Another day at Warburton using capzles

Michael's 30th -a wild thyme!

Just playing around with animoto

Christmas elf fun!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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.

Back Into It!

I’ve been on holiday, travelling around and have not felt drawn to writing in my blog for some time. I’m trying to work up some enthusiasm and here I am on a Sunday afternoon at home – and totally out of excuses! Last Sunday we spent with the grandchildren and their parents at Healesville watching a music concert. My musician son was heavily involved in an Abby Road concert there – he had come up with the idea and many of the children and young people involved (including my g’son) were performing songs from the old Beatles album. It was a perfect day and lovely to see the family again after our very successful motoring tour around parts of Tasmania.
We had flown into Launceston and hired a car with my brother and his wife. Travelling for 10 days we stayed 2 nights in each location and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Walked around a huge lake in the shadow of Cradle Mountain; visited the eerie but hauntingly beautiful old convict centre at Port Arthur; were dazzled by the old world charm and serenity of old Hobart town, particularly around Battery Point and Salamanca; enraptured by our sandstone, convict built cottage accommodation in Hamilton – surrounded by a heavily perfumed cottage garden visited by huge (but harmless) bumblebees; were awed by the giant trees in the Styx forest. On a mild day in Hobart we drove up to the top of Mount Wellington and were snowed on and frozen!

We took a car ferry over to Bruny Island and explored its beauty for the day. On Bruny we visited a memorial to Truganini – an amazingly strong tribal woman who used to live on the island with her family and tribal group. I only ever had vague information about this lady but here we found her full and devastating story – at 17yrs she witnessed her mother’s stabbing murder by men from a whaling ship; her two sisters were kidnapped by sealers, timber-getters violently killed her betrothed and she was repeatedly raped; her brother was killed and her stepmother kidnapped by convicts; her father died of despair within months. Her story doesn’t get much better - and you can read it all for yourself if you follow the link. Her story is a sombre and powerful reminder of the devastation and destruction wrought by the European invasion of Australia. It is important to note however the Truganini was not the last Tasmanian aboriginal person. There are still today many folk in Tasmania who can claim aboriginal descent. The First Australians on SBS made that very clear.
Our Tasmanian sojourn was altogether amazing and very enjoyable - totally recommend it to anyone in coowee of the apple isle.