Post 300 - Farewell Summer Break

This post marks a landmark on my blog. It is post number 300. I hope all those who read it enjoy the glimpses they get of my life, mostly here in Cambodia but occasionally in other places. I look forward to writing more once school resumes for the students in one week!

Meanwhile, teacher orientation and preparation week starts tomorrow.

This last week has just flown by, with most of my time focused on two tasks.

Most teachers would be familiar with taking "running records" to assess student reading. This summer one of my projects has been updating our resources for this. There's been a lot of downloading, printing, and photocopying done, and there's still some laminating and then a lot of filing to be done before that job is complete, but it is well and truly on the way. My goal is to have that job finished by the end of the week, but I am somewhat dependent on other people to get that done.

The second task was one that has saved our principal a heap of work, and hopefully will make staff quite a bit happier. The principal, one of the Khmer teachers and I made some decisions about a baseline supply list, and the Khmer teacher and I went to the markets and got some prices. Later that day I went back to the markets on my own and placed the initial order. It was a big order, and was delivered the next day. With over 2000 books to be sorted and allocated, as well as other materials, I spent most of Saturday working on it. However I'm hoping the result will be a happy principal and happy staff. It won't be everything they want or need, but it will be a starting point. We'll see what sort of reactions we get tomorrow.

So now, I've got a few jobs to do and then I'm off to bed. Need to get a good night's sleep so I can be up bright and early tomorrow. Getting excited!

Back again ...

Sometime in the last month this blog has clicked over the 10,000 views mark. OK, so that's not many in the land of blogging, but it's a milestone.

In view of that milestone, I thought I'd have a quick look at some stats.

Pageviews all time history: 10,146

Comments: 86

Most popular post: Welcome to Grade 4K (12 Sept 2011) - 1399 Pageviews

Most frequent traffic source: http://dedertfamily.blogspot.com/ (which is rather interesting because this blog is no longer being updated)

Reader locations (in order of volume): USA, Australia, Cambodia, Russia, UK, Canada, India, and heaps of other places.

Most frequent keyword search:

• noise o meter,
• classroom noise meter,
• noise meter classroom,
• noise-o-meter,
• noise o meter poster,
• noise-o-meter poster

So, let's do a quick update on what this blog is about.

 

I'm a middle-aged Australian, who heard God's call to serve overseas in my early 40s. I embarked on a major career change, after 20+ years working in various administrative roles for Queensland Health, and undertook graduate teacher training. I moved to Cambodia six years ago with two subjects and my major practicum still to be completed in my Graduate Diploma of Education (Middle Years). I finished my course, graduated in absentia, taught three and a half years in a Christian school in Phnom Penh, then transitioned to East-West International School where I'm currently teaching 4th grade.

 

In this blog I do a number of things. Initially I started this blog because I could not fit all my experiences into my bi-monthly/quarterly newsletters. Since then it has developed into a place where I not only share about what happens in my classroom - the good and the bad (but mostly the good), but share a little more of who I am. Sometimes I reflect on deeper issues that are impacting on my life. Other times I review books I've been reading. I also share snippets of what it's like living in Cambodia. Sometimes there are photos, sometimes, it's just me writing and thinking.

 

If you've read this far, can I ask you to do something for me? Would you make a comment to let me know what things you enjoy reading about? One of this year's resolutions is to get back to writing at least once a week. We will see if I can keep it up. Meanwhile, this day is almost done so it's time to post this and head for bed. Be sure to check back soon. I promise to post more in the near future.