I wonder if my former colleagues will be going to the movies at their INSET day tomorrow. I'm watching "Glow: the Movie" right now - at least, it's running behind my blogging screen, as I can't bear it any longer. In case you're not an educator who's been subjected to this yet, I should explain that GLOW is the new name for the Scottish Schools Digital Network. I know - the connection is not immediately obvious, and if you don't know the URL you might find yourself looking at Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling or Gays and Lesbians of Waterloo, because they're on the first Google page for Glow. Never mind - it might well be more fun than watching Glow:the Movie. In this, a pretty but trauchled young teacher is visited by a sinister character with a ready-brek glow who bears a disturbing resemblance to Tommy Sheridan crossed with the late (and nasty) Trevor from East Enders.
I could go on - but I won't. The movie is exactly the kind of patronising claptrap that gives in-service training a bad name. There are indeed good things to discover as you glow along - but this feeble film is not the way to encourage progress. And who on earth thought of a name like GLOW?
Perhaps someone on relocation from Consignia....
GLOW
Hmmm... I actually applaude this refreshing approach. A large group of my teaching colleagues enjoyed this "movie" and left with a much clearer sense of what Glow (nee SSDN) is all about. Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteWe're all bored to our back teeth of the endless procession of bog-standard education initiative "claptrap". At least this was a bit different.
Why does most other promotion of teaching practice today have to be so serious (dare I say truly "dull")?
Rather more importantly, I would prefer to focus on the products and services than the promotional methods.
Having said that, why let middle-class values stand in the way of more populist approaches to communication? We scoffed at the one obvious prig in our midst at our group viewing the movie.
Dull? Some relf-reflection might be in order, Chris?
I'm sorry... but *all* the inset training days I went on were hellish! In fact, I clapped eyes on a few people reading novels during them.
ReplyDeletei have yet tovsee this movie. But did you see the programme on channel 4 the other night?
Could you maybe help educate us Yanks and tell us what INSET day, trauchled, and ready-brek mean? My guess would be the INSET day on your side of the pond would be like Inservice Day on our side, but the other two terms have me quite puzzled. And I watch most of the BritComs on Public TV and listen to the BBC World Service broadcast on our local National Public Radio station late at night.
ReplyDeleteOh and in regards to your comment on my post - You're welcome and feel free to return the favor anytime you want. Not that you have to, of course.
w_h: Sorry - not all standard English expressions, I'm afraid! "Trauchled" is Scots - probably Glasgow dialect, as that's where I come from - meaning weighed down by life/circumstances and looking rather bedraggled as a result. "Ready-brek" is an instant porridge-type cereal which used to be advertised as keeping your kids warm in the morning. The ads showed a smug child surrounded by a warm glow of light on dark mornings.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing "trauchled" in an American accent some day!
Perhaps that should be 'in one of the American accents'!
ReplyDeleteI think you're being a trifle hard on the video - it's a starter for 10 presumably with more detailed technical information to be provided in further chunks.
I've had to sit through a lot worse than this!
An Honest Man is right "trauchled" would sound different in different parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteBoston: there is no such thing as vocalizing an R in Boston
New York City: fast and often through the nose, especially in Brooklyn
The South: they talk real real slooooooow down there, in fact monosyllabic words often become multisyllabic words
Texas: I'm sure all y'all have heard of the famous twang that now comes with occasional hints of Spanglish
The MidWest: heavy Scandanavian influence
The West Coast: I'm from there originally, so that's where people speak normal US English except for in California's San Fernando Valley where like they like talk in like ValSpeak like ya know ;-)
My guess is that trauchled sounds like tra-shoal-ed. So until the BBC Pronuncation Unit gets around to blogging about how to say it, I'll go with tra-shoal-ed.
W_h : try "troch-ild" with the "ch" as in "loch" and the accent on the first syllable!
ReplyDeleteChris, it seems that you've never heard an American who hasn't lived in Scotland try to pronounce loch.(In New England at least, it is indistinguishable from 'lock') -- but I haven't a clue as to how to translate the sound you meant. The nearest I can come in 'American' is to suggest that you cross the initial sounds of 'chutzpah' and 'kumquat', but I'm not sure that's helpful.
ReplyDelete