Teacher Travel Time (Holidays), Part One: MotoGP Malaysia

It had been a long, eye-opening, 20 week term – and I was definitely ready for a holiday! So, just hours after the official end of term, my husband and I boarded a plane, headed for phase one of our journey: the MotoGP in Malaysia.

I wont lie. Until our move to Thailand (where two-wheeled vehicles are the norm), I was not a fan of motorbikes. My husband had managed to get me on one of his bikes, only once, and never offered again as a result of my squealing. However, in the space of a few months in Thailand, I have become a confident passenger on an array of two-wheeled beasts. So, to my surprise, I was actually really looking forward to seeing these vehicles in action.

Malaysia is a very interesting place. There is so much history, development and beautiful landscapes. It is a country that we have travelled in before and I am sure will explore further in the future – but during this trip, we barely moved from Sepang.

We spent the first two days watching practice laps, riding miniature motorbikes, searching through the various stalls, taking photos of bikes, taking more photos of bikes and then. . . well, taking even more photos of bikes.

   

The third day was all about the main event, the MotoGP. The temperature was super hot, the crowd was alive with excitement and the noise – oh my, the noise! The bikes soared past us, bullet-fast – leaving nothing but the ear-shattering howl behind them.

   

Pedrosa was in the lead from the start. A lead which only increased throughout the race. Lorenzo and Marquez battled it out over several nail-biting laps for second and third position. Marquez eventually took a strong lead over Lorenzo.

 

A short video we took of the race.

We left on the third day with bags full of giveaway goodies, a camera full of photos of bikes from all angles and great memories. We also sported shiny, new sunburns (realised after the event).  A very exciting and new (for us) way to begin our holiday!

Children of Cambodia – Christmas Project News

I have some FANTASTIC news! Thanks to my former employer (and still friend) as well as the Australian Catholic University, each student at the school in Cambodia will receive a lovely new library bag for Christmas!

This is such a wonderful donation which I know will be really appreciated by all of the kids.

So, our mission now is to fill these bags with books for the kids. These can be brand new or pre-loved books.

Do you have any books (children’s books or mini-novels) at home that are collecting dust? Would you be happy to donate them towards our Christmas Project? OR, are you willing to purchase a book as a gift and send it to the school?

If your answers to any of these questions is yes, please visit the Facebook page for more information!

https://www.facebook.com/events/202604043251579/

 

Christmas Project: Children of Cambodia

A few weeks ago, I posted about our charity’s Christmas Project. I am so excited to be part of running this worthwhile activity!

It is super easy –

1. Find a present
2. Post it directly to the school (the address will be posted to the charity Facebook page) and let us know via the charity Facebook page that you have done so
3. When the school receives the parcel, we will email a certificate of appreciation to you
4. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for photos from their Christmas celebration!

The school co-ordinator has also sent through a list of items that the students need, to help you as you choose what to buy. These include –

• Bags
• Colouring pencils/ pens
• Rulers
• Reading books
• Craft supplies

If you would like to be involved, please join the ‘event’ on Facebook! We would really appreciate your support!

ICT Resources For Secondary Art Teachers

One of my passions as a teacher is integrating highly engaging ICT’s for learning. I have developed several resources online for various reasons, within both a visual art context as well as a mathematics context. I love making these and thought that I would share some with you. . .

1. Year 11 Visual Art Site

I developed this site to provide an online space where students could watch painting tutorials (which were taught in class), research artists who had used the techniques and explore other ways to manipulate the materials.

2. Social Commentary Web Quest

Web Quests are brilliant! They promote social, inquiry-based learning. For a teacher, they are relatively each resource to create and are highly valuable! This is one that I have created.

3. Blog (Alternate Visual Arts Journal)

This is a simple sample blog I created to show my kids how to use this tool to demonstrate their process work and reflections while making a work.

I hope they are useful! To make them, I have utilised Wix, Quest Garden and BlogSpot – great sites for teachers!

Of course, there are numerous theoretical reasons for incorporating ICT’s – education for the 21st century learner, learning styles (and opportunities to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways), inquiry-based Learning (Dewey) as well as government requirements (Australian Curriculum and Smart Classrooms). However I see this incorporation as an opportunity for creativity – for the student and the teacher. It can be a lot of fun and really rewarding!

Children of Cambodia – Christmas Project

 

In 2011/ 2012, my husband, a friend and I travelled to Cambodia to volunteer teach for a few weeks. To be honest, we knew very little about the country, the people and their very difficult history.

We left the country as three changed people.

We learnt about the history as well as the current situation, made lasting friendships with the locals and taught the most amazingly appreciative children I have ever met. We all felt a deep connection to the people and the country immediately.

On returning to Australia, all we could talk about or think about was our amazing experiences and the people that we met. We loved the kids and fully believed in what the school was doing.

However, as the months passed, the connection and feelings only grew. We knew that we had to continue supporting them somehow. So, we began the next chapter in our lives – as charity co-founders of Children of Cambodia.

Between us, we ran trivia nights, gig nights, garage sale fundraisers, chocolate drives, bake sales and a Facebook page. The support we received from the community, business owners as well as our family and friends was incredible.

We held the charity from August 2012 – April 2013, and managed to raise about $9 000, almost double what we had originally hoped to raise!

As two of the charity members (my husband and I) have moved to Thailand for a year, our fundraising has been put on hold. However, I am so happy to announce that we are running a Christmas Project Campaign!

We are asking anyone who would like to contribute to Christmas celebrations at the school, to post a present to the school by November 29th. In return, we will send (via email or Facebook) a certificate of appreciation. We will also post the Christmas day photos onto our Facebook page.

Here is the link for more information, we would love your support!

 https://www.facebook.com/events/202604043251579/?context=create

Inspiration, Discussion and Action @ TEDx Chiang Mai

Welcome to a global discussion about our shared futures.

TED Talks first came to my attention while I was at university. I was in love with Sir Ken Robinson’s talks on education and felt inspired by the many other speakers who have shared their thoughts through this forum. I often watch the TED clips online, have ‘liked’ the TED Facebook pages and of course value my little TED mobile phone app.

I never thought I would be actually able to attend one of the TED events. But then, I moved to Thailand. . .

A few months ago, during a visit to Chiang Mai, my husband pointed out a poster for TEDx (an independently organised TED event). As soon as we returned to Bangkok, I made the arrangements to attend.

  

It was fantastic!

Like a sponge, I soaked up each discussion. Appreciating their words and trying my best to think critically about the information presented – concepts revolving around education, technology, science, business, global problems and design.  Each speaker, an expert in their field, immersed us in their passion – providing us with a glimpse into their mind and lives.

Lee Ayu Chuepa discussed his journey of founding a fair-trade coffee plantation which supports his local village, Ruttikorn Vuttikorn detailed the educational games that she designs for children (including teenagers!), Boaz Zippor persuaded us on the relevance of poetry and Viritpol Sunprungksin shared his ideas about why Thai people should learn English. We learnt about ‘coworking spaces’ with Amarit Charoenphan, questioned our effects on others with Lisa Berteit and learnt about art movements in Chiang Rai with Somluck Pantipol.

These are but a few of the amazing discussions at TEDx Chiang Mai.

We learnt, we laughed, we were moved to tears. And I loved every moment of it.

At the end of the day, I found a lovely little restaurant and sat with a glass of wine staring into the busy Chiang Mai street. Reflecting on the entire event, I realised something that I have found to be true not only in such speeches, but also in many books (particularly those in education). Often, there is a lot of discussion on the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of subjects. For example, education should be a creative process which inspires students, sanitation should be provided to more people globally to lower the prominence of some diseases or students should learn ‘…’. However, often the ‘how’ is glossed over or missed entirely. Rarely is there specific information and ideas on ‘how’ the ‘what’ can be implemented.

Indeed we were given great ideas from several speakers about the ‘how’. But I still find that too many speakers spend their time trying to persuade and inspire rather than advocate and spend time on the ‘how’; the specific actions that take their inspiration to the next level. I do think that more value should be placed on this.

During the day, not only were there amazing talks, there was also an array of creative activities to participate in. My favourite of these was the elephant painting with Elephant Parade.

What an excellent event!

A Little School Spirit (Part 3)

On one of my ‘slower’ days at school a few weeks ago, I decided to take out  and work on my painting for the school art competition (see my last two posts).

Out of nowhere, two of my year 7 students popped up with a school camera.

I let them take my photo, as I painted, assuming that (like all school photos) this would turn up somewhere on the school’s website, in a newsletter or on a board during ‘art week’.

Today, I got a lovely little surprise.

As it turns out, the students entered one of these photos into the student category. . . and won! I had no idea that I was posing for art – but apparently, with their photography skills and my modelling ability (lack thereof), we have made an award-winning work.

 

A Little School Spirit (Part 2)

I shared my artwork for the school teacher’s art competition last week. It was a lot of fun and there have been a lot of kind and lovely comments about it at school (competition is still yet to be judged…eep!).

This week, I would like to share another entry. A group entry, which involved myself and two other teachers. Taking advantage of the very little time we had together, we created this vase – a cute little work to respond to the theme ‘recycled, usable art’.

The beautiful Miss Rachael and I (unfortunately I have not been able to get a photo of us with the third member of our group yet).

  

The work has been constructed with water bottles, newspaper, cardboard and science soil.

The nicest thing about ‘competing’ was the opportunity to work with, and get to know, the two other teachers better (one from America, one from Thailand). We are from different corners of the world and therefore bring a mixed bag of experiences and perspectives to an artwork. However, I think that we have managed to create something beautiful together!

A Little School Spirit

Two weeks ago, our school announced an art competition, Colours of Thailand. . . for the teachers.

As an eager new teacher, and with a bit of an art background, I jumped straight in. Stealing minutes here and there from my busy life, I began working on the first thing that I thought of (not really a strong artistic move, lets be honest).

The concept is to capture a beginning math teacher’s perspective of Thailand.

It is broken into the shapes of a tangram, each piece in perfect mathematical proportion to the next. Each image tells a story, an experience I have had in Thailand.

Of course, experiences from school feature strongly in this work, as well as abstracted sceneries and other things I have seen along the way.

Clearly very literal, unfortunately – I guess this is the result of ‘jumping the gun’ due to tight time restrictions. However, I am happy with the vibrancy of the colours.

If nothing else though, it has provided me with an opportunity to contribute to school spirit. What a brilliant activity for teachers to become engaged with – this allows students to see you in a new, positive light.

 

Step Right Up, Step Right Up. . . The Most Amazing Show on Earth

Kids are amazing. They can force you to stop and think, unexpectedly.

While walking to one of my classrooms this week, I mentioned to some of my girls that their usual teacher was away and that I would be taking them for that lesson.

This evoked a Thai-speaking frenzy amongst the girls.

I queried this, asking if there was something wrong (thinking perhaps that an assignment was due that day). They surprised me with their response.

‘We are happy, because that class is talk-show’.

Curious (and let’s face it, a little scared), I kept the conversation going and asked them what they referred to maths as.

‘Maths is games!’ They cheered.

Well, I guess this is better than ‘talk show’ (and indeed we have engaged in several math competitions and speed games to liven up our 100 minute lessons).

Listening to the girls really made me think deeply about something that I already knew – students will judge you and what you are doing. They will develop strong opinions about you and your teaching style. They watch you, listen to you and rate you. Then, they decide with their friends what they think about you – here, at our school, they even write about you (compulsory notes given to their Thai teachers).

In a weird way, this made me think of a circus. From a student perspective, are we really there just to ‘entertain’? Are the school days merely a collection of shows and events to be judged and scored?

Step right up, step right up. Prepare for the talk show. Now behold, the amazing gaming event. . .

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that rather than entertain, teachers need to engage their students and entice intrinsic motivation. The difference is in the learning. By engaging students, we are encouraging them to participate in rich educational experiences – experiences which they will find entertaining.

For me, this discussion with the students bought me out of the books and into back into real-life. I always employ a range of teaching strategies, always trying new styles and activities (both indoors and outdoors), all of which is supported by theory. I have observed student engagement in my class, and it tends to be great. From this discussion however, I will think more deeply about what I am doing, what they are doing and what we as a class are doing. What would my students label this lesson as?

My students will judge what I am doing – and I am happy for them to do so (and more than happy to get the feedback!).

Circus picture (Madagascar) from http://www.tinysavages.com/2013/04/29/the-circus/