Christmas elf fun!

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Notable pics on flickr

Back from the Land of the Notables

Thought I better do something on this blog to satisfy expectations. I've just been informed that a wiki has been created by the OZNZ crew http://teacherblogssubjectbased.wikispaces.com/teacherblogsenglish
and my blog address has been included as an example of a teacher's blog. Woops - haven't added anything for ages and much of what I post up here is more personal than related to my teaching activities.So,I now feel somewhat conscience bound to add something that other teachers might find useful.So here goes...

I have just emerged from a reasonably stressful time coordinating a big yr9 project that our school has run for the last 8 years or so called The Night of the Notables. This involves students choosing a notable person who has contributed in a worthwhile way to society.They extensively research that person, developing timelines, posters, artifacts, open ended questions, U-lead presentations etc etc. They have about 4 weeks to complete this research and then comes THE NIGHT when they set up their display stations on a table and pinboard. They dress up in costume as their designated notable person and - if they're really good actors and researchers, actually "become" that person for the duration of the presentation (one hour). My friend and colleague and Web Guru, Sue Tapp discovered this program (from another school) and introduced it to our school. She ran it singlehandedly for 6 years and then 2 years ago it was handed over to me. I had just weezled my way out of coordinating English which I had done for 13 years.As part of my "Expert" teacher status, this was my new duty (actually I seem to have a few "duties") Last year's Notables was relatively easy to coordinate with 9 Yr9 classes and the presentation at school. This year we had 11 yr9 classes (80 students over 3 nights) and the presentation was run off site because of a school building program. We were lucky to have access to a big space at a close by Baptist church whose pastor and community were delighted to help and were wonderful hosts.The whole event was overall very successful and was the result of many helpers and supporters. As coordinator I was extremely busy and frequently stressed but am pleased with the end result. Needless to say, I am very relieved it is now over and I can concentrate on exam marking and report writing as well as entertaining my junior classses for the remainder of the government school year.
This activity does involve researching on the internet and producing a digital image display to music - so 21st Century technologies are involved.

A Long Weekend

The photo was taken around 1954 -when I was three years old - that's me in my father's arms. We were off the The Mackay Show. I have Queensland roots - came to Melbourne when I was 7 years old. I was showing my brother Stephen (the younger of my 2 brothers) that photo tonight and he wanted a copy so I scanned it so now I have a digital copy of an ancient pic!
I'm feeling just slightly liberated with a stretch of time in front of me - facilitated by a public holiday - to celebrate a horse race, no less. Yes, dear old Melbourne town, Australia, actually has a public holiday to watch horse races - The Melbourne Cup. Does any other place in the world have such a holiday? Anyway,I'm not complaining. Tagged on to my day off, I have a 4 day break! but of course, I've got plenty to do - year 11 essays to mark on the film, Beneath Clouds by Aussi, part indigenous guy, Ivan Sen.
I've also got a big project I've been working on coming to fruition in a couple of weeks - the Year 9 activity - The Night of the Notable My job is to coordinate this event and it is coming along okay - but it will be a relief to have it behind me.
Been watching an excellent program on SBS called First Australians -totally recommend it.