Tag: School’s out Friday

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Schools out Friday

I haven’t seen a new Improv Everywhere video for awhile, so I was pleased to encounter this one when I visited their site tonight. Oh, to have a leisurely afternoon like that one. It seems all my days  recently are filled with obligations. Must indulge in some good old fashioned downtime sometime soon, or I just may implode!

A long school day today as it extended into night by helping supervise at my school’s ‘Branch Out’ concert in support of the Oaktree Foundation. It was a great occasion, and the students did a wonderful job in the organisation and running of the night. Events like that convince me that our next generation is in good hands.

Enjoy your weekend. Looks like it will be a chilly one here in Melbourne. Stay warm wherever you may be. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

I love my iPad, but it pales in comparison to what you can buy in Germany apparently! You won’t need to understand German to get a sense of what’s going on in the video above, but you will need years of practice to achieve the amazing sleight of hand that turns this iPad into the one stop shop.

No Saturday professional development activities for me this weekend, so I feel like I’ve got acres of time to fill. Remind me I said that on Sunday night when I’m despairing about the prospect of work the next morning!

Enjoy the acres of time awaiting you. Use it wisely. : )

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School’s out Friday

I’d never heard of Henry Rollins until this week. I was on a plane flying to Sydney, and there was an article in the in-flight magazine where he discussed his life. Then tonight, I was searching around for a School’s out Friday post, and on the front page of Reddit was a link to the above video. I like the message, and think it might be useful to use as a starter for my Year 10 class in one of our lessons next week. I hope they pay close attention to the examples used in the latter stage of the video, and note that they are all men. Considering the message was for, ‘Young people’ and not specifically, ‘Young men’, it would have been good to find a couple of female role models to add to the mix.

Big week, and tired eyes are testament to that. I’m off to a Bell Shakespeare professional development day tomorrow where we’ll be exploring ways to teach Romeo and Juliet. You know, that seemed like a great idea when a couple of my colleagues and I discussed it a few weeks ago, but right now, it’s not exactly holding great appeal. I have no doubt it will be incredibly useful, and I’ll probably be really glad I went around this time tomorrow night. Just right now though, a good long sleep-in holds more appeal!

I hope you’re able to avail yourself of that sleep-in tomorrow. I’ll be envious! Enjoy your weekend. 🙂

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School’s out Friday

This was on the front page of Reddit this evening. It is pretty mesmerising – mesmerising enough to lull me to sleep. But really, that wouldn’t be too hard at the moment. After spending the last four and a half days of the holiday’s preparing my parent’s house for sale, I fronted up for the first week of school more exhausted than when I finished up last term. Not very clever planning on my behalf!

My son, husband and I returned home not long ago from our Cover the Night work to support Kony 2012. I’m very proud of my son. He wanted to take part and insisted I order the action pack. He followed through with his commitment tonight with the support of my husband and I. I really don’t care what other people think of the campaign. I care that my son cares – I want to encourage my child to be a person who is empathic, who views the world from the perspective of not just his own experience, but the experiences of others in less fortunate positions. So far, I think he’s on the right track, and we will do whatever we can to  help him understand that sometimes you need to look outside yourself and do something to support a cause.

I’m off to Sydney on Sunday in time to deliver a presentation on Monday at Barker College for their Teacher-Librarians and Geography teachers. I’ll be talking about the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum and our school’s Information Fluency program that we have been developing. Sunday night will see me enjoying dinner with some of the best TL’s in the business – can’t wait for the stimulating discussion we are bound to have!!

Enjoy your weekend – find some sun, rest and relax. : )

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School’s out Friday

You have to commit to watching this video. You just have to. Caine Monroy’s summer holiday pursuit will remind you of your childhood, when you had faith in your ideas and quite often, you’d commit to spending time to making them work. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of wet, rainy days, when being housebound meant cubby house construction time for my brother and I. Our lounge room would be transformed with upturned furniture, blankets substituting for plaster roofing, and cardboard boxes, if we were lucky. If there had been a major purchase recently, we might be lucky enough to score a ginormous box, and we’d huddle inside partaking of lunch and afternoon tea in our luxurious surrounds. I was so entranced with Caine’s arcade and I think I’ll be sharing it as the term starter with my Yr 10 students next week. Thanks go to Dean Groom for leaving the link in a comment he posted here this week.

I’ve felt like a contestant on The Biggest Loser these last two days. I’ve been working at my parent’s house, getting the place ready to put on the market – time for them to move to something more manageable. Yesterday, their garden looked like a jungle – today, it’s transformed to a relaxing haven. This involved hours of pruning, weeding, shoveling, wheelbarrowing and plenty of sweat into the mix. I wish I could say it’s translated into inches off my backside and thighs, but I’d be lying! There’s more ahead, as I tackle the inside this weekend. Wish me luck – there’s a chance I may never be seen again. 😉

Enjoy whatever comes your way this weekend. I bet it’s going to be more enjoyable than what awaits me!

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School’s out Friday

Really, George Lucas?…. really?

What would Harrison Ford say about this? Does he know, in his now near geriatric state (well, nearing 70 anyway), how his seminal character is being portrayed on Xbox machines the world over? Pay close attention to the lyrics- even they’ve been morphed to suit the character. Surely Harrison would have had a word or two to say about this. He’s probably feeling a certain degree of comfort, seeing as there is no mention of this embarrassing slight on his Wikipedia page…yet. ; )

Some of you may have noticed there was no School’s out Friday post last week. It was the last day of term and exhaustion (combined with a glass or two of bubbly!) overcame me. I was relishing the joy of a completed renovation of our back room, and as promised, here is a photo of our masterpiece.

It’s been wonderful being able to relax out there over the holiday break. The only downside is that our wireless connection doesn’t extend out there. : (  It’s a form of forced meditation for me I guess.

I always expect to be churning out the blog posts over a holiday break. It’s just not happening for me right now. Maybe next week will see me in a more reflective state. The meditative state has taken over – I’m finding it hard to keep my eyes open and keep dozing. I’ve got quite a bit of work to plough through these holidays, so best I find a way to get my energy levels up or I’ll be regretting time wasted in the coming weeks.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter break with friends and family. Enjoy whatever it is you are planning, and indulge on a choccy egg or two. You deserve it. : )

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School’s out Friday

Rives is a favourite of mine. This is an oldie (2006), but from Rives, it’s always a goodie. I think Mark Zuckerberg might have been listening to this, because Facebook can pretty much do a lot of things he articulated in this poem when he waxed lyrical about Napstar, Friendster and the other ‘ters’ that were the ‘in things’ in 2006. It makes 2006 seem like an age ago when you realise that many of the sites he referenced don’t exist today. Six years is a lifetime for some Internet start-ups. In six years they can live and die, or if they’re lucky, be consumed by the big guns who reward them grandly, but render them faceless as they improve their offering.

Today, I took my own advice and used 12 minutes of class time to show the subject of yesterday’s post to my Yr 10 students. It was really encouraging to see them laughing along as I did, and taking note of Shawn’s recommendations for rewiring our brains to promote happiness within us. I proposed that we follow his advice for 21 days, and I’m going to start here by listing three things I was grateful for today.

1. Having the opportunity to teach students who have open minds and who are willing to try new things to improve their learning.

2. Laughing with my daughter as we shared stories from our day.

3. Having the opportunity to see live theatre performed, penned by Australian master playwright, David Williamson.

I was thinking I could share what I’m feeling grateful about here, but I’m not sure it’s the right vehicle. I’ll play it by ear I think. What I do want to do is adhere to this, and other recommendations from Shawn Achor, for the 21 days. I want to see if I can rewire my thinking, and look for the positives around me more than the negatives. I know what it’s like when you’re working in an energised state, and I think I need that pick me up right now.

You haven’t heard much about it of late, but my back room renovation is nearly complete! New carpet is laid next week, and by the end of Tuesday night, we should be enjoying a vastly improved back room in our house. I may even include a picture next week!

Enjoy your weekend. Mine will include a visit to the picture theatre to see ‘The Hunger Games’. Can’t wait really.  : )

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School’s out Friday

My number one fan in Texas, Rich Cantrell, sent me the link to this new Improveverywhere video. They call it the spinning beach ball of death, but when I see it appear on my computer, it’s always the colour wheel of death to me. It’s a terrifying sight for those of us Mac users, and usually requires a force quit of an application to get your computer moving again. I’ve always wondered what you do when the colour wheel of death is hovering over your apple symbol in the top left hand corner of your screen. That’s where you can click to shut down your computer. If the colour wheel was hovering there, I always reverted to the ‘press down on the power button until computer shuts down’ method of exit. A student showed me recently that if you hold down ‘option, command, escape’ at the same time, the force quit box opens and you can quit the frozen application. Probably self evident to all of you, but it wasn’t to me. You gotta love it when the kids teach you stuff. : )

Thanks Rich for sending me the link. You saved me a search this week – I’m very grateful.

Time to shut this computer down and spend some time reading ‘The Hunger Games‘. I’ve vowed to read it before the release of the movie next week.

Enjoy whatever comes your way this weekend. Especially you, Rich.  : )

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School’s out Friday

Aahh…Taylor Mali. Wouldn’t you just love to be in a class led by Taylor Mali. His vast vocabulary and ability to craft clever, witty sentences would make for a stimulating learning environment. I’m sure a senior English class would benefit from exposure to this lesson about the pitfalls of poor spelling and inadequate proofreading. Think I might use it with my crew sometime in the near future.

It’s a long weekend here in Victoria. Time to catch up on much needed sleep. Couldn’t be happier!

Enjoy your weekend. I hope it treats you well. : )

 

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School’s out Friday

If you’re a heavy duty computer user, and you’re the owner of a cat, then I’m sure you’ll relate to the behaviour of Simon’s Cat. I’m frequently tapping the keys over the top of a cat that’s decided my lap is prime real estate they are occupying, whether I like it or not!

Yet another week where I haven’t had time (nor energy) to get a mid week post written. It’s a plight those of us who are busy classroom practitioners face. I’d like nothing more than to set time aside in my working life to tap something out, but the reality of busy school days doesn’t allow it. I’ve been launching student blogs, teaching kids about our Overdrive platform, spreading news about EasyBib, creating Libguides to support our Humanities curriculum, teaching my English class etc, etc. All good stuff, and important too. Sometimes you feel like you’re not achieving much, but when you take stock and think about what you’ve been involved in, you realise these are all small steps in helping your school community make big moves towards understanding new ways of accessing and using information.

Open Day at my school tomorrow. That means working on Saturday. No rest for the wicked, as they say. I think that bottle of wine chilling in my fridge will be under threat tomorrow night!

Enjoy whatever comes your way this weekend. Find some sun and soak in it. : )