Doctor rating site

I have tried several times to post a (positive) review of my Gp at this new site. Although I am unsure about how I feel about the mere existence of the site, I did want to post how good my GP has been. I have had nothing but problems. First I couldn't add my GP. Then he was added but I couldn't post a review - there was some kind of circular link which took me back to the home page without allowing me to review him. I used the contact link - and got the most irritating pro-forma email back which had nothing at all to do with my problem. I replied to that and got an email a week later (today_ to say the problem had been sorted out. So I gave it a final try - and no, I still cannot post a favourable review of my GP; apparently I have posted too many reviews already. Chance would be a fine thing!

I get fairly irritated about websites which don't work - especially as basically as this. Testing is a vital part of development!

Grr.

So, if you want my advice, don't bother with the site (which I am not going to name here - i don't see why I should give it any publicity!) Mind you, it probably works for everyone else!

Pop ups

BLPT has a pop up on its site, designed to encourage people to sign up at members of its foundation trust.

I hate popups. I've had to turn on IE's pop up blocker to stop it. I wonder whether it is having the desired effect of getting other people to sign up, or just pissing them off?

ARGH!

I don't believe it.

Now younger daughter's computer has died.

Really died.

Off to PC World this morning.

GRRRRR.

Wordle

Found this site today.
Here is an image cloud from my tags on this blog.

Temporary problems (I hope!)

Came home and was greeted at the door by husband. Unusual. I should have guessed.

The computer has died. Or at least, seems to have died. No output, lights on but nobody home sort of thing.

So we have a new computer - which is good. I have even managed to get it running. Also good. And connected with the Internet, and major programs installed. All good.

However, I don't know if the data on our hard drive is recovereable. Not so good.
Fortunately I had backed everything up a week ago, to a removable hard drive. Good.
Unfortunately "everything" did not include my emails. Or my email address.

Which is a roundabout way of saying if you do not hear from me, I am not ignoring you. Please email me and I will reply (and be glad to know I have your address!)

I'm hoping to connect the hard drive to another computer on Friday and retrieve what I can. I'm really hoping that will include all emails. I'm just a little scared that it might not!

However, I am still smiling (wryly!) and I haven't killed anyone yet. Or even sworn too much!

Oh, the deep, deep joy of computers.

In light of my experiences with clinical records...

... this excerpt from the latest Performance report (in the Assurance Framework section) from BLPT caught my eye:

"If the Trust cannot find/replace lost disks containing patient records then the Trust will be in breach of Data Protection and may face litigation. "

Records are lost. Doesn't surprise me, particularly if they are connected with CMHTs(1). However, it sounds as if these are computer based records, which is doubly worrying, given the ease with which they can be transported and disseminated. Of course, I don't know the details of the situation, but from this it does appear that there are missing records. Indeed, further notes state:
"WAMHS(2) software and disks and MHOPS(3) disks are held within the Records Facility however this is only limited. A request was sent out to all staff via trust Today(4) asking for any other disks or software to be sent to the records facility"

(1) CHMT - Communicty Mental Health Team
(2) WAMHS - Working Age Mental Health Services
(3) Mental Health of Older Person Services
(4) Trust Today - In house magazine circulated to BLPT staff.

Checking and computers

I vividly remember being told by a computer programmer that a computer program is only as good as the person who wrote it, that if a computer "goes wrong" it is 99% of the time due to human error.

Now I know I am prone to errors, but when it comes to setting important things up on computers I do check what I have done. I test it. So when I was setting up web pages, I checked that the pages looked right and checked that the links worked.

Unfortunately the people who set up the pages for BLPT's Trust Board Minutes don't seem to do this. For the second month running (and many times before that) they have put up an agenda where none of the links work. This is because the links point not to a web site but to an internal document on the BLPT server.

For at least the fourth time I have pointed out this same error, which has on different agendas each time. If I didn't want to read the documents I wouldn't bother - it's beginning to feel like I am doing their testing for them! You would think however, that if a mistake has been made more than once, you would check to make sure you don't make the same mistake again. Apparently not.

Not only that, but there is another "issue" with the agendas - the link for the June Agenda actually leads to the April agenda (which seems to have been uploaded as the June agenda.) Last months the links for this April agenda were working (after I pointed out the mistake and it was corrected). This month they are not. The working file has been replaced with one which does not work.

Does nobody check things any more?

Perhaps I should ask for a consultancy post!

good stuff

Had something nice happen today. Can't say anything yet, but it was good. Made me feel valued and opened new doors in terms of jobs.

The rest of the day was OK too. English lesson was only OK - the perils of teaching a new unit, especially when that unit has been planned by someone else. But it was OK, and we progressed. Did some more stuff in ICT around collaborative learning, using the new learning platform. That was fun too - and the pupils responded enthusiastically. Looking forward to analysing the results, and to doing more. Maths lesson was comfortable for me - the pupils worked really well and I didn't feel on edge. Not sure feeling like that would be a good thing all of the time, but it is nice for a week or so.

Tomorrow looks like being good too - a few changes to normal routines and some straightforward stuff.

Playing with new technology

I had a stimulating day at work yesterday. I had the support of one of our ICT advisors for the morning. We spent two hours working and talking together, and he spent an hour in the classroom with me.



We tried to use the new learning platform in the lesson, which unfortunately didn't work due to technical issues. (However, I tried again this afternoon, after he had gone, and found my way round the technology this time!) The learning platform is an online protected space where pupils can put work. It also has tools such as a message board, and it was this I used today. I wanted to look at the idea of collaborative working, getting pupils to work with each other rather than just alongside each other. So I set up some message threads for pupils to share ideas on. I've just started analysing the results - it looks like it will be an interesting project to work on, and may even lead to a paper (possibly!)


I'm starting to see more and more ways in which this could be used within the classrooms. To start with I tended to think it was most useful as an out of hours resource, but I am definitely changing my mind. I'm really looking forward to seeing whether this way of working changes the way pupils work and produces different (hopefully better!) results.

A bit of a week

It's been a mad dash chaotic overloaded week. The pressure doesn't look like easing imminently, with SATs for our Year 6 pupils (on which we will be judged), reports to write, assessments to mark, liason meeting and all the other day to day school stuff. Then there is a course I am attending on Wednesday (which is good, and which will be useful, but which necessitates leaving lessons planned for others to teach - often harder to do than to teach the lesson myself. I have an appointment in connection with my experiences of being in crisis (some research BLPT psychology department are carrying out - that department have treated me well and so I am glad to help if I can); an appointment with my psychiatrist and E's last day at school (scarily she will be on study leave from Thursday!) And on Sunday I have my singing day! Lots of good things, but it does feel rather overloaded.

This week I have been trying out new technology - voting pads. It has gone OK, but has been stressful at times as is the way of technology. I've set - and partially marked - three Maths assessment papers (old KS3 papers). I've set (and not marked) one set of English writing papers. I've written online learning resources, negotiated attendance on courses, tried to soothe ruffled feathers and endeavoured to maintain good relationships with some tricky colleagues. I've also taken a long time to complete the latest three postcards. Hopefully I can be more productive in that area next week - making them is good for me.

And I have struggled with hayfever and lack of sleep. Stopping the antihistamines seems to have reduced (slightly) the exhaustion in the evenings, but waking at 5am every morning is not conducive to high energy levels. That needs to change - I can't keep this up. Sleeping tablet is promised to myself tonight, because hopefully it will enable me to doze off again.

Oh, and as far as the HCC commission goes, I have had no word for them about whether they have received my records. I suspect no news is NOT good news in this case. But anything is possible, I suppose...

Saturday

A real mixture today.

Had a good sewing day - made a bag which I am pleased with.

Got really angry yesterday and it threw me - out of proportion, I suppose, and unable to express how I was feeling. It tied in to all the childhood stuff, I later realised - because I was angry with someone I cared about and that made me feel even more ambivalent. Plus I didn't know what to do with the emotion I was feeling, how to express it safely (so maybe that is something I need to loook at). Plus I was already tired from struggling with the computer & viruses most of the day (and I often end up feeling stressed when there are computer problems because it feels like my responsiblity to fix them, even though this problem was NOT of my making). And lots of other stuff. Really struggled not to punish myself, but managed it.

This afternoon I just feel really tired. Not surprising I suppose. But frustrating all the same.

Reports

I've made some progress in completing them - now have 4 of 7 sets completed. One more set I am ready to start and aim to complete today. One set I think I can do tomorrow, but need to look at the latest piece of written work from the class. One set I won't meet the deadline on - I left some essential work (which I need to assess before I can write the reports) at school. The amazing thing about that is, I am OK with missing a deadline. I am not beating myself up over it. That's a big step for me. I talked with W about it this morning, and said maybe sometimes I need to not get everything done I am supposed to - because it sends out a signal that what is being asked is too much.

Then I need to tackle some marking, and plan a new Year 8 ICT unit. Am looking forward to the latter - I need to do quite a bit of work on it, but I am the only one who teaches it, and I have some plans to approach the way I teach it in a different way. In discussions with some of my more able students, they brought up the idea of working more independently - so that is what I hope to allow them to do this time, bu providing written instructions so they can go ahead without waiting for me to explain it to students who don't pick things up as quickly. I'm also going to experiment, just for this unit (or maybe even only for part of it) with seating students by ability. Our ICT room doesn't lend itself to group working, but maybe I can do something to make it more possible. We shall see how it works out.

Have managed so far this half term without using sleeping tablets. My sleep has been quite disturbed, however, so I may well need to resort to them on an occasional basis once term restarts.

Busy day

I feel I am buzzing....

Have spent the day at BETT - the ICT in education exhibition, in London. I go annually; my head kindly lets me have it as a training opportunity, and so it proved, once again, to be this year.

So many new ideas, new products, new possibilities.

New ideas - using role playing computer games to teach subjects through Neverwinter Nights; ways of using film in the classroom; ways of getting pupils involved through technology.

New products - a great little handset which looks like a remote control and will enable me to remotely control pupils' computers - blanking the screens, loading programs, restricting access to other programs (potential for some great April Fool jokes there, evil laugh!) A mini "laptop" which runs open source software on a machine which weighs only 2 pounds and costs under £200. An online, free film library with teaching resources. I picked up some books from Tarquin which I know will make my Maths lessons easier to plan. Also got some new ICT teaching resources, to help me plan some units.

And of course, the people. Meeting up with friends I have worked with before was great. Making new connections (one on the train) which open up more possibilities was exciting.

Another really long day (that makes three this week so far!) but a very enjoyable one. A task for the weekend - or next week - is to distill it into an A4 page and try to communicate some of it to my colleagues.