Category: teaching

Categories
Random thoughts teaching Work

36/52 On what affects our reputation the most

What we do is who we are, I think.

I teach school students… but I am not just a teacher. In my hours spent not in front of my students or with my colleagues, or planning or assessing, in my hours interacting with family and friends, who am I?

I am the person who thinks a certain way, who values particular things, and from these thoughts and beliefs, makes decisions and acts (or refrains from acting) on and in the world around me.

What I do reflects what I value; what I think.

The thinking comes first.

I think, therefore I am.

Our thoughts are pre-eminent. And yet: how often do we acknowledge them? When they are so influential on what we do and who we’ll become in the future?

I saw this the other day, and it’s left me quite reflective:

Here’s hoping my thoughts on the matter (Ha! See what I did there?) are of some value to you today, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn

Categories
#Springinyourstep momentous events teaching

35/52 Made it!

I wasn’t sure if I could… but Praise God who sustained me to reach this (school holiday) season!!!

Have a wonderful week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
teaching Technology

34/52 Snowed under

This post (or lack thereof, to tell the truth) is being brought to you by my marking load, which is currently threatening to overwhelm me 🙁

Reporting is due tomorrow.

Sigh. Who’d be an English teacher, huh? Lol

See you next week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
Random thoughts teaching Work

28/52 On the return to Term 3

Phew! What a week it’s been!

Yesterday morning, I drove Kiya, with Mum and her dog Trav, down to Brisbane for an appointment. It occurred to me that last Saturday morning (7 days earlier) I had also collected Mum… but instead, to go car shopping. We’d visited a quite rusty Suzuki Jimny, locally, before heading down to Brisbane to look at a 2020 version – which sold en route. We then pulled into Suzuki at Nundah, and ended up buying a brand new Ignis, before stopping at CostCo on the way back up the Coast.

This week was

  • the return to school (that’s right, I have a 0.9FTE teaching job as well)
  • the collection of Mum’s car on Wednesday
  • Miss 16’s trip to QldTransport to have her photo taken for her Learners
  • the (hopefully successful) migration of this website from one host to another
  • Miss 19 job-hunting and speaking with prospective employers, and finally
  • yet another big trip yesterday.

Today, I’m playing violin at church, then spending the afternoon with my parents and godfathers who are visiting from NZ.

Phew! again…

Hope it’s been a productive week for you, too, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune Review teaching Work

#BlogJune Day 14

So I’ve been an avid avoider of anything and everything AI related (as much as I’ve been aware, that is). But earlier this week, I attended a Webinar on ‘GenAI in schools’ and, from that, figured I should probably find out more for myself. Engage with it, at least, so I can be familiar with some of the concepts in the conversation… so I did.

Yesterday I discovered something amusing. I’m currently starting a unit on A Midsummer Night’s Dream with one of my classes, so to cut down on my workload I thought I’d ChatGPT some of the significant quotes in Act One.

So Act One has two scenes. Scene 1 shows Duke Theseus and others in Athens; Scene 2 shows a group of ‘mechanicals’ (actors) who are preparing to rehearse a play. Neither scene shows any of the fairies: Oberon (King), Titania (Queen) or Puck (mischief making sprite). But check this out:

See the explanation after each bolded quote? Oberon! Then Titania! And so then this happened:

Ha! Humans for the win right here! (Although I didn’t use question marks when asking my questions, so I feel like I’ve lost a bit of credibility there too…)

Still, have a winning day yourself, dear Reader 🙂

  • KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune teaching

#BlogJune Day 9

Gone 5pm and I still haven’t blogged. That’s ’marking time of term’ for you!

But I *did* get the time to walk Kiya just now… and check out the entrance to one of my neighbour’s properties!

The colours don’t do it justice, I’m afraid. God is so amazing the way He uses the colour palette He designed!

Here’s wishing you a colourful day as well, dear Reader!

  1. – KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune Blogging challenges teaching Work

#BlogJune Day 3

I left home at 6.45am. Arrived back at 6.15pm. That’s an 11 1/2 hour day, people!
No wonder I’m tired. And my photography skills aren’t as sharp. But hey, it is what it is 🙂

I hope your day was a shorter one, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching Technology

20/52 On accordions

I think I was about 10 when I decided I wanted to play the Piano Accordion. I did for a while, too! It was pretty cool 🙂

The other day, I was completing some online planning for work when I unintentionally hovered over a heading, prompting a notification. “Click to expand or collapse the accordion” it read.

Blink.

Accordion? What?

Since when is a menu, or downward facing arrow, or three dots (usually vertical, but not always) called ‘an accordion’?

But how apt! I love it.

I’m going to be using this phrase a lot more from now on. ‘Click to expand / collapse the accordion.’

Have an expansive week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching Work

11/52 On marking

It’s a lovely feeling when it’s done! But my current marking is still firmly in the ‘present’ tense, so when it comes to writing this blogpost I’m rather time-poor, I’m afraid.

So here’s a photo Mum found the other week – me when I was 5, in Bristol, England – for you to smile at:

and I’ll see you next week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Reading Review teaching Work

9/52 On reading

Books I’ve read recently:

H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. I figured it was time; that I should read it at least once in my life. And it *was* good. I can see why it was such an influential novel in its time… but it was the introduction by Orson Scott Card (in the version I was reading) which impressed me more in its insight and readability. He’s an impressive writer, Orson Scott Card!

The Joy Luck Club: I picked this one up because again, it was one of those “I should really read this at least once in my life” moments. Halfway down the first page, I realised I’d already read it, probably a decade or two ago now! And I’d enjoyed it… but seeing as time is fleeting, reading takes it up, and I’d already read it before: I finished the first chapter then skipped to the final chapter for a quick re-read before putting it down. It’s the mark of a brilliant writer, I think, that Amy Tan can make me cry in just those first and last chapters! Although maybe, being half-Asian myself, the story resonates with me more…?


Hangman’s Curse by Frank Peretti. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! The Christian overtones weren’t as ‘in your face’ as other Christian novels I’ve read, and as for the depiction of bullying in high schools: I don’t know if much (at all!) has changed in the intervening years since it was published in 2001.

And now: The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum. Considering his Bourne series has been one of my favourites since my teens, this is proving to be quite an easy read. Again: what a writer, huh?


And that’s it from me this week. Now I need to go and get through those class sets of draft marking which are waiting patiently for me!

Have a great week, dear Reader 🙂
⁃ KRidwyn