AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Reflections on a September Teaching Moment

Teenagers can be challenging to teach. But I prefer to remember those precious moments when a teenager surprises and delights. My Year 11 battlers are a motley crew of students, waiting out time to leave school in a flurry of dust. I have created an English course that is not weighted with novels and plays, but reaches out to these students with "relevant studies". Each student has been given an individual course of study, based on needs and goals. We practise filling out forms, writing business letters and continully update resumes. Research involves finding courses for each student, appropriate to the work they would like to pursue. They compare courses and costs. This is meaningful study for these students. In short, the preparation is heavy, but all very worthwhile.

Last week, we were sharing pre-holiday lessons. I gave them homework for the holidays to the tune of "moans and groans". I was trying to record on my laptop what I had negotiated with each student. My computer decided to rebel. Instead of the "delighted silence" of "maybe we don't get the homework now", one student came over to me and said "Let me help you Miss!"

I melted! Such moments are priceless!

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Tasmania

Tasmania
A place of beauty in the Western Tiers

Tasmania

Tasmania
View near Blackwood Park Cottages, Mole Creek

New Landscapes

New Landscapes
New Worlds

Archive of Blog Quotes

  • A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent
  • Autumn is an introspective season when stray thoughts of the mind dive into the mystique of the soul - Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn is the bridesmaid of Summer and the flowergirl of Winter ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn whispers the tones of yesterday in a minor key ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Love is born / With a dark and troubled face, / When hope is dead / And in the most unlikely place; / Love is born, / Love is always born. - Michael Leunig's Christmas Song Cycle "Southern Star"
  • Spring paints the stars of heaven in Earth colours ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Summer sizzles with a sibilant hush / Broken by dreams of / Clinking ice ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. - G.K. Chesterton
  • Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. - Stanley Horowitz
  • Winter is the fire, simmering lonely in the soul ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Winter is the shadow, the etching of the seasons in the mist ~ Gemma Wiseman

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