Idle Thoughts of a Retired Dominie: More of the World.

I was looking through the digital photos I have stored on my portable hard drive. There are so many of them.
I am not trying to boast, but I am really pleased with a number of the photographs I have taken over the years.
Until last week, my camera of everyday use has been a bridge camera...halfway between a digital and an SLR. It is a Panasonic Lumix camera. It has many useful functions, and even after 3 years or so, I have still not mastered all of its functions. For me the 18X optical zoom was the main selling point. I later came to appreciate the lens quality, and the useful little toggle button that allows me to move around and change the settings via the viewfinder. It will continue to be my main camera.
But last week I bought 2 items. An i-pad and a Fuji bridge camera with a 30x optical zoom.

This weekend my wife will be at a writers' convention in Falkirk. While she is there, I will take the chance to play with the camera and the i-pad. Fairly near Falkirk is Linlithgow Palace, and some remains of the Antonine Wall. Weather permitting I will have the chance to use the new camera, and compare it to the Lumix. I will post my results here.

I have added something called Feedjit to my blog. It allows me to see if anyone is visiting my blog. It does not tell me who, just where they come from. I am flattered to see that I have some visitors...not many...from countries far from Scotland. Thankyou for visiting!
If you feel like commenting on anything I write, or about my photos, I would be absolutely delighted!
If there are any photos of Scotland you would like to see here, I can try and oblige.
I hope I have not scared you away now! Please keep coming back!

I am out teaching in a Primary school. The school is overcrowded, under resourced, really not fit for purpose.The class has to be one of the most difficult classes I have ever had to deal with. There are 32 of them. Not all are difficult, but enough of them are to make it not easy.
I see the Chief Inspector of schools in England has been berating teachers who complain of stress.
Every job has it stresses. But I do think that being in a cramped, low ceilinged room, where flourescent lights have to be on all day so dim is the room, and with 32 large children who are far from co-operative, who display bad manners and rudeness, is perhpas one of the most stressful situations in which to be operating. A teacher cannot leave the classroom unattended. You have to be there as long as the children are there. There is no quick break, no time out. Give teachers some understanding. The majority of teachers are hard working individuals who care about what they do and care about the children in their care. We work in schools designed by non teachers. We each an ever changing, ever widening curriculum. I hear today we are to add foreign languages from age 4. No doubt this will become examinable and testable.
If children fail, teachers are to blame. If children pass exams, it is because we have dummed exams down. teachers feel they are in a no win situation. We are to blame for all the ills of society. Not true!
It is the Government who are redesigning society and supporting the break up of family life and moral values.
Don't blame teachers. Blame Society's anything goes attitude to life.

Bring back values, morality, support for marriage and familes, respect for Law, and Britain will change for the better.