Reflecting on a hard week

My successes this week were:
- My students guided with my assistance, the Red & Black Mufti Day to fundraise for the people of Christchurch. As a school we made over $800. Now they are planning their own school event, a great inquiry that crosses curriculum areas and full of HEART (our school values + key competencies).
- We had our first e-learning meeting with David our guide. Although their was was some initial concerns, everyone was open to discussion and we ended the meeting on a positive note.
- We had our first Skype with a high school in Illinois, USA. Although we provided scaffolding the conversation was very stilted, due to both student uncertainty and poor connection. See my students class blog post here.
- During our e-learning meeting we had spoken about allowing students to learn to do what we cannot and learn from it. I decided to give my students a challenge with no instructions. They had to use the laptop webcam to take a portrait photograph and then print it out. It turn out to be an engaging afternoon with students experimenting and teaching each other.

Some difficult parts of my week have been:
- Arranging the Soap Box Derby team and activites. I hate cars, grease etc yet got hooked into managing this. It is stressful doing something you don't like or know anything about, which made me think about what I ask my students to do in class every day. When do they feel like this?
- I have also begun my two Post Graduate Diploma papers and finding the extra workload very hard to keep up with during this busy term. I must just keep at it and hopefully term 2 will get easier.