7 things you may or may not know about me!

I love a challenge (:o$) and earlier this week, Lisa Stevens gave me a huge one by tagging me in this meme. Curiously I was also tagged for a "25 random things about me" thingie on Facebook this week too and I found that rather easier than this to do! Anyway, if you've read that, then you may find that I'm repeating myself is some place, but really I'm not interesting to enough to have over 30 things that are random or that people might not know about me! So here we go:

1. 
   
   I always start with this one, I'm deaf in my right ear after having had meningitis 3 years ago. At least that's the worst thing that happened as a result of that.


2. 
   
   I'm a control freak and hate not being in charge of things. I really dislike that fact that at work I'm always at the mercy of other people's decisions.


3. 
   
   I have absolutely no will power at all, which is why just about every diet I try fails.


4. 
   
   I find it really hard to say "no" and therefore end up taking far too much on and rushing to get things finished.


5. 
   
   My favourite colour is wine red (hmmm, curious that!)


6. 
   
   I hate doing the housework and would have a cleaner if my husband would let me! (I even thought of getting a secret one but he'd probably figure it out when the house was clean and tidiy for a change!)


7. 
   
   It really, really, really frustrates me that most of the kids I teach see no value in the subject that I teach. I can't understand that people don't see the importance of being able to communicate with others and that learning a language can add so much value to one's life. There are so many things in my life that I could not have done and so many people I would not know, if I couldn't speak French and German (oh and a little bit of Spanish!).

OK, so now I need to tag some people...maybe they've been tagged before, maybe they haven't. So here goes, Amanda Salt, José Picardo, Marie-France Perkins, Isabelle Jones,

Meme: Passion Quilt

Today I discovered that I had been tagged by José Picardo to continue with this Meme, originally thought up by Miguel Guhlin of a passion quilt made of pictures that show what we are most passionate about in education.

My initial thought was "aarrrggg"...can't think about what I'm passionate about (I'm on holiday, come on now) and secondly I need to tag 5 other people and quite frankly...I don't know 5 other people (who haven't already been tagged). My husband suggested that I was passionate about the holidays (true, true) but I must admit it got me to thinking. In addition, I think I might have to break the 5 people rule and struggle to 3, maybe 4!

My picture, so professionally taken by me, using a (very small) globe, taken in our spare room (the only place where I could fine no clutter for the background) represents what I see as my passion as language teacher. Giving the pupils I teach the tools with which th communicate with untold numbers of people around the globe. The arrows depict just a few of the possibilities available to them at our school for global communication and the rich and diverse experiences to be gained from this (I have a display very similar to this in my classroom). I believe that learning a language is one of the most amazing things anyone can do, as it opens up a whole world of experiences and adventures (quite literally). When I think of the great things I have been able to do through learning a language, I can't help but want to pass on those possibities to my pupils, for whom communicating with others around the world has never been easier, with all of the technologies available to them.
So there we go, I hope I've done it right!

I'd like to tag four (sorry) more people to continue with the Passion Quilt:

1. Jess McCulloch

2. Lisa Stevens

3. Karine Richardson

4. Sylvie Marc

Rules:

• Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
• Post a picture from a source like Flickr CC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to Miguel Guhlin’s original blog entry.
• Include links to 5 people in your professional learning network or blogroll or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.