Online again, astonishingly!

I hope this isn’t going to jinx myself, but after a few months of this app not working, I have updated everything – app, iOS, my work wardrobe – and finally it seems as though I am returning to the world of mobile blogging!

School holidays are over; in fact we teachers went back to work last Tuesday, and tomorrow sees the return of teeming hordes of freshly washed, shod and barbered boys to the hallowed halls of my workplace.

Actually that’s kind of ridiculous – my library is in the Junior School ie primary, so the halls are often crowded, somewhat noisy, and quite grubby by the end of the day! “Hallowed” generally doesn’t get a look in.

We had a very busy Professional Learning week, with lots of great sessions run by staff in the school. I’ve seen quite a lot of articles recently about in-house inservicing, and how powerful it can be in building a learning community, and I think that perhaps my school is making progress in that direction. I am also thrilled to say that I was able to help in that progress by assisting a fellow Teacher Librarian to present a small session on accessing our online Library services. We were a bit worried by the small turnout, but decided to assume that we were the victim of circumstances (ie 8am session on the Friday, when most people were trying to get their rooms organised for tomorrow). We have since sent out invitations to each minischool to come to a tailored version of the session and were very pleased to receive plenty of enthusiastic responses! I think this was a very effective lesson in Don’t Take It Personally – by trying again in a more flexible way we have been able to reach many more staff.

Professional Learning Week had lots going on:
* Differentiation through language, use of content in a variety of media, using technology to make content accessible, using technology to help students express their understanding
* Child Protection – Duty of Care – process to follow when something seems ‘not quite right’
* First Aid – I will forever more associate CPR with the rhythm of Staying Alive
* Backwards Design – I am a huge fan of this approach to instructional/ curriculum design
* Library staff meeting – we will be doing more with far less this year, so lots of challenges ahead
* Curriculum focus

(null)

And throughout it all, a major refrain was that our focus is on educating our boys – everything we do as teachers is about how we can help our students learn the skills, knowledge and attitudes that will shape them into young men we are proud to know.

I hope that I can contribute to that process of growth in some positive ways – I will certainly do my best to do so!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *