Beautiful Como

The beautiful autumn sunshine had me out and about with my camera today - it was way too nice to stay inside, so the Marina Cafe was perfect for lunch. Not quite Lake Como, but a lovely spot all the same, and only 25 minutes drive from home - it's on the same river, so maybe I should get a boat......

Weekend Resolutions

Image: www.etiennecohen.com/GALLERY/gallery.html

It is Friday night after another busy week, and I have some resolutions:

1. Put up my easel and paint something - anything!


2. See a movie - I'm thinking the Australian/Lebanese movie, "The Combination"


3. Do just enough housework to make the place feel good


4. Do just enough schoolwork to make next week flow


5. Go out for breakfast with the Saturday papers and favourite man


6. Maybe - go to the city to see the "Salon des Refuses" alternate Archibald Prize exhibition


7. Get in lots of healthy food and sourdough bread


8. Relax with a cup of tea before I go for a dog run/walk


9. When I do walk - really stop to "smell the roses" along the river


10. Be grateful that I have a job to wind down from!

Duality

Doing philosophy in the classroom this week, we looked at the brain/body question - who are you, your brain or your body? After a wide-ranging discussion, the consensus was that the "you" in your brain with all your memories, quirks, talents, etc, is really "you". So now I'm thinking - what a good tool philosophy would be to counteract the negative body image that can occur in the teenage years. Of course, first we have to get philosophy into the curriculum. I squeeze it in under "English - Talking & Listening" strand - where there's a will, there's a way!

Greek Yum Cha

I kid you not, we went for Greek Yum Cha right on Cronulla beach on Saturday. It was very, very nice - $30 per head and the small courses kept on coming. Grilled octopus, baked lamb, spinach triangles, dips, chicken wings, baked vegetables - and we still found space to walk up to the gelato shop and take our cones back down to the beach afterwards. At the beach we were treated to a shark alarm - everyone out of the water while a helicopter flew low over the errant shark until he "left the area". People were then told they could go back in the water - at their own risk. Not many took up the offer!

Week 6 already...

Teachers talk in "weeks" and often don't know the date something will happen - we just know it will happen "Wednesday, Week 6" for example. This term is 10 weeks, so we are right in the middle of things. I'm enjoying being in a routine now with my (beautiful) new class, and having plenty of time for art and drama as well as the three R's. They have all made a blog on which to present their homework assignments, and they love leaving comments on their friend's blog.I guess that they will move on to twitter and facebook as they get into high school. Today I was able to present a lesson in our new computer lab using an "interactive" whiteboard with a touch screen - a far cry from the chalk and talk of yesteryear. For this generation, technology is just an appliance - the internet has been around since they were babies.
Image from Google Images