Well, it’s that time of year. The students are leaving and the blogs for 2012 are about to be closed. This has been my first year of blogging with students and I can honestly say that, regardless of my own perspective on blogging, without the enthusiasm and dedication of the students the whole project this year would have failed. A special mention to Jasmine for a great and varied blog and for blogging right up to the end. Also, a mention to Tahlia for being the most prolific blogger. My class has been exceptional this year and I am proud of the progress and achievements they have made. So, from me to you – a huge “THANKS” and have a great holiday. Everyone from LA19 I will give you until the first week of January when I will delete your blogs and also your access to Edmodo. Sad, I know, but I have to be ready for the new students in 2013.

A note for any educators out there, if you’d like to connect and collaborate next year drop me a “Hi” and we can get something organised. Be aware, though, that we are Australian and our school year goes from February to December.

Well, you never know when you do these things, but I was thrilled that this one succeeded. We listened to the audio book version of the novel, Mr Stink, by David Walliams (from Little Britain fame – it was read by himself and Matt Lucas) and completed a long series of activities to develop our comprehension and listening skills. You can see the book on our bookshelf and on the Class News section on the links to the right of this page. One of our activities took us into letter writing and as an incentive we wrote to David Walliams to say just how much we loved the book. Well, to his eternal credit we received a letter, a signed photo and another of his books for the class to read. The students were thrilled, as you’d imagine, and so was I. Real world tasks are especially purposeful when they are rewarded in such a way.