Work, Health and holidays...

Hi Readers,

Sorry I have not written for a while, the past two weeks have been fairly manic, and tonight is the first chance I have had to really sit down and have a good blog.
There are still a lot of things I need to do but they can wait, as I just really wanted to crank out another post.

I suppose that says that I must really enjoy doing it and don't find it a chore at all.
One thing I must admit is that by spending time writing down one's thoughts, it really does make you stop and think about what has been happening, and what is important to me.

I must start by thanking all of my wonderful friends for the kind thoughts and words they shared for me on my birthday last week. It really makes me feel special and grateful to know that I am surrounded by amazing people in my life.

A funny story about my birthday that I just can't fully believe, even after 38 years...

From my earliest years I always had my birthday on August 18th.
However, when I was 15 I had to produce my birth certificate because I got  reported playing football, and upon looking at it I noticed that my birthday was actually on August 17!
When I asked my mum about it all she could do was just laugh and say "Oh well, there is quite a few of you"!! I just love that attitude, it was no big deal at all.

She then asked me if I'd like to keep using the 18th as my birthday or switch to the 17th. I don't think she really considered the implications of this. Imagine me saying for the rest of my life that my birthday was on the 18th, but on documents etc I would have to write the 17th!!
So, since when I was 15 I switched to having my birthday on the right day, and believe me, it did take some getting accustomed to.

Along with the usual pressies, I received a book from my sister Anne who obviously knows me so well. Already I am engrossed in it, which is a mean feat as I usually don't have the patience to sit and read a book, but this one has floored me.

It is titled "How Far Can You Go?", written by John Maclean.

Basically it is the story of a super fit and super dedicated sportsman who becomes a paraplegic after a road accident on his bike, and the story follows his path of recovery.

As I am only three chapters in, I am yet to find out what happens, but already I am inspired by this amazing bloke.

As the former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh says, "If you look up mental toughness you'll find a picture of John Maclean". Not a bad comment from someone known for having extreme mental toughness himself.

"Look how far you have come, now how far can you go?" - The words from his father that changed his whole mindset. Maclean was alway focussing on what he was able to do in the past, when he was more able bodied. Now his father was urging him not to dwell on the past, but focus on the future.

In this short moment, Maclean was able to forge ahead with greater resolve, and I am eagerly anticipating another chapter tonight!!

Work has been a bit manic over the past week and a bit to say the least. In my role, one of the things I need to do each term is have meetings with parents of children who have special needs. Trying to get them all booked in over a few days is a nightmare in itself, but I nearly got them all in. Three days of meeting after meeting does become taxing, but at the same time is enjoyable because it is all about trying to find greater success for their children. Special Ed is a new role for me, one which I am still finding my feet in. I'm learning so much all the time, but still wonder if I'm doing it as well as previous people at our school who were brilliant at it.

After attending a Special Ed meeting at our local Education Office on Wednesday, it was then off to Melbourne with my wife as I had an appointment to see my shoulder surgeon. Jen had to come just in case I had to get a certain procedure done on it which precludes one from driving a car  for 24 hours.
By the time we got to our digs in Brighton we were famished, so into the restaurant at the hotel we went. The lovely waitress presented the menu and was about to walk away when we both blurted out "We'll order straight away"!! We did, and the meals were gone in a flash, as were the desserts. God only knows what the waitress thought of us!

The next morning I was off to see my shoulder surgeon, as it is still giving me grief a few months after surgery.

It now turns out that although it is structurally sound, there is still a lot of inflammation in it, so I have been referred to a rheumatologist as he thinks I have developed rheumatoid arthritis.

Not the result I was really hoping for, but a lot worse could happen.

So, now I have to go and get some new treatment on it, hopefully it will help. 

Being a positive person, the biggest hassle I can see is mainly in trying to spell my latest ailment!!!

So, I've blabbed about work, and my health, so what is on the cards for the holidays?

As you might know, I love to travel, and for my birthday (the 17th or 18th - feel free to choose, I had to!!) my family gave me a mystery flight.

This means that in the upcoming holidays, my wife and I are going away for a few days to somewhere in Australia. All we know is that it won't be Hobart, in Tasmania. Jen will get an email the night before we go, and all I have told her is that I need to know whether to pack for 'cold' or 'hot'.

It will be interesting to see at what stage I discover where we are going, as it is my plan to do everything I can to not find out until the last minute.

Regardless, wherever we go it will be great to just chill and explore for a few days. 

The first thing I did when I opened the envelope however was to check that we would not be away for the AFL Grand Final day, as that is the pinnacle day of the sport I love the most. As we are travelling home on a Saturday, I'd be a massive danger on the road trying to listen to it on the radio, and an even worse passenger!!

Well, time to check out as I want to concentrate on the game on TV, and I'm also trying to psyche myself up for a big day of mowing in the yard tomorrow. If I really pull my finger out I'll nail it within 4 hours, let's see if I can do it!!

Until my next post...

Cheers!!

Some recent Learning...

Hi Readers,

Wow, hard to believe I know. Nothing for more than a week, then more than one post in the same night!
Someone take my temperature!

I have always been so lucky to be on a continuous learning journey, as in my work I am regularly receiving excellent professional development ( and some not so good) and have been fortunate to have listened to and met some of the leading educators in Australia, as well as a few with world recognition.
Along the way I have also done a lot of study that has also helped me.
And how can I forget the trips to New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Finland that were all directly related to my role.
All of these experiences have left an indelible mark on me, and not for a second am I not grateful to have been part of them.

So what has happened lately, and what is coming up?

Last week, the Principal of my school and our Literacy Learning Leader went up to Sydney at very short notice  to attend the LEAP Conference, which was all about how to build an effective professional learning community (PLC's)

With only a few days to plan our trip and get our bookings done, we were off.
The conference opened with a keynote address from Professor John Hattie, a world leader in defining the things that have an effect on the child's learning.
John delivered a compelling address that challenged us and really got us thinking.

After grabbing a coffee we then headed into our next workshop, and as all the tables were taken, the three of us grabbed a seat down the back.
Imagine my surprise and disbelief when someone came and sat in the spare seat beside me and greeted me with a warm hello.
It was none other than John Hattie himself!!!

How excited was I !!!

Anyway, after a quick chat, the workshop was about to begin and the organisers came down to us and insisted that we find a seat at a table. My colleagues and I obeyed, but John just parked himself. They weren't game to ask him a second time to move!

So that was my brush with fame last week.

But it wasn't all totally serious!

As we got to the airport early, we had time to go to a bar and relax with a drink before our flight to Sydney. As we finished our drinks, Tim said he had to visit the toilet, and asked us to watch his bags while he went.

Well, the second he was out of sight we just grabbed all of our bags and bolted to another part of the terminal about 60 meters away, where we could still see where we had been sitting, wetting ourselves laughing all the time.

We had to lay low when Tim came back as he nearly walked past us, and to watch him get to our table and realise what was going on was priceless. He just kept looking around with a wry smile on his face while Nat and I rolled around in hysterics. Eventually we rang him and called him over, but from that moment on I never left my bags out of my sight and took them with me when I needed a toilet stop. No way was I trusting those two!!!

I also organised something for Tim to do on the plane so that he wouldn't get bored as the picture shows.

                           A bit of colouring for Tim on the plane.

And on the way home we hardly spoke as we pored over the books that were bought at the conference.

We didn't get back to Bendigo until after 10.30 that night, so rest assured that we were all a little sluggish the next day. It was a quick trip, but well worth it.

This week I'm off to hear another world renown speaker by the name of Brendan Spillane. Relax though, it will only be an hour up the road at Echuca, I'm not even leaving the state!.

I heard him speak a few months ago and he too was compelling, and this is the second part in a series of talks he is giving to Principals and Deputy Principals in our zone.

Brendan speaks to all sorts of organisations, not just in Education. The New Zealand Rugby team for example is one of his clients, and we all know how dominant they have been over a long period of time.

My brother Peter who is a Principal in Brisbane was fortunate enough to hear him speak at a conference just last week.

I won't be stalking him for a selfie, trust me!!

And this week I will also be spending time in classes working with the kids and their teachers, and that is where some of the most important learning of all will be taking place.

Until y next post...

Cheers!

The Block 2016 !!!

Hi Readers,

Sorry for my intermittent posts of late. Each day I tell myself to go and add just a little something, but then I always seem to get distracted by other things, more often than not mindless ones!!

So what has been going on of late?

As some of you who know me would know, I'm really in to Inquiry and Project Based Learning, which happened to be the focus of my trip overseas earlier this year.
I'm lucky to work with some teachers who are also keen to dip their toes into maths projects, and I totally understand their nervousness and hesitation, as it does require them to let go a little (and a lot!) of their control and hand it over to the kids.

It's my belief that if the content is engaging enough, and at the kid's level with just the right amount of challenge, they'll take to it like ducks to water.

Last week we launched a new maths project with the Gr 5's at my school titled "The Block 2016".
It is based on the tv show of the same name and the first challenge that the kids have is to design a bedroom with a $10 000.00 budget.
Rather than planning ahead what we will teach them, we let certain content surface naturally then address it on a needs basis. This is not to say it is totally loose, as we are aware of what content and skills focus will need specific teaching, but we are letting it arise naturally when the kids need it.

For example, in the first few days it became clear that the kids could not all make life size beds out of newspapers to see what they looked like in real life. 27 kids in one room trying to create 27 bedrooms? We'd need a paddock to fit them all in!!
So, this was when it was an opportune time to address the concept of scale, and the kids were primed and ready for it.
Let me say, the lessons I took for two classes this week were just the most fun as they were so tuned in for something that they needed to know. By mixing it up with practical examples, the kids were able to see how we could shrink the size of the actual bed 100 times, and then make the planning and organisation of our rooms much more practical.
Plus, their amazement at how they could do this so easily came as a real surprise, and the work they produced was excellent.

Imagine the mess we made, a mess that we didn't care about because the learning was more important. They will now use these same skills for the rest of their house.
In my mind, this is a much more beneficial way of covering measurement rather than getting the kids to complete mindless worksheets that have no relevance or worth to the children.

This is the size of an actual single bed. What you can't see is the scale model of it, which was only 2cm x 1 cm

So why 'The Block'?

A couple of years ago at my previous school we developed this same project, but it only began with one room. The success of doing it just snowballed into planning other rooms, then a whole house. The kids (and teachers!) became so absorbed in it, to the point where we ended up making 3D scale models out of recyclable materials after seeing how to do this from a visit to our local Building Apprentice Trade School.

The culmination of our project was an expo of all of the work that the kids had done, and we actually had two of the stars from the series of The Block that was on tv at the time come to our school to see the work the kids had done.
They were just brilliant, and the school was full of visitors for the day celebrating the amazing work completed by the kids.

This is the clip I made to launch the project, I hope it plays on here!!!!!

If not, I hope to get it fixed!

Until my next post...

Cheers!