Well the heady days of summer are just kicking in for real, but it's time to leave my idyllic at-home existence for the hurly-burly of the classroom. There are exciting times ahead, as this year is full of potential, but potential comes at a price.
Hopefully the well-laid routines that I have established during the long summer holiday will see me and my little family through the busy days of Term 1... and they are certain to be busy because they always are.
Time to test the trusty cape and tights again - hopefully next week I'll be able to regale you with stories about how brilliant my new class are!
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Paying it forward.
We have had a lovely day out with our teenage sons today. We didn't go far, geographically, as the destination was our home town - a mere five minutes by car. We did, however, travel back in time as it was the Vintage Weekend. This is a celebration of all things Vintage, with our main street lined with vintage cars (everything you can imagine from 1906 to 1980!), shopkeepers and stallholders at the market dressed in a range of vintage fashions, Generation Wedding Dress and Steampunk fashion shows, buskers, stage bands, traction engine rides and generally lots of family fun.
This evening my husband went out to do some photography. It was not quite work, as he wasn't getting paid for any of it, but good photos come from practise not purchase so he enjoys the chance to shoot something out of the ordinary for once. And last night, it was just about as out of the ordinary as you could get! He was photographing the Vintage Weekend Burlesque Show, which featured a range of performers of both genders, and which had a sell-out audience.
He left home at 5.00 and didn't get home until nearly midnight, because he helped with the final set-up and also with the tidy-up afterwards. How could he not? The organiser's a friend of ours, and she needed a hand. He will also spend the next couple of days working on the images, making sure they are all just right before he releases them onto the Victory Burlesque Facebook page. They are all downloadable and if any performers need a higher resolution image for promotional material they just email him and he makes it available to them.
He doesn't earn any money from this, and it takes hours of his time. So why does he do it? (and the roller derby games, the trolley derby on Monday, the opening of the new RSA cafe, my school leavers' formal dinner etc etc etc)
Because we both believe in paying it forward.
Acts of generosity make our community a better place to be. Everybody feels appreciated and valued - and they are more likely to behave in a lovely way as a result.
This is why we organise a pechakucha-style event in our town. Called Pic/Chat 19/19 we have a number of speakers who talk about their passion. They show 19 slides and talk for 19 seconds about each slide. We work alongside a trio of people from our local art gallery (which was set up in 1919, hence the timeframes) to contact speakers, hire the venue, serve the refreshments and send handwritten thankyou notes to our speakers after the event. I curate the Facebook page, and post twice a week about the event, including photographs and video of the speakers.
We fill our venues every time, but make no profit - that's not what it's about. We cover our costs, and do this voluntarily, taking no money for ourselves either. That's not what it's about.
Be the change you want to see in the world, said Ghandi. Well I'd like people to be more open, more kind and more generous with each other, and I guess that starts with me.
This evening my husband went out to do some photography. It was not quite work, as he wasn't getting paid for any of it, but good photos come from practise not purchase so he enjoys the chance to shoot something out of the ordinary for once. And last night, it was just about as out of the ordinary as you could get! He was photographing the Vintage Weekend Burlesque Show, which featured a range of performers of both genders, and which had a sell-out audience.
He left home at 5.00 and didn't get home until nearly midnight, because he helped with the final set-up and also with the tidy-up afterwards. How could he not? The organiser's a friend of ours, and she needed a hand. He will also spend the next couple of days working on the images, making sure they are all just right before he releases them onto the Victory Burlesque Facebook page. They are all downloadable and if any performers need a higher resolution image for promotional material they just email him and he makes it available to them.
He doesn't earn any money from this, and it takes hours of his time. So why does he do it? (and the roller derby games, the trolley derby on Monday, the opening of the new RSA cafe, my school leavers' formal dinner etc etc etc)
Because we both believe in paying it forward.
Acts of generosity make our community a better place to be. Everybody feels appreciated and valued - and they are more likely to behave in a lovely way as a result.
This is why we organise a pechakucha-style event in our town. Called Pic/Chat 19/19 we have a number of speakers who talk about their passion. They show 19 slides and talk for 19 seconds about each slide. We work alongside a trio of people from our local art gallery (which was set up in 1919, hence the timeframes) to contact speakers, hire the venue, serve the refreshments and send handwritten thankyou notes to our speakers after the event. I curate the Facebook page, and post twice a week about the event, including photographs and video of the speakers.
We fill our venues every time, but make no profit - that's not what it's about. We cover our costs, and do this voluntarily, taking no money for ourselves either. That's not what it's about.
Be the change you want to see in the world, said Ghandi. Well I'd like people to be more open, more kind and more generous with each other, and I guess that starts with me.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
A handout or a hand up?
This may become a little rant-ish, but I don't often do that so I'm giving myself permission to ponder today. Here's the situation:
I have a couple of friends who are in the same profession as me. We chat regularly and they sometimes ask me for advice about our profession - ideas, current thinking, resources to use and so forth. And I don't mind sharing because I think that together we can all achieve more than we can as individuals.
But I've become aware that these friends of mine are using my work (again, don't mind that - no point sharing if you have to keep it a secret!) but taking credit as if it were their own. And this I object to.
If I give you a planning template I'm really happy for you to use it if it makes your life easier and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. But I do get peeved when I see it submitted as part of an appraisal and find that you're taking credit for creating it.
Am I wrong to feel this way? I do use other people's ideas at work and in my business, but I always credit where I found them. To me it is bordering on the dishonest to be any other way.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too pedantic about this.
But I can't help the way I feel, and it taints my interactions with those friends. In fact, I've stopped sharing with them both and I feel mean to behave in this way.
What do you think? I do believe that we should give each other a hand up in life. But to take those stepping stones and use them as a handout....?
I have a couple of friends who are in the same profession as me. We chat regularly and they sometimes ask me for advice about our profession - ideas, current thinking, resources to use and so forth. And I don't mind sharing because I think that together we can all achieve more than we can as individuals.
But I've become aware that these friends of mine are using my work (again, don't mind that - no point sharing if you have to keep it a secret!) but taking credit as if it were their own. And this I object to.
If I give you a planning template I'm really happy for you to use it if it makes your life easier and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. But I do get peeved when I see it submitted as part of an appraisal and find that you're taking credit for creating it.
Am I wrong to feel this way? I do use other people's ideas at work and in my business, but I always credit where I found them. To me it is bordering on the dishonest to be any other way.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too pedantic about this.
But I can't help the way I feel, and it taints my interactions with those friends. In fact, I've stopped sharing with them both and I feel mean to behave in this way.
What do you think? I do believe that we should give each other a hand up in life. But to take those stepping stones and use them as a handout....?
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
The best laid plans....
Oh well. It was a nice idea at the time, but November had other ideas about how I should spend my days - and writing for pleasure certainly wasn't on the list! I did not get one single word written outside of my work requirements *sigh*.
I am not, however, berating myself too hard for this. Life is messy, and the last term of the year is demanding for any teacher. This is particularly true when it is your first time through the routines, as it was for me in 2016, and I am just pleased to look back on the end of the school year feeling proud that my reports were done well, the students remained calm and on track right up to the last day, they got personal achievement certificates at our very successful Leavers' Dinner, my awards for Prize Giving were organised in plenty of time and we threw a 2-day school camp into the mix just for good measure. So, on the whole, while I would have liked to do the writing I proposed in my last post I don't actually feel bad about not getting there.
And now Christmas and the New Year are done, and life begins to return to normal after the New Zealand summer shut-down. I'm still in non-contact time from school, but have plenty of other things to be doing. This time last year I was away in the UK, visiting family and friends, so the normal summer tidy up/sort out/renovate or maintain jobs that I do around our house and garden didn't get done. I am working through the house slowly, and feel so much better now I'm reclaiming it room by room. Papers are getting sorted and filed, boxes are being emptied and recycled, cobwebs are a thing of the past and the vacuum cleaner gets emptied five times a day! I have recovered the dog's bed and replaced the old fabric that she managed to break through in her restlessness - she now sleeps in comfort and style once again - and have enjoyed having my sewing machine out so much that I'm planning on making a summer dress or two once payday rolls around and there's some cash in my account again!
My sons are both at home at the moment, the elder being back from varsity. They're helping out around the house too, as neither of them have summer jobs, and we've reached a working agreement. I leave them alone to be teenagers in the morning and they have a list of things that need doing in the afternoon. They choose at least one every day, and the list is quickly disappearing.
We've also been eating at the dining room table each evening, as a family. Now, through the last year I must confess that although we ate together whenever we were all at home, we did so in the living room with our plates on our knees. And it was my fault. I'd buried the dining room table under paperwork and unfinished projects, you see. So my first tidying up priority was to get it clear, and I'm really enjoying our family mealtimes once again. It gives me a good incentive to keep the table that way.
I've also been playing my piano again, which I have missed, and reading books for pleasure not just work. And half way through my long summer break I feel fabulous! This "looking after yourself" lark really does work!
I'll have to keep on doing some of that as I go through this year.
Next post will be about my new year resolutions - or rather, the lack of them! But I do resolve to write it in the next few days. I'm aiming for twice a week, and the habits starts now!
I am not, however, berating myself too hard for this. Life is messy, and the last term of the year is demanding for any teacher. This is particularly true when it is your first time through the routines, as it was for me in 2016, and I am just pleased to look back on the end of the school year feeling proud that my reports were done well, the students remained calm and on track right up to the last day, they got personal achievement certificates at our very successful Leavers' Dinner, my awards for Prize Giving were organised in plenty of time and we threw a 2-day school camp into the mix just for good measure. So, on the whole, while I would have liked to do the writing I proposed in my last post I don't actually feel bad about not getting there.
And now Christmas and the New Year are done, and life begins to return to normal after the New Zealand summer shut-down. I'm still in non-contact time from school, but have plenty of other things to be doing. This time last year I was away in the UK, visiting family and friends, so the normal summer tidy up/sort out/renovate or maintain jobs that I do around our house and garden didn't get done. I am working through the house slowly, and feel so much better now I'm reclaiming it room by room. Papers are getting sorted and filed, boxes are being emptied and recycled, cobwebs are a thing of the past and the vacuum cleaner gets emptied five times a day! I have recovered the dog's bed and replaced the old fabric that she managed to break through in her restlessness - she now sleeps in comfort and style once again - and have enjoyed having my sewing machine out so much that I'm planning on making a summer dress or two once payday rolls around and there's some cash in my account again!
My sons are both at home at the moment, the elder being back from varsity. They're helping out around the house too, as neither of them have summer jobs, and we've reached a working agreement. I leave them alone to be teenagers in the morning and they have a list of things that need doing in the afternoon. They choose at least one every day, and the list is quickly disappearing.
We've also been eating at the dining room table each evening, as a family. Now, through the last year I must confess that although we ate together whenever we were all at home, we did so in the living room with our plates on our knees. And it was my fault. I'd buried the dining room table under paperwork and unfinished projects, you see. So my first tidying up priority was to get it clear, and I'm really enjoying our family mealtimes once again. It gives me a good incentive to keep the table that way.
I've also been playing my piano again, which I have missed, and reading books for pleasure not just work. And half way through my long summer break I feel fabulous! This "looking after yourself" lark really does work!
I'll have to keep on doing some of that as I go through this year.
Next post will be about my new year resolutions - or rather, the lack of them! But I do resolve to write it in the next few days. I'm aiming for twice a week, and the habits starts now!
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