Friday 23 November 2012

Breakfast.........

Waiting to fly back to Melbourne this morning I was after some breakfast at the airport. Decided to get into the spirit early with a yummy bagel. This will be my breakfast of choice in 5 weeks - so good!

Thursday 22 November 2012

Microsoft in Perth.........

Hi all! I am currently in beautiful, sunny and warm Western Australia for the third Microsoft Partners in Learning Conference. I flew from Melbourne on Tuesday at 9am and arrived (after a four hour flight) at 10am. Work that one out kids! :-)

My school has been part of this Microsoft PiL project all year, looking at 21st Century Learning Capabilities and how we can build these skills in our students to assist them in becoming successful learners and members of our wider community. In particular, we have looked at how we can develop student independence, self monitoring, self regulation and overall engagement. We also looked at how we could utilise our school's 1-to-1 netbook program more effectively for student learning.

Overall, we are extremely proud of what we have done this year and how our students have responded to our change in teaching and learning. Today we presented our journey to the conference and recieved positive responses from other school teams - so a large thank you to all the Year 5 students for your part in this major and exciting project we have all been a part of this year. We look forward to continuing our journey in the years to come.

I have had time to take a few snaps of what I have seen:
A very strange statue outside a building
in the city - paper airplane made of metal!!


Bell Tower in Perth

View from Cottesloe Beach where we had dinner Thursday night





Tomorrow morning I fly back to Melbourne to attend the Education Department Farewell Function for my International Exchange next year.

Will post more soon! :-)

Thursday 15 November 2012

6 weeks and counting.........

So I am off on the adventure of a lifetime in 6 weeks - teaching in Colorado, USA for 12 months on an International Exchange Fellowship. I am very very excited (and just a tiny bit nervous)!

I have created this blog so anyone who is interested - students, parents, staff, friends, relatives - to keep up to date on my exciting and wonderful adventure next year!

This blog will be filled with not only teaching anecdotes and things that happen in Colorado but also travels and adventures I take during 2013. It will be a mix of school life, home life and life on the road...........!

So a huge WELCOME to you all! Welcome to the start of my journey. Welcome to the teachings and travels I will experience ....... feel free to drop in from time to time or follow every post religiously. Feel free to read but also feel free to leave a comment. I can't promise a post every day but I will promise a post at least once a fortnight - more often when there are exciting events to share!

The countdown is on!!!

Monday 5 November 2012

8 weeks and counting ........

Wow. 8 weeks and counting. Time has started to go very very quickly! Good news is that I am getting very organised and am on top of everything - just waiting for the visa in the mail - which is great when I look at all that is coming up at school in the next month!!

Want to know the hardest thing to organise so far? My iPhone! Today I went to the 6th store to discuss my options for next year with usage overseas. 6th different version of what can happen and what I should do. Think I have finally figured out the best way though - almost.........

My past and current students at school have been very supportive and lovely over the last few weeks. Every so often they ask me something about next year or just say that they will miss me. Makes the heart warm!! My current class is writing pen pal letters to my ITF partner's class in Colorado at the moment. There have been some interesting discussions occuring as a result, including that our way of saying "Mum" is correct - it is not "Mom"!!

Countdown is definitely on now .......