Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Using Google Apps in a Paperless English Classroom
Due to the fact that our school only opened this year and that the Ultranet was not yet released, we had to come up with a solution for a whole school email/network/website/online storage solution. We are a one:one tablet school so it is important to be able to deliver curriculum flexibly and digitally so we were looking for something that had complexity of features, but ease of use. It was decided that we would use google apps, as the fact that we could set up an education site free of charge was a bonus. It has allowed us to do a myriad of things, very easily and very intuitively. Staff have had no training, but all have managed to contribute to managing and developing our learning space.
TERM ONE:
In the first Term our student's tablets were delayed, as was our building, so we faced technological problems we were not expecting. Not only could we not deliver our lessons digitally, but we also did not have a printer so we could not print them out either! The result was a hybrid start to the year, with a back-to-basics approach in terms of collaborative work in the classroom without much of a technological influence. The upside was that we were able to build relationships and trust before we really set up our online spaces. By the end of Term 1 we had set up a Shelfari book group, a Bookcrossing community so that students could donate books to populate our bare shelves and through google sites I set up an English site with an online, self-paced module based around our theme of Identity and Belonging, that allowed students to choose tasks they were interested in.
TERM TWO:
Student e-portfolios were set up through Google Sites - one for each student to manage, populate and share themselves. The settings allow students to share their portfolios with individual people or groups, using group email addresses. They share them with staff only - making them a private space for them to record their work and reflect on their efforts. We use this for goal setting, reflection and as an online workbook. Term Two saw them studying Fahrenheit 451 under the theme of Future Worlds. During this term we introduced google docs and had students work on shared documents where they collaborated and created resources for their classmates about themes in the text. They were able to simultaneously edit the documents, share them with the rest of the class and then refer back to them when they began to consolidate their knowledge. At this point students also started posting work up on their portfolio pages so that this became like an online workbook that we, as teachers, could scroll through whenever we wanted to check on a student's progress.
TERM THREE:
I feel that it was not until term three that we really hit our stride in terms of working with technology in the classroom. Google apps has given us ways of totally avoiding paper in our classroom - collaborative spaces were all online. This term the focus was on media study. As a faculty we divided up what we would focus on in terms of curriculum development.
Self-paced worksheets were designed to expose the students to persuasive language techniques and the features of persuasive writing. Students were able to work on these at home or at school and then posted them on their eportfolio.
We started a reflective blog that students completed at the end of every lesson - the last 10 minutes of every 75min period was spent with the class posting their completed work online and blogging about their work that lesson. We put up some prompts to help students think about the important things from the lesson and how they felt they were going with the content.
An online 'help desk' forum was set up where students could post questions about the work they were undertaking at home or at school and could help each other. This was done through google groups and allowed an email to be sent to teachers every time a student posted a question - within an hour usually the student had a response to their question, often from a student. This is something we will continue to develop.
We used google moderator to get students to submit ideas about which persuasive language technique was the most effective and why, and then students were able to vote on each other's responses until we had a top 5 persuasive language techniques.
Students were able to share work through a google groups page and were able to critique their classmate's work and get ideas about how to improve their own writing.
Students used a google forms to mark sample essays using the rubric that teachers would be using to mark their final assessment piece. Using a google form meant that we could see an graphed overview of responses and talk with the class about why certain pieces had been marked a certain way. This led to rich discussion about the pieces we were marking and also the assessment rubric itself.
We created tutorial videos for students about how to annotate an article and how to write a language analysis. These were uploaded to google videos and were there as a resource for students, allowing them to watch and re-watch tutorials as they saw fit. These reinforced the in-class learning.
I was able to record, using free screen capture software, debut the in-class examples of annotation so that students who missed the class did not miss the practical instruction. This was posted online for students straight after class and allowed them to go back over important information. The annotated article was also attached to the web page so that students were able to download it as an example of a detailed annotation.
TERM FOUR:
We are only just approaching Term 4, but I already feel that we are taking the next step. Term 4 covers Macbeth and students have split in to pairs and are creating a digital representation of a scene of their choice to present to the class. The scene could be an animation, vodcast, podcast, photostory, narrated comic book etc. It needs to be digital because it will be uploaded as a resource for classmates. Students will then present to the class, a discussion of their scene including how it fits in to the play, themes and characters advanced in the scene etc. The students will be presenting and teaching each other the entire play. They will also be peer assessing via a google form which allows them all to engage in the entire process. Coupled with the in-class presentations will be online discussion forums with pertinent theme and character based questions for the students to discuss and debate, recorded teacher discussion podcasts about particular scenes to complement the student presentations and some moderator voting opportunities where students vote on who is to blame for the outcome of the play.
I feel like the sky is the limit at the moment for our digital learning environment. Anything I could do in a classroom sans technology, I am able to do in my google apps learning environment. I feel like although we have come a long way in a short space of time, we have only just scratched the surface of what is possible. The next challenge for us is to work out what place the ultranet has in our online learning environment. Unfortunately at the moment google apps is much more intuitive, functional and accessible than the ultranet and this means we really have to think hard about how to make it work for us.
TERM ONE:
In the first Term our student's tablets were delayed, as was our building, so we faced technological problems we were not expecting. Not only could we not deliver our lessons digitally, but we also did not have a printer so we could not print them out either! The result was a hybrid start to the year, with a back-to-basics approach in terms of collaborative work in the classroom without much of a technological influence. The upside was that we were able to build relationships and trust before we really set up our online spaces. By the end of Term 1 we had set up a Shelfari book group, a Bookcrossing community so that students could donate books to populate our bare shelves and through google sites I set up an English site with an online, self-paced module based around our theme of Identity and Belonging, that allowed students to choose tasks they were interested in.
TERM TWO:
Student e-portfolios were set up through Google Sites - one for each student to manage, populate and share themselves. The settings allow students to share their portfolios with individual people or groups, using group email addresses. They share them with staff only - making them a private space for them to record their work and reflect on their efforts. We use this for goal setting, reflection and as an online workbook. Term Two saw them studying Fahrenheit 451 under the theme of Future Worlds. During this term we introduced google docs and had students work on shared documents where they collaborated and created resources for their classmates about themes in the text. They were able to simultaneously edit the documents, share them with the rest of the class and then refer back to them when they began to consolidate their knowledge. At this point students also started posting work up on their portfolio pages so that this became like an online workbook that we, as teachers, could scroll through whenever we wanted to check on a student's progress.
TERM THREE:
I feel that it was not until term three that we really hit our stride in terms of working with technology in the classroom. Google apps has given us ways of totally avoiding paper in our classroom - collaborative spaces were all online. This term the focus was on media study. As a faculty we divided up what we would focus on in terms of curriculum development.
Self-paced worksheets were designed to expose the students to persuasive language techniques and the features of persuasive writing. Students were able to work on these at home or at school and then posted them on their eportfolio.
We started a reflective blog that students completed at the end of every lesson - the last 10 minutes of every 75min period was spent with the class posting their completed work online and blogging about their work that lesson. We put up some prompts to help students think about the important things from the lesson and how they felt they were going with the content.
An online 'help desk' forum was set up where students could post questions about the work they were undertaking at home or at school and could help each other. This was done through google groups and allowed an email to be sent to teachers every time a student posted a question - within an hour usually the student had a response to their question, often from a student. This is something we will continue to develop.
We used google moderator to get students to submit ideas about which persuasive language technique was the most effective and why, and then students were able to vote on each other's responses until we had a top 5 persuasive language techniques.
Students were able to share work through a google groups page and were able to critique their classmate's work and get ideas about how to improve their own writing.
Students used a google forms to mark sample essays using the rubric that teachers would be using to mark their final assessment piece. Using a google form meant that we could see an graphed overview of responses and talk with the class about why certain pieces had been marked a certain way. This led to rich discussion about the pieces we were marking and also the assessment rubric itself.
We created tutorial videos for students about how to annotate an article and how to write a language analysis. These were uploaded to google videos and were there as a resource for students, allowing them to watch and re-watch tutorials as they saw fit. These reinforced the in-class learning.
I was able to record, using free screen capture software, debut the in-class examples of annotation so that students who missed the class did not miss the practical instruction. This was posted online for students straight after class and allowed them to go back over important information. The annotated article was also attached to the web page so that students were able to download it as an example of a detailed annotation.
TERM FOUR:
We are only just approaching Term 4, but I already feel that we are taking the next step. Term 4 covers Macbeth and students have split in to pairs and are creating a digital representation of a scene of their choice to present to the class. The scene could be an animation, vodcast, podcast, photostory, narrated comic book etc. It needs to be digital because it will be uploaded as a resource for classmates. Students will then present to the class, a discussion of their scene including how it fits in to the play, themes and characters advanced in the scene etc. The students will be presenting and teaching each other the entire play. They will also be peer assessing via a google form which allows them all to engage in the entire process. Coupled with the in-class presentations will be online discussion forums with pertinent theme and character based questions for the students to discuss and debate, recorded teacher discussion podcasts about particular scenes to complement the student presentations and some moderator voting opportunities where students vote on who is to blame for the outcome of the play.
I feel like the sky is the limit at the moment for our digital learning environment. Anything I could do in a classroom sans technology, I am able to do in my google apps learning environment. I feel like although we have come a long way in a short space of time, we have only just scratched the surface of what is possible. The next challenge for us is to work out what place the ultranet has in our online learning environment. Unfortunately at the moment google apps is much more intuitive, functional and accessible than the ultranet and this means we really have to think hard about how to make it work for us.
Friday, September 03, 2010
Growing Up
At some point I grew up and became a responsible adult and I’m not quite sure when that happened. Anyone got any ideas? I have a job with a lot of responsibility and sometimes that makes me feel like I have a bit of a split personality. When I was earlier in my teaching career, the me in school and the me out of school were very different. Now that I am a bit more comfortable in myself, what you see is what you get in terms of me in the classroom and me outside of work, however the professional me, the one that deals with managing adults and delivering professional development and making leadership decisions is another beast entirely. By beast I don’t mean that that side of me is in any way horrible or beastly (others may disagree!) but rather that I think that that responsible, professional adult me is not the way I see myself. I think sometimes about the job I do and about the discussions I have with people about the wellbeing of their children and curriculum planning and the state of education and I feel almost like that person talking, the responsible Caitlin, is some other person, one who can now mix intellectually and socially with adults of all ages, one who is grown up and seen by others as a leader and as someone to go to for advice. I guess I still feel in some ways like that 24 year old who started teaching and was only 12 years older than the year 7s she was suddenly responsible for and only 7 years older than her senior students. I guess I still feel like the silly, impulsive, immature, fun-loving teenager that I sometimes still behave like.
I occasionally ask other people if they ever truly feel like they are grown up and responsible and ready to “be an adult” and usually they agree with my belief that you never really feel like you are getting older, or even that you will ever be as responsible and grown up as you see all of the other ‘grown ups’ acting, but that you just ‘get on with it’ and deal with what life throws at you in the best way you know how. I think that when you are young you think you know everything and that you are so mature and when you get older you realise how little you knew when you were younger and yet, at heart, you still feel like you are that person. Despite my feelings that inside there is still a large part of me that is silly and happy and free, there is inevitably a bigger part of me that is responsible and clever and passionate about what I believe in and what I do for a living and what and who I love. I guess that is the way it will always be.
I occasionally ask other people if they ever truly feel like they are grown up and responsible and ready to “be an adult” and usually they agree with my belief that you never really feel like you are getting older, or even that you will ever be as responsible and grown up as you see all of the other ‘grown ups’ acting, but that you just ‘get on with it’ and deal with what life throws at you in the best way you know how. I think that when you are young you think you know everything and that you are so mature and when you get older you realise how little you knew when you were younger and yet, at heart, you still feel like you are that person. Despite my feelings that inside there is still a large part of me that is silly and happy and free, there is inevitably a bigger part of me that is responsible and clever and passionate about what I believe in and what I do for a living and what and who I love. I guess that is the way it will always be.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Good Leadership + Innovation = a happy Caitlin
Work at the moment is hard work. Part of what I love the most about my current role is the fact that I get to truly have a say in the running of the school and the leadership team do just that- lead the school, determining much of the direction, detail and vision of the school. It is so energising and affirming to be doing a role that not only has responsibility but that also has true consultation and collaboration and creativity attached to it. I am implicitly trusted to do my job - there is no-one looking over my shoulder and checking or questioning or controlling. I am given the ability to run my own faculty, design innovative curriculum from scratch and incorporate technology as I see fit. I feel like I have been given a license to fly this year - and it is amazing how much you achieve when you are given the tools and the freedom to imagine what it is that you wish to create.
In the 6 months I have been at this school I feel I have undergone an amazing journey. When I got the job I felt like perhaps I was a fraud and surely at some point they would work out that I didn't know what I was doing and kick me out. I truly believe though, that it is not until you really venture out of your depth that you are forced to swim and that these are the times that we see what we are really capable of. I never really felt stifled at my old school, but now I realise that I was so bound by the institutions that had been set up over years and that I felt that I didn't have the power to change. I dreamed of big things, and even put in place some substantial changes, but the fact remained that much of what happened in my old school had happened the same way for years before, and would continue to happen the same way for years to come, because people were not willing to change, and despite the flood of younger staff, the ceiling never moved and the innovation was never complete. Not that I think that innovation is ever an end point, or something that can be achieved and then moved on from, but when you starting point is the past and not even the present then how can you imagine a different future?
The liberation I have experienced at this school is complete. A liberation from a cage I never realised I was in. One where I maintained the status-quo and didn't try to be really different because I didn't see that I could be. Now I feel like all the walls are down and I am able to imagine the best, most interesting, innovative, engaging ways to deliver curriculum and to design curriculum because I have the technology, freedom and support at my fingertips. This school wants me to be innovative and enables it and my growth in this short space of time has shown the power of autonomous leadership in opening up new worlds to staff.
In the 6 months I have been at this school I feel I have undergone an amazing journey. When I got the job I felt like perhaps I was a fraud and surely at some point they would work out that I didn't know what I was doing and kick me out. I truly believe though, that it is not until you really venture out of your depth that you are forced to swim and that these are the times that we see what we are really capable of. I never really felt stifled at my old school, but now I realise that I was so bound by the institutions that had been set up over years and that I felt that I didn't have the power to change. I dreamed of big things, and even put in place some substantial changes, but the fact remained that much of what happened in my old school had happened the same way for years before, and would continue to happen the same way for years to come, because people were not willing to change, and despite the flood of younger staff, the ceiling never moved and the innovation was never complete. Not that I think that innovation is ever an end point, or something that can be achieved and then moved on from, but when you starting point is the past and not even the present then how can you imagine a different future?
The liberation I have experienced at this school is complete. A liberation from a cage I never realised I was in. One where I maintained the status-quo and didn't try to be really different because I didn't see that I could be. Now I feel like all the walls are down and I am able to imagine the best, most interesting, innovative, engaging ways to deliver curriculum and to design curriculum because I have the technology, freedom and support at my fingertips. This school wants me to be innovative and enables it and my growth in this short space of time has shown the power of autonomous leadership in opening up new worlds to staff.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Direction
Today we had a couple of researchers come out from Deakin to do a study on Innovation in schools. The principal nominated me as one of the people who would be interviewed for the study and it was actually a turning point for me in terms of how I am thinking about what we are doing at this school and how we are creating a culture and curriculum and teams and relationships. It is amazing the things you articulate when asked some interesting questions about leadership, curriculum, students, expectations, etc. I will post the transcript up here later (once I receive it) because I really want to record this point in time and how I am thinking and feeling about things and about what we are doing at this school. Here are some of the things I was thinking about:
What is it that creates a culture at a school?
What creates highly aspirational staff/students?
How does leadership impact on these things and create the feeling of autonomy and ownership and excitement?
Why am I loving my job despite the workload and why am I so energised by it?
What is it that is giving me that energy?
This conversation really got me thinking about my Masters next year. I have always wanted to do further study. The idea of academia appeals to me but I was thinking of doing a Masters in School Leadership which is entirely course work because I was thinking that maybe that would be a good way to get back in to the study. The problem is that although I am interested in Leadership I don't really think that is what drives me and so I have been worried that if I start a Masters I will not enjoy it and it will seem like a chore rather than an opportunity to really explore what I love about what I am doing. So I have been really undecided about what I should do and asking around for ideas because although I am interested in the idea of research, I haven't had a clear idea of what that would look like for me. What would I research? What am I interested enough in to sustain me for a few years?
Today's interview has really got me thinking. Deb was really good at synthesising the things I was saying to her and said that a lot of what I was talking about was exploring different elements of a teacher's identity and how I am operating in this environment in a whole lot of different ways. This idea interests me. I feel so passionately about this school and what we are doing here that I want in some way to explore that and unpack that and share the lessons we are learning with whoever wants to listen. The opportunities and the thinking and the creating that goes in to designing and building a school from the ground up are so involved and exciting and interesting that I think there is a whole lot to say.
So I think I still have a lot of thinking to go before I work out what it is that I want to do but I feel like this discussion has set me on the right path and got me thinking about the right things and stopped me thinking about a Masters in a way that is so theoretical and abstract and really thinking about what I am doing in my work life at the moment that I could be really examining and thinking about and sharing. I want to research something that interests me and I want the writing that I do to be more narrative than academic - readable, accessible and an interesting insight in to what is going on in schools where innovation is a mandate and a lifestyle not an option!
So much to think about. I think step one is to post more to here, thinking about what we are doing in the classroom and to really start filtering down what it is that I am really interested in exploring. I will also be contacting my university friends for advice and focus and my principal to work out what my options are here!
I feel even more excited about where I am at the moment than I already was. My whole experience this year has taught me that nothing is more exciting to me than the freedom and autonomy and creativity that I am afforded at this school. This is something I want to nurture even further.
What is it that creates a culture at a school?
What creates highly aspirational staff/students?
How does leadership impact on these things and create the feeling of autonomy and ownership and excitement?
Why am I loving my job despite the workload and why am I so energised by it?
What is it that is giving me that energy?
This conversation really got me thinking about my Masters next year. I have always wanted to do further study. The idea of academia appeals to me but I was thinking of doing a Masters in School Leadership which is entirely course work because I was thinking that maybe that would be a good way to get back in to the study. The problem is that although I am interested in Leadership I don't really think that is what drives me and so I have been worried that if I start a Masters I will not enjoy it and it will seem like a chore rather than an opportunity to really explore what I love about what I am doing. So I have been really undecided about what I should do and asking around for ideas because although I am interested in the idea of research, I haven't had a clear idea of what that would look like for me. What would I research? What am I interested enough in to sustain me for a few years?
Today's interview has really got me thinking. Deb was really good at synthesising the things I was saying to her and said that a lot of what I was talking about was exploring different elements of a teacher's identity and how I am operating in this environment in a whole lot of different ways. This idea interests me. I feel so passionately about this school and what we are doing here that I want in some way to explore that and unpack that and share the lessons we are learning with whoever wants to listen. The opportunities and the thinking and the creating that goes in to designing and building a school from the ground up are so involved and exciting and interesting that I think there is a whole lot to say.
So I think I still have a lot of thinking to go before I work out what it is that I want to do but I feel like this discussion has set me on the right path and got me thinking about the right things and stopped me thinking about a Masters in a way that is so theoretical and abstract and really thinking about what I am doing in my work life at the moment that I could be really examining and thinking about and sharing. I want to research something that interests me and I want the writing that I do to be more narrative than academic - readable, accessible and an interesting insight in to what is going on in schools where innovation is a mandate and a lifestyle not an option!
So much to think about. I think step one is to post more to here, thinking about what we are doing in the classroom and to really start filtering down what it is that I am really interested in exploring. I will also be contacting my university friends for advice and focus and my principal to work out what my options are here!
I feel even more excited about where I am at the moment than I already was. My whole experience this year has taught me that nothing is more exciting to me than the freedom and autonomy and creativity that I am afforded at this school. This is something I want to nurture even further.
Monday, August 09, 2010
The Ultranet
Yesterday every government school in Victoria had a pupil-free day in order to launch the Ultranet to staff and teach them how to use it. I am one of the Ultranet trainers at my school. Although we are currently using the features of Google Apps heavily in our school and are quite happy with the capabilities, we wanted to train our staff yesterday in the ultranet so that we can have a detailed discussion about how we might use it. The phase two rollout of the Ultranet will have student tracking and assessment capabilities that are potentially more advanced than what we are using now, so we wanted the staff to be Ultranet literate by the time this next rollout occurs. At JMSS we are in the lucky position that most staff are highly computer literate and our daily work includes heavy ICT use. The students all have tablet computers that allow them to access any online resources and lesson plans wherever they are and much of our curriculum and staff and student collaboration occurs online.
Unfortunately, as most of us predicted, the system fell over at around 9am when most of the teachers in the state attempted to log in. Although this was a much-needed capacity test for the system, around the state many a "plan B" was unveiled and rolled out to fill the Ultranet gap. In my 'plan B' I had decided to show a couple of the Common Craft videos on Social Networking and Social media, and then discuss what Twitter is and how we could use it as a professional networking tool and to communicate and interact with students.
This session was a big success. The staff were not asked to join twitter, I merely discussed how I use it and what I think it is good for, however as I was talking, most of the staff in the room joined up and starting contributing to the discussion. In fact, JMSS now has such a twitter presence that I think I have created a monster!
Throughout the day I had been following twitter discussions around the Ultranet as I find that twitter is often very useful as a news source and generally quicker than most other communication channels. The beauty of the discussion around the ultranet yesterday on Twitter is that it put me in touch with a whole lot of Victorian educators - something that will help expand my professional online network. For me this was a big plus because part of the way I use twitter is as a way of keeping up with what is going on in education, however it is not easy to find good teachers to follow. I feel like that has been the biggest gift that yesterday gave me.
The other upside for this day was the chance to do some collaborating as a group. Any school who did not have a plan B that was technology and pedagogy focussed really missed an opportunity to get some serious thinking and planning done around what the Ultranet means for Victorian schools and how technology can be better used to enhance teaching and learning. For many schools who have not had the access or the know-how to access technology in their teaching, the Ultranet means big changes and more options. That is something that the media have failed to acknowledge in their reports today about the failure of yesterday's training day. They have also failed to acknowledge the hard work that went in to many school programs for the day, and the learning that came out of it.
Unfortunately, as most of us predicted, the system fell over at around 9am when most of the teachers in the state attempted to log in. Although this was a much-needed capacity test for the system, around the state many a "plan B" was unveiled and rolled out to fill the Ultranet gap. In my 'plan B' I had decided to show a couple of the Common Craft videos on Social Networking and Social media, and then discuss what Twitter is and how we could use it as a professional networking tool and to communicate and interact with students.
This session was a big success. The staff were not asked to join twitter, I merely discussed how I use it and what I think it is good for, however as I was talking, most of the staff in the room joined up and starting contributing to the discussion. In fact, JMSS now has such a twitter presence that I think I have created a monster!
Throughout the day I had been following twitter discussions around the Ultranet as I find that twitter is often very useful as a news source and generally quicker than most other communication channels. The beauty of the discussion around the ultranet yesterday on Twitter is that it put me in touch with a whole lot of Victorian educators - something that will help expand my professional online network. For me this was a big plus because part of the way I use twitter is as a way of keeping up with what is going on in education, however it is not easy to find good teachers to follow. I feel like that has been the biggest gift that yesterday gave me.
The other upside for this day was the chance to do some collaborating as a group. Any school who did not have a plan B that was technology and pedagogy focussed really missed an opportunity to get some serious thinking and planning done around what the Ultranet means for Victorian schools and how technology can be better used to enhance teaching and learning. For many schools who have not had the access or the know-how to access technology in their teaching, the Ultranet means big changes and more options. That is something that the media have failed to acknowledge in their reports today about the failure of yesterday's training day. They have also failed to acknowledge the hard work that went in to many school programs for the day, and the learning that came out of it.
Once again I have been slack...
So this is a post that talks about some of the things I have been thinking about over the last month. Probably the most enlightening thing to happen this term has been the Presentation I went to by Andrew Douch who is a leader in innovative teaching practices and creating online resources. Check out his website by clicking on his name. I have been following Andrew for a while but I felt at my old school that creating online resources would not be as useful because the students had virtually no access to computers in the classroom. Due to the fact that at JMSS we have a one to one tablet program, I feel like I can finally do all those things that I ever wanted to in terms of ICT. The fact that we are working in a team teaching, open plan learning space also means that it is even more important to steer away from chalk and talk and to use the classroom times for interaction and creativity and communication.
So I started creating online video-tutorials in order to start taking some of the content out of the classroom and in to the students homework or down time. The Andrew Douch presentation was really just in time for me because it helped to give me a context to what I was doing and to focus in on not only what I wanted to get out of the project but also what was possible to get out of the project. It made me think more critically about how I want the pedagogy of my english classes to run and has really set the agenda for me in terms of future directions for English at this school.
Here is what I'm thinking:
- All the content based "chalk and talk stuff" will now be turned in to video tutorial podcasts to be posted online. This includes topics like "annotating news articles" "how to write a language analysis essay" "writing persuasively" etc.
I have already created 5 different tutorials.
- Students will be expected to watch these tutorials as "pre-learning" ie, before they come to class.
- Classes will be spent with interactive activities, communication, group work, presentations, and creative pursuits - things that students can't do on their own.
- We are also building in more opportunities for one on one conferencing - where students get to bring in what they are working on and get their teacher's help and advice.
- We are also working on creating workshops that students can withdraw in to during work time if they need extra help with certain elements of the content.
All of these strategies will help students to work at their own pace, watch and rewatch presentations if they need to (saving you from answering the same questions over and over from students who were not listening), interact with each other and the teacher in a way that best suits them, ask more questions, get more individual time with the teacher, and be more responsible for their own learning. It also claims back the classroom from the content a bit too.
Of course the downside is that these tutorials take time to create but with any basic screen capture software and good content, the payoff is that you create it once and it is there for years. Each year we can build on the information that is there, rather than recreating the wheel or repeating the same information time and time again. As the years go on, students have a solid bank of tutorials to draw from, something that helps them get the extra reinforcement that they need from their learning experiences.
The beauty of this also is that you know that each teacher is contributing to the creation of resources and that despite who their classroom teacher is, the students all have access to the very best lessons and advice from ALL of the English teachers at the school, something that you cannot say in most places.
It will take away any element of competition from between teachers and classrooms because everyone is working for the good of the whole cohort and not their individual class.
So that is my utopian classroom vision for English at JMSS. I feel that although there is still much to be done, we are well on our way to creating a dynamic, interesting and relevant curriculum that engages kids and meets their needs when and where they need them. Now, back to it!
So I started creating online video-tutorials in order to start taking some of the content out of the classroom and in to the students homework or down time. The Andrew Douch presentation was really just in time for me because it helped to give me a context to what I was doing and to focus in on not only what I wanted to get out of the project but also what was possible to get out of the project. It made me think more critically about how I want the pedagogy of my english classes to run and has really set the agenda for me in terms of future directions for English at this school.
Here is what I'm thinking:
- All the content based "chalk and talk stuff" will now be turned in to video tutorial podcasts to be posted online. This includes topics like "annotating news articles" "how to write a language analysis essay" "writing persuasively" etc.
I have already created 5 different tutorials.
- Students will be expected to watch these tutorials as "pre-learning" ie, before they come to class.
- Classes will be spent with interactive activities, communication, group work, presentations, and creative pursuits - things that students can't do on their own.
- We are also building in more opportunities for one on one conferencing - where students get to bring in what they are working on and get their teacher's help and advice.
- We are also working on creating workshops that students can withdraw in to during work time if they need extra help with certain elements of the content.
All of these strategies will help students to work at their own pace, watch and rewatch presentations if they need to (saving you from answering the same questions over and over from students who were not listening), interact with each other and the teacher in a way that best suits them, ask more questions, get more individual time with the teacher, and be more responsible for their own learning. It also claims back the classroom from the content a bit too.
Of course the downside is that these tutorials take time to create but with any basic screen capture software and good content, the payoff is that you create it once and it is there for years. Each year we can build on the information that is there, rather than recreating the wheel or repeating the same information time and time again. As the years go on, students have a solid bank of tutorials to draw from, something that helps them get the extra reinforcement that they need from their learning experiences.
The beauty of this also is that you know that each teacher is contributing to the creation of resources and that despite who their classroom teacher is, the students all have access to the very best lessons and advice from ALL of the English teachers at the school, something that you cannot say in most places.
It will take away any element of competition from between teachers and classrooms because everyone is working for the good of the whole cohort and not their individual class.
So that is my utopian classroom vision for English at JMSS. I feel that although there is still much to be done, we are well on our way to creating a dynamic, interesting and relevant curriculum that engages kids and meets their needs when and where they need them. Now, back to it!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
New Term-New Beginning
Term 3 started with our official opening. 150 official guests, weeks of planning, the Minister for Education Bronwyn Pike and a bit of a circus really! We had to change our normal timetable to fit around the minister's schedule and the kids had a weird 'third-of-a-period' where they acted like they were doing something so that when the minister came through she could check out the sort of work we do at our school. Very surreal but an affirmation that we are an 'official' school and that everything we have worked hard for is coming together. Many special guest speakers and much food later, the kids finished off their period one classes and the hard work was done!
I feel like this term things are really coming together. I came down with the 'Man-Flu' (given to me by the special man in my life) in the last week of the holidays and I still have a bit of a mannish voice and 'snotty' nose a week and a half later, and it kind of put me behind schedule. Forced me to relax a bit though I guess!
So far this term (and by this term I mean in the last three days) I feel like I have really taken steps towards organising my time at work more efficiently. There is so much to do in a day and I felt a bit like I was playing catch up during first semester rather than taking the bull by the horns and being proactive. I think given the fact that we are in a new school and starting from scratch it has been easy to let some things fall by the wayside and my house leader duties certainly took a back seat to the more pressing issue of curriculum development. Some things that happened at the end of last term really bought the student management procedures to our attention so over the holidays the house leader team had a meeting where we came up with an abridged policies and procedures document for house leaders and classroom teachers to ensure that everyone knows what their responsibilities are in terms of student management and wellbeing. This way we know we have procedures in place so that kids won't slip through the cracks. We are now tracking, reporting, and pre-empting student issues with more rigour and a tighter process.
What I really love about this school is the way that the responsibility for student health and wellbeing is shared amongst our staff equally. Rather than having a top heavy process or one where two people are responsible for 200 kids, every staff member is a tutor who is responsible for the welfare of 10-13 kids and they are the first port-of-call for any issues. Escalated issues are then referred to the house leaders. I have scheduled time in my week where I do admin activities - following up student work and doing my attendance reports and chasing kids and this makes me feel more organised and also makes me use my time for efficiently. Instead of sitting around looking at an overwhelming pile of work and not knowing where to start, I now have a super detailed timetable and schedule and the time that isn't devoted to house stuff and meetings is devoted to curriculum development. I think this way I will be more efficient.
I have also put in to place some extra elements of the curriculum this term that will make it easier for me to track my students. Due to the fact that we have a one to one computer program, all of our curriculum documents are online and the students can access all their work from home or school. They have a Personal Learning Site of their own and they post all of their class work online. This stops us from having to collect and mark workbooks and we can access the work from home or school to check it. I have also added an extra column to the lesson plans titled "What should I be able to explain by the end of the lesson." The students are given 10mins at the end of each lesson to put up a blog post online that reflects on what they learnt in the lesson and explains the dot points under the "what should I be able to explain" column. I think it is a nice way for the students and staff to measure the student's level of understanding of the themes and ideas of the class. It will help us determine which areas of the content are problem areas for students and how we can cater our extra support sessions in class. In order to systematically track the kids I have timetabled in an extra period as part of our English meeting time where we can sit together and look at our students work and plan and chat about their progress.
I am excited by the curriculum we are creating and I guess it is all a bit of an experiment at this stage because it is something that I have not tried before. It is all about trying to get the balance of the classroom right when the classroom is an open space full of students. The aim is that with the digital resources online, teachers will be more free to run "just in time" workshops with students and extra support sessions in areas of need. That is the next layer I need to embed into the curriculum. Right now I should probably get off the computer and get back to finishing off these digital resources.
I feel like this term things are really coming together. I came down with the 'Man-Flu' (given to me by the special man in my life) in the last week of the holidays and I still have a bit of a mannish voice and 'snotty' nose a week and a half later, and it kind of put me behind schedule. Forced me to relax a bit though I guess!
So far this term (and by this term I mean in the last three days) I feel like I have really taken steps towards organising my time at work more efficiently. There is so much to do in a day and I felt a bit like I was playing catch up during first semester rather than taking the bull by the horns and being proactive. I think given the fact that we are in a new school and starting from scratch it has been easy to let some things fall by the wayside and my house leader duties certainly took a back seat to the more pressing issue of curriculum development. Some things that happened at the end of last term really bought the student management procedures to our attention so over the holidays the house leader team had a meeting where we came up with an abridged policies and procedures document for house leaders and classroom teachers to ensure that everyone knows what their responsibilities are in terms of student management and wellbeing. This way we know we have procedures in place so that kids won't slip through the cracks. We are now tracking, reporting, and pre-empting student issues with more rigour and a tighter process.
What I really love about this school is the way that the responsibility for student health and wellbeing is shared amongst our staff equally. Rather than having a top heavy process or one where two people are responsible for 200 kids, every staff member is a tutor who is responsible for the welfare of 10-13 kids and they are the first port-of-call for any issues. Escalated issues are then referred to the house leaders. I have scheduled time in my week where I do admin activities - following up student work and doing my attendance reports and chasing kids and this makes me feel more organised and also makes me use my time for efficiently. Instead of sitting around looking at an overwhelming pile of work and not knowing where to start, I now have a super detailed timetable and schedule and the time that isn't devoted to house stuff and meetings is devoted to curriculum development. I think this way I will be more efficient.
I have also put in to place some extra elements of the curriculum this term that will make it easier for me to track my students. Due to the fact that we have a one to one computer program, all of our curriculum documents are online and the students can access all their work from home or school. They have a Personal Learning Site of their own and they post all of their class work online. This stops us from having to collect and mark workbooks and we can access the work from home or school to check it. I have also added an extra column to the lesson plans titled "What should I be able to explain by the end of the lesson." The students are given 10mins at the end of each lesson to put up a blog post online that reflects on what they learnt in the lesson and explains the dot points under the "what should I be able to explain" column. I think it is a nice way for the students and staff to measure the student's level of understanding of the themes and ideas of the class. It will help us determine which areas of the content are problem areas for students and how we can cater our extra support sessions in class. In order to systematically track the kids I have timetabled in an extra period as part of our English meeting time where we can sit together and look at our students work and plan and chat about their progress.
I am excited by the curriculum we are creating and I guess it is all a bit of an experiment at this stage because it is something that I have not tried before. It is all about trying to get the balance of the classroom right when the classroom is an open space full of students. The aim is that with the digital resources online, teachers will be more free to run "just in time" workshops with students and extra support sessions in areas of need. That is the next layer I need to embed into the curriculum. Right now I should probably get off the computer and get back to finishing off these digital resources.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Yong Zhao - 21st Century Learning Skills Workshop
One of the other leading teachers and I went to a workshop in the city yesterday run through the innovations and excellence branch with renowned academic and educator Yong Zhao. I think that the point of the day was for this particular branch to work out what their next project would be and we were there to help them workshop ideas. Yong Zhao had some interesting things to say. I have been to plenty of sessions on 21st century learning in the last 5 or so years but some of the things he was saying were a little more left of centre. He was asking us to think about what knowledge we think is of most worth in this age of technology and information and suggesting that now that we are in a globalised world, and distance no longer defines us, what determines how well an adult will succeed in this global market is what you can give them that makes them worth more than the others who would cost less to pay. Companies will hire people from any where in the world if their labour is cheaper than somewhere else so it is not necessarily about qualifications any more but about what students have to offer.
Zhao believes that what matters in this global economy is
- diversity of talents
- creativity - not skills
- entrepreneurship
- passion
He believes we can encourage this in students through personalised learning - and by that I mean not the watered-down version that we have been attempting to do here for the last 10 years, but actual, personalised learning based on developing the students strengths and helping them reach their own personal life and career goals through resources and learning styles. No standardised, national curriculum with tests to check whether students have met pre-determined benchmark levels.
Interesting stuff that is so far removed from the current moves of education towards standardised, centralised testing and reporting.
This certainly raises questions and also provoked some ideas for me. I have been working these holidays on creating electronic "video" documents that work through the steps of language analysis in a way that covers the sorts of information I would normally chalk and talk. I will be providing students with these sorts of resources, and paper based resources and the learning from these documents can occur whenever and whereever they see fit. This means that during class-times I can run work-shops on the things that the students are struggling with and spent time with individual students working on their own particular concerns.
I am hoping that as the year progresses the english curriculum becomes more and more interactive and student focussed and self-paced like I always hoped it could be.
I will leave this post with a couple of questions posed by Yong Zhao:
What knowledge is of most worth? _Herbert Spencer 1859
Which human jobs should be replaced in schools?
What matters?
What strength does our school have that makes us different or unique?
How to we spread innovation?
What is the cost of high test scores? What do you lose?
How often do we trust out students?
Zhao believes that what matters in this global economy is
- diversity of talents
- creativity - not skills
- entrepreneurship
- passion
He believes we can encourage this in students through personalised learning - and by that I mean not the watered-down version that we have been attempting to do here for the last 10 years, but actual, personalised learning based on developing the students strengths and helping them reach their own personal life and career goals through resources and learning styles. No standardised, national curriculum with tests to check whether students have met pre-determined benchmark levels.
Interesting stuff that is so far removed from the current moves of education towards standardised, centralised testing and reporting.
This certainly raises questions and also provoked some ideas for me. I have been working these holidays on creating electronic "video" documents that work through the steps of language analysis in a way that covers the sorts of information I would normally chalk and talk. I will be providing students with these sorts of resources, and paper based resources and the learning from these documents can occur whenever and whereever they see fit. This means that during class-times I can run work-shops on the things that the students are struggling with and spent time with individual students working on their own particular concerns.
I am hoping that as the year progresses the english curriculum becomes more and more interactive and student focussed and self-paced like I always hoped it could be.
I will leave this post with a couple of questions posed by Yong Zhao:
What knowledge is of most worth? _Herbert Spencer 1859
Which human jobs should be replaced in schools?
What matters?
What strength does our school have that makes us different or unique?
How to we spread innovation?
What is the cost of high test scores? What do you lose?
How often do we trust out students?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Post 101 - getting lost
Apparently this is my 101st Blog at this site - it has only taken me 6 years to get there! I often feel like I get lost. Not that I lose my way really, but that I have an incredible ability to block out anything that I don't want to or have time to deal with. I can be focused on the next task at hand to the detriment of the whole picture sometimes. It happened in my first long term relationship- I blocked out the fact that I no longer wanted to be in the relationship in favour of addressing only the things in my life that were easy to deal with. I learnt the hard way then that that was not something that is sustainable. No matter what you decide to block out, inevitably it is still there when you come back to it- and may, in fact, have become worse.
At the moment I feel like I have dropped a few balls. Work for me is hectic but fantastic and I am focussing a lot of my energy on getting the job done. I come home at night, after 10 or 11 hours out of the house and I am tired and just want to sit on the couch like a vegetable. This bothers me though. It seems sometimes like I am living to work and not working to live and there needs to be more balance. A lot of the time I can't be bothered cooking dinner let alone preparing a packed lunch for school the next day and as a result we have been eating badly. I have put on over 5 kilos since the wedding a year ago and I really don't like it. I need to somehow find a balance between work and health and 'me' time because it is only going to get worse if I don't do something about it now.
I am trying to get back on track. I have organised to go swimming one night after work with a workmate. Another two nights a week I am supposed to go walking with another one of my colleagues. So it is just the diet really. I sat down, on this, the first day of my holidays, and planned out what I will eat for lunches and for snacks because these have been my biggest issue. I have made a shopping list and am currently trying to work up the motivation to get off the couch and go out and purchase said goods. I want to make the holidays my kick-start to a healthier lifestyle rather than a eat-fest which is what it can be if I don't watch it.
I also think that professionally I need to make this year at work about more than just surviving. I am already looking around for the next challenge but I think I really need to make sure that I am doing everything at work to the best of my ability before I start piling more work on myself. I have been thinking about doing a masters next year, partly just to give myself some concerted time to think and reflect on what I am doing and how I can improve. I seem to never make enough time for that these days. Maybe this blog is part of the answer. I will be having a chat these holidays with my boss about what he thinks I should do in terms of post-grad study and am doing some soul-searching myself about what is motivating me and what I want to get out of the next few years. I want to stop letting life pass me by and make some concerted decisions about where to next.
At the moment I feel like I have dropped a few balls. Work for me is hectic but fantastic and I am focussing a lot of my energy on getting the job done. I come home at night, after 10 or 11 hours out of the house and I am tired and just want to sit on the couch like a vegetable. This bothers me though. It seems sometimes like I am living to work and not working to live and there needs to be more balance. A lot of the time I can't be bothered cooking dinner let alone preparing a packed lunch for school the next day and as a result we have been eating badly. I have put on over 5 kilos since the wedding a year ago and I really don't like it. I need to somehow find a balance between work and health and 'me' time because it is only going to get worse if I don't do something about it now.
I am trying to get back on track. I have organised to go swimming one night after work with a workmate. Another two nights a week I am supposed to go walking with another one of my colleagues. So it is just the diet really. I sat down, on this, the first day of my holidays, and planned out what I will eat for lunches and for snacks because these have been my biggest issue. I have made a shopping list and am currently trying to work up the motivation to get off the couch and go out and purchase said goods. I want to make the holidays my kick-start to a healthier lifestyle rather than a eat-fest which is what it can be if I don't watch it.
I also think that professionally I need to make this year at work about more than just surviving. I am already looking around for the next challenge but I think I really need to make sure that I am doing everything at work to the best of my ability before I start piling more work on myself. I have been thinking about doing a masters next year, partly just to give myself some concerted time to think and reflect on what I am doing and how I can improve. I seem to never make enough time for that these days. Maybe this blog is part of the answer. I will be having a chat these holidays with my boss about what he thinks I should do in terms of post-grad study and am doing some soul-searching myself about what is motivating me and what I want to get out of the next few years. I want to stop letting life pass me by and make some concerted decisions about where to next.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What do I want to know about English in an open plan learning space?
I have been asked to think about what I want to know about my English classes and what data I would like to collect regarding English in an open plan learning environment.
These are the things that I would like to know short term.
-What the students like about English
-How they think it could be better
-Do they feel we cater to their needs?
-Do they feel like they are cared about?
-What do they want to learn?
-Do they think we use the spaces effectively?
-How is English at JMSS different from at their old school?
I think I would also like to do a study that would tell us if we are adding value to the students over their time in English at JMSS. At this stage we don't have any real data about their potential and our potential to help them realise their own.
Just some quick thoughts. I think I will need to ponder this further.
These are the things that I would like to know short term.
-What the students like about English
-How they think it could be better
-Do they feel we cater to their needs?
-Do they feel like they are cared about?
-What do they want to learn?
-Do they think we use the spaces effectively?
-How is English at JMSS different from at their old school?
I think I would also like to do a study that would tell us if we are adding value to the students over their time in English at JMSS. At this stage we don't have any real data about their potential and our potential to help them realise their own.
Just some quick thoughts. I think I will need to ponder this further.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Another new beginning
Here is my new blog resolution: to blog at least once a week about what is going on and about things I am reading and connections I am making. I feel like a lot of the time I get bogged down in the fact that there is always something that needs doing in this job and these "guilt bag" items are the things that I prioritise over everything else. For the remainder of this year I am going to try to make blogging a priority.
I am reconnecting with the education community digitally, at least this is my aim. I have just set up a twitter account and have added a whole lot of educational sites - let me know if there are good ones I should add.
Today I went to Ultranet training - I was quite excited because this is my first glimpse of what the ultranet can do since my old school was a trial school many years ago. I am pleasantly surprised by its functionality. Coming from a school using Google Apps (which I find intuitive and clever and functional) I was more than a little concerned that the Ultranet was going to be a cruel and dysfunctional joke of an online network that was miles behind what we are already using. I am pleased to say that this is not so. The ultranet appears to have much of the functionality of Google Apps, but what it lacks is the ease of navigation of Google Apps, and the high end functionality. We will certainly not be replacing everything we do with the Ultranet once it goes live, because the systems we have in place are suiting our needs perfectly and doing much of what the ultranet will, but I can see that for the majority of schools who do not have a system in place at all, it will be a revolution in the way that they do things and in the way that they communicate with each other and with students.
One of the things that I have loved the most about coming to this new school is the technology. Due to the fact that every student has a tablet computer, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can reasonably expect them to do in a class. I found that at my old school access to technology was limited and intermittent, and it made you reticent to do anything because it wouldn't work anyway (and I am one of the believers! imagine how the technophobes felt!) At this school, with the combined strength of tablets and google apps - we are doing everything! Curriculum online, groups set up for student communication, sites for student parliament, curriculum, student groups etc. Google docs created and shared in class, google forms used to survey students and collect data in real time for a variety of purposes.
When technology is working for you and not against you it is the most liberating feeling as an educator. I feel like everything I ever wanted to do in a classroom in terms of communication and collaboration is possible here and there are very few drawbacks.
So this is what the Ultranet Pd made me think about.
I am going to try to do some professional reading as well and post on here my thoughts. At the moment I am investigating starting my Masters next year too so stay tuned! I think that I really need to wake my brain up and start learning again in a variety of forums and that is what I'm going to try to do!
I am reconnecting with the education community digitally, at least this is my aim. I have just set up a twitter account and have added a whole lot of educational sites - let me know if there are good ones I should add.
Today I went to Ultranet training - I was quite excited because this is my first glimpse of what the ultranet can do since my old school was a trial school many years ago. I am pleasantly surprised by its functionality. Coming from a school using Google Apps (which I find intuitive and clever and functional) I was more than a little concerned that the Ultranet was going to be a cruel and dysfunctional joke of an online network that was miles behind what we are already using. I am pleased to say that this is not so. The ultranet appears to have much of the functionality of Google Apps, but what it lacks is the ease of navigation of Google Apps, and the high end functionality. We will certainly not be replacing everything we do with the Ultranet once it goes live, because the systems we have in place are suiting our needs perfectly and doing much of what the ultranet will, but I can see that for the majority of schools who do not have a system in place at all, it will be a revolution in the way that they do things and in the way that they communicate with each other and with students.
One of the things that I have loved the most about coming to this new school is the technology. Due to the fact that every student has a tablet computer, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can reasonably expect them to do in a class. I found that at my old school access to technology was limited and intermittent, and it made you reticent to do anything because it wouldn't work anyway (and I am one of the believers! imagine how the technophobes felt!) At this school, with the combined strength of tablets and google apps - we are doing everything! Curriculum online, groups set up for student communication, sites for student parliament, curriculum, student groups etc. Google docs created and shared in class, google forms used to survey students and collect data in real time for a variety of purposes.
When technology is working for you and not against you it is the most liberating feeling as an educator. I feel like everything I ever wanted to do in a classroom in terms of communication and collaboration is possible here and there are very few drawbacks.
So this is what the Ultranet Pd made me think about.
I am going to try to do some professional reading as well and post on here my thoughts. At the moment I am investigating starting my Masters next year too so stay tuned! I think that I really need to wake my brain up and start learning again in a variety of forums and that is what I'm going to try to do!
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Things to be thankful for:
I have had a few posts mulling around in my mind over the last few months but with all the craziness I never made time to get them down. I want to make a list of the things I am thankful for, because I feel that this new job has been the best move I could ever have made and I want to capture the moments I have been thankful for so far.
1. Having a job description with specified roles and responsibilities.
2. Being trusted to do that job.
3. Having a genuine voice in all decision making. It makes me feel valued.
4. The opportunity to work with many people that I admire and aspire to be like. I feel like I am learning so much every day from every interaction.
5. The opportunity to challenge myself and learn and grow. So important to feel like I am improving rather than stagnating.
6. The team of people I work with and the team of staff I lead. Amazing people who work so hard and just want the best for this school.
7. The students - a little bunch of nerds who just want to be as good as they can be at everything. Brings back memories of a little 'darce-nerd' from yesteryear!
8. Most of all I am thankful that I took the leap in to the unknown once again despite being scared because it really is only when you do this that you once again start to learn and grow.
1. Having a job description with specified roles and responsibilities.
2. Being trusted to do that job.
3. Having a genuine voice in all decision making. It makes me feel valued.
4. The opportunity to work with many people that I admire and aspire to be like. I feel like I am learning so much every day from every interaction.
5. The opportunity to challenge myself and learn and grow. So important to feel like I am improving rather than stagnating.
6. The team of people I work with and the team of staff I lead. Amazing people who work so hard and just want the best for this school.
7. The students - a little bunch of nerds who just want to be as good as they can be at everything. Brings back memories of a little 'darce-nerd' from yesteryear!
8. Most of all I am thankful that I took the leap in to the unknown once again despite being scared because it really is only when you do this that you once again start to learn and grow.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
First day of Teaching at the new school!
So after two full on weeks of meetings and planning and collaborating and debating and brain overload we started school with our brand new first lot of Year 10s on a three day camp. I have to say it was one of the better camps I had been on. Getting to know the kids on a camp was really interesting. The highlight of the camp was a talent show that showcased ACTUAL talent - and a lot of it. The most amazing performance was from a student who prefaced his act with the admission that he had never performed in public before. He got up with his guitar and the hand written lyrics and notes to the song he had penned himself and started to play. The kids could see it had taken him a lot to get up there and that he was very nervous. He then made a mistake on the guitar and it seemed like he was going to give up and leave the stage, or worse, cry. Rather than heckling him off-stage as may have happened in another school, these kids started yelling out keep going, and other encouragement and started clapping and cheering him to keep on going. He had a great voice and despite other mistakes and him seeming like he was going to break down a couple of times, he kept on going and got through his whole song and earned himself a standing ovation from the crowd of kids. Not only was this the gutsiest thing I have ever seen from a kid - putting himself out there with a crowd of complete strangers but the crowd's reaction to him made me want to cry too- I really think these kids will be amazing and I am so excited to be part of something that promises to be so special.
So today was the first day of teaching and it was really nice to get back in the classroom. It feels like my job was just administration for the past few months and although I have said in the past that I don't think I would mind if my job involved less teaching, I actually think that I'm changing my mind. Despite how tired I am coming off the camp and straight into teaching I am energised by this job in a way that I haven't been for a while. The staff team are amazing and every day I have moments where I smile to myself thinking that this whole thing is too good to be true and wondering how I was so lucky to end up here.
It's not all peaches and cream, don't get me wrong. The building is not finished and the university buildings we are working out of are quite old and spread apart so that all of my classes are literally a five minute, brisk walk out in the elements. I can't get used to leaving so early for class!
We only just got a printer/photocopier so you can imagine how frustrating it has been not being able to do things as basic as print and copy, especially because the student's laptop tablets have been delayed a second time so we can't even provide them with electronic documents. Having said that though, we are already high tech in our tablets and the programs we are using and I feel like I can use all the skills I have acquired over all these years and really help to create something great. This school is really appealing to my techno-loving self - so much so that I now have an iphone too which is synced with my email and my calendar etc. I feel like all my Christmases have come at once!
In all, despite the fact that I would like to go to bed and not wake up for days, I am buoyed by the start of this school year in a way that i haven't been for a while. I don't think that this is a reflection on my old school, rather a reflection of my itchy feet when it comes to change and challenge and new experiences. I know for certain that I have made the right decision. Bring on the rest of the year!
So today was the first day of teaching and it was really nice to get back in the classroom. It feels like my job was just administration for the past few months and although I have said in the past that I don't think I would mind if my job involved less teaching, I actually think that I'm changing my mind. Despite how tired I am coming off the camp and straight into teaching I am energised by this job in a way that I haven't been for a while. The staff team are amazing and every day I have moments where I smile to myself thinking that this whole thing is too good to be true and wondering how I was so lucky to end up here.
It's not all peaches and cream, don't get me wrong. The building is not finished and the university buildings we are working out of are quite old and spread apart so that all of my classes are literally a five minute, brisk walk out in the elements. I can't get used to leaving so early for class!
We only just got a printer/photocopier so you can imagine how frustrating it has been not being able to do things as basic as print and copy, especially because the student's laptop tablets have been delayed a second time so we can't even provide them with electronic documents. Having said that though, we are already high tech in our tablets and the programs we are using and I feel like I can use all the skills I have acquired over all these years and really help to create something great. This school is really appealing to my techno-loving self - so much so that I now have an iphone too which is synced with my email and my calendar etc. I feel like all my Christmases have come at once!
In all, despite the fact that I would like to go to bed and not wake up for days, I am buoyed by the start of this school year in a way that i haven't been for a while. I don't think that this is a reflection on my old school, rather a reflection of my itchy feet when it comes to change and challenge and new experiences. I know for certain that I have made the right decision. Bring on the rest of the year!
Sunday, January 03, 2010
The Year ahead
I generally don't make New Year's Resolutions but I think this year there are many things I want to achieve.
- A healthier diet that involves more home cooked meals and less take-away
- At least 30 mins of walking each day or every second day, or some other form of exercise
- Date night with James once a week to get us out of the house doing fun things together
- A healthy herb garden to complement my dedication to cooking
- A flourishing English faculty with an interesting curriculum and happy students
- Maintaining a regular blog to enable reflection and recording of what I have learnt
Some days I sit at my desk at home and wonder where to begin in order to get all the work done that I need to before the school year starts. Other days I work for hours excited and motivated by the new challenges, the endless possibilities and the intrinsic reward in creating something from scratch.
- A healthier diet that involves more home cooked meals and less take-away
- At least 30 mins of walking each day or every second day, or some other form of exercise
- Date night with James once a week to get us out of the house doing fun things together
- A healthy herb garden to complement my dedication to cooking
- A flourishing English faculty with an interesting curriculum and happy students
- Maintaining a regular blog to enable reflection and recording of what I have learnt
Some days I sit at my desk at home and wonder where to begin in order to get all the work done that I need to before the school year starts. Other days I work for hours excited and motivated by the new challenges, the endless possibilities and the intrinsic reward in creating something from scratch.
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