Friday 21 September 2018

This week my Word of the Week is: Helping. #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

A picture of the word helping

The kids have had a good week at school. On Wednesday Ellie even went back to school to help with the year 6 open evening. I think the school likes to show off the year 7's and how well they have settled in to the kids who will be starting next year. Ellie was helping to sell the drinks and sweets. She had fantastic fun and was rewarded with cake. lol 

I was so proud of her to offer her time like this. Things like this are really boosting her confidence. I would have never imagined her doing anything like this while she was at Primary school. I really feel like secondary school is changing her for the better.

Becky has been doing revision for a couple of months in preparation for her GCSE's and it's only the last couple of weeks that we have found something which really seems to be helping her. It is a website called Seneca

A screen shot showing the Seneca website which is a tool to revise for GCSE's

She can choose the subjects she is studying from the exact exam board so she is not learning things she doesn't need to know. It's a mixture of facts which she is writing notes about, videos and questions. It is fun for her to use and information seems to be sinking in. 

We ended up on the phone to Sky and the council during the week asking for help and advice. Next door has erected some radio antennas. I don't know what they use them for and I don't really care but since they went up our internet speed has been dropping every evening. There is no point approaching them because even the lads mother asked him to take them down and he said no, they're OK. Stu overheard them when he was bringing the washing in.

Sky were a great help and said that the antennas are probably interfering with the wi-fi & told us to contact the council. We did via their online service but when we had the high winds on Wednesday one of the poles had moved and was nearly on the phone cable (their's not ours) so we rang the council. They said they need planning permission for the height that they are at least and in the wind it was a safety issue...They are sending someone out to assess the situation but goodness knows how long that will take. I am waiting for it to move onto the phone cable and then I will ring BT. I am sure they don't want their cables ripping down. 

I had a message from the lovely Sass who blogs at Thinking Out Loud during the week which really made me think about how I blog. 

Sass is blind and uses a screen reader to read blogs. I have got into a bad habit of putting a lot of full stops after a sentence and it turns out a screen reader will read every full stop out loud which is so annoying to her and I had no idea. I felt so bad. It's one of those things that I have never thought about. I also haven't been putting image descriptions into the alt text box when I upload a picture. The image description helps blind people who use screen readers get a visual description of what is going on in each of the pictures.

From now on I am going to make a conscious effort to not use full stops as much and add description to images so my blog accessible to everyone. 

Word of the Week linky button

7 comments :

  1. Taking note of the revision site. It's a full on year, running up to the exams, and everything helps. So glad you wrote about the use of full stops and alt text. Makes me think. How fabulous that Ellie is finding her feet and wonderful that the school are so proud of their year 7s. They are growing up. #wotw

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  2. Ellie sounds like she's growing in confidence by the day, it must be great to see. Well done to her for helping out. I hope the situation with your neighbours get resolved soon. It's so lovely that you have listened and taken into account your readers, I would never have thought about those things before. Have a lovely weekend x

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  3. It sounds like Ellie had great fun helping at school, and who wouldn't enjoy being rewarded with cake? Those antennae sound like a real nuisance, and they will have to be taken down if they are too high. I never knew about the full stops and blind readers. that must be annoying, I did know about the alt txt for pictures though and I try to put a description whenever I remember (which I admit, is not always.)
    Wotw

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  4. So pleased that Ellie is doing so well, it does seem to be so good for her there. And that website looks brilliant for Becky, a great find. I've never thought about my blog accessibility either, so thanks very much for sharing that x Thanks for sharing with #WotW

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  5. I havent thought of the full stops and description! I will put that in practice in my blog as well. Really helpful! #wotw

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  6. Well done to Ellie for helping out with the Year 6 open evening. That website looks brilliant for helping with GCSE revision. Fingers crossed you can get your wifi sorted out soon. I've learned so much about making my blog more accessible thanks to Sassy - there are so many little things that you just don't think about that can make such a difference for anyone using a screen reader. #WotW

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  7. It hadn't even occurred to me to do this! Good point! #MMBC

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