Year 11 Retreat
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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Now by Morris Gleitzman
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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Love Hurts
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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Celebration
Tonight I’m going out for dinner where Darin works with Rhonda. She has gained her Certificate IV in Workplace Training today and I am delighted. I’m happy for her but I’m also happy for the kids she will get to teach. She is a great teacher and has positive learning relationships with students. We’ve worked in the classroom together a few times and they have been the best years. She makes a difference to students and their learning.
I think it would be great if teaching were an apprenticeship. It would be awesome to have an apprentice to be in classes with you, assisting in all the ways an extra adult in the room can. Giving you feedback about what worked and what didn’t. I remember when I had a student teacher I sat up the back of the class and saw my students in a whole new light. I noticed some where totally engaged, just not in what was going on at the front of the room. I hadn’t noticed it when I’d been at the front of the room!
It would be great for the student as they would get hands on learning and watch all the real things about teaching like classroom management, rapport building and other things that you don’t always learn in a book. I’ve seen many students do the whole teaching course and then find they hate teaching. This way, you would get a pretty good idea quickly.
There are so many resources available to teachers now that I think the idea of a person who is all knowing as a teacher is redundant. I have taught a number of subjects over my teaching career that I learnt alongside my students. I could never be an IT teacher if I hoped to know the most in the room. The best teachers know how to build great relationships with students and understand them and their learning styles. They need to like the students enough to find a way for them to learn what they need to learn, in order to get to where they want to go. They need to be assertive enough to create a safe space, so students are free to learn. They need to love learning themselves and model that to young people. Anyway I reckon Rhonda can do all those things, hands down.
More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given
~ Bertrand Russell quotes
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VITTA ICT Careers Expo
Today I got on the train with 19 (one missed the train) year 10 IT students to attend the above-mentioned careers expo. I was concerned about being solely responsible for the 19 mostly boy students in the city to be honest. I’ve never been on an excursion without another teacher before. They were very well behaved and reliable for the most part. What follows is a bit of a rant about the effort it takes to get up early, travel for hours to and from an event that didn’t deliver what it promised.
I was disappointed in the event. I wonder why universities have such boring stalls at career expos? All university logos and wads of courses in thick books and enthusiastic sounding people that really don’t understand secondary students. It was just plain embarrassing listening to many of the speakers talk to be honest. The students were so uninspired they conversed throughout the talks. Well before lunchtime the large space was virtually empty whilst federation square itself was swarming with school students.
When I mentioned at the stand to the people responsible, how ordinary I felt the Women in ICT presentation was, I was assured their Go Girl event would be great. It would have been better if they’d convinced the female students I had insisted stay and listen for half an hour. I doubt I would be able to convince them to attend now. I just don’t get it. They obviously have some sponsership and resources, why not put some effort into their presentations, even an interesting visual slideshow. We joked that they would fail year 9 English if they made presentations with such lame slides to the class when they gave their orals, if they had me for a teacher. Most of the girls there, could have come up with something more interesting in an afternoon.
Almost every speaker mentioned that the stereotype of IT worker, nerd, working alone, being out of the public eye, wasn’t accurate. It insults the students intelligence to assume that is their stereotype, it would have been more interesting and exciting to show them examples (with photo’s please, not words (definately not PARAGRAPHS) on the screen) of the types of careers people have in this field.
Anyway that’s enough of the negative… the positive was the new program offered at NGV which I registered interest for and ACMI’s new site. I can’t find any information on either of the sites about these things. I know my students have written the addresses down and it’s in the ‘showbags’ so I’ll get back to you on those!
I do wonder why young people aren’t considered more in these types of things. It just wasn’t engaging. The politicians and important people were all there briefly congratulating themselves. I do hope they noticed the students weren’t overly impressed. There were few hands on activities and the sound one was poorly placed at the back of the auditorium where the speakers were, so the sounds interfered with the talks. It was so popular, my students didn’t even get the opportunity to have a play with it. Think people think!! Grrrrrr
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Visiting Students at Work
I had a lovely couple of days going to different workplaces to visit our year 10′s on work experience. I enjoyed being out of the classroom and driving around from place to place. The students were transformed to working people and they rose to the occasion. Many of their employers mentioned how great they were and a couple even offered jobs. They dressed the part and were courteous and slotted into the working world well.
I visited primary schools and kindergartens and was very impressed by the environments created by the teachers. They are so warm and friendly. The younger students were totally engaged and I saw some interesting learning activities. I especially loved the small country primary schools. The students who had their work experience there were already known by the younger students and quite obviously familiar and loved. There is really nothing like small communities. At one of the kinders they baked everyday, none of that cold fruit and milk, warm apple crumble slice was baking when I arrived and it smelt lovely.
I also visited hairdressers, engineering firms, surveyors, department stores, chemists and a range of departments at the hospital. Next week when they return to school they have an oral presentation about their experiences. I can’t wait to hear all they’ve learnt.
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Tuesday
I know, it’s not a very imaginative title. I’ve been spending some time after school this week getting my computer and blogs up to date with back end stuff. Andy’s Poohduck is getting lots of hits, but the stat’s weren’t working and other things so I thought I’d better finally get round to doing something about that. He’s been taking some wonderful photo’s lately. I also have had more time available to me to potter around with these things. I’ve got my school blogs almost under control lately. See below for the reasons!
I’ve been catching up with heaps of stuff this week with no year 10 classes. The school ground is so empty. I am going visiting starting tomorrow. I was given a list of students to visit and made some calls today to make times to visit them. I am looking forward to it and wish I could visit every student I’ve taught, but that would be most of them, and I don’t have enough hours in the day. Some of them are in Melbourne with newspapers or architects, so I guess it’s not practical to get around that much in a week.
Darin has a new, more time consuming role at work. A couple of people at work have told me how wonderful the food is where is chef. I felt very proud of him, but I certainly already knew how great his food is. He’s working long hours and talking menu’s at home. Last night the conversation made me hungry. I decided I would wait and cook dinner and eat with him tonight. Just steak and veges, nothing as yummy as what he was talking about. Steak and veges will be good though and it’s better than getting stuck into cheese and biscuits at some awfully late hour! My waistline is expanding lately… what with all the chocolate and lemon tarts I’ve been practicing on and just a greater focus on food in general I guess. I do try to give the tarts away and I have done a lot of that, but you always have to eat some, just to make sure it is ok 
.
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Work Experience Week
Our year 10′s are going on work experience this week and I get to visit some of them, which I’m really looking forward to. I remember work experience was a real ‘rite of passage’ for me. In previous years I have seen my former students when I’ve been out and about in their ‘work experience’ roles. This year I will get to participate more fully with that and hear more about their adventures when they return.
I did my work experience at the local hospital with the Social Worker. It was a steep learning curve and I learnt that I didn’t really want to be a social worker. It was nothing like what I thought it would be. That was the first time I experienced in a big way that even if you think you know the answers for someone else, you are not able to make them better, or change them without their willingness. I was constantly asking the social worker, why he didn’t tell the clients what to do so the problems they were experiencing would go away. I think I amused him greatly. He tried to explain it to me in so many different ways.
Our students are going to an amazing variety of places and I believe it will be a massive learning week for them.
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Year 12 Retreat
I haven’t been on a year 12 retreat since 1983 when I was in year 12. I didn’t have really clear memories but vaguely recall going on a really long walk, not allowing enough time to get back, so hitchhiking for the first time with around 5 other girls. An unusual man picked us up (which was to be expected in some ways), fortunately no harm occurred and we made it back on time with the leaders none the wiser. If any of our students managed such feats I am also none the wiser. I found the students to be wonderfully behaved and enjoyed their company.
We had an amazing speaker talk to the kids for a couple of hours and he was one of the best public speakers I’ve seen since I saw Anthea Paul speak. Sam Clear is a storyteller with a very inspiring tale to tell. The students were captivated. Young people today are a tough gig for a speaker. They are incredibly sophisticated critics as they receive so many messages and whilst this group has been well trained to be attentive, it’s rare for them to be so universally impressed by a presentation. I’ve been teaching many of them since they were in year 7, so I’ve heard many negative reviews over the years. That’s another subject for another day.
It was a three day break away from phones and screens for me. There were TVs but I didn’t indulge, prefering conversation, music and journalling in my free time. I did miss my phone and laptop though. I have to say I would prefer not to be without them.
Darin made me a sensational French Onion Soup and Chocolate tart to take for lunch. They were much appreciated by the teachers I had to feed. I didn’t learn how to make them as I’d hoped, it was quicker and easier for him to just do it. So I just watched while he did all the quick chopping and whisking ect. I think I would have to go into training to do these things with ease as he does. I never really appreciated the difference between a good cook and trained chef until lately. The things I’ve have seen him do in the kitchen are under the category of minor miracles for me.
Interestingly enough there was one activity on the retreat that was the same as when I went on retreat. The others were quite similar but had evolved in different ways. I still have my folder from my retreat. It’s in my box of things to pull out to make me feel good along with the lovely cards like those referred to in this awesome post I read today: Prep isn’t the time for assessment. When I say box, I mean boxes and since I have redone that activity, perhaps it’s time for a cleanout.
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Update At Last
I have finally had my blog and Poohduck updated to the latest version of wordpress. I notice my colours and the header have all changed.
I wanted to make some changes to the appearance anyway, so I will have a fiddle with it all over the next weeks. It’s a little different to be working in a different space, but it is similar to the edublogs one we are using at school, so I may as well get used to it.
My year 10 English class are taking to the blogging well. Some of the students in this class have been along the ride with my frustrated attempts at blogging in the classroom since they were in year 7. I don’t know why I am surprised at how well they are taking to it. It’s easy when all the technology works!
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