Touching base

Hi there.  It's been a while since I posted, and my students were working on media pieces and it provoked me to show a little love to my lonely little blog here and get a post together.  So howdy, bloggosphere.

In my last post I spoke about the excitement of having stopped studying - at least momentarily.  Well, now I have.  Hurrah!  I've finished my Master of Education, and while I found it interesting it is really nice not to be studying any more.  I have actually been reading some things for the simple reason of because I have wanted to for a long time and am now finally able to.

Having said that, M is now studying, so studying is still a large part of my life.

On the home front, things are pretty good, although with a house full of teenagers and people who think that they're practically teenagers and therefore have a right to behave like them it is still pretty full on at times.  But things are good.

Work is definitely full on.  I think that is how work is.  The people at the top in the department expect a kazillion things of the people below them, and the stress and tension filters down through the prin class, leading teachers to me and class teachers and so-on through the system, kind of like a bad flu.  I am trying to hold onto the principles I find in the Bible, which are:

• I do my job properly because it is a reflection of my character.
• My job is not my life, and therefore has to be let go of when I am not there so I can live my life.
• My job is not as important as many other things, such as my family, and therefore I have to prioritise my mind to ensure that I nurture those things that are most important to me.
• I do not hold myself too accountable, i.e., I do my best and I do what I can, and what I didn't get done either wasn't that important after all or can get done tomorrow.

Essentially, I have to have faith.  Either I believe that - if I do the right thing - God will bless my work, or I stress out because I am on my own and therefore everything is up to me.  It is a battle.

Writing hasn't been happening though.  After getting rolling last year it faltered again this year.  I have been so busy and tired that getting it all in my head has been a struggle.  It is frustrating me.  I think I just have to stop analysing the barriers and get on with it!

Anyways, I better get back to it, it actually being a huge variety of things.  Yippee!

Begin again...

We live in interesting times.

A lot has happened since my last post, and I mean a lot! I won't put a lot of it on here because, to be honest, I can't be bothered. So I will summarise in dot points:

• Firstly, I finished studying. The OUA units I completed (53 units) gave me two bachelors, plus there was the diploma on the side. These let me get into a graduate-entry bachelor of teaching which, after a semester, was joined by a Masters of Arts (Writing and Literature). In two years the teaching was done and I got a job (more on that later). The masters took a year's holiday and then came back last year with a 20,000 word project entitle Songs of Descent: A re-imagining of Euripide's Medea. So all my study is done...or at least was for about a month. Then work enrolled me in a postgraduate specialist certificate in leadership of assessment practice, which has kind-of rolled into a Masters of Education. However, I really enjoyed that month in which I had finished studying!
• I started working. I work at a regional state secondary college. In my two-and-a-bit years there I have taught mainly English and Humanities, but also some maths and lead-lighting. (I still don't know how to lead-light, despite the kids trying their best to educate me!) Anyways, I have then become involved in a somewhat full-on boys' education program pilot, and, this year, somehow taken on leadership of the English KLD (7-9), a curriculum team reinvigorating curriculum in 7 and 8 English and Humanities heading towards integration and differentiation, and become Literacy Coordinator. I am not sure how I ended up with all of these hats on: Some I got while I was away sick! Work life is very full!
• My family changed. Some became more stable. Some are becoming less stable. Some have done both. One has run off the rails and left. Generally, the six that remain are doing really well. My wife has started working and is now wondering why!
• I started pastoring. I had nothing else on my plate, you see... Well, not really, but you don't chuck a Jonah, you chuck an Isaiah. As much as in me is...

I don't know how often I'll be able to post here. I don't know if anyone ever reads it. But, what they hey, if I get the urge I will. Consider it just another beginning...

Getting there...

Well, my office has never been as ready or set up as it is right now. Having said that, the hallway is a mess because half of the office is in there. However, the new computers are set up and the desks reconfigured, the filing cabinet operating properly (which is a first in itself) and space on my desk top. Yes, I know, it does seem a bit hard to believe, but there you go - space.

The key to all of this is actually several keys. These are:

• Firstly, I must deal with things as they arrive, i.e., actually file things in the now working filing cabinet.
• Secondly, I must be decisive about where things go.
• Thirdly, I must get the book shelves as soon as possible.

These book shelves are hardwood, about three feet wide and six feet high or so, and we are planning to get about six of them! Three will go in the hallway and three in the entrance. Between the six of them they should be able to hold:

• The children's books;
• The encyclopedias;
• The novels;
• The text books;
• The reference books; and
• The resources.

The difference that these shelves will make cannot be understated. Curses be though that they have to be paid for, so they will take a little while. Grrrrr. Oh well, at least the office is organised...

Back again!

Well, it's been a little while since I posted, so the question you may be asking is, "Where have you been?" Then again, you may not be asking. You may not care. Indeed, there may be no-one reading this at all. However, deluding myself that there is at least one person out there that is reading this and cares - well, here is my answer:

I have been on a teaching round at a primary school down the highway a bit.

However, that answer does not capture the multitude of emotions that have occurred during my practicuum, so here is a post to attaempt to capture as much as I can of what it was like.

Firstly, it was hard. It was hard because I left the house early and got home often quite late, which meant I was tired and had little time left over for study and no time for writing! It was hard because I had to prepare lesson plans which were overly labour-intensive. It was hard because what time I did have left had to be used, to a certain degree, on catching up with my family (who are perhaps too used to having me around all-day every-day).

Secondly, it was tiring (aside from the points above). At first the constant standing and pacing, the constant get up and go, the constant energy of "performing"(see below) and observing, the constant always having something to do really drained me. I became somewhat used to it over time, but it was very tiring aside from being long.

Thirdly, it was emotionally draining. You would hope to go well, and some little snot would play up and detract all the goodness out of the lesson. Things would be running smoothly and then someone would get some attitude or cheek and your plans would come crashing down around you. Or, as the case may be, you just would be ready in time, or you were just plain wrong, and the kids would look at you like you were an idiot, or say you were an idiot, or just ignore you...

Fourthly, it was a hoot. I shared some great times, put on some alright "performances", had some great laughs and shared in some terrific moments. There were some amazing highlights, and perhaps none so high as when some kid who just didn't do some particular thing did it under my tutelage! For example, one of the purposes behind my social education sequence was to encourage one particular child to communicate, another to come out of her shell, another to gain leadership skills, and others to develop interpersonal skills, and they all did!!! What a high.

This teaching round will definitely be a whole chapter in my memoirs (hah hah hah).

However, now I am back here in my little room, at my little computer, with a mound of assignments looming. So I have to lay aside all that and get into it, because, as they say, time waits for no man.

_______________________________
"Performances: performing": I do not mean to demean teaching at all when I speak of performing and performances in regards to teaching. However, I also do consider teaching - in the practical classroom environment - very much a performance based activity. Consider the voice projection, eye-contact, pacing, use of humour, dramatics, etc: all performance essentials that are vital to good classroom teaching, I think. However, while this is not to say that all teachers are first-rate actors (and actors are not all teachers - they don't have to plan and evaluate and record and observe the way teachers do), performing is part of being a teacher.

The ball is rolling...

Well, my first assessment for the graduate bachelor is done, marked and back, so to speak, and it is encouraging to note that I did what I would consider as quite well, really. This is a good start. I have felt quite nervous with the new uni and the new units, being unfamiliar with them to a certain degree, and this has been unsettling. This is not to say that I am feeling completely settled, oh no, no no. For example, a continuing source of "unsettlement" is that I start a five-and-a-half week student teaching round on Monday, which is wracking my nerves.

It is good to have a couple of short stories off and away, even though I am sure that they are not going to rock the world, so to speak. However, their process of development has begun, and first steps are not final steps and - hopefully - growth will happen.

To be honest, at this stage I am really looking forward to starting the MA in literature and professional writing. I just get the feeling that I'll go better once I've got that bit of pressure on me, and I am very interested in the area, to say the least.

At the moment I ave got quotes coming in from various places about new computers (for M. and I). This is both exciting and frustrating. This computer (not yours, dear reader, but mine) is really starting to crack up, and I am keen to get onto the new ones. However, we can't get the new ones until everything goes through with the sale of the other house - oh, hallelujah, I can't wait until everything has gone through with the other house, it has been a thorn in my side for years!!!! - and the funds have cleared. Anyways, these quotes are merely rubbing salt in the wounds that this computer occasionally gives me.

The last thing I'll think I'll note is that Catherine Bateson (for whom I designed a web-site) has just had her book Millie and the Night Heron short-listed for the CBCA 2006 Book of the Year - Younger Reader award, which she is obviously very excited about. You can find out more about it at her web-site, although please don't think nasty thoughts about the web-site design....

Regards.

A further update on life

Well, I have started into my Graduate Bachelor studies, which has been good. They are interesting, which is always helpful. Aside from that family life has been quite busy of late, what with one thing and another. Furthermore, the band looks like busying up, which will be interesting as well.

M. has decided (finally!!!!) to study. This means that she is now slightly freaked out by it. However, it will be really good for her. It also means things will definitely be busy around here, but in a more positive way.

I haven't got back into V. as per yet, but I have started getting a few short stories on the go and off to various places. The first - Time to Think - is about adultery, but with a slightly different spin I would like to think. M. thought it was quite good, but we'll just have to see.

So life is going well, and promises to keep me on my toes, so to speak. So that is good.

[Insert whoop of joy of your choice here]

Well, by gum, by golly, by gosh, by crikey, by tum-tiddly-tum, by jiminy, by faith an' begorrah, and any other thing you can thing of "by-ing" by, I'm finished with CMM37, CMM38, EDU120, ENG210 and PAC30. And this means I am done with my second Bachelor. And this means I am feeling pretty "wahoo-ey", so to speak. What a relief!

Life is, of course, still busy. I need to whip into the Graduate Bachelor now, and I have work on V. and various short stories to do. Additionally, I want to enrol in the MA later this year. However, at this moment, I think things are pretty rosy.

Norm and Tom (particularly Tom) wants to pursue more opportunities to perform, as well. This means that there are two performances in a couple of weeks, and possibly further gigs after. Norm also wants to jam with some trumpeter in the jazz style, Tom is keen to form a three-piece, and everybody's kind-of keen. However, these things can all crash down as fast as they build up, but it is nice to be in demand (so to speak) for my musical ability.

Life is full of opportunities, and this is exciting. The kids are going well, and I am looking forward to being able to help them go even better. My energy levels are once again starting to rise, I am getting some sleep and I am not feeling so wretchedly run down, so things are looking up. Hip-hip-hooray. Anyway, there is still heaps to do, so I had better hot-shoe-shuffle out of here.