Wow, have I been slack!!!!

Well, you can tell that it is school holidays again!!
I have been somewhat embarrassed to revisit my blog only to find that I have not contributed to it in more than a year. That is too slack, and I intend to right that wrong by committing to add more often so that it becomes habitual.

Admittedly, I did write quite a lengthy piece early last year, only to lose it all with a laptop malfunction. That disheartened me greatly as I remember putting so much work into that piece over a few days.

So much has happened since my last official posting, so where do I begin?

Work:

When I last posted, I was working at St Peter's Primary School in North Bendigo as a Numeracy Coach.

I worked here from 2010-2013 and had a ball. An ultra dedicated staff and really switched on Principal who did all they could to make learning relevant and enjoyable for the kids.

Some of the funniest things I have experienced in more than 25 years of teaching happened here, involving both staff and children.

I remember one day in particular when on yard duty, and the bell rang to end recess. There was one particular boy who just would not leave the sandpit, despite repeated calls for him to get a move on back to class. As I got closer to the sandpit, I asked him to hurry up back to class, he refused, and just stood staring back defiantly at me with a spade in his hand. I asked him again, same result.

Not wanting to escalate things, I asked him to put down the spade and head off back to class. 

What I wasn't prepared for however, was his sudden reaction to this!

Without warning, he has swung back his arm and let fly with the spade in my direction, giving me no reaction time at all from a distance of about 5 metres.

I can still vividly see the spade heading towards me, knowing that I had no time to protect myself.

And it got me. Right in the groin!!

Down I went, gasping for breath while at the same time trying to keep an eye on this boy, worrying what was going to happen next. I could see by the "Oh my God, what have I just done?" look on his face that he knew he was in strife!! By now he could see that I was in a bit of strife too, so his immediate compliance was appreciated! As I slowly stood up and gathered my breath (and him!) I took him back into the main building and handed him over to some other teachers to be dealt with.

My next stop was the fridge in the staff room and grabbed an ice pack to treat "the affected area" and wait for my voice to drop back to its previous levels! I can assure you that the chosen ice pack was never used again!!!

After some token 'genuine concern' from my colleagues (this lasted for all of 10 minutes I suspect!), then the jokes really started, and we could all see the slightly funny side of the situation, although I was rather sore for the rest of the day. 

One of the funniest reactions came from a group of Gr 6 boys who saw it happen and asked me later if I was okay. My reply was something like, "Yeah, thanks boys. He just hit me where I had my leg operated on a few weeks ago". The boys just gave me an understanding nod, knowing full well that he had hit me in the crown jewels and not to the back of the leg where I had an operation recently. 

Sometimes males just understand each other perfectly!!!

Some random shots from my time at St Peter's...

With a good friend, Craig Simpson at a farewell evening for a staff member who was leaving.

Dressing up with my colleagues from Gr 5/6 to launch a new inquiry on Travel.

It does appear worrying that there is a tendency to dress up a bit!!

Doing the 'Kel and Kath' thing with Beth.

I cut the O Dog to pieces in this epic battle!

Were there Smurfs in the Middle Ages???

Another inquiry was on Crime and Punishment, so as part of it we held a whole school Medieval Day, which was a huge success.

Don't ask me what I am meant to be, but I saw a costume like this when I was researching the inquiry!! (I think it was a peasant)

Another Injury!

While I was at St Peter's, the staff had a team entered in a mixed netball comp, and they asked me to join it. Another team sport ? Hell yeah, was I up to it!!

My wife had said to me soon after I told her what I was doing, "You know you'll end up injured!" to which I replied something like "Oh, as if. Who gets hurt playing netball??"

Famous last words that will forever haunt me!

We won many games during the season, and before we knew it we were playing in the Grand Final.

I have always been religious with my warm ups and stretching so I considered myself well prepped for this game.

Tragedy in the first five minutes when our big unit Bolts went down with a serious ankle injury.

Then, a few minutes later I jumped for a ball and BANG!! Something exploded in my butt cheek.

I had never had hamstring troubles before, but I knew I'd done something wrong here.

We lost the final after being a few players down, and then I had to do the walk of shame back into the house when I got home. Well, it was more like the hobble of shame, and then I got the "I told you so", which I knew I had no comeback for.

The end result was a hammy torn off the bone, so off to Melbourne for some surgery and then a few  weeks on the couch recovering. I now have screws holding it together, which make another love of mine, cycling, somewhat difficult at times as sitting on the hard saddle is not really great for it. Losing feeling in a large section of the leg has not helped either, but things a lot worse could happen, so it's no big deal.

A few screws holding the hammy together.

Fundraiser

One of the Grade 6 Leadership Groups at school was planning a fundraiser 2-3 years ago. The kids were joking about my hairy legs, so I foolishly and flippantly said "For $50 a leg you can wax my legs and Mr Simpson's legs", not for once thinking that they would raise the necessary $200.

One week later and they easily had the necessary cash!!

Professionals were booked to do the waxing, but they cancelled at the last minute, so a few staff 'kindly' volunteered to do it. How convenient!! I must confess at this stage that a female colleague hinted to me the night before that it might pay to 'trim' a little bit in order to lessen the pain of the ordeal. I followed her advice, but perhaps left not too much to work with in the end!!

The worst part was not the waxing in front of the entire school, but watching the staff trying to read and make sense of the instructions and trying to figure out how to do it!!

Anyway, some good coin for a great cause in the end.

The nervous anticipation...

On goes the wax strip...

And off comes the hair!!

Book Week

Every parent's headache each year (and teachers!)

What will they put their kids in for the annual Book Week Dress Up?

Thank goodness my lovely sister Anne (who is also a teacher) has her parade a few days before ours, so I just borrow her Captain Underpants cape, buy some oversized blue ringers, and Presto!!!

Not a great look, but at least I'm into it!

Erin just could not resist her local Superhero!!

I don't think this outfit will surface again!

More Inquiry

Once again, we really got into our inquiry units.

In this one we were looking at body systems, and an interactive display was set up to display various organs and muscles of animals. 

I must clarify the 'interactive' aspect here... I was the only one who 'interacted' with the sheep's lungs, and apart from the atrocious smell, it was a great way to demonstrate how they worked for the kids.

And finally, the great team that I worked with in my final year at St Peter's.

St Francis of the Fields, Strathfieldsaye

So, after 4 years at St Peter's, I was lucky enough to land a new job at a school where I had previously taught for 2 years. In 2014 I was back to St Francis of the Fields in Strathfieldsaye to take up the position of Deputy Principal/Numeracy Coach.