Vegetables, Cats and General Life - stress relief #Nature

Christmas - Pun time!

I am torn between wanting to be excited and loathsome of the additional work.  I do love the Christmas treats that are out and the knowledge that Summer is about to make an appearance.

 Below are a few Christmas funnies to put you in the festive mood!  I think it's when I see students laughing at language based jokes such as puns that I realise that we, and I mean everyone who works with kids and their literacy, have won!  #winners#Christmaspuns

Graduation Day!

Professional Development - Learn, Create, Share!

PLD - Continuing to learn new ideas, concepts and strategies is always challenging.  We have been thinking about "Learn, Create. Share" and how we can apply the concepts to our own learning spaces.  

All of the Professional Development has got me thinking about how education or the concept of education has changed.  There seems to be so much more flexibility, so many options when it comes to presenting educational content.  It does force the students to self-manage, this is the downfall, strictly my opinion.  Distraction, work completion and lack of accountability are major issues when it comes to the students working on chrome brooks and having access to the internet.  In regards to the digital platform we, as educators, are being encouraged to engage with is the marking of the digital work, organising the files and how I will sort the pieces of assessment work for moderation.  

It has got me thinking about assessment authenticity, specifically how I can ensure that the work submitted by each of the students is work they have created.  Looking at different sites which check the authenticity and different ways I can set assessment tasks.  I do wonder if having folders is creating more work for me, especially if I need to print to mark.  Having checked reports recently I am aware that minor grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and the such slip under the radar when I check them online.  I think formal writing and the Level 2 and 3 Writing Portfolio need to be printed for me to be 100% accurate with my marking.  

5 hours post PD and my thoughts have wandered back to the discussions we had today.  I may have been too harsh in my identification of the downfalls.  Yes, teaching the students to self-manage is an ongoing process, there is no quick fix.  I do think though that they are learning life skills, even though at times it feels like I am a Policeman monitoring Youtube I know that they are 13/14 years old and are still learning how to make good choices.  I do think that a mix of learning mediums is the answer, I strongly disagree with the idea that all learning has to be digitally based.  There is something about reading a novel or flicking through a recipe book looking for inspiration.  I feel that we are responsible for lighting that fire under the students, the fire that pushes them out of their digital comfort zone, out of their virtual reality game of Fortnight and into the real world - one that has books, pens and paper in it.  Again, ramblings at 9.30pm after a crazy day of teaching, planning and meetings!

Learning to learn

Learning about how we, as humans, learn new information.  I'm not a Science person so it's been a bit of a learning curve.  Lots of new words and information...

Book of life!

Learning to blog!

PLD - Blogging!

Today I got the chance to learn all about blogging.  In a way I think it is really similar to Facebook, with more creative freedom!  I realised partway through that I am obsessed with bright colours and pretty fonts - spending far too much time looking for a fun background image as opposed to the actual content of the blog.  I am yet to work out how to share my blog so any visitors are by random chance!

Reading

Mark Twain - Words of wisdom!

The hamster life!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM66rfucRDw