Plane from Port Lincoln - A Rubber Band Job

Whilst living in England, if someone has suggested that I fly to … let’s say Dublin.. for the day to work with some teachers and their interactive devices I probably would have thought them mad.  Well… now I live in Australia the option was a 12 hour drive or a 30 min flight…  I chose the flight and it was great fun!

As you can see, the plane was a little one and what mum would describe as a ‘rubber band job’ – something to do with propellers..?

The Airport...

I flew home with Rex and in with Qantas.  I was very surprised to find that a free scone and tea was served on the way in!  It’s been a long time since anything was free on a short haul flight for me!  I was a little worried about making the plane back in time – i finished at the school at 4:40 and my plane left at 5:20 (the school was 15 mins away form the airport) but once I arrive and realized that the ‘airport’ was actually a room. I realized there would be no problem with being there and getting through the non-existent security before departure!

It was good fun to be flying around anyway and I was home in time for tea! yay!

I’ve also finally signed on the dotted line to have my book published and I’m hoping that in about 3-4 months time it will be available in all good bookstores and a part of the amazon catalogue.  It’s all written, being proof-read by the best spell-checker I know (mummycow) and then it will be off to the printers with it for the designing of icons, front covers and all sorts!  You’ll also be able to download a version for your e-readers   Thanks Xlibris for taking the project on – on demand!

We’re off to Melbourne on Tuesday to launch EVHC at the AAAA show so that should be good.  We’ll be spending almost a week over there living in the Travel-lodge that we always stay in and watching the flames from the cannons every night It’ll be busy but fun.  Pete and Carolyn are going to join us for a few of the days to help us out.  I guess that should mean a whole heap of pictures of us looking all professional and serious in the next blog post

TEACH!

So, I have reached the end of a short contract in a lovely school in the city. For once, I’ve been teaching my subject. In fact I’ve been teaching both of them… (Mummy Cow will know that when ever drama teaching was mentioned at Shenley I had to keep quiet about my drama teacher training… not that I minded really.) That’s not to say that it hasn’t been awesome getting back to another subject I feel really passionately about.

I have learnt so much during my short experience. There are so many things that I became really good at in England that simply do not exist in the school I was working in; I was pushed well out of my comfort zone again! Talking to other teachers, I’m pretty sure that they don’t exist – full stop- in the SA schools hereabouts. I won’t deny that it was shock when I asked for a copy of some data for my classes and I was taken down the corridor to look in a filing cabinet, where there was an individual folder for each child containing a paper copy of past reports. No pupil tracking at all; Interesting and a bit scary. Data has always been such a big part of what I do. It’s something that has been so valuable to me and to my students. For all the hoo haa over APP once I stopped seeing it as another stick to beat me with and started using it to facilitate learning and improvement in my students the world became a very well informed and empowering place. Teaching without ANY data at all was like being in the dark. I had no previous grades from lower key stages, no target grades and I was asked to give pupils a D- A grade based on how well I figured they’d met some ( in my opinion for what it’s worth) very broad and general standards.

I have had so many fantastic conversations with the fab head of English about it all. She has been so supportive and wonderful as I got my confused head around a system that isn’t constantly asking me to justify my every move. It’s been a fabulous experience. It really has and I’ve learnt as much as I’ve taught.

On a lighter note, I’ve obviously tried very hard to teach the girls to speak properly. However, they’ve also gotten their own back by refusing to give me things until I use the correct terms. You see, we don’t hand in work instead we ‘Hand up’ work. An essay and an Assignment are very different things . Apparently an assignment is something you do over a period of time and an essay is something you write under timed conditions (not sure about that one.. lol). You can’t ask for Sellotape… no idea what that is… you must instead refer to it as sticky tape.   There’s no such thing as a Hoover either… that’s called a vacuum See a wealth of knowledge! Ooh and when you want to ask for sugar paper and markers to do some collaborative work ask instead for ‘butcher paper’ and ‘texters’.
I’ve also found myself letting go of the British teaching acronyms like AFL – which believe me confuses students more than anything. – … TA, HOD, APP, AO, AF etc. A TA(Teaching assistant) becomes an SSO (Student Support Officer) and APP, AO and AF?… well they don’t actually exist. A Head Teacher is a Principal (thanks Ruth for easing me in gently with that one) and a form group is a Care group instead.
There are so many subtle differences it’s untrue and I’ve had fun experiencing them all! I’ve also been blown away by students who are so independent, confident and able. Friday was a special day at school. A little like a Shenley Immersion Day, the timetable was suspended and each care group was asked to support  charity.  The school has pupils from R – 12 and pupils from year 5 onwards were asked to create a stall and sell something to the other students to make money for their year group charity.  The students also gave rock a concert on the grass behind the main building.  Now, this may not see all that extraordinary as, like I have already mentioned, we run similar activites in the UK.  What did blow me away was, unlike in the UK, where to make this thing happen teachers have been having hours of meetings organising the whole thing, getting the materials for the students to create what ever it was they were doing, organising them so that they didn’t mess up, being in charge of money etc, it was ALL run by the students.  Shenley’s Pastoral team should think about popping over this time next year to see how it’s done.  Each year group has their own responsibilities – they are in charge – they are expected (and trusted) to do it on their own and they do!

I was attached to a care group who would be the equivalent of year 9.  I had no idea how the day runs.  I didn’t need to either.  Two girls took over and did a presentation to the class about how the stalls would be laid out, another two printed off a roster so that each class member had a shift on the stall and time to look at the other stalls too, they warned that if you were late for your shift you would receive a text message to remind you where you should be (lol  – love it) The girls had made a whole heap of jewellery and then had a nail bar. “Nails N Things” and they made a fortune!  The whole school was buzzing.  Little ones were walking around the stalls having their nails done, making pet rocks, buying cake (LOTS of cake) etc.  It was fab and there was a special theme about “closing the gap” which is such an important thing to think about. What was most fun was that the teachers were relaxing too and able to join in.  We watched the various rock bands, I had my nails done (in all the colours they had – of course).  I hovered by the girls for ages thinking that was what was expected before realising that, it was Ok to just let them get on with it! Awesome!

The key things i have learnt are about balance.  In the UK there is Sooo much pressure to perform with the grades, pressure on teachers – the wrong people – not students that perhaps we’ve gone a bit too far in how much we feel we need to interfer.  This is a cultural thing.  In the school I’ve been at I can see room for improvement in terms of expectation and challenge,  There’s a lot of potential there  but not at the expense of the fabulous way in which they work.  I guess, what I’m trying to say, is that a balance between the UK and AUS would be amazing.  That’s why I’m very excited about the opportunity ACARA is giving Aussie educators.

I’ve also realised just how valuable a of the stuff the government got us to do was (APP etc) and that perhaps the problem there is more about what it might seem to represent – another thing that makes us even more accountable for our students – another thing someone can beat me with.  An App and it’s data were instrumental in making some massive changes for some very switched off kids.  Perhaps, I needed to spend less time resisting it and get faster at thinking… ok… this is what we have to do… let’s make it meaningful.

Exciting times! I have soo much more to tell you… I’ll stop there though – I don’t want to get too excited and bore you lol  Shop… that’s all I talk about these days… eh LOF? :p

Oh an Laney… I’ve never had sooo much fun teaching in a faith school.  NOTHING like our old ‘friends’ environment at all! Full of fab, fun teachers who you’d fit in with brilliantly too

Fly me to the moon!

Here’s me and my mate. I’m calling him Astro… He’s one of about 5 Astronauts that I’ve seen in the city for the Fringe. I get very excited about them. There’s two in Victoria square (that’s Astro and his girlfriend). There’s one on top of the town hall, one on a radio station’s wall (he has binoculars and is spying on you… yes you) and i think there’s another one on King William street too. All very fun!

I have done more than chase inflatable giant astronauts this week though. Of course.  I’ve been working at the college this week.  One of those days involved my having to remember how to knit, the other involved me entertaining a class of students because I was the only one in the city and, as a non-permanent member of staff, i don’t have a key to the campus.  Thank goodness that Adelaide has so many free places to visit.  We did the tour of the city on the free city loop bus (Which bus is free?  The 99c! No ticket!) and then I walked them around the botanical gardens telling them the names of things and pointing out kookaburras.  We were all exhausted by lunchtime!  Was good fun though

I’ve also been meeting with various people on behalf of Teacher Tech, which is now an official registered business (with a certificate and everything).  Training is slowly starting to pick up which is good.  I’ve just submitted my overview for my “invited speaker” slot at the CEGSA conference and I’m hoping to go for dinner next week with Stephen Heppall and CEGSA.

Hendrix has continued to take advantage of the rockery snack bar.  Which is how he sees the frontgarden.  He’s eaten 5 geckos now. *sigh* he can’t carry birds through the window you see (it’s to high up) but a gecko is easy enough to transport. Stan continues to be sleepy and cute doing his chilled out Stan thing

I found a sweet shop this week too.  A sweet shop with actual British sweets (and walkers crisps)  Prices are a little high though.  I did get excited when i saw the following two food items.

Highland Toffee! Save those pennies!

Om NOM NOM!

It’s very important that I can still spend my money on these items.  They remind me of cold, dark autumnal evenings in Webheath where Span and I would scrape together all our coppers (mostly donated by either Nan or Dad’s sock draw) and walk to the post office for a 5p Highland Toffee ( I believe they are nearly 15p now! That’s inflation!).  Such items were contraband in Span’s house you see so this was very, very, exciting.  Of course we then got older and moved onto the hard stuff… mint creams which have to be eaten in a very specific manner.  Not sure if I want to spend 10 dollars for 4 of them though…  we’ll see how desperate I get.

(Mind mapping was created by Tony Buzan. It’s very clever. A bit like a brainstorm but more a map of thought processes. Students are asked to use them to develop their thinking skills and revise key ideas. I asked my Year 11s to create one such map to help them map out the different linguistic devices that could be found in their GCSE English paper. Of course, part of this process involves images, colours and text….)
We get to “Technical Language”

Student: So I can draw something here which reminds me of nerds then?
Me: Yes, i guess so.. that’s kind of the idea! When you think of technical language what do you think of? I’d probably draw a science nerd with big black glasses… you know (does impression of large glasses over face)
Student: Do you know what madam… your husband must be mad! ( Shakes head)
Me: What? Why?
Student: Does he know you’re a nerd?
Me: Yes.
Student: Yeah. I guess he’s a nerd too…. but does he think you’re a mong?
Me: Erm… no… I’m guessing not… he did marry me…
Student: Yeah. Pauses to consider Really you’re kind of perfect for each other?
TA: Do you know madam I know I’ve seen your husband but I just can’t picture him
Student: To TA Oh Madam! How could you forget him!? Right, yeah… he’s massive! Once, yeah, we were waiting to go into a concert and there he was in his surfer shorts and this long hair (indicates length) and glasses. Class titters away

Me: You were just jealous! It was flipping hot in that theatre!!
Student: Yeah and he had this beard too.
Me: No… He doesn’t have a beard it was the end of the week. He only shaves once! You just caught him at a bad time. He hadn’t shaved so he looked a bit well…
Student: Like a tramp?

Some time later….

Student: I’ve drawn a razor madam.
Me: Why?
Student: Well its the razor your husband will never use. It’ll help me to remember that technical language is for nerds.

Done too much flapping, now worn out and the parents aren’t even here yet!

Finish at 8:30  DOH!

Funky Photos

We’re having them.

A modern school photographer came and made the kids pose in fun and interesting ways. It was fun. Well I thought so.

Apparently some of the hormonal adolescents didn’t like being asked to stand next to each other or kneel behind each other. TOO much like fun!
Bless.

Made me laugh when a wise man at the meeting said “Well, I don’t know who suggested that but they clearly know nothing about kids”

Had to clear my throat and lose eye contact for a minute there!

I reckon doing what we did today was much more interesting than sitting on a chair, in a row, smiling inainely at a camera! LMAO

Woo hoo!

and although that’s weird (I’ve been stuck to a computer for 6 weeks now) it does mean that I have only got 16 weeks left until the big LEAP! OMFG!

LMAO (whilst cowering and covering my eyes) ;p

So we’ve had the dreaded “Moderation” which turned out, for some very bizairre reason, to be a bit of a laugh! We discovered a colleagues “emotions” (in joke – too scared to broadcast on interweb and reisted the temptation to eat the two boxes of choccies our lovely student had brought us (he’d got a job); instead opting for grapes and nuts. Phew. The Wii fit won’t shout at me and demand to know why i’ve put the weight back on.

I hate it when it does that… “Oh dear. You seem to have put on 2 POUNDS. Do you know why? No? Well let me tell you about calories…” I don’t like it when it tells me off! It’s serious!!!!

I’m busy trying to renew insurance policies and Breakdown cover at the moment. Currently been on hold for 10 minutes…… Good work RAC. All I want to do is say please renew! I might give up in a minute. Let it lapse… Although… on second thoughts, what with our “bargain” Golf, it might be better to exercise patience. After all that’s what I do all day!

It’s been an interesting day “patience” wise. I think I’ve been watching too much “Dog Whisperer” on Sky 3 (a new staple after Neighbours). I keep standing in my classroom thinking… “Calm and assertive… Calm and assertive”. Amusingly, just like it did on the dangerous Staffy… it works on year 10 too! LOL. Go Ceser Milan!

I also got to speak to a pal in Oz today. He tells me that it’s been raining ( possibly only told me that to make me feel better). When I commented on how that would be bad for the poor soggy Koalas he told me not to worry. 10 minutes in the tumble dryer is apparently all that is required!! He was shocked I didn’t know that that was how the Aussies got them to look so fluffy! LOL.

Well today I had red curly hair, I taught superwoman and several of my students arrived in their PJs…I t must be Red nose day!
What did you do that was funny for money?