Breaking the procrastination cycle

Every assignment for every course I have procrastinated. Things like putting off starting, or scanning forums, following Facebook groups and even finding house work to do really slow me down. I read a great blog post from Mr Clancy titled My Assignment Secret. In this post Mr Clancy shared the idea of writing 300words a day, 5 days a week. This goal is very achievable and in fact can often be easily past, giving yourself a wonderful sense of achievement. I am absolutely going to implement this goal for my future assignments in all my courses. Thanks Mr Clancy for letting everyone in on your secret to success I am hopeful that it will help me break my procrastination cycle.

For further study tips students can follow this link from Charles Sturt University which breaks down all the aspects of study life and gives strategies of how to get through it.

Autism Awareness

As I read back over some of my fellow pre-service teachers blog posts I found Kailah’s post about April being  Autism Awareness month. I wasn’t aware of this so I followed the link she shared and gained some valuable information Autism. To relate this post to our ICT course I thought I might share a great link to a wide range of Apps for an IPad suitable for children age 2-12 with autism to use.

The apps are effectively organised into categories like Behavioural, Social skills, literacy, language, sensory, emotional, and more. Each category have an extensive list of apps available.

With the Australian education system moving away from segregation of students with disabilities and an increased value seen in inclusion, I am becoming more confident with the idea that I will be teaching students with special needs (although not my specification). For my own personal development I am trying to learn more about autism and how it affects students, families and teachers. Hopefully one day I will be able to put some of the apps in the link above into action.

Don’t forget April is Autism Awareness month so, go blue for autism!

Learning Journal Freak out

So I got my draft report for my learning journal for assignment two and it appears I am behind. ARGH!! I have been blogging constantly and linking to other students blogs, linking to other resources but apparently I haven’t done enough. I know I am behind in the moodles but I plan on doing a moodle marathon over the long weekend.

I read Jodie Howards and in this post she bought my attention to the fact the when linking to other blogs we need to make sure we are linking to their specific blog post and not the blog reader page. I have gone back through my posts and checked on all my links. Hopefully once the assignment is submitted everything is up to date

The Foundation to learning

I could not agree more with the idea that what lays the foundation to learning is the relationship between students and teacher. I can not wait to be a teacher and with every prac I feel like this is what I was born to do. When I read Mr Clancy’s blog post “No significant learning occurs without it” he shared a ted talk by Rita Pierson Every kid needs a champion. What an inspirational video! After reading his blog I found that Mr Clancy and I share similar values in what is important to teaching and learning. I can honestly say that one day when I am finally blessed with a class full of students I aim to be their champion.

I can remember in my own schooling having teachers that came, taught the lessons and left and on the other hand I remember teachers that truly believed in me (or at least they were good at pretending to). Academically I excelled in the classes where the student teacher relationships were strong and supportive.

I can not wait to put this idea into practice.

Future Champion.

Lest We Forget

Every Anzac Day I find myself getting extremely emotional. To my knowledge I don’t have any real close connection with any soldiers who served but I just genuinely feel sad for what those young men and women went through in those times. I must admit every year when I am at the march I am the one with tears rolling down my cheek as the old boys roll by waving out the car windows. These men were someone’s brother, son, husband or soulmate and what they endured was horrendous.

As I study my Bachelor of Education (Primary) I wonder how I can educate my junior primary students about Anzac Day giving the Anzacs the respect they deserve but without overwhelming them with sadness. It’s not as though the little ones would cope with watching the movie Gallipoli as it is far too graphic and confronting for their emotional development at this age. Though the film is ground breaking in its deliverance of an un-sugar coated portrayal of what these poor men went through it is far more suited for children 15+.

I want to be able to show the seriousness on a level that they can comprehend. When searching for resources I remembered Kailah’s blog  post titled Anzac Day activities. Through the link she shared I found numerous books like;

Anzac Ted

My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day

but then I struck gold with the following clip/short film about two young boys as they grow up and then go off to war. Sadly only one of them return and it still made me teary but the clip would be appropriate to deliver the Anzac story to junior primary school students. It shows the spirit of the Anzacs (courage, mateships and sacrifice).

Take a look and see if you agree

Jack and Tom

Play in Prep

My daughter just turned 5 and is in Prep this year. She is a strong minded, confident, sometimes sassy little girl. Some say she is a natural born leader and at the same time she is caring, sensitive and creative. When sending her off to school this year I was anxious about how she would settle in. Socially and emotionally I felt she was ok but academically all she wanted to do was play.

Of course she wanted to play! She was 4…only 4 and still has so much to learn through play. Her teacher and teacher aide are fantastic, and a strong supportive teaching team. They have so much pressure on them and so many bench marks to meet that there is not much time for play. Aside from lunch breaks they “Play” in the afternoon session on a Friday and this is only if all their weekly work is complete. This blog post presents an interesting argument about play.

Why is Australia getting it so wrong??

Last year they moved the cut off date for entry into prep from the end of June to the 31st of July. These kids are still babies, our babies are expected to sit still and follow instruction for long periods of time when they should be climbing trees, or developing maths concepts through playing shops, or experiences texture through making mud pies.

We ought to take a lesson from Finland! Their students don’t start school until the age of 7, they have a mandatory 15min free-play break and

In the dark

After a terrible run of sickness I am finally starting to get back on track. I’ve nearly caught up with the moodles and have started blog posts again. My attention has been drawn not only to Assignment 2 but, also prac is looming just around the corner. Unlike Jodie who rights in her blog post Professional Experience, that she knows her school, her class, her teacher and has even been able to organise a meet and greet, I am still very much in the dark.

I loved it when we could organise our own schools for placement as I would organise face to face meetings well in advance and be very organised well ahead of time. Now prac starts in just a few short weeks and I have so much to organise but none of which I can do until I know where I’m placed.

Hubby will be away at work during prac and I have two primary school students to organise, one of which is an elite gymnast that trains an hour away, for 3 hrs at a time, 4 times a week.

Seriously considering hiring a nanny! Has anyone had any experience with nanny services? Would a nanny drive an hour to drop my son to gymnastics? Hmmmm just wish I knew where I was going to be so I could sort it all out.

I don’t like being the dark and wish the prac office could share some light.

Disconnect!

What better way to see how reliant you are on digital technology than to be put in a position where you cannot access it.

During the Easter break my family and I went away camping. We camped at an unpowered site in an area with no phone or internet coverage. “How were we to survive?” I asked myself. My 8yr old son even said in the car on the way, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do this mum” to which I replied “Do what?” and he said “Last 4 days without my IPad”.

Surprisingly we made it through but here are two things I noticed in the process:

1. I spend way too much time on Facebook. The first day I found my self frequently reaching for my phone to post photo’s of what we were up to, or to check what my sister in law was up too, or to send out ‘Happy Easter’ wishes to the family in other states.
2. When the children don’t have their technology to entertain them they create their own fun. They fished, kayaked, skied, skimmed rocks, rode their bikes, covered themselves in mud after the rain, the built bush forts and never once moaned that they wanted IPad time.

When we were there we were in the moment, experiencing every minute with each other for each other. I wasn’t posting on Facebook for acknowledgement or justification I was just being present. After the trip as soon as we reached a service area I was compelled to check my notifications of which I had 96, but after that I decided that checking it every 10 mins was not necessary. I had just lasted 4 days without notifications, emails, ipads, television, even an electric jug and saw great benefits to myself and my family in doing so.

So I went home and researched strategies to disconnect and stumbled across this blog post. It gives 3 simple ways to disconnect each day:

1.Forbid phones from the bedroom

2. Eat without Electronics and

3. Go on a phone fast.

Have a read if you have the time. I must admit that implementing these strategies has helped me to simplify my life and live more in the moment. I have more time to focus on my family and my study.

All in all it was a great holiday and a great lesson learnt.