Back to the grind

I had a good Christmas and a relaxing Boxing Day but I started my 2015 preparations today. I thought I would sort out the library before lunch but it took a lot longer than I thought. I had loads of books to sort out and squeeze into the bookshelves. I wish I had ordered the extra bookshelf earlier so I could relocate our big library of graphic novels but that will have to wait until they deliver later in January. Tomorrow I'll tidy up the office and start updating our documents for next year. I'll get a big bin on Monday and get rid of some old computers, the mower that is rusted and junk in the store shed and shelter shed. Then maybe on Tuesday I can start developing programs for the kids next year. We lost 4 grade 6 kids and ( as far as I know) have none starting next year so I will have a lot less preparation to do next year and an interesting group of children to work with. We always start with an Australian theme. I am looking for a Joan Phipson book to read as a serial. I started reading The Watcher in the Garden but I think it is more suitable for a teen audience. The Boundary Riders is a good book ( a bit old fashioned) but more suitable for my grade 5s.

 I want to continue our focus on writing next year so I will be preparing for that and completing professional learning with my network colleagues in March which I hope will give me lots of ideas to work with. I'd like to try developing Infographics on our PCs in 2015 and try creating and innovating more on our iPads instead of using them primarily for research and games. 

Hopefully I'll be done by next Thursday and I can have a break for a few weeks. When you are running a one teacher school you can never completely cut yourself off from the place. It is important to keep an eye on the school. It is out of the way but the suburbs are creeping up on us and I know we get visits out of hours and that always concerns me.

Below is a photo of some of Ballarat's Christmas decorations which I suppose they'll start removing soon.