Monday, September 18, 2006

And Another Thing...

I don't know what that other thing is yet, but when I think of something, I'll tell you.

Things have been going very well as of late. I am learning and learning and learning how to be a better teacher, and learning and learning and learning that I really need to stop putting off my marking. We're doing Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" in my Year 10 class at the moment, and it's lots of fun. We have a good time bagging out both Michael and the American public that is represented (the bloke is highly manipulative, but clearly doesn't have to look very far to find material for his 'documentary').

Year 8's have just finished "Tomorrow When the War Began", and I think we'll all be sorry to see the back of that text. Onto something else that I can't remember next.

And my Year 9's have had a good go at "Deadly Unna?" (an amazing book about Australian racism by a guy called Philip Gwynne - I'd recommend it to anyone) and have "The Truman Show" to look forward to.

I think my speciality in English is teaching film as text. I love being able to rip apart the techniques that film makers use to express their content. It's really good fun. I think I could be a decent Media teacher too. My film-focused buddies have been a big inspiration to me where this is concerned. Thanks Guru and Alex :)

Anyway, school holidays now, and today Chrystal and I made a big effort at cleaning up the house. It looks SO much better - we got into all of the cupboards and wardrobes and just started throwing out everything that we didn't need. My main philosophy on that subject is "If you have survived the past little while without it, then most likely you are not going to miss it iff it goes". Books have are the exception here - they never lose value. Seasonal items also can be exempt. Broken lamps are not.

Ah... well, I thought this was funny. Have a squizz...