For the past week we have been celebrating National Science and Engineering Week using the theme ‘Tomorrow’s World’.  To hook them in at the start of the week we watched old clips from the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme showing the gadgets of the future and trying to explain that 30 years ago it was the exception to have a home computer and few homes had a video player (most of them didn’t even know what one of them was!); it’s made me feel ever so old!

The aim of the week has been to design a home of the future – something they’ve found it very difficult to do.  We can’t even begin to predict how quickly technology is going to change; have a look at ‘Shift Happens‘ if you want to see how quickly it’s changed over the last few years – it’s frightening.    

As part of our Literacy work we have used the Pie Corbett text ‘The Teacher Pleaser‘, it’s a text explaining how a machine that caters to a teacher’s every whim works.  The kids started to suggest features that I would want in my Teacher Pleaser, coming up with some very insightful ideas.  My favourite (after the head and shoulder massage attachment) was the ability to see a glowing outline around a child who was telling me tall stories.  We’ve had a few of those this week and the kids have become aware that I’m losing my patience with the ones who won’t man up and tell me the truth when they’ve been in mischief.  They also suggested an extra marking arm to speed up my marking each night and chocolate and coffee dispensers. They know me well!

What would you have on a machine to make your job more pleasurable?