Cam’s Ramblings

Here is my problem: I have four assignments to get done in about a week and a half. They are due next Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Monday week. The order of importance (to me, at least) however is completely inverted to when they are due. So I’ve been putting in tons of effort on the assignment due last, and have started to freak a bit about eh assignment due first.

The first two are from the science units – one on RFID tags, the other on project planning. The last two are from my education units – one on  technology the other on student management (both of which are on this blog… links are up the top somewhere ). I am pumped to do my Tech. assignment, and the student management one. And to a degree the project planning one. But not the RFID one.

So this leads me to the question… how beneficial are long term assignments to students? Sure, they make us go and research topics, do our readings and attend the occasional class. But I feel I’m not putting in the amount of effort I could into learning from the class, because I’m more hunting through the material for the relevant bits which go with my assignments (for the record, RFID is not even covered in the classes for that topic. We have an exam in about 3 weeks, all on stuff in the lectures, but of course we’re more focused on the bloody assignment right now).

Perhaps, shorter assignments are what are needed. Instead of two 6-week assignments worth 50% of the unit mark each, how about ten 1-week assignments, each work 8% of the mark. The remaining 20% can be allocated to in class work, discussion groups… anything NOT related to assignments. Perhaps something to think about later on? I know I don’t like assignments, I’m sure my students, for when I’m on rounds next, don’t like them any more than I do.

At least I’ve resolved to not to go my meths lecture tomorrow. The content is in now way helping me with my current assignment (this just proves my point – we are studying for the grade, not the learning).

I don’t know if I like this yet. The back end of edublogs has changed, and I was only just getting used to to what it previously looked like. I’m going to have to explore, it could be fun.

THis causes me a minor problem. I was all set to do some study and research right after writing this post. But now, well, that’s off the books! You see, I will spend hours exploring a cool new toy, website, game… anything tech-related, but will heavily procrastinate about the stuff that matters. In this case, uni. It’s a bad habbit of mine, one which needs some attention before next year.

So here’s what I have to achieve this week:
    Project Management – an entire assignment. Good luck to me.
    Cryptography – not a lot, as my partner is doing the next part of the task.
    Teaching and Tech – draft my assignment, and think about how to present it. I’m thinking that I may try something other than this blog.
    Ed. Studies – write the next part of my professional journey.

Then don’t forget I’ve got PD week and my show to manage.

And finally time with my girl. She may be last on this list, but by no means is the last on my ‘Important things/people/places to pay attention to’ list. A friend wanted me to call it my ‘priorities’ list, because the name I suggested was too long. But I like the name I’ve used.

So, I’d better get to it.

As promised, I have prepared a report on the Hawker Brownlow Conference. This report is a part of my Professional Journey, and meets one of my goals – attending a P.D. on student behavior management. Yay!

 So click here to share in my Hawker Brownlow Goodness.

Today was the day I went along to the Hawker Brownlow 2008 ‘Classrooms@Work’ Conference. This is me standing in front of a list of the sessions running today:

Unfortunately I don’t have time right now to post a summary of what I got up to, but over the next day or so I will certainly post something to share.

The need for sleep is slightly overwhelming right now. And combined with my need to be out of bed at 7 in the morning, it’s also a good idea.

To find out more about Hawker Brownlow, go to their website: http://www.hbe.com.au/

It only seems like last week I finished the first part of my Professional Journey. That may be because it was only a few days ago, and here I am already well on the road of my second.

I have set myself an action plan, and will now go about putting tick marks in each box. While there are less steps for me to complete this time, the work required is somewhat more difficult. You see, I’ve never been a huge fan of researching anything. That may be why I decided to put a Science degree as my number one preference with VTAC as opposed to an Arts degree (for the record, I was considering doing Drama and Maths at one point. I think I may have failed my audition for drama though, I never did find out…).

So anyway, my action plan involves a fair bit of research. I would like to go right back to day four of Uni, sitting in room N2.01 (which is now an international lounge), in Sue Bennett’s EXE101 class. We learnt about many theories of developmental psychology, and theories on how the brain forms over time. Unfortunately, a lot of that knowledge has been stored away in my own brain, and needs refining.

Using this theory, and some handy hints I hope to pick up from some PD sessions I am attending, I aim to create a series of classroom values I can take into my class, based on best practice, modern educational theory and my own experiences.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s getting close now. June 9-13 will see Deakin host its second annual 4^th Year Professional Development Week. Designed for Education students, we have been able to secure about 18 different presenters for the week, who will present about 25 sessions to the cohort over the five days.

Some sessions run the entire week, others just a few hours, but there is going to be something for everyone. Yesterday we had another one of our meetings, and some key decisions were made. Woohoo, I thought!

Initially we were going to attempt quite an ambitious registration system, which was going to be managed online. However we have been forced to return to a manual registration system, which is more work for us but easier to everyone else.

We have also set key dates in  place to release the program and open the registration. It’s going to be a very busy week, as we all work to get the program ready by next Wednesday, then open registration the following Monday.

I love being busy!

A few great things have happened today.

For starters, the Brumby government has announced a new pay deal for teachers, which will see graduates earning $5k more than they do now, and top teachers upto $10k more. For more information on the new deal, see the ABC news story.

Secondly, I had a production meeting today for my show which goes on in a few weeks (which you can find out more about right here, including a video promo). Everything is running smoothly! The cast are doing great, the muso’s are sounding great, the costume, hair and make up teams are kicking major goals, the stage crew, props and set design crews are all looking just great. So if you’re in the Frankston area late May, check out Gateway’s Pirate of the Peninsula. It’s going to be a blast!

Thirdly, petrol hasn’t gone up in price for almost two weeks. There was no major peak last week which I think took everyone by surprise, so now we just hope they don’t decide to put the price up early this week. Knowing the oil companies though, I wouldn’t put it beyond them.

Finally, a HUGE THANK YOU to the people who have commented on my professional journey. Whether you left a comment, emailed me or have actually said words to me, thank you for your feedback and input. I am spending tomorrow morning taking all of the advice on board and making changes before submitting the site to my mentor on Wednesday.

It’s been a good day. Here’s to a great week!

There is one thing I have come to expect from teaching rounds. And that one thing is, no matter what time of the year it is, or how in control of my study I think I am, the Post Practicum Assignment Tornado will strike. It has without fail for the past four semester. But not this time!

Usually, what happens is that I have at least one assignment based directly on my rounds, with other assignments to either do on my rounds or very quickly afterwards. Within about a fortnight I will have submitted an assignment for each subject. About half of those assignments, being maths and IT based, will have been done with minimal class support, because I’ve been on rounds.

This year however, has so far proven quite easy. Two of my classes have no assignment due after rounds. I have submitted an assignment for each class, and have no more assessed work until the end of semester. One subject has a task which may or may not be based on rounds – our professional journey for the year – and the final subject is just a pain and has an assignment due next Wednesday.

So the Post Practicum Assignment Tornado is not as strong as in recent years, which is great. I’ve been able to spend some time on my crypto, and try to catch up on missed theory. Which isn’t easy, when I must admit I struggle with the content in the first place. The good news though, is that it’s slowly becoming clearer, and easier, to me.

For now though, I have some more work to get back to. Although not assignment based, readings are still a vital part of a uni students life. I can;t say they’re my favorite part of uni life, but have the potential to provoke some interesting thoughts in my mind. Tonight’s readings are on claymation, which is always a fun topic to read about.