Interesting things I have learned lately

As humans are lifelong learners,

(see how I used pedagogical jargon there? There are educators who speak like this all the time... they are the ones who end up getting to charge $1000 for one day's consultancy/Professional Development to tell staff what they already know, in a way they haven't heard before... I'm not bitter: I'm practicing for becoming one.)

I have been thinking of some of the things I have learned lately.

1. How to play the notes of the C and D scales on the recorder.

2. Lizards like to eat snails. This is a picture of Louis the Lizard (blue-tongued) wearing a fetching snail shell hat.



3. The funniest, most childish game ever:
Locate someone far away.
Close one eye.
Make a pincer with your fingers so that the tips of your fingers look like they are holding their head.
Close fingers and say "squish" quietly.

haha!
























See? Ha!




4. Being a bit childish at home helps keep you young on the inside, and sane at work.

Posting, lest I rust...

My car is rusty. The hatch will fall off any day now, I'm sure of it. It also wants a new muffler, again, and two things called CV boots . And yet, instead of making the money, I am on holidays spending it.

I toyed with the idea of getting a second job today. Didn't last long. Besides, that's what American teachers have to do. They also have to teach outrageous class sizes, and if the Wire is accurate, have drug dealing thirteen year olds swearing at them and throwing chairs at them. Plus, they have security guards open the doors and the students go through metal detectors.

I've got it pretty good, akshully.

Sorry

It always seems trite to try to write snappy blog posts about big issues, and generally I shy away from it. But today was historic for Australians. So historic that I forgot to plan my lesson properly and assumed that, along with the other 20 million Australians, I would be able to easily stream the Prime Minister's sorry speech to the Stolen Generations from the internet. I would have brought historyinthemaking into relevantdiscussions. I would not have cried, but would have rejoiced with 18 starry-eyed teenagers about what good one little, heartfelt word can do.

But, when every website I tried froze after clicking 'listen' I locked the door to my office and wept.

Then I remembered why our Prime Minister was saying sorry and I wept.

Then I got on with my day.

I came home, after helping kids have their school photos taken, helping ADHD year eights sit down and finish a whole story, helping year nines learn about the 'Indigenous Resistance' section of their Australian History course, helping year tens learn about empathy for their 'To Kill a Mockingbird' course, and I watched the news.

When I finally saw footage of the 'throngs' at our capital cities and heard K-Rudd speak, I was so proud of us all that I had a little teary, and a nice glass of wine.

Sorry is the first step, and today I am proud.

Markings on walls

Yesterday my two little brothers came to be "looked after."

I gave them a day in the city, doing city things. We went to the museum, we saw an Imax film, we rode trams, we ate sandwiches in the park, we walked down Lygon St to buy icecreams and a coffee, and they noticed new stuff.

That's the part that I always hope I can help them with, the 'noticing.' I love what kids see, what they pick out as interesting, and how quickly they learn and form opinions. But it's an accidental goal; you hope it will happen, but can't plan for it.


For example, while walking to the tram,

"What are all those markings on things?"

"It's graffiti. People draw art on the walls, or sometimes just write their name."

"Why?"

"Well, if it's art they want to show people something, if it's their name it's to say they've been there; they think it makes them cool." [I believe sometimes it's okay to generalise grossly for children. When walking fast to catch the tram, for example.]

> brief conversation by both boys about where they draw art - art room, desk at home, etc<


"I'll never do that. Even the word, 'graffiti', it sounds like a bad thing to do."


Next time I'm going to show him Graffiti Ally in Fitzroy and some of the stencils around Brunswick. And maybe Banksy's Little Diver. Maybe he can make up a word that sounds better.

Dr Seuss as an alcoholic bibliophile

I will eat, drink and read on Christmas Day


I will eat, drink and read on a plane


I will eat, drink and read, it's not that hard

I will even do it in my backyard


Perfect cocktails:
#1 Grasshopper, Zealous Family recipe:
1 part creme de cacao
2 parts creme de menthe
2 parts cream
shake up really well with lots of ice
serve with nutmeg (sprinkled on top)

#2 Virgin Gin and Tonic over the sunset:
1 x UDL, makes four little cups. Drink really fast because they come to take your rubbish away after 20 mins of giving you the drink!

#3 Gin Cocktail. Modified from Hairy Canary's 'Sunset something-or-other...'
juice of 1/2 a lime
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 and 1/2... oh, go on, 2 shots of gin
1/2 shot of amaretto
a few drops of vanilla essence
shake well with ice

A Very Happy New Year

So far 2008 has been wonderful. It's probably the fact that summer holidays are so full of promise and the opportunity to do any-damn-thing I want, but there's also a lot to look forward to this year. I'm going 0.8 - so have a day off a week to concentrate on music, I'll be working in an office with just one other person, who is another young teacher and lots of fun, and I have some new choirs, music lessons, and a sports team on the go.

Christmas was sedate and lovely. I gave my little brothers mp3 players, so am Awesome Sister 3000. Was asked to put a photo of the Christmas tree onto one of the said mp3 players, so that he could "remember this day forever." I love that about Christmas; we aren't a religious family, but keeping up the magic of Santa and presents and special food is really important to me.

I finished the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. Amazing, amazing. I cried pretty much non-stop for the last 80 pages. Will maybe write more about these books, particularly the Amber Spyglass, when I'm sure that everyone I know who reads this blog (ie. My Mother) has finished them.

So, with Christmas over for another year,


(The Remember Forever Tree)

here's to the next year of living well, and happily.


(sunset at Hut Paddock, Mansfield)