Positive Linky Party

Hi,
I found a linky party that I wanted to join and so I did!  If you don't know how the Linky Party concept goes read on...A blogger comes up with topic/question and blogs about it then invites fellow bloggers to link up to the post and comment on the topic or answer the discussion question as well.  There might be a prize or some other form of incentive.  What I like best about Linky's is that at the end of it all, you end up with a great list of links to blogs all commenting on the same topic.  You also might see new blogs and get a chance to explore their other posts.  There is also the added bonus of some free promotion, as you contribute to the Linky and your name is at least noticed by a bunch of other bloggers who may just like you and come back to visit or even promote you to their own followers.  That's that then.

The question on our minds is "What went right today?" As this is a teacher Linky Party the focus is on teachers and students.  As I am currently on our Easter Break (Australian Teacher) I am thinking back to the last two days of term.  The gracious host of this most positive of Linky's is the Confessions of a Teaching Junkie author.  Click the link below to visit the original post and see the list of other party go-ers!  My response is below. 

http://confessionsofateachingjunkie.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/what-went-right-today-linky-party.html

:) I would love to hear about your "positives" of late... even if you are not a teacher!
M

What did I do today?

A very good question.

• Slept in
• Started a Harry Potter Marathon
• Checked email
• Chatted online with a friend
• Blogged (twice)
• Cooked a Pasta and Tuna Bake Thing
• 5 loads of washing
• Caught up on blog reading
• Browsed on Pinterest
• Googled (I'm not telling what)
• Had about a million brilliant teaching ideas
• Promptly forgot about 999 999 of them!
• Stetched
• Contemplated the remainder of my holidays
• Dishes
• Contacted the union
• played WordDrop on my phone (very important).

Considering my day is not yet over, I am hoping that this little list of mine will get longer.  We shall see.

Shortlist Announced!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned that this year, 2012, is the  National Year of Reading in Australia.  NYR12 is the reason that my blog reading list has swelled to number blogs in the twenties.  I'm not sure if this is a big number by regualr standards, but we all know that I am not regular!

To the point... I am very excited that the Children's Book Council of Australia has released the shortlist for their Annual Book of the Year Awards!!! I am also excited that I am familiar with a few of the author's and have at least heard of half of them.   
You can follow this link: http://networkedblogs.com/vX3yH to view the list.  I found it on the Children's Book Review blog so I'm sure there will be additional information including reviews of the shortlisted books. 

I found it interesting that at least two of the books are linked to currect Australian Curriculum Units.  There may be more, however I am only familiar with year 8 and 9 English units and frankly, that is quite enough. 

Happy Reading!
:) M

Getting the Teacher's Attention

I seem to be struggling with my "titles" lately.  Don't you just love Irony?!

Despite gaining a permanent position in a secondary school.  I am a primary school teacher at heart.  My brain works like that of a primary school teacher and I will not apologise for that.  In fact, I was originally hired for my primary school brain.  Much like most primary school teachers, I spend at least some of my holiday working on resources for my classroom.  I made these lovely "attention grabbers" during my last holiday.  I haven't posted them until now, because I wanted to use them in my classroom first.   I planned on giving you an overview of my creation process, but you will probably come up with your own way of doing things.  Also, I think you should be able to figure it out simply by looking at the pictures. 

I developed this resource after a bit of Pinterest browsing and a number of discussions with our head of middle school.  It seems odd, but I think she is a "primary school teacher" at heart as well.  I haven't really found a good name for these yet, so suggestions would be nice.  The kids call them "our plates". 

Anyway, here goes...

Students have these flip books on their desks during independent working time.  I (the teacher) move around the room helping students who need assistance.  Students begin with their green "page" (plate) facing up.  This signals to me that the student is working well and feeling confident.  If I see a yellow "page" I know that the student is okay, but would like me to check something.  Either they are finished and want to make sure they have completed everything correctly before moving on, or they need some reassurance.  The red plate, is my favourite. A red "page" means "HELP. NOW. I'M STUCK!"

Introducing this strategy with teenagers is very different to working with children in the early years.  I decided that my year 9 students would respond more positively to humour.  So, I made it a bit of a joke.  Green means "Go Away Miss, I'm fine."  Yellow means "When ya got a minute, can ya check on me please?"  Red means "AAAHHH, Get over here NOW!  I think I'm dying."  Hopefully you can imagine the joking tone in my voice, the loud come backs from the kids and the smirk on my teacher aid's face. 

The plates are now a part of our daily routine and if I forget, the kids remind me... "Miss, can we have our plates please?" 

i don't have a great title

I don't know how to label this... so I won't.

There have been a miriad of F words in my life of late. 
Frustration
Fear
Final
Friend
Foe
Friendless
Feedback
Form
Feel
File
Fast
Futile
Fragile
Fight
Failure
Fix
Flex
Foundation
Fundamental
Fish
Find
Follow
Forget

These are obvioulsy in no particular order.  The other F word is the naughty one.  It has been used by the young people in my life.  One student decided to insert a pile of "F" words into a page of notes that I asked him to take down.  He was angry with me that day, because I changed the seating plan and did not allow him to sit at the back of the room.  Another child wrote it backwards on the outer window of my classroom so that my students would be able to read it without straining.  I reprimanded him of course... but I had to tell him how impressed I was with his spelling.  Another incident of "F" words was a youngin' texting it to his big brother in frustration.  You see the big bro was teasing him.  He didn't like it and instead of saying "stop I don't like it" the way grown ups tell him to, he chose to call him an F head.  I have to admit I was also impressed with his spelling, as I know how he struggles.  I will get back to my rant about "Stop I don't like it" later. 

There is really very little point to my titleless rant today, except to say, that the letter F has been at the Forefront (two f's) of my mind.  There must be a reason for that... I just don't know what it is. 

Fare thee well