raindrops on roses + whiskers on kittens

i've awoken this morning to the startling realisation that there is sunshine outside and the globe is indeed still spinning. my body feels like i've just had a baby, and my head is full of candy floss and song.

last year when i said "yes" to being Head of Wardrobe for our skool's production, The Sound of Music, i had absolutely no idea what i would be in for - an epic, intense, extreme, all-consuming adventure dressing a cast of 53 in multiple costumes that fit (!) and getting a last-minute backstage team together to execute 23 speed-changes side/back/top of stage in the dark, dodging props, fly-guys, set crew and exiting nuns - while also being the chief costume fixer-upper, sailor-suit soaker + calmer-downer for little-people's meltdowns. in the last week we've consumed one and a half bottles of rescue remedy. i've never been so stressed out in my entire life.

it really was a Von Trapp Family affair - Joel played Friedrich, Sam played Rolf (and got his hair blonded for authenticity!), Raych helped make costumes + fast-change kids and Fraser was Stage Manager. oh! the adrenaline rush!!

and we rocked it - the whole team rocked it. three months' focus + energy + every single emotion was worth it. i just have to figure out what to do with this huge flossy void in my head now that it's all over.

raych measuring up 26 scapulars

the recovery of the nuns' wimples

lists of lists of lists

Von Trapp Family house truck

Von Trapp Family painters

Rolfifying

half of the wardrobe

pack in at the theatre

ha - i'm not the only type A personality in the room

speed changes R us aka The Yellow Arrows

Von Trapp Family radio interview - Maria, Friedrich + kids

Liesl helps pack in wardrobe

opening night post-show euphoria 

mid-season Von Trapp Family sock-wash

yeah, got myself a sneaky ticket + glass

flowers from my rockstar backstage team

so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye..

the day after - mama + son in sunshine

PRESS REVIEWS: here and here and here

four girlfriends and a funeral

girls:

we've gone to skool together 

shared boyfriends

been bridesmaids

birthed babies

trained toddlers.

we've started home kindies

cooked lasagnes

moved cities

countries

homeskooled

unhomeskooled

holidayed.

we've drunk pinots

recited movie lines

grown beautiful, smart,

talented daughters

and six-foot sons.

we've shared ups

downs

and a whole lotta life.

today we gathered together

to farewell the first of our mothers.

i sobbed hysterically on the way home.

scary fairy bloggeur rendezvous

it's been five years since hay + i hung out.. there have been a million life-changes since then.. we keep up on facebook these days.. yesterday she messaged me to have a coffee.. which we did!! i fear i talked her ear off.. but i loved every second x

#photobombed by my littlest monkey

dewdrops on roses

it's the hols --- cue long sunny days of playing around on newly discovered instagram  painting the house --- and rainbow cupcakes!!

the rainbow fairy x

it's time for me to have time for me

it's that reflective time of the year again

having just been to the brain-melting conference --- subtitle: collaborate. innovate. educate. (i'm gonna add connect + create to those three and call it my own.)

i have decided that it's time to lose those eight sneaky freaky kilos look after myself.

the last three months have been madness

month #1 preparing for ERO visit, ERO in classroom, great review, aftermath.

month #2 massive flood in house, carpet removal, glamping, insistence on house makeover / spring clean.

month #3 co-constructing national standards reports with students / cross-referencing to assessments, compiling student portfolios, student-led conferencing with all but two of my classkids, major crick in neck, writing cv, job interview --- i got the job! = 2 more years teaching at our skool --- secret garden overhaul, garage conversion to studio / rumpus.

all resulting in five o'clock wake-ups + manic house-clean-ups, huge crick in neck, no exercise, and general psycho behaviour.

thank the universe for the skool holidays

highlights:

physio fixing my neck.

danny graduating from university with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).

gorgeousness.

 

it seems so long since the apron strings days.

 

writing a poetry unit + jacking up little classroom visits from real live poets.

ulearn conf. gosh i'm so inspired. there are about 150 new ideas i wanna incorporate into the classroom + i neeeeeeed to have a wee prioritise.

very, very excited that what i've been doing these past couple of years seems to be called elearning and it's all about creating collaborative + innovative spaces where we are all teachers and learners. for me, it grew out of homeskooling. who knew others would be doing the same sorta thing? and i can access a huge community at the press of a button. ha, the joke's on me.

i found my bridesmaid that i haven't seen for ten years!!!

starting again with self-care: exercise, water, food

take advantage of the early-morning wake-ups + head to the gym.

mon / wed / fri = bike (with a book) or cross-trainer
tues / thurs = weights class or step class.
drinking water, eating good food.
NO junk food
YES glass of wine at the end of the day
goal = lose five kilos by end of week six + fit my dress again.

continue with paying the kids to do end-of-week-housework rather than giving two thousand a year to a housecleaner. anti-jinx.

get back on twitter + access my PLN / VLN.

think it'll work? it'll take a miracle  #movieline

#ulearn12

half-baked notes to self + links > storing it here in the cloud.

::21st century learning::
education reframed
engage me
collaborative culture
21st century fluency
kids teaching themselves
netsafe + cyber academy
digital legacy
is technology just a tool?

::keynote google docs::
jason ohler, khoa do, kevin honeycutt, glenn capelli

::stuff i love from kevin honeycutt::
kevin's learning tools by category
network 4 learning 'service'
digital citizenship
raising digital kids
charlie goes digital
rescue time
voice band
google alerts

glenn capelli

::breakout #1 year 6 - 8 literacy: collaboration + creation::
the boy in the striped pyjamas wiki
the hunger games wiki
collaborative novels wiki
waiau pa

::breakout #2 OTJs in writing + next steps::
continue to use easTTle writing new rubric + moderation
convo with students + parents

::breakout #3 collaboration::
inspiring learning with fiona's year 13 english class
chats + blogs home
active learning through collaboration
voice thread
wallwisher
students chat themes, plots, setting, characters using shakespearean twitter handles on twitter or twiducate
edmodo
elearning planning framework
answer garden
google drive
 
::breakout #5 blended classroom::
digital classroom tools vs elearning philosophy
elearning wiki
jacqui sharp's wiki
samr
elearning reflection
elearning vid from nayland at tki
 
:maths
sumdog
kenken
khan
mathletics
 
:literacy
oxford owl
pic lits
story jumper
 
:helpful
keep vid
quiet youtube
typing tutor
study ladder
tagxedo word cloud
wordle
reading rewards
prezi
infographics
jump jam
 
::tech savvy::
80 ways to use google forms in the classroom
40 ways to use smartphones in the classroom
educational technology guy
evernote
cool tools for skools
ict help wiki
dropbox
10 ways skools using social media
twitter is the best PD in the world
the power of twitter as part of my PLN
twitter tips for newbies
nz tweeps
tweet-talk
more twitter tips
the guardian on using social media
teachers pro social media
student voice through online discussion
google fest
google lesson plan search
put the internet to work for you
eTV
britannica through national library
global classroom gdoc
EDtalks
 
::breakout #6 collaborative teaching + elearning::
3 teachers, 52 multi-levelled kids. suits dynamic teacher + noisy classroom, strengths/PD in action, reading comp gone thru the roof.. mon+fri learning hub vertical classes, 'learning street', multi-levelling across four year levels, combined teaching using each teacher's strengths on same subject. tues - thurs own core class. classroom spaces: 8 desks, floor.
team teaching
more team teaching
jo's kids
j + j + j's class blog
jo's reflections
jo's EDtalk: icts + reluctant writers 
elearning: what does the 'e' stand for anyway?
elearning first steps + next steps
enabling elearning min ed page
enabling elearning VLN
google docs presentations
james nottingham
 
::THE WAY FORWARD::

• elearning future plan asap
• google drive: docs + presentations
• microsoft one note / video + voice thread
• maths: recreate knowledge  
• fixed groups/buddies for one term (introverts together)?
• eTV, britannica/national library sign-up
• twitter + VLN
• collaborative teaching + classroom spaces

self preservation

the weekend arrives and i stir things. inhale, spice, taste, slow cook. stir and stir. watch movies, light candles, peg up clean things, read books, have snuggles with small people. i keep thinking i'm finally balancing classroom and home, and then something happens and the plughole slurps.

cue monday night, everyone in the dining room doing their homework thing. suddenly, there's water all over the floor.. a tidal wave coming in through all doors.. towel sandbanks, firemen, carpet suckymotor, eventual carpet removal.

now we're camping out on the concrete floor and it seems that the sum of my energy reaches to keeping the existing balls in the air, not extra clean-ups. so i stir things, inhale, spice, taste, slow cook, get lost in another book, swallow the drowning feeling, unrush the adrenalin, avoid the outside world, stir and stir.

this life, i wonder how everyone else does it..

All the world's a stage

While Bulldog observed from the santuary of the theatre audience, Charles went on stage today with Sir Ian McKellen. I kid thee not. Brandishing Glamdring, he yelled, "YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS!!!!!!" nearly decapitating Gandalf in the process.

It was a two-hour fundraiser for Christchurch, an afternoon that shall be etched forever on the memory. Sir Ian, master of rhetoric and nuance, held the audience spellbound as he effortlessly involved them in his performances from Shakespeare to Tolkien. Charles also had the impromptu privilege of falling to the stage as part of the French army in the reenactment of a scene from Henry V. 

And he even got Sir's signature on the first page of his Hobbit book. Such are the perks of living in Middle Earth.

        

raindrops on roses

hi, i'm katie. i make stuff. i saw this skirt boogying on down at our jazz fest four weeks ago and fell in love. yarp, my dwd becks whipped out her phone and snapped it..

insane, no?

i had to have one. so when my auntie sent down a band of black knit already sewn into a dropped waist, i knew my stars had aligned. i grabbed one-metre-forty of black wedding tulle and a cast-off black half-slip from the op shop and left it hanging on my bedroom door.

this weekend, i found my muse:

thank the stars the fairyskirt cost me next-to-nothing, cos this year's birthday boots have totally broken the bank. but they are ridiculously lustable and i love them to the stars and back.

so i'm ready for the skool ball in two weeks' time. yarp, those be self-portraits, taken from the vantage point of my toilet seat.. and yarp, it's a bit of a stretch to label the outfit 'ball wear', but you should see what danger's wearing... x

life is just a bowl of soup

standing here, dusk falling, twenty-three years on, stirring tonight's offering: the beginnings of a rainydaysoup. inhaling the sweet fragrances of olive-oiled red onion and parsnip, melding together in caramellygoodness, sprinkled with salt to sweat. the whiteness of leek, a three musketeer sort of start-up.

this time of year, the nostalgia of that big black thundercloud we got married under, stood under, stayed under. my belly not-yet-swelling, filling with beauty. fast-forward to nose prickling as the grapevine takes on a sour mustyness, leaves shrivelling under the late late summer's heat, still umbrellaing untasted fruit. five kids and hangers-on rendezvousing chez nous for easter jazz, a trio of boyvoices suddenly turned from soprano to rich tenor-baritone.

now adding thick wedges of roasted pumpkin with two litres of chicken stock that you've lovingly boiled down from a family roast and frozen for future daze, a dash of seasoning for international posterity, extra water to make it go around.

reminiscing all the years you've held my hand, held me up, held me in this balance of motherhood and teacheriness, of making babies and making stuff. it's quite insane when ya do the math (yeah, the americans have got to my grammarian sensibilities): we've lived together longer than we've lived apart. time stands still, heals all wounds, love makes the world go around.

soupyness is at the boil, turning down to a gentle simmer, summer. so thankful for your goodness in and around my entire existence, photomoments flashing in and out of my consciousness.

buzzer sounds, the moment has arrived. time for a spin, whizz the lumps away and serve with hot, crusty bread. butter dripping down wrists of offspring we've made. the marriage of soup and bread, sustenance of souls around the world.

still together: bound by the bonds of love, and nothing can track that.

mind games

i haven't had much time for the blogworld of late. since bloglines quit on me and my rss feeds went south and i started teaching in the classroom and my blog community and i went to facebook, i've hesitated to upload my head here.

it's hard to put the jedi mind whammy on sharing my soul here: i feel it's not particularly professional to post vignettes/pics of the charges in my classroom-care.. we have a class blog for that. also, since my previous subject matter went to skool, they're at the point in their lives where i value their privacy more than my desire to blog every second of our happy existence. plus at the end of the day, i'm all emotional-creativitied out.

but in the past two days i've come across this blog, and the question was asked, what crazy, absolutely pointless, and downright fun games do you make up with your kids?

and i remembered this little space, and then i missed it.

so i wrote:
"three games come to mind (we have teens)
1. the movie lines game: someone surreptitiously drops a movie line into the convo at which the conversee grins and says the next line in the movie. it started many years ago with the best movie of all time (the princess bride) and has just evolved..

2. someone says a word... usually prefaced by "you're a... (silly monkey)" then everyone spontaneously joins in the convo by offering a word that rhymes with the last syllable of that word.. tree.. sea... bee... pee... (it's a bit like your poop game)..

3. the song lyrics game: someone unwittingly says something that reminds the conversee/s of a song lyric, which they grinningly say/sing... then someone else offers a song lyric with the same word in it... a very merry christmas, and a happy new year... mary had a little lamb... old king cole was a merry old soul... etc
totally love the spontaneous games that make each family so unique, so special."

and i really do. so i wrote a few thoughts for this weekend, the culmination of twenty-three years walking together: yep, it's our wedding anniversary again. this year we've bought two ukuleles to mark the occasion: even though the harmonies of our songs are changing, we're still singing the lyrics loudly in unison.

sam's iTunes: hammock-time.

hi, i'm katie. i make stuff.

today's making-something-

from-nothing-moment:

wedge-heeled shoes,

(nine bucks in crazy sale)

gokked up with vintage

clip-on earrings

for tonight's sixties party x

veggie tales

it's been ages since i made this. the last week's been a bit of a whirlwind and my head is already full of next year's plans and dreams and i really just needed a wee sunshine moment.

enter delish roasty veggieness: parsnips, red onions, carrots, pumpkin, courgettes, red + yellow capsicum, mushrooms, chick peas, cooked couscous, toasted sunflower + cumin seeds, gently layered and swished all over with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, tsp curry powder, freshly ground salt + black pepper all snuggled up on a bed of mesclun leaves. everyone loved it. then we shared lemonydrizzled slices of woozie's delish banana cake. sunshine. all. around.

rockit man

so, sam was helping set up the stage for the skool assembly today and his music teacher asked if he could play a few chords to intro a song in the rehearsal > which impromptuly turned into a guitar-and-singing-duet in front of 400 peeps.

cos that's how he rolls.

#pleasuretoteach

part of Bulldog's job is to complete a final edit of skool reports. because i'm such a spelling nazi dediKATEd editor, we usually split the pack and trawl through it together until the wee small hours. last month i won the 'pleasure to teach' medal - that particular phrase was repeated FIVE times on an individual student's report, out of a possible six different entries. as a result i've totally sworn off that particular filler, but i think i've jinxed the universe cos really, how many different ways can ya say "Student has had a hugely successful year in Mathematics and the whole class recently got Excellences so we all had a pizza lunch..?"

this weekend i've already spent about ten hours trying to write individual comments, and i've just noticed that they're all turning into variations of:
"'Student's natural ability, coupled with hard work, has seen her achieve a huge number of successes in Mathematics this year. Student is focused and conscientious in the classroom. She sets goals and works towards them diligently, taking responsibility for her learning. Student grasps new concepts quickly, is able to articulate her mathematical processes clearly, and is a valued contributor in group situations. Congratulations on a superb year’s work."

and there's not a 'pleasure to teach' in sight! but what does it really say? arrrrrgh. and what non-generic NEXT STEPS can i suggest if she's topped the class and got 95+% on every single end-of-topic test? this process is driving me nuts, cos even after all my raving attempts to individualify the universe i find myself playing the forehead stamp game. yes, i really would like an answer, or at least a few suggestions...

friday night, it was late

it's strange how friendships change. i'd like some things to always remain the same, but it seems that the constant thing about life is its changeability. when we moved to the sunny bay nine years ago, i had no idea how much would change about our world. on the home front, our kids have grown so much. one has left home and gone to university and has even got himself a job to go to in the new year. the second is in her final exams and has just applied to our local university to study teaching. she's gonna save significant pennies by staying at home during her tertiary years - oh goodie, we get to keep our resident chef. the rest of us are still at skool together - i do find it hilarious that we can't really say goodbye to homeskooling.

it's wonderful that even though peeps come and go in our lives, there are always friends we can land with for a few hours. last night saw five of us in the secret garden, sharing some early summer sunshine and sillybrating change - a year of university and new jobs, of success and all-round superhumanness.

i hope these lot stay in my life for a long time hence. x

danny is on university study break and i am 200km down the road writing skool reports and ohlookit! both of us are on facebook and now we're chatting

Katie: so last night we were rudely awoken at witching hour by KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK...
and someone (or maybe both of us) mumbled "i think someone's knocking at the door.." so dad and i wandered rather drunkenly down the hall (even though we hadn't previously touched a drop) and turned on every single light before opening the door to a blonde lady who looked us up and down and 'splained:
"i'm so sorry to wake you but your letterbox is on fire..."
Danny:
Katie: so i said, "oh, i'll just get a bucket of water.." and wobbled off to the laundry but then dad insisted on finding a torch incase there was something dubious in said letterbox and it jumped out at us when we threw the water on it so it took delirious us ten mins to discover three torches... but alas! none of them had batteries in them... and i was busy having a wee kitten cos what! if! we! have! a! real! emergency! and! we! have! no! batteries! in! our! thousands! of! torches!???
Danny:

which is probably why my son is an almost-qualified-engineer and i am still procrastinating writing skool reports #somethingshinyoverthere

woozie wokstar

i picked up a new wok today cos i killed my old faithful last night making something that burned cos there was something shiny over there was eventually named 'smouldering mexican' by this dude

(they were going to a moustache party)

the wok we found was $70 reduced to $20 and is ZIP and a heavy 30cm non-stick base and it even has a glass lid. brilliant... and comes with its own wokstar

who is making us pseudo-noodle box for lunch, sans coriander and cashews.

status update

it's funny how micro-blogging seems taken over the blogiverse. so many peeps i have met through my blogging history (of more than five years! wowsers) have drifted off to facebook and/or twitter. it's funny, too, how much twaddle gets posted online these days. at last, here is the definitive guideline for what to say and where to say it:

i don't use foursquare or linkedin (yet), and after going to a brain-melting conference on social media and 21st century learning i have started uploading here again (even though blogger.com doesn't appear on the above destructions), cos it appears that we are still encouraging kiddos to blog. monkey see, monkey do.

but *ahem* today's REAL status update is: I HAVE A NEW JOB!!! YES!! I WILL HAVE MY VERY OWN BUNCH OF COOL KIDS AND MY VERY OWN CLASSROOM IN 2012!!!!! no more pushing my supermarket trolley 100km around skool every day. i'm just so exciiited! talk about a velveteen rabbit moment. <pops champagne>

birthday boy

he's been counting down the sleeps

for the last three weeks and is oh!

so very excited to be in double digits.

garage band

we cleaned out the garage again in the skool hols and took 400kg of shizzit to the tip.

nek minnit...

George and the Golden Moment

Today I had one of those once-in-a-blue-moon golden moments.

Last year George (not his real name) was in my Year 8 Science class but I only saw him for one or two hours a fortnight because he has ‘learning difficulties’ (translation: he doesn’t learn the same way as the rest of the kiddos in the class) so he spends a lot of time with a teacher aide. George, being ‘on the spectrum', always laughs and lowers his eyes whenever I speak to him (even to say "Hi!" which I still do, even though he’s not in any of my classes this year).

Today I found out thirty seconds before the bell rang that a class needed to be babysat. I was given a stack of blank papers and a stack of sheets with map symbols on them. The kids were to ‘make their own map’. Uh, hello? I need a GPS to find my way home from skool.

When I arrived at the classroom (with my lunch in my hand cos I'd been sewing sparkly stuffs with kiddos at lunchtime) George was there with his teacher aide, and she miraculously turned my shoot-from-the-hip lesson into something manageable for him. Towards the end of the hour, I mooched up to George and looked in his eyes (yeah, I’m so intrusive) and told him what a fabulous map he’d drawn. He grinned, repeating my words to himself, and looked down. So I tried again. “George, what did you think of the gymnastics performance at skool assembly the other day? I saw your sister on stage and I thought she was fabulous! You have such a great sister!”

He looked me in the eyes and said,” YES I DO!!!” and I swear I felt some fairy dust sprinkled on my head. Because after school, George’s teacher aide came to find me and said that it was the first time ever that he’d responded like that.

Which goes to prove that silence isn't always golden.

traffic light curry

i get teased on facebook for all my i'm-making-this-for-dinner status updates. but when you're a mama of hungry teens, food features rather frequently on your horizon. today was back-to-skool, and we all arrived home feeling like we'd been hit by a train.

enter pj's, a kids' movie, and traffic light curry. i named it myself, pfft... perfick rice, and a usual recipe refabriKATEd with additions of red capsicum + pumpkin + coriander (ooh, lookit, a maths equation).

it looks pretty delish, if i say so myself.

we want cookie!!

there's a whole lotta stuff going down lately about #occupywallstreet (yeah, i'm back on twitter). i don't have any amazing new ideas to contribute to the occupy chat. in fact, not being a political animal, it took me a while to get my head around what it's all about.
yesterday, i came across a ridiculous situation with a journalist in her evening gown and a tumblr page about occupying education - and lookit!! unskoolers and classroomers are both in the same boat for once ;P
so i was thinking about how to make current events understandable to kids - and then i saw these words (but the original image offended my apostrophic sensibilities so my own kiddos collaborated with me and we made zees guy

aha, i get it now. but wait, there's more: a link to woozie's signature cookie-chip-chocolates, cos we're all about sharing the cookies (chef's tip: scr*w what the recipe says, chop up one and a half blocks of dark ghana choc instead). nom nom.

shopping bag tutorial

hi, i'm katie. i make stuff.
i wrote this tutorial for a class
of 25 eleven year olds
who had met the sewing machine
and could sew a straight seam.
as soon as the more able kiddos
had done each step,
they became the experts for the others -
Kids Teaching Kids is definitely my style,
especially with a 1:25 teacher-student ratio ;)
and the best thing? re/upcycling a throw-out.

HANDY HINT:
click on each pic to open it *large* + zooooom









i am so impressed with the kids' finished bags:

and so are they :)