Day One and not a student in sight...

So today was the first day back at school and the fun and games have started already. I guess that I hadn’t really thought about how last minute a lot of this BYTES stuff is. We are only a week away from beginning to teach the modules and they haven’t really been finished yet – ie – we don’t really know what we are even teaching yet and it is my responsibility to get two of them up and running and then to teach them too. In some ways they cant be fleshed out too much because the whole idea is that they are largely student driven, but if we have an objective for the students then it is important that they reach that objective and we have to work out how to get them to the end goal without chalk and talking or making it boring. They somehow have to gain all the information and knowledge that they will need to complete the end task and produce the final product, the challenge comes in how to get them to the point where they can do this, without bombarding them with information.
So my life at the moment is fairly hectic. We didn’t even have classes today – just meetings and I can already see how much work there is to be done for this BYTES job as well as the preparation for my other subjects. At least I have done my first couple of weeks of planning for most subjects. I think that I will just have to really organise my time this year and keep motivated. It is easy to have good intentions at this time of the year though – the challenge is in keeping them.

Back to the grind but maybe with a new attitude...

Just completed my third day back at school (an 8 hour day today) and school does not even start till next Monday? Am I insane you ask? No (or maybe that is a subjective question and I am not equipped to answer it) but I do have a lot of work to do before Monday, and I am going away tonight until Friday so I effectively have only two days left to sort out the mire that is my lesson plans! The BYTES thing is coming along nicely these last couple of days. We have sorted out staffing and student groupings, have mocked up a timetable for staff and students and are working out what we will be telling the Year 9's about the program when they return to school so that hopefully they will have an idea of what is going on. Wish the same could be said for the staff... The nature of this beast that is student centered learning is that the modules that we have formulated for the MERC involve students being guided by staff, but largely formulating and working on their own projects within the module's topic. This means that there is some serious "thinking on your feet" involved in teaching within this program which as well as being exhilarating is also quite daunting for many. It has to be our enthusiasm and ability to help and encourage that will determine largely how the students respond to the modules and activities so the onus is on us to be on our game. I wonder how that will sit with some people. I just hope that it all happens and that there are no major hitches. It might be a good thing that that Year 12's are on camp for the first three days that the program is running because it means i will have extra time to deal with the potential muck hitting the fan. Should be an interesting return to school. In other news I am getting fairly organised with Year 12 History which is exciting me. Year 12 English still requires some serious work and guidance from my KLA Manager as well as a more concerted effort from me as does the first text for Year 11 English that I havent really planned yet. When all of this is supposed to happen I do not know. Maybe the weekend or on the beach in Inverloch tomorrow or Friday. I am actually feeling quite motivated and inspired at the moment. I feel quite organised in terms of how I am structuring my planning and my work load so now I just have to hope that my energy levels hold up in the first week to see me through. As usual and despite every best intention on my behalf I have fallen into bad habits again like staying up until 12 or 1 every night and sleeping in until 8 or 9. This means that returning to getting up at 6 next week will be a severe strain. Normally by day three of the new term I am ready for a holiday again. Most years day three of term is a Friday so we do get a break, but not so this year. Anyway, on that chirpy note, I think that I should get the hell out of here and actually have a break!

Another new beginning.

The beauty of life is that there are constantly new beginnings - no one action determines how the rest of your life will proceed, and things are always changing. That idea used to scare me I guess, but now I gain encouragement from it. So this year is another new beginning. A new year at school, a new housemate (my sister moved in two days ago), a new subject to teach (year 12 English) and a new position in the MERC (BYTES Co-ordinator). This year will be exciting, but extremely hard work - I can see that already. I have my old favourites (Year 12 history and Year 11 English) but even within those old and trusty subjects there will be new challenges. I guess that new challenges are what make life and work interesting. I came into school today with the intention of continuing to get ready for next year and to a certain extent I am, but I am avoiding working in favour of completing more niggly things. One of those things is this blog. I became very slack over the last few months and failed to blog regularly. This was for a few reasons. 1) My personal life sort of took over my head space in the last few months of last year and so my personal blog was running rampant whilst this one was left to languish. (Sorry - that was unintentional alliteration!). 2) There wasn’t too much happening at school that I thought was worthy of being recorded which may just be an excuse to cover up that 3) I think that I was putting other things before blogging through lack of time and lack of motivation.
I don’t make new year’s resolutions however if I did then mine would be to keep this blog updated – at least a couple of times a week. I am hoping that this blog will record this year and the trials and tribulations of my new job. As it is at the moment, I am unsure what my new position even entails and so it will be interesting to see how the year unfolds and how this new MERC works.
Hopefully it will be an interesting journey…