Miss Art of Teaching

Wow... time flies! It is already the LAST day of Term 2. Students were eager to 'paint' and help in my classroom. I had more than half the class stay back during lunch to paint my classroom. Some students did smaller jobs, like decorating the classroom fans with contact and I even had two students who made me a personal speaker! I LOVE it. The speaker is made from an empty can of Pringle and two paper cups. Check out the photos below. Now...it is time to enjoy the two weeks holidays! I will be trying to balance work with leisure time. First activity tonight is having a family dinner at a dumpling house before heading to the drive-through cinema with my partner and Shih Tzu.

I always procrastinate for a day before I can focus and start work. I probably had too much fun during the Easter long weekend and my mind was crying for another day of rest. I ended up cleaning and started stealing things from home to bring to work. I always do this! It doesn't help that I am an Art teacher and I want to be able to provide students with as many resources as possible. Since I am the rewards advocator at my school, I also try to find prizes around the house to donate to the school. This is on top of asking for monetary or merchandise prizes from the local community. During the holidays, I have been using the 'Remind' mobile app to send inspirational photos to my Year 11 Senior students. Remind is a great app for me to communicate to my students. They are also able to ask questions and get feedback about how they are going with their 'Portraits' unit. I have asked them to have an idea ready by Week 1 of Term 2. We have roughly 15 weeks ...

Lately, the posts have been about the Term 1 holidays. I will be going back to my marking mode on Tuesday. Holidays started on the 8th of April. On the first day, I went to the Easter Show Carnival and then spent the next four days on marking essays. For the last two days and a half, I have been trying to meet up with all my close friends. The Easter break brings everyone together as most professions are on public holidays. I technically still have a week left but I need to finish all my senior marking and start on their reports. The challenging life of balancing work life and leisure time. Today we (high school friends) planned on going to the Sculptures at Scenic World at the Blue Mountains but all the tickets sold out. I was looking forward to experiencing the site-specific sculptures in the natural rainforest. Instead, we improvised and went to food cafes and The Three Sisters and Leura Cascades Waterfall in the Blue Mountains. I still managed to get some inspirations for my art...

A break from all the teaching talk.... Our wellbeing as a teacher is important. How do we remember to look after ourselves? I have spent Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday marking. My daughter (a Shih Tzu named Lucy) has been giving me a questionable look: Is this the holidays? Are you going to mark till you die (well that is what I imagined)? Above: My Shih Tzu (Lucy) has been worried about my wellbeing  So after days of being in my pj's, curled up under a blanket to mark assignments...I decided to venture out. Time to relax and party (well if you call going out to the movies as partying). Above: My teacher partner and I decided to go and explore Chatswood. We live in Sydney, Australia. I think we spent more than 20 mins walking up and down different streets deciding on what to eat. Above:The Fate Of The Furious was a pretty good movie.

Term 1 holidays started on Friday evening for all New South Wales teachers. I was too tired to celebrate and instead had an easy early night with my partner of 6 years. He is also a teacher and runs all the music programs for K-6. I teach Visual Arts and TAS subjects to Year 7-12. We are based at different schools but I love how we can share teaching stories and spend the holidays together.  On Saturday we followed our tradition and went to the Easter Show. It is a carnival that celebrates the Australian culture and attracts up to 800,000 people each year. It goes for 14 days (the length of the school holidays) and holds agriculture competitions, provides animal experiences, live entertainment, carnival rides and shopping. We try to go every year as I love the vibe of carnivals. Yesterday, I walked roughly 17000 steps but was exhausted by the afternoon. Since driving instead of taking public transport, my fitness level has hit rock bottom. I purchased a fitness show bag from t...

Over in Australia, we only have one more day until the school holidays. We have a two-week break and I NEED IT! I have a few things that I would love to do including the Easter Show carnival, a road trip with my high school friends and just spending more time with my family. Teaching is meant to get easier as the years go by but I feel like I am only truly learning the trade now. There is a never ending pile of work to do and it is the passion that keeps me sane. Looking back at my school photos, I can see how my face has warped. I have stopped exercising as a whole and I can feel how tired my body becomes after a full day of work. After work hours, I am home again making more resources and/or marking.  Above: The far left photo is the latest version of myself. I have been teaching for five years. Above: I have been eating quite unhealthy and have not been looking after my well being as much as I would like. My workload for this holiday seems a bit frightening...