Friday, April 10, 2009

PAUSE - PONDER - PROGRESS

Today marks the beginning of our shortest break of the year - ten days. Barely time for us all to catch our breath, grab together the resources for our next round of units and leap straight back into the classroom, ready for Round Two.

My "To Do List" for the next ten days includes four significant piles of paperwork - the senior English Work Program is due for submission in four weeks (included in this is a complete rewrite of assessment pieces and units for our Year 11s), my CV needs updating (just in case), I am presenting a rapid fire presentation to our staff on the first day back and will need to make sure it's short and sweet, I need to begin work on my Pedagogical Licence (Advanced) portfolio...ok, so there's more than four things on my list, especially since I haven't even started thinking about the work I need to do to maintain our Blackboards.


Amongst all of this though, it's definitely time for me to hit the PAUSE button and take a look back on the term just gone. Taking time to reflect can be hard for teachers, we spend so much of our time worrying about the next deadline and dealing with pressure from multiple places that it can be dificult to achieve the necessary space.

Over the next few days expect posts about each of these projects:


  • The biggest project I need to reflect on is the collaboration between three Year 11 Englich classes that included rotation, independent learning activities. I have lots to share about this one and I'm looking forward to sharing my (and my colleagues) thoughts on it. For now I've affectionately dubbed it "Opening the Walls".

  • The hypertext unit was a resounding success and has been recieved well beyond the school community as well, like Opening the Walls this one has had a domino-like affect on other classes and subjects and deserves some time devoted to it.

  • Finding my feet with my Year 12 class has been a bit of a rollercoaster but it hasn't stopped me from jumping in feet first and shaking things up a little. A mass collaborative lesson saw 120+ students in the same room working together during their novel study - I haven't come up with a nickname for this one yet beyond "Sheer Madness".
From there I need to start looking ahead and planning for next term and the projects I've got brewing in my head...
  • QR codes
  • GoogleLitTrips
  • Podcasting
For today though, I'm taking the time to sit and knit, read a little, chat a little online and watch some DVDs. For today I'm catching my breath.

Image: "Relax and Watch the Lake Freeze" by kuddlyteddybear2004

No comments: