I had a great week at work. I feel really enthused about my classes and teaching this year. There is a really positive feeling amongst most of the teachers I feel. It is great to work with people you love.
I have two new classes this year. One of them is careers and I feel quite adequately experienced having had over 20 jobs in my life. I have also began an enterprise class in digital storytelling. I am quite passionate about that and am enjoying it and hope the students do as well. It is great to learn new things.
Life is good.
Trip to Wollongong – Final thoughts
I learnt I am very afraid of heights on the trip. I am getting worse. Andy, in one of his amusing moments took a rather unflattering clip of me getting down from a monument that I had climbed thinking I could get a better shot. I suddenly felt overwhelmed by fear. You won’t find this video, because it hasn’t been put online. This horrible ‘fear of heights’ feeling came along several times during the trip, particularly on the ‘Suggan Buggan’ road and some of the lookouts.
I learnt that I prefer to stay a while in places rather than pass quickly through. We usually spend a week at a place we holiday to and I found this website today Slow Travel, and I totally agree it is the best way. I guess when we visited Broken Hill last year for a week and traveled to and from taking a week either way, it was the same. The most enjoyable part is the week long stay at the destination. We think we will spend a couple of weeks next year in the one spot rather than spend as much time travelling. We do like to take roads off the beaten track though, which takes longer. I thoroughly agree with the concept of ‘slow travel’ though. You need time in a place to appreciate it and to really relax there.
I learnt that I prefer smaller places and larger accomodation. I need to get fitter and healthier to continue to enjoy walking and camping. Wollongong was a beautiful place. It was not the industrial city I had thought it was.
I really enjoyed Andy’s company and appreciate the care and planning he puts into these trips. I wouldn’t see a quarter of the marvellous thing I get to see without him.
The coast is so populated. I was quite astonished by this. The price of real estate is high along the coast.
All roads lead to David Bowie
In the days before the final bell went at school, I gave each class an overview of what they would be learning next year and the topics that would be covered. Many of my students really weren’t interested as they could smell the holidays by that stage and the thought of next years learning wasn’t a priority. So I explained to them about the RAS antenae and how it could help them to do better next year.
I did a course once that was about learning and I only vaguely remember the facilitator talking about your Reticular Activating System or RAS being like antenae and once you decided to learn something you would begin to notice it everywhere. The example that was given was when you buy a new car that you feel is rare and distinctive and then you start to see it everywhere. I have had that experience! I have also found that often when I was studying at uni, information and knowledge that I needed would seem to come to me from all different sources that I wouldn’t have expected. If you are interesting in learning more about this there is an interesting discussion here.
Getting back to the topic, lately I have been seeing David Bowie everywhere. Well not in person, unfortunately, yet I rather fear that if I did he would make a song about me and it would hurt my feelings like the YouTube clip my brother sent me where he sang about a ‘Chubby Little Fat Guy’. I would put it on here, except I thought it was a little sad and cruel. I have no sense of humour sometimes.
I have been reading him on blogs everywhere. Just little snippets or photos. So I think my RAS on David Bowie is in action. The wonder of it is, that I don’t know why other than having been a fan for so many years. I have never been to a concert sadly. I was very close to going to one in 1983, yet it was the night before my HSC (now VCE)English exam. Why didn’t I just go anyway? It would have improved my performance. I know that now!
Instead I will put this interview from Rove that was filmed about 8 months ago and shows all the things I love about him. He is healthy, interested and creative with a dry sense of humour that I love. Rove is great also. ‘I’m a bit of a Sunday futurist’ Enjoy!