Archive for 16/08/2009

Sorting Facebook

31/08/2009 Joh relationships

Last night I put all my friends on Facebook into different groups. I was inspired by having access to photos of someone I barely knew. Photos that were a touch revealing. I’m not sure I am that open.  There are levels of privacy I want to maintain.

I looked into it,  there are different levels of privacy in facebook but I hadn’t really explored them till then. I have my own criteria for adding friends on facebook, yet within are different groups/types of friends, sounds awful to categorise your friends, but I’m only human. If I know someone I am happy to add them. I don’t need to know them in person, or in current time, past is fine, I need to have some concept of who they are and how they are connected to me. The old ‘everyone’s welcome’ slogan I had when working at the Neighbourhood House, doesn’t apply on my facebook page.

By the same token, just because I know a person, doesn’t mean I want to share everything with them. I discovered last night that for each photo album you upload to facebook, you can set the networks or friend groups that you want to see them. It’s given me peace of mind. I don’t want to wonder about how many friends of friends can see my family photos and who they are.

Having said all that and feeling pretty much master of the universe as far as my privacy goes on facebook, I still wouldn’t put anything I thought would be detrimental to me online. anywhere. I still haven’t worked out how to control people tagging you in photos, apart from removing the tag. I was discussing this in class today. When you are out and about you aren’t necessarily looking around for people who are photographing you with their mobile phone. Perhaps privacy is dead.

What are your settings on facebook? Who can see your photos?

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Discovering Kongwak

31/08/2009 Joh gratitude, home

Darin and I went for a drive this afternoon to Cape Patterson. We were taking off from Warragul and went through the green hills on the windy roads and came across Kongwak between Korumburra and Wonthaggi. We stopped.

It’s a small place, yet it had a really colourful Market.  The people there knew the teenage kids by name, as well as one another. I love that tiny community environment.  There was a variety of new and secondhand things, inside and outside stalls and a nice vibe. I bought a couple of kids books, Darin purchased some CDs of comedians and he got some of our favourite incense and a sandalwood box. I tried on some clothes but my broad shoulders just didn’t feel relaxed in them, everywhere else fitted great.

We also checked out the Art Gallery and we both fell in love with a sculpture there. We managed to walk away discussing all the things we need to do at home before a peice like that would find a decent place. There were some appealing watercolours there.

The remainder of the day was gentle, Cape Patterson was a bit seaweedy, we drove back through Inverloch. Finding Kongwak was the unexpected pleasure of the day.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Friday at Last

28/08/2009 Joh learn

I’ve been back at work for three weeks and already I’m celebrating Friday. This week has been hectic and intense for me. It’s been windy, stormy and so very busy. I injured myself on Wednesday night. I turned the light off in the kitchen and on my way to bed walked into the door frame. My eyebrow has a split in it and I am developing a shiner. Yesterday I rushed off to school late only to realise when I got there that I couldn’t teach, I had a bad headache. Darin sent me flowers to brighten my day and when I phoned him to say I was at home, he had to redirect them. They are beautiful.

Today I feel a lot better, but there is still a slight headache and a bit of vagueness. I was fine to go to school. The thing about injuries on your face is that you have to explain them. I think I described what happened over 20 times today. I would go into a class and individual students would ask, what did you do, so I would announce it to the whole class to save time.

We’ve started the Media topic in Year 9 English this week which is one of my favourites. I’ve been reading heaps this week about the rising influence of social networking. Watch this youtube clip I found on Karl Fisch’s great site:

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Stormy

25/08/2009 Joh gratitude

It’s the first night I have been home alone for quite a while, not that I’m complaining. Darin has gone to celebrate his son’s 8th birthday with his kids and their mum.  I was planning all kinds of things… until the power went out. It was all thunder and lightening and possibly even hail, not that I went out to check or anything. It was a bit eerie at one point, just wind and sirens. This year has been kind of insane with all the extremes of weather. I had a candlelit bath and by the time I was ready to get out the power was back. So all is good.

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Behaviour Management Course

24/08/2009 Joh learn, relationships

Today I had a professional development day. It was a course in Behaviour Management. I haven’t been on a Behaviour Management course since the first years I was teaching.  I have been more interested in things like technology or learning. It was productive and has given me some great things to think about, especially as a co-ordinator explaining things I take for granted. It reinforced my strong belief that relationship building is really the most important basis.

It reminded me also of something I used to do, but have neglected lately and I think my classroom environment has suffered for it. The initial clear explanation of your expectations is really important if you want a good learning environment. I don’t mean the flakey kind of ‘I expect great things from you’ stuff. I need to clearly explain the behaviours I want to see. I need to be really explicit and model it as well as explain specifically what I expect.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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The Perfect Night for a Massage

23/08/2009 Joh gratitude

The wonderful woman who has been massaging me for a couple of years has moved. She continued to come back to town for a while, but has now stopped. I would have to drive over an hour to have a massage with her, which I would be willing to do, yet the drive home would possibly negate the relaxation benefits of the massage. I tried someone during the holidays. She was ok, but I didn’t feel at ease with her to be honest.

When I was last at the chiropractors, I asked her to recommend someone. She had after all recommended Lynda, who had turned out to be so good. There was a new masseur who had just started at the chiropractors and she recommended him so I made an appointment. It turned out he only works Friday afternoons. What better way to start a weekend I ask you?

I had my first experience of dry needling. I am not into pain or needles in any way, but I seriously didn’t feel them and as I had never had them before, and I like to try new things, I agreed. I have to say when I left the massage, my back felt so good it was as if I didn’t have a back. I have spent quite a full on day today. Darin’s kids have been here and I have done all the playing and lifting and shuffling that goes with three young children and still, my back is relatively relaxed and feeling good. I am impressed. I made another appointment before I left the chiropractors. If word gets out how good this young man is, I imagine those Friday afternoons will become heavily booked.

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New Moon in Leo – Thursday 20th August 2009

20/08/2009 Joh astrology

Today is the New Moon in Leo, occuring at about 8pm in Australia. Set some goals for the month ahead. Since the moon is in Leo perhaps they could be hair goals. I made an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow night, but I’d also booked a massage a couple of weeks ago for the same time. I had forgotten all about it. I’m trying a new masseur who is operating from the Chiropractors. Need I say, the massage won. I cancelled my hair appointment!

I’m not sure what my goals are going to be for this new moon. I guess I’ll have a quick think about it now.

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Wednesday Night Watching

19/08/2009 Joh home, relationships

I know I’m always banging on about not watching TV, but last Wednesday when I had the student information night I came home and Darin was watching ‘The Librarian’ on the ABC.I got into it, so much so that tonight I am watching again. I look forward to the ‘United States of Tara’ that will follow this ridiculous, yet entertaining show.

Life is good right now, I can relax enough to watch TV…. for amusement alone.

Popularity: 5% [?]

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Learning Day for Teachers

18/08/2009 Joh learn

Yesterday at school we had a student free day. We got the opportunity to participate in a range of sessions led by fellow teachers. My first instinct was to sign up for all the technology courses, blogging, forums and so forth. I did the blogging course and it was good. I got to see some of the things a small handfull of teachers are doing at school with blogs. I mostly knew from my personal blogging how to do it though.

I changed my approach and did ceramics in the morning, which I love and learnt to make gnocchi in the afternoon. I felt like the special needs student in ceramics because it took me a long time to create an even coil. By the time I got to making gnocchi though I had the coils handled and I applied it successfully to the dough. It was actually a very pleasant and relaxing day. I hope we learn from one another more often because there are many talented people on our staff at school and often, living outside a major city, we travel to learn things that we could probably learn just as easily from one another given the time and space.

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Sunshine

16/08/2009 Joh family, gratitude, relationships

Darin had the day off yesterday and we enjoyed a rare quiet Saturday morning strolling around town, shopping and eating with all the time in the world.  We went to the Cowaar Art Space in the afternoon. It’s a great building. We drove out to look at Glenmaggie Weir. It has water, but still looks pretty empty to me. I remember as a kid going out there to water ski and the water was up to the road in some parts. I wish I’d taken my camera because the light was perfect out in the countryside after a sunny winter day.

This has been a great week. I’ve had constructive conversations at work about the things I’m passionate about and managed to maintain my positive feeling about work with ease. My classes were enjoyable. We had our Careers Expo on Friday and I got to talk with lots of students and their parents. I think we have improved in our preparation of students for making choices about the future. Most of the students I saw were pretty clear about their choices and more importantly were fully informed about what they meant.

I certainly don’t have as much time on my hands as I’ve enjoyed recently, yet I had enough time to enjoy a good film (The Boat that Rocked), a little reading (still finishing The Writers Journey) and keep all my priorities in order. Life is good.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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