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We all had a good laugh today reading through a collection of excuse notes (supposedly) written by American parents, with their spelling errors preserved:

1. “My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.”
2. “Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.”
3. “John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.”
   
4. “Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.”
5. “Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his boots leak.”
6. “Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.”
7. “Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father’s fault.”
8. “Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.”
9. “Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.”
10. “Dear School: Excuses
    Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.”
11. “Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating.”
12. “Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.”
13. “I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don’t know what size she wear.”
    
14. “My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the Marines.”
15. “Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.”
16. “Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.”
    

As recorded by http://madtbone.tripod.com/school.htm.

Hopefully you haven’t seen any off-school notes quite as concerning as number 9, or quite as dumb as number 10.  But if you’d like to share any funny ones you have seen (or used), then you can reply to this post.

Well, here it goes – me in a Welsh bog! As you can see, it is really a pond within a bog, but I certainly didn’t have time to look for pond-skaters or frogs.

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If you’re looking for even more ideas and inspiration around the Tour De France, look no further:

• French: examine France’s sporting successes over the decades and relate to French government policy
• Maths: explore the percentage of foreign versus French TdF winners over the decades, looking at probability, charting data and averages
• PE: develop theories about sport training and how it prepares an athlete for the actual event, including doing research into which non-French athletes train in France and if they train with other athletes who they will later compete against
• PE / Business: how do athletes who participate in the Tour De France earn income and what percentage of cycling athletes can make a living simply from sport-related activities?
• Research Wikipedia facts about the Tour De France and explore the issues of truth versus fiction when using the internet for research.

For those of you interested in using ‘biking’ in the classroom, we’ve brainstormed the following:

• search the internet for the last 5 press-covered examples of people cycling from Land’s End to John O Groats, and discuss the successes, issues, and charities concerned;
• research accidents that cyclists experience on the road, discussing road safety and how to improve it;
• discuss whether biking is a true green alternative for commuters, and how business could assist employees using this form of transport more;
• research the timings of Tour De France ‘legs’ over the decades and discuss how technology and biology have developed to improve sporting performance.

If you have any other ideas that you have used in your classroom, please do share them!

It’s my experience that bikes are nowhere near as popular with the 10-16 year olds as they were, say, 10 years ago. There seem to be fewer kids on bikes and certainly less images of children and adults on bikes than there were only a few years ago. I’ve been polling my friends and colleagues about some reasons why this is so. Perhaps it is down to Lance Armstrong never being able to shake off the rumours of substance abuse, despite his legacy and hero status in America. Could David Cameron have made mountain biking the epitome of uncool, in one quick and easy PR step?

Has pop culture and the proliferation of z-list celebrities (people who have become famous for simply appearing on Big Brother or the internet without any obvious skill or talent) become the modern aspiration of children, so that they no longer look up to those who are successful by dint of effort and commitment, but simply look up to those who can achieve press coverage?

I have to admit that I do struggle to find examples of modern heroes who are admired for their effort and strength — perhaps Andy Murray, who made it far enough and with enough panache to be inspiring!? But I then start to draw a blank. Perhaps you can let me know what you and your class think?…

Maybe you’re always trying to stop children jumping in your school pond, or being pushed in. In which case, it probably doesn’t help much to hear that grown men actually jump in muddy ponds / bogs for fun!

I’m off to do just that at the World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling Championship in Wales. I’d like to say it’s all in the name of science education, but really it’s just a bit of fun. We’ll bring you pictures and more from the event after the weekend.

If Wimbledon inspires you to bring tennis into the classroom, perhaps some of these ideas will help.

First off, a bit of trivia: when were the Olympic Games last held at Wimbledon?

Well, London has hosted the Olympics twice before in 1908 and 1948, with tennis being played at Wimbledon at the ’08 games.

Then there’s some more ideas to explore in the classroom:

Why are tennis balls fuzzy? Hint: it’s about control with the racquet, more than just air resistance. And of course tradition: rubber was invented after tennis in the 1800s, so early tennis balls needed a soft covering. Have a look at Yahoo Answers. You could extend this and use our speed of the tennis ball experiment to compare a smooth with a new/rough ball.

Why are balls in other sports designed the way they are? Think about rugby versus footballs, or squash balls versus tennis balls.
Real Tennis – why is it not more popular, and what would it need to make a revival? (If you’ve never heard of real tennis, check out Real Tennis rules. If you have a Real Tennis court, or even a squash court near you, you could use it in our Geometry of a Tennis Court lesson.
How many left-handed winners have there been at Wimbledon – does being left-handed affect your ability to play tennis, or any other sport?

How did a 1907 murder feature Wimbledon in its history? (Read the full story here) Write a mystery that takes place at this year’s venue (or perhaps another sporting event).
What are Wimbledon profits used for, and why?

Explore simple machines by building a machine that will lift a tennis ball 50 centimetres, using: tennis ball , 2 plastic cups, 0.7m of string, broomstick, 50 pennies, cello tape, scissors, table, meter stick.

Why does Wimbledon have ‘official suppliers’? Why are they not called ‘sponsors’? Explore the role of sponsors at sporting events and their effect on athletes and supporters.

So, Wimbledon is upon us.

I, myself, like playing tennis. Not that I’m any good at it. I have a nasty tendency of standing still and not moving an inch when my tennis partner aims his serve to the furthest possible ‘in’ point away from where I am standing. He wants to know I won’t chase it down. I say it’s because a) he’s helping me and he should serve it where I want him to and b) I want to enjoy the game, which would require me to actually make contact with the ball and hit it back to him, which is highly unlikely to occur if I have to frantically run across the court and desperately flail at the ball wildly with one hand that’s outstretched as far as humanly possible. In the end, I know I am being a brat, but he does give in! But, I have fun and I learn, which is the point. And, I have started to love to watch the game (where once upon a time I thought tennis was about as exciting to watch as students writing exams!)

At this time of year, I mentally nominate celebrities I would like to see on court, who either a) you could see would really put their all into it or b) would really add some humour and extra entertainment!

What about you? Who would you like to see up against the likes of Federer or Nadal?

Jonathan Ross (who would both try and be humourous)?

How about Gordon Ramsay? So serious and intense.
Or Jo Brand? Likely to have an approach similar to mine.

How about the Obamas (what would they be like!)? And would Barack want to get snapped playing something elitist like tennis??

Do let us know!

We love the concept of using sport to bring ideas to life.  So, for some extra inspiration: explore the architectural styles of the town of Ascot; identify and describe the major events in Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in a story, poem, or video; art, advertising, and propaganda: analyze images and text in print advertisements for persuasive and propaganda techniques; design and math:  examine nine sport logos (Ascot, Euro 2008, Olympics …  for symmetry, and create an original logo using geometric shapes and symmetry); consider how equestrians create careers out of doing what they love, and explore hobbies and leisure-time activities that develop self-esteem and self-expression.   

I’ve been wondering why it is that horse-racing isn’t as popular as many other sports. Is it perhaps the fact that an animal is involved, and we subconsciously perceive the animal to be doing the work as opposed to the human, therefore we have little sense of involvement with the rider? Or is it the association with gambling? Royal Ascot does seem to set the nation alight in the summer, but let’s be honest, we’re interested in everything OTHER THAN the racing.

We love the hats, the fancy picnic concept, and of course the antics – Royal or otherwise (remember Diana and Fergie and the umbrellas?). But we don’t really seem to pay attention to the races themselves. Would we be more interested if the riders themselves were more glamourous, or had more glamourous lives (does anyone know a horse-racing WAG ?), as opposed to the audience members.

Would we be more interested if it was a team sport? Or perhaps it is a simple case of creating demand – if it was on TV more (other than on weekends when 9/10 families let their children monopolise the TV) we would learn more and therefore become greater supporters.

FYI – a lovely bit of trivia I like and always good to test the children — what is the only Olympic event where women and men compete head-to-head? The equestrian events!!