Blog

Teaching is an active profession – it’s not something that should be addressed from the perspective of ‘she’ll be right’. Every moment in the classroom is precious – students will have few other opportunities in their lives where they have little else to do but learn, and there are so few competing interests for them….

I’ve never really understood the lure of consultants. It’s strange, but in education they are, to some degree, still a relatively new phenomenon. I’m sure there have been consultants in business and other fields for as long as there have been those fields, but in education, for a long while, it seemed that consultants were…

Ominous title, yes? Perhaps not such an ominous subject matter, but still, worthy of a few lines here. I recently finished The Chathrand series of novels, by Robbert V.S. Redick. Fantastic books, all of them, some kind of British Empire – Naval Adventure – Epic Fantasy combination, with enough new and interesting ideas to make…

Recently had a bit of a whirlwind trip to Ballarat for a cousin’s wedding. I hadn’t been there since uni games in approximately 2001, I think, where I broke my collarbone in the second bout. Anyway, I had good memories of that time, and I was expecting to enjoy it again. And I did, I…

Recently had the chance to work with a stellar group of young men and woman. All in year 8, they put together and prepared a student leadership conference for other young people in the area. They had put together the program, invited special guests, sorted out catering and devised a whole program of workshops and…

It seems like 21st century learning is a bit of a buzzword at the moment. Everywhere you go, schools are either ’embracing 21st century learning’ or they are being urged. Usually, there’s flash graphics of computers or tablet devices, and even talk of open spaces and options and pathways. However, like a lot of so-called…

This is a first draft of a piece that I submitted for the TASA Sociology of Youth SIG Blog. I Just Don’t Care: Youth Engagement with Politics and Citizenship in Western Sydney  ‘I don’t really care about politicians. They seem to spend all their time arguing with each other. How’s that helping anyone?’                   –…

If you’ve had even the slightest interest in federal politics, you’d probably agree that it looks like Labor is heading for a wipeout at the election in September. Bookies have got the ALP out to $7, and there’s talk that Tony Abbott will sweep to power with a 20 seat majority. Polls are showing that…

Despite the rather lofty title, this is a light-hearted piece. Recently, we celebrated our Foundation Day at my school. It came at a good time; there’s a lot of pressure on students and teachers at our school this year, and Term 3, as always, is the toughest term. Added to that, we’ve had a lot…

Schools can be pretty tense places. I’ve worked in hospitals, in the armed forces and in a few other places besides, and all of these workplaces bring their own kind of stress, but, to be honest, I think that there is a level of tension that is peculiar to schools. Of course, wherever you have…