Archive for 08/08/2010

Flighty Spring Please Arrive On Schedule

31/08/2010 Joh family, health, holidays

Spring is a bit of a temperamental season. We have lots of wind here and some rainy days mixed in with those lovely promising days. Tomorrow the calendar tells me it begins. I am ready. I was itchy and my eyes were watery this morning. I haven’t had allergies in spring before, but if that’s what it takes to get closer to summer: I still say bring it on. I love getting home in the daylight, even when I have had to endure a meeting.

My mum and dad head back to their ‘winter’ holiday tomorrow. There is a lot coming up and I expect to fly towards the holidays. Tom will be home for a week before that. Life is good.

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Year 11 Retreat

25/08/2010 Joh work

Today I got to retreat from everyday school life with a great bunch of students. I loved the informal out of school chats that we enjoyed over lunch or travelling, between sessions. I got to sit in the sunshine and feel the warmth through the window melt away the coldness. The coldness however returned later in the afternoon and the fire had been neglected so the chill returned.

There were a couple of students I’d taught in year 7 on the retreat today. It really is a pleasure to work at the senior school and see the maturing of our students. I think every junior school teacher ought to experience this. It makes those trying early adolescent times worthwhile and amusing even in hindsight.

On Facebook today I’ve seen the mention of Spring. I can feel it coming too with more anticipation than I’ve felt for a long time.

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Full Moon in Pisces – Wednesday 25th August 2010

24/08/2010 Joh astrology, work

Happy Birthday to my brother Tim for today.

At around 3am tomorrow morning the moon will be full in Pisces. My natal moon is in that sign so I wonder if there is any significance to that. Pisces represents dreams, intuition and all things fantasy-like, so I imagine that energy will prevail during this full moon.

Things have eased up astrologically and I read today that we are about to enjoy the lighter third of the year. I can’t say I’m sad to hear it, this year has been massive really. There have been so many changes. Most of the changes have been great but it’s been one of those years that I look back to this time last year and feel I am living on a different planet. I don’t expect that to ease actually because I have big plans for changes to my life, yet I feel I am making the changes in this instance not adjusting to a changing landscape if that makes any sense.

Pisces Full Moon : Do Nothing by Moonkssed is a restful read for this full moon. I am feeling this energy this week also. I have restarted my simple yoga practices and meditated this week and I am feeling it’s time to return to calmer and healthier ways of being. Tomorrow I am on a day retreat with the year 11′s and I’m really looking forward to that space, even if this is the first moment I’ve had today to think about the retreat side of it.
Click here for an Authentic Astrology Report

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Now by Morris Gleitzman

23/08/2010 Joh reading

The third book in the series, this one is set in modern Australia and Felix is now an old man turning 80. Zelda is his grandaughter named after his childhood friend. This time Felix has to survive a bushfire. ‘Now’ is every bit as gripping as ‘Once’ and ‘Then’ were, yet I felt the ending was more positive and hopeful than ‘Then’, which I found very sad. It traces Felix’s survival and story through the eyes of his grandaughter.

I love the way Gleitzman uses the perception of a child in these books and shows the thinking processes from Zelda’s point of view. It is similar to the other two books in this way. He is a great writer. I had to wipe the tears away again with this book. The whole bushfires setting is quite close still, after all.

I noticed in the news yesterday the CBCA have been announced and I feel very shabby in that I haven’t read any of the shortlisted books this year. I think being at the senior campus and not participating with the students in the Premiers Reading Challenge, has taken me away from the habit of reading so much as I once did.

This book was recommended to me in one of my students wide reading oral presentations last Friday. I still insist my year 10s only read novels for homework and they have to either write a blog post on our class blog or make a presentation to the class. Friday’s presentations were especially sweet for me as one students commented that reading a certain author had influenced his writing style. They are the kinds of unprompted comments that I love to hear from my students.

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Friday Already!

20/08/2010 Joh family, food, home, work

Today was non-stop, but it was Friday so it was all endured with a grin. I got an extra in the VCAL class and had my fingernails manicured and painted. That was an unexpected bonus! I love the VCAL program at work. It’s great for the hands on learners at our school.

On Wednesday night I went to a very well prepared and delicious tasting meal at school prepared by the students studying Food. I was really impressed, it was visually stunning and the desert especially was yummy. I booked for two because Darin was hoping to come, but couldn’t get the night off. Rhonda was the next, but had a big day the next day. Just as she told me she couldn’t make it, Asha called to say she was in town, so she became my dinner guest. I loved the way it worked out.

Tonight the kids came straight after school so the day kept up it’s busy pace. They have been an absolute delight. I love it when they are here. We have a full weekend ahead, so I’m having an early night.

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After the rush

17/08/2010 Joh astrology, family, food, friends, gratitude

Last week was really busy. Evening meetings at school, expo, the concert and the day to day life that has to be squeezed in between. The weekend continued to be fast and lots happened. Today I was back at school, having a rest.

My weekend was a mixture of things. I enjoyed the company of friends who came round for dinner on Saturday night. Darin prepared it all for me to feed them cause he was at work. I can’t say how amazing it is to have him at times like that. It was delicious and there was debate, laughter, gossip and it was good to be social.

My parents came home to see my very sick uncle who has fortunately made a great recovery. I was worried then relieved. I got to see them. Darin and I took advantage of some JB Hi Fi browsing and wandering through display homes when we delivered their car to them.

I think Mystic Medusa was right about that Zap Zone. I love the image in this post Apres Zap Zone.

One of the DVDs I bought at JB was ‘Breaking Bad’. It’s facinating in a frightening way.

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School Concert

13/08/2010 Joh family, gratitude, work

Tonight I went to the kids school concert. I was so delighted to be invited. I have been looking forward to it and this week has been very busy and it’s crept up on me. It was sensational! I loved seeing the primary school students sing and dance their hearts out. Our two J(8) and E(5) were lit with the buzz of the performance and putting everything they had into it. J crashed as soon as we got home, but E was on a bit of a high from the days events and took a little longer. The concert was a great standard and they had a past student choreograph who is a professional. He did an amazing job and the students clearly adored him. School concerts are exhausting yet seriously educational in my opinion. They build self esteem, kids love performing and enjoy the audience adulation.

Our careers expo today at school went really well too. The first break I got in the day to check the time, was 5 minutes before closing and I would have sworn it was 3 hours earlier. I love chatting to parents and students one on one about their choices. The school looked great and everyone pulled their weight to make it happen. It was good to catch up with my friends from the other campus where I used to work when we were setting up. I was glad I got around to most of them before the crowd arrived, cause if I’d put it off, I wouldn’t have got the chance.

It’s been a very full day!

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Love Hurts

13/08/2010 Joh family, friends, love, relationships

I have spent the evening with one of my close friends who lost her brother this week. A student from one of our schools (Marist) died this week. There were many students this week feeling it. Another close friend lost a brother in law. I don’t personally know any of these people but I have met some of them. Their loss doesn’t hurt me except through seeing my friends suffer.

When we lose someone we love, it is an incredible opportunity for the survivors to share how they feel about that person and about each other. That is what I have witnessed. I have never forgotten when my grandfather died some August’s ago the love that I felt from my year 9 class and my friends. I really appreciated their support and kindness. Those students are now my year 12′s. I remember their goodness.

I had a year 10 student today asking my advise about what kind of message he should leave on his friend’s facebook page. Our students are not meant to access facebook in class, but sometimes there are more important things than the school rules. In a very respectful tone, I asked him who he thought would read that message on facebook and how they would feel about what he wrote. He was no longer communicating to her, it was her loved ones that he needed to consider, when he left his final note. That is the most important literacy to me. The literacy of the heart in the times of the greatest vulnerability.

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New Moon in Leo – Tuesday 10th August 2010

09/08/2010 Joh astrology, work

A new moon tomorrow in the sunny sign of Leo. Set some goals! I’ve loved the sunshine here despite the chill in the air, although the weekend was warmer than today. There is a lot going on in the skies as you would know if you read the astrologers discussions. I’ve noticed some real shifts going on around the place. I’m too tired tonight to be bothered linking to the best articles. I haven’t even had time to read them all. I’m having a lazy dark moon. I will put what’s left of my thinking into goal setting:-). Anyway there are links to my favourite astrologers on ‘The Well’ page.

Today we had a student free day to prepare for our careers expo on Friday, because the country buses weren’t running due to a student free day at the Secondary College. I read about the government schools debacle of a day on frogdancer:The Ultranet. I think we had a more enjoyable time.

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Bairnsdale in winter

08/08/2010 Joh food, gratitude, travel

Darin had a rare Saturday night off last night and we didn’t have the kids this weekend. We stayed a night in Bairnsdale. Yep, just up the road. I felt too tired to do the whole Melbourne thing and most of the things I want to do in Melbourne at the moment, I would prefer to do with the kids. He’s been working flat out and I knew he needed a leisurely weekend.

I booked into the Riversleigh hotel, where I had stayed about 10 years ago and found to be great. Nothing has changed there, but the service was a little slow. The place was almost empty, so I’m not surprised. It was comfortable and I love the view from their balcony of the Mitchell River.

We drove to Metung first. I hadn’t been there by car before. When I was young my pa had a boat and when we would stay at Lakes Entrance for holidays we’d go and have lunch at the Metung pub if the weather was no good for swimming. It’s a pretty little place. There are some lovely homes there. I had a bit of a stroll through the shops. There were some interesting ones.

We headed back to Bairnsdale and walked around the town. We stopped for a donor kebab that was pretty ordinary, but the decor of the place was interesting. It amused us. We did a bit of shopping, bought some clothes, gifts and kitchen utensils. Then we checked in and checked out the menu at Riversleigh. It didn’t inspire so we headed out again.

We virtually did a pub crawl around all the spots in Bairnsdale. The Grand Terminus was the chosen dinner spot and I had a delicious meal of pork steak on cheesy polenta. It was yum. We watched the footy, Darin was pleased to see Collingwood win (as usual I didn’t really care, but was happy for him). We had a couple of bets that paid off and generally had some interesting chats to locals and enjoyed watching the nightlife in a different place. We ended up in a pub next door to where we were staying where a good covers band were playing.

It’s been a beautiful sunny weekend and it feels like I’ve been away for days. It’s lovely to be with someone who smiles at the same things and we had uninterupted chats and hearty giggles. It was a real treat.

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