Please Mr Andrew’s, let us remote teach…

Posted on July 11, 2020 by Dave GN

I know, it has been a long while since this blog was use. All my subscribers have left. Life got in the way, as it so often does.

I live in Melbourne. I teach at a wonderful Government school here in the Eastern Suburbs. I have been there 5 years a bit now and love my job. Not as much as I used to, because I can’t actually do my job at the moment, due to the global pandemic (you may have heard about it……..). The Job I am doing is making the best of a situation, but it is beginning to feel like I am being sacrificed and unnecessarily risked.

The news over the last few days have made me physically ill. Literally, I am so stressed and worried my stomach is playing up. The idea of returning to school, under these circumstances has made me too things; outraged and terrified.

The idea that the government is so willing to risk my health and those of my family, by making all schools go to remote learning, to achieve the purpose of making it “fair” for year 12s is absolute bullshit. Guess what Dan, the scores are not going to matter, as the Uni’s have already lost 50% of there enrolments due to no international students; there will be spaces if you bloody well fund them! You want to talk about fair, think of my kids who could lose a parent (as we are both teachers) or a sibling because we were forced back to work, when it was something we could do from home, like you keep saying – if you can work from home you must work from home.

Social distancing at schools is not physically possible – you built the schools that way, look at your own blueprints. Ask any damn teacher who was there last term, and it was a joke of a concept, we couldn’t truly enforce, which is why the government said, “social distancing does not apply to students while at school”.
1. Yes, kids appear to be resilient to the virus, but teachers are not – we are adults and like other adults – we should be avoiding contact with everybody for fucks sake, as per the advice previously mentioned.

Remote teaching worked last time. It was painful. It sucked. It sucked for teachers, it sucked for parents, and it sucked for teachers who were parents (probably even more). I hated every minute of it. It was not the job I signed on to do and not something I would ever do again, unless necessary. It was hard – I worked harder than I every have. My wife and I will testify to this in court if need be; we spent 8 hours a day remote teaching, managing a 7-year old’s remote learning, providing childcare for our 18-month-old, plus normal household duties. Then after the kids were in bed, on average, we would each spend another 3 or 4 hours doing the work we could not do with our own kids under foot – marking, providing feedback, prepping lessons etc.

We tried remote teaching from onsite for two weeks before the students came back. All it did was make me depressed and worried; raised my general anxiety levels to new heights; cause me immeasurable stress; and overall made me worse at remote teaching and less productive in general.

Look this is a rant, but I need to express my feeling and thoughts about this. I want the world to return to what it was; I want to teach again, in the classroom, not worrying about getting sick or making my family sick. BUT that is not possible at the moment, we are in a global pandemic. That is the reality of 2020 and life for the immediate future.

What do I want moving forward? I want to do my job, without be lied to or being asked to do something that endangers my family. I work as a teacher. Not a doctor, not a nurse, not a soldier and not a cop. I am not a babysitter, though often treated like one. I am an educator. I should be able to do my job without jeopardizing my health or safety or that of my family. I want to remote teach from offsite, so that I can do the best job I can, working with the least amount of stress and fear possible; I want to keep Mickey and Lachie safe. I do not think it fair that I will have to risk them in care, when we have other options, that worked last time.

Please let us teachers go back to remote learning, Mr Andrews. Let us do the jobs you pay us for without risking our health and that of our family’s.

Exploring 3D Printing for Schools

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Dave GN

So over the break, I did some playing and learning about 3D printers. There are two aspects to them really – the software you use and the printer hardware itself. This is a summary of my notes, thoughts and current understanding of the things.

Software
Software is actually easy. There are 2 parts to the software; Design Software and Control Software. There is basically 3 parts to 3D printing something;

Design it
Slice it – this is the process of taking your 3D object and cutting it into the layers that will be printed. Some software to control the printer will do this, sometimes it is done in the design software. Almost all printers use the same file type for output to actually print from. It’s called G-code. Simply put you have software, that renders whatever you want into this code, which is then used by the printer. Almost ever printer will read gcode.
Control your printer

Design Software

This is what you draw/model in.

Great place to start is TinkerCAD. – free and online

https://www.tinkercad.com/

after that, there are lots and lots of options.

Blender – free
Fusion 360 (autodesk) – free for schools * one I am learning at the moment.
Sketchup
Archicad (free for teachers. not sure for students)
OpenSCAD
Sculptris
netFabb

Control Software

This is the software that configures the settings of your printer. Most printers are configure in the file you save – they are not directly controlled live by the computer, unless you want to set it up that way.

Cura – this is the most popular control software out there, from what I understand. Open source and free.

https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software

Pronterface – another very popular one.

http://www.pronterface.com/

Hardware

There are lots of options out there, but the important thing I have learnt, is that most printers are created equal, at least below the $1000 mark. It seems to be all about the follwing things;

resolution
heating bed
number and type of extruders
Bed size

There are lots of options and lots of brands. From what I gather, almost everything is the same, when it comes down to the basic parts.

At this stage, I’m not going to get into specific discussion about specific brands; I want to be general at the moment.

In schools, we have 4 things to primarily consider with 3D printer Hardware;

Printer Cost
Printing Material Cost (filament)
Ease of Repair
Print Time

Costs – let face it, we are schools. We have limited funds and want those funds to be spent wisely. A wiz bang printer that will print metal or use a liquid resin medium, would be very cool, but in all honesty, students would most likely never end up using it for anything.

You want to be able to use generic generic parts. You want to be able to repair it yourself and do it quickly; the thing will break. But a few weeks at a repair shop (even under warranty) will destroy a unit of work that is using it.

You want to be able to use generic filament. Some models use special spools and special filament. I recommend looking for one that uses 1.75mm filament, as it is the easiest to buy.

You only need to be print in basic materials – ABS, PLA, PVA. Everything else is a bonus, and quite possibly will never be used, at least by students, as the cost can be prohibative.

See http://3dprintingfromscratch.com/common/3d-printer-filament-types-overview/ for a good guide to the different filament types. There are lots more than listed, but it is a great start to them.

You also want to ensure that your printer will support (physically) the filament roll size you buy; as a 1KG roll will not work on a printer that only supports 500g.

Print Time – this is basically about how long things take to print. A general rule, is that it will potentially take a few hours. The videos you see of things printing, are almost always sped up. 3D printing takes time. There are two ways to speed up printing – lower the print resolution or use multiple extruders.

One advantage of multiple extruders, if they are independent of each other, is that you can print multiple projects at the same time on some models.

* good place to note, read the specs carefully – there are printers that have multiple extruders (dual extruders) and printers that print with multiple materials (sometimes called dual material) printers. They are not the same thing!

My Meandering Thoughts on Curriculum for Digital Technologies 2018 – Part 1

Posted on November 10, 2017November 10, 2017 by Dave GN

As 2017 begins to wind up, I am begin to plan 2018. I am looking forward to 2018, I have a new curriculum project; Year 8 IT under the Victorian Curriculum. This just seems completely and utterly ordinary, until you take into the consideration that this course is for a group of year 8 that spent half of last year learning to coding. I know, I know…………. Still not really something to be excited about. But I am!

The 2018 Year 8s will be the first cohort of students I have worked with that already have done a significant amount of coding and are not necessarily starting at a zero knowledge starting point. The downside, is I am writing an entirely new course from the ground up, but that is not new to me. I have energy around this piece of curriculum development.

As an aside, I also am reworking my year 9 Game Development Course, my Year 10 Visualisation and Web Design course, and my Year 10 Software Development Course, but these are more tweaks and will retain much of their cores.

But at the moment, I am thinking about Year 8 and playing with a few ideas !

I am lucky enough to be at a school who is a member of the catchment for the first Victorian Tech School Centre to open, taking my classes to complete many design challenges over at YRTS (Yarra Ranges Tech School). I have been involved in the development of their programs and have worked closely with their team from a teaching and learning perspective. I’m a member of their Educational Consultation Committee. The programs they are running and developing are great, and have influenced my perspective on how we can engage students in Computing.

In the past week, I have revisited the aims of the Digital Technologies Victorian Curriculum

The Digital Technologies curriculum aims to ensure that students can:

design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs
use computational thinking and the key concepts of abstraction; data collection, representation and interpretation; specification, algorithms and development to create digital solutions
apply systems thinking to monitor, analyse, predict and shape the interactions within and between information systems and the impact of these systems on individuals, societies, economies and environments
confidently use digital systems to efficiently and effectively automate the transformation of data into information and to creatively communicate ideas in a range of settings
apply protocols and legal practices that support safe, ethical and respectful communications and collaboration with known and unknown audiences.

This revisit adjusted my perspective and thinking it seems. New terms become more prominent; my interpretations have been tweaked or changed. I think I have been too focused on the technical aspects from the scope and sequence, and not enough on the aims.

This adjustment has changed the contextual curriculum focus. To me, Digital Technologies is no longer just a technical subject, but a subject that is about application of the technical in order to do something tangible with it. I know that sounds like the same thing, but it really is not, at least in the meandering thought process that I am currently exploring. I will attempt to explain.

Digital Technology needs to be about designing solutions to problems; taking the technical tools of coding and applying them to a problem to create a solution. It’s about creating digital solutions while at the same time expanding a student digital tool box to allow them to develop their solutions. It’s the old chicken vs egg argument; which came first? We need to develop skills to solve problems by looking at the problems that need skills for solutions. We need to both develop the solution and learn the tools needed at the same time.

My thinking so far has taken me down the road into the realm of incorporating a range of robots into the year 8 course. Consumer lever robots, like the sphero, mbot or ringo2, allow you to access coding at a level that is very basic, but can be extended to a very complex level, while the whole way providing a platform that has tangible results at regular intervals. I’m thinking of making the course (or at least a part of it) a team challenge exercise – they have to research and design a solution to the challenge.

I think robots, can potentially provide the platform that bridges the digital to physical classroom gap. It can take coding to a place where it becomes “real” in a way that is difficult to achieve.

I shall have to think, and write more on this at it develops. What out for Part 2 and beyond!

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Posted on July 9, 2017July 9, 2017 by Dave GN

(or why the Head of [ insert faculty] is going to my hit me in the back of the head)

I have been prepping recently for my first every presentation at a conference. I have been lucky enough or maybe crazy enough to be giving a presentation at Digicon 2017 (http://digicon.vic.edu.au/). It seemed like a good idea at the time (still does, just with a lot more trepidation and anxiousness), but I thought it would be fun to share with my colleagues, what I am doing with ICT at my school. Thus I came up with this (caution, self-promotion in hyperlink below);

BUILDING ICT TEACHING CAPACITY FOR THE VICTORIAN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES CURRICULUM

At Mooroolbark College, when the new Victorian Curriculum in Digital Technologies, was introduced we realized that there were two major hurdles to overcome. Firstly, a knowledge gap in terms of coding/programming; the 7-10 curriculum is based on students having completed the F-6 curriculum, which won’t happen for the next 3-5 years effectively. Secondly, where are we going to get ICT teachers from, that can teach this curriculum? This presentation is about one school’s solution to this dilemma; how we are training teachers to code so they can teach year 7s and 8s confidently and effectively, so they are curriculum ready by year 9. This is my and Mooroolbark College’s story about this so far, and hopefully a forum to share our experiences with others.

http://digicon.vic.edu.au/sessions/building-ict-teaching-capacity-for-the-victorian-digital-technologies-curriculum/

I wanted to call my presentation “Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks” but was told that, despite being funny, it is not professional to ever refer to colleagues, even metaphorically or as an idiom, as “Old Dogs”, even if I love dogs. Despite this, the name still lives in my head, and now due to this blog, on the internet. LOL.

A week of holidays has passed, and I will admit that I am nowhere near ready yet. I have put in a few hours of work and thought on this, but I am struggling finding the words. My principal recently told me that sometimes, when it comes to ICT, be it pedagogy or teacher practise, people have trouble getting their heads around the concepts or ideas that I am trying to explain.

She advised me, that it is not that I speak to fast or use too technical language, it is that they (those who I explaining too) often don’t have the ICT knowledge or experience to put things into a context where the ideas make sense. The whole “context” thing is a new challenge for me. I guess being at the bottom of the change pile not the agent of change that I have become (not my words, but I will steal them Rach!) has given me a tendency to forget that not everyone has the same context when it comes to ICT in education. This contextual difference, is what has me stuck at the moment.

The idea of context is why I think, that metaphorically speaking, another Faculty Head is going to hit me in the back of the head. In all honesty, I work with a great team of Faculty Heads and I respect them all. They are fantastic people and great educators, without exception. But change is something that most teachers seemed to be a little bit hesitant with, especially when it comes to technology in the classroom. As I wrote this last sentence, I gained some clarity on the idea of context!

My context, is quite different to most of the people I work with. I am into Computers and Technology. They have always been something I have enjoyed, something that I have dabbled in. I am a geek and proud of it. I also find computers and software something extremely easy to learn and incorporate into everything I do; I look for digital solutions as a first stop to problems. I happily will spend hours “playing” with a piece of software or hardware. I haven’t read a physical book in a really long time, unless I was given it as a paperback. Every book I have bought for myself since the first Kobo reader came out, has been digital. Outside of ABC kids TV (I have a 4 year old son) and the occasional News, I stream about 95% of my media consumption. Coding is not mystical or magical, it just part of technology. My phone is used more for emails, messaging, forums and social media, than it is for phone calls. I have a relationship with technology, that has integrated it into almost every aspect of my life. In writing, this I have realized that I don’t differentiate technology from the analog; it is all a tool that I use with ease.

And it is not this way for many of the people I work with.

I guess I have some thinking to do now.

My Internet Addiction

Posted on June 28, 2017June 27, 2017 by Dave GN

A few months ago now, I had a lot of problems with my home internet connections, which is thankfully was resolved after a week. My phone was also being repaired, so I didn’t have it either. To compound the problem, or make it even more interesting, we also had been having ongoing issues with my school’s connection, but this was not as annoying as my home problems. For me, these issues have really highlighted how integrated the internet, and more specifically access to it has become in my life.

I use it for so much of my communication, work and entertainment that when it is not working, even if I don’t in fact need it to do what I am doing, I feel that something is “off” in my personal world, when it is not working. I have been reflecting on this experience and these feelings as of late, in an attempt to understand why that is.

Lots of people have written on this subject, and I have read reasonably widely of them. There are lots of theories and different explanations of this phenomenon, which range widely and differ significantly. In my own head, I have amalgamated them into my own explanation; it my opinion and is what makes sense to me. I think it is due to the integrated nature of the internet into my life. It is something, like my phone or my watch, that I take for granted. I assume that it works and that I have it with me. I think about internet access in the same way.

Let me digress, and use an example involving my watch, to explain. I wear a watch every day. I have for years and years. I don’t wear it when I sleep for some odd reason. I always take it off when I get into bed for the night. It is just what I do. Somedays, rarely, I end up not putting it on and heading off to work. (Yes, I forget it. I am not a morning person and even with coffee I don’t operate on all cylinders first thing.) When I first realize that I forgot it, a cycle of looking at my blank wrist begins. It drives me nuts all day, especially when I am not on a computer with a clock starting at me constantly. When I don’t have it, I notice; when I do I am not even aware of it being there. And the internet has become the same.

I have known for a while, that my phone is not primarily a phone anymore; phone calls and text messages are my primary communication channels. Email, instant messenger programs and Skype are my primary means of communication at work and at home. Pretty much the only one who text messages me is my wife and occasionally other family members; my communication with friends is via the other mentioned services, which are internet dependent. When the network goes down, I feel a profound sense of disconnection to the world.

The internet in the last few years (if 10 counts as a few…) has become so integrated into my (and probably everyone else’s) lives that I must actively think about what is connected via the web and what is not. So many of my daily services are interactions need that global connection. At school our learning management system is not hosted on site; neither is our email; many of our regularly used services require internet access. I am a Dropbox user; every file I create for work or personally, lives in my Dropbox, which syncs them between my various computers. I don’t think I have used an USB to transfer files between my devices for about 2 years now. My system backups are also on a server somewhere, sitting in a data center located who knows where on earth. I read the news on websites instead of physical papers. Hell, I even stream the news nowadays as it means I can watch it when I am free to and want to, not when it is being broadcast.

In writing this, I have realized that I am in reliant on the internet, maybe even addicted to it. The brief week I had no internet at home and intermittent internet at work was stressful. I was unwillingly unplugged, and it really bugged me. It was beyond a mild annoyance or frustration, and almost seemed to be like a mild withdrawal. Admittedly, I have no idea what withdrawal is like. I don’t think the days when I miss my morning coffees count.

I think I can say I am addicted to the internet; not a site or activity, but the connectivity of the thing. It is a web (pun intended) that binds me to the world and connects the world to me. I am an internet addict and I am happy with that.

Time as a Resource

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Dave GN

In the turbulent, chaotic, eventful times that are known as “End of Semester Report Writing”, on occasion, I have been thinking a lot about what I could do with additional resources. Not money (which would be excellent) or Sleep, but the simple idea of time. I have come to think of time as my most important resource. I have discovered (at least on a personal level) that time is resource I need the most, as it can provide solutions to all other resource shortfall; well at least the resource shortfall that are not consider insurmountable such as lack of air.

I have found, that given enough time, I can work around most problems I run into while teaching. The obvious ones are things like lack of sleep, work life balance, health, lack of patience and so on. All easily solved with time; typically, easily solved with sleep, but that is not the point. I have been more thinking along the lines of things like classroom resources – Money for materials and equipment; an ever-escalating work load; marking; classroom preparation. If I have the time, I typically find a work around to the challenge that I faced, or on rare occasions an actual workable solution.

Time has become a critical resource. I never seem to have enough. Far too often I must preform metaphorical triage on problems, applying band-aid solutions that are only short term; always promising that when I have time I will fix it properly; that close enough is good enough for now. While writing this I realized that we teachers often use future adjectives constantly; things will be done. I’ll get to it later. We’ll look at that next term. See me after………

We constantly are trapped in the now, which is full, so we push stuff in the future. Our time is spent before it even happens far too often. We are always looking for more and ever have enough.

This brings me full circle in my thinking; back to my original point. What could I do with more of this resource called “Time” (now with a capital T, since I’m going to treat it as a named object). To steal something, I remember from a piece of poetry or philosophy, source long forgotten in the cobwebs of my mind.

Time is infinite and finite; It is unlimited, but you can never have enough of it.

I have found that I am always time poor. I must prioritize and choose what comes first and what get my time. I always have more to do than I have time to do it in. I constantly decide what is important and what is not, not based on their true value of importance, but on how much time it will take to do, and how soon I need. This has resulted in ideas being shelved, projects being abandoned and things being left by the wayside. So what would I do with more Time?

First, I would sleep. Yes sleep. It is something that I have found as the semester ends I never have enough of. The candle gets burnt at both ends, with late nights and early starts the necessity of life. It would be wonderful to be able to get enough sleep and have time to do all the other things. Next, I would finish some of the things I have left unfinished; the projects that are good enough but not truly done. Those little things I am always working on, because they are interesting but externally a side project. For example, my research/exploration into VR as a classroom tool; the concept of gamification and applying it to the classroom; learning a new programming language; writing that app I want to make. All those little side projects.

The final thing, would be spend more time with my family. Slow things down, and not cram in all the fun into brief hours, but actually have quantity and quality time instead of one or the other.

All in all, Time is something that seems to something I am wasting thinking about it. Which, all in all, not a bad thing. Best thing about time, is even wasting it can result in something.

Makerspaces and Me

Posted on October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 by Dave GN

I’m currently working on a grant proposal, specifically related to the Technology and Engineering parts of STEM. I am endeavouring to take the idea of a makerspace to the next level; I want to explore how it could be setup and utilised to enrich and support secondary learning. One of my issues with maker spaces, is they always seem so primary focused; they seem to be more about the primary educational mentality and focus. It might just be perspective bias on my part, but I always get the impression whenever I read about them or see them, they are intended for younger students. I have always found that makerspaces are really about the “explore” of the tools and materials that are present. Don’t get the wrong impression at this point, I in fact love makerspaces; I think they are fantastic and want them to become more widespread. What I want to do thought, is move makerspaces to a level that correlates and engages secondary students; especially those in Years 8, 9 and 10.

I really like Samantha Roslund’s definition from her book “Makerspaces”. It reads

“Makerspaces is a general term for a place where people get together to make things. Makerspaces might focus on electronics, robotics, woodworking, sewing laser cutting, programming or some combination of these skills.”

Her words provide a great definition, but at the same time are not specific enough for my purpose. My goal is to support STEM specifically the Technology and Engineering parts. I know it is splitting hairs, but I have always defined a maker space in the following manner myself;

A makerspace is a location set aside and resourced to allow students to work on projects, build, and most of expand their understanding; it is a place where students can create, invent, tinker, and discover using a variety of tools and materials. It is a place where students can be creative and build connections across the curriculum in ways that are meaningful to them.

My definition is even less specific then Samantha’s, as it focuses more on the why of the makerspace, then what it is being done with or in it. I think the only solution is to combine the two!

So here is my attempt at a unified definition;

A Makerspace is a place where people can come together and make things. It is a place that focuses on allowing people to work on projects, build, and most of expand their understanding; it is a place where people can create, invent, tinker, and discover using a variety of tools and materials. It combines skills across fields; it can involve robotics, electronics, craft, sewing, laser cutting, 3D printing, wood cutting and computers. It is not limited to a single filed, but is a place to be creative and make whatever you can come up with.

I think writing this today has helped take my thinking in the right direction. I feel that the scope may still be too large, but some of the “why” we should be doing this is now there. I think I’m going to leave this one here for now.

Unit Planning in the Digital Age

Posted on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 by Dave GN

The last 4 weeks have been hectic, with the end of a term, two weeks of holidays and now the start of the final term for 2016. I haven’t had much chance or inclination to sit and write my thoughts down, in a publishable manner, or for that matter a manner that is more than a scribble on a post it. In the last few days, I have been working on my registration project, which thankful is almost done. I have also been finalizing my lesson plans for the remainder of this year. Once these two task are done, the next project on my plate is 2017 and documenting curriculum for it.

This year has gone quickly, and will be over in just over 9 weeks. Nine weeks sounds like a lot of time, but I have a feeling I will turn around and it will be gone sooner than imagined. I have no idea want I’ll be teaching next year, not even actually sure where I will be teaching. I’m happy where I am, but I’m not ongoing, so I have to keep chasing that enigma of teaching called “ongoing”. I am by no means unhappy with where I am, but I have to work to secure the stability for my family.

Circling back to my point, I am starting to document lessons and units of work for next year. It is the first time I have prepared documentation from an essentially blank slate. IT not that resources were not left for me, it is more that the new curriculum is so different from the current curriculum, most everything is new. I have based and run a few units of work off the new curriculum this year, but these only represent maybe 20% of what will be needed. The more I think about it, the larger the task seems.

I have a framework and the basics of a plan for next year, but I keep coming back to small details and how much do I need to document? I’m not sure of I should be writing detailed overviews accompanied by lesson by lesson plans, or a broad topical overview which leaves out some of the details for whom ever is teaching it to fill in. It is not keeping me up at night, but it has me thinking at the moment.

For, me, I typically operate digital only, with no hard copy if I can avoid it. I don’t really print anything besides my class timetable and that is only printed because I like to be able to look at my pin-board and see it. My preferred means of lesson planning is in Excel. It odd, but I like using tables and Excel is essentially one big table. My planning is formatted on a grid and Excel work s for me. The issue I am running into though is that, my peers like things printed. Anyone who has worked on large spread sheets knows, they are not meant to be printed; they are ideally suited for electronic perusal not paper distribution. This has put me into minor logger heads with my teaching peers; they want hard copy and I find myself more and more working with documents that are not meant for the print medium.

I think this is an issue that is going to become more and more apparent in years to come, as students become more digitally savvy. Think about the average informative webpage. It often has imbedded media and graphics as well as a level of interactivity through hyperlinks. For digital documents, there is really no such thing “as single page” or “static” anymore.

Battling the End of Term Burnout

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Dave GN

For the first time, I have noticed in myself the end of term 3 exhaustion that has plagued many of my friends and colleagues over the years. I am tired. So very tired. I want to have a nap, and I am writing this at 8am, on my third cup of coffee and after a solid 8 hours of sleep. There are 3 days left, one of which I am on excursion for, before the term 3 break. Two glorious weeks of not sleeping in! I have a three-year-old, so the words “sleep in” have been removed from my personal lexicon for the foreseeable future.

But I am grumpy. So very grumpy. Yesterday may have been the longest day in history. I only taught for 2 periods and had 2 off, but it was so long. It felt like I marked forever, even though I managed to finish the last of my outstanding marking in about an hour. Time is slowing down at the moment; each minute is taking longer to pass than it predecessor. Oh, the injustice and drama of it all! (man it felt good to be over the top and dramatic about this!)

But I shouldn’t be. Life is good. My classes are running smoothly, my marking pile has been eliminated. I have all my lessons planned till the end of the term and for the first two weeks back. I have a clean house. My students also seem to be in high spirits, despite their only being 3 days left. They like what we are doing in my classes. Why the hell am I feeling burnt out?

I’m not an introvert. I never imagined teaching not being the chaotic, maelstrom of learning and teaching that it is. I love my job, despite having those days where I don’t, which usually coincide with an illness or external stress. This is my first experience of the Term 3 Blues or Term 3 burnout, which I have heard about. Everyone, in this case defined as teachers I have spoken too or decided to write something I read about this, says that term 3 is the hardest of the year. It is when the pressure builds and the cracks start showing; everyone gets stressed. It has never hit me before though. I guess I have always had lots of other things going on; I have been chasing contracts or CRT; I didn’t work term one at one school; We had a baby in June one year. When I reflect about it, this is really my first year working for the whole school year, continuously, without there being something else major happening external to work. I guess I have been lucky.

So how do I deal with this feeling? For me it going to be a long 3 days. I’ll go to the gym and go for a swim. I’ll write some blog posts, which are becoming almost therapeutic; I actually find writing stuff like this organises my thoughts and provides me with a bit of introspection and perspective. I’ll keep clearing my plate, so that the holiday will be mine; I will only need to do what I want to do, with no pesky “needs doing” stuff for my job. I’ll focus on the positives; there are so many. I didn’t see them until I wrote this post. When the holiday gets here, I am still going to be up at 6am. But it will be on my terms (or at least the terms of a toddler). I won’t be taking off my pyjamas until I want to though.

#teachICT

Explorign ICT in Education

Author: Dave GN