I'm back....

Ok, it's taken me about three years. That's how busy I've been, but here I am. I'm going to start writing again, because it makes me feel better, and deep down somewhere inside, I think someone might read about this and feel comforted that their life is just like mine, and we will be united in the cosmos (or something). Cheers.....

To blog or not to blog

Next week I am running not one, but three sessions on the art of blogging. Today I am stressing. I know how to blog, I have lots of ideas about how to use them in my classes (I'm an ideas person you know) but I don't even have time to watch my favourite tv show (I can only afford to have one) without taping it and fastforwarding through the ads (old techonology I know). Anyway, in the interests of my professional development, it would behove me to have some kind of recent post on my own teaching blog. So this is it. :)

Holidays Day 3 (officially)

I finished my year 11 Issues SACs and wrote up some comments for their end of year report. I did this mid year also, and when it came to actual report writing time, it made a huge dent in the workload, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I've also started marking my Yr 12 Writing folios, but they're not going anywhere fast. One of the topics we gave the students was a response to an article about 'Shame TV'. The majority of my students are happy to say that it's good entertainment to watch people who are 'losers', be humiliated publicly because the networks are not offering any better viewing. Perhaps turning the TV off and hitting the books might benefit them more.......
I don't think we did a good job of selecting a topic, and am now worrying about how we can do it differently (again) next year.

I went to the library today and borrowed Nineteen eighty-four. I do own a copy, but finding it would take much longer than actually going out and borrowing it. We are thinking about using it as our fourth text for year 12 next year. I have trialled the first Part (e-text) with my year 11 Lit students, and they thought it sounded pretty good after we had discussed it. But then I thought it was much shorter than it is. This too, is on my list of things to do.

Here's some of my list:
* Thank you letters for staff for Literacy Week
*Chase up student who didn't complete Unit 1 SACs and negotiate what to do this semester.
*Letters home for all other unsubmitted work (year 11)
*English/Literacy budget for 2007
*Letter for potential Literature 3/4 students (currently in year 10) requesting recommendations from current English teacher re suitability to undertake 3/4 sequence.
* VCE planning for 2007
*Yearbook article for English Domain
*Yr 12 indicative grades
* Referrals for compensatory English classes 2007
*Audit of texts taught 2006
*MARKING

It's holidays.........
Day 1.

Only six hours of correction achieved today. Year 11 issues SACs. If only I were a little less professional I would simply fill out the criteria sheet and whack 'em all over in an hour. No, comments all the way. After all, these kiddies need to do it again in six months, so they need to know where they went wrong (or right). Plus, I am fast tracking my report writing and putting down some comments in a word file so that I can just add to them when that day comes....

On a more positive note, this morning I very happily handed over 80 Year 12 October tests to an ex-colleague whom we are paying to assess them. Can't say I'm going to miss that bit of my usual September homework.

Year 12 References

It was a great relief to hear today that our school has finally dumped the traditional writing of references for our year 12 students, an onerous task handled by their home group teachers (of course, I am one of them.) The new process means that students applying for a particular position or course can approach the year 12 coordinator and request a specific reference if required. Hallelujah!

My worst year to date..... (i know i've said this before)

Look! It's September, and we're counting down to October. This has been the worst year ever. I don't have time to prepare my classes, or look at my students' work, or compose a blog post. I can't fit any exercise into my life, and yet I'm still expected to improve VCE study scores by 5%.

Go me.

Literacy and Numeracy Week 2006

Heroes and Villains.......
After losing our debate that "I'd rather be a villain than a hero", some of us pulled it together to appear in costume on Thursday. Heaps of fun, positive vibes, but a headless chicken kind of a day nonetheless.