Feet and change

 

It's been a time of change in my life over the last few weeks. 

Finally, after 16 months, I have had my foot operation. They had to tighten up a ligament and take a bit of bone out and lift the bottom of my foot up - no small op and it will be a few weeks yet before I am running around! There is a piece of wire sticking out the end of my toe (not a small piece either!) at the moment and it doesn't come out until October. I'll be off work for a while so I have time to get some things done at home. It's a change to be sitting around, it's a change to not have pain in my foot and it's been a change in what I do every day.

I'm about to change my job. After 4 years at Haeata I am moving to Papanui High School to take up the role of Learning Support Coordinator. This is a new role and I am looking forward to finding my place there and working out how I can best support those learners. This starts in Term 4 (October) so I have a bit of time before I get to start but I'm super excited about it! As part of this I am spending some time working on my Boma project as it relates well to this new role. Soon I will be able to share a prototype and work on getting this up and running.

I have been cleaning out my emails and drives, lots of stuff to clear. I didn't realise how much I had accumulated over the years and how much really is just not needed. Hard to get rid of things though, we can now gather so much online, it's not the same as going through books and papers, there is so much more!!! One of my friends came round and we talked about decluttering so I have been trying to do a drawer or a cupboard/shelf each day while I am housebound. It's getting there - slowly.

I've also been cleaning up in the garden. Shuffling around on my bottom, trying to keep my foot out of the dirt, and not being able to reach far across the garden at the moment, but loving the time to just potter and get the weeds out where I can. Am looking forward to being able to stomp around in the shrubs once I am back on my feet!

I wanted to put my old video tapes onto DVD - or at least store them digitally. Problem is - most of the computers lying around this house do not have DVD drives! Finding storage online for all the data is becoming an issue as well - I seem to have a ton of data in every drive I own! It seems that I have multiple copies of things on different drives. Oh to sort more out....

I have been working on my Eason genealogy as well. It's great to have access to online sites through the library but it means lots more to do. I have been updating my FB page a lot and putting more on my website as well. It's something I love doing and has been a good focus over the last few weeks. I just have to make myself do other things first in the day before I let myself do any, otherwise nothing else gets done!

I have been reading a lot. I am lucky to have some great friends who read widely and they have put me onto some great books. As part of that I finally bought some online to read on my Kindle app - a new thing for me as I do prefer to have a paper copy, but with not being able to drive to the library at the moment, paper books are a bit scarce.

The Power of Us - David Price

I joined the DisruptEd Book Club Facebook group recently and this is the book to read at the moment. (the Kindle version is only a couple of dollars on Amazon right now). Reading this book has confirmed my knowledge that I was exceptionally lucky to be part of the first few years at Haeata. We were pushing the boundaries and doing it in a collaborative, supportive environment. I was constantly in a state of flow and was passionate about what we were doing. It seemed chaotic and could look like that from the outside, but the growth and the knowledge we gained was amazing. We really needed a few more years to show how this new model could work - it takes 5-7 years to really implement change. One of the quotes from this book is about a company BrewDog and it really resonated with me "We are a high growth company. This creates amazing opportunities for us and our team members. This also creates a constant state of flux and a healthy dose of chaos. For us, the time to start worrying is when we don't have the chaos, because it will mean our growth has slowed. WE NEED TO EAT CHAOS FOR BREAKFAST." One of the things that attracted me to Haeata in the first place was that Andy (the founding Principal) said at a public meeting "If you don't like change, don't apply" - he knew that there would be constant change, which there certainly was. We collaborated and worked together to continually improve practice. It wasn't perfect and often wasn't pretty, but I do believe we were heading in the right direction. This book has just reinforced my belief that working collaboratively is the way to move forward.

Peptalk magazine

This is a great magazine that is published here in NZ. It has great articles about wellbeing and has a section specifically for teenagers as well. Well worth subscribing too if you have any interested in mental health, or have a teenager in the house.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

This was Book of the Year in 2014 in Australia and is a moving yet funny book that I would highly recommend. I'm keen now to reed the other two that follow this book - it will be interesting to see if they are as good.

The Tipping Point  by Malcolm Gladwell as well as Blink

I found this really interesting - it talks about a few different concepts that make total sense. The idea of making things stick, making things practical and personal to become memorable is a no brainer. There was a study about Sesame Street and how they made it memorable. The quote I like is "if you want to know what kids aren't learning, all you have to do is notice what they aren't watching." Something we should think about as teachers. There is also the rule of 150 - keeping groups below this number makes a huge difference. Some really interesting studies done on this. I'm now going to be reading Blink - the power of thinking without thinking. Looking forward to it.

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

 It was great to be able to drop into Victoria University's mini webinars during the week. I enjoyed the little snippets and have been using some of the phrases each day when I can. I enjoyed the extra te reo on TV - having subtitles was great, the more we see and hear Te Reo Māori the better. I do wonder why we don't do this all the time - it should be more than just a week to highlight what we all should be doing every day.

So that's me for the moment, lots of changes and lots of learning. Loving it.

Isolation 10

Thurs 30 Apr
Wow - I can't believe I am writing Isolation 10 already! The time has actually gone quite quickly. Today I felt like some days are more productive than others, I was very productive in bursts today. rather than full on throughout the day. Had some time when I just was not really onto it but then got totally motivated and got a heap of work done. I think it's about being aware of what we are feeling. I needed the time at lunch today to sit out in the sun and pat the cat. Just felt like it was the right thing to do at the time - I didn't even go for a walk which is unusual. But then I worked through until quite late when I felt like it. Maybe this is something we need to think about for work and study - when do we work best? I normally work really well at 7.30am. I know many others would be horrified at that time of the morning but I do work well early in the day. It gives me time to get set up and organised. Recently that has pushed out to 8.30 - I think working from home has made me a bit lax on that 6am start!!!
I got some good news today. I have been waiting for an appointment for my foot for over a year now. It was scheduled for Apr 3rd and of course that got cancelled due to Covid19. I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't get an appointment for another few months but today I got a message saying I could go tomorrow. I am just a little bit excited and hope that something can be done eventually as I can't walk very far without it being strapped up. Here's hoping something can be done - I don't mind if it takes ages to do it, just knowing would be good.
I managed to take the pool from green to clear over the last couple of days - had let it go by just not really thinking about it. Might need to concentrate a little more on my surroundings. So much going on right now - there are different things to focus on and a pool is well down the list.

Fri 1 May
I can't believe it's May. It seems like April didn't really exists this year. It's very strange.
I had a good day today - 12 calls online and a very busy day both at work and not.
Went to the surgeon - finally getting an MRI for my foot to get all the information needed to see if he can fix it or not. He had some ideas but wants all of the information before we go the next step - if he can. Feel good that at least there is a next step.
I did a bit of reading today and found this great advice for lots of calls and how to combat Zoom fatigue.
This afternoon I went to the Future of Learning catch up - these have been going for a while - in person, then online. It was good to tlak with other educators and share experiences and ideas. I do enjoy those conversations.
Watching the Repair shop again tonight reminded me of my father's clock. I think I'll get that out and have a look at it.
My Peptalk magazine arrived today. Wow what a great resource. There were two books in one and I found the information was really great. My daughter had a look as well and she thought it was good as well. If you haven't got your free copy then go to this link and order it. Yes, free. I've subscribed to further issues, that's how much I enjoyed it.

Saturday 2 May
Made a big cooked breakfast for my children - it's nice to have one occasionally. Keeps me going all day and I'm a pretty good short order chef. It's always nice to have my 2 children around. We played some games, went for a walk and just had a nice lazy day. Managed to do quite a bit of the jigsaw - I'm worried now, almost finished all the ones I have in the house!

Sunday 3 May
I really have felt very lazy this weekend. I think that the online calls take it out of me quite a bit. I know I have to work extra hard because of my hearing and I struggle with the lag between voice and camera when I know I do rely a bit on lipreading.
I have 187 emails to sort through. Hmm. Maybe I'm a little unsorted right now - very tired at the end of the day and have struggled this week mentally. Finally finished that jigsaw today - found another 2 in the back of the cupboard so I haven't run out just yet!

Later in the week...
So I've slowed down on the day by day account. I think I just find every day is busy with work or just trying to find time to relax so from here on in I'll do an update when I get the inspiration.
Had a Boma New Zealand Rethinking Education Campfire on Tuesday - really interesting to hear some students talk about their experiences of online learning. You can read some of their ideas on my blog. It showed me how important student voice is in this isolation time. I have made a survey for my mentor group and it's been interesting getting their feedback. I'll do another blog on Reflection and Isolation sometime soon.
I attended a NZQA workshop this week. I was happy that I felt confident in this area, but it was interesting to see the questions others asked. I wonder how we can improve teacher knowledge in this area? There are obviously a lot of people not sure of how things work. Something else to ponder.
I've had a couple of conversations with some of the Boma Education Fellows for this year. It's hard not being able to talk face to face and our programme has certainly been disrupted. Getting to know each other is taking longer, but at least this week I managed to catch up with a few and have some conversations both around what our kuras are doing online, and with our own projects. My project is in a bit of a hold at the moment due to many things, but I did do some more research this weekend around diverse learners and looked into some other sites that cater for these learners. Been a good learning weekend in that respect.
Another flashback moment on The Repair Shop this week - a spinning wheel. Mum used to spin and I remember carding wool for her and watching her spin and knit for hours. She also dyed the wool herself - I remember the different natural dyes she used. I still have homespun jerseys that she made for my children. Such memories and a skill that can be lost if we don't take things up. I wonder how many things are handed down from parents anymore now that we are busier in our lives. It makes me wonder if maybe lockdown is a good thing - getting back to spending time with family and not being able to fill our days with things. Maybe this is the start of people learning the old skills again. I do hope so.
I completed my Microsoft Innovative Educator application for the next year today. The MIE group in New Zealand is fantastic. Such great support and I have made some good friends out of this group so hopefully will be able to continue on with this for 2021 - even though I work in a Google school! I still use a lot of Microsoft tools and and I am passionate about their resources. They certainly work hard to make things better for schools and offer some interesting and useful courses on the Microsoft Educator Community site - go and have a look!
I also completed the Science of Wellbeing Course today - and have a blog half done on that - another day.
Well it's Mother's Day. I've done a couple of blogs, a bit of gardening and managed to finally clear my emails down to single figures. Must be time to have a break and get this posted.