Monday, April 25, 2011

Getting it together

It is with a mix of emotions that I revisit my optimistic blog entries of two years ago - how has so much time passed and nothing has been recorded here on this page?
My immediate reaction is one of disappointment - once again I have started something with gusto and enthusiasm, only to let it slip away just as fast as I move on to the next thing.
Often, I blame my memory which seems to be challenging me more and more every year - no make that every day - as things I find totally engaging one day are mysteriously erased from all working memory during my sleeping hours and I wake and engage with the new day with all that had consumed me just a few short hours previously totally forgotten.
But I guess, in the name of celebrating 'change' (a term which has consumed me ever since my attendance at the Futures Focused Schools forum in my last blog posts) within myself as a woman, wife, friend, educator and leader in the two years since I last posted, instead of feeling like a failure in the blogging world, I am mentally running through the many things, personally and professionally, that I have achieved and done in the 'missing' two years.
Funny, but I have taken heart in the recent re-emergence of my blogging inspiration Penny Ryder from the new world of motherhood.
We were on such similar paths two years ago, but have been on very different ones in the ensuing two years only, I feel, to have come out at much the same place in relation to our professional standing and aspirations.
Also driving this return to the blogging world is the significant work I have done with myself in the past two years on determining personal and professional goals, setting processes in place to achieve them, reflecting on my progress continually, enlisting the help of professionals and those also engaged in similar quests and actively seeking out and following the journeys of those on similar paths.
An ambition I have haboured with increasing intensity each year, since penning a couple of amateurish, yet fully supported plays in Years 5 and 7 is the desire to write for a living. Everywhere I turn there seems to be an opportunity to write staring me in the face - blogs, social networking, newspapers calling for the musings of regular people like me, professional journals.....
I don't know what I want to write, I just know I want to write EVERYTHING! So by re-engaging with this blog today, I am taking the first step towards hopefully achieving something that I am finding it increasingly hard to ignore.
I don't have the luxury of taking a year off to explore my need to write, nor do I have a summer house I can retreat to to gather my thoughts. However I do have this MacAir (thanks 'Santa'!) and my Piscean tendency to observe the ordinary and romanticise it into something far removed from reality! So, armed with the tools I have, rather than procrastinating by pining for the tools I can't have (yet) I shall embrace the name I gave this blog two and a half years ago with the same gusto now as I had then and GET BUSY!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Day 2 of conference

My 2 days at the Future Forward Schools Conference have sadly come to an end. Today was just as inspiring as yesterday, yet less confronting! The activities today were more focussed on thinking about our actual school and putting some initial thoughts into how we could begin our future forward plans.

Some interesting links referred to today include a fantastic youtube video of Ken Robinson talking about his thoughts around creativity and the fostering of the creative arts as being equally, if not more, important to the children of tomorrow than literacy and numeracy. His style of presenting is very amusing so if you can get hold of it, I highly recommend it.

In addition to this, we viewed a youtube video of the English X Factor winner from 2008, Paul Potts, talking about how he didn't fit in at school and was bullied, however his salvation was his amazing voice - which no one ever knew about. Watching his X Factor performances is highly emotional and makes you very mindful of students just like him that we may be coming across all the time.

I'll post some more about today's content later! :)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Future Forward Schools

I am currently attending a 2 day seminar about Future Forward Schools. So far I am finding the idea and philosophy incredibly inspiring and it has really ignited something in me! If you are interested in finding out more about what I have found out so far, visit http://www.teachingaustralia.edu.au/ta/go

You can download the booklet we are using in the course which presents 4 fictitious (?) scenarios that could be facing schools in 2030. It was very interesting exploring the scenarios today, taking on the various roles of teacher, principal, student, parent. It quickly emerged that the worst scenario on paper has a lot of relevance to the climate we are living in today!! And the nicest sounding scenario on paper had some interesting revelations from the perspective of the teacher....it seems in some regards, not a lot will change for the role of the teacher by 2030...or will it??????

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

TeacherTube - WW1 War and Peace movie

TeacherTube - WW1 War and Peace movie

This short movie will be a lovely way to introduce my Stage 3 class to World War I which we are studying through literature in Term 1, 2009.

And so it begins!

After consulting my internet savvy husband, I have discovered www.teachertube.com and went there for a look around. A video by 'Mr Duey' caught my eye straight away and I have found a great video for teaching fractions to upper primary kids that I am sure my new class will get a kick out of!




It's the sort of thing you'd love to do yourself, but just wouldn't pull off as well as this guy does! Enjoy!

The first

This is my first ever post on my first ever blog! Wow! I am looking forward to experimenting with this technology and documenting my journey to become a more techno-savvy teacher in the 21st century!