Tag: School’s out Friday

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School’s out Friday

Yes, it’s late. Why?

Because I’ve travelled thousands of miles in the last few days. Over 30 hours in transit on three planes takes it out of you really. I thought I was doing pretty well until yesterday afternoon when I was replenishing the family’s pantry at a local supermarket. I was overcome by this feeling of intense malaise. Jetlag, hence the video above. I stumbled through the afternoon but by 5.30pm I had to admit defeat and head to bed for what I thought would be an hour or two. Fifteen hours later I woke up, hence this late posting!

I’m still in the throes of getting a post together about my experiences at Educon 2.2. I put a post together pretty quickly afterwards, but thought it needed a bit more considered reflection. I’ll get something up over this weekend for those of you interested in my time spent in Philadelphia.

Hope your weekend treats you well. I’m thinking more sleep is the order of the day for me!

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School’s out Friday

Busy day here for me. I’m in Philadelphia and about to go and sign up for Educon, the real purpose of my visit to the United States. Then it’s off to do a bit of sightseeing before things kick off tonight.

Thought you might be interested in this review of the iPad, Apple’s new offering, that I think is going to blow the Kindle and other ebook readers out of the market. I may be wrong, but the touch screen, and the fact that it offers so many more features, the best of which is internet browsing enabling you to leap from your newspaper to other links, seems to me to be reason enough to purchase an iPad as opposed to a Kindle.

I’m so tired right now. Think all of this traveling is catching up with me! I’ll have to find some reserves of energy so that I can keep up with the discussions taking place this weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

Enjoy your weekend. If you’re in Australia, enjoy the warm weather. Philadelphia is freezing!!

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School’s out Friday

A bit different this week. I’ve just arrived in New York – you can probably tell that from my appearance in the video above! I made it for my family who I miss already. I love the fact that you can record staight from your webcam to YouTube.

Off to start the sightseeing tomorrow! Hope you have an equally exciting weekend.

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School’s out Friday

This is the 100th School’s out Friday post! I couldn’t resist using this video that Alec Couras tweeted about today. It’s a send up of Farmville, a game that people play where they run their own farm. I’ve seen peoples’ Facebook updates where they mention how they’ve planted new crops and purchased livestock and I’ve wondered what this Farmville thing is. My daughter mentioned that she knows friends who are obsessed with it and my husband was telling me that people at his work devote hours to it too.

It makes me think. People who don’t understand how Twitter works often express disbelief that I would spend time looking at it. Maybe they’d express disbelief that people spend hours on Farmville too. I think I could raise a bit of a case about which pursuit is the more productive. Or maybe not; Farmville seems to have a fair spread of users!

100 School’s out Friday posts. That’s an awful lot of Friday nights trying to source something funny for the end of the working week. I like the continuity of it though, and it certainly forces me to keep posting.

Enjoy the weekend. This time next week I’ll be on a plane headed for New York. School’s out Friday may very well be absent. Let me see what I can come up with!!

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School’s out Friday

The YouTube Australia blog has just released information about the most watched videos for 2009. My daughter was happy to see her favourite band, Short Stack, featured. They’re another example of a music group using a medium like Youtube to go viral and get themselves a record contract. The video above was listed in the top five most watched animal-related videos. And deservedly so in my opinion. Extreme Shepherding is quirky, clever and funny. Worth watching – do so and brighten up your day.

Hot weather here in Melbourne at the moment – looks like lazy days ahead coming my way. Hope you all have a great weekend. Make the most of it. : )

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School’s out Friday

Happy New Year!

Yes, Sydney do it better than anyone. Fireworks, that is. You’ve probably all seen this incredible fireworks display from last night, but if you haven’t it’s so worth watching. I have to admit to being a huge fireworks fan; I seek out a display and drag the family along to any that are nearby. It would be a real treat to be in Sydney on a New Year’s Eve to experience it firsthand.  Just might have to put some serious thought into that idea…..

Hope 2010 treats all of us well! Enjoy your weekend. : )

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School’s out Friday

Some Christmas lights for Christmas Day. Another person out there who’s put The Black Eyed Pea’s, ‘I’ve gotta feeling’, to good use.

I’ve sat through two Christmas dinners today, one of which I cooked. I think you can probably guess from this that I’m full to pussy’s bow. That’s something my Mother often says, and yes, those words were uttered today!

I hope all of you who read this blog have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with family and friends. : )

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School’s out Friday

I’ve just spent the most enjoyable week I’ve had for a long time with my two favourite people; my children. We visited Sydney and explored its sights and sounds. If I find some time this weekend I’ll post some pictures about our time there, that’s if they allow me to use some of the pictures that include visuals of them!

While I was there, Dennis Harter sent me a tweet directing me to this very entertaining young man and his ukelele version of Jason Mraz’s song, “I’m yours”. (You might remember I featured that song as a School’s out Friday earlier in the year). It raised a chuckle for all of us; my son watched it over and over and marvelled at his skills with the ukulele, but not so much his singing. I quite like his interpretation; reminds me of some of my efforts as I try to decipher just what it is artists are singing when I tune in to the radio!

I hope your weekend treats you well; Christmas shopping and a mighty big clean up of the house are coming my way. Sounds exhausting just typing it!

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School’s out Friday

School is officially out for me today. Yep, the year is at an end and the long summer break beckons. So much has happened this year; when I take a moment to reflect I realise just how busy it has all been. Next year we’re going to be occupying our temporary library and making the best we can of that while the new one is under construction. It will be interesting, but challenging. Nothing like a challenge to make life interesting. The only way to look at things I’m guessing! I thought I’d recognise the end of the school year with a video created by some of the students at my school. Micro wave.mov is a great example of the humour and creativity we see from the students at Toorak College all the time.

I found out this week that a presentation proposal I submitted  for ISTE 2010 has been accepted. So, not only will I be heading to the States in January for Educon 2.2 in Philadelphia, but I’ll also be in Denver, Colorado in June for ISTE. Wow, big year ahead!

I’m heading to Sydney next week with my two gorgeous kids.  Off to show them some of the cultural heritage of the country we live in. I’ll post some pics! Enjoy your weekend.

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School’s out Friday

They’ve done it again. Another very funny video from the improveverywhere crew. This is ‘Where’s Rob‘, and it demonstrates how people can band together to get behind a common cause. Rob was the cause in question. It was improveverywhere’s cause to get people to notice that Rob couldn’t find his seat, and it became the crowds’ cause to get Rob back to his seat. Very funny stuff.

My exciting news is that I am going to be in New York in late January and then head to Philadelphia to Educon 2.2, thanks to SLAV and the money that came with the John Ward Award! I’ve actually left a comment on the improveverywhere blog asking if they can do a mission during the time I am there so that I can participate. I’ve even offered to be the subject of the prank! People who know me, know that it is a dream of mine to get to New York. Well, I’m going to fulfill that dream and would be so thrilled if I could fulfill another dream and participate in an improveverywhere mission. So, Charlie Todd, if you’re listening, I’m more than game!

Correction’s all done, reports are finished, might even get time to write a few long overdue blog posts.  Or maybe the house will finally get some much needed attention!

Whatever comes your way this weekend, make the most of it. : )