Time Flies

I just realised it's been some time since I last blogged and I've reached the conclusion that time not only flies when you are having fun, it also travels excedingly fast when you are busy (and more than a little overworked). So here's what I've been up to for the majority of March...
I last posted when I was in Melbourne being professionally developed as part of a partnership program with Indonesian schools. After that we hosted 2 lovely teachers from Indonesia at our school and this really seemed to enrich the students' experience of learning the language. Now, together with our Indonesian partners, we just need to work on keeping the partnership going via the www and other means! The challenge will really be the blocks that are put in place to 'protect' our students (here in Aus - no issues in Indonesia with that). In reality we are keeping our students' learning in the age of black and white and silent while the rest of the world enjoys colour and surround sound! Ah well - just have to keep chipping away.
One of the things I really enjoyed about being responsible (partly) for overseas visitors was the chance to be a tourist in my own town. For the first time since I was knee high to a grasshopper (not that I'm much taller now) I went and saw Cleland Wildlife Park and had the chance to feed the animals etc. Things you just don't normally do without kids or guests. I also got the chance to look at where I live through the eyes of people from Jakarta. I;ve decided I really love little old Adelaide - it's such a friendly and welcoming little city on the whole. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

This wk has been a crazy wk - parent teacher interviews last night (always a fun night) plus trying to get students working on tasks and planning for the last few wks of term (a few days out of school for PD and excursions makes a huge amount of planning to be done). There's also an opportunity that's come up which I couldn't really not try for... so that will be interesting. Will be keeping details of that under my hat until I see how it all pans out though!

As far as everything else goes, I did a brilliant job of spraining my ankle (almost 4 wks ago now) and that has put a little bit of a limit on how much exercise I've been able to do... but I've still managed to get to the trainer twice a week and I'm still working on the eating. Got a long way to go on that though. I have to train myself back out of snacks sadly and still have to resist big servings.

I'm well overdue for trying new recipes BUT I have picked up my wool and crochet hook to make things - still have a blanket to finish which I started last September (I think) and I intend to get much better at crocheting things!! I did learn how to make crocheted flowers (followed the instructions in the book), and once I made a flower I made a very cute headband, which hopefully will not be too small for my neice.
Next crochet project will have to be something that involves increasing and decreasing... maybe. I really should work on the blanket a bit more though - no good having a half finished blanket (although it is a very good at keeping me warm if I work on it while watching TV!

That' s about it as a summary of what I've been up to in the last few weeks. Looking forward to the holidays in a couple of weeks though - we'll be heading off to KI for 5 nights which is very exciting!!!!

Learning

One of the main reasons I became a teacher was to have a job which allowed and encouraged me to keep learning my whole life. Also, I wanted to do something where I could share what I know and learn.
I'm very excited at the moment because my school allowed me to apply for a government sponsered program where we establish partnerships with Indonesian schools. Long story short, our application was successful and now we have a partner school in Indonesia. For the last couple of days (and the next couple as well) all the Australian and Indonesian teachers involved in this program this yr have been brought to Melbourne to get to know each other and to learn about using Web 2.0 in the classroom to build and maintain the relationships between the schools. I was a little worried - not being the most technologically minded person I am easily scared. Then I realised today how easy it is to use wikis, and how useful they can be in education.
The next hurdle will be persuading school to unblock wikis so that our students can access them and communicate with the partners in Indonesia. It does bug me that we spend a lot of time as educators learning about fabulous interactive tools that are available, only to return to our schools to find that they are not available to our school as someone has decided that these things are not in fact useful. ??? I don't understand.

Anyway, back to the positive - I love learning new informationand new skills and I intend to stand up and fight to be able to use these for the benefit of the students in our school and our partner school!