“Get yourself sorted out!” Your blog, that is, get your blog sorted out. This week we need to start getting serious with our blogs. What I want to see this week is a new page added, an “About Me” page which explains all the information people may need about you and stays in place permanently. The difference between a page and a post is that a page stays as it is, whereas the posts change each time a new one is added. Next, make sure you’ve deleted any widgets you aren’t going to use and that you’ve added the Class Blogs widget. Finally, I’d like everyone to post a comment on any of my posts from this year and post on the blogs of two other students (not just your besties, though). Keep to our blogging and commenting guidelines, if you don’t the comment will be trashed. Have fun!

Term 1 was hectic! It wasn’t that long ago, but it now feels like a hazy, distant memory that went by in a crazy blur. However, looking forward I think term 2 will actually be much worse. We’ve got so much to squeeze in this term that, like many teachers around the world, I fully expect that we won’t reach all the targets we set for ourselves. In week 3 we’ll be starting almost two weeks of swimming lessons and these will take nearly two hours a day out of the timetable; time well spent, though as swimming is a lifesaving skill here in Western Australia. Regardless of what happens, LA1 will keep on keeping on and we’ll make term 2 another great experience.

This week we decided to torture the students! Well that’s what you’d think we did if you listened to them moaning and groaning. In actual fact, they took part in our annual Faction Cross Country competition, a 1.5 kilometre run around the local park next to the school. It was a great day and all the students who took part can be proud of themselves for completing the whole course. In the end, one of our own boys, Christian, took Champion Boy honours for the year 5s – a fabulous achievement. Check out the images below of the students being put through their horrific torture!

This school year has been like no other! In fact, we’re starting week eight and I’m pretty sure that this is only my third post for the year so far, very bad by my standards. The goal for the rest of the year will be to put this right and get all the students going with their own blogs.

This week has been the final one of the dreaded NAPLAN testing season. Standardised testing seems to be something that many governments like to establish and we are certainly no exception to that. However, with this over and (fingers crossed) much of our technology up and running we may see a tiny iota of normality returning to LA1 – whatever “normal” actually is.

Yes, I know, I say this a LOT, but it seems even worse this year. I just can’t get a grip on the way time slips easily from our grasp and disappears before our eyes. It’s week 5 and this is only the second time I’ve managed to post this term. Partly, though, I’ve had a good excuse – we’ve been very busy! The students have had to go through the usual start of year testing, on top of all the usual work we’ve been getting through. We’ve started a novel study (Mr Stink by David Walliams) and gotten to grips with a whole new suite of techy apps (this needed a big password overhall too). We’ve been working through our HASS studies on democracy and have begun our Indonesian language work. Maths is going well and the students had a mini excursion to the car park to check out rotational symmetry on the teachers’ wheels (and I forgot to take the photos I was going to post here). All in all it’s been a crazy rush, but I think we may nearly be ready to see a little normality appearing over the horizon – if there is such a thing.

“Who was that masked superhero we just saw?” Well, they’re not exactly superheroes but the new students in LA1 will certainly soon be masked. As part of our online safety learning the students have been busy making masks to cover their identity. This doesn’t mean that they won’t be showing their faces online, of course they will, but the masks are a visual symbol, a message of intent that they will be keeping their full identities safe and private. We’re still at the begining of our 2023 journey and we haven’t yet begun our blogs, but creating the masks is our first step before the students finally go “live” in a few weeks. Check out the three masks below.

2023 is here with a new set of students and, strangely for me, a whole new year group. For quite a few years I’ve been working with fabulous year 6 students, but this year I’ve been given a year 5 class. Apart from the obvious adjustments that I’ll have to make to my usual teaching (not to mention the different curriculum), the blogs will also have to undergo a total rethink. I’m not quite yet sure whether I’ll be using blogs with the whole class, but I’ll certainly be carrying on with my class posts. A new year, new students, new year group and lots of exciting new challenges – 2023 is already promising to be very interesting.

Time just flies, doesn’t it? Our year has now come down to just a handful of days, very soon the students of 2022 will walk out of the gates for their final time. This particular group of students have been a real pleasure, they’ve saved my sanity a number of times (tested it on a few occasions too) with their humour, kindness, smiles and friendships. This has been a tough year, personally, and the classroom has been my “safe place”, my retreat from the many many pressures that this complex and demanding job too frequently subjects teachers to. Teachers may tell you, the students are the reason we do what we do and the rewards we receive from being with them each feeds us with energy and purpose. Regardless of the constant pressures, once we step through the door we remember why we do the job we chose, and it’s that feeling that ensures we keep returning. On 15th December, the students will leave LA1 for the final time, but I’m sure they won’t be forgotten.

For a moment the scene resembled something quite dramatic and sinister, bodies were lying on the ground throughout the library. These bodies, though, were clearly not injured, in fact the only thing they were suffering from were fits of giggles. First aid training can be a little confronting at times, but our presenter was fabulous and she did a great job ensuring the students felt at ease with the whole process. We learnt plenty of new skills and information, although these are the types of skills that will need to be refreshed every once in a while; I found that I’d learnt some new things that I’d either forgotten or never knew in the first place. The students went through their role plays and were able to demonstrate their new knowledge, I only hope they never have to use it.

Take a word like door. Just an everyday kind of word, one we wouldn’t give a second thought to. However, that simple word could be the basis for a world of dreams and adventure, drama and romance, thrills and tragedy. In LA1 we’ve been working all year to develop engaging openings to our writing, particularly with regards to our narrative writing. For example, let’s get back to the word door: This was the moment her life could change forever, she just had to open the door. What door? Where is she? Is it a real or metaphorical door – we MUST read on! such is the power of being able to turn a bland, everyday word into an engaging story starter.

For this task you need to use the word door to create 3 different and engaging story starters. Try changing the genre of the story (thriller, horror, comedy, romance…) and give different feelings to your sentences.