So, I’ve finished for the year. An empty, messy classroom is oddly quiet in front of me. I remember standing here at the start of the year thinking alright, you can do this.
And I am thinking about the Hobbit movie – so excited, Ollie is going to Grans so we (hubby and me) can go to the movies on a date. Like a real life date. Think the last one we had was the football in June, and before that our anniversary last december. This links in well with a goal for 2015.
Things that went well
I got the hang of teaching boys. Will be better next year, and if anyone has a magic pill to stop them hitting each other I’d love some 🙂 But I really liked them in the end. It was definitely different teaching boys and girls (compared to just girls like I was used to), just a different energy and dynamic. Boys get into practicals so much more, my guess because they like to be out of their seats so much more.
Some positive change happened. Not necessarily always me driving it, but there are some exciting changes happening for next year, some around technology, some around thinking skills and some around behaviour management. So I’m looking forward to continuing to help as much as I can.
I established positive relationships. A rather grand way of saying I meet some ridiculously cool people, both in my new school, in the twitter/PLN/digital sphere and through some really cool meetings I got to go to. I also got a new appreciation for some of the staff I used to work with, which is cool. All of these super cool people are feeding in little tidbits I am hoping to be able to use to get better and better at what I do.
#scichatNZ. ‘Nuff said really. So super stoked it has come off and is becoming a healthy vibrant community.
Things to work on for 2015
Moving beyond the ‘tech’. I’m still not happy that I am getting enough depth with my learners and the activities I am doing. So this is going to be a big focus for me next year. I want to embrace SOLO for all of my classes and really get the thinking right. Then the right tool for the job won’t matter, and we will use the tools we have as best we can.
Making myself rewindable. I really want to get my blogs up and running for all my classes next year. The trial runs this year were pretty good, but there is more to do. Getting better with OfficeMIX will help this too :-). And not just for my classes – am looking at setting up a within school blog with tips, tricks and resources for teaching and learning.
Make better use of OneNote. This is linked in with school – but my whole department is going to have OneNotes for each class, so I’m going to have to make sure mine kicks arse 🙂 Also get onto notebook creator software etc.
Work life balance. It hasn’t been there this year. I always knew it wouldn’t be, shifting schools is a big task. But I have been frantic and have not spent enough time with my wee man. And I won’t get that time back again. So next year I am going to try and manage my time better so I get more quality time with him – and maybe the husband too. going on more than 2 ‘dates’ a year might help…..
But it has been a blast 2014!! I am ready for a rest though, and will be back with a roar for HoS in Jan and then the rest of 2015. Bring it
have a happy and safe holidays everyone
ibpossum takes on tech 