I was down south this past week (to Londoners, this doesn’t mean I went that far – right now to me anything “south” is latitudinally below Glasgow) and amongst others I caught up with were Chris, Lyds, Lucy and Anna-Louise.
I am overjoyed to announce that Lydia gave birth to a new poppet – Sophie – on Sunday night at around 21:34. She looks utterly gorgeous and the only reason I’m miffed is that she decided to wait until I was back home before she entered the world.
Enormous congratulations to the family and I’m sure she’s in great hands given how lovely her two sisters have turned out!
Following on from the earlier post, I’m glad to say I received an email response from Olympus. First up, a mail telling me that I did have to ring the support number despite how awkward it was for me – but that if I supplied my phone number they would contact me instead.
Secondly, another mail direct from a named person saying that she was looking into the matter personally and again requesting my mobile number which I duly responded with.
This evening, said person called and said that there had indeed been a mistake at their end and that I would be receiving a new camera. This time the new Stylus Tough 8000. All fine and dandy until I asked what would happen about my underwater housing. As ever, each time a new model camera appears, it’s a different size or control configuration to the one I had before so my old housing will be incompatible.
Last time, Olympus swapped it out without a problem. This time, I expect it to happen but the young lady I dealt with is going to have to seek approval before it can be given the go-ahead. They’re also sending me out some packaging so I can return the gubbins to them post-free.
It still raises the question, though, that out of two experiences with their repairs department I’ve eventually been happy but on both occasions had to chase things up due to mistakes at their end. The first time around, they forgot to send out the housing they promised.
My only concerns are that things go missing in the post due to the strikes and that the 8000 hasn’t been getting very good reviews. Robust, yes, but poor picture quality. However, I can’t find any comparisons between it and the earlier models in that range – only against the equivalent Panasonic camera.
Oh, one other issue. Why can I never touch-type “Olympus” correctly on my first attempt? I always, without fail, type “Olymos” unless I concentrate.
All good things and all that. Today was the last day of my initial Induction Period and it was a shame to be leaving, in all honesty. Once more it was quite busy and once more I picked up a few more hints, a dollop more information and a huge amount of potential job satisfaction.
I’m starting to get more of a feel for the politics involved with teaching, both internal to the school I’m in and around the subject in general. Budgets, departmental cutbacks and policy changes are all whinged about to a huge degree by everyone. However, the one thing all these whingers have in common is that they are only complaining if the end result is likely to affect the standard of education offered to the kids.
Okay, this won’t be the case in every school. I’m sure there are some bad eggs out there who are only miffed that they won’t be getting a pay rise this year. As I have probably said before on here, the school I’m placed at doesn’t seem to have anyone with that attitude in place and for that I’m glad.
I was working with one young pupil today, and have actually spent a bit of time with him in random lessons over the fortnight. I’ll call him Ben for the sake of narrative. Ben’s somewhat behind on his reading and writing. I’m not sure if he’s got a learning disability or if he just needs to play catchup for other reasons. What I do know is he’s generally attentive, very bright and one of the most helpful children of his age I’ve ever seen. Polite and pleasant.
The problem is that his lack of reading and writing skills slow him down a lot, and frustrate him. In Computing, he’s having to plod through a computer-based learning package which is accompanied by a text book and a pile of worksheets. For any child, this is a little tedious and impersonal. For him it’s like climbing a mountain using strands of cotton instead of rope.
He goes through the exercises on screen quickly enough, but comes a cropper when the instructions tell him to read a chapter of the book. It’s simply too time-consuming. Likewise when he has to fill in a worksheet, he can really only manage to write it out slowly. I spent most of today’s class sat with him as a “scribe”, doing some of his writing for him. He gave the correct answers most of the time so he’s definitely taking things in but his patience is limited.
I was speaking to his class teacher afterwards and she was grateful for the help. When she doesn’t have someone to assist with Ben she has to spend a lot of her own time with him and as a result, the other children don’t get the time and attention that they need.
With a better budget, Ben would have a semi-permanent assistant to take the load off the teacher and to assist him in boosting his own language skills. Instead, due to staff cuts he doesn’t – and as a result both he and his peers are suffering. However, not one of the teachers I spoke to has an issue with him. Nobody complains about dealing with the “slow kid” or how he’s making things difficult.
Instead, they grumble about the fact that they can’t help him. Because that’s what all the staff want to do – give him the education he deserves. Sadly in this economic climate, unless some kind souls donate their time freely, that’s just not going to happen.
As I said, though, the end of the two week placement and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I only wish I could thank the school and staff by name on here. They deserve the praise!
Back to college on Monday for a week, then October Week “off”, followed by two more weeks’ study then back to school for a whole six weeks in the lead up to Xmas. I’ve just worked out how much paperwork I have to do and my pen-holding hand is complaining in advance.
After the superb customer service job they did for me a few months ago, Olympus have decided to make up by being a bit crap. Following are the details of the problem and the email I’ve just sent to them. You’ll get the gist.
1) Back in March I was in Australia and used the camera in a swimming pool, maximum depth 2.3m and with the best above ground pool heater for the perfect temperature all the time. Upon opening it to charge the battery afterwards, I noticed a very small amount of water inside. The camera then refused to believe that the card/battery compartment was closed. I left it somewhere warm with all the “hatches” open and this resolved the issue.
2) See below – just after getting to Belgium the backlight failed.
3) While on the Gili Islands, I was using the camera while snorkelling – maxiumum depth around 2m. While down I did notice a stead stream of bubbles coming from the screw to the left of the power/shutter realease (as you look at it from behind). When I returned to the hotel, I had the same problem as in “1”. When it fixed itself overnight, the backlight was working again!
4) However… I assume due to seawater rather than freshwater having leaked in, I now have to use a knife or similar to release the catch holding the battery in place. It’s simply impossible to move it using my finger.
So at present I have issues removing the battery, a definite leak (I think around one of the screws) and the possibility that the backlight will suddenly go out again.
And my response when the unit came back “Returned Without Repair”:
Hi,
I received my camera back today. I called the helpline on Thursday to chase, and found that it had been received, checked out and returned very quickly with which I was very pleased. I was also told that it had been logged as “repaired” which was fine.
However.
Having opened the package returned to me I find that the camera has *NOT* been repaired and that the returns slip included simply states “Return without repair – Beyond economical repair – Liquid”.
Well, dur. The liquid damage is due to the camera leaking which is certainly not my fault. It’s a design flaw and not the result of any misuse or mishandling on my part. Therefore it falls within the manufacturer’s warranty to repair or replace the unit. This you did with no problems (in fact you went above with which I was very impressed) the last time.
So I’ve forked out to ship the unit to you, waited two weeks (partially, I agree due to the ridiculous postal situation right now) and now have the same damaged unit back in hand just in time for me not to be able to use it. Again.
Would someone kindly explain to me why the camera was not repaired or replaced? It is, as far as I’m aware, under warranty. It’s less than a year old and comes with a 2-year warranty. It was a replacement for another unit which failed underwater so I’m already starting do doubt the waterproof quality of the cameras. However, I do take a lot of photos and need a camera. I’m not prepared to pay up for another - certainly not another Olympus to fit into the expensive housing I own – when the one I have should be repaired/replaced by yourselves.
I hope this is just come cockup at your repair plant.
I await a swift response and hope it’s not “ring the support line” as they are only open when I am at college and you have only provided an 0800 number which I cannot ring from my mobile.
Thanks (etc)
I seriously do hope it’s a cockup at their end, as I was singing their praises after the way they resolved everything last time. However, I’ve also been reading a bit online about the cameras not being as waterproof as advertised – something I have now twice found to be the case.
Another couple of days under my belt and I’m still not ready to kill anyone else, let alone myself. I am becoming more and more aware of the workload and issues to be dealt with – as well as the ongoing lack of employment opportunities for qualified teachers – but they’re all problems to worry about further down the road.
Tuesday breezed by with a couple of lectures with some staff members and a visit to a second “associate” Primary school. I’ve been warned against calling them “Feeder Schools” as apparently it upsets the staff there. Not something I want to do! Not because they’re scary but because they’re lovely and I’d not want to insult them!
One event of note in the secondary school before I left after lunch was a shout of “Sir! Help!” in the corridor. A boy, I’d guess about 15 years old, was being pinned against a wall by a girl who was not overly pleased with him for some reason. It was obviously a light-hearted matter, so I just looked and said “No, you look like you’re managing fine by yourself.”
Then she kneed him in the spuds.
“Ooh… you’ll have to get used to that. It happens a lot in later life.”
He grimaced, nodded and wandered off cupping himself. Poor sod. He’ll learn.
The Primary we visited covers a different catchment are from the one we went to on Thursday, and is run in a completely different way. It’s surprising to see that two schools so close geographically (there can’t be more than 1 1/2 miles between them) can operate in such different manners and have such varying facilities. This one seems more like the one I used to go to with the addition of a (sadly understaffed, but utterly wonderful) nursery.
Once more I left wondering if I shouldn’t have been more tenacious about getting on to the Primary PGDE! We were left to wander between forms and the children were all pretty well behaved and pleasant to spend time with. I must have had about twenty or more telling me how much they liked my tie! Covered in Warner Brothers cartoons, for those who are interested.
Today was another “novelty” day where I was to shadow a first year pupil across all her classes. I’d been “warned” about the girl I was shadowing being a bit of a loudmouth and I’d likely want to try and ditch her by the end of second period. This didn’t turn out to be the case and, despite not being the most model of pupils, she was very nice to me. Sometimes being given something “important” to do can bring out the best in a pupil.
We covered a variety of classes including Art, Music, English, German, Science and History. The way the school’s structured, not all of the pupils are in the same class for each subject – there’s some “streaming” based on ability and previous experience at Primary. For instance, some children did French at Primary, so they go into French in S1; others go into German classes.
What was most interesting was watching the class as a whole in each subject. You can tell by their behaviour which ones they enjoy most. One boy who was slouching around in German was bouncing (in a good way) in Art. Another who wouldn’t stop talking to his friends in History was completely focussed in Music.
I was tired by the end of the day, but I’d learned a lot. I also came to the conclusion that I’d be more than happy teaching English at S1/S2 level. The creativity shown by the children in that class was nothing short of fantastic. They were working on poems – haiku and “lantern poems” – in a bid to teach them about syllables. Whereas many adult-written poems seem to be over-thought, the sheer simplicity of the works this class came up with was eye-opening.
Don’t get me wrong, the other classes were good but I’m rubbish as Art and Music so there’s no way I’d be teaching them!
Two more days left and back to college where, I gather, the “real work” begins. Argh.
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