Well readers,
I seem to be hot and cold with my posts of late.
I might bang a few on over a few days, then go missing for a few days, or in this case, weeks.
Sorry to those who actually read it!!!!
To start off with, a big hello this morning to Kimberly, as it was a comment you made to my wife that has prompted me to make sure I added to the blog this morning. Have a great weekend Kimberly, I hope your footy team goes well this weekend!!! ( And thanks for getting me back on my blog horse!)
So many things have been going on over the past few weeks, so in no particular order I'll try and be interesting.
My last post was at the end of the last holidays, about 5 weeks ago.
As I was away overseas for a large part of first term, this term was the one where I was able to really knuckle down and get stuck into my various roles at the school I work at.
The Principal of my school was taking the first three weeks off with some well deserved Long Service Leave and headed off to New Zealand. My Co-Deputy Principal also finished up at the end of first term as she is having a baby, so I was flying solo for the start of the term.
Boy, do things come across one's desk thick and fast as well as the usual tasks associated with one's role. I very quickly discovered that although I might have had the best laid plans to do certain things in a day, but unplanned and unforeseen things just kept piling up.
I recognised the need to prioritise, but also to make sure that whoever I was dealing with was kept in the loop about the progress of whatever it was that concerned them.
I have been most fortunate over the past few years to have been involved in various coaching and leadership courses and study that really prepared me for what has been happening this year.
Whether I have been successful in this is for others to decide, but in my mind I feel that I have managed to cope due to the support that I have from a close group of colleagues who work incredibly well together.
So what things happen that one doesn't plan for?
- Why do kids insist on throwing blobs of wet toilet paper to the ceiling of the toilets??? It's not much fun trying to clean them off, even with a bung shoulder from recent surgery!!
- Wasps. We don't see them for days, or at most just a few, then suddenly our school becomes 'Wasp Central'.
- A hand dryer in a toilet catches on fire, filling the corridors with smoke. Fire brigade rock up, sirens and lights going, creating much excitement for the kids (and teachers!) at school. Thankfully it all ended up well.
- A kid smashes an elbow, resulting in an ambulance being called. We are now wondering which emergency service will be called next!!
- After months of extremely dry conditions, as soon as we organise a whole school Walkathon Fund Raiser, it rains and we have to postpone.
- A tree comes down over a fence, and cows have to be chased into a neighbouring paddock before they escape.
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- Blocked toilets. Enough said!!!!
- Teachers calling in sick (which is expected), but not getting a record 14 knockbacks from relief teachers who are unable to come in as they are already booked or unavailable.
- The internet going on the frizz without warning - and don't teachers cope well with this!!!!!
Anyway, this is not a gripe about these things happening, it's just to show how we need to be prepared to expect the unexpected and go with the flow.
My little mantra that I follow and often share with others, '
"We don't have problems, just solutions" always gets me through, in most cases!
I was lucky recently to be asked to work with a group of Graduate teachers who had gathered together for a day in Echuca. A teacher from one school worked with them for a few hours on Literacy, while my gig was to do a few hours on Numeracy.
They were just brilliant to work with, and we had a lot of fun together.
More importantly, the potential and talent in the room was massive. The kids who have these teachers are extremely lucky to be mentored by people who are so dedicated and motivated, and their schools are lucky to have them.
Working with the Grad teachers in Echuca last week.
As I mentioned earlier, it has been dry here for a very long time.
Check out the difference that a day of rain makes in just a few days.
This photo was taken just a few weeks ago.
This was taken this week, three days after a night of rain.
The grass (weeds) are really taking off after we had another dose of welcome rain this week. While it's good to see some green again, I can already see that the mower will need to come out in the next week or so, and that takes quite a few hours to do, which I don't mind as it's just another form of exercise.
Another thing that I I have come to really enjoy is the tv series "Game of Thrones"
As most would know, the latest series started a few weeks ago, and as we have the luxury of pay tv at our digs, our son Will had some mates come around to make sure they got to see the first episode before any spoiler alerts surfaced on social media.
I think it wasn't just the boys who were keen to see the first episode, as I was fairly keen too!!
Not only have we had branches down at school, there have also been a few coming down at our home this week after some extremely windy nights. Luckily, they all fell away from the house and cars and I managed to drag them out of the way. This in itself was a struggle as I needed to do it one handed as I am still having a lot of trouble with the shoulder I had operated on recently.
I started physio work on it this week and was hoping that it could be the start of getting some more freedom.
Alas, my movement is still extremely limited for the next few months, which means there is very little I can do around the yard at home in regards to cleaning up, chopping wood, mowing etc.
I reckon by the time I get the okay to do some manual work the place will be looking like a post apocalyptic wasteland!!!
Finally for this post, some of the things we are doing at school with the kids are so exciting, it is just great to see the kids being so interested in their learning.
I have a group of Grade 2 children who have started a maths project starting with the simplest of tasks... "What does a tape measure do?"
For two weeks these kids have been doing all sorts of discovery with a tape measure and coming up with loads of wonderings that they are investigating.
If you can focus on the cm on the bottom half of this measure, you will see that the 5mm mark is slightly bigger than the rest.
One girl explained this in words that were just magic... "The tape measure has cm's on it and these are marked with numbers. In between the cm's are the mm's, and they have little marks. The biggest little mark is the halfway mark"
Don't you just love the language that she has used!!
It has been amazing to see how much learning and discovery they have done just from being given the freedom to discover with the tape measure, rather than being told what to do.
Based on their discussions and questions, we have worked together (the kids and I) to develop the future plans and directions of the project we are working on.
I'm also working with groups of kids from Gr 4 and Grade 5 and have created online classrooms using the program Edmodo.
They are so excited at using this platform and the spinoffs are already surfacing. One of the goals, apart from the learning, is to develop these kids as independent learners, and for them to be able to see that the use of the technology is only part of the learning, rather than the focus.
Just to see the way that they are collaborating together and developing skills in communicating with their teachers has been an early highlight. The maths project that they are currently working on can be very challenging, but in providing support and encouragement I have every bit of confidence in their success.
As the day outside is just glorious, I have to get off this and go outside and enjoy it.
So, it's exercise gear, headphones and radio on and off to listen to the footy, my Saturday habit.
No matter what game it is, I just love listening to it. (But I'm not sure how well the patience will be watching my team, Richmond, tonight!!!)
Until my next post...
Cheers!!
