The School Corridor Tatler

School calendars have to accommodate multiple stakeholders It is time to design the school calendar 2015 and I can almost hear the sighs of the Heads and their teams.Schools have a tough time when they have to plan their school calendar suite. Our provincial school calendar is already available and soon, district officials will despatch their individual calendars to schools.   There is far too much information to be placed on one calendar. Like businesses, schools have multiple secondary calendars as well as their master calendar. There is light at the end of the tunnel: Google's online calendar! Google calendar is the next best thing to school holidays.   How to set up your Google calendar - the short version Google calendar is a free web-based application. You only need a gmail account and access to the internet. Create a gmail account for your school if you do not have one. Next, create a google calendar.   There are many good blogs and Youtube resources on how to cr...

Grezelle Jansen   Thanks to facebook, many of my past students are still in contact with me. I often see their occasional post when one of them is either celebrating a birthday, getting married or even when we lose someone connected to our extended family. Then many of us would pass on well wishes or condolences, showing that we still care about one another's wellbeing.   This year particularly, my conversations with Grezelle have stepped up. This was all because of my involvement in two charity projects. The one project, Jerzy4kidz Campaign, involved knitting jerseys for the 150 children of the Steinthal Home in Tulbagh. We completed this project at the end of July.   Now, I am a participant in the TLC4Seniors knee blanket project. We are knitting a knee throw for each of 100 residents of the Douglas Murray Home for the aged in Retreat, Cape Town as part of the Christmas gift. Of course, I invited all my facebook friends to join in on the projects. Grezelle immediately got invol...

It can't be easy for a parent to lose a child. It is almost impossible for me to find words to describe such loss. As I sit here, I know of two families who must be experiencing heart wrenching emotions. Sasha, my daughter, shared this heartbreaking news with me : two teenagers passed away yesterday. One was a Grade 11 classmate of Riko, my nephew and the other girl was the sister of one of his other classmates,Spencer.   This morning when I picked up my nephews for school, Riko was armed with a bunch of white flowers. These flowers were for his friend and classmate, Savannah, and for Kirsten, the sister of his dear friend. He was going to lay this down in the Garden of Remembrance at their school, Bergvliet High school.   Usually my car is bubbling with conversations of all kinds, with music blaring and we often participate in the KFM general knowledge quiz. Today the mood was subdued. My three teenager passengers were probably dealing with their own swirling thoughts. I wa...

Learners playing the violin and recorder One of the perks of my job is that I am often invited to school events. This morning I attended the 80th anniversary thanksgiving service of St Mary's R.C. Primary School. The service with all its pomp and ceremony was beautiful. The school choir and the liturgical dancers stole my heart. At one point I looked back to check if it was the school choir singing like nightingales. You almost feel whisked away to another era! A few of the past teachers and their past students The reception after the service was like a market place. Everybody was somehow connected. I even met an old neighbour, Sister Mary, who struggled to disentangle herself from someone else who was overjoyed to see her. As usual, I assumed my role as photographer, snapping away at various scenes unfolding in the hall. When I wanted to take pictures of a group of past students, one woman asked me to wait a while. She darted off and then returned with her then "Sub A...

This quote reminds me of the power we have as individuals. Often we underestimate the impact we have on others. We have the responsibility to be a light for others. The next quote reminds me to work at explaining something simply and clearly. This is a skill and requires hard work, but I am making progress. The third quote sums up where I get my strength from. I am eternally grateful that I am 'growing up', realizing that I am here to serve others.           Posted with Blogsy

The women enjoying their foot massages If you ever yearn to be grounded and to escape to a world of magic, do yourself a favour and go there where the real people are. Go to a community celebration and you will experience "earthing". This week I attended the Women's Day Celebrations that was held at Seawinds Health Clinic. Seawinds Clinic is situated in Seawinds, a sub-economic township adjacent to Lavender Hill. It serves the Seawinds area and the growing informal settlements to the east of Lavender Hill as well as the Capricorn sprawling township area. Here the inhabitants live side by side with T. S. Elliot's hag, Poverty. Nothing beats the feel of real grassroots community functions. People just don't have that frozen look about them at such events. Their eyes will follow your every movement and they will even turn their bodies if they have to do so to keep the picture and story in focus. They don't hide their curiosity. The best part is that they talk b...