Time to begin

It was all meant to be so good- we’ve celebrated Franki and Carl’s wedding- it was such a gorgeous and relaxed wedding. She’s truly a beautiful bride.

1. Frank- bw 2, 2. Champagne, 3. Bridal Docs, 4. Ring

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Way to ruin a good weekend

Maybe I shouldn’t use my blog to bitch about work, but to be honest- I don’t think I’ve got a lot left to lose. As we speak I’m probably being considered incompetent and unprofessional because files that left complete when I went on secondment are now allegedly incomplete.

I found this out after a phone call from work at 11am on a Sunday. Continue reading »

Surfacing to breathe

The last week and a half have been consumed with the lovely chore of marking (which I always leave till the last minute) and reporting. It’s been busy and taken a toll on my sleep and exercise. Luckily its over, just in time for a round of Christmas related festivities- which are also taking a toll on my weight, sleep and exercise.

In other work related news, I’ve started training for my new position as a mentor- which has been overwhelming, interesting and outstandingly cool all at the same time. I really want to work in online learning, not just one day a week.

In Christmas related news- while I have bought all my pressies, they are pretty much all sorted and should be done by next week at the latest. I’ve tried to make it simple and straightforward, as drama free as possible, because that’s how Christmas should be

Rock the Vote and other such things

It’s been a huge week or so for me. I should have blogged during the last week, but I’ve either been

a)rushed off my ass

b) enjoying the little moments of calm and time to myself before I’m rushed off my ass again in the rush to get to the end of the year.

My grade 12s graduated this week- which has been exciting and a bit teary. I’ve felt a bit like a rock star, with kids wanting to hug me, have their photo taken with me and telling me how I’ve changed their life. Of course, I’m not letting it go to my head. It’s been nice- I love this class, so it’s nice to know they feel the same about me. They had their formal on Wednesday night and looked gorgeous. I, on the other hand, felt fat, silly and the do I got looked wrong. My fabulous dress was a bit too small and my hair looked like orphan Annie. I’d love to show you how gorgeous some of the girls looked, but they’re not really photos I should be publishing without their permission.

Friday was the graduation- more hugs and tears. I only then realised how much I adore this group and want really good things. So if any of you, my gorgeous 12s have stumbled onto my blog (God forbid!)- Good luck!

Saturday was Rock the vote. BMB and I volunteered on the ground crew and worked the gate for a few hours. For a few bizarre minutes I acosted Steve Cannane , who was recording a story there, and went into fawning fangirl mode. That’s be me- I go for the journos, not the rockstars. Then there was the Resin Dogs, a few beers and the token weirdo. Frank and Oreon got there just in time for Spiderbait. We were also amazed at how short Andrew from the Chaser was- but pleased to see him. I didn’t get a pic, as I thought I’d been too much of a fangirl for one day.
Later, we hung out and watched Butterfly Effect and Shihad from our “old people’s seat” on picnic tables on the grass.

But we got up and boogied for You Am I- the last band. I forgete just how much effort they put into a show. It’s a physically extreme effort, and Tim looked exhausted be the end, but I got some ok pics and some dogy video I might put on You tube. I’ve already put the pics up to a (private) picasa gallery- email if you’d like to have a look.
Sunday, we had a traditional Gymp brekky at
Sunnybank and went to see the Prestige, which was great. It was so good catching up with Frank- she’s had a crap couple of months and it was good to let her know there’s a life and love for her outside of all that. Busy weekend- tiring, but good.
I’ll blog sooner next time- promise.

Falling into a familiar trap

It seems I am falling back into the trap I was trying to get out of in a way.

I’m not writing much- not that I don’t have anything to say, but my mind is so muddled it is difficult to get them into coherent sentences that anyone would want to read. Then what I write is mainyl unreadable because it’s me bitching about life. Mainly I’m frustrated with work and a general lack of me tie- which is because of my complete lack of organisational skills. There’s seems to be so much to do and I’m not getting it done. Enough of a whinge for today- I might come back and make it a little more readable if my head is less foggy later.

While you are waiting, please admire and congraulate the ripped paper effect for the post box. It’s a little design nerdy, I know- but I’ve been wanting something like this for ages. I’mquite ahppy with it, even if it looks a  little dodgy in IE. Still a few things to go, but I’m happy with it. So at least I’m happy with something.

Sorry Nicole

My gorgeous friend is down from Mackay and wanted to hang out today. I can’t, because I’ve got bloody WORK to do. This sucks -I need to start a new job now.

Putting it all in perspective

To say I’ve had a bad week would be an understatement, there has been tears, yelling and gnashing of teeth. It’s been awful. Not kid related at all- mainly to do with what I’ve got to do, in what time and the support (or in some cases, lack thereof) I am getting. Continue reading »

Slipping under the radar

I’ve been slipping under the radar the last week or so. I’ve been busy with work related stuff, got sick again, feeling a little lost and sorry for myself generally. I’ve been thinking of getting another job- again. It’s not serious, but usually it takes till second term for me to want to throw in the towel. There’s been a lot of stuff going on at work, student wise, staff wise, extra curriculum wise. It’s getting to mid term assessment, which is always fun- but something happened yesterday that made me wonder what on earth are we doing.
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Peaks and Troughs

It’s been a busy, eventful, up - and- down week. Lovely in some ways, frustrating and disappointing in others. A long rant and coverage of the week follows- click if you dare!! Continue reading »

Whose history?

I’m probably a little late on this, but I had to make a comment. As part of his Australia day comments, our Prime Minister decided that we don’t teach history well enough. Excuse me? As someone from thechalk whiteboard-face I don’t quite understand what he thinks I do as a SOSE teacher.

He says “Too often it is taught without any sense of structured narrative, replaced by a fragmented stew of themes and issues.” Mr Howard believes that this is leading to a lack of national identity. He’d like strong emphasis on pivotal dates and events such as the Battle of Hastings and the European discovery of Australia. He also makes some cursory mention of teaching Indigenous history, but doesn’t mention what parts (the stolen generation perhaps?)

Of course, being the leader of our nation, he’d be the expert on what is being taught in our schools and what students know. This is clearly a statement from a man in his later life, who’d like things to be like the “good old days” when he was at school. He has no idea how to keep a teenager’s attention when teaching something that is not as enticing as WWF or a PSP. He doesn’t understand how we have to prepare students for jobs that have not been thought of yet. In his brave new Workchoices world, knowing dates will not be important, but knowing how to access and process information will.

He says he came to this conclusion by ‘talking to people’, and he came to an understand that many young people can’t remember the details of Australia history. My first response would be: maybe because these young people don’t see them as relevant to their experience and my second response would be that many of my students can’t remember their books, it’s useless asking them when we landed at Gallipoli.

In my 8 years as a teacher I’ ve seen $$$ thrown at outcomes, values education and the celebration of Federation. I agree with Barista to a certain extent, there is some value in learning our history, and being able to place events in a national story. However, in my classroom, the focus on Australian history is, because of a curriculum focus, above that of a world perspective, I see this as narrow and short sighted. Surely in an increasingly globalised world, we should not be so introspective.

I see this “root and branch reform” (there’s some management jargon for you) as going deeper than extend acedemic rigor or national identity. In stepping backwards in the way we teach history, a narrative with no connecitons or reflection on the reason and consequence, students are losing vital skills. They will not be able to make value judgments on events or political policy, and they will not be able to create ’cause and effect’ conclusions about them. Bring on the dumbing down of a workchoices workforce.

I resent Mr Howard’s insinuation that teachers like me do not teach Australian history. This has been endemic in this government, as a way of continuing to undermine the role and importance of teachers, particularly those of ’soft’ subjects, English and humanities.

Full text of the PM’s speech here