: 2011”

The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning 1 of 3: 2011

Another Year Ends Reality becomes a reflection of reality becoming real…or some such stuff. This time of year enables me to look back and forward at the same time. Last month was particularly reflective for me anyway but the purpose of writing this is to shed the skin of 2011. I’ve also been doing thisContinueContinue reading “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning 1 of 3: 2011”

JDS Insights: December 2011

My December threw up a lot.* I hope you get something from reading this (rather long) post. —– December 3rd, very early in the morning, my Father-in-law passed away. I was there. It was something that was quick and slow at the same time. He’d been pretty ill for a number of years, including beingContinueContinue reading “JDS Insights: December 2011”