Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Leaping in....


The new year has begun and I have been busy trying to get my head around a whole new school - its systems, its physical environs, its priorities and a very large staff. The impressions I have from changing systems are reassuring- schools are schools- they face the same dilemmas, the same physical issues and the same need to re-energise and redirect staff to bring their focus to the task of doing the absolute best they can for their students. I have been in two days of orientation for new staff and then in sessions with the main body of the staff and they have been extremely well organised and very detailed, such a contast to what my past has been.
The biggest difference that has struck me apart from the obvious ones of better physical resources like swimming pools and lovely concert halls is that with a student body of 2200 prep to yr12 they have a staff of 835 - 356 of whom are teachers - the rest are support staff. I don't have to do yard duty and my allotment means no extras.
What every teacher in the state system would say they would like to have happen to allow them to do a better job of what they took up the profession to do, would be get rid of yard duty and extras and have more help on the admin duties. Is there any possibility that a school system that really serves our students best is not an unattainable pie in the sky? Sure the private system has problems, but this school has shown that with sufficient funds and the will to focus on the teaching, things can be better for teachers and as a result the kids get a better experience for the short time that we have to show them the possibilities of the world.
My education continues.

Sunday, 29 November 2009

My Bright and Shiny VITTA Evening



Yes I was totally surprised and I want to thank Jo McLeay for doing such a wizard job of getting to the VITTA conference dinner thinking I would see all my NECC pals and then having her get up and make a speech about me. What a fantastic and memorable way to finish off what has been a very up and down year. I have only a few days to go in my old job in the state system and after 29 years in the same school, I am definitely leaving with a whole lot of mixed emotions and I will miss my dear friends and hard working government teachers who struggle so hard against huge odds to do a wonderful job for kids.
But as this blog is a large testament to, my view on schooling has changed so much that I cannot sit and wait for things and people to catch up with the changes anymore and I am taking my plans and dreams and heading off into the sunset - or as many have said going across to the dark side. I am so excited about next year and I hope that my expectations are not unrealistic and that I can meet the school's expectations too.
So, thankyou so much Jo and VITTA for the award, and Upwey for allowing me to grow and explore all this new and challenging frontier in education. What a way to finish one chapter in my life !

Friday, 6 November 2009

Cartoons and Comic Life



It seems my life has been all about Comic Life recently This is a video that has been made to help teachers who are training to use netbooks and are wondering how to use Comic life Thanks to a very easy session with Russ Blackwell who filmed the session with my class working beautifully behind me

Comic Life in the English teacher's classroom from Rusty Gates on Vimeo.


I also gave a presentation at the second EMUG meeting on the 29th October at Mooroolbark SC about Comic Life and the work my class was doing while the film was being shot was shown as examples. Great fun and I hope it has some impact for kids in classes as it is a wonderful tool. If you are interested in learning more about Comic life, Deb hicks has created this stunning wiki and Russ Blackwell is developing a great repository of ideas and training films on this wiki I will try and put some of the kids work on here too.

My friend Julie also was filmed on the day talking about Comic Life and how she has been using it in LOTE classrooms and here is her movie.

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Emug No2

Thursday, 24 September 2009

Great Quotes about Teaching - a Flickr Group Slideshow

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Techy tips for non techy teachers and even techy ones too!!



Just discovered this great site created by Mark Warner who I met in America last year. It is called Ideas to Inspire and  it is full of great ideas and resource suggestions . This slideshow is fabulous - well worth taking a look. Well done Mark!!!

Friday, 4 September 2009

Unnamed 09/04/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.