Month: September 2012

Meetings, meetings, meetings

September is a month of meetings. Everything starts again, and there are all sorts of meetings to get things going. On Monday, I met with the secretary of the Breton cultural centre and another lady to discuss about the centre’s library and rota. Then on Friday, there will be two meetings following each other in the school. And last night was the meeting with Maxime’s teacher.

Nursery and Primary school teachers must organise a meeting with the parents within two weeks of going back to school, to explain to them what they are going to do, how they work… etc

Fourteen parents turned up last night. That’s excellent. Considering there are 28 children in the class, it means 50% of the parents came. The teacher explained how she structures the day, what they with the children do, when. She also explained her methodology with regard to learning how to write letters. She also encouraged parents to read stories to their children to help develop their vocabulary, imagination and other skills.

It was interesting and she wasn’t too long, but her intervention was followed by a long discussion with parents anxious about what they should read with their children, the effect of television, how parents could help their children. I thought the teacher had been pretty relaxed about these. But some parents seemed really concerned. I wanted to remind them that school is not compulsory until the children are 6 and that they should relax about it. But in their mindset, if you fail those initial (not compulsory) years, your child might fail in the future.

One of the contradictions of the French education system is that although nursery school (maternelle) is not compulsory, the first year of primary school builds up on what has been taught in nursery school. It means that although school is not compulsory under 6, you still need to send your children to school before because the primary school teacher will assume your child has already done the grounding work in nursery. Does that make sense?

What would you do if your email account got hacked into?

On Monday, I was contacted by one of our church members whose gmail account had been hacked into. Whoever had hacked into her account had changed the password, set up two-step security and changed the backup email address as well as the backup phone number. Then, that hacker had sent an email to all her contacts asking for money. The sister was in distress and didn’t know what to do.

She’d already followed the steps suggested by Google to try to recover her account. There wasn’t much I could do. I helped her set up a new email and explained that it was unlikely that she would recover her old mail box and contacts. But who knows? Google might do something. In the meantime, it was urgent to change all her passwords on the sites where she used the same one. I was hoping the hacker hadn’t already done that for her. As I left, she noticed that it was like having someone breaking into your home. The hacker had access to all her emails and part of her personal life. It was distressing, hurtful.

We often dismiss the possibility of our accounts being hacked into until it happens to us or someone we know. What would you do if your email account got hacked into? You probably store many passwords in your archive. A lot of personal information is in it. The hacker could probably make a lot of damage (and possibly profit), before you even notice it.

On my part, I am reviewing my online security steps. I am setting up two-step identification wherever I can as soon as possible. It’s a pain, but I am sure it is worth it. I will also review the sites where I’ve used the same password and change these. The following article should get you started: How secure are you online: the checklist — Lifehacker. have you thought of the possibility of your email account being hacked into? Think about it. I am sure you are keeping passwords, confidential prayer letters, details from christian friends working in closed countries…. What would happen if someone hacked into your email account?

 

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-09-16

  • Esther and I got married 11 years ago today. #
  • 6.45 am, Maxime's turn to pop in. Peace and quiet is over, must get breakfast ready. #
  • 6.20 am, Jean-Baptiste turns up in the study… #
  • On American Amazon, Counseling the hard cases is more expensive in the Kindle version than the hardbac. On Amazon France, it is the opposite #
  • I wanted to read Edward's "Religious Affections" for a while. The time has now come when I must read it. #
  • Some good thoughts there: Be Wise When You Revitalize http://t.co/UrgoU0ba #
  • Je viens d'acheter : God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life' de Gene Edward Veith Jr. via @amazonkindle http://t.co/o4xusW1S #

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I love working in the library

The children are at home and Wednesdays and it can be hard to get anything done. So I sometimes go the the library for a couple of hours to do some studying. I like working in the library. It is usually fairly quiet. There’s a possibility to get connected via wifi, but I don’t ask for a password so that i don’t get tempted. I often get more done in two hours than in 4 or 5 hours at home.

Wednesdays are for music

There’s no school on Wednesday but that does not mean we’re idle at home. Wednesdays will be music school day. In the morning, Maxime has a half an hour introduction to music with other children his age. When I first inquired a few weeks ago, there was no space left, but they took my name in case someone didn’t turn up. They rang me back a few days later to let me know a space was now available for him. Maxime was thrilled at the idea.

Jean-Baptiste will have an hour choir practice in the afternoon. Three of his classmates are in the same group. I’ll go to the library to get some work done and he’ll join me there when he’s finished. His guitar practice will be on Thursday night.