Term 4 is upon us

A final scramble to get units up and running and finish off the pre HSC editing of drafts still filtering through from students. Increasingly the effectiveness of a unit relates to the quality of preparation as once the term is underway, the pace becomes almost frenetic at times. Setting up wikispaces and weebly sites can help build up a handy repository of resources to draw on and limit handouts and assessment notification that can become a nightmare. As always the holidays have flown with many good intentions not achieved. My mistake is in envisaging that I can get so much more done in the time.

Term 4 workshops will kick in by Week 3 and next year, there should be some online versions of the topics offered this year through TTA. It will be interesting as well to get further updates regarding changing curriculum content, approach and assessment for years 7-12. The adage that change is good for us has some merit but I sometimes wonder whether there will ever be a ceiling on the expectations placed on time poor teachers. I look back and remember times that seemed less hectic and more productive.

Technology has been a mixed blessing but I will continue to explore how it can be used effectively within the classroom. There are many forums and blogspots available for sharing great ideas and software to try out and to improve current strategies. Powerpoints have been the staple of many teachers for a long time but it needs to be remembered that unless they make a real impact on the viewer, they are a poor substitute for a simple handout which will contain far more indepth information than just words on slides.

Well back to resource prep for my upcoming units.