Weebly Website

As promised the link to the website we did....
Understandingfracking.Weebly.Com

Please keep in mind it was done with grade 9/10's in mind and it is my first of this ever!

My South Africa

In class we were given a list of statements of hope starting with "My South Africa".

Well, my thoughts...
My South Africa as a little girl is wide open space, and grasslands, telephone lines along the long long road between Pretoria and Cape Town. A place of beauty and blue skies.

My South Africa is the Xhosa cleaning lady that cleans for free and leaves bread for the kids of the white divorcee not able to make ends meet - Eastern Cape long before 1994.
A place of care.

My South Africa is the black gardener that works faithfully and continue to show respect to the white women of the house, letting his actions speak as an example.  A place of respect.

My South Africa is the place where a boy from Ghana works as a gardener, puts himself through Bible school and becomes a pastor to the people of the local township. His efforts rewarded with a wife and two beautiful babies and more.  A place of opportunity.

As a child, that was my South Africa....I was blind to hardships beyond measure of life in a shack and not having food to eat.  A place of hardships and discrimination. ...it only became that with education.

Let us not teach children how to discriminate, when they have no idea what that is, but let us not remain children, blind to the truth and pain of others.

UNPLANNED

So this was UNPLANNED.... I learned how to create a website with Weebly.  Yes it was part of an assignment.  In this year a very few things are not.  

In any case, I thought I could do this the normal way, PowerPoint or something that I already know how to use (use a blog  - you have everything you need on there....) no, not this time.

  

So I set myself to the task and "googled it".  Well it was much easier than I thought and I had too much fun doing it.  Too much, yes, too much, because I have 3 other, no make that 4 other assignments due next week and I am spending way to much time finding the right pictures and placing them just so....that everything looks A1.  Don't look now but give us a few more days and then I will post a link to the site.  NOT bad ek se, not bad at all.  

Something else I did not plan on or anticipate was the fact that I had to write my personal vision as a teacher in an assignment (due of course next week).  Well a personal vision is not something I have in my back pocket, and not something I develop in a week. Don't get me wrong, I am not without vision, but due to the nature of this year vision has been well, very much in a state of flux.  

And vision was also very much replaced by a to do list.  Keeping up with assignments and responsibilities.

I need at least a week in a cabin in the wilderness, the Fynbos around me, a lot of quiet, the sandstone rocks and sand under my feet, and the sea on the horizon to develop a good vision.

Something that will keep me focused during my first years as a teacher.  That will inspire not just myself, but also my students and colleagues.  Something that, without having to state it, will show parents that I mean business when it comes to their children's education.  That is what I expect of a vision.  A statement that will keep expecting from me to produce my best; not to give up and to get up when I get knocked down.  I few words that reminds me to keep an attitude of gratitude, a smile on my dial and a prayer in my heart.

To be the best version of me that I can possibly be. To care, to dare, to share.

To pray, play and pay my dues.  To dance, take a chance and to advance. To be, to become and to believe.

Eleanor Roosevelt said it this way:  

Fish Bowl!

So I did my first Fish Bowl lesson.  I think all of us that has done this can agree with me the set of mixed emotions is as varied as the fish in the sea.  Everything from nerves, tears, sweat, fear, anticipation, excitement and exhilaration.  For some it was a pure thrill and for others ... torture?

Where ever someone rated themselves on this emotional scale, one thing was noticible through out the building - adrenaline!

And in the moments or even days after (depending on your personal style of course) REFLECTION....
that is the name of the game.

What worked; what did not fly and why not; and on and on we evaluate ourselves and our peers.

Let's just keep our eye on the ball.  Teaching is for learning; even though we are learning to teach.

Instructions to teachers

Instructions to teachers in 1872
....This is just too good not to post.

Source:  http://wced.pgwc.gov.za/ministry/speeches/DeVilliersGraaffHighSchoo-140th-anniversary.html

These instructions include:

1. Teachers will fill lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks each day.
   
   
2. Each teacher will bring a scuttle of coal and a bucket of water for the day's use.
   
   
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs for the individual tastes of children.
   
   
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
   
   
5. After ten hours in school, the teacher should spend the remaining time reading the bible or other good books.
   
   
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in other unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
   
   
7. Every teacher should lay aside from his pay a goodly sum for his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
   
   
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents a pool or public hall, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason for suspecting his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty.
   
   
9. The teacher who performs his labors faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents a week in his pay providing the board of education approves.

#PGCEmix Interview part 3

I think I am ready for my first dry run.....
Testing my questions on classmates.

Watch this space for the results.

Nervous, not so much, just excited to see how it will go.  I also enlisted the services of an classmate to help record the interviews and if I "graduate" to the next phase I will progress to video.  (Taking baby steps here.)

The material on the internet that I worked through were very helpful and there are some great learning opportunities available.  Some sites include support as well.

I did read a bit about the setting up of questions, (open ended, humoristic, content appropriate) and about doing interviews in person or over email or phone.  I think I prefer to do in person interviews, especially because I would like to be able to get to know the people I interview a little better and a phone or email is just too impersonal.  Sure there is some valid reasons for using other options.

About 12 questions - open and closed ended. Tounge in cheek and  tell it as it is. The test will be in how they do with the actual interview, and of course how I put that into writing. 


Will you find it interesting?


http://jonahenry.com/embrace-ignorance/

#PGCEmix - learning to do an interview part 2

Polar bears should always be interviewed in person.



hhttp://thewritepractice.com/why-interview-anyone-at-all/ttp://thewritepractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Polar-Bear3.jpg

What did I learn today?

Conceptual thinking : classical conditioning :  behavioural modifications ....

Closed vs open ended questions.... or "Guess what is in my mind questions...."

Mmm

Reflection. ...
Not all days are "woop woop good",  but that does not mean it was a bad day.

Stuggeling with a problem brings a greater reward when you succeed and often better recall.

And you will succeed.... cause it's not that hard.

Just breathe

Focuss

Work hard

Rest

And if you don't no - find out

#pgcemix I want to learn...

I want to learn how to conduct an interview with a public figure and write it as an article.

This is something I wanted to do for a while and this assignment is my opportunity to "get on with it".

Let me start with a strategy:

• Google, read and set up some questions.
• Do some interviews to practice and gain some experience. I will need some guinea pigs.  (Surely among my class I there will be some bribe-able candidates.)
• Next I will also visit the journalistic department and see if I can glean from them.
• Then, if I am brave enough, I will seek out a public figure or two to interview.

Sounds like a plan to me.

I recall...

I recall my first semester exam in first year at US.
In total panick I phone mom (still using a ticky box) and well she reads between the lines and realise I was not doing well at all.  My predicates were all 40, 40... and my mind was saying ..."on half the work you only scored 40, how are you going to get 60 on double the volume work..?!" 

The more I procrasternate the worse it gets.  So I eventually get to ABC (apply bottom to chair) and just as I get into a work flow... Mom shows up.  She drove through from home  30 minutes to come and see me in my hostel.   "Let's go for ice cream" was her solution.

I passed that semester by the skin of my teeth. ("My basvelle het agter gebly." )

The following exams and years went better.   I even continued to do Honours.

I'll get through this too - Just wish Mom was here to .... love me.

Pressure and procrasternate.

Looking at my homework and trying to decide what to start with, where to begin ...feelings flood over me.  Emotions, no more specificly, fearful feelings, feelings I have not felt since my first year varsity in 19**.
Overwhelmed, a mountain of work... but I have to balance the old and the new.
FOCUS!!!!
But the pressure has pushed me into overrdrive and instead I procrasternate a little bit more and write.

(Continued ..."I recall"...)

What is Digital Pedagogy?

Art, Education, Learning, Caring, Insight, Skills, Knowledge, Choice, Digital

YOU DECIDE - WHAT HOW WHERE AND WHEN.

All you know is what you see

All you know is what you see - until you start too ask questions.
But what will you ask?

How are you?
What's up dude?
Or even
What is your name?
(And if you are like me you forget that name faster than it was said!)

We are stuck to know only what we see, until we ask?

I would like to ask - "What makes you tick?", but generally people don't know how to respond to that.
So instead I'll ask "  " and they say " " and so on untill hopefully I get to a bit of insight as to who this person really is or would like me to believe they are cause we all play a masking game of sorts. 

So untill I ask the right question you only say what you think I want too hear or what you think I can handle.

Don't you?

I know I do.

Back to the future

Sometimes we need to take a few steps back before we can move forward.  Get a little perspective on things.  In other cases it's not just a few steps, but what may feel like a mile or more.
Coming back to university after a 20 year gap really feels like moving back in time.  Some things just do not change...students are students...and the student cafeteria is a noisy place.  (Am I moving back as person, falling behind in the plan?) In sharp contrast so much did change, in the environment and in me. 

The future is all around me, and so is the past. I reach towards the future amidst flashbacks from the past. Will I shake the shackles off or will the flood of memories drown me and pull me back ... and back wards?

NO! The future sparkles with newness, excitement and hope....
I guess I've made my choice.

Pieces of me

A piece here a piece there.   Like a puzzle I hope that they all fit together.  

Sometimes these pieces accentuate and enhance each other.  Sometimes I just don't know where some pieces fit.  BUT the hardest of all is when two pieces seem to shout against each other.  No matter how much I try I cannot seem to understand how they can be part of one me.  In pure desperation I try to make them fit.  Hide them or chisel parts away. 

Yes I do confess at times I HATE some of these pieces and we all know that hate is a very negative emotion and hating myself (even if its just a piece) is just simply destructive.

Do you love you?  All of you?

Well, thing is, sometimes when I let a piece allone for a while I suddenly see its true colour.  Then it falls into its place effortlessly.  And sometimes I turn that piece over and see that it does not carry the stamp of authenticity- and I can toss it! To the bin- it never was a part of me.

Either way - peace and love restored!

Do you see me?

Do you see me? Where I clean the bathrooms or remove the rubbish.  As I hand you your change from behind the cash register do you notice my polite smile.  Or does your world only exist of you?

Ah don't think I'm accusing you. I sometimes do it too. Mindless paying no attention to the people around me.

Just think about it a little, how many "invisible" people are there in your world.   Doing things behind the scenes in order for you to enjoy the life you live. Take a minute and make a list. 

Then say "Thank you"

Do you dare to look?

When you look in the mirror what do you see?

Do you dare to look at your reflection?  Not just the outward appearance the physical "flaws".  Are your eyes to close together or your nose too big?  To see yourself you have to look past the make up and the hairdo.  You have to dare to look at you and see.  See all of you the good and the bad.

Dare to look - but remember to take off the glasses you have been wearing all your life.

When you look in the mirror what do you see?

Home Ground

Where do you come from?  And where are you going...?

Do you know who you are?  Do you know who or what you want to be?

Do you know your areas of gifting, your talents and abilities?
Do you know your weaknesses and values?
What makes you angry?
What makes you late?
What makes you laugh out loud and what makes you cry?

If you don't know who you are, how do you expect to even start  getting to know me?