Reflections on Week 6, Term 1, 2020

This week is Year 7 Camp week and with an enthusiastic faculty that means lots of staff attending and lots of casual staff members back at school. My reflection on this week is, being a one woman show is a drag - I miss my colleagues when they are out - not just because they are excellent in the classroom and the kids are calmer but because they are great people and lovely to chat to during breaks! The reflection from our cleaning staff - the rooms are as messy as they usually are - dang it!

I spent a lot more time in the block over the camp days just listening out for things going pear shaped and making sure students were staying in the classrooms. If thee kids are in the right rooms then most issues are prevented. When they spill out things get a little precarious. It was useful though - I cleaned seminar room and created a workspace for staff and an area where I can keep book covering supplies in order and now, when I need to be in the block, I will have something productive to do (I find it difficult to concentrate on intellectual tasks when I have to get up often).

I sorted out all of the books that needed to go back into the bookroom, put all of the novels in big piles on the side cabinets (possibly to create a faculty library in the future), threw out a bunch of old posters and books that were beyond repair. I cleared every surface and wiped everything down. The professional library needs to be reordered so it is more appealing. I spent hours and a portion of the faculty budget over the three years of my first Head Teacher stint building up the faculty library but I don't think it is widely accessed.

There did used to be a working air conditioning unit in the room but it seems to have broken while I was out of school for three years - I need to problem solve this issue if I want the room to be useful. Small air conditioning units aren't overly expensive - it is probably worthwhile either fundraising or using some of the faculty budget, or a bit of both to purchase a new one.

I have finalised the PL agenda ready for the Twilight session next week and I have sent off to the HTs at the other schools, my Principal, and the Guest Speaker. I still need to schedule an email to alert the office staff of the arrival of our guest and the coffee person. I also need to call the coffee shop. I am really hoping they will deliver at 5.10pm so drinks will be hot and everything will run according to plan - fingers crossed.

I am in the middle of organising NAPLAN and I really haven't done enough to feel happy I am on top of it all - I still need to order the headphones, meet with last coordinator, new HT Admin, HT T&L, and co-coordinator about the scheduling and testing procedures. As it is all online there is no way the hall is the best venue. I am thinking about the library as a possible venue as it worked for other whole school online testing but ensuring students are calm for the duration of the tests will be the challenge. I have a training day next week detailing the online processes.

It is nice to be mostly well, I should not take health for granted because as soon as things are not going well it is awful. So I am thankful for that.

My partner convinced me to buy a new computer that holds its charge and wow, it is epic. It is so light and I can pop it in my handbag and the battery, of course, is just so good.

Uni has started and I forgot about the second lecture already. So much for a weekly routine. I suck at routines. I really have to get reading and the assessment task organised this weekend as it will soon get away from me with a big week at work next week.

I have a few big events heading towards me - Open Night, Twilight Professional Learning Session, the English Faculty Assembly (not the best timing but we are going to have some fun with it). Just smashing everything out and then there will be a bit of a lull. Hopefully.

We have got the Drabble competition (100-word story competition) happening and thankfully the artist who designed the poster was able to find his original poster so I altered it to say Week 8, 2020 and it is good to go. I have a keen bean who has written THREE drabbles already - it is great to see the kids engaging in the art of story telling!

I have signed up for a few professional learning events - the AATE Webinar and I have organised the Extension 2 class to attend a webinar as well.

Tweeting continues for the upcoming IFTE AATE If... Conference. I am using TweetDeck to get ahead on the scheduling and the more information is released the more there is to Tweet about. I hope  I am keeping the account active enough. I will aim for bi-weekly tweets and as more is released and once the program is firmed up I will be able to add a few more in between.

Classes are going quite well. I have had a few wins with my Year 10 group. It really takes time to get to know kids at this stage in their schooling. They aren't going to listen to someone they don't care about so I am working hard to earn their trust so I can then pull them along when they get stuck. I am not feeling as overwhelmed as I was earlier in the piece. I know we will get there and the class will become more of a community.

Playing With Poetry with A.F. Harrold

I went to the 'Playing With Poetry' session with A.F. Harrold at the Sydney Writers Festival last weekend and had a fabulous morning banging out some poetry in response to the provided prompts. The other joy, of course, was hearing the writing of the other attendees - one of whom was just 17 years old - what a talent!

I happily scooped the hours up for my Maintenance of Accreditation at Proficient (thank you SWF!) and thought some of the activities would be great in the classroom! If you see A.F. Harrold out and about in Australia - try to get your students to his workshops as he writes for young people and runs school workshops, in England.

Nursery Rhyme Lipograms
Writing an entire novel without the letter 'E' as Ernest Vincent Wright did with 'Gadsby,' would be quite a task, but a Nursery Rhyme? Way more feasible! Nursery Rhymes are not exactly common childhood fodder these days, so mind that not every student will be able to recall one - in the session we couldn't either so we did a quick brainstorm and shared ideas. Several of us ended up writing the same Nursery Rhyme but this was fun when it came to reading out our verse.  This got me thinking about why the Nursery Rhyme worked for this activity - they're short, have a simple rhyme scheme, and utilise techniques like repetition. Students could possibly use the chorus from a favourite song.

1. Choose a Nursery Rhyme.
2. Decide which letter or vowel could be removed. Encourage students to challenge themselves - if there is only one 'U' in the entire Nursery Rhyme, for example, well that's no fun!
3. Write the Nursery Rhyme - give students the option of sticking closely to the original in rhyme and rhythm or keep some aspects if possible.

The Proverbial 
Having fun with words can come from engaging with well known proverbs.

1. Choose a proverb.
2. Change one of the words.
3. Consider the impact of this change - perhaps laugh or consider the profoundness of the new 'proverb.'
4. Remember, don't put all of your enemies in the one basket.

'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in...'
 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London is described as part documentary, part poetry, part catalogue recording the events of a weekend in Hackney. The focus of 'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London' is to capture the small details of the moment. Recording, memorialising, appreciating what we would probably not notice.

1. Choose a location for a 15-minute writing sprint.
2. Give students the option of writing free verse or perhaps begin with a list poem to locate students in the concrete detail before they move to abstraction. It maybe that they begin with a list, then edit with a focus on adding a simile and a metaphor or another rhetorical device.

The Story of a Button
The last activity in the workshop involved an object. We all closed our eyes and were handed an object. It was amazing just how much story was inspired by a little, tiny button.

1. To begin, hand each student a button. Ask them to consider how it feels, what it looks like, where it may have originated.
2. Zoom in on the button, describe it in one sentence.
3. Where is the button located? Move from concrete to the imagination. Write about what the button is attached to in three sentences.
4. Zoom out again, consider who is wearing the item or where the item is located. Write six sentences.

It was a fabulous morning all in all. It never ceases to amaze me how a blank page becomes a piece of creative work in just moments (first draft, obviously!). If you are interested in seeing A.F. Harrold's wonderful work, visit his website here.