Tag: School’s out Friday

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School’s out Friday

As part of the the follow up to the Project Based Learning task my Year 10 class have just completed, we reviewed the identified 10 skills for the future workplace as identified in the Future Work Skills- 2020 report. In the course of our discussion, we talked about the use of robot seals in Nursing Homes in Japan and the possible impact robot technology would have on jobs that are currently performed by human beings right now. Tonight I came across the video featured above on Reddit. It’s further proof that robot technology is powering along and will have an impact on the way we live our lives. After a big week at work, I wouldn’t mind a few Swarm Robots cooperating with an AR Drone to perform some household tasks for me and free my weekends up for the finer things in life!

Early to bed for me. I stayed up very late last night writing a post for the ABC Splash site and my eyes can take no more.

Enjoy your weekend. Find some sun. Maybe some good wine too. I’m hoping to. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

I’m not interested in Felix Baumgartner‘s sponsorship deal with RedBull, but I am interested in what it is that possesses someone to ascend to a height of of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in 3 hours in a helium-filled balloon, and then willingly jump out of the craft to freefall for as long as you possibly can until opening your parachute.

I’m also interested in who the people are who wait for events like this so they can then recreate them in Lego, and post the video on YouTube only hours after the moment has passed. What I do know is, these are people with far more time on their hands than me!

I’ve been home now an hour or so after our school’s Speech Night recognising academic achievement over the school year. It was a wonderful evening and a true celebration of the community that makes up a school. I always feel so fortunate to be in a position where I can share in the lives of young people. I’m pretty sure that for many teachers, we feel positive about the future knowing that these people we teach are going to be helping to shape it.

Time for sleep methinks. Here’s hoping for a sunny day over the weekend, one where I can warm my bones and renew my energy levels. Here’s hoping the same holds true for you, wherever you reside. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

Been struggling to find a video for this week. I found this one on the ‘Best ads on TV’ site, and I watched six others before settling on this. I do like the Snickers Ads, and we’ve even entertained the idea of having some Snickers on hand in our school library so we can hand them to kids when they’re just not feeling themselves on any particular day. (Note – this idea was from Natalie, our wonderful library technician – she’s full of great ideas!) Libraries tend to be places where kids come and share things about themselves that aren’t necessarily related to curriculum. It’s vitally important that they interact with people who are kind and have a listening ear – having a snickers on hand can’t be a bad thing either!

We all have days like this. I’m having one today. There’s an important task I need to get done, and I’m struggling finding a way in to it. It’s causing me unnecessary anxiety – I’ve got that tense feeling in my chest and it’s uncomfortable. Hopefully I can get through the mental block I’m experiencing and get it completed. I really would like to enjoy this last weekend before a return to work on Monday. Maybe I just need a Snickers!

Enjoy your weekend. I will once I get this task completed! 🙂

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School’s out Friday

Take a look at this and think seriously about the information you’re posting in online spaces. We can all do with some timely reminders about being conscious of what you’re sharing out there, and this video is a fun way of doing just that with the people in your circle of friends.

It’s been a somber day here in Melbourne and it doesn’t feel right trying to post something humorous tonight. The tragic news about Jill Meagher, a 29 yr old woman who went missing a week ago after a night out with friends while only 500 or so metres from her front door, has really shaken many people in our city. You like to think people are inherently good, but when you hear of incidents like this, where people are abducted, then raped and murdered, it shakes confidence levels. The outpouring of grief and support for Jill’s husband and family in social media circles has been overwhelming, but there has also been sharing of information about the perpetrator, and that has far more serious consequences for the proper carriage of justice. Tania Sheko has written an excellent post today synthesising the issues coming from people sharing information in online spaces. I’d recommend you visit and take a read. She questions when we are going to start addressing issues like this in our school curriculum to ensure we help our students to become mindful digital citizens. I’m already thinking that this is a discussion we could be having in my English class when we return from the holiday break. We really do need to find timely opportunities to help our students navigate what is new terrain and help them understand how oversharing can be both an issue for you on a personal level, but possibly one with legal implications as well as has been borne out today.

Tomorrow is AFL Grand Final day here in Australia. It’s a national event, but the core fan base is seeded here in Victoria where the game originated. I’m a Hawthorn supporter, so I’ll be glued to the television screen tomorrow afternoon as we indulge in a good old fashioned Aussie barbeque at a friend’s house. Here’s hoping the Hawks can pull off the win!

Enjoy your weekend. Stay safe. 🙂

 

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School’s out Friday

Alec Couras shared this on Twitter, just as I was about to give up on finding anything that might raise a smile for this week’s School’s out Friday post. It’s a really fabulous political mashup, and the synchronisation is pretty darn impressive. Even our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, gets a mention with her infamous ‘there are nutjobs on the Internet’ comment. I wonder how many more mashups we’ll see in the lead up to the US Presidential election? A fair few I’d be guessing, along with a heavy dose of social media saturation from both parties. I wonder if it will feel natural or forced? I’m guessing the latter.

School holidays have just begun for Victorian teachers. I really am glad of the opportunity to slow down for a couple of weeks and refresh some very tired batteries. I may even have enough time to pen something other than a School’s out Friday post. I’ve got half a post written about my foray into Project Based Learning so I may try and find a couple of hours this weekend to write about what has been a wonderful teaching experience this last couple of weeks.

Right now, it’s time for bed. The electric blanket has warmed up and my tired limbs are ready to succumb to the sanctity of sleep. Have a great weekend – I know I will. With the weight of expectation lifted and 23 warm degrees forecast for tomorrow, life is looking pretty good. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

21 Balançoires (21 Swings) from <

I love this video. Really love it. I love it because it makes me believe that at our core, people are all the same, and we delight in small things that are made better because they are a shared experience. I find it comforting.

I've just returned home from just such an experience. A colleague and I ran a trivia night as a fundraiser for two school trips to Fiji and Thailand. In November, I will be travelling to Thailand and Laos with students from my school and while there, we will be visiting a remote village and helping to build the infrastructure of what will be a school for that community. Our trivia night was a bit of a rushed event, but we had 50-60 teachers and parents come together to have fun whilst raising money to go towards the cost of building materials for the projects we will be undertaking. I was feeling a little anxious about it today, worrying that people would find it a bit boring, but it was a resounding success, with laughter and a feeling of community bringing us together. I'm so glad we made the effort to organise it.

Not sure what the weekend will bring just yet, but I'm hoping I can catch up on much needed sleep and maybe even get my house clean. Now that's a tall order- maybe I should just aim for the sleep side of the equation.

Enjoy your weekend. Find a way to connect with others and share the spirit of community. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

Now, I’m none too impressed with the weather this week in Melbourne, but this timelapse video, created by Filip Laureys for a project at Deakin University, makes me appreciate the city I live in. Melbourne really is quite beautiful, even more so when it’s a few degrees warmer and the wind and rain isn’t messing up your hair!

It’s been a busy week at school and I’ve got a bag load of essays to correct this weekend. Lucky me. I’ve also convinced the two other Year 10 teachers of English that we can try out Project Based Learning for our next unit beginning next week. This means translating my understanding of PBL to them, ensuring that we’re all on the same page, and that we have useful support material to do our best to make it work. We’re all trying out Edmodo for the first time to assist with collaboration for small groups and I’m interested to see how the kids take to it.

Sometimes I wonder what it is that drives me to create more work for myself, but I think I know the answer to that one. I want to make learning relevant, and I want to see the kids I teach develop skills that will be the expected norm in their future working lives. I do have to thank Bianca Hewes from Sydney, who very generously spoke with me this week and answered the stream of questions I had for her about PBL. Bianca has been sharing her experiences with PBL in her English classroom over the last year or so and I would encourage you to take a read of her blog and start following her on Twitter. She shares her practice freely, both the successful and not so successful PBL experiences. I have very much appreciated the guidance she provides through her sharing and feel more confident about the next two weeks thanks to the lessons she imparts.

Enjoy your weekend everyone. I hope to, despite the millstone that comes with a bag of marking. I’ll have find something to temper that! 🙂

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School’s out Friday

Well, who would have thunk it? I’ve always known Rives as a performance poet, but tonight, as I was searching around the Web for something to share with you here, I discovered that he is also a paper engineer. He’s very passionate about his craft – you’ve just got the check out the Advent calendar paper cube to see the brilliance in his art. I have to admit to a fondness for clever paper craft like that, where someone’s workmanship surprises you with hidden layers. I would have spent hours playing with that as a child had I been fortunate enough to have something like that.

For those of you who have never seen Rives’ performance work, we’ll revisit ‘Is 4am the new midnight‘, where Rives waxes his lyrical origami this time.

No time for lyrical origami for me tonight. The lure of sleep is strong, after another frantic week of work. I would be so pleased if my to do list had shrunk this week, but I think I’ll be looking at the same list and adding to it on Monday. Hopefully the weekend ahead will provide a slower pace and I’ll feel a little more in control when I next walk through the doors of my employ.

I hope you have a weekend that gives you what you need. Happy Father’s Day this Sunday to all the Dad’s out there. A special Father’s Day call out to my husband, who is far and away the best father I know. My kids are very lucky children.  🙂

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School’s out Friday

I dare you to watch this and not be moved. Sure, it’s an ad from the one of the biggest companies in the world who really know how to market themselves cleverly, but put that aside for one moment.  Is that guy who jumps off his motorbike to move that vehicle out of the way of a moving train not one of the world’s unsung heroes? And what about the other guy who risks life and limb for that runaway dog? Not to mention all those workers going about their daily jobs injecting an element of humour into their day and making what may be menial jobs worthwhile. One day, I want to be one of those music addicts dancing like no-one’s watching in the streets. Just imagine how much fun that really would be.

In the meantime, I’ll amuse myself by attending my son’s school’s trivia night tonight. There, I will astound people with my lightening fast responses to cartoon theme songs and questions asking who wrote that science fiction classic from 1956 that nobody else read.  Yes, there does come a time my friends, when the terabytes of seemingly useless information stored in my brain cavity come into good use. I will venture forth, knowing that tonight, I have purpose!

For those of you without a trivia night ahead of you, I wish you well. Park yourself somewhere comfy with a nice glass of the good stuff and enjoy your evening. I’m sure you’ve deserved it. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

I haven’t used a Hamish and Andy clip for quite some time, and it’s a pleasure to share Hitch-Hike Racing with you today. My husband doesn’t share my love of Hamish and Andy, but they always make me smile with their take on life. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the battle that is Hitch-Hike Racing and hang in there for the fourteen minutes until the victor is revealed.

I’ve just returned home from the School Production, where I marvelled once again at the talent pool that exists in the school I teach in. Evenings like this are so confirming; kids connected doing something they love and sharing their enthusiasm with their friends, family and teachers. There are great kids all around us; kids who value the arts and who are prepared to make the commitment to rehearse for weeks on end for performances that last all of three nights. Our future rests in some good hands. 🙂

Have a lovely weekend. I hope blue skies shine above you and you get to soak some rejuvenating rays into your bones. 🙂