Scribbler's Den

I like to start with these three principles;

1.  Generate Interest

2.  Apply theories/knowledge

3.  Create an Experience

The first step is essential.  Fail there and you have little chance.

But, you get to try again next lesson. Your thoughts?

Remember this fabulous scene from the UK version of The Office?

Well, the same shenanigans occur in my staffroom.   Without the ill feeling of course :)

We don't have a phone each either so messages get delivered via screwed up balls of paper lobbed over the battlements.

It was my first day back at school today from the Christmas summer break and things weren't pretty.  You would think that little could go wrong with two student free days in a row.  But it seems working in the public system can smother very quickly any enthusiasm accrued during the holidays .

First of all my timetable was pretty much the opposite of what I wanted.   I made the mistake last year of offering to give up a senior class.  My rational was that my workload and marking would lessen and I would have the opportunity to take on more multimedia classes.  Instead I was given fewer multimedia lessons and was saddled with two classes in teaching areas I have no experience or knowledge in.  So my workload is still going to be high if not higher (preparation and marking) and I will be teaching content I am unfamiliar with and unprepared for.  I am still looking for a silver lining.

I regret sacrificing my senior class now.  This is definitely a lesson I will remember come next year.

So, down on myself and my circumstance, I trudged off to a whole school staff meeting.  I should really say meetings - plural - because they are non stop over two days.  When I stand in front of my first class next week I will have been afforded no time what so ever for class preparation.  How can we, teaching professionals, be expected to present quality instruction next week with no preparation time?  I fear that we are saddled with these non stop seminars/lectures and meetings to break public perception.  The perception that teachers do little on student free days and/or receive no professional development.

Anyway for the next 4 hours (with a short break) I endured the most unproductive of pedagogy.  40 minute speeches with no visual aids are tiresome even with gifted speakers.  Reading and padding from powerpoints is unforgivable.  Teachers are criticised for poor use of pedagogy and yet we seem to sit through mind-numbing presentations without question.

I came home today more drained than my very busiest of teaching days with students.  I think I need another holiday.

I have two days left of the school year before the lengthy Christmas summer break.  Work is winding up with reporting, monitoring, verification and moderation all over.  Tomorrow we go to Dreamworld on a rewards day with the Year 8s and 9s.  I now have time to sit back and reflect on the year: to think of what I could have done or should have done.  I know from experience that I cannot wait until after the break to reflect.  If I do my recollections will be blurry and indistinct.  If you can't reflect with vigour and clarity then the goals that come from such analysis will lack direction and appropriateness.  With the memories of my lesson failures and exuberant rushes of success still clear in my mind reflection is easy. 

I like reflecting on my teaching practice because it always leads onto setting goals.  I love setting goals.  I love writing them down, tinkering with the phrasing, breaking each goal down into baby steps.  I am an ideas man at heart.  My mind is a flood right now with ideas and strategies for the new year and my new classes.  Now is the time to plan because if I leave it until late January I will have lost the scent.  So I will post soon with my goals for teaching.

The same goes with this website.  It is time to set some goals for Scribbler's Den.  I wil be honest though.  I hadn't even thought of setting goals for this website until I read Daniel Scocco's post at Daily Blog Tips.  Scribbler's Den is six months old and if I am going to be honest with myself I have not blogged here anywhere near as much as I would have liked.

Here are my goals for Scribbler's Den;

• Increase traffic from sources other than Teacher Lingo

• Get 100 RSS subscribers

• Blog at least once a week.

• Learn Basics of Photoshop over Christmas and create a banner for this site.

I will be editing this over the next few weeks so the list will definitely grow.